There appears to be a political purge of Facebook taking place. Profiles are being deleted without warning or explanation. In the last 12 hours, Facebook has deleted over 50 sites. It may well be that these groups are technically in violation of Facebook’s terms of agreement, which state that participants in social media must not make use of a "fake name". But the timing – on the royal wedding and May day weekend – is deeply suspicious. We don’t know for certain, but this purge of online organising groups could be linked to the wider crackdown on protest by authorities in Britain.

Either way, it is a scandalous abuse of power by Facebook to arbitrarily destroy online communities built up over many months and years. These groups provide a vital means for activist groups to communicate with their supporters. Ultimately, the anti-cuts movement in the UK will need to start organising through self-hosted, open source platforms to avoid reliance upon the very corporate power structures we are aiming to challenge. In the meantime, those affected should look into the origins of this and do our best to have these accounts restored. Please join the Facebook group, spread the word and message people in extant groups to warn them. Tell them to get on your email list or Twitter account instead.

Update: I am in indirect contact with Facebook over this. Collaboration with the authorities can still not be ruled out. We need a list of URLs to confront them with to get these accounts restored. Please post URLs here.

Update II: Facebook forced to respond to our campaign for restoration of accounts. See here.

Facebook pages that have been deleted:

AntiCuts Space London

Freedom Is a State of Mind

Ourland Freeland

Open Birkbeck

UWE Occupation

Chesterfield Stopthecuts

Camberwell AntiCuts

IVA Womensrevolution

Tower Hamlets Greens

No Cuts

ArtsAgainst Cuts

London Student Assembly

Beat’n Streets

Roscoe ‘Manchester’ Occupation

Bristol Bookfair

Newcastle Occupation

Socialist Unity

Whospeaks Forus

Ourland FreeLand

Bristol Ukuncut

Teampalestina Shaf

Notts-Uncut Part-of UKUncut

No Quarter Cutthewar

Bootle Labour

Claimants Fightback

Ecosocialists Unite

Comrade George Orwell

Jason Derrick

Anarchista Rebellionist

BigSociety Leeds

Slade Occupation

Anti-Cuts Across Wigan

Firstof Mayband

Don’t Break Britain United

Cockneyreject

SWP Cork

Westiminster Trades Council

York Anarchists

Rock War

Sheffield Occupation

Central London SWP

North London Solidarity

Southwark Sos

Save NHS

Rochdale Law Centre

Goldsmiths Fights Back

Occupy Monaco