Facebook caved to pressure from users and restored an anti-war and pro-socialism video posted by the German Socialist Equality Party (SGP).
SGP posted the video titled “No Third World War! Against the Ukraine war, NATO aggression and German rearmament!” on March 26.
According to the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), the video condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine and how the war was incited by disagreements between NATO members and Russia. More importantly, the video did not violate any of Facebook’s community guidelines or any laws.
The SGP believes that a world war is inevitable if the widely accepted system of capitalism continues.
The video was deleted a few days after it was posted. Before it was deleted it had over 20,000 views, 100 comments, and about 200 reactions. Facebook neither provided a reason for the censorship nor allowed the opportunity to appeal.
On other platforms, the video had over 20,000 views, according to WSWS.
WSWS believes the post might have been removed in cooperation with the German government. The country’s Network Enforcement Act encourages censorship by tech companies as they face heavy fines for not complying with takedown notices. A transparency report revealed that Facebook had removed almost 12,000 posts in compliance with the law in the first half of last year, a nine times increase from the same period the previous year.
