(NaturalNews) To the speech police at Facebook, the world's largest social media web site, even the words of a lifelong advocate of peace are too much to bear.

Earlier this month Facebook officials announced changes to rules they said were necessary to combat efforts at promoting terrorism and hate speech. Agence France Presse reported that the changes were wide-ranging and dealt primarily with upgrading "community standards."

AFP said the new guidelines were meant to provide more clarity regarding what kinds of posts are and are not acceptable, the latter being those related to violence, what is deemed by speech cops to be hate speech and other topics similarly found to be contentious.

Specifically, Facebook announced it would not permit any groups to remain on the site if they advocated "terrorist activity, organized criminal activity" or if they promoted "hate."

Ghandi is banned?

AFP noted further:

The move comes with Facebook and other social media struggling with defining acceptable content and freedom of expression, and with these networks increasingly linked to radical extremism and violence.

Last month, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve urged online giants Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter to discuss ways to thwart terrorists from using the platforms for recruitment and fundraising.

For instance, members of the radical Islamic State have frequently posted and distributed only gruesome videos of beheadings and other forms of execution, to be used primarily as propaganda tools. The new rules state that Facebook will take down "graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence."

Regarding terrorist or criminal organizations, Facebook officials have also stated speech police would not put up with the "supporting or praising of leaders of those same organizations, or condoning their violent activities."

So, does that include the words and teachings of the great Indian philosopher and activist, Mohandas Gandhi.

In December 2012, Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, posted the following to NN's Facebook page:

"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mohandas Gandhi, an Autobiography, page 446.

"This historical quote was apparently too much for Facebook's censors to bear," Adams wrote. "They suspended our account and gave us a 'final warning' that one more violation of their so-called "community guidelines" would result in our account being permanently deactivated.

"They then demanded we send them a color copy of a 'government issued identification' in order to reactivate our account. Our account was removed from suspension just minutes before InfoWars posted its article on this Facebook censorship..."

The episode led Adams to conclude that, at the time anyway, Facebook censors couldn't handle any discussion regarding the historical record of British rule over India, which lasted nearly a century (1858-1947).

'We reserve the right to decide what's appropriate'

So, how will Facebook's new censorship rules work?

It's easy to accept at face value the site's explanation that they don't want to become a propaganda platform for terrorists. But the "hate speech" designation gets a bit fuzzy, because what one person believes is merely an opinion can be taken by another to be "hate speech." In other words, Facebook is setting the stage for its censors to decide what is and is not acceptable speech.

"These standards are designed to create an environment where people feel motivated and empowered to treat each other with empathy and respect," said a blog post from Facebook global policy chief Monika Bickert and deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby, according to AFP.

They also pointed out "that something that may be disagreeable or disturbing to you may not violate our community standards."

The officials further said the site's censors would remove content, disable accounts and partner with law enforcement "when we believe that there is genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety."

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