Gay Republic Daily :: View topic - Facebook kills Arab LBTG group to appease ME gov'ts

BoingBoing reader Hunter says,

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab regimes have complained to Facebook about the group "Arab LBTG" (Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Gay) saying it goes against Islamic code of conduct. They threatened to ban Facebook if their countries' users still had access to it. After Facebook received the complaints, they contacted the group's owner and demanded that the group be closed. After the owner refused, Facebook then closed the group themselves.

Snip from the latter, a message sent by Facebook admin "Josh," before the group was taken down:

Quote:

You have violated the terms of conduct you agreed upon when you signed up with Facebook.com. Your violations fall in the following criteria:

(...)Creating a global group that is not allowed in some regions. Your group "Arab LBTGAY(Lesbian,bisexual,transexual and gay)" has put facebook in trouble as we received an official complaint from the Saudi government, the Egyptian government and other Arab governments that do not want to be mentioned. Your Group must be shut down or a new Group with a specified network other than the two mentioned may be created. We are very sorry as we support any group but the countries mentioned are threatening to block our server from their side, therefore please comply.