Facebook accused of censorship for suspending Christian blog

(Reuters/Stephen Lam)Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen on stage at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California September 27, 2015.

Facebook temporarily froze the account of a blogger over her posts quoting the Bible about homosexuality. Elizabeth Johnston of Ohio complained that her account the "Activist Mommy," which she opened last year, has been suspended twice this month.

The mother of 10 narrated that she posted a blog entry early this month stating that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Her opinion attracted a considerable number of critical comments and on Feb. 9, Facebook removed the post and froze the account for three days.

When the account was restored on Feb. 12, Johnston re-posted the entry and Facebook promptly reacted by removing it again and suspending her access to the page for another seven days. "Last Sunday, I posted something about the ban, explaining to my followers where I had been the last three days and reposted the screenshot and wrote #FacebookCensorship," Johnston told The Christian Post. "That ticked them off and they didn't like that at all. It was going viral. Just within a few hours, they had banned me again and they were going to make it more painful."

The social media platform's rules state that Facebook removes hate speech, which includes content that directly attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender or gender identity, serious disabilities or diseases.

However, the homeschooling mom protested that she did not directly attack any person. She said what Facebook considered as "hate speech" is just scriptural commentary she responded to reactions on her post, adding that she did not resort to name-calling.

Despite claims to the contrary by critics, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has declared they are "committed to building a platform for all ideas." While acknowledging that Facebook "has the right to make their own rules," Johnston thinks it should avoid claims of being a harbinger of free speech.

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