Leader claims “political censorship”; vows to take case to parliament and courts
The official account of Portugal’s right wing party CHEGA (supported at the last elections by almost 1.2 million voters) has been “restricted” for 10 years for “not respecting community standards”.
Party leader André Ventura considers this to be “political censorship” and will take the case to Parliament and the courts.
“Your account has been restricted for 3649 days. Your account activity has disrespected our community standards. Therefore, you cannot perform one or more of the usual actions.”
This is the message sent by Meta to CHEGA’s official Facebook account and confirmed by national news sources.
A party source has told Observador online that it is no longer possible to post videos, images or direct messages on the official account.
Says the online: “When questioned by Observador, André Ventura confirmed that the case has already been reported to Facebook, but went further and revealed that CHEGA will “take the matter to Parliament and all the judicial bodies until Facebook is condemned.
“This is undoubtedly political censorship. There is no other justification,” he said.
In a statement, the party describes the decision as “absolutely incomprehensible and an unspeakable and unprecedented persecution of a political party in Portugal“.
“Several times Meta has tried to interfere in the freedom of expression that is granted to any political party, but this time it has gone too far,” reads the statement, which adds that the decision is “clearly illegal and inadmissibly limits the political activity of a political party“.
Although Meta points to several publications that led to the decision, another party source told Observador that the last one mentioned had to do with the gypsy community.
Two days ago, a video was published on CHEGA’s Facebook page entitled “Until when will we accept this impunity?”. In it, André Ventura makes a statement in parliament and images appear of a group that admits to having beaten and shaved a woman’s hair in order to take away her children.
According to tabloid Correio da Manhã, the case involves a grandmother who had custody of two children – the daughters of one of the aggressors.
In the video, André Ventura says that there is “brutal impunity” with “the gypsy community in Portugal” and that “there is only one party capable of telling the truth”.
Are these words the cause of Facebook’s actions? CHEGA seems to think so. But why then is the video still visible? Why is the last video on the official page dated only 19 hours ago? Is that the last video likely to be posted… for the next 10 years?
According to Observador, it is not only CHEGA’s official Facebook page that is compromised. “A party source revealed that André Ventura’s official account has also been restricted since December and that the party leader can only share and cannot publish – so he ends up sharing what is published on CHEGA’s account – and will now no longer be able to do so”.
Sources: Observador/ SIC/ Facebook
