The page Rise Up Ocean County was supposedly established as a public forum by Toms River, NJ resident and convicted felon Richard Ciullo, to criticize rapid housing growth in Ocean County, N.J. However under Ciullo’s direction, the page was plagued with sickening accusations by Ciullo and his followers blaming Orthodox Jews for the increased housing.
Richard Ciullo, arrest mugshot
Facebook spokesman Daniel Roberts told NBC News, “We have determined this page violates our community standards for hate speech and have removed it from the platform.” Murphy and Grewal said in a joint statement, “We appreciate that Facebook has now decided that this kind of hateful rhetoric has no place on its platform.”
They added, “The Murphy administration will continue to call out hate whenever and wherever we see it, we will persist in demanding meaningful reforms to address the proliferation of hate online, and we will continue working to make New Jersey safe and inclusive for all of our residents.”
The Rise Up Ocean County website posted a statement stating they will appeal Facebook’s decision, arguing the page is public and they remove hateful posts.
“As recent as one month ago, Facebook did remove two posts, both somewhat dated, that moved our page quality from green to red,” the statement read. “Since that time, we have received no further violations of community standards and as such, the decision to unpublish the page is arbitrary and capricious.”