On 23 June we reported that Facebook removed posts by several of its users. The censored posts were all socio-political in nature. (link: https://theindependent.sg.sg/facebook-removed-local-socio-political-posts-which-seems-to-have-not-violated-its-community-standards/)
One of the Facebook users whose post was removed by the social media giant’s moderators, is prominent socio-political blogger Andrew Loh. Commenting on the removal of his post Mr Loh said:
“In all my years on Facebook, I don’t recall any of my posts ever being removed by Facebook. Hmm… so it is strange that Facebook now informs me it has removed my post about Jason Chua and the Straits Times publishing the results of its illegal by-election poll on Punggol East.”
Mr Loh said that he plans to write to Facebook to ask why his content was removed.
This is Mr Loh’s Facebook post which its moderators removed earlier.
Facebook again removed Mr Loh’s post about the social media giant’s censorship soon after it was published, and also banned him from posting anything on Facebook for a day.
This morning (26 June) after he was freed from the ban by Facebook, Mr Loh published a comment about Facebook’s censorship and its ban on Facebook. In the post Mr Loh wondered why Facebook was arbitrarily censoring posts which were socio-political in nature – posts which especially touched on local politics.
Mr Loh said that even if his post was talking about the Admin of a Facebook group of rabid People’s Action Party (PAP) fans, Fabrication About the PAP (FAPAP), he did not engage in bullying and harassment. FAPAP and its Admin. Mr Jason Chua Chin Seng, on the other hand often engage in bullying and harassment in Facebook.
The following are some examples of FAPAP’s bullying and harassment:
Facebook and its moderators did not step in to moderate such bullying and harassment by FAPAP.
This publication understands that Facebook has once again censored Mr Loh’s post and has also banned him from Facebook – this time for three days.
Speaking to this publication, Mr Loh said that the censorship and ban happened at about 6.20pm today (26 June). Mr Loh further added: “I think it is important for civil society to note this and discuss how we can deal with such censorship.”Explaining their Community Standards, Facebook said in a post (link: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards) that they remove content, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when they believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety.
Facebook moderators generally remove content when the post is about direct threats, self-injury, dangerous organizations, bullying and harassment, attacks on public figures, criminal activity, sexual violence and exploitation and regulated goods.
Mr Loh’s published content seems to be within the boundaries of Facebook’s stated Community Standards.