European Election Interference: Facebook Restricts Chega’s Account

Chega 'has referred to [FB's] move as an “unjustifiable” act of “persecution,” and pledged to use all legal means at its disposal to oppose the restriction.'

From The European Conservative

By Robert Semonsen

Leader of Portugal's Chega party condemns Meta CEO for political censorship, vows parliamentary and judicial action

With just 51 days to go until the first voting booths open in the critical European Parliamentary elections, the globalist-aligned Silicon Valley tech giant Meta has imposed a ten-year restriction on the Facebook page of Chega, Portugal’s third-largest party, without giving specific reasons. 

The rightist, sovereigntist party—currently polling at 19.9% after having secured 50 seats in last month’s national election, up from 12 in 2022—has referred to the social media company’s move as an “unjustifiable” act of “persecution,” and pledged to use all legal means at its disposal to oppose the restriction.

“Your account is restricted for 3,649 days. Your account activity has violated our community standards. Therefore, you will not be able to perform one or more usual actions,” was the message sent by Meta to Chega’s official Facebook account—which boasts nearly 200,000 followers—on Sunday afternoon.

Meta’s restriction prevents Chega from publishing images, videos, sending messages, and other actions, rendering it unusable as a tool to help the party reach Portuguese voters during the remaining run-up to the European elections in June. 

Chega leader André Ventura, whose official Facebook account has been restricted since December, told the Portugues online newspaper Observador that the case has already been reported to Meta, and revealed his intention to bring the matter before the Parliament and to “all judicial bodies until Facebook is convicted.”

The party promised to initiate the “biggest action ever in Portugal against Meta.” 

Ventura accused Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s globalist activist CEO, of blatant political censorship, while a statement from the party calls the tech company’s arbitrary restriction of its page “one of the biggest attacks on freedom of expression on a political party in Portugal.”

“No matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to shut us up,” Chega wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“We won’t give up until we defeat the censorship that wants to take away the Portuguese people’s freedom of choice. We’re not going to give up on Portugal and we’re going to show the owners of Facebook, dominated by left-wing interests, our indignation!” the party wrote in a statement. 

Meta has yet to provide an explanation for its restriction of Chega’s account. However, a party source told the media that it could be related to the publication of a video related to a family custody fight turned violent.

Chega argues that the video was also published on Facebook by numerous media outlets whose accounts have not been restricted, saying that would invalidate Meta’s restriction on the party’s account.

Pictured: Chega leader André Ventura