Facebook Suspended These Libertarian Groups and Won't Explain Why
'Being Libertarian' and 'Occupy Democrats Logic' were taken down and then inexplicably restored three days later.
Being Libertarian and Occupy Democrats Logic, two popular libertarian Facebook groups, were suspended last week for reasons unknown. Facebook later restored the groups, but still isn't explaining what happened.
"We were down for three days," Charles Peralo, one of the group's administrators, told Reason. Peralo said Facebook didn't tell him what rules had been violated.
Occupy Democrats Logic was informed that one of its posts—an image pointing out an alleged double standard regarding Islam and homosexuality—had violated community standards.
BuzzFeed News contacted a Facebook spokesperson, who confirmed that the groups were taken down "in error." The spokesperson offered no further clarifications.
Facebook is a private company—a distinction I make frequently when writing about allegations of censorship, because it matters. You have the right to complain about your mistreatment at the hands of a social media giant, but you don't have the right to anything else.
That being said, Facebook—like Twitter—markets itself as a place where the speech rules are uniform. It claims that it does not discriminate against certain speech, unless the content of that speech violates its community standards. Both companies ought to be more careful that libertarians and conservatives are as welcome to express their opinions as liberals are.
