Facebook’s Most Popular Posts This Week: Praise For Ron DeSantis, States Passing Controversial Conservative Bills - Forbes

Topline

Conservative commentary and news were the top performing posts on Facebook again this week, including a wildly popular post from evangelical leader Franklin Graham praising a Texas town's attempt to become “sanctuary city” for the unborn, a reflection of the continued dominance of conservatives on the site.

Key Facts

The social media site’s top link post since May 2, according to data from CrowdTangle, an analytics tool owned by Facebook, was Graham’s sharing of a local news story about the Texas city of Lubbock’s attempt to outlaw abortion.

Lubbock is the latest of around two dozen cities that have tried to prohibit abortions from being performed locally, banning the procedure even in instances of rape and incest in a new ordinance that opponents have labeled an unconstitutional ban and that will likely draw legal challenges.

“Way to go Lubbock!” wrote Graham, the president of evangelical Christian aid organization Samaritan's Purse, in his post, labeling abortion “the number one killer”, drawing nearly 300,000 reactions, 9,000 comments and 22,500 shares.

The next most popular post of the week was from conservative commentator Ben Shaprio, the editor of the Daily Wire, praising Gov. Ron DeSantis for the announcement his administration would be giving $1,000 to all first-responders in a move the Republican governor highlighted was “funding the police, and then some.”

Shapiro lauded the action, labeling the potential 2024 presidential contender the “best governor in America” to more than 255,000 reactions.

DeSantis then made the list again, courtesy of Shapiro, for a Daily Wire story about the Republican leader’s plan to sign a bill banning transgender women from competing in girls sports, a post that gained over 257,000 reactions and 10,400 shares.

Key Background

Facebook has fielded mounting accusations of bias as conservative-leaning sources continue to outperform mainstream news sites week after the week. The social media giant has repeatedly denied its algorithm offers partisan preferential treatment, with billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the lead up to the 2020 election—when tensions were running particularly high—painting the disparity as the result of conservative content simply driving more engagement. Amid attempts to crack down on misinformation, Facebook has since drawn similar accusations of bias from right-wing lawmakers who have rallied against actions like the site’s decision to block former President Donald Trump over his incendiary statements regarding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

NOTE: CrowdTangle does not track all public Facebook accounts, and limits its search to “public Pages, public Facebook Groups, and public Verified Profiles” of a certain account size following.