Upon reinstating the Occupy London page, which has more than 150k followers, Facebook said the ban was a mistake, though, according to Barda, the company gave “no reasonable explanation” for the initial ban, leading to suspicion from the group that the censure was over pro-Palestinian messages posted by the group.
Pro-Palestine page Occupy London latest to disappear from Facebook Occupy London has just had its Facebook page taken down by the social media giant. This follows a period of "continual removal of posts related to Palestine", a spokesperson told The Ca… https://t.co/DhoJOQ9zxR pic.twitter.com/KpmAO0FdQL
— CensoredByPropOrNot (@PropOrNotApp) August 18, 2018
Referencing a 2016 investigation by The Intercept, Barda stated:
“Facebook, unfortunately, works very, very closely with the US government, and the Israel government specifically to remove posts.”
Referencing reported comments by Israel’s Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, he added:
“It was the Israeli foreign minister, in a public statement, to announce that previously only 50 percent of their demands for things be removed were responded to favorably by Facebook, now 95 percent of things the Israeli government order Facebook to remove they remove.”
PrisonPlanet This left-wing Occupy London Facebook page with 151,000 followers has been banned by Facebook.
But censorship of independent voices by giant corporations is good now, right? pic.twitter.com/qpRrmtd4JD https://t.co/gHmXoVJBSO
— ❌InfoWars Australia❌ (@InfoWarsAU) August 16, 2018
The Israeli government has recently weighed in the ongoing anti-semitism row that has driven the Labour Party, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanging barbs with Jeremy Corbyn last week.
“Because of this anti-Semitism row [in the Labour Party] progressives are keeping their voice down about the horrific recent events in Palestine; the passing of the law by the Israeli state that effectively, formally locked in the situation that we’ve had for 40 years, namely that Jewish people a different legal status from other citizens in Israel.”
Corbyn urged to address anti-Semitism or risk Labour turning its back on Jewish Scots 'for good' – https://t.co/uQEL4uriKb https://t.co/bKB3hNX9yZ
— The World Crisis (@CrisisDigest) August 21, 2018
Barda stated that he regarded the temporary ban on his page a part of a “massive rearguard action on the part of the establishment,” continuing to note that “in the name of fake news many progressive websites that have been a major part of Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn etc. they found their traffic going down significantly.
“Mainstream progressive websites have seen their traffic go down by 70 percent. These are algorithms that are designed in private that nobody can inspect that have a huge impact on what information the world gets to see about what’s going on. That’s a hugely significant issue going forward.”
(RT, PC, Social Media)
