SCMP: Facebook cuts protester’s accounts

From behind South China Morning Post’s paid firewall, here’s an article about a university student’s Facebook account mysteriously being shut down. No firm proof yet about why it was disabled but it may be related to organizing protests in Hong Kong ahead of the torch arriving on Friday.

Facebook cuts protester’s accounts

Jimmy Cheung
Apr 29, 2008

The university student who plans to protest with Tibetan flags during the Olympic torch relay on Friday says her Facebook account has been disabled for “persistent misuse of the site”.

Christina Chan Hau-man, 21, said she had received a warning from Facebook that her message volume had approached its limit a few days ago.

“I wrote back and explained that I had to respond to those who wanted to join my action,” she said. “Some 60 people have said they will join.”

Ms Chan said her account had been disabled on Sunday “for persistent misuse of the site” and information related to the protest had been deleted.

“It may be political censorship. But I don’t know what is happening exactly.”

Ms Chan said she would continue with her plan but believed fewer people would join because she could no longer reach her supporters via Facebook.

Facebook was not available for comment yesterday. Its rules say users should not disseminate content that would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offence, violate the rights of any party, or otherwise create liability or violate any law.

League of Social Democrats chairman Wong Yuk-man said his Facebook account, which carried anti-Beijing content, had been disabled last Tuesday, without any reason being given.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Asia, China, Technology, Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.