--- title: "Facebook Is Taking Down Pages Organizing Anti-Quarantine Protests" description: "Facebook has been getting takedown requests from several states, urging it to remove anti-quarantine protest pages in defiance of stay-at-home orders." date: "2020-04-20" modified: "2020-04-20" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/facebook-taking-down-anti-social-distancing-protest-pages" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid19" - "facebook" --- # Facebook Is Taking Down Pages Organizing Anti-Quarantine Protests ![Facebook has been getting takedown requests from several states, urging it to remove anti-quarantine protest pages in defiance of stay-at-home orders.]() *\Image: Victor Tangermann\* Small clusters of [anti-quarantine protests]() are breaking out across the country, with participants defying state-imposed shelter-at-home policies implemented to safeguard public health during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The decision to gather in large numbers while the country is [approaching peak numbers]() of cases and deaths isn't just a direct threat to their own health and the communities that surround them. It could [set the US back]() several months of self-quarantine and social distancing measures. [According to *Politico*](), Facebook has been removing anti-quarantine protest pages that defy stay-at-home orders. "Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook,” a spokesperson told *Politico*. "For this same reason, events that defy government's guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook." The protesters demanded their states to end the lockdowns to save ailing economies and return communities to normal life. Their decision to gather in large numbers — in Michigan the number of protesters, albeit sitting in cars, was in [the thousands]() — was in defiance of coronavirus-related federal rules, mandating that [no more than ten people]() should be gathered in one place. Yet the threat to the health of individual protesters — and the people around them — is very real. As has been shown in [numerous studies](), the virus is capable of spreading through tiny droplets and aerosol particles in the air — even [talking and breathing]() might be enough to infect others. The closer people cluster together, the easier it is for it to be transmitted from person to person, even if the carrier is [showing no symptoms]() at all. Meanwhile, numbers in the country are surging. Last week, the US broke its daily COVID-19 related death toll record with [4,591 deaths]() in just 24 hours. In a characteristically short-sighted and self-sabotaging move, president Donald Trump [encouraged]() individual US states to riot in the streets, tweeting on Friday that protesters should "liberate" Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. It's a move that was quickly criticized by governors from both sides of the aisle. Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA) [called]() the tweets "unhinged" in an *ABC News* interview and warned that Trump's calls could "lead to violence." Even Trump himself may have had a change of heart, saying on Sunday that "some of the things that happened are maybe not so appropriate," as [quoted by *Bloomberg*](). The message from Anthony Fauci, the White House's top infectious disease expert, is clear. "Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen,” Fauci said on *Good Morning America* over the weekend. "So what you do if you jump the gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you’re going to set yourself back." "So as painful as it is to go by the careful guidelines of gradually phasing into a reopening, it’s going to backfire," Fauci added. "That’s the problem." **READ MORE:** [Facebook takes down event pages for several anti-quarantine protests]() \[*Ars Technica*\] **More on the pandemic:** *[Watch Thousands of Protesters Stand Six Feet Apart]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()