Church and State blog: Facebook's 26th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015. Last month Church and State topped more than 3 million hits over the past year (WITH UPDATE 15/4/2018 RE: Block 37 DAY 2)

Thursday, December 07, 2017

Facebook's 26th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015. Last month Church and State topped more than 3 million hits over the past year (WITH UPDATE 15/4/2018 RE: Block 37 DAY 2)

Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way FACEBOOK is treating your highly reputable site.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

For the fourth time in less than seven weeks, Declan and I have had to suspend work on our news website Church and State 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). Subsequently we have had to deal with three Facebook blocks, the latest this evening. Now Facebook has for the eighth time stopped me from posting to groups without first passing through a time-consuming security check for every post I wish to make, i.e. their 26th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015 (they themselves call it a block in the video above). It seems little consolation that last month Church and State topped more than 3 million hits over the past year; about 70% of our hits are from Americans. My Facebook appeal tonight:

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

7 December 2017

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. Please see the screenshot 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 26th time Facebook has blocked me from posting to groups since 1 December 2015. Facebook has also only responded to four of my previous 25 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)
25th 23-30 November 2017 (8 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 Church and State. The Facebook block against the two articles mentioned in that report remains ongoing (an unprecedented 94-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 147 Honorary Associates, including two Nobel Prize winners. Since Facebook's 16th block listed above, 117 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 26 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 26 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 23-30 November 2017 (8 days)
26th 7 December 2017 (1 day) (ongoing)

UPDATE 15 April 2018

26th 7-8 December 2017 (2 days)
27th 10-17 December 2017 (8 days)
28th 28 December 2017 - 4 January 2018 (8 days)
29th 16-23 January 2018 (8 days)
30th 28 January - 4 February 2018 (8 days)
31st 12-19 February 2018 (8 days)
32nd 26 February - 5 March 2018 (8 days)
33rd 7-14 March 2018 (8 days)
34th 16-23 March 2018 (8 days)
35th 24 March - 1 April 2018 (9 days)
36th 4-11 April 2018 (8 days)
37th 14-21 April 2018 (8 days) (ongoing)

November 2017: 16 days
December 2017: 14 days
January 2018: 16 days
February 2018: 15 days
March 2018: 29 days
April 2018: 17 days (to 21 April)

Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch

UPDATE 15 April (11.21am): When it comes to blocking me from posting Church and State articles to groups, Facebook's 26th block since 1 December 2015 was lifted on 8 December 2017 (2 days). I have, however, subsequently been blocked another 11 times from doing the same, and most recently until 21 April (an additional 89 days, incl. 29 days last month). All of these subsequent blocks have also been without explanation, save the 30th block (see below). We are currently on DAY 2 of the 37th block, notwithstanding my appeal yesterday. Our friend and colleague Don Collins wrote in reference to my 30th appeal: "Powerful appeal, but of course likely ignored. So unfair. The pressure for equity from those such as Facebook over their monopolistic control of disseminating public opinion from responsible entities such as Church and State moves such entities closer to legislative regulation." This is that appeal:

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

28 January 2018

Dear Facebook,

Today in an unprecedented block from Facebook everything I post to groups from our Church and State website you are calling spam, with no end in sight. Please see the screenshot attached. On 5 September 2017, I first reported the treating as spam my links to articles and book excerpts on our site. One of these excerpts was from a book by Paul Cliteur, a professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University and one of the Netherlands' leading public intellectuals.

Seldom has Facebook made it clear why I am being blocked. Today's block records as the 30th time Facebook has blocked me from posting to groups since 1 December 2015. The only explanation given at the time of one of these blocks has been "spam" (received today); and Facebook has only responded to four of my previous 29 appeals, citing "technical problems" in each instance. Nonetheless, I have been blocked from posting to groups a total of 43 days (and counting) in the last three months alone.

A colleague has written that our site is "not at all offensive, especially compared to some atheist sites which, presumably, AREN'T being blocked". This is not to mention the fact that I have also been reporting technical problems with my Facebook Network for Church Monitoring page since 5 April 2017, such as being unable to view scheduled posts or being repeatedly unable to schedule posts.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in these matters.

Sincerely,

Lola Heavey
Webmaster
Network for Church Monitoring

Ted Cruz asks if Facebook is a "neutral public forum". Mark Zuckerberg admits Silicon Valley is an "extremely left-leaning place" and claims he tries to make sure the company does not have a political bias. pic.twitter.com/gaWw7ORQDY
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) April 10, 2018

UPDATE 15 April (cont.): Despite our distinguished list of now 174 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 2017 with this morning's 1,138th 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 2017 (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on the Danish Cartoon Crisis), 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 a blog post last year 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 more than 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares (not zero):

UPDATE 15 April (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. Since 26 May 2017, we have been recording Internet cuts to boot; see my blog post of 21 June 2017, Internet cuts: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 15/4/2018 RE: 183rd Internet cut since 26 May 2017). Perhaps of particular importance in all this is the fact that last November Church and State topped more than 3 million hits over the previous eleven months and despite the even then far from level playing field.

From My Picks:

2 June 2018: Facebook: Will Facebook blocks against our Church and State website extend for another month? Internet cuts also continue unabated (WITH UPDATE 6/6/2018)

http://churchandstate.org.uk/honorary-associates/

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.

Church and State blog

Thursday, December 07, 2017

Facebook's 26th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015. Last month Church and State topped more than 3 million hits over the past year (WITH UPDATE 15/4/2018 RE: Block 37 DAY 2)

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