Get Yer Shit Together, Facebook

Seriously.

OMG, Seriously.

You try to worm your way into all of the facets of our lives and connections, and then decide all willy-fucking-nilly to block and/or ban for the most fucked reasons.

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…all while keeping the actual abusive, bigoted, bullshit groups and people (and their socks) up and running.

In my own friends list, I have witnessed such bullshit like:

  1. Several friends getting bans for sharing various “<Insert name of well known TERF here> is a Fake Goth” memes.
  2. A black genderqueer friend of mine being harassed by a white drag queen for their views on race (which are frankly, not even that radical), and when they wouldn’t back down from the abuse BAM! Month long ban.  Then, when they were back, BAM! Another one.
  3. Countless reports to Facebook over hateful groups, screenshots full of bigotry and calls to violence ignored as not “violating community standards” while said bigots get to roam free making life miserable for everyone.
  4. Groups dedicated to social justice, such as Son of Baldwin or Kinfolk Kollective, unpublished (SoB has been returned). This, all while talking that #BlackLiveMatter game out of other side of their mouths.
  5. Don’t even try to contact the cops for the detailed death/rape threat you’ve received, either, because they’re useless with that, unless it’s a cop getting any sort of criticism or anger.  Then they are all over that shit.

Free speech? What’s that? Also, what the fuck ARE your standards, Facebook? Groups dedicated to harassing individuals and groups are okay, but reporting them and getting reported as payback nets you a ban?  Really?

Y’all need to do better.  You have more than enough money to hire actual humans to be your first of the line checkers of these complaints to see if they are legit.  Also, state your fucking standards, clearly.  If you’re cool with hate groups making threats, fucking say so. If you’re okay with people and groups exposing such hateful shit being banned, fucking say so. If you’re cool with folks making simple requests like “Hey, that meme is actually kinda bigoted” being mass reported until said person is banned by your shitty algorithms, fucking say so. If you’re cool with cops using Facebook to arrest people for thoughtcrime, fucking say so. Fucking create a better appeal process.

You’re using us for your ad revenue; you could at the fucking least not completely alienate us with this shit.

Don’t fuck with your moneymakers.

(Oh, and any responses that even smells like “then just don’t use Facebook” will be cussed out and the commentor banned.  Be helpful, be empathetic, add something to the discussion, or go the fuck away)

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Get Yer Shit Together, Facebook
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7 thoughts on “Get Yer Shit Together, Facebook

  1. 1

    We’re not moneymakers to FB. We’re a resource. We’re the raw materials that they sell to other companies for ad revenue. That’s why I only use FB for apps that require it to log in.

  2. 3

    Feminace:

    Also, state your fucking standards, clearly.

    That’s part of what irritates the fuck out of me about my current three day ban. All I did was write “Psst. I heard Cathy Brennan was a Fake Goth.” That’s not harassment. It’s not abusive. It’s not sexist. It’s not misogynistic. And yet it was deemed bad enough by whateverthefuck FB’s standards are to get deleted, and lead to my 1-day banning. Worse, when I got out of the ban yesterday, I made a post stating that I was unbanned and that it had something to do with a post about Cathy Brennan. And *that* post resulted in my current 3-day ban. It makes zero sense.

    I poked around and noticed I’m also blocked from sending private messages. When I click the ‘learn more’ link, I get a page that says this:

    If you’re temporarily blocked from sending messages, it may be because you sent a lot of messages recently or your messages have been marked as unwelcome.
    This block is temporary, and you can still use other Facebook features to connect with your Facebook friends while you’re in this block. Once your block is over, please only send messages to people you know personally. Make sure to use the name you go by in everyday life to help the people you’re messaging recognize you.
    To learn more about our policies, please review the Facebook Community Standards.
    Note: If you’re blocked from sending messages, you may also be temporarily blocked from sending friend requests.

    I’m guessing its part and parcel of being blocked from commenting, but its bizarre bc I don’t send a lot of messages.

    I just now tried to make a post and got this message:

    You recently posted something that violates Facebook policies, so you’re temporarily blocked from using this feature. For more information, visit the Help Center.

    To keep from getting blocked again, please make sure you’ve read and understand Facebook’s Community Standards.
    The block will be active for 2 days and 15 hours more.
    If you think you’re seeing this by mistake, please let us know.

    Here is FB’s “Community Standards”:

    Our mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Every day, people come to Facebook to share their stories, see the world through the eyes of others and connect with friends and causes. The conversations that happen on Facebook reflect the diversity of a community of more than one billion people.

    We want people to feel safe when using Facebook. For that reason, we’ve developed a set of Community Standards, outlined below. These policies will help you understand what type of sharing is allowed on Facebook, and what type of content may be reported to us and removed. Because of the diversity of our global community, please keep in mind that something that may be disagreeable or disturbing to you may not violate our Community Standards.

    Saying “Psst. I heard Cathy Brennan is a Fake Goth.” strikes me as one of the most innocuous statements to make. It doesn’t even rise to the level of disturbing. And of course, FB has no issue with allowing disturbing comments like rape threats to remain.

    More stuff from the “Community Standards”:

    We remove content, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. Learn more about how Facebook handles abusive content.

    That obviously doesn’t apply to my situation.

    Direct Threats: How we help people who feel threatened by others on Facebook.

    We carefully review reports of threatening language to identify serious threats of harm to public and personal safety. We remove credible threats of physical harm to individuals. We also remove specific threats of theft, vandalism, or other financial harm.

    We may consider things like a person’s physical location or public visibility in determining whether a threat is credible. We may assume credibility of any threats to people living in violent and unstable regions.

    None of my comments about CB contained anything remotely like a threat-direct or otherwise.

    Self-Injury: How we work to help prevent self-injury and suicide.

    We don’t allow the promotion of self-injury or suicide. We work with organizations around the world to provide assistance for people in distress. We prohibit content that promotes or encourages suicide or any other type of self-injury, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We don’t consider body modification to be self-injury. We also remove any content that identifies victims or survivors of self-injury or suicide and targets them for attack, either seriously or humorously. People can, however, share information about self-injury and suicide that does not promote these things.

    And of course this doesn’t apply to my actions at all.
    The following “standard” is about the only one I’ve seen that *might* apply to my comment:

    People use Facebook to share their experiences and to raise awareness about issues that are important to them. This means that you may encounter opinions that are different from yours, which we believe can lead to important conversations about difficult topics. To help balance the needs, safety, and interests of a diverse community, however, we may remove certain kinds of sensitive content or limit the audience that sees it. Learn more about how we do that here.

    …except they only list ‘nudity’, ‘hate speech’, and ‘graphic content and violence’ under this section. I don’t think my comments about CB constitute any of those.

    The only other “standards” are keeping your account and personal information secure and protecting your intellectual property.

    So literally, I have no idea what so-called “Community Standard” I violated.

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