The group "Free Speech - Artistic Nudes" has been removed because it violated our Terms of Use. Among other things, groups that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down groups that attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service. Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being disabled.

Last week I received the above email from Facebook informing me that the group I set up to highlight the absurdity of our Obscene Articles Tribunal declaring internationally famous paintings and sculptures obscene was removed. And by removed, I mean: deleted, gone, expunged - no warnings, no notice, just gone. The famous nude painting are still in the photo folder of my profile. So I can only assume Facebook found topics of government accountability and free speech offensive. I wrote to Facebook to ask them why the group was deleted. I’ve not had a response in the 10 days since, and I’m not holding my breath in the expectation of one. Also last week Yahoo was deleting photos of children smoking from people’s Flickr accounts. But only selectively – not all photos of children smoking and not only ones that had just been uploaded; some had been available for several months before being suddenly deleted. This heavy handed and indiscriminate censorship is spreading rapidly across American owned social networks and photo sites – ironically enough guess who shouts loudest when criticizing Chinese censorship of the Internet? – in response seemingly to whichever protest lobby is making the most noise (spending the most money on publicity and contributions to politician’s electoral fund-raising). Last week as well UK police confiscated a photo, owned by Elton John, of two girls playing – which had been previously been published and exhibited extensively... I am strongly against censorship of any form. Blocking access to something just raises its profile and encourages people to search it out, purely because it is banned. The more government and big business try to ‘protect you’ from yourself, the more we forego our responsibility for our own actions the more freedoms we lose ‘for our own good’. Little by little, they seep away without our noticing, and once gone they seldom are returned.