[Abernathy]

I’m in Facebook gaol again, chums. Banned from posting, liking, or commenting for 7 days, and banned from all groups activity for 30 days, it would appear because “ Multiple posts from the last year didn't follow our standards.”

These multiple posts number four, it seems. The first is from 30 March this year, for a post whose content is “no longer available”, but which it seems constituted “bullying”. The second occurred on 1 May, and apparently constituted “Hate”. It was an ironic remark in the context of a jokey private FB group discussion about annoying religious sects (I think), and was this “ I may well do. Fucking Mormons”. I appealed against this at the time, but the buggers still sent me to FB gaol. The third is even more bizarre, and dated from 7 September. Again, it was in a group, this one called “Photos of British Life”, and was an ( I thought) fairly innocent remark about a photograph taken in the 1960s on Carnaby Street, of a street scene in which the rear view of a comely young lass was nonetheless central. I commented, again light-heartedly, “Nice arse. But isn’t the subject of the photo supposed to be the street scene?”. Bafflingly, this was judged to constitute “Bullying”, and again I was sent to FB gaol. Finally, this week I was in a discussion in another group which took a turn for the vexatious when I called a twat a twat . He had been disagreeing with me and made an ad hominem provocative remark to the effect that I was displaying my ignorance for all to see. Understandably (I thought) I lost patience with this individual at this point, and said “So you can’t, then. I’ll mark you down as another ignorant, gratuitously rude twat. Have a block.” For this I was sentenced summarily to the aforementioned 30 day gaol sentence, once more supposedly for “Bullying”.

Now, I’m not making common cause with Donald Trump here. But it does seem to me that these bans imposed on me by Zuckerberg’s shock troops are a bit unreasonable, not to say draconian. Bullying? Nonsense. I’ve never bullied anyone in my life. Hate ? Ditto. What galls me most of all is the most recent one. Particularly the total failure to consider context. Fair enough, maybe I shouldn’t have called him a twat, but he’d gratuitously insulted me (without using any of the trigger words in the FB algorithm, it would seem), but just saying “twat” seems just innocuous to me.

I think that Zuckerberg’s simplistic algorithm is inadequate. It ain’t doing the job of keeping Facebook free of abuses, in my view, and badly needs a re-think, but the bastard has got us over a barrel.

Friends, I’ve been hard done by. I’m not looking for sympathy, but I’d value your views, as always.

[MisterMuncher]

It feels completely arbitrary and is possibly audience driven. I've never had a ban of any stripe on any SM platform, and I'm an obnoxious bollocks. Contrarywise, the darlin' missus got unjustly hoofed from FB marketplace for "selling animal products*" and it took fucking ages to get her back on.


*As it turns out, the algorithm didn't reliably understand that a "peacock print dress" isn't made from actual peacock.

[Youngian]

Again, it was in a group, this one called “Photos of British Life”, and was an ( I thought) fairly innocent remark about a photograph taken in the 1960s on Carnaby Street, of a street scene in which the rear view of a comely young lass was nonetheless central. I commented, again light-heartedly, “Nice arse. But isn’t the subject of the photo supposed to be the street scene?”. Bafflingly, this was judged to constitute “Bullying”, and again I was sent to FB gaol.

Try to avoid sites showing pics of a local town in the good ol’ days. They’re catnip for racists with no useful insights.