Anti-Muslim Facebook Page Now Removed

The Facebook page set up to call for the deportation of the Muslim protesters who disrupted Remembrance Day ceremonies in London has been removed.

A Facebook spokesman would not confirm whether the social networking site removed the page, called “Let’s show these poppy burning bastards how many people want them deported”, or whether it was deleted by the page administrator. He said he would look into it but added that the site did not generally comment on actions taken against specific accounts or pieces of content.

However, he said:

“We take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and react quickly to reports of inappropriate content and behavior. Specifically, we’re sensitive to content that includes pornography, harassment of private individuals, direct statements of hate against protected groups of people, and actionable threats of violence. The goal of these policies is to strike a very delicate balance between giving people the freedom to express their opinions and viewpoints – even those that may be controversial to some – and maintaining a safe and trusted environment.”

The incident started on November 11, the 92nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War, which is recognized as Remembrance Day in the UK. About 30 Muslim protesters crashed a service to honor the sacrifice of the men and women who have served in Britain’s armed forces, according to media reports. The protesters were held back by police while they burned a giant poppy – the symbol of Remembrance Day in the UK.

Their intention was to protest the war in Afghanistan but they chose the most offensive way possible to do it. The Remembrance poppy is a deeply revered symbol in Britain and most people would be horribly offended by the idea or act of burning one. Coupled with the placards, which included slogans such as “British soldiers burn in hell”, these were clearly extremists who wanted to provoke as much hurt and outrage among ordinary Britons as possible.

If that was their intention, it worked – and their own fellow Muslims in the UK are suffering the predictable backlash. The story was reported in the media but the Facebook page became the focus for people to express their anger. Within nine hours, the page had nearly a quarter of a million members. The page administrator said in a wall comment that the page was aimed at the 30 protesters and was not meant to be an forum for hatred against all Muslims.

However, if it didn’t start out as an anti-Muslim page, it certainly became one. This plea went unheeded by the majority of people posting on the wall. Instead there was a deluge of comments, literally hundreds of thousands of them, describing all Muslims and “Pakis” (Pakistanis) as “filthy” and urging violence – including stoning, shooting and burning – against them. I condemn the poppy burning and I also condemn comments like this. I don’t know what the solution is but this is not it.

I don’t know at what stage the page was taken down – I noticed it was gone at lunch time today California time, but wanted to find out the back story from Facebook before writing about it. It’s possible the administrators deleted the page when they realized what a firestorm they had unleashed. However, my instinct is that Facebook probably proactively removed the page, not because of the name or concept of the page but because of the content of the comments and lack of moderation by the administrators.

People will have differing views on whether or not Facebook was right to remove the page but they are certainly legally entitled to do so. Facebook is a private business with a brand image to uphold so it’s not obligated to allow absolute freedom of speech on its site. It also has to keep in mind the law of the land, which in the UK includes a 2006 Act outlawing incitement to racial or religious hatred.