Facebook blocks Chechnya activist page in latest case of wrongful censorship – The Guardian
Facebook moderators have just seconds to decide whether to delete content. The company said the decision had been made in error. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Facebook censored a group of supporters of Chechen independence for violating its community standards barring organizations engaged in terrorist activity or organized criminal activity, the latest example of the social network mistakenly censoring government dissidents.
The Facebook group, Independence for Chechnya!, was permanently deleted by Facebook in late May, according to the group administrator, an Estonian human rights activist who asked to be identified by her initials, MP. She said she was shocked when she received a message from Facebook informing her of the deletion. We do not support terror, MP said. We support [a] political[ly] legal way for returning Chechen independence.
After the Guardian contacted Facebook about the group, it was reinstated. A company spokesperson said that the deletion had been made in error and pointed out that with millions of reports each week, the company sometimes gets things wrong.
The case is just the most recent example of how Facebooks mission of creating a more open and connected world can be compromised by its gargantuan task of policing billions of pieces of content.
In recent weeks, the company has censored a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist for publishing a series of posts alleging corruption by Maltese politicians and an abortion rights organization for violating its policy against the promotion or encouragement of drug use. In all of those cases, Facebook reversed its decisions after it was contacted by the Guardian.
Facebook is also facing complaints from critics who argue the network is not censorious enough and is failing to stamp-out extremist or abusive content.
The Chechen independence group, which had about 6,000 members, had existed for almost a decade and was originally created by a resident of Chechnya, according to MP, who said she took over administration of the group after the original administrator was forced into hiding due to threats to his relatives. The group is supportive of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, an unrecognized government consisting of exiled leaders from the wars for independence.
While some Chechen separatist groups, such as the Caucasian Emirate, are considered terrorist organizations by the US government, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is not. Indeed, the group is specifically listed as not violating in a list of terrorist groups that the Guardian reviewed as part of the Facebook Files. One Facebook moderator told the Guardian that content reviewers have less than 10 seconds to make a decision about whether content should be censored or not, making the careful policing of extremist content a mission impossible.
MP said that her group was used to spread news about what Chechens really want and how they think because there is no real free media in Russia. My friends and me, we wanted to give the Chechen point of view.
Its a modest but difficult goal: press freedom is tenuous in Russia as a whole, and basically non-existent in Chechnya, a Russian republic ruled with an iron first by Ramzan Kadyrov.
Local media works according to one principle: Do not make Kadyrov angry, an anonymous Chechen journalist wrote in the Guardian last year. Today, I do not know a single journalist here who would agree to work on a story that was anything other than positive about life in post-war Chechnya.
Kadyrov was selected to lead Chechnya by Vladmir Putin, and he has been linked to the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemstov and accused of various human rights violations, including the reported detention and torture of hundreds of gay men.
The Chechen leader has a particularly authoritarian attitude toward social media. He enthusiastically documents his lifestyle to his 2.7m followers on Instagram, while retaliating harshly against Chechens who voice even mild dissent on social networks. A favored tactic is public humiliation forcing those who wrote negative comments to appear on local television to renounce their views and apologize.
While the Chechen group has been restored, the case raises concerns for press freedom advocates about how Facebook is wielding its power to censor. Not every group of dissidents will catch the attention of a news organization or advocacy group, said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of free-speech advocacy group PEN America, and that seems to be a much more reliable means of redress than Facebooks official system for appealing censorship decisions.
If that dissident group doesnt have the channels or access to power to get through to Facebook at a higher level, they may just find themselves silenced, said Nossel. What is necessary is a more accessible, transparent, timely process of individual appeal and the provision of rationale that make this incredibly powerful hand that Facebook and other platforms wield something that is more understandable and can be a subject of public debate.
Read more:
Facebook blocks Chechnya activist page in latest case of wrongful censorship - The Guardian
- Harvard Journal Abruptly Cancels Issue on Palestine, Sparking Accusations of Censorship - The Harvard Crimson - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- A Refuge From Censorship: Why Independent Bookstores Will Save Us - Literary Hub - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Freelancing to fill information gaps left by global censorship - Freedom of the Press Foundation - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Russian lawmakers pass a bill punishing online searches for information deemed to be 'extremist' - AP News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Amy Sherald Withdraws Exhibition From Smithsonian Amid Concerns Over Censorship - BroadwayWorld.com - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- AG Bontas Censorship of Pro-Life Speech Challenged in the 9th Circuit - Thomas More Society - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Itch Has Now Been Censored By Payment Processors Too We're Slipping Down The Censorship Slope - TheGamer - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Efforts to restrict or protect libraries both grew this year - Stateline - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- After The Party Free Speech At San Diego Comic-Con With The CBLDF - Bleeding Cool News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- A Century After the Scopes Trial, Censoring Spirit on Evolution Still Thrives - Evolution News - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- New Lollipop Chainsaw game and anime adaptation in the works. Publisher promises lots of dark humor and no censorship - AUTOMATON - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- News in India is being erased from the internet - Index on Censorship - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Turkish police arrested magazine staff over Muhammad cartoon, but it doesnt actually depict the prophet - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and... - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- Are You Laughing Yet? - The Atlantic - July 24th, 2025 [July 24th, 2025]
- In Letter, Artists and Scholars Call for Reinstatement of Whitney ISP Leader Ousted Amid Censorship Controversy - ARTnews.com - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Yoko Taro Tried to Warn Us About Payment Processors' Censorship in 2024 - 80 Level - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Summer 2025 Teen Advocacy Institute: Power to the Readers - National Coalition Against Censorship - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Crying Censorship, US Pressures Foreign Officials in Bid to Counter Tech Regulations - Tech Policy Press - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Some Implications of Censorship of Equality and Equity in Policy and Public Administration Courses - PA TIMES Online - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Political turmoil and military tensions see 24 internet restrictions imposed so far in 2025 - Tom's Guide - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steam's new censorship rules in victory against 'porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists',... - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Why is self-censoring tape appearing all over Tokyos host club ads?Photos - SoraNews24 - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Steam Users Rally Behind Anti-Censorship Petition - OpenCritic - July 22nd, 2025 [July 22nd, 2025]
- Stephen Colbert and I: The Tightening of Right-Wing Censorship - Informed Comment - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Artists speak out on attempted censorship of views on Gaza - Music Ally - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Raging Trump Desperately Tried to Censor Epstein Expos - Yahoo Home - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Steams Adult Games Under Threat in Financial Censorship Move That Cuts The Smut - Insider Gaming - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Turkey becomes the First to Censor Musks AI Chatbot Grok - Informed Comment - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Russia's new censorship push - Kremlin eyes control over WhatsApp and Telegram - RBC-Ukraine - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Revealed: The secret code words being used to beat online censorship - The Telegraph - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- New Russian law criminalizes online searches for controversial content - The Washington Post - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Censoring All Men Are Created Equal cost U. Oregon $724K will other universities learn? - The College Fix - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Pixar Censorship Report Addressed By Director Of Studios Next Movie: The Movie Will Morph With Or Without You - Screen Rant - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Advertising Standards Authority Bans Viva!s Dairy is Scary Ad, Sparking Controversy Over Censorship - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- This VTuber Just Raised Over $780 for the ACLU. After Steam's New Content Policies? Her Anti-Censorship Message Is Urgent - VICE - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Desperate Royals Tried to Censor Leaked Kings Funeral Plans - The Daily Beast - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Ready or Not Shows Signs of Recovery After Censorship Controversy - Game Rant - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- When Superman takes a side: Gaza, censorship, and the criminalisation of empathy in America - India Today - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Northeastern research breaches The Great Firewall to look at Chinese censorship - Northeastern Global News - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Modder Retcons 'Censorship' Changes Within An Hour Of New Patch Going Live - IGN Southeast Asia - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Foreign journalists in the U.S. are self-censoring to protect themselves from the Trump administration - Poynter - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Turkey becomes the first to censor AI chatbot Grok - Global Voices - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- How Iran and Israel control information - Index on Censorship - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- "I've Been Dying To Play This Game For Years": With Ready Or Not Launching On Console Tomorrow, It Looks Like The Censorship Has Already... - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Spotify could pull out of Trkiye in row over censorship pressure - Music Ally - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Indian film board criticised for cutting overly sensual Superman kisses - The Guardian - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Superman's Big Kiss Was Cut By The Censors In India - Kotaku - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Russia and Belarus unveil censored 'patriotic AI' to rival the West - Ynetnews - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- I Would Quit Before They Made Me Do That | Feedback - School Library Journal - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Reporter's Notebook - July 13th, 2025: An MCTS financial fiasco, Milwaukee arts winners and losers, book censorship in Wisconsin prisons - WTMJ - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Internet fumes at censorship of kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: They don't have a problem with Housefull 5 | Bollywood - Hindustan Times -... - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Listen to the Trump-Referencing Clipse Track Universal Music Allegedly Tried to Censor - Mother Jones - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- The EUs Censorship Codes Are Coming for the First Amendment - National Review - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Guest column | Book bans dont work. As a kid, I proved it. - The Washington Post - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ira Wells, who literally wrote the book on book bans, shares his thoughts on the politics of censorship - The Globe and Mail - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Fans SLAM censorship of 33-second kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: 'They don't have a problem with - Times of India - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- After the Bombings, Iran Tightened Its Censorship. Iranians Arent Standing For It. - Council on Foreign Relations - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- All that glitters is not gold: A brief history of efforts to rebrand social media censorship - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Zelensky, Zuckerberg, prolifers, a trans journalist, and a gay person with a Bible. How Russia is censoring the Axios/HBO documentary - Mediazona - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Chinese censorship-busters claim Tencent is trying to kill its WeChat archive - theregister.com - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ethereum advances toward censorship-resistant scaling with zkEVM layer-1 shift - CryptoSlate - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Peskov admitted to the existence of military censorship in Russia - - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Trump Imposes 50% Tariff on Brazil: Political Tensions and Censorship at the Center - Cryptodnes.bg - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- :Director Honey Trehan on His Film Punjab 95 and the Censorship Battle with CBFC - Frontline Magazine - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Fans Hate The Game For All The Wrong Reasons - TheGamer - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- China Censors Trump's Bomb Threat on Beijing - Newsweek - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Review | How censors tried and failed to keep LGBT voices out of the movies - The Washington Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- UN AI summit accused of censoring criticism of Israel and big tech over Gaza war - Geneva Solutions - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok : Code Switch - NPR - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Corrido Censorship: The paradox of funding and criminalizing cartel stories - The Oakland Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'Ready or Not' Devs Unveil a Mod to Remove Censorship In-Game For a More Brutal Experience - player.one - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Centre flays X over 'censorship' claim, says platform delayed unblocking accounts - Times of India - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Turkey blocks Grok content, becoming first country to 'censor' the AI chatbot - Middle East Eye - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- X blasts India censorship order on thousands of accounts - New Age BD - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'JSK' Producer Suresh Kumar On Its Censorship: All Issues Began With 'L2: Empuraan' - The Hollywood Reporter India - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day - The Verge - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- AI, Fair Use, and the Arsenal of Democracy - RealClearDefense - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Democratic nomination for Ithaca Common Council seat decided by just 11 votes - WSKG - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- A Summer Reading List for Americas 250th Anniversary - Ash Center - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- DEEP DIVE: $500 MILLION IN MEDIA FUNDING. BUT WHO'S CALLING THE SHOTS BEHIND THE HEADLINES? Its not just censorship its coordination. In Episode 2 of... - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]