from twitter, thanks Deetz, FaceBook helps get #Obama elected & then after #TEAparty shows political strength, #FB decides 2 shut down community organizing

Facebook to Tea Party: No more organizing

In February 2009, Alex Zablocki and I used Facebook to organize the New York City Tea Party, one of the first Tea Party protests in the country. Several thousand people joined our Facebook group, which we used to organize our first Tea Party protest. Hundreds of people showed up, we passed around a bullhorn, and we officially became “Tea Party organizers.” Without Facebook our rally would have most likely attracted about 20 people. Facebook was powerful and we knew it. Our next Tea Party rally, also organized through Facebook, brought 12,000 people to City Hall in Lower Manhattan. A social movement had begun.
Our experience was hardly unique. When the Tea Party was getting off the ground in 2009, almost every television and radio interview featuring a Tea Party organizer included the explanation: “I was angry at the spending so I started a Facebook group.”
Since then, this very important social organizing tool has changed. Pay attention because this next sentence is important: It is increasingly apparent that Facebook does not want people to use its platform for political organizing, and the reason seems to have something to do with the success of Tea Partiers and Middle Easterners in utilizing Facebook for their causes.
That’s why a fellow New York City Tea Partier, Jonathan Cousar, and I have been building an alternative to Facebook specifically for conservatives and freedom-loving Americans: FreedomTorch.com. More on that to come.