Facebook suspends Powerhouse Science Center’s social media account
>Nonprofit was scheduled to host live talk with public health director
https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/facebook-suspends-powerhouse-science-centers-social-media-account/

Hours before the Powerhouse Science Center was scheduled to host a presentation about COVID-19 on Tuesday on Facebook, the nonprofit realized its social media account had been suspended.

Executive Director Jeff Susor said Facebook suspended the page based on reports that the Powerhouse was in violation of Facebook’s policies that prevent spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

The Powerhouse was scheduled to present the last of a three-part series about the virus, vaccines and misinformation surrounding the pandemic. The third session, about the current state of COVID-19, was going to feature Liane Jollon, executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health, which serves La Plata and Archuleta counties.

Susor said a small but vocal minority of people have been hounding the Powerhouse over its COVID-19 presentations. He said he has received emails – all from the same group of half a dozen people – saying that Susor and Powerhouse staff members “don’t know what science is.”

“‘You don’t understand that the COVID vaccine is killing tens of thousands of kids,’” Susor said, summarizing the messages he’s been receiving.

“And that’s just utterly, factually untrue,” he said.

Susor suspects the same people behind the angry emails are responsible for spamming the report button on the Powerhouse’s Facebook page.

Susor provided The Durango Herald with the contents of various emails he had received, although he withheld the senders’ names.