Facebook suspends environmental groups, enraging activists

Story at a glance Facebook suspended the personal accounts of more than 200 users, affecting dozens of environmental and Indigenous activists. The company said it was a mistake and restored many of the accounts. Activists are suspicious of the social media giant despite a commitment to fighting misinformation. A few days before a planned protest against private equity company KKR & Co., Indigenous organizers found themselves locked out of the Facebook event, unable to post or send messages. Theirs was one of more than 200 personal accounts, many of which were admins of environmental and Indigenous groups and pages, suspended by Facebook for several days. “Our systems mistakenly removed these accounts and content. They have since been restored and we’ve lifted any limits imposed on identified profiles,” a Facebook spokesperson told Changing America. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE RIGHT NOW Many of the accounts, which activists told the Guardian were suspended for an alleged “intellectual property rights violation,” have since been restored. But some aren’t buying Facebook’s explanation. “The timing was more than suspect,” Delee Nikal, whose Facebook page was affected by the suspensions, told Canada’s National Observer . “We would like to have transparency in […]

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