Facebook's 25th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015 (WITH UPDATE 7/12/2017)
For the third time in two months, Declan and I have suspended work on our Church and State website to research Northern Europe for the most committed free speech advocates we can find. The first time we were forced to do this, our web host had told us to remove a Creative Commons article from the site or the site would be disabled by them; see my blog post of 13 October, SiteGround: We are told to remove a Creative Commons article or our Church and State website will be disabled (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 16/10/2017). Now since this evening, I have been blocked by Facebook from joining and posting to groups and without any stated reason. This records as Facebook's 25th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015 - the second in two weeks. My appeal reads:
For the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Facebook
23 November 2017
Dear Facebook,
I wish to appeal your decision this evening to block me from joining and posting to groups and without any stated reason. Please see the graphic attached.
Please note 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 articles that I have already published on our Church and State website. This latest block records as the 25th time Facebook has blocked me from posting to groups since 1 December 2015. Facebook has also only responded to four of my previous 24 appeals, citing "technical problems" in each instance. (The 24th block below records as a 12-day block because no sooner was the block I appealed lifted on 1 November than I was blocked again until 8 November without any stated reason.)
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)
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
21st 19 June 2017 (1 day)
22nd 19-21 August 2017 (3 days)
23rd 19 September 2017 (1 day)
24th 28 October - 8 November 2017 (12 days)
On 5 September 2017 I reported to Facebook four other sort of blocks that since April 2017 have included the treating as spam my links to articles and book excerpts on our Church and State website. The Facebook block against the two articles mentioned in that report remains on-going (an unprecedented 80-day block to date). And this notwithstanding that I told you that these posts were not spam. You responded on 5 September that you would take another look at the posts and send me a message in my Support Inbox if you have an update. Despite bringing these two posts to your attention a number of times, I have not received an update in my Support Inbox. The second of these posts, which you removed because you say it "looks like spam to us", has in fact been shared/liked by Facebook users over 70,000 times:
Contraception and the Catholic Church
Christian fundamentalists are driving our country into the Dark Ages
Please note that we currently have an international list of 145 Honorary Associates, including two Nobel Prize winners. Since Facebook's 16th block listed above, 115 distinguished academics and other intellectuals have given us permission to add their names to the list. Don Collins, President of the Washington DC-based International Services Assistance Fund, writes: "Surely after multiple postings [Facebook] must know your content is neither lewd nor extreme."
Thank you in advance for your assistance in these matters.
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 2016: 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 groups on 25 separate occasions, and up to 12 days at a time (each of these blocks is well accounted for in the N4CM blog). On 22 December 2015, Labour's Lyn Brown, then Shadow Home Office Minister and now Shadow Home Secretary, made an enquiry on the Applicant's behalf to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch 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. Facebook has responded to only four of the Applicant's wife's 25 appeals since 1 December 2015, citing "technical problems" in each instance.
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)
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
21st 19 June 2017 (1 day)
22nd 19-21 August 2017 (3 days)
23rd 19 September 2017 (1 day)
24th 28 October - 8 November 2017 (12 days)
25th 23 November 2017 (ongoing)
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 groups on 25 separate occasions, and up to 12 days at a time (each of these blocks is well accounted for in the N4CM blog). On 22 December 2015, Labour's Lyn Brown, then Shadow Home Office Minister and now Shadow Home Secretary, made an enquiry on the Applicant's behalf to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch 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. Facebook has responded to only four of the Applicant's wife's 25 appeals since 1 December 2015, citing "technical problems" in each instance.
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)
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
21st 19 June 2017 (1 day)
22nd 19-21 August 2017 (3 days)
23rd 19 September 2017 (1 day)
24th 28 October - 8 November 2017 (12 days)
25th 23 November 2017 (ongoing)
Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch
UPDATE 7 December (8.26am): When it comes to blocking me from posting Church and State articles to groups, Facebook's 25th block since 1 December 2015 was lifted on 30 November and records as an 8-day block. However, the block against the two articles mentioned in my appeal above remains ongoing and records as an unprecedented 94-day block to date; the previous record for this sort of block was 18 days last August. There's no telling what's next from Facebook. On 17 November I wrote to them about being unable to view scheduled posts on my Facebook Network for Church Monitoring page. My report detailing this and a series of other restrictions since last April reads:
For the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Facebook
17 November 2017
Dear Facebook,
I have been unable to view my scheduled posts since this morning. Please see the snapshot attached.
On 5 September I reported the treating as spam my links to articles on our Church and State website. The Facebook block against the two articles mentioned in that report still stands (a 74-day block to date). And this notwithstanding that the second of these two articles has been shared/liked by Facebook users over 70,000 times:
Contraception and the Catholic Church
Christian fundamentalists are driving our country into the Dark Ages
On 5 April I reported that the page listing all the groups I belong to was not working. With this rectified, I reported on 10 April that I couldn't schedule posts on my page. Then I reported on 12 April that my scheduled posts were not posting. On 6 June I reported that there was no fault with an excerpt from a book by Dr Pascal Bruckner, one of France's leading public intellectuals (a 16-day block). On 24 July I reported that there was no fault with an excerpt from a book by Prof Paul Cliteur, one of the Netherlands' leading public intellectuals (an 18-day block).
On 10 August Facebook replied: "We reviewed your [Prof Cliteur] post again and found it does follow our Community Standards. The post is being restored to Facebook. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
Thank you in advance for your assistance in these matters.
Regards,
Lola Heavey
https://www.facebook.com/networkforchurchmonitoring/
UPDATE 7 December (cont.): Despite our distinguished list of now 147 Honorary Associates from around the world, blocks on public access to our Church and State website also continue unabated. I have updated my blog post of 16 January with this morning's 903rd block on public access to the site since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on the Danish Cartoon Crisis; 52 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day. For example, as I point out in an earlier blog post about the Royal Mail's mishandling of our incoming mail following the loss of our employment contracts to the United States, the second article below has over 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares (not zero):
UPDATE 7 December (cont.): And it's not just Facebook blocks, blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site that Declan and I are dealing with these days. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. See my blog post of 21 June, Internet cuts: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 7/12/2017 RE: 172nd Internet cut since 26 May 2017).
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'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
