On the morning of Monday the 1st of July, Lasair Dhearg activists had awoken to find that their social media presence had been effectively wiped out.
Along with the main account, a minimum of four admins had their personal accounts forcibly closed. This included independently managed projects including the popular An Spréach Magazine, and secondary accounts on Instagram, Spotify and more. They received no notice from Facebook, and received no information via email or otherwise. Activists were left in the dark as several attempts were made to contact Facebook, but to no avail. It was clear that a sustained effort to wipe us from the board had taken place.
It later transpired that a number of other activists unconnected to Lasair Dhearg, but who supported our upcoming event by sharing the poster entitled ‘Joe McDonnell & the Hungerstrikers: A Night in Song & Poetry’, also received social media bans numbering from one to three days each with notifications as to why. This left the issue open to interpretation, that Facebook had closed and blocked the Lasair Dhearg accounts because of this specific event and which they later clarified was for ‘support of violent organisations’.
A number of days ago, those affected initiated legal action on the issue, to determine the reasoning behind it, to rectify it and, more importantly, to defend our right to remember and commemorate those who paid the ultimate price in defence of their right not to be criminalised.
Today, we awoke to find that most of the social media accounts affected, had been reactivated. A small victory in the grand scale of things, but this issue is one that spans the broad spectrum of political organisations facing censorship by the state, as has been all too obvious in recent months. The page set up to organise the event remains closed and has, sadly, not been reactivated.
On Monday, we will go ahead with the night as planned. Republicans, Socialists, friends and comrades will gather in Sarsfields at 7pm for a night of stories, songs and prose, and to remember Joe McDonnell and his 9 brave comrades.
Remember the Ten. An Phoblacht abú.
