Is the ‘NO BC HST’ Facebook Group Gone?
In a strange turn of events the Facebook group dubbed “NO BC HST” has vanished from the internet. The group, which was recently featured on HSTinCanada.com, has over 130,000 members from across British Columbia who have joined in opposition to the harmonized sales tax.
The ‘NO BC HST’ was reportedly taken down at 11:29:47 GMT Friday, January 29th. The groups creator, Bill Tieleman, has contacted Facebook with inquiries as to why the page was removed. As of yet no reasons have been given. Facebook has been known to shut down groups that they deem inappropriate, one such (albeit extreme) example was a group in China that encouraged users to commit suicide.
While members of NO BC HST, incidentally British Columbia’s largest Facebook group, openly voiced their anger towards the proposed tax, offensive comments were discouraged and moderators and users were quick to flag such behaviour.
Members of blogs and other HST related sites are already crying foul play as the general sentiment is that there were no justifiable reasons to shut down the protest group. Some have gone as far as to suggest cyber sabotage, though these claims are completely unsubstantiated at this time.
The Facebook group had become a major rallying point for HST opposition, helping members and supporters organize protests and post current news on the proposed harmonized sales tax.
The major question here is whether the group has been permanently removed or temporarily put offline. While this will certainly not stop the HST opposition in BC, the group has been amassing a loyal base of supporters for months, rebuilding could take time. Given the growing importance of social networking in today’s activist movements, losing 130,000 supporters could certainly be a setback. For now, members of NO BC HST are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that the original group will be restored soon.
If you want to get in touch with the groups creator Bill Tieleman or others involved in the anti-HST movement you can follow the links below.
- billtieleman.blogspot.com/
- www.saynotohstinbc.ca/
- www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=105998706732
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UPDATE SUNDAY JANUARY 31st
The ‘NO BC HST’ group is online once again. Creator Bill Tieleman said this in regard to the incident:
“NO BC HST has suddenly and miraculously reappeared online, with all 130,000 plus members intact! I have no idea what happened – I have no word from Facebook authorities or anyone else – but I intend to find out.”
The group has been restored exactly as it was before it disappeared on Friday.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t some how government related…
re: amy >> I was a member of that group, but to think that this is some type of conspiracy is crazy.. It’s down now.. but it could be up tomorrow.
I was a member of NO HST CANADA as well. These groups are an important part of democracy today. I hope this issue is solved soon.
I don’t think the government is interested in these sort of conspiratorial things. The page has most likely just had some errors and will likely be up tomorrow. I think the main concern here is that all the contacts and discussions aren’t lost in the process.
We are still working on finding out what has happened and will keep everyone posted.
Thanks for your concern – I don’t know what happened but as creator of the group I have filed a report with Facebook and am waiting for a response. I hope this is only some technical problem and will let you know asap about what has happened.
I don’t believe this is anything other than a glitch. There are so many other groups on Facebook just like this one. Why would this particular one be targetted and taken down?
The Ontario group — Stop the Unfair Tax Grab — is still active. Hopefully that won’t change.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85060504107
Folks – I very much appreciate the coverage here at HST In Canada about the disappearance and reappearance of NO BC HST on Facebook but the poll question options are not the right ones.
First off – I did NOT delete my own group of 130,000 members! That would be insane and Facebook could prove easily that I did it.
Second – if the group violated Facebook policies I would have been told. That it has been restored by Facebook indicates clearly it did not do anything wrong.
Third – I certainly don’t think the Government – provincial or federal – had anything to do with the disappearance.
The real 3 options for what happened are as follows:
1) Facebook was hacked and the group deleted.
2) One of my computers was hacked and the group deleted.
or
3) Facebook had technical problems and the group disappeared accidentally and was later restored.
The fact that NO BC HST is the biggest Facebook group in BC on the province’s most contentious political issue just before legislation is introduced certainly means it could well be a target for political sabotage.
And the fact that Facebook has yet to contact me and explain what happened – which I will report – indicates that whatever went down should not have.
Thanks again!
Hi, I was just wondering where the group is now? I looked for it, but all I saw were 2 other ones with the same name, but only 100 or so members. What’s up?
Democracy? Just a pipe dream,looking at our history democracy has been dead for quite some time, the peoples will is being completely ignored, in our New Rome environment the money does whatever it pleases. People have become unimportant,money is the real enemy, it’s killing all of us.
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