Facebook has reversed itself and done the right thing, restoring our SIOA Facebook group. Please join or rejoin now: there are many justifiable criticisms of Facebook, but it is the single most efficient way for us to communicate with members and interested parties, and the easiest way for you to keep up with SIOA news and activities.
Pamela Geller tells the story here: “Victory! Facebook Caves, SIOA Group Members not Eliminated,” from Atlas Shrugs, August 3:
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all Atlas and Jihadwatch and SIOA members who wrote, blogged, emailed and railed against the proposed elimination of the Stop the Islamization of America Facebook group, which was first reported here on May 12th.
Today, after the group was already archived and all 15,187 members had been "migrated" (FB euphemism for eliminated), Facebook relented and we received the upgrade option after all. Shocking, I know!
Facebook gave in after I wrote several articles about this outrageous act of censorhip. World Net Daily ran this:
There is a deeply disturbing development going on now at Facebook: Its management is dismantling groups, eliminating their memberships with an "upgrade" that is only available to some groups. And there is every indication Facebook is using political criteria to determine which groups get the upgrade and targeting conservative groups for elimination.
In mid-May, my group Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) had this warning plastered across the top of our Facebook group page, which we use to keep in touch with our members, notifying them of rallies, events, conference, and various other initiatives:
I continued to rail against this outrage here and here and here and here and here, prompting Neil Munro to run this in-depth piece at The Daily Caller.
Our members "disappeared" on July 18th.
Regular Atlas readers recall the story I broke a couple of months ago on Facebook fascism: Facebook's Fascism in Group Membership Elimination — well, they did it. Despite several media outlets picking up my story, Facebook gave its users the big middle finger, but I believe we need a presence on Facebook — so I ask you all to rejoin.
A few months ago, I warned of this deeply disturbing development at Facebook here. Facebook management began dismantling groups, eliminating their memberships with an "upgrade" that was only available to some groups. SIOA was never offered the upgrade. And as promised, our membership disappeared.
Despite this, my readers and I continued to write, email, and post to FB forums railing against this gross injustice.
It worked. Today our members "reappeared" (beam me up, Scotty) and we were given the upgrade option. And so we are back, but we were never gone. Ain't no stopping us.
Get the guide book now: Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.