State Rep. Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) says reports of his Facebook campaign page’s demise are greatly exaggerated — it was down temporarily, but the social media giant was very cooperative in restoring it.
Vitale posted on his active campaign page Saturday:
Media outlets falsely misleading people to think Facebook disabled THIS PAGE.
That is not true from the information we have.
Facebook has been VERY helpful in restoring my page and the audience, and they have been working with me for almost 14 hours now to figure out what went wrong.
If you read articles that say something like Facebook disabled my account, those are simply false. As we gain further information, I will share it with you, but the TRUTH is that Facebook has been exceptional in this process, and I am overwhelmingly pleased by their support.
According to a story reported Friday by the Plain-Dealer, the Champaign County representative said he was not given any reason for the page’s removal, but added that Facebook was being helpful in studying the issue. His personal Facebook page was not affected.
Vitale has been outspoken in protecting the rights of Ohioans in the face of the ongoing Chinese coronavirus shutdown by Gov. Mike DeWine and Dr. Amy Acton of the Ohio Department of Health.
Vitale issued a call to action in mid-April to ease restrictions and reopen hospitals and medical centers to elective surgeries, as The Ohio Star reported.
“My request is we allow the doctors and nurses in these fields to immediately open back up and treat Ohioans that need medical care, which is getting more and more critical by the day because of these restrictions,” Vitale wrote in an open letter to DeWine and Acton.
Vitale warned that Ohio could see a collapse in the state’s health infrastructure, with “up to 85% of doctors and practices, which are either days or a week from closing their doors permanently.”
Once his campaign page was restored, he posted a copy of the letter and said, “After having my original page deleted, I can think of no better first post now that my page is back up and has been “restored” then my April 16, 2020 letter to DeWine to OPEN OHIO.
“I am still working with Facebook, who has been very honest about this process. I will have more details forthcoming.
Vitale also is a member of the OHIO 2020 task force, a bipartisan group to discuss the reopening that includes members from different parts of the state selected by House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford), WOUB reported.
– – –
Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
