This week, a watercolor artist I have been following for years announced he would no longer be posting new stuff on Facebook. It seems he accidentally removed himself as administrator of his own page and can’t be bothered with the rigmarole Facebook is forcing him to go through to get back in. I was surprised to read so many comments on his decision from his supporters saying basically some variant of “Facebook is evil”, some not quite so nice. I knew Facebook had its detractors, but not to that extent! So I decided to do a little digging! Among the reasons that motivated his decision to abandon Facebook, he referenced the troubles that another artist that I follow had also had recently with her account. I found and watched her video on Youtube and was shocked at the way she had been treated by Facebook. The account that she had for years, with over 30,000 followers, and with which she had never had any issues, had been suspended because of a “community standards” violation. With Facebook, it turns out you are guilty until proven innocent! No warning, no “please remove this or else”. She had to go through some weird facial recognition thing to be allowed back in, only to find that apparently posting about a sculpture of a frog, which was her last post before the suspension of her account, violated community standards! However, she showed us the screen shot where at the same time she is asked if she wants to change the “offensive” post into an ad! Seriously? So you flag a post as inappropriate, suspend the account because it is so offensive, but offer to show it if they pay for it? That’s some serious logic twisting Facebook! There was no one to talk to, no explanation of what “community standard” was violated or how, no email to protest to, and her only option to appeal he decision was to submit to a “facial scan” of not only her face, but her sides too. And apparently this happens regularly. So, dear Facebook user, you are basically at the mercy of the Great Facebook God Alg O’Rythm!!! That may not be a great loss if you are talking about a personal account, but for a business, this could be a devastating blow! No wonder so many marketing experts encourage businesses to build their email lists more than their Social Media following. I suppose one could argue that you get what you pay for, which is basically nothing, to have a business of Facebook. One could also argue that Facebook is itself a business, and that it needs revenue to continue to exist. But one could certainly make the case that with all the money they are making, Facebook could hire actual people to double-check accounts being flagged by software, before said accounts are actually suspended. The person in the video suggests using MeWe as an alternate platform. She also mentions that MeWe has been the victim of a smear campaign that paints the platform as a den of white supremacists, conspiracists and anti-vaxxers. Facebook has its share of those, but there is some oversight, whereas on MeWe there is none. What a choice! Dictatorship or Anarchy! Tell me, dear reader, do you have any experience with MeWe? I would love to hear about it! I’m not sure how long I will be on Facebook, but this certainly has opened my eyes. If you want to make sure to stay in touch with me and what I do, consider subscribing to my email list. It’s easy to do on my website. It is managed by MailChimp, one of the oldest mail servers out there. And I promise I won’t spam you or ever sell your information. You can view the video I referred to above at https://youtu.be/HzJ8YWqprrk In the meantime, has this type of Facebook account suspension ever happened to you? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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AuthorMy name is Claire Bureau. Archives
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