South China Morning Post yesterday broke news about how Facebook repeatedly deleted groups of political opposition in Hong Kong:
"A Facebook group with 84,298 members formed to oppose the pro-establishment DAB was deleted
Kelvin Sit Tak-O, who runs a discussion group that opposes the pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said his group’s Facebook page was shut down without notice on Thursday. The group had 84,298 members and was aiming for 100,000... The closures could have been triggered by opponents flagging the group as “abusive” with Facebook administrators, Mr. Sit speculated. A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment."
"'Apart from my own group, I've heard that other groups with an anti-DAB message have also been closed. We've written complaint letters, but we've only received standard replies about how [Facebook] is working on this case,' Sit said. ...
Kelvin told me that although the original page is still down, he relaunched a new page, which has already hit 50,000 members since it launched 3 days ago."
Hong Kong's DAB is a pro-Beijing political party. Party leader Ma Lik denies the Tiananmen massacre, as Wikipedia has it.
Hong Kongers have always seen themselves as China's last bastion of free speech -- it's sad to see how this is jeopardized by Facebook's supposed anticipatory obedience.
Facebook beschneidet Redefreiheit von Hong Konger Opposition
South China Morning Post berichtete gestern drüber, wie Facebook wiederholt Gruppen der politischen Opposition in Hong Kong gelöscht hat:
"A Facebook group with 84,298 members formed to oppose the pro-establishment DAB was deleted
Kelvin Sit Tak-O, who runs a discussion group that opposes the pro-establishment party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said his group’s Facebook page was shut down without notice on Thursday. The group had 84,298 members and was aiming for 100,000... The closures could have been triggered by opponents flagging the group as “abusive” with Facebook administrators, Mr. Sit speculated. A spokesperson for Facebook was not immediately available for comment."
"'Apart from my own group, I've heard that other groups with an anti-DAB message have also been closed. We've written complaint letters, but we've only received standard replies about how [Facebook] is working on this case,' Sit said. ...
Kelvin told me that although the original page is still down, he relaunched a new page, which has already hit 50,000 members since it launched 3 days ago."
Hong Kongs DAB ist eine pro-Peking Partei. Parteichef Ma Lik hat laut Wikipedia das Tiananmen-Massaker geleugnet.
Hong Konger sehen sich gerne als Chinas letzte Bastion der freien Meinung. Schade, wie das von Facebook (vermutlich in einem Akt von vorauseilendem Gehorsam) torpediert wird.
:P <- Lutz
