Facebook notification about the closed Busia's Bunge La Busia Social Forum. [Photo|Busia County Government]The largest Social Media Forum in Busia County with over 75,000 members has been closed indefinitely.In a notification to the Forum's founder member Stephen Okalebo on Saturday morning, Facebook said the Bunge La Busia Forum was disabled for not following the Facebook Terms and Community Standards."We don't allow groups containing threats of physical harm to other people or content that directly targets individuals. In addition, we don't allow groups containing hate speech or that single people out based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease," read the notification."This group will remain visible to group admins so that they can edit the group name and info and delete existing posts. We will review the updated group and reactivate it if we find it's following our standards," the notification added.However, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission denied knowledge of the closure of inciting social media forums which include Bunge La Mwananchi which has a membership of over 500,000.Speaking to the Busia County Government communication team on phone from Kampala, NCIC Commissioner Prof Gitile Naituli said he was not aware of the closure of some social forums in Kenya which promote hatred."With the current heightened political temperatures in the Country there should be civility in using social media. We can only go back to our freedoms after getting out of this crisis," Prof Naituli said.Okalebo however said they are still petitioning Facebook headquarters to open the forum for review, and blamed National Government operatives for allegedly forcing the closure action.

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