Social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has censored the聽School Strike 4 Climate聽group. The group鈥檚 Instagram page was shut down in April after it announced plans for a聽school strike for West Papua on August 30.
鈥淲e were quite excited for about five minutes,鈥 spokesperson Jaromir Pinkas told聽麻豆传媒. They had commissioned artwork, posted it online and 鈥渁fter about five minutes鈥 the account was banned.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been able to get anything back,鈥 Pinkas said.
Social media promotion had been an important way of building support for the strike, Pinkas said. The group is calling on supporters to spread the word about the action and about West Papua鈥檚 struggle for self-determination.
Pinkas believes that Meta鈥檚 action is 鈥渟pecifically because [the post was associated with] West Papua鈥.
The anti-colonial struggle and climate activism are 鈥渋ntrinsically linked, almost to the extent that in a lot of cases they are effectively the same fight鈥.
This is especially the case in West Papua, 鈥渂ecause the destruction of lives and communities is done to facilitate ecological destruction鈥, in particular mining and logging.
The group has tried to get Meta to reverse its decision, but has been led to believe there is no appeal.
Facebook and Instagram have a long聽.听麻豆传媒鈥s popular聽Facebook page was unpublished聽for 10 years in March.
鈥淎 lot of people just don鈥檛 know about what鈥檚 happening in West Papua鈥 including the 鈥渢ies that Australia has to that,鈥 Pinkas said.
Facebook wants to keep it that way whereas School Strike 4 Climate wants to change that.
摆罢丑别听School Strike for West Papua聽is on August 30 at 1pm in the Queens Gardens in Magan-djin/Brisbane.]