On Thursday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee accused Facebook of censoring a page dedicated to supporting Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, the Christian Post reported.
"Phil Robertson of 'Duck Dynasty' isn't the only one censored by the media thought police," Huckabee wrote on Facebook . "When we put up an event page to show support for our pal Phil, FB blocked access to the page! What is happening to free speech for Christians? Have you seen the stuff FB allows when people attack me because of my faith? I allow the attacks on me on my own page. But when we try to show support for a Christian brother FB pulls the entire page! It's time to demand that 'tolerance' includes tolerance for Christians too!"
"Just in case you were wondering, the ability to INVITE People to the 'STAND WITH PHIL and SUPPORT FREE SPEECH' is still shut off by FB. Of course you can still go to the event page and say you are attending. But for now and until FB decides not to shut us up, send everyone you know to www.isupportfreespeech.com . Show FB that just because they want to stifle free speech you still believe in the RIGHT of FREE SPEECH for ALL," he later wrote.
On Friday, Huckabee said that Facebook's alleged "safeguards" were still in place.
Nevertheless, he said, over 130,000 have joined the event.
The Christian Post said it reached out to Facebook and received a generic email in response.
"Thanks for contacting Facebook. We understand that you may be on deadline and will do our best to respond as quickly as possible," the email said.
The response was still pending when the article was published.
We reached out to Facebook on Friday for a response as well, but the company has yet to respond.
On Thursday, college student Michael Rodeaux said he was locked out of his account after creating the Boycott A&E until Phil Robertson is put back on Duck Dynasty page.
"Last night, you know it's finals week, I'm a college student, I go to bed I wake up in the morning find out my account's shut down. So there's a pop-up on my screen when I try to log in and they marked it as the reason they banned me was because of a comment I made. And the comment was basically saying, 'nearly 4,500 likes in one hour, amazing everyone please keep sharing,'" he told WDAY radio.
Facebook later sent an email saying it was an accident, and restored Rodeaux's access and privileges.
As of this writing, the page has over 1.4 million likes.
For the past year, Facebook has come under scrutiny for what many call the arbitrary and capricious enforcement of its policies.
A Florida blogger, for example, was banned for 30 days over a link she never posted.
On Friday, this writer was handed a 12-hour block for a comment made by another person on another page -- the result of Facebook's "guilt by association" rule where all administrators are punished for the action of just one, regardless of mitigating circumstances. The block remains in place despite Facebook's claim it was lifted. We have been told the issue is being investigated.
Others have been blocked for simply saying "thank you," while many have been slapped for innocuous posts that come nowhere close to violating Facebook's published standards.
Facebook has offered no explanation, and as the saying goes, the beatings continue.
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