Facebook is Tightening its Censorship Policies and it's an Opportunity for Steemit - if People Even Give a Fuck Anymore
Disclaimer: Let it be known that I'm perfectly aware that a private entity can freely choose what is and what isn't being published on its platform, so it's not censorship, per se, but the term is used for simplicity's sake.
The annual Finnish midsummer celebration is called "juhannus", and obviously it's a custom over here to wish people a fun "juhannus" on social media.
It was too much for Facebook, though, since it recently lead to automatic deletion, as well as a warning to the user in the above picture.
Why, you may ask.
The reason being that the word "juhannus" was too close to "anus", which was deemed sexual, and therefore inappropriate for Facebook.
I have also been banned for inappropriate jokes multiple times lately, even for 30 days, and so have a few friends of mine, one in particular being targeted constantly.
Bots doing the banning is problematic since bots don't understand tone, nor context. So it can lead to a ban for a completely innocent joke.
If the Steemit community was able to pull its head out of its ass for just a while, and stopped focusing solely on the money, it could realize that the increasingly aggressive censorship and banning methods by Facebook open up a huge opportunity for Steemit.
Despite being critical of the place, I do enjoy the fact that I can make a nazi joke and not get banned for 30 days by Zuckerberg.
Remember when this was one of the defining traits of Steemit? You know, something that made it special, and it had nothing to do with the money?
Why is it not a focus, hell not even a footnote, in Steemit hype and marketing?
Well, most people self-censor anyway, so I'm not sure if Steemit would be a huge draw because of this - but it certainly could attract some people who grow weary of the Facebook policies. Promoting that may be better than constantly promoting "Make money online!" to the jobless and the scammers in the world.
You know what would be even more attractive though? A good interface. But who gives a shit about that, right? Why would a social media website need to be functional and attractive? I'm sure nobody cares about that.
Happy Juhan anus to you too.
FB is going nuts with the censorship and I can't imagine it'll be any better in the close future. I was saddened already as I could send a pornhub april fools joke "Cornhub" video as a private message to my friend, as it was deemed to contain porn. It was a corn (..ear? At least wikipedia is talking about maize ears) which wast being buttered.
It's fun how they control what you can send to your friend over a private message.
:thatthinkingemoticonthing:
Interesting post. I came across a number of posts here that talked about Steemit marketing with printed flyers and all in some parts of the world. Maybe they should add something about this to the flyers. 'Your voice cannot be suppressed. True and total freedom of expression found only on Steemit!' It's a thought! Upvoted. Cheers! - @sandzat
Honestly, in the long run, that would be a lot better than "You can make money!" Most people don't believe that, and those who do are usually scammy in one way or another. The money should be a bonus. That's how you create a good community and platform, and then the money comes.
Very true. One of the phrases right now is "Come for the money! Stay for the community!" which is actually a nice invitation. However, once people do come join, most will figure out that it is difficult to make money unless they really add value and make friends. That is going to take time and commitment. The disillusioned ones will soon fall out, while the ones with substance will stay hooked once they discover their voice matters. If they've already been active on Facebook, they'd have all faced the banning bots one time or the other. On Steemit however, I believe the NSFW tag works nicely. So people can still have their say, be themselves, make like minded friendships.
Thanks for the interesting info on Juhannus. And I know a Finnish word now! :)
You speak pretty deep on the subjects that catch your attention. Definitely awesome,we need more people like you so involved, instead of those who say "Hello good job" I'm interested in seeing what kind of content you have posted about.
So here in the UK, whilst campaigning our PM was pretty open about wanting to regulate the internet, she claimed it was as a method to counter terrorism. Either way, naturally I was up in arms about it, tried speaking to my parents and they genuinely couldn't care less about regulation and censorship.
It really shocked me. They're both educated people who read a lot so I referenced 1984 for about 10minutes straight and it had no impact.
Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think some people actually enjoy the idea of being censored and regulated on the internet :/
The STEEM blockchain is pretty good for whistleblowers. :)
Don't put your dreams too high. I've already seen so-called "nazi-hunters" post on steemit. And people eager to point to that little flag next to each post and advocating for a censor-bot etc.
Let's enjoy our freedom of speech on Steemit for as long as it will last.
It will still exist on the blockchain. That's the point.
The whole internet is tightening up,people will come to freedom,let's wait
I agree but it's so hard when so many are asleep to this. I deleted my Facebook account and my friends think I'm nuts.
Facebook is a social media platform giant. Steemit, for now, is no competition for it. People are joining steemit only because of rewards. Take that out and people will rush towards the facebook again. It's not a question of why, rather it's a question of when. I am a social media junkie and I have made numerous accounts on many platform. There were other platforms like Steemit which offered money for posting. But steemit is unique because it hass been setup on block chain technology. I know people rushing towards steemit but they also should bring themselves the content, not just some random clicks and copy paste articles.
If people keep doing stuff like this, steemit will be closed one day or it's reward pool will become tiny with time. I am working hard on steemit and my ass off to gain some exposure. I just fear that after working so hard if steemit gets down, then my all hard will be lost. I am just hoping for the best. let's see what happens next.
If anyone is interested, please visit this post. You'll learn a lot.
https://steemit.com/sociology/@cryptonet/anger-is-a-power-source-but-only-temporary-although-it-s-damage-is-permanent
Thanks for the article though @schattenjaeger
Oh, I totally agree. Right now the rewards are the gimmick. The sole gimmick. So, the end result is just a product of that fact.
What I'm saying that Steemit should have an entirely different gimmick altogether.
Becase the "Come here to make free money" thing is not sustainable, and I doubt it attracts quality users.
Yeah i agree with that. But let's just think that. If we take this rewards factor from steemit, who would spend his time here working hard to provide content and earn money. Everyone would leave in a flash and even you would do the same.
The point is Steemit is good but in order to survive they should diversify their reach and for sometime increase their reward pool. After Hardfork19 it got really affected.
I know. What I mean is that Steemt should be designed to be fun without the rewards. And then when you add the rewards on top of on otherwise fun platform, you have a winner.
Stuff like this makes me mad. They go through and ruin things for people that are trying to enjoy their site, while they let videos of porn and people fucking goats stay up without caring.
I don't think content like that is accepted, either.
They still don't take it down at the same rate as other pointless stuff though.
Facebook, youtube, instagram, all shooting themselves in the foot, amazing