Welcome to Faceglória – Social Network of the Christian Family
The perfect Social Network for you to share Christian love and wisdom with others.
Source: Faceglória

For millions of us, Facebook has become the virtual space to connect and share with our family and friends, as well as to make new friends. But it has its downside, exposing us to haters and bullies, violence, pornography, and much more.

Three years ago in São Paulo, Atilla Barros, a Brazilian web designer, together with three other devout colleagues decided to change all that. On June 4, 2015, they launched Faceglória, an online social network “to facilitate communication between people who seek to preserve family principles, morality and respect between users who share the same faith, ideas, among other activities.”

Their target market is Brazil’s more than 42 million Evangelical Christians (Census 2010). While Brazil has the world’s largest Roman Catholic population, their numbers have been declining over the years with the rise of Evangelicals. Given their current growth rate, Evangelicals are projected to become Brazil’s majority religious group by 2040. With the aim of capturing 30 million Evangelicals, the site registered over 100,000 people in June 2015.

The rules of conduct are clearly set out on the network’s Terms of Service. The services provided are free. Only Christians need apply. Those who don’t accept or conform to the rules will not be accepted or banned. Members are asked to denounce unacceptable conduct.

Swearing is banned. In case of doubt, a list of about 600 forbidden words is provided. Other prohibitions include any material that’s illegal, immoral, outside Evangelical norms, pornography; and anything harmful to biblical principles, Christians, and international laws and human rights.

According to co-founder Acir Santos, a politician and member of the Christian Congregation of Brazil for the past forty years, a team of technicians will ensure that the rules are not violated by removing “pornographic content, images of gays kissing, attacks of pastors like Marco Feliciano and aggression towards Evangelicals.” As pointed out during his interview with G1, users will have to identify photos of men embracing each other who may be brothers or cousins. While photos of women in bikinis are permitted, the site’s morality patrol will remove selfies and bikini shots considered risqué. Santos admits that it will be impossible to verify whether or not a user is a Christian. It will be up to users to weed out the fake Christians.

On a social network designed to reflect the Christian beliefs and life of its users, the “Amen” button replaces the “Like” button.

You can register from anywhere in the world. Faceglória is a global network. To maintain their position, the co-founders have bought the domain name in English and all other languages.

In the meantime, Facebook is not at all happy with this new development. Five days ago, they sent Faceglória a cease and desist warning of infringement on their trademark and potential for consumer confusion. Given the similarity of Faceglória’s interface, I believe that Facebook has cause for concern.