Censorship crackdown? Top 10 alt-media pages newly banned by Facebook & Twitter

Sites dealing with government transparency, pages dedicated to police brutality and alternative media – take a closer look at the top ten accounts with millions of followers that were recently suspended by Twitter and Facebook.

PAGE:  The Free Thought Project

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: 3.1mn 
• ABOUT: The widely known website which calls itself “a hub for free thinking conversations” focuses on government transparency. Founded in 2013 by Jason Bassler and Matt Agorist, the site claims to “shed light” on “corrupt entities” across our planet. Its reports have covered the Monsanto row, police brutality and shootings in the US, as well as an insight into how the American government gets personal information about any citizen.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: YES

PAGE:  The Anti-Media

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: 2.1mn 
• ABOUT: Initially launched on Facebook by blogger and entrepreneur Nick Bernabe, the Anti-Media is now an independent news aggregator with a hefty amount of followers. The group, which poses as “non-partisan” and “anti-establishment,” publishes loads of “mainstream” stories, including ones dealing with the UN report about a number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the Tesla crisis, and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: YES

PAGE: Police the Police

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 1.9mn
  
• ABOUT: A page dedicated to exposing US police brutality. The name of the group is apparently inspired by heated discussions following the recent string of deadly shootings by police officers across the country. People on social media, critics and analysts wonder who will regulate police where there is evidence of misconduct.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: YES

PAGE: Filming Cops

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 1.5mn 
• ABOUT: Started in 2010, the blogging service’s moto is “Declare War on Police Brutality.” It has been documenting police abuse ever since. It insists that it is not demonizing officers, but is trying to report on “state-monopolized police brutality,” which it says is ignored by mainstream media.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: YES

PAGE: Nation In Distress

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 3.2mn
• ABOUT: The group’s page on Facebook and information about it is blocked. It allegedly posted images and memes praising Donald Trump and attacking Democrats. The page also reportedly claimed to be the first online publication to have endorsed Trump.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO

PAGE: Cop Block

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 1.7mn 
• ABOUT: A police accountability project launched by libertarian Pete Eyre and blogger Ademo Freeman in 2010. The group’s activists insist that police badges don’t grant extra rights and attempt to draw attention to police brutality across the US.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO

Cardboard cutouts of Mark Zuckerberg stand outside the US Capitol in Washington © AFP / Saul Loeb

PAGE: Policing the Police

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 54K
• ABOUT: Another Police accountability page which was active only on Facebook
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO ACCOUNT FOUND

PAGE: Cop Logic

• NUMBER OF LIKES: 129K
• ABOUT: The project claims to be highlighting and documenting “the absurd and unpredictable antics of cops” across the globe.
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO

PAGE: Press for Truth

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: 340K 
• ABOUT: An independent media outlet which claims to produce content rarely covered by mainstream media. Notably, a day before being banned, it released a story by the project’s investigative journalist, Dan Dicks, who compared Google Hub and Facebook Portal to George Orwell’s 1984 dystopia. 
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO

PAGE: Rachel Blevins

• NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS: 69K
• ABOUT: RT America correspondent Rachel Blevins (un)surprisingly found herself among those dragged under in the ‘inauthentic behavior’ purge. She says that Facebook took down her page and marked it as “spam” because of posts that were allegedly “misleading users.”
• BANNED ON FACEBOOK: YES
• BANNED ON TWITTER: NO

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