In the lead-up to the 2016 election, I began to find that any time I posted anything with the words "white evangelical(s)" in it, Facebook took the posting down.
Meanwhile, I see on an ongoing basis all sorts of obvious right-wing disinformation being circulated freely on Facebook, with no attempt that I can see made by Facebook to censor that disinformation.
More than "just the algorithm" is at work in Facebook censorship.
Obviously something more is at work as Facebook censors some people than "the algorithm."
One dynamic, I suspect, is that if people watching your account for hostile reasons flag it and report it repeatedly to Facebook, often acting in concert with others, Facebook then puts censorship mechanisms in place for your account. These often have overt political intent.
People keep saying that "the algorithm," as if it's some mystical force acting in independence of human tinkering and will, takes down postings on Facebook.
If that's the case, then I'd like some explanation for why, when I posted that graphic, it was immediately taken down with a warning to me, but when she posted it, nothing happened.
A clear silencing of me up to the post-election period….
One of the postings was a graphic that Jess Piper had posted on Substack.
After the postings were removed, I shared information about this on my Mastodon page. A follower there told me she would post the same Jess Piper graphic on her Facebook feed and see what happened.
She did so. Facebook did not take it down.
I've just posted the following on my Facebook page and we'lll see what happens:
Yesterday, Facebook immediately took down two of my postings right after I made them, then levying penalties against my account I've never had, which limit my ability to use my account until after November 19 — an interesting choice of dates when the two postings were related to the coming election on November 5.
I understand that the word Nazi is an algorithm-triggering red flag, and the photo Moxon uses with MAGA folks flying Nazi flags is another one.
But it's perfectly obvious that Moxon is not promoting Nazis, but doing the opposite. So censoring any critical mention of Nazism to refer to Trump is pro-Republican censorship.
And when another posting with no such red flags is yanked immediately the same day, something more's going on here.
Second posting Facebook took down immediately: this excerpt from A.R. Moxon today —
"Nazism is on the ballot this year, and people who consider themselves Nazis know it, even if so many of the rest of us seem not to want to. So it came to pass that Nazis came to the pro-Trump boat show in Jupiter Florida last week."
Facebook is actively removing postings I'm making today. I maintain a foothold on Facebook, knowing its tawdriness and that it's no friend to progressive politics, because I oversee a family history-DNA project that's housed there. And Facebook is one way I can keep in quick touch with a wide circle of relatives and friends.
First posting removed today: Jess Piper's graphic (below) about white women voting in this election.
https://substack.com/@jesspiper/note/c-72832742
#Facebook #censorship #women #abortion
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@Gargron @swf
Il ne faut pas s'emballer, l'intention de Eugen Rochko n'est pas d'ouvrir un compte #Facebook ou #Threads à mon avis 😉 Mastodon aussi bien que la Social Web Foundation adhérent aux principes d'un web social ouvert, décentralisé et interopérable, donc je ne vois rien de choquant dans cette annonce. #SWF
Seriously though, take a minute trying to grasp how rich a company like Facebook (Meta) really is. Think, truly think, about how much money it makes every year.
Now, think about HOW it makes this money:
Does it sell a lot of expensive cars? No.
Does it sell computers around the world? No.
Does it sell oil? Nope.
It. Sells. YOU.
And how much do YOU get in exchange for producing these billions of dollars for it each year?