Facebook escalates attack on socialist left

On Monday, following widespread protests, Facebook restored the page of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at the University of Michigan, along with the accounts of leading members of the IYSSE and the Socialist Equality Party (SEP).

In response to inquiries made by the Financial Times in Britain, Facebook claimed the removals were the result of an “automation error,” adding, “We apologise for the error.”

The restoration of service came two days after Facebook disabled these pages without any explanation and without providing any recourse. Among the individual pages deleted were those of IYSSE National Secretary Genevieve Leigh and World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) US Managing Editor Niles Niemuth.

Statements on the WSWS denouncing the political purge were shared thousands of times on social media, in addition to a flood of letters and statements of support from workers, young people, journalists and professionals.

The FT reported the controversy in a front-page article entitled, “Facebook sparks anger after shutting socialist pages.” The newspaper interviewed both David North, the chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board, and Chris Marsden, the national secretary of the SEP (UK).

“Even though this particular ban has been [reversed], it’s a warning we don’t know what might come next,” the article quoted North as saying. “Social media … is privately owned but to all intents and purposes it’s [become] what used to be the market square,” Marsden said. “They’re using their power in a way that’s completely undemocratic.”

Facebook’s claim that its disabling of the accounts was merely the product of a technical glitch lacks all credibility and is patently dishonest. The social media company had clearly invested time and resources to identifying leading members of the SEP, IYSSE and WSWS.

The claim is belied by the repeated statements of Facebook officials, both in congressional hearings and before military audiences, that Facebook deliberately seeks to combat what it calls “radical” political viewpoints.

Speaking before an audience of generals and intelligence officials at a NATO conference in 2018, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos declared, “Our societies overall are going to have to start to adapt to the idea that not all information is created equal.” He warned that millions of “people who feel they have been ignored or oppressed” are using Facebook to “push for radical politics.” He called these individuals and organizations “domestic influence operators.”

In order to police speech on its platform, Facebook has hired more than 20,000 people to its security and enforcement team, many of whom have police and intelligence backgrounds, or, like Stamos, work at intelligence-linked think tanks.

The World Socialist Web Site demands that Facebook explain why the company purged the accounts of the UM IYSSE and the accounts of leading SEP members.

What individuals were involved in making this decision to remove the pages of members of the SEP? What was the involvement of US government agencies in Facebook’s decision? Did Facebook ever discuss the activities of the SEP or any of its members with the US government? Did Facebook come under pressure from the US government to take actions against the SEP?

Without such an explanation, there can be no assurance that further arbitrary and politically motivated actions will be taken. And Facebook’s apology has no meaning unless it can provide assurances that it will not do it again.

The World Socialist Web Site thanks the many readers, supporters and principled journalists who publicized Facebook’s act of censorship against the IYSSE and SEP and helped overturn it. But the fight is far from over.

We urge our readers to:

1. Send statements demanding an explanation of Facebook’s actions to info@support.facebook.com and zuckerberg@fb.com. Send copies of your letters to comments@wsws.org for publication on the World Socialist Web Site.

2. Share this statement with your friends and co-workers and on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Include the hashtag #StopCensoringSocialism.

3. Send to the WSWS any information that you have on the censorship of left-wing individuals and publications by Facebook or other social media companies so that we can publicize and oppose these attacks.

The World Socialist Web Site, Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth & Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) have received an outpouring of support internationally following the announcement on Friday that Facebook had deleted the accounts of leading members of the SEP and shut down the page of the IYSSE at the University of Michigan.

The widespread support—including letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, statements on the WSWS, thousands of likes and shares on social media—from workers, young people, journalists and professionals were a critical factor in the decision by Facebook to restore the IYSSE page and SEP accounts.

As we reported yesterday, Facebook restored the accounts and claimed unconvincingly that the politically motivated purge of the socialists from its platform two days earlier was the result of a technical glitch. As WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explained to the Financial Times in a front-page story on Monday, “Even though this particular ban has been [reversed], it’s a warning we don’t know what might come next.”

The reports about the attempt by Facebook to suppress socialist and left-wing views on its platform were read by tens of thousands of people over the weekend, many of them coming from links shared by other Facebook users. A post by WSWS writer and editor Andre Damon on Twitter announcing that the University of Michigan IYSSE page and the accounts of the administrators had been permanently suspended were liked and retweeted thousands of times.

This tweet was also retweeted and commented on by journalists Glenn Greenwald, Katie Halper and Matt Taibbi.

Among the letters sent to Facebook’s Zuckerberg denouncing the purging of the IYSSE and SEP accounts were the following:

John D. Short of Philtrum Publishing Federation: “For some time, I have watched your social media server censor numerous content that exposes the destruction incurred on the peoples of Yemen, Syria and elsewhere, largely by services like the World Socialist Web Site, and other left-wing, anti-war platforms. ... This has to stop, tolerating fiction and censoring truth can only be dangerous.”

Emanuele Saccarelli, Department of Political Science Professor at San Diego State University: “I heard you recently and abruptly eliminated the account of a socialist student organization, as well as the private accounts of several of its leading members. A few days later you proceeded to inform them that this was simply the result of an ‘automation error.’ What a relief! And to think they initially regarded this as a deliberate act of political censorship carried out by an Orwellian corporate conglomerate. Nothing to see here then, but a clumsy blunder carried out with surgical political precision by anonymous algorithms. ...”

Ingrid Schreiner, Australia: “I am writing in protest against the censorship of members of the Socialist Equality Party and other pages including personal pages of members of Socialist movements. How have these people violated Facebook’s terms and conditions? They have not promoted hate or violence in any way? Why have they been censored? Facebook is a platform to express our views and to share. To see this happen is an attack on our freedom of speech and shines a light on Facebook as unjust and biased. Which brings to the surface agendas of social control and manipulation by ‘Facebook’? I demand an immediate reversal of your actions.”

Roger Tinkoff: “... I may be a pretty well-taken-care-of Bay Area software engineer, but my first job as a teenager was in a grocery store in Massachusetts where we all had union representation, and as a result of that experience I do and will always identify as a worker. Workers are the people who the WSWS/SEP are out there every day fighting for, genuinely and courageously, and their efforts need to be supported and their ability to organize through social media is crucial. Facebook no doubt employs thousands of people just like me, and by silencing the voices of the WSWS/SEP the company is taking hostile action against them too.”

Kerby Miller: “By taking down the accounts of members of the World Socialist Web Site and the IYSSE, and of individuals associated with those organizations, Facebook is acting as if it were an arm of the capitalist ruling class, engaging in censorship, and suppressing the exercise of free speech, which is an absolute cornerstone of a democratic government. You are facilitating a new McCarthyism and the drive toward a totalitarian government and society, where certain viewpoints—most definitely left-wing and socialist—are not accorded the same rights as others. ... By censoring leftist and socialist groups, you only announce to the world that US ‘democracy’ is so fragile that it cannot deal with honest, radical criticism.”

Dr. Andrew Linder: “... I am a long-time follower of Socialist Equality Party and avid reader of the World Socialist Web Site. I spend my day as a researcher and freelance writer trolling the net. I know for certain that the WSWS site draws ever-greater readership for the calm clarity and consistently profound quality of its analysis. I am old enough to remember when the United States did not tolerate dissent, not only from the left, but god help us from comic books, folk music and rock and roll. ... I do hope that a wave of letters arrives on your desk from more prominent voices than mine. I add my name.”

Carolyn Zaremba: “... Facebook can censor socialist viewpoints at its whim, yes, but you cannot censor the objective social and economic conditions that working people face all over the world. It is these conditions that are driving working people into struggle against capitalism: an economic system that has repeatedly proved its incapacity to meet humanity’s needs and in fact is the root cause of war between nation states. Your act of censorship does nothing to improve conditions of life for the majority of humanity and cannot prevent the working class from realizing that it is capitalism that is the source of their problems. ...”

Judith Jackson: “Having disabled the group account for the University of Michigan IYSSE account, and those of its admins and leading members of the Socialist Equality Party, Facebook restored these accounts on Monday. While an apology was made, there has not been a satisfactory explanation given as to why these accounts were targeted, other than it was an ‘automation error.’ Given that Facebook employs several thousand personnel to monitor accounts, I for one do not take this explanation at face value. ...”

Others sent their statements of support to the World Socialist Web Site and also explained that they had been censored by Facebook:

James Crump: “I’m a key worker in mental health in the UK and would like to express my solidarity for you in this time of politically motivated censorship by Facebook, with its purging of left-wing accounts, especially those of SEP members. The WSWS is the only consistent and regular source of analysis from a revolutionary socialist perspective, and such, is playing an essential, inexpungeable role in helping to educate a new generation of socialists, myself included, not only but especially in this time of crisis.”

Dr. Laurie Cestnick: “... In November 2020, the personal pages of all 3 administrators of the page were shut down all on the same day within minutes of each other. None of us ever spams and we run a very clean and respectful page ... there was no reason for it. Once my personal page was back, a message popped up stating ‘You are not allowed to create any more groups until February 2021’ ... I hadn’t created a group since 2015—my progressive group, so this was extremely odd. I STILL cannot even post on my OWN group wall (link above) and all other admins are still off of FB. Thankfully a couple of moderators were left to man the page but we still get threats from FB to shut us down with no explanation. Not only can I not post on my own group wall, but I am a neuroscientist and neuropsychologist/psychologist and cannot even post on my own page that I created to help children with autism, dyslexia etc.”

After reading the report of the Facebook purge of left-wing accounts, a supporter of the Rank-and-File Safety Committee at the Faurecia Gladstone plant in Columbus, Indiana said, “Any way you interpret that it denies the right to free speech. I don’t see how they thought that would fly. That is another way they are trying to silence the working class. We are fed up with this situation with COVID-19, and the WSWS is telling the truth. The ruling elite has every right to be fearful of the working class. They know that if we band together it will spell the end of their system.

“They went after the IYSSE because they know that if the youth get involved with the working class their future is on shaky ground. That is what they are worried about. The working class and the youth are pulling together.”

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