Gospel ensemble Zion's Joy have video banned by Facebook

THE 10-man and woman gospel group from Indianapolis, Zion's Joy, who were formed in 2008 and have released the album 'Knocking On Your Heart', have found themselves in a major media controversy after Facebook banned their video citing political content. In mid-June the group released a video for their single "What Would Heaven Look like", the title track from their upcoming album to be released through Habakkuk Music/Universal. On or about 1st July the video, which had received over 12,000 views, was deleted by Facebook without warning or notification. Attempts to reach Facebook to find a resolution were unsuccessful.

The video remained off Facebook's radar until the group attempted to "boost" (a paid promotion that increases the post's visibility) the post of the video on the Zion's Joy! Facebook page. The boosted post was rejected by Facebook "because of political content." Soon after, the video and post were deleted from Facebook altogether. Read a press release from Zion's Joy, "Not only is the song and music video absent of 'political content', but it's message of love and unity is clear from the lyrics. . ."

"People of every color loving one another tell me/What would Heaven look like?/Bigotry and hate are absent only love and peace are present tell me/What would heaven feel like?"

Said group member Kay Insley, "To say that we were disappointed to see that Facebook had removed our video would be a gross understatement. I have to wonder if the content of the song was truly examined. In a time where the country seems to be more and more divided, we wanted to share a message of hope, love and universal togetherness. It seems in Facebook's attempts to curtail questionable content they cracked down on a song trying to bring healing to our nation. We are a group made up of different cultures and beliefs from both sides of the aisle and reviewed the video extensively to make sure its content was not divisive. Within the first week of its release, we had people from all over the political spectrum and a broad range of religious beliefs reach out letting us know how much the video had meaningfully impacted them. Do we really live in a time where making a positive statement about people coming together is deemed political?"