Atheists or Arab reformers are being terrorised by Islamists on Facebook

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Read at Poste de Veille:

In recent weeks, several people have told me that their Facebook page was closed or deleted from the platform. First, it was a friend of Morocco. Then, a Moroccan friend living in Boston Then, an Indian woman in England. And others have followed. 

After investigating a bit and talked to each of them, I realized that these people all had something in common: they all criticized Islam (some are atheists, other former Muslims or Reform ) and frequently published articles and humorous about religion.

Someone then informed me that a group had been created on Facebook (in Arabic) with one goal to report to moderators - and thus to close - the profiles of Arab atheists. The group, which itself seems to have disappeared, was named "Pesticide Facebook" and its purpose was "to identify the atheists, agnostics, anti-religious in the Arab world and especially in Tunisia ..." Members of this group are trying to make Facebook delete the accounts of users after they have been identified for having a bad image of Islam.

Of course, it is problematic that a group of people trying to destroy the digital identities of a specific group of users, but this is not the problem I'll discuss here. What I will talk to the strategy of Facebook to deal with such situations, and why it is so problematic. [...] [...]

Apparently, this group has been deactivated but they have created "5 more each one worse than the other", according to one of the users.

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Cross-posted from T&P.