CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Had the picture been taken on any other day, it might have just looked like a group of people visiting the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
But those people, including former Corpus Christi mayoral candidate Joe Michael Perez, were there to protest the results of the Presidential election, and as they did, other protesters were breaking into the building.
“I did take part of the march," Perez said. "We were there. We were expressing ourselves. But I was not inside the Capitol.”
Still, Facebook blocked his picture that Perez estimates was taken a thousand feet away from the building in a parking lot.
It shows Perez and several other protesters wearing patriotic clothes and holding signs and flags.
In posts spelling out the decision to block the picture, the social media giant said that the picture, "doesn't follow the Facebook Community Standards," and that the company has "these standards to prevent and disrupt offline harm."
Five people died in the riot at the Capitol and there were many injuries and lots of damage to property.
Perez said his participation in the protest and his posts about it did not fuel any of the violence, and he thinks Facebook went too far in blocking the picture and banning him from the social media site for three days.
“People should be responsible for what they post, not Facebook telling the public what’s dangerous and what’s not dangerous," he said.
Perez plans to reach out to lawmakers and encourage them to try to limit what he calls 'censorship' by Facebook,
And if the social media company doesn't make changes, Perez wants to organize a protest at Facebook's headquarters.
“If Facebook doesn’t get it together, I’ll be calling on a protest in Menlo Park, California and inviting thousands of patriots to join me," he said.
