Facebook removes Norwegian top politician’s post about Tommy Robinson
Facebook removes Norwegian top politician’s post about Tommy Robinson
By Katarina
“It’s deeply, deeply problematic”, says Per-Willy Amundsen, former Justice Minister in Norway. His Facebook status about Tommy Robinson has also been censored.
“Tommy should be granted asylum in Norway, since the United Kingdom has betrayed freedom of speech. He is politically persued”, top politician Per-Willy Amundsen, posted about the British activist on 11 July.
Amundsen then added: “This will definitely be a post that Facebook will erase.”
And the social media giant did.
“You can think what you want about Robinson. Nevertheless, it is frightening that Facebook is removing and censuring opinions”, Amundsen says to Medier24.
Encourgages Parliamant to Act
The former Justice Minister of Norway is now MP for the Norwegian Progress Party, FrP, and the politician uses Facebook as a political platform to reach out to voters and decision-makers.
“As a principal, this is deeply problematic, even though it’s only one example of how threatened freedom of speech is. Facebook is in many ways a monopolist. Since they themselves are not capable of adapting to freedom at speech, Stortinget (The Norwegian Parliament, ed. comment) should value if the use of law is sensible to use for the protection of legal manifestations on Facebook, Amundsen writes on his Facebook page.
Removal of Posts Supporting “Dangerous People”
Facebook has recently adapted a policy which stipulates censorship of all postings that support “dangerous individuals or organisations.”
Tommy Robinson’s name is included on that list.
How many people or organisations Facebook has labelled as dangerous, is unknown. “I don’t have that information available off the top of my head, but I can tell you that it happens frequently”, says Janne Elvelid, manager at Facebook Norway to NTB.
Elvelid does not want to comment on the politician’s Facebook post out of respect for personal life.
Recently, more and more media users have testified about the removal of their accounts after sharing a post about Tommy Robinson. Normally, the user is informed that the post is removed, but in some cases, user accounts have been closed for up to a month, solely for writing his name.
Facebook Contacted Amundsen
However, Amundsen, was treated with a a little more respect than the average user. Before removing his status, Facebook contacted both the Progress Party’s administration and the Prime Minister’s office.
Per-Willy Amundsen is not impressed. “Facebook called me on Friday to warn me, and since I didn’t erase my post, they wanted to censor it. They also contacted my party and the Prime minister’s office (!)”, Amundsen writes and states: “Freedom of speech is not about allowing opinions you like. Given matters don’t require freedom of speech. It is the controversial and contrarian positions that need protection, which Facebook does not seem to understand.”
Earlier, something similar happened in Sweden.