The pages of Christian ministries that were allegedly "incorrectly removed" by Facebook have been reinstated. The Big Tech giant appeared to purge its social media platform from content that offers "services that aim to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity."
According to the Christian Post (CP). Christian ministries Help 4 Families and its sister organization Living Stone Ministries, which serve to help people and families to abide by Christian sexual ethics, accused Facebook of removing their pages from the social media platform because of concerns raised by LGBT activists.
Help 4 Families and Living Stone Ministries' director Denise Shick said in an email to CP on Monday that the pages of both organizations were taken down by Facebook following a report released by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), which compiled a list of groups and organizations that "minister to and counsel people struggling with unwanted sexual attractions or gender confusion."
GPAHE had advocated to banish such organizations from social media platforms such as Facebook and most of these organizations are in fact Christian.
Shick reported that while GPAHE acknowledged that the two Christian organizations he led create "safe places for individuals and families to openly share their grief and pain about homosexuality," the group believed they were too controversial to remain on Facebook. The GPAHE report said that the views of Help 4 Families and Living Stone Ministries and other similar groups on "conversion therapy" was dangerous, as according to the United Nations, it is tantamount to "torture" and an "egregious violation of rights."
Shick could not access the Facebook pages of Help 4 Families and Living Stone Ministries from February 2 to 8. The pages were taken down without any notifications to the administrator. The director lamented that there were 11 years' worth of pictures that had gone down with the Facebook pages.
"If we are offering 'safe places' to 'openly share,' how is that hateful or extremist?" Shick argued. "We offer opportunities for people to share their struggles without condemnation. That is the definition of love and acceptance."
Shick lamented that Facebook "no longer believes in the right to freedom of speech without censorship." The Christian ministries have been forced to update their supporters via email and had moved their online communications to MeWe, another social media network.
After two inquiries from CP on Tuesday, a Facebook employee reported that the Christian ministries' pages were "incorrectly removed and [have] been restored." On Tuesday night, Shick confirmed that the pages for Help 4 Families and Living Stone Ministries are now back up.
According to Facebook, it bans pages that contain "content explicitly providing or offering to provide products or services that aim to change people's sexual orientation or gender identity," which includes "products or services with the goal of changing an individual's sexual orientation; or changing the gender identity of a questioning or transgender person to being cisgender."
Facebook added that such examples include products and services "offering or facilitating conversion therapy" or those "aimed at offering or facilitating conversion therapy."
