Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Facebook censures gay group calling for same sex kisses in front of Pope in Barcelona

The social network Facebook removed yesterday the group "Queer Kissing Flashmob" whose profile called for gays, lesbians and supporters of the gay rights struggle to kiss in front of the Pope during his visit to Barcelona.

The event, which was confirmed by over a thousand people was previously censured on Thursday October 21 without the network administrators giving any reasons for the closure.

Unlike the first time, Facebook has given this notice to the creators of the group: "Queer Kissing Flashmob has been removed for violating the terms of use. 

A Facebook page is used for business and promotional purposes. Furthermore, pages promoting hate, threatening or obscene acts are not allowed. 

We also remove pages that target a group or an individual, or that has been created by an unauthorized individual ". 

The message was passed to news agency EFE which verified the closure of the group.

As one of the administrators of "Queer Kissing Flashmob" Marylène Carole, who recalled that the proposal was "born of a group of friends who are not affiliated with any political group" said:" Every time they remove the page I re-created it. This does not discourage us, it gives us more momentum. " 

The event will take place in Cathedral Square at nine o'clock on Sunday 7 November, and is gaining strong popular support through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. 

The event was first created on Facebook on Sunday October 17 and in just three days 1,600 people confirmed their attendance, but on Thursday October 18 it was eliminated for the first time. 

A user calling himself QueerBcn November, which controlled the event, recreated the group as "Queer Kissing Flashmob" a few hours later. 

Subsequently, the event's organizers, a total of seven people, reopened the group and got the profile and as administrators of the page.

On Wednesday October 27th Facebook disqualified the page as it reached nearly 500 members and Sunday October 31 the group was finally closed and all the profiles of the seven managers of the event were removed, so the page can not be reactivated. 

SIC: TR/INT'L