Church and State blog: Facebook disables FB friend Dan Abshear’s account

Monday, April 20, 2009

Facebook disables FB friend Dan Abshear’s account

Yesterday morning Facebook friend Dan Abshear had to email his public relations contact for FB, Elliot Schrage, eschrage@facebook.com, after FB disabled his account for the second time within weeks for unknown reasons presented to him. He has lost his wall, which contained hundreds of links to articles relating to health care, plus over 800 friends. It is particularly concerning because FB seem quite determined to stop him from networking again. (Dan is not the only one to loose his account. A few days ago I discovered that another FB friend no longer has his account. And I very much doubt he went voluntarily.)

A couple of weeks ago, after I received one of several FB warnings and blocks for doing no more than sending a few friend requests (see, for example, blog of 9 April “Facebook warnings continue unabated”), FB friend Jussi Niemelä commented on my wall: “Shit, then FB account of a Finnish MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen of the liberal right-wing Coalition party was deleted a couple of weeks ago. They gave her no arguments, just deleted it. I myself am a member of the Green League, but a mere member of the ranks, so probably they’ll leave me alone. Please give me the link to your blog in case they delete your account here …” Jussi didn’t mind at all me quoting him on my wall yesterday, so I am sure it’s OK to do so again now.

Among other things, Dan is a staff author at www.Brainblogger.com (his articles are here). Dan’s profile in Brainblogger reads:

Mr. Abshear recently divorced himself from ‘big pharma’ after working for three of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world for over a decade. He continues to write primarily opinion pieces regarding what may be little known facts about the health care system - particularly the pharmaceutical industry, and his writings also include responses to the related writings of others as well on various internet sites. Before his pharmaceutical career, he was a patient caregiver for over a decade, which included being a medic (hospital corpsman) in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

Dan also has a blog “Informaproject......Because Ignorance Sucks”, which is well respected. Dr Mark Meaney, CEO of The National Institute For Patient Rights, comments in respect of Dan’s writings: “Everyone should check out Dan Abshear’s post under the discussion board on patient/caregivers rights … and I mean everyone, i.e., patients, advocates, providers, reps, etc. It’s one of the most concise pieces on the topic I’ve ever read, born of experience.” Dan is also a supporter of embryonic stem cell research (see, for example, his blog dated 28 March “The Amazing Medical Benefits Of Stem Cell Therapy”).

For Dan it’s more the issue of blocking accounts here than the loss of his own. He points out that he is not a FB addict, but he will insist that those who run FB do not take an authoritarian stance in such a manner. This is the email Dan sent to Schrage yesterday (it will also appear in the group that has been set up to stop FB banning me “Support Lola Heavey - Stop Facebook Banning Her” at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=93406430870):

Subject: Censorship

Elliot,

For the second time within weeks, Facebook has disabled my account with your site for unknown reasons presented to me.

The simple lack of response from Facebook when asked about this should be of concern to you. These events have allowed me to consider seeking the public opinion of others regarding this matter, and your infantile communication skills you are demonstrating being a social network site. The article I will compose regarding this situation will be most interesting to the readers.

Since no etiology has been stated by facebook for disabling my account on facebook, I can speculate that this is a form of internet censorship - limiting my right to free speech. If so, you are violating my human rights.

You will reactivate my facebook account within 24 hours of the sending this message to you. This would be in your best interest. You will email me once this is done,

Daniel Abshear
Phone: ------------
Email: ------------

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Facebook disables FB friend Dan Abshear’s account

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