And on the first day of February, Facebook unverified God.
The God Facebook page is alleging that the social network took away its verified status due to blowback over a post emphasizing that the suspect in the Quebec City mosque shooting is a white Trump supporter. God's claim remains unconfirmed.
The accusation from the God page comes on the heels of a BuzzFeed News report about a series of recent content removals and page bans by Facebook that caused concern among publishers and activists. In response, Facebook said the actions had been taken by automated systems and that the company "will learn from these experiences to do better.”
Pages can lose their verification for different reasons. For example, a Facebook support specialist said it can happen "if there are any changes made to the Page's core information. This includes Page name changes, category changes, and Page merges."
BuzzFeed News reached out to God and to Facebook and will update this post if we hear back.
God published two previous posts about the Quebec mosque suspect, both of which performed well with its flock of more than 3 million Facebook fans. The posts are still online, which suggests they did not violate Facebook community standards.
God's verification was hard won. Someone even started a "Verify the God page" petition back in 2014 that received close to 35,000 signatures.
Why the duck hasn't Facebook verified My Page yet??? Heinous fuckery! Heinous fuckery most foul!!! https://t.co/9B54N3SCIu
God is still not verified on Twitter.
When God finally was verified on Facebook, it raised existential questions.
Now, as Facebook and God try to work their problems out, people are rallying to the page's cause.
Some have called upon God to strike Facebook down.
Smiting was referenced.
And yes, there have been atheist jokes.
