Thursday, May 02, 2019

Facebook: The social network's 59th block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015. Two Parliamentary letters to Facebook revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 22/4/2020: re double administrative block)

Our Church and State website has no less than 57 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).


Facebook does not have a political bias? Despite opposition from the social network, our Church and State website topped more than 3 million hits in 11 months from January to November 2017. Subsequently, Facebook's blocks against the site have gone from 47 days in 2017 to 179 days in 2018 plus 38 days this year plus an indefinite number of days as from tonight. Nonetheless, we get hundreds of thousands of hits - over 2 million hits in 2018 despite the equivalent of six months of these blocks; and 2 million hits this year despite over a month of blocks. Tonight it's their 59th block against Church and State since 1 December 2015. Now indefinitely my page listing all the groups I belong to has been blocked. I only get the groups I might be interested in (as opposed to those I belong to):



Everybody else gets the list of all the groups they belong to:



I encountered this administrative block before, on 16 April 2019, but it was removed within two days. Facebook blocks without an explanation come out of the blue. In March 2018 they blocked me from posting Church and State articles in groups four times for a total of 29 out of 31 days, and all without explanation. There's no way of knowing whether or not the rest of this month will be another wipeout from them, and without an explanation being given.
Facebook blocks (in days)

179 days in 2018
- January 2018: 16 days
- February 2018: 15 days
- March 2018: 29 days
- April 2018: 17 days
- May 2018: No blocks in May
- June 2018: 14 days
- July 2018: 17 days
- August 2018: 11 days
- September 2018: 12 days
- October 2018: 16 days
- November 2018: 19 days
- December 2018: 13 days
38 days in 2019
- January 2019: 16 days
- February 2019: 13 days
- March 2019: 4 days
- April 2019: 4 days*
- May 2019: 1 day (and counting)

* Not counting two-day administrative block




Four Facebook blocks ago, on 12 February, I posted Fighting for survival in London: Facebook's concerted campaign against our Church and State website shows no signs of waning (WITH UPDATE 19/2/2019: re Block 55 DAY 8). The post reveals more detailed information about these Facebook blocks. Last month every category page in our Church and State website was reduced to zero Facebook likes/shares. Our 5 Most Popular articles have 3.8 million Facebook likes/shares between them, not zero.



UPDATE 22 April 2020 (10.04am): Our 5 Most Popular articles now have 6.4 million hits between them! Last year Church and State had 5.7 million hits. And this despite the fact that there was such a low reach on our Facebook page from the beginning of October 2019 that the page became a virtual right-off for the rest of the year. Currently, we are up to Facebook's 71st block (day 2) against Church and State since 1 December 2015, and issued as usual without an explanation. This block, which prevents me from scheduling posts, records as their 10th block this year and as one of three blocks. They are also stopping me from posting in groups (2 days), and they are still blocking the listing of all the groups I belong to (357 days). Facebook only lifted a block on scheduling posts from our page on 21 November 2019 after 77 days. The never-ending assault on our email too continues unabated; see my post of 16 March, Email interception: Now we're finding reply emails in our spam box! It raises the question to what extent our incoming email is also being sabotaged. Our close colleagues have known for years that emailing us is not reliable. This flagship post highlights the targeting of our emails to Nobel laureates, US National Medal of Science laureates and knighted professors in particular. It also reveals a 2010 parliamentary letter to former Prime Minister Theresa May (then Home Secretary) about the interception of our email which continues unabated to this day.


Our News Feed (and its drop-down menu) has been restored. This administrative block prevented me from scheduling posts from our page and lasted 77 days from 6 September to 21 November 2019.



"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 (1930-2020), (then) President, Americans for Religious Liberty