Facebook slaps administrator of conservative page with two-day ban, but unable to explain exactly why
File this under “reasons conservatives no longer trust Facebook.” On Friday, we received word from an administrator of the popular “Wake Up America, The Original” Facebook page that her husband, who also happens to be an administrator, received a notification from the social media giant stating that, “you may have used Facebook in a way that our systems consider unusual, even if you didn’t mean to. You can post again in 2 days.”
Let’s parse that just a bit, shall we?
Facebook told the administrator that he “may” have used the system in a way their automated bots “think” is “unusual.” Not that he ACTUALLY did anything wrong. The site initially never said what, exactly, he allegedly did or posted, but admits the alleged activity — whatever it may have been — could have been unintentional.
Their response? A two-day ban. For something they can’t even describe or explain.
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The administrator clicked on “This is a mistake,” and received the following:
He then tried to post to his personal page, we were told, and received the following:
What did he post that allegedly violated their policies? No one knows and so far, no one is saying.
Responding to our request for information, a Facebook spokesperson said the ban was for posts that allegedly contained “hate speech.
“For instance one talked about killing all white people,” we were told. According to the administrator we spoke to, the picture showed a crowd of people with a woman holding a sign that advocated killing white people. From what we could gather, the meme was critical of the sign, not supportive of it.
We asked Facebook for clarification on this particular post but have so far received no response.
This page, by the way, has had a long and rocky history with the site once dubbed the “world’s most dangerous censor.” Recently, these same administrators were handed bans for allegedly scheduling — not posting — items too fast.
In May, the page was repeatedly unpublished for unknown reasons, then re-published after reviewing the administrator’s appeals. No explanation was ever given for the actions.
We asked Dana, the administrator we spoke to, if she felt her page was being deliberately targeted.
“Without appearing to be paranoid,” she said, “yes actually I do and I believe it has a lot to do with my numbers.”
She added: “My page size is pretty good and I believe that’s a threat to Facebook, the left and/or whomever is in charge of ‘watching’ my account…”
Dana, who also said she has received death threats and is unwilling to identify herself further, told the Conservative Firing Line she believes there are people assigned to certain pages and they simply don’t like what she posts.
Incidents like this were the inspiration behind “Banned: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad,” a book written in 2016 by yours truly and American-Israeli Adina Kutnicki.
They are also the reason that activist Chris Sevier drafted proposed legislation designed to tackle censorship by big social media companies.
Sevier further explained:
In my opinion, Facebook has perpetrated a form of fraudulent inducement, tortious interference of business relations, breach of the duty of care, unjust enrichment, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress by at first allowing conservatives and Christians to build a platform where they were supposedly free to express themselves only to then turn around and arbitrarily find some speech permissible and other speech impermissible.
“State Representatives Mike Burns (South Carolina), Paul Mosley (Arizona), and Joe Gruters (Florida), who is a Senate contender, have already, and I might add, bravely, agreed to introduce the measure at the 2019 legislative session. Representatives in 18 other states are also interested in the measure,” he said at the time.
A website has also been set up giving victims of Facebook’s Orwellian enforcement an opportunity to share their horror stories. Those who believe they have been unfairly sanctioned by the company can go here to make their situation known.
Related:
- Administrator of conservative Facebook page ‘temporarily blocked’ for allegedly scheduling posts too fast
- Conservatives no longer trust Facebook, leaving platform over bias, censorship — Poll
- Facebook employees start group to combat company’s ‘intolerant’ liberal culture
- USA Today op-ed: Trump is right — Big social media the real ‘enemies of the people’
- White House petition calls on Trump to press Congress for legislation stopping social media censorship
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