WIN: Facebook Reinstates Sports Page, Banned For Celtic Cross, After Big League Politics Intervenes
Tom Pappert
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Romanian Facebook page Steaua Libera was banned from Facebook for images posted in 2013, 2014, and 2017 of crowded soccer stadiums where attendees depicted target symbols likely mistaken for the Celtic cross, only to reinstate the page after Big League Politics contacted the big tech platform for comment.
Steaua Libera, a popular Romanian Facebook page and website that promotes the Steaua Bucharest football club, the official soccer organization of the Romanian Army, was banned from Facebook for years old photos that the platform likely believed depicted racist imagery. The page was reinstated approximately 12 hours after Big League Politics requested a comment from Facebook.
Speaking with Big League Politics, Steaua Libera administrator and editor Adrian Maties told us that the “website is about sports and the Steaua Bucharest club.” Maties went on to say that “We have no interest in doing politics, in selling stuff, promoting stuff, we don’t talk about issues that some may find controversial, we just cover sports and our team.”
Maties went on to explain that Facebook did not specifically say what the page did to constitute a ban.
“Although Facebook didn’t say anything, we understood just by looking at the pictures that the common element was the Celtic Cross,” said Maties. “However, the Celtic Cross symbol is not the focus or the main element in any of the pictures. It just appears on some of the banners held by the Steaua supporters.”
Maties provided the offending photos to Big League Politics. They depict large crowds in football stadiums, and in each of the photos one or two sports fans can be seen holding a sign or banner that has either a target or a Celtic cross.
The Celtic cross has been popularized by neo-Nazi movements as a symbol of white nationalism or white supremacy, though this is almost certainly not the motive behind the sports fans bringing the signs or banners to a sporting event.
Maties explained to Big League Politics that “These four photos were published in 2013, 2014 and 2017. They were not in fact 4 photos, but 2 photos, published and republished.” He went on, “Having our page unpublished for just 4 pictures, that aren’t even about racism, but about supporters having a good time at the stadium is just not fair.”
The page was reinstated approximately 12 hours after Big League Politics contacted Facebook.
Big League Politics contacted Facebook for comment about this ban. In response, a Facebook spokesperson told Big League Politics that “The page Steaua Liberă does not break our policies and has been restored.”
They went on to apologize for the inconvenience caused to Maties.
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