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''The Babylon Bee'' is a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
Christian
news satire News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on t ...
website that publishes
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
articles on topics including religion, politics, current events, and public figures. It has been referred to as a Christian,
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
, or conservative version of ''
The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August ...
''.


History

''The Babylon Bee'' was created by Adam Ford and was launched on March 1, 2016. It is headquartered on 110 Front Street, Suite 300, in
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth th ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...
, and employs around 24 people across the United States. According to Seth Michael Dillon, the current owner of ''The Babylon Bee'', Ford launched the website "because there was this massive void on the right for comedy that wasn't cheesy". Shortly after launching, ''The Babylon Bee'' made headlines for mocking the " health and wealth" theology of
Jan Crouch Janice Wendell Crouch () (née Bethany; March 14, 1938 – May 31, 2016) was an American religious broadcaster. Crouch and her husband, Paul, founded the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in 1973, along with Jim Bakker. She, along with her ...
, co-founder of
Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...
, on the day of her death. In 2017,
Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Harvey was a devastating Category 4 hurricane that made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, causing catastrophic flooding and more than 100 deaths. It is tied with 2005's Hurricane Katrina as the costliest t ...
battered
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
, causing widespread flooding. In that context, ''The Babylon Bee'' satirically criticized
televangelist Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...
Joel Osteen Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American lay preacher, Televangelism, televangelist, businessman and author based in Houston, Texas. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more ...
with a headline that read: "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston to Pass Out Copies Of '' Your Best Life Now''". The article went viral, prompting a fact check from
Snopes ''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source f ...
. In late 2018, Ford sold the website to Seth Dillon, whom Ford described as "a successful businessman who uses his resources for
Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
purposes". In a public announcement published on his personal website, Ford cited several reasons for the sale, including his discomfort with the power wielded by
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...
companies like
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
over creators and their perceived anti-conservative and anti-Christian bias. He wrote that "Facebook has the power to kill publishers, and they do, not only based on publishing techniques, but based on . Just think about that". At the time of the website's sale, Kyle Mann, who had been head writer since September 2016, became editor-in-chief. Dillon later described the sale as "an exciting opportunity to do something different and more impactful and fun, and would bring me full circle to that whole satire and writing thing I wanted to do." As of 2021, Ford still had a financial stake in ''The Babylon Bee''. In 2019, ''The Babylon Bee'' satirically criticized
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
with an article saying that Trump claimed he had "done more for Christianity than
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
". The article went viral, prompting a fact check from Snopes after some thought the article was a real story. In September 2021, Trump actually said in an interview, "Nobody has done more for Christianity, or for evangelicals, or for religion itself than I have." At the time of its sale to Dillon, ''The Babylon Bee'' was receiving 3million page views per month. In October 2020, the website said that it was receiving about 8M visitors a month. In January 2021, ''
The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'' said that ''The Babylon Bee'' was receiving more than 20M page views per month, had more than 20,000 paid subscribers, and had a Twitter account with more than 856,000 followers. In January 2022, ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' said that ''The Babylon Bee'' was "claiming as many as 25M readers a month at its peak", and that Dillon had turned ''The Babylon Bee'' "into one of the most popular conservative sites after
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is own ...
". During this period the ''Bee'' had several articles which had higher page views than ''The Onion''s normal monthly site traffic of 3.5M. Articles such as "NBA Players Wear Special Lace Collars to Honor Ruth Bader Ginsburg", "Motorcyclist Who Identifies as Bicyclist Sets Cycling World Record", and "Trump: 'I Have Done More For Christianity Than Jesus'" each received more than 3.5M page views. In July 2021, Dillon spoke at
Turning Point USA Turning Point USA (TPUSA), or Turning Point, is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. TPUSA's ...
's Student Action Summit in
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough Count ...
, Florida about misinformation and ''The Babylon Bee''. In April 2022, Dillon announced a partnership with the person behind the Twitter account Libs of TikTok after ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nat ...
'' further publicized the account's identity.


Content

''The Babylon Bee'' takes the tone and format of a traditional news publication. The site began by lampooning a wide range of topics including progressives, Democrats, Republicans, Christians, and Donald Trump. The purpose of the site, according to its founder Adam Ford in 2016, was not just to evoke laughter, but to give cause for self-reflection. "It's important to look at what we're doing, to 'examine ourselves.' Satire acts like an
overhead projector An overhead projector (often abbreviated to OHP), like a film or slide projector, uses light to project an enlarged image on a screen, allowing the view of a small document or picture to be shared with a large audience. In the overhead projec ...
, taking something that people usually ignore and projecting it up on the wall for everyone to see. It forces us to look at things we wouldn't normally look at and makes us ask if we're okay with them". E.J. Dickson wrote in ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...
'' in 2020 that ''The Babylon Bee'' "initially started out as something of an equal opportunity offender" in the topics it satirized. In an April 2016 '' Washington Post'' profile of the site and its founder, Bob Smietana observed that "The ''Bee'' excels at poking fun at the small idiosyncrasies of believers, especially
evangelical Protestants Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
". Susan E. Isaacs publishing in ''
Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evange ...
'' wrote in May 2018 that the site "lampoon dthe faithful across denominations, political affiliations, and age groups". Emma Green in ''
The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' noted of ''The Babylon Bee''s content in October 2021, "although political humor drives much of ''The Bee''s web traffic, the publication's signature hits focus on what the writers see as shallowness in the evangelical world". In the years leading up to 2020, the site grew less critical of Trump and more critical of the
left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...
and
liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for co ...
, though it continued to satirize topics across both parties. Emma Goldberg of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said in 2020 that although Trump was still not off-limits as a target for the ''Bee'', "their "early coverage of Trump, back in 2016, was much more vitriolic than today's. They called him a psychopath, or a megalomaniac. Now they're more bemused by him and the ghoulish ways he's described on the left". In another 2020 ''New York Times'' article, Emma Goldberg wrote that the unifying goal of the site was "poking fun at the left", and that "their most popular articles are often those making jokes at the expense of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden". She wrote that its success was due to finding ways to punch up by "ridiculing every source of authority outside the White House." In the same article, ''The Babylon Bee''s editor-in-chief Kyle Mann summarized how he believed readers of ''The Babylon Bee'' considered the site: "this comedy makes fun of everybody, but it's a little harder on the left, and when it makes fun of the right it's not hateful." Parker J. Bach wrote in ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' in June 2021 that the site frequently makes jokes that target marginalized groups, with articles that are "often 'ironically' misogynistic" and "frequently antagonistic toward the LGBTQIA+ community". In an October 2021 interview with ''The Atlantic'', Mann described the site's view of satire and its mission as "mock ngpeople who hold cultural power and... communicat ngtruth to a culture that many times does not believe in an objective, universal truth any longer." ''The Babylon Bee''s influence led to their podcast interview of
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...
in December 2021. This podcast featured the usual hosts Kyle Mann and Ethan Nicolle, as well as an uncommon appearance by Seth Dillon. The podcast covered a wide range of topics, ranging from a response to Senator
Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...
's criticism of the amount of taxes paid by Musk to current sex scandals at
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by t ...
to his thoughts on Christianity. Jennifer Graham of ''
Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...
'' attributed the success of ''The Babylon Bee'' to its benefiting "from the increasing polarization in America, with Republicans and Democrats clustering in information silos that reflect and affirm their beliefs."
Nick Gillespie Nicholas John Gillespie (; born August 7, 1963) is an American libertarian journalist who was editor-in-chief of ''Reason'' magazine from 2000 to 2008 and editor-in-chief of Reason.com and Reason TV from 2008 to 2017. Gillespie originally joined ...
of ''Reason'' praised ''The Babylon Bee'', saying that "The fact that the ''Bee'' is very funny, day in and day out, is almost enough to get me, a lapsed Catholic, to believe in divine intervention, if not a covenant of grace not works."


Mistaken for factual reporting

As the readership of ''The Babylon Bee'' increased from 2016 to 2020, there were independent, ongoing discussions within journalistic circles on how to handle the rise of
fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
and its influence on the public. ''The Babylon Bee'' was brought into this wider conversation when several of their articles were shared on social media or reported upon, ostensibly as factual, including President Donald Trump commenting on a story that claimed "Twitter Shuts Down Entire Network To Slow Spread Of Negative Biden News" and British newspaper ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...
'' reprinting as factual a ''Bee''-doctored image of
LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
wearing a lace collar supposedly in tribute to
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by Presiden ...
. ''
The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Rob ...
'' published research by academics at the
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
in August 2019 that found that people regularly mistook satirical reports from ''The Babylon Bee'', ''
The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focus ...
'', ''The Onion'', and others for genuine news. They found that "stories published by the ''Bee'' were among the most shared factually inaccurate content in almost every survey we conducted". They also found that both Republicans and Democrats mistook articles from ''The Babylon Bee'' as news, but Republicans were more likely to do so. ''The Babylon Bee'''s editor-in-chief, Kyle Mann, criticized the research in a conversation with ReasonTV, describing it as "methodologically flawed" and saying ''The Conversation'' reworded the headlines and took them out of context when asking survey respondents if they thought they were real. ''Reason'''s John Osterhoudt said that the headlines had been "stripped of both context and comedy", giving as an example ''The Babylon Bee'' headline "CNN: 'God Allowed the Mueller Report to Test Our Shakeable Faith in Collusion'" that was rephrased to participants as "CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper said his belief that Trump colluded with Russia is unshakable; it will not change regardless of statements or evidence to the contrary". Media outlets' responses to incidents in which ''The Babylon Bee''s content was mistaken for factual reporting have varied. Some have described ''The Babylon Bee'' and its content as obviously satirical, whereas others have suggested the site misleads its readers, either intentionally or inadvertently. The frequency with which ''Babylon Bee'' stories are confused with real news has resulted in numerous reactions from fact-checkers. In October 2020, a satirical news story by ''The Babylon Bee'' claiming that Twitter had been shut down to protect Joe Biden from negative coverage was retweeted by then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who, according to some journalists, seemed to not realize the article was parody and condemned the fabricated incident described in the story as a case of leftist censorship. This event prompted
Kevin Roose Kevin Roose is the author of three books and a technology columnist for ''The New York Times''. He wrote a book about Liberty University, an evangelical Christian university known for strict rules imposed on students. He was named on ''Forbes'' " ...
, writing in ''The New York Times'', to question whether ''The Babylon Bee'' "traffic in misinformation under the guise of comedy", concluding that "''The Babylon Bee'' is not a covert disinformation operation disguised as a right-wing satire site, and is in fact trying to do comedy, but may inadvertently be spreading bad information when people take their stories too seriously". When asked about the retweet by Fox News' Media Angle, Dillon said "He's just doing what he does. We know from people close to him that he's a fan of the ''Bee'' and enjoys our satire." Parker J. Bach wrote in ''Slate'' that "the site is adept at writing ironically ambiguous material that lets audiences from different sections of the right reinforce their own beliefs... even if ''The Babylon Bee'''s satire itself should not be considered misinformation, its satire draws on and reinforces actual misinformation and conspiracy" also describing their material as "riffs on riffs, building referential jokes atop the already referential right-wing commentary about the untrustworthiness of the news". James Varney wrote in ''The Washington Times'' that "Surprisingly often, a short piece from the ''Bee'' seems to become real news. A jesting report in the ''Bee'' will be fact-checked and censored, usually briefly, by social media platforms" and that "as a consequence, the satirical website has been fondly christened by its conservative blogging brethren as ' the paper of record. As of 2022, Dillon's
Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be ...
account described ''The Babylon Bee'' as "the world’s most trusted, factually accurate news source."


Reactions


Snopes

In March 2018, ''The Babylon Bee'' published an article quipping that CNN was using an industrial-sized washing machine to "spin" the news. Snopes fact-checked the article, rating it "false".
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
then cited this fact-check in a warning message to ''The Babylon Bee'', threatening to limit their content distribution and monetization. Ford tweeted a screenshot of the warning message to his followers, drawing public attention to the matter. Facebook quickly apologized, with the statement that "there's a difference between
false news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
and satire. This was a mistake and should not have been rated false in our system. It's since been corrected and won't count against the domain in any way". Snopes later issued a fact-check of its previous fact-check, saying that "it should have been obvious that the Babylon Bee piece was just a spoof." In July 2019, ''The Babylon Bee'' published an article referring to a real-world incident, titled "Georgia Lawmaker Claims
Chick-Fil-A Chick-fil-A ( , a play on the American English pronunciation of " filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in College Park, Georgia, Chick-fil-A oper ...
Employee Told Her to Go Back to Her Country, Later Clarifies He Actually Said 'My Pleasure'", which Snopes rated "false". They also this time suggested that the article was deliberately deceptive, rather than genuinely satirical. Ford responded on Twitter, highlighting what he deemed to be problematic wording in the fact-check. ''The Babylon Bee'' also released a statement, calling the fact-check a "smear" that was "both dishonest and disconcerting". The statement concluded by saying a law firm had been retained to represent ''The Babylon Bee'' because "Snopes appears to be actively engaged in an effort to discredit and deplatform us". After receiving some backlash and a formal demand letter from ''The Babylon Bee''s attorney, Snopes made revisions to the wording of the fact check and added an explanatory editor's note. ''The Babylon Bee''s chief executive, Seth Dillon, appeared on Fox News in August 2019 to discuss the incident. He said ''The Babylon Bee'' must take the matter seriously "because social networks, which we depend on for our traffic, have relied upon fact-checking sources in the past to determine what's fake news and what isn't. In cases where nopesis calling us fake news and lumping us in with them rather than saying this is satire, that could actually damage us. It could put our business in jeopardy". Snopes' co-founder David Mikkelson acknowledged to ''The New York Times'' that their fact-check was poorly written, but denied trying to discredit ''The Babylon Bee.'' In an interview with ''
BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, i ...
'', Mikkelson stated, "The question you should be asking is not: 'why is Snopes addressing material from a particular site so often?' But, 'what is it about that site that makes its content trigger the fact-check threshold?'" In August 2019, Snopes announced a new rating for satire sites called "labeled satire". Articles from ''The Babylon Bee'' that were previously rated "false" were updated with the new rating. Snopes explains the label: "This rating indicates that a claim is derived from content described by its creator and/or the wider audience as satire. Not all content described by its creator or audience as 'satire' necessarily constitutes satire, and this rating does not make a distinction between 'real' satire and content that may not be effectively recognized or understood as satire despite being labeled as such". Mann objected to this label in an op-ed published in ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', writing that the label "is meant to suggest that we are somehow making jokes in bad faith".


''The New York Times''

In June 2021, Dillon threatened legal action against ''The New York Times'', alleging that the newspaper had defamed ''The Babylon Bee'' by referring to it as a "far-right misinformation site" in a March 2021 article. The ''Times'' first amended the article, then removed the descriptor and published a clarification about the labeling dispute between Snopes and ''The Babylon Bee''.


Social media and other platforms

On several occasions, social media and other platforms have removed content by ''The Babylon Bee'' or flagged or suspended its accounts, though some of these actions were later described by the platforms as errors and reversed. In March 2018, after ''The Babylon Bee''s article about CNN "spinning" the news in a large washing machine was classified by Snopes as "false", Facebook sent a notification threatening to limit the ''Bee''s content distribution and monetization. Following some controversy, Facebook identified the notification as a mistake and apologized. ''The Babylon Bee''s Twitter account was briefly suspended in August 2020 after being mistakenly caught in one of the social media company's spam filters. In October 2020, ''The Babylon Bee'' put up a Facebook post linking to a story about the
Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination On September 26, 2020, President Donald Trump announced the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to fill in the vacancy left by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. At th ...
, with the headline " Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against a Duck to See If She Is a Witch" (a reference to the 1975 film ''
Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) and ...
''). Citing its policies against incitement to violence, Facebook removed the post and demonetized ''The Babylon Bee''s page on the social media platform. Dillon responded, "In what universe does a fictional quote as part of an obvious joke constitute a genuine incitement to violence? How does context not come into play here? They're asking us to edit the article and not speak publicly about internal content reviews." Dillon criticized Facebook in June 2021 after the company announced that it would moderate satire that " punches down". He responded that "we're not punching down. We're punching back." The same month,
Mailchimp Mailchimp is a marketing automation platform and email marketing service. "Mailchimp" is the trade name of its operator, Rocket Science Group, an American company founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong, with Dan Kurzius joining at a ...
suspended ''The Babylon Bee''s account. The company later said that this had been an error, but Dillon announced that the ''Bee'' would no longer use Mailchimp's services. In August 2021, after a drop in website traffic referred from Facebook, Dillon accused the social media platform of throttling the reach of ''The Babylon Bee''. ''The Babylon Bee'' put up a Facebook post in February 2022 with the headline "Trans Woman Breaks Jeopardy Record, Proving Once and for All That Men Are Smarter Than Women", referencing former ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' champion
Amy Schneider Amy Schneider (born May 29, 1979) is an American writer and game show contestant. Winning 40 consecutive games on the quiz show ''Jeopardy!'' from November 2021 to January 2022 and the November 2022 Tournament of Champions, she holds the secon ...
. Facebook removed the post, citing its policies against
hate speech Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
. Dillon responded, "Remember how Facebook recently rolled out new rules stipulating that 'real satire' cannot 'punch down'? Are they really willing to say that defending women against a male takeover of their records is 'punching down' and – even worse – 'hate speech'? We're going to find out". On March 20, 2022, ''The Babylon Bee''s Twitter account was suspended for tweeting "''The Babylon Bee''s Man of the Year Is
Rachel Levine Rachel Leland Levine (; born October 28, 1957) is an American pediatrician who has served as the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26, 2021. She is also a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Com ...
", referencing the U.S.
Assistant Secretary for Health The assistant secretary for health (ASH) is a senior U.S. government official within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The position is a statutory office () and the holder of the office serves as the United State ...
, a transgender woman. Twitter said that the post violated its policy on "hateful conduct". Dillon refused to delete the tweet in order to regain access to the account, stating, "They could, of course, delete the tweet themselves. But they won't. It's not enough for them to just wipe it out. They want us to bend the knee and admit that we engaged in hateful conduct". On March 23, Twitter rejected an appeal by ''The Babylon Bee''. Dillon told Fox News Digital that the ''Bee'' was "disappointed" by the rejection, adding, "It doesn't change our position. They can delete our joke if they want. They have that power. But we're not bending the knee and doing it for them". Mann was also locked out of his personal account after tweeting, "Maybe they'll let us back into our Twitter account if we throw a few thousand Uighurs in a concentration camp", referring to the way in which Twitter handled accounts associated with the Chinese government. Mann has denied allegations of
transphobia Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...
, saying "We love trans people", and "We don't consider people like that beneath us. You know, the Christian worldview is that everybody has the opportunity to be saved and we can love everybody. I'm no more deserving of God's grace than a transgender person is. But when the culture bows down and starts handing out trophies to people for stuff like this is when we say, 'Hey, wait a minute, you know, we need to protect women in our society as well. In a statement to ''The Washington Times'' on April 4, 2022, Dillon revealed that Elon Musk had contacted ''The Babylon Bee'' shortly after its Twitter account was suspended. "He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended from Twitter. He reached out to us before he publicly asked his witterfollowers if they think Twitter 'rigorously adheres' to the principle of free expression. He even mused on that call with us that he might need to buy Twitter." Dillon added, "I wouldn't suggest that ''The Babylon Bee'' is the sole reason Musk decided to take action", but "I do think the absurdity of his favorite satire site getting suspended factored into his decision. Perhaps it was the last straw." On April 14, Musk made a formal offer to buy Twitter, which was accepted on April 25. Musk later decided to withdraw the offer, however, resulting in litigation. Musk officially acquired Twitter on October 27 and reinstated their Twitter account on November 18.
Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...
also reacted to ''The Babylon Bee''s Twitter suspension, making statements on several outlets that the social media company's editorial policies had "failed". He highlighted Twitter's reaction to the Wuhan Lab leak posts and the Hunter Biden laptop story, as well as its labeling as "sensitive content" a ''Babylon Bee'' video satirizing Twitter employees as being overly sensitive. Dillon has accused news media, fact-checking outlets, and social media websites of targeting ''The Babylon Bee'' in a movement to deplatform conservative or Christian viewpoints, which he has also described as "
cancel culture Cancel culture, or rarely also known as call-out culture, is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles—whether it be online, on ...
". In October 2020, Senator
Mike Lee Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. Lee began his career as a clerk for the ...
referred to ''The Babylon Bee'' as a target of social media moderation, which he said was imbalanced and predominantly directed at right-leaning content, groups, and individuals. ''The Babylon Bee'' and '' Not the Bee'' filed an
amicus brief An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
in support of Florida's Senate Bill 7072, also known as the Stop Social Media Censorship Act, which seeks to "protect users by prohibiting social media sites from censoring or deplatforming people or organizations they disagree with". In the brief, both organizations said they had experienced censorship from large social media platforms.


Books

''The Babylon Bee'' published a book satirizing the Christian
self-help Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
industry, titled ''How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living''. Founder Adam Ford retained ownership of the book when he sold ''The Babylon Bee''. In November 2020, ''The Babylon Bee'' released a self-published collection of their greatest hits, titled ''The Sacred Texts of The Babylon Bee, Volume 1''. In 2021, Mann and Joel Berry, ''The Babylon Bee'''s managing editor, published ''The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness''. In the first week after publication, it ranked 20th on
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology co ...
's top seller list, 22nd on ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
''s top seller list, and 2nd on ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
''s bestsellers list. On
NPD Bookscan The NPD Group, Inc. (NPD; formerly National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.) is an American market research company founded on September 28, 1966, and based in Port Washington, New York. In 2017, NPD ranked as the 8th largest mar ...
(formerly Nielsen Bookscan), it reached the Number 2 spot among top-selling Christian books. In September 2022, ''The Babylon Bee'' released a book satirizing democracy in the United States, titled ''The Babylon Bee Guide to Democracy.''


''Not the Bee''

Dillon and Ford, along with Dan Dillon, launched the website ''Not the Bee'' on September 1, 2020. The content on ''Not the Bee'' is not satirical. The website instead publishes strange news stories and commentary, and hosts a social media platform. Seth Dillon has described it as "a humor-based entertainment site that offers commentary on stories that are so outrageous they should be satire, but somehow aren't".


See also

*
List of satirical news websites This is a list of satirical news websites which have a satirical bent, are parodies of news, which consist of fake news stories for mainly humorous purposes. Definition The best-known example is ''The Onion'', the online version of which started ...
* Libs of TikTok (also supported by Seth Dillon)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Babylon Bee, The 2010s in comedy 2016 establishments in Florida 2020s in comedy American companies established in 2016 American conservative websites American satirical websites Christian websites Companies based in Palm Beach County, Florida Conservative media in the United States Internet properties established in 2016 Jupiter, Florida Religious comedy websites