A protestor at Dhaka University in Bangladesh, during 2015 social media shutdowns. The poster reads “How many excuses more? Open Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook NOW.” Photo by Zaid Islam, used with permission. This post draws on stories originally reported by Fernanda Canofre, Sahar Habib Ghazi, Ellie Ng (via Hong Kong Free Press), Dalia Othman, Inji Pennu and Thant Sin. During the 2011 Arab Uprisings, Facebook proved itself to be one of the most powerful technological catalysts for free speech and democratic mobilization that the world had ever seen. While it did not cause the uprisings, it was a critical driver of their growth. In that same year, the number of Facebook users in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East (i.e. the “Global South”) surpassed the number of users in Europe in North America. From this moment on, it was truly a global platform, despite being a US company. Since this time, it has become apparent that Facebook — along with many other social media platforms — can serve as a tool for citizens to speak out and defend their rights. But governments have also awoken to the fact social media can serve their own interests and gains, from monitoring people's activities and behavior to promoting political campaigns or ideologies. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on stage at Facebook's F8 conference. Photo by pestoverde via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) The Global Voices community knows these dynamics all too well. As a community of writers and activists, we’ve faced censorship, harassment and direct threats because of our activism on Facebook since the early days of the platform. We’ve been writing about these experiences for more than a decade, and we've conducted special research on Facebook's products, including Instagram and Free Basics. We also know that for Facebook, and for anyone trying to understand how tech platforms and policies interact with free speech, privacy and other civil and political rights, past experience is instructive. Here is a look back at some of our most influential coverage of hate speech, harassment, and political censorship on the world’s largest social network. For a full list of past stories, visit our Facebook coverage archive. Women in Kerala protest in solidarity with the girls who were raped and lynched in UttarPradesh, India. Photo by Sthreekoottayma, used with permission. In 2015, after a woman activist in southern India became a top target for sexual harassment and threats of violence on Facebook, her account was suspended. Someone had reported her for violating the company's “authentic identity” (or “real name”) policy. With no warning, she was instantly locked out. And the only way she could regain access to her account was by sending Facebook some form of official ID. With no other option, this is what she did. Facebook reinstated her page using her full name, which included her caste name. She had never used her caste name on her Facebook page, or anywhere else in her public identity. This left her more exposed and subjected to harassment than ever before. In concert with a coalition of digital rights and LGBT groups, Global Voices co-authored a letter to Facebook identifying the multiple issues that this case raised, concerning the abuse of Facebook's systems, and the company's lack of cultural sensitivity on the question of what constitutes a “real name” or “authentic identity”. Today, users can no longer be instantly suspended over a single report of “authentic identity” policy abuse. But the company still has a long way to go in resolving the question of how to respect the personhood users who are not known by their legal names. This work taught us a great deal about the complexities of identity within the internet. How does a technology determine who is a “real” person? How do ideas like citizenship and nation take shape online, especially when ethnic and territorial disputes are in play? Our coverage of Palestine and Israel regularly touches upon these questions, both online and off. During the 2014 war in Gaza, a Facebook page called “Until our boys are returned – we will kill a terrorist every hour” became immensely popular. The page featured multiple posts in Hebrew calling for violence against Palestinians and Arabs, including a post that called on readers to “burn Gaza” and bring “death to the Arabs.” Despite many formal abuse reports filed by Facebook users, the page was not taken down for more than three weeks. When Global Voices writers spoke about it with Facebook staff, they did not directly address the page in question. They simply reiterated their commitment to their Community Standards. Since this time, we have seen periodic media coverage of meetings taking place between Facebook staff and Israeli government representatives.