The Admins of one of the largest, with (14,000 members) Londonderry Facebook pages ‘Londonderry NH’ is now actively censoring candidate posts. Town Elections are less than two weeks away and the Admins are deleting, some but not all, political posts. The Admins are also selectively deleting comments.
I was made aware of two posts that were removed claiming they violated the page rules. I posted a question to the Admins of ‘Londonderry NH’ and asked if candidates are no longer allowed to post information. My question was met with a swift response
The question asked was:
A question for the page Admins
Phil Cleobury
Heather Anderson
Town Elections are in two weeks, are candidates no longer allowed to post campaign information? I’ve seen at least two posts removed from this page.
The Admins did not respond and answer, instead they removed the post, accused me of violating the rules, and banned me from the page for 24 hours.
These are the rules they claimed I violated:
Group rules that were violated
- Acceptance to the group and posts V12.9: On requesting membership: • All questions must be answered • Group rules must be accepted • Anonymous posts will be declined, unless they are considered to be of a sensitive nature
- Be Kind and Courteous V12.6: We’re all in this together to create a welcoming environment. Treat all members with respect, regardless of their opinions, background, or beliefs. Disagreements should be handled with civility.
- No personal attacks or bullying V12.3: Name-calling, insults, or any form of personal attack will not be tolerated. Criticize ideas, not individuals. Do not publicly shame, humiliate, or try to “cancel” someone within the group. Address issues privately if necessary. **Any violation of this rule will be considered a serious offence resulting in an automatic 30-day temporary posting ban followed by a permanent ban from the group for any subsequent offence.
- Political party posts / non relevant posts V12.10:
- Allowed – Events-time-date-location-media-statements relevant to the groups “about” Moderated – Debates of policy-personal opinions of party/individuals, information not relevant to the group “about”. Removed – Irrelevant posts not of the “about”
To be clear the 1st Amendment does not apply here. The Admins have a right to run the page however they see fit, but this is an abrupt departure from the way the page has been run in the past and I think people should question why.
The ‘Londonderry NH’ is NOT a town run page, as many assume, but it is a page that the Town of Londonderry, New Hampshire contributes to, maybe that should change?
