These 10 letters can get anyone BANNED on FaceBook!
G A S T H E J E W S
I just received a 30 day FaceBook ban (including all the pages, groups, and events I run), for typing that combination of characters in a comment.
First, why did I type them?
My brother and I are Jordan Peterson fans. What a brilliant thinker JP is! Yesterday, he uploaded a video to YouTube called "if you can't be funny then you aren't free". My brother posted the link on FB for me to check out. It was excellent.
I responded with:
He got me at "Gas the Jews!"
My brother agreed that this punchline (about 6 minutes in) was the best part of the clip, but a couple hours later, I got this popup:
If I had said "he upset me at Gas the Jews", the opposite meaning, would that be okay? Or can those 10 letters never be typed? Did an algorithm decide I uttered hate speech, or was it human error?
Appeal denied
FB asked if I wanted to appeal, so I clicked "YES", and immediately got the response "We reviewed your post again and it goes against our Community Standards on hate speech." And if I'm ever found guilty a second time, I'll be lifetime-banned from the site.
"We need to be able to be horribly funny. To allow people the freedom to find the ability to transcend that horror with comedy. A mark of a free society is that comedians can push the edge of what is acceptable." - Jordan Peterson, Jan 6 2019
If I can be banned for merely repeating what Jordan Peterson said, should he be banned for having said it in the first place? What about the comedian he heard it from? Of course not. This is censorship gone wild and out of control. This isn't a free society.
PS: They don't ban you for a full month on your first offense. I've been bad before. I was caught posting pro-cannabis information before "legalization" happened in mid-October, and was banned for a week. Next time, it's for life.
PPS: FaceBook was the only method of communication left between my brother and I. I no longer have a phone, and he doesn't have a computer, but we both had FaceBook/Messenger. We live far apart, and I don't have any way to tell him I've been banned for 30 days (FB doesn't notify your friends and there's no indication you're gone). It's bizarre, but I will probably have to send him a letter, because he'll be expecting me to check in. Physical mail isn't censored yet, is it?
DRutter
I guess that's an indication of who owns facebook...
This type of censorship is one of the reasons I deleted my Facebook. Worse was the self-censorship. Still worse was the horror of discovering that most people seem just fine with both types of censorship. It sucks, because like you, I have family members and old friends who seem to only be on Facebook, thus it was my primary means of communicating with them. Many I don't have snail mail addresses or phone numbers for.
My FB account was offically deleted the end of last year. Still sending email invites via steeminvite.com to old FB pals. No takers yet, though my account tokens are building up. 😎
Wow that's messed up! How ironic...
"language that attacks people"
Nobody was attacked, and there's no chance anyone could be harmed by reading my comment, so it wasn't hate speech by any stretch of the definitions.
I see my comment as free speech, they see it as hate speech. Maybe they hate freedom?
That was my first question... why are you still using FB? But you explained that. I am sorry the algorithm got you. You can't reach him by email?
Maaaaaaybe. He doesn't have a PC right now and I'm not sure he checks email on his phone. I swear, keeping in touch was easier 15 years ago. MSN was a great little chat program. Now there's skype, which I won't touch, and stuff for smart phones, which I also won't touch. A lot of people don't email because they text, don't use voice calls because they facetime, etc etc. And there's no privacy on any of it anymore.
I decided to upload a YouTube video to explain things to my viewers over there:
Cool, I'll give it a watch.
Discord offers encrypted chat.
Funny or hate speech?