Anyone who follows LAD, for fair means or foul, will already know we’ve been up and down like a fiddler’s elbow over the last week.

This is the result of a new tactic being used by the likes of the Pradisan Coalition, who encourage followers to partake in what is effectively spamming Facebook’s report function, triggering the automatic removal of the LAD page for “violating community standards”.  Without human involvement, there is no option for arbitration, thus no opportunity for LAD to explain that those who are accusing us of violating the community standards are those doing the violating in the first place, given it is mostly their comments that we are copying and posting on LAD.
 
Is your page next?
 
At present, LAD is the focus of attention but the implications of this on-going action are more worrying.  Many other groups, including political parties, run Facebook pages and if all it takes to get a page removed is to spam Facebook’s report facility, perhaps other groups and Facebook themselves, should be paying some attention to the issue.  The reliance on automatic moderation gives external groups the opportunity to effectively censor content.  In the case of LAD, this is ironic given the self-proclaimed ‘civil rights’ nature of the loyalist groups involved.

LAD has received many comments on the subject, the majority being wholly supportive, while the negative comments come from those who believe we are unfairly singling out the loyalist community for ridicule, making many misguided claims as to who or what LAD is.

To clarify, LAD was born of frustration over the absurd and illegal actions of a minority who managed to ruin many a Christmas (for traders especially) due to disagreeing with a democratic decision taken to fly the Union Flag on designated days, as is the practice in most of the UK.  Despite claims that LAD is a republican page, or as one idiot claimed, a secret MI5 operation, this is definitely not the case.  The contributors to LAD cross the division of both religion and politics.
 
Republican fleggers.
Spot the difference? No, neither do we
As for singling out loyalists, while this may appear to be the case, the reason is simple.  From the outset, these people have been acting illegally and irrationally, with political unionism watching from the side lines and quite often joining in.  Unionist politicians have forgotten they represent more than just the minority who are prepared to bring ruin to Northern Ireland/The North/The North of Ireland (delete as applicable).  
If nationalists or republicans were behaving in a similar way to loyalists, LAD would have no reservations in highlighting this and will do so when/if it happens.