Friday, December 09, 2016

Facebook's 17th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015 (WITH UPDATE - DAY 7 15/12/2016)

Glad you compiled this odious record of mistaken blockage. What possesses the site? Surely after multiple postings they must know your content is neither lewd nor extreme.

Donald A. Collins, President of ISAF, Washington DC



We are calling this Facebook's 17th block since 1 December 2015 - in the video above they even call it a block themselves. This evening Facebook stopped me from posting to groups without first passing through a time-consuming security check for every post I wish to make, and this for an undisclosed period of time and without any stated reason. Normally they block me from joining and posting to groups. These blocks have been extended seemingly for the fun of it, and to date have run up to six days at a time. I only post to groups articles that I have published on our Church and State website. I also only post to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that I am well familiar with; in fact, I am extremely careful on Facebook but it hasn't made a blind bit of difference for over a year now. Facebook did not respond to any of my previous sixteen appeals, so I'm not expecting a response to my appeal this evening. It reads:

For the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Facebook

9 December 2016

Dear Facebook,

I wish to appeal your decision this evening to stop me from posting to groups without first passing through a time-consuming security check for every post I wish to make (called by Facebook a "block"), and this for an undisclosed period of time and without any stated reason.

I have not posted to groups at all today, and yesterday I only posted to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that I am well familiar with.

I have made a video of the security check I must pass through to post to groups; it can be viewed at https://youtu.be/RHBslHY0gtk. In this instance, I tried to post an article titled "Freedom Of Expression And Religion: Salman Rushdie’s Critics" to an atheist group I actively participate in almost on a daily basis.

This is Facebook's 17th block since 1 December 2015.

1st 1-4 December 2015 (4 days)
2nd 5-7 December 2015 (3 days)
3rd 6-9 January 2016 (4 days)
4th 12-15 January 2016 (4 days)
5th 20-22 January 2016 (3 days)
6th 13-16 February 2016 (4 days)
7th 23-26 March 2016 (4 days)
8th 20-23 May 2016 (4 days)
9th 25-30 May 2016 (6 days)
10th 1-3 July 2016 (3 days)
11th 7-8 September 2016 (2 days)
12th 21-22 September 2016 (3 days)
13th 27-28 September 2016 (2 days)
14th 29 September - 3 October 2016 (5 days)
15th 4-5 October 2016 (2 days)
16th 18-23 October 2016 (6 days)
17th 9 December 2016 (ongoing)

Facebook has not responded to any of my previous 16 appeals, notwithstanding that I only ever post to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that I am well familiar with. I also only post to groups articles that I have already published on our Church and State website.

"Surely after multiple postings [Facebook] must know your content is neither lewd nor extreme," writes Don Collins, President of the International Services Assistance Fund, Washington, DC. Don often sends us material to publish on our Church and State website.

Please note that we currently have 77 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel prize winners.

Yours faithfully,

Lola Heavey
Webmaster
Network for Church Monitoring

"Let me recommend an important web site - churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out." - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

2 October: Complaint to Facebook Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg on day 4 of Facebook's 14th block since 1 December 2015

RE: Facebook

Draft paragraph 42 of Declan's next updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

42. On 13 August 2011, then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone wrote to Facebook on the Applicant's behalf, asking that they explain why the Applicant's wife had been barred. The bar was subsequently lifted; however, since 1 December 2015, Facebook has blocked the Applicant's wife from posting to pages and/or groups on seventeen separate occasions, and up to six days at a time. On 22 December 2015, Shadow Home Office Minister Lyn Brown made an enquiry on the Applicant's behalf to Steve Hatch, the Managing Director of Facebook UK, asking if he could offer an explanation as to the terms and conditions the Applicant's wife was alleged to have broken twice previously. To the best of the Applicant's knowledge, Mr Hatch did not respond to this letter. The Applicant's wife only ever posts to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that she is well familiar with, and she only ever posts articles that she has already published on the Church and State website. Nonetheless, Facebook has not acknowledged or responded to any of the Applicant's wife's seventeen appeals since 1 December 2015. Each of the following blocks are well accounted for in the Applicant's wife's N4CM blog:

1st 1-4 December 2015 (4 days)
2nd 5-7 December 2015 (3 days)
3rd 6-9 January 2016 (4 days)
4th 12-15 January 2016 (4 days)
5th 20-22 January 2016 (3 days)
6th 13-16 February 2016 (4 days)
7th 23-26 March 2016 (4 days)
8th 20-23 May 2016 (4 days)
9th 25-30 May 2016 (6 days)
10th 1-3 July 2016 (3 days)
11th 7-8 September 2016 (2 days)
12th 21-22 September 2016 (3 days)
13th 27-28 September 2016 (2 days)
14th 29 September - 3 October 2016 (5 days)
15th 4-5 October 2016 (2 days)
16th 18-23 October 2016 (6 days)
17th 9-14 December 2016 (6 days)

UPDATE - DAY 7 15 December (2.46pm): Facebook upped the ante the day before yesterday on their 17th block since 1 December 2015 by preventing us from posting articles anywhere, even having gone through their security check. The unprecedented block below states: "You can't post this because it has a blocked link." Nonetheless, it appears today that the double block has been lifted, meaning this 17th block records as our third 6-day block this year. No reply to my appeal above. I have just updated my next blog post from two days ago, The blocks on access to our Church and State website continue unabated. I updated the blog post with the 69th block on access to our site since 26 July this afternoon.






Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch



'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty