Facebook boots VCDL

Just got this message from Maryland Shall Issue
https://freebeacon.com/guns/facebook-bans-second-amendment-group-without-explanation/

Facebook Bans Second Amendment Group Without Explanation
The Virginia Citizens Defense League says it's gotten no accounting of move from tech giant
Stephen GutowskiFebruary 2, 2021 6:40 PM
GunsA VCDL bus in Richmond, Virginia on January 18, 2021 / Facebook
A top Virginia gun-rights group was booted from Facebook without explanation on Tuesday, a move the tech giant confirmed but refused to explain.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told the Washington Free Beacon that the group's page disappeared without explanation. The company said the decision to remove the page is final—but did not provide further details.

"This was correctly actioned and we will not be republishing," Facebook spokeswoman Kristen Morea said. She declined to elaborate on the decision.

Van Cleave said the group used its Facebook page exclusively to communicate with its members as well as organize electoral and legislative efforts. The group's page helped raise awareness of Gov. Ralph Northam's (D.) controversial gun-control agenda in 2020 and mobilized activists to help block some Democratic proposals. The league also took to social media to spread the word about COVID guidelines in the months leading up to a peaceful driving demonstration in Richmond on January 18. Van Cleave said the ban deprives the league of such capabilities in the future.

Facebook's decision to pull the league without explanation may signal trouble for other mainstream gun-rights groups and ignite new scrutiny of the company's opaque moderation practices. The company has come under fire before for its ad hoc approach to content moderation, with critics alleging that it plays politics and arbitrarily silences conservative voices. Van Cleave, for one, says that's what he believes and that Facebook's move against his group foreshadows the deplatforming of other Second Amendment Groups.

"If they did this to us, it's just a matter of time," he told the Free Beacon. "I think we're a high-profile group and that's why we got singled out. Those who aren't as high profile as we are, I'm sure they're on the chopping block next."

This is not the first time Facebook has targeted the gun group. At the end of January, it booted the group before later restoring its page—also without explanation.

At the time, Morea blamed the removal on an "error" and apologized. Facebook went on to suspend the personal accounts of the group's leaders, including Van Cleave. Facebook did not offer any explanation about any posts that had violated Facebook policy. After Facebook briefly lifted the January suspensions, Van Cleave's personal account was again shut down, he said Tuesday.

Morea told the Free Beacon in January that Facebook would not offer more details on Van Cleave's initial suspension due to a "very real and credible threat that people can game the system" if they understand how it works. She directed the Free Beacon to a Facebook press release on its moderation policies referencing the Capitol riot.

Van Cleave said neither he nor the group has ever advocated for violence or been involved with protesting the results of the 2020 election. He said the lack of clarity from Facebook suggests that the ban is "political" and may soon expand to other gun groups.

"It's just a yo-yo effect: Apologize. Put it up. Take it down," Van Cleave said. "It sounds like it's just the politics they don't like."

Surprised, not so much.

Yeah the new free government , big tech too big for their britches . They need to be knocked down a peg or two . Meanwhile a Christian Cake maker is sued for not making a cake .

Facebook et.al. have made their agenda pretty clear. I’m really not sure why similar groups haven’t voluntarily left to set up shop in greener pastures.

don't underestimate the power of the press. pretty sickening.

DanGuy48 said:

Facebook et.al. have made their agenda pretty clear. I’m really not sure why similar groups haven’t voluntarily left to set up shop in greener pastures.

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I left FB on my own mid January and my mental health has actually improved a bit. Of course something else came along and knocked that down a bit, but that's not relevant.

I'm hoping for a mass exodus from FB and twitter.

DanGuy48 said:

Facebook et.al. have made their agenda pretty clear. I’m really not sure why similar groups haven’t voluntarily left to set up shop in greener pastures.

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The tech giants are making that very tough to do. See Parler et.al.

"They`re a private company and........"

I can't even. Fvck them all.

Seems to be a trend of Big Tech cancelling effective voices - VCDL wear it as a badge of honor!

As an aside, try Gab.com as an alternative to Fakebook - a bit of fresh air. They got growing pains but the content isn’t bad.

It’s getting to the point where we almost need a whole second economy

Looks like a VCDL page admin locked the page...NOT FB. At least that is how it looks.

How do I delete a Facebook group that I admin?
If you're a group admin and you want to permanently remove your group from Facebook, you can delete it. Deleting a group is a permanent action that cannot be reversed. Groups are deleted when they have no members.

Alternatively, you can pause a group if you need a break from maintaining it or if you need time to catch up on tasks such as managing posts or membership. Learn more about the differences between pausing and deleting a group.

To delete a group:
From your News Feed, click Groups in the left menu and select your group from Groups You Manage or by searching for it.
Click Members below the name of the group.
Click next to each member's name and select Remove member.
Click Confirm.
Once you’ve removed the other members, click next to your name and select Leave group.
Click Leave Group.
Note: If you're an admin, you can't delete a group you didn't create unless the original creator chooses to leave it. Group members aren't notified when you delete a group.

Archiving a group is no longer available.

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gtodave said:

Looks like a VCDL page admin locked the page...NOT FB. At least that is how it looks.

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How do you derive that? Facts?

A root user can override any so-called admin of the page. Admin is just a user in this context.

Please elaborate

Who really cares? when one of the so-called leaders of the vcdl tells its membership that if a assault weapons ban were to pass they need to remove their assault weapons from the state or break them apart and recycle them they're not really second amendment advocates anyway.

That is why it was wrong what google and apple did to parler, basically banned them from the market place unless they played by their rules. Big Tech needs a slap down. I guess if you dont like FB you could use their Russian Clone VK.

Muleskinner said:

Who really cares? when one of the so-called leaders of the vcdl tells its membership that if a assault weapons ban were to pass they need to remove their assault weapons from the state or break them apart and recycle them they're not really second amendment advocates anyway.

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There is advocating following processes within the law and constitution to stop or overturn laws you don't like or consider unconstitutional and there are advocating following extra legal processes.

Last I checked, both are advocates. One of those though is, as you might guess, illegal and often not considered protected speech. It certainly falls in to the section 230 of the communications decency act loophole absolutely allowing a platform to remove such content even if it wasn't a "our platform, our rules".

The tech giants are acting like CCP, very alarming

jrumann59 said:

That is why it was wrong what google and apple did to parler, basically banned them from the market place unless they played by their rules. Big Tech needs a slap down. I guess if you dont like FB you could use their Russian Clone VK.

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They banned them because they refused to implement a process for removing or stopping violent speech. Parler certainly did moderate. They removed "liberal" content pretty quick. AWS gave about 100 examples of violent speech hosted on Parler, that Parler was notified of and either never took action or took them weeks to take any action to remove it.

Their rules were remove speech that specifically calls for raping and murdering people and politicians. That isn't a high bar. Parler refused until at the very end they said they'd implement something (spoilers, their moderation offer was really a non-offer). So they got kicked.

It wasn't because hosting conservative speech was icky. Unless conservative speech specifically means advocating for or threats of violence.

They banned them because they refused to implement a process for removing or stopping violent speech. Parler certainly did moderate. They removed "liberal" content pretty quick.

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So essentially they behaved as the mirror image of FB and Twitter and got shut down, yet FB and Twitter continue to function. Got it.

I don’t use Facebook but heard VCDL’s “group page” and some board members pages were removed prior to Lobby Day 2021. Are these pages still down or are they restored? fred55

Muleskinner said:

Who really cares? when one of the so-called leaders of the vcdl tells its membership that if a assault weapons ban were to pass they need to remove their assault weapons from the state or break them apart and recycle them they're not really second amendment advocates anyway.

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Are you sure that he wasn't talking about what being in compliance with the law? Was he stating facts versus urging this course of action?

We are all still in awe of all that you do to stick it to the man...