A post at Anonnews.org, a website associated with hacktivist movement Anonymous, has called for a new 'Op', this time calling on Facebook users to protest against the social networking giant’s alleged censorship.
The group has called for a protest on 6 April, which the posting notes was the same date that Mahatma Gandhi defied the British to lead the Dandi Salt March in 1930 and when Egyptian activists planned a strike against the Egyptian government in 2008.
“All anons worldwide hit Facebook with uncensored material. We shall continue this bombardment of material as long as we can - hopefully 24 hours,” the call to action stated.
“We will flood their system - their admins won’t be able to keep up. They can’t ban us all at once!”
Some Facebook users have said they have been unfairly censored by the social network.
The Jeu de Paume museum was recently blocked from using Facebook for 24 hours after it posted a nude photograph of a woman as part of an exhibition on the French photographer Laure Albin Guillot. The photograph is still on Facebook but has been censored so that nudity is hidden from viewers.
The museum wrote on its Facebook page that it will no longer post nude photographs “even if we believe that their artistic value is high, and that there is nothing pornographic about these photographs, which are in accordance with ‘the right to publish contents of a personal nature’”.
Facebook says in its community standards that it respects “people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo's David or family photos of a child breastfeeding”.
Another Facebook user who was allegedly recently censored after he posted a public document from Missouri Courts in the United States was blocked for using the site for seven days.
“Isn’t that nice of Facebook to block you from posting content, for merely sharing public information from Missouri Courts,” the user said in a YouTube video.
In December last year, Natural News was suspended from Facebook after it posted a quote from Mohandas Gandhi. The quote, which the social network deemed to have violated community guidelines, is: "Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
Natural News said the removal of the quote is “is akin to online book burning and the destruction of history”.
Facebook says on its website that users can contact ip@fb.com if they believe their removed content does not infringe or violate a third party’s rights.
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