UPDATE: 7:08 pm EST: GoV back up and running.
UPDATE 2:15 pm EST: Still no definitive understanding of why GoV went dark last night, but it seems that other Blogger sites also went down, which means it could well have been a technical problem.
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Last night, the invaluable blog Gates of Vienna disappeared from the Internet. Gate of Vienna, which chronicles like no other news and commentary outlet the Islamization of Europe and the wider West, simply vanished, removed without warning or explanation by its host Blogger (UPDATE: or by an attack, Vlad Tepes notes, pointing out the causes remain unknown).
Earlier this week, the Commentator (hat tip The American Thinker) reported that Facebook had removed the page of noted Arab-Israeli writer Khaled Abu Toameh.
From the Commentator:
The Commentator has learned that following complaints from the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian security authorities about his articles dealing with corruption, Facebook had taken the steps necessary to effectively censor his work.
In speaking this morning to us, Abu Toameh noted, "All I have done recently is share some articles which have been in the Jordanian press (in Arabic) about corruption. I am for transparency, against corruption, and yet they ban my account and continue to allow the leader of Hamas to have an account. I am not in favour of terrorism like he is. This is an attempt to silence me. To do this to a journalist is very bad."
Facebook sent the following pro-forma e-mail to Abu Toameh yesterday evening: “You posted an item that violated our Terms of Use, and this item has been removed. Among other things, content that is hateful, threatening, or obscene is not allowed, nor is content that attacks an individual or group. Continued misuse of Facebook's features could result in your account being disabled.”
Toameh also told The Commentator that over the past few days, he has been the subject of much online abuse, as well as threats and an apparently concerted smear campaign against him. ...
In an update, Facebook contacted the Commentator to tell them Toameh's page would be reactivated -- and probably in response to queries and complaints generated by the original article.
In other words, making noise is essential and effective. At least so far.