Facebook Blocks
More Than Two Dozen Popular Catholic Pages Without Explanation
by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.19 Jul 2017
Social media
giant Facebook blocked more than two
dozen conservative Catholic pages in
a 24-hour period, some with millions of followers, saying only they were
“suspected of suspicious activities.”
Facebook seemed to target only conservative Catholic
pages with a significant following, since almost all had between hundreds of
thousands and up to six million followers, according to Catholic News Agency
(CNA), which broke
the story.
One of the blocked pages called “Fr. Rocky” belonged to a
U.S. Catholic priest Fr. Francis J. Hoffman, executive director of Relevant
Radio, whose page had 3.5 million likes.
“Catholic and Proud,” an enormously popular page with six
million followers, met a similar fate. Page owner Kenneth Alimba of Nigeria
told CNA his page was also blocked without explanation. He had another page
titled “Holy Mary Mother of God” with some 200,000 Likes that was also removed.
Alimba has sent messages to Facebook in an attempt to
have his pages reinstated but said he is “not optimistic” about a response.
Some of Alimba’s other Facebook pages with fewer followers are still online.
“It is extremely heartbreaking,” Kenneth Alimba said of
the page he has worked on for over five years. “It’s too horrible.”
Although they were furnished with no explanation for the
blocks, some of the page administrators of the blocked sites have speculated
that perhaps they are being censored, since Facebook has been accused in the
past of censoring “conservative” news and websites, an allegation that Facebook
CEO Mark
Zuckerberg has denied.
Alimba said he believes he is being targeted specifically
because it was a Catholic page. “They’ve fought and continue to fight anything
Catholic and conservative,” he said.
Another Catholic fanpage called “Jesus and Mary,” which
had some 1.7 million followers and depicted an image of the sacred hearts of
Jesus and Mary as its cover photo, was also blocked by Facebook.
Page administrator Godwin Delali Adadzie told CNA that he
was on Facebook on the evening of July 17 when he was requested to upload a
photo of himself because his personal account had been “suspected of suspicious
activities.”
A Catholic author and evangelist, Adadzie has been called “one of the reasons the Church is booming in
Africa.” He is also the founder of “Do you know Africa?”
“The page happens to be the most effective means of
driving traffic to my Catholic websites and blogs,” Adadzie said. “I am also a
blogger and a writer, and in writing, without readers which requires quality
traffic, your writing or blogging will be useless.”
He was eventually allowed back into his personal account,
but received a notification informing him that his “Jesus and Mary” page had
been disabled. According to Adadzie, everyone authorized as an editor of the
“Jesus and Mary” page had to go through the same process, which would suggest
something more than a computer glitch is at play.
Adadzie sent two appeals to Facebook but has yet to get a
response.
Of the known affected Catholic pages, 21 are based in
Brazil, and four are English-language pages, with administrators in the U.S.
and Africa.
Observers have suggested that the 25 pages are just the
tip of the iceberg and actual numbers of blocked Catholic pages could well be
in the dozens.
Catholic
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Catholic Relief Services.
Note: George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, a member of the Breakthrough
Energy Coalition, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Mark Zuckerberg
is a member of the Breakthrough Energy
Coalition, and a co-founder & chairman & CEO for Facebook.
Sheryl K.
Sandberg is the COO & director for Facebook,
and was a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
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