Facebook pounces on news site, crushes debate on Europe's migrant crisis

A European news site has begun censoring its own reports, withholding some stories and reviews from its Facebook page because of the social media platform's threats over its reporting on immigration.

Voice of Europe said Facebook has recently suspended its moderators. One has been suspended for 30 days another was suspended for 24 hours after posting a photograph of Poles protesting behind a banner saying "Mohammed not welcome."

"While we’ve changed nothing in our postings, Facebook’s behaviour towards us changed. Several innocent postings were a reason for Facebook to suspend our moderators."

Voice of Europe said it was one of the fast growing European news sites on Facebook with at least 30,000 people joining us every month."

"On some days 5,000 people joined us, but those days are gone after Facebook decided to censor us, suspend us and threaten us."

One recent point of contention was a review of a book by former Czech president Vaclav Klaus, who said, "The migrant influx is comparable to the barbarian invasions of Europe."

"While the article heavily criticizes migration, it is news, like any other article on our site," the agency said. "But not according to Facebook: The article was removed, we received a 30-day suspension and Facebook threatened to remove our page over it."

The fact that it is a smaller website appears to have played a role in Facebook's threats.

"That day we saw a somewhat similar article was posted by Russia Today on Facebook. … They didn't receive a suspension over it, because that would be all over the media."

Voice of Europe said it now has decided not to post all its articles on Facebook "because we don't want to lose our page."

"While Facebook blames us for posting 'hate speech,' we think the real reason is our site was becoming too successful with between 30,000 and 40,000 followers every month this year."

Voice of Europe cited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: "Europe is not free, because freedom begins with speaking the truth. In Europe today it is forbidden to speak the truth."

Facebook did not respond to WND's request for comment.

Breitbart said Voice of Europe was "bludgeoned" by Facebook.

Breitbart noted that in September 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was caught on an open mic asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to help suppress "anti-immigration" postings on the social media site. Zuckerberg replied he was already working on it.

Shortly later, the report said, Facebook launched a campaign to remove "hate speech."

WND reported over the weekend Facebook's attack on Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, also known as Diamond and Silk.

The Web giant told the popular duo its "content" and "brand" are "unsafe."

"Yep, this was FB conclusion after 6 months, 29 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes and 43 seconds," Diamond and Silk wrote. "Oh, and guess what else Facebook said: 'This decision is final, and it is not appealable in any way.'"

In response, they are asking founder Mark Zuckerberg:

1. What is unsafe about two Blk-women supporting the President Donald J. Trump?

2. Our FB page has been created since December 2014, when exactly did the content and the brand become unsafe to the community?

3. When you say "community" are you referring to the Millions who liked and followed our page?

4. What content on our page was in violation?

5. If our content and brand was so unsafe to the community, why is the option for us to boost our content and spend money with FB to enhance our brand page still available? Maybe FB should give us a refund since FB censored our reach.

6. Lastly, didn't FB violate their own policy when FB stopped sending notifications to the Millions of people who liked and followed our brand page?

Diamond and Silk shot to fame after the Drudge Report linked to several of their videos, and they made appearances with then-candidate Trump on the campaign trail in 2016. They regularly are featured in radio interviews, and their personal appearances are sold out.