Political purge of UK Facebook underway

Join - Stop the Facebook purge groupSign the petition - Statement on the deletion of activist Facebook profiles on 29 April 2011 

Facebook has suspended or deleted political pages in the run up to the royal wedding. A new level of censorship for the UK's private-public sphere, though very much in keeping with the neoliberal tradition of preemptive repression.

Political purge of UK Facebook underway

Guy Aitchison, 29 April 2011

There appears to be a political purge of Facebook taking place. Profiles are being deleted without warning or explanation. In the last 12 hours, Facebook has deleted over 50 sites. It may well be that these groups are technically in violation of Facebook’s terms of agreement, which state that participants in social media must not make use of a "fake name". But the timing – on the royal wedding and May day weekend – is deeply suspicious. We don’t know for certain, but this purge of online organising groups could be linked to the wider crackdown on protest by authorities in Britain.

Either way, it is a scandalous abuse of power by Facebook to arbitrarily destroy online communities built up over many months and years. These groups provide a vital means for activist groups to communicate with their supporters. Ultimately, the anti-cuts movement in the UK will need to start organising through self-hosted, open source platforms to avoid reliance upon the very corporate power structures we are aiming to challenge. In the meantime, those affected should look into the origins of this and do our best to have these accounts restored. Please join the Facebook group, spread the word and message people in extant groups to warn them. Tell them to get on your email list or Twitter account instead.

Update: I am in indirect contact with Facebook over this. Collaboration with the authorities can still not be ruled out. We need a list of URLs to confront them with to get these accounts restored. Please post URLs here.

Facebook pages that have been deleted:

AntiCuts Space LondonFreedom Is a State of MindOurland FreelandOpen BirkbeckUWE OccupationChesterfield StopthecutsCamberwell AntiCutsIVA WomensrevolutionTower Hamlets GreensNo CutsArtsAgainst CutsLondon Student AssemblyBeat’n StreetsRoscoe ‘Manchester’ OccupationBristol BookfairNewcastle OccupationSocialist UnityWhospeaks ForusOurland FreeLandBristol UkuncutTeampalestina ShafNotts-Uncut Part-of UKUncutNo Quarter CutthewarBootle LabourClaimants FightbackEcosocialists UniteComrade George OrwellJason DerrickAnarchista RebellionistBigSociety LeedsSlade OccupationAnti-Cuts Across WiganFirstof MaybandDon’t Break Britain UnitedCockneyrejectSWP CorkWestiminster Trades CouncilYork AnarchistsRock WarSheffield OccupationCentral London SWPNorth London SolidaritySouthwark SosSave NHSRochdale Law CentreGoldsmiths Fights BackOccupy Monaco