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META has taken down the Facebook page of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), citing alleged violations of its community standards on cybersecurity.
The organisation noted that a pop-up notification sent by Meta on Sunday, September 7, indicated that the page was pulled down for going against cybersecurity rules.
FIJ, however, disputed the claim and submitted an appeal for restoration.
However, the company has yet to officially respond to the appeal.
The development came weeks after FIJ’s website suffered downtime on August 21 following what the newsroom described as coordinated cyberattacks traced to the headquarters of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Ekiti State Police Command on Tuesday, September 9, invited FIJ founder and editor-in-chief, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, for questioning over allegations of conspiracy, criminal defamation, cyberbullying, and blackmail.
The summon, signed by Musa Hadi, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Intelligence Department (SID), ordered Soyombo to appear before the Commissioner of Police at the command’s headquarters in Ado-Ekiti on September 15.
The invitation came barely an hour before FIJ senior reporter, Sodeeq Atanda, was released after spending 11 hours in police custody on similar allegations.
Atanda was initially invited on September 1 following a petition by Abayomi Fasina, a professor and the on-leave Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE).
“This office is investigating case [sic] of conspiracy, criminal defamation, blackmailing and cyber-bullying in which your name featured,” the invite reads.
