Facebook Censors #Revolution as US Celebrates the American Revolution

This 4th of July weekend, Facebook is censoring the hashtag #Revolution. If you search Facebook for #Revolution, you will be given the following message: “Posts with #Revolution are temporarily hidden here. Some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards”.

Clicking “Learn More” provides no explanation for why #Revolution is censored. Instead, one is sent to Facebook’s long list of Community Standards. The first of hundreds of paragraphs says, “[Facebook is] a service for more than two billion people to freely express themselves across countries”.

While everyone is blocked from searching #Revolution like other hashtags, users can still type #Revolution into their own Facebook posts.

But how free is free speech that you’re not free to see?

Happy Independence Day weekend, everyone.

Celebrate the American #Revolution where you still can. Off Facebook.

UPDATE 7/5: Since late last night, #Revolution is no longer censored on FB. Now you can see hundreds of thousands of tweets that were previously censored during this July 4th weekend.