On 29 April fifty-one profiles operated by UK anti-cuts groups, political organisations and activist campaigns were suspended or deleted by Facebook. We, the affected groups, believe we have been the victims of a coordinated State shut down of Facebook pages on the day of the Royal Wedding. This is effectively censorship of likely (and even unlikely) sources of protest. It is as draconian and illegitimate as the preemptive police crack downs on protesters taking place at the same time in the offline world. We believe the police used the wedding as an opportunity to obstruct opposition to and criticism of an increasingly inequitable and repressive regme.
OUR DEMANDS
We demand a full enquiry into how exactly Facebook came to simultaneously shut down fifty-one political groups’ profiles, most of which had been in existence for at least 6 months, on this precise date. In the meantime we demand that Facebook live up to its supposed commitment to facilitating free speech for people living in undemocratic regimes and reinstate ALL the user profiles immediately until an 'orderly transition' to Facebook approved group pages can be organised with the groups involved. Anything else is tantamount to censorship, and it is only too clear to most people that what occurred on April 29th was not a merely technical procedure but a deliberate shut down of dissent.
N.B. Full list of closed Facebook accounts http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/FB_takedowns
(Letter from the ‘Stop the facebookpurge!’ group http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_182031188514672 )
Signed,
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Updates
June 11, 2011
The petition has reached 250 signatures. I am drafting a formal letter addressed to Facebook management to request a full account of the account suspensions. A legal representative will review the final document before we transmit it to their corporate offices.
Reached 250 supporters
June 9, 2011
May 23, 2011
We are currently formalizing a legal inquiry request to be sent directly to Facebook's European headquarters. Our focus remains on securing a technical breakdown of the account deletions to determine the extent of external interference.
May 19, 2011
The scale of this response confirms the need for a rigorous investigation into these account suspensions. I am currently finalizing a formal letter to Facebook corporate offices to demand a transparent accounting of their actions on that day.
Reached 100 supporters
May 2, 2011
6 Comments
Ridiculous. They were scared of people protesting during the royal wedding so they just shut everyone up. Disgusting behavior!
total joke. facebook is just doing what the police tell them to do now. shocking stuff.
Fifty one pages gone all at once? Yeah right that was totally planned. what a load of rubbish to say it was technical issues.
We need freedom of speech in this country too not just in other places. stop silencing us.
Facebook needs to explain why this happened on that exact day. Not a coincidence at all.
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On 29 April fifty-one profiles operated by UK anti-cuts groups, political organisations and activist campaigns were suspended or deleted by Facebook. We, the affected groups, believe we have been the victims of a coordinated State shut down of Facebook pages on the day of the Royal Wedding. This is effectively censorship of likely (and even unlikely) sources of protest. It is as draconian and illegitimate as the preemptive police crack downs on protesters taking place at the same time in the offline world. We believe the police used the wedding as an opportunity to obstruct opposition to and criticism of an increasingly inequitable and repressive regme.
OUR DEMANDS
We demand a full enquiry into how exactly Facebook came to simultaneously shut down fifty-one political groups’ profiles, most of which had been in existence for at least 6 months, on this precise date. In the meantime we demand that Facebook live up to its supposed commitment to facilitating free speech for people living in undemocratic regimes and reinstate ALL the user profiles immediately until an 'orderly transition' to Facebook approved group pages can be organised with the groups involved. Anything else is tantamount to censorship, and it is only too clear to most people that what occurred on April 29th was not a merely technical procedure but a deliberate shut down of dissent.
N.B. Full list of closed Facebook accounts http://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/FB_takedowns
(Letter from the ‘Stop the facebookpurge!’ group http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_182031188514672 )
Signed,
(email addresses are not publicly displayed)
Updates
June 11, 2011
The petition has reached 250 signatures. I am drafting a formal letter addressed to Facebook management to request a full account of the account suspensions. A legal representative will review the final document before we transmit it to their corporate offices.
Reached 250 supporters
June 9, 2011
May 23, 2011
We are currently formalizing a legal inquiry request to be sent directly to Facebook's European headquarters. Our focus remains on securing a technical breakdown of the account deletions to determine the extent of external interference.
May 19, 2011
The scale of this response confirms the need for a rigorous investigation into these account suspensions. I am currently finalizing a formal letter to Facebook corporate offices to demand a transparent accounting of their actions on that day.
Reached 100 supporters
May 2, 2011
6 Comments
Censorship clear and simple. reinstate the pages now.
Ridiculous. They were scared of people protesting during the royal wedding so they just shut everyone up. Disgusting behavior!
total joke. facebook is just doing what the police tell them to do now. shocking stuff.
Fifty one pages gone all at once? Yeah right that was totally planned. what a load of rubbish to say it was technical issues.
We need freedom of speech in this country too not just in other places. stop silencing us.
Facebook needs to explain why this happened on that exact day. Not a coincidence at all.
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Censorship clear and simple. reinstate the pages now.