Sovereignty Message Restricted

The social media platform Facebook has designated the 32 County Sovereignty Movement as a dangerous organisation. Over recent weeks posts have been removed and restrictions placed on cumann pages.

On the Belfast cumann page a post was removed in September relating to the commemoration of Alan Ryan. Each photo, video and the written article had separate violation notices. This content contained simply pictures of those in attendance at the commemoration, including family members of Alan, and the main oration read at the graveside by 32csm national chairman Francie Mackey.

In the past few days we have further discovered that when searching ‘32 County Sovereignty Movement’ on the platform a warning message is flashed stating “Are you sure you want to continue? The term that you searched for is sometimes associated with activities of dangerous individuals and organisations, which isn’t allowed on Facebook”.

Considering this message doesn’t apply to any other Republican grouping or organisation, political or otherwise, we must assume it is targeted and not a broad generalisation. We believe this is being orchestrated in order to criminalise and silence the legitimate concerns around sovereignty.

A further account restriction and warning has been applied to the Belfast cumann page reading “Your page is at risk of being unpublished, and has reduced distribution and other restrictions, due to community standards”. This leads us to believe the Belfast page and others will once again be unpublished by Facebook in the near future and we would ask that everyone keep an eye on our website for any updates or future posts.