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Facebook has been deleting accounts of activist groups in the UK, according to the Guardian and to students at University College London, in what Adbusters is calling a #zuckup. Complaints are, of course, on a Facebook page.
Luckily, friendly old Liam says Hi on Facebook’s behalf, and explains that terms of service technicalities outweigh speech:
Hi,
_As you may know, Facebook profiles are intended to represent __individual people only. It is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of __Rights and Responsibilities to use a profile to represent a brand, __business, group, or organization. As such, your account was disabled __for violating these guidelines._
Meanwhile, as Jillian York explains in Foreign Policy, Facebook has never identified with the liberation claims made on its behalf. Here is Adam Conner, reported in the Wall Street Journal a week ago:
“Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others,” Adam Conner, a Facebook lobbyist, told the Journal. “We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before,” he said.
My only gripe about Jillian York’s article - she has been critical of Facebook for some time, unearthing and publicising some of their shadier actions - is that she suggests that “American companies ultimately have a tough choice to make: Uphold American values and the principles of Internet freedom set forth by [Hillary] Clinton, or focus on the bottom line.” For some companies, at least, this is not a tough choice at all.