A controversy happened between the Indonesian Reporting Commission (IReC) and the Facebook community, where the former managed to shut down a number of popular Pages on the social media platform.
Happening in May 2019, IReC has been rumored to have issued various takedowns of numerous Facebook pages, starting with the meme Page Crossovers Nobody Asked For (CNAF).
The Facebook group was a Page known for featuring memes commenting on a wide variety of cultural topics. Before its removal on May 13th, the Page had nearly 500,000 members.
In response to the takedowns, often referred to as 'zuccing', members of targeted pages subsequently engaged in mass reporting of the IReC. Among the member of CNAF, they quickly created similar group, like "CNAF Season 2," to hope that the incident would quickly be forgotten, but failed as Facebook also removed the Page the following day.
Because of this, former CNAF members that subsequently began speculating that the IReC page was responsible for the takedowns, were getting revenge, with rumors suggesting that the administrator of of IReC was doxed and assaulted.
Other groups on the other hand, either set their groups from closed to secret. Others went further by removing members they think are Indonesians, resulting to some job losses.
What IRec did, was reporting various Facebook Pages that are against the social media's Community Standards on fraud and spam.
He saw and considered that Facebook has not done enough to rid "toxic" contents. And here, Salim took the matter into this own hands, under the name IReC.
Rumors that the Indonesian resident Muhammad Salim had been identified as the administrator of IReC. It was reported that Salim's real name, his address in Tangerang, phone number and voter registration information have been published and circulating on the web.
Other rumors circulated that an Indonesian group had beaten the 18-year-old Salim in real life, leading him to delete all of his social media accounts, and a Mexican netizen has put a bounty for Salim's head.
The Indonesian group Teman-Teman Bulu Burung (Feather Friends) announced Salim's official statement (https://www.facebook.com/ttbb.id/videos/372432483373008/) regarding the Facebook drama.
Salim said that:
To every victim of IReC wrongdoings: [I], Muhammad Salim as leader [and founder] of IReC… apologize to everyone who become victim [of us] in time IReC's still become a page.
My reason for that wrongdoing was to delete or destroyed everything negative in Facebook, like, SARA [religious offensive jokes], hoax, and others, who break Facebook rules. Also, our motive to attack non-Indonesian group, like NSM and CNA, because [I found] some hate-speech or religious offensive jokes.
I'm deeply sorry for what happened to everyone, and to our wrongdoings. I, as leader of IReC, will stop IReC's operation, and we will take responsibility for everything happened.
-Muhammad Salim
After IReC was unpublished, many members of the Facebook community have pointed out that multiple accounts and groups that are involved with the banning of meme groups.
However, many of the other members have also pointed out that these accounts happen to be either fake or duplicates, as they are all meant to diverse claim, incite paranoia and create distrust.
Salim's case with IRec and the Facebook Pages he managed to shut down, is known by the community as 'The Great Zuccening of 2019'.