If you've been following the casting controversy over the upcoming Last Airbender movie, you know that Racebending.com has been the leading voice in the movement to raise awareness about everything that's wrong with this film. Namely, the casting of white people for what were originally Asian-inspired characters.

Yesterday, their Facebook group, People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie was removed by Facebook without warning. The group has been around since the movement first started (December 2008) and as of last week had almost 6,000 members. A cached version can be seen here.

Facebook claims the Racebending group violated its Terms of Use, which doesn't make any kind of sense -- there's nothing "hateful, threatening, or obscene" about this group or its mission. Other groups deleted for violating the terms of use include white supremacist groups, anti-white groups, anti-Zionist, and anti-Islam groups openly employing profanity and hate speech to further their agendas. That's not even close to what Racebending's about. So what gives?

Perhaps Facebook doesn't want to offend any potential or existing partners/advertisers at Paramount Pictures, the studio producing The Last Airbender? I'm just throwing the idea out there.

It sucks, because removal of the Facebook group has essentially cut them off from a way to contact almost 6,000 supporters -- now more important than ever as the summer release of the movie approaches. You can still sign up for the Facebook Fan Page (different from a Group) and the LiveJournal community.

UPDATE: The People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie Facebook group has been restored! Great news. However, I would still like to know why it was shut down in the first place.