Live
Audio Only
teleSUR English Facebook page was republished on the social media website Wednesday morning after it was taken down on Monday evening without any exact explanation from the social media giant.
Hours after the page was restored, teleSUR received vague explanations from the company's employees about the controversial incident.
"The team informs me that there was instability on the platform, which caused this problem, but now everything should be in order," a support technician at Facebook told teleSUR's social media coordinator shortly after the page was restored. "Well, I will proceed to finish your case and in case you have any questions about this matter you can write to this e-mail and I will gladly help you."
Also shortly after the revival of the page, RT journalist Dan Cohen, who had contacted Facebook asking for an explanation about the removal of teleSUR English's page, informed teleSUR that he received an email from a company's spokesperson claiming: "The Page was temporarily unpublished to protect it after we detected suspicious activity. once secured, the page was restored. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused."
The statements, however, do not seem coherent as one claims an error had occurred while another claims that the page was taken down in an attempt to "protect" it from suspicious activity". Also, either of those claims fit with Facebook's original message that was sent to teleSUR English's team shortly after the page was unpublished in which the company suggested that the removal was "for violating our Terms of Use."
Meanwhile, as of now, teleSUR English’s original Facebook URL, www.facebook.com/telesurenglish, is not available, but a new Facebook URL, www.facebook.com/teleSUR-English-479681268841947, is live and appears to include all the outlet’s content.
Over the past few days, teleSUR's followers and supporters expressed their solidarity through tweets and posts on Facebook and Twitter and other social media websites in favor of restoring the page and expressing fears over Facebook's control of online content and possible censorship of outlets with alternative narratives to that of mainstream media in the U.S. and the West.
Several news outlets have also reported on the incident such as RT, Democracy Now!, Jacobin and Latino Rebels as well as other progressive media outlets around the world, who also expressed concern over Facebook's possible censorship of content. Over the past few weeks, Facebook has taken down the pages of Venezuelanalysis.com, which was restored within hours of being removed last week, and Haiti Analysis page, which has yet to be restored. The two provide alternative left-leaning perspective about affairs in those countries.
teleSUR English's page has been removed from Facebook for the second time this year without any specific reason being provided. It should be noted that the first time this occurred back in January 2018, Facebook did not provide any explanation in spite of our best efforts to understand their rationale.
This time follows the same trend and remains an alarming development and exposes the significant power the social media company holds over online information and content.
Newsletter
