(CP) – Facebook has said Thursday that it made an “error” when it suspended a Christian blogger’s account after she wrote a post about the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality.
As previously reported by The Christian Post, Facebook recently froze the public Facebook page of Elizabeth Johnston, an Ohio, USA homeschool mother of 10 who runs the popular blog and Facebook account “The Activist Mommy.”
“The Activist Mommy” Facebook account was frozen on Feb. 9 because of a comment Johnston posted over six months ago that cited passages from the New Testament and Old Testament, including how Leviticus states that homosexuality is a “detestable” sin and an “abomination.”
Johnston received a message from Facebook saying that the post in question was removed because “it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards.” Additionally, her account was frozen for a period of three days.
After she regained access to her account on Feb. 12, Johnston published a post explaining to her followers that her Facebook account had been frozen. The post included a screengrab of her original Bible commentary and the message that she received from Facebook. She concluded the post with the hashtag #FacebookCensorsBible.
It didn’t take long for Facebook to remove the Feb. 12 post and freeze Johnston’s account for an additional seven days.
After news of Johnston’s claims were reported on by CP and picked up by numerous media outlets worldwide, Facebook is now offering an apology.
A spokesperson for the social media company told CP on Thursday that the removal of Johnston’s post and the suspension of her account was done by mistake and “in error.” The spokesperson assured that both posts in question have been restored.
“The post was removed in error and we restored it as soon as we were able to investigate,” the Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email. “Our team processes millions of reports each week and we sometimes get things wrong.”
Along with the statement sent to CP, Facebook also notified Johnston on Thursday to inform her that a member of the Facebook team “accidentally removed” the two posts.
Johnston wrote in an email to CP that she appreciates Facebook’s apology. However, she stressed the fact that Facebook didn’t feel the need to take action until after the issue was highlighted by major media outlets.
