Wow! I Said Something Wrong on Facebook. Four Times In One Day!!!!

"Oh Wow!" -- Photo by okeykat on Unsplash

My grandson was here this weekend. It's been truly a joy to see him grow. His vocabulary is quite astonishing, though I am not surprised. His parents read to him every night.

I mention Wally because during his visit here this weekend he kept saying the word "Wow!" It was so much fun to see and hear him use this expression to describe every new thing.

Tonight, I had a "Wow!" moment. It had to do with being censored by Facebook. Maybe "censored" is the wrong word. I shared an article from Reason magazine titled Stop It With the Coronavirus Curfews Already, subtitled Self-imprisonment orders from panicky politicians are not a prudent way to flatten the curve.

Reason offers a Libertarian slant on the news, an attitude that less government is better than more government. What I like is that it offers an original perspective that differs from Left and Right, and differentiates itself from the party politics that dominate the national stage.

Just by sharing a different perspective I'm told that I have "violated community standards." Sheesh.

And CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? This comment was also cited for violating community standards. I'd written a review of Andy Messerschidt's impressive iconography currently on display at the Duluth Art Institute.

NOW THIS IS EVEN MORE WOW!
Facebook says my review of the book Baseball Haiku is a violation of community standards. What? Because I used the word Japanese to describe the Haiku art form? Or was it something else?

All these Violation Of Community Standards announcements occurred today. The three above occurring in the last hour. The first one that triggered an alarm for them was the following. (Tell me this is not strange.)

Good article in Reason. It begins: "Now that sports have been effectively canceled, there is apparently a new competition afoot in this coronavirus-cursed country: Politicians vying to see who can impose the most freedom-infringing clampdown in the name of flattening the curve." https://reason.com/2020/03/17/stop-it-with-the-coronavirus-curfews-already/?utm_medium=email

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Evidently the Pontiff is unhappy when plebes express opinions that fail to align with Papal decrees.

I am honestly Mystified.

OK, so I dig a little deeper and Facebook states this:

We don't allow people to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a way that's misleading to others.
We define spam as things like:

• Repeating the same comment
• Getting fake likes, follows, shares or video views
• Coordinating likes and shares to mislead others about the popularity of something

1. I did not repeat content intentionally or to my knowledge. I only shared something I wanted to share because I thought it interesting. And how many people shared my book review of American Haiku or Andy Messerschmidt's art show at the Duluth Art Institute?

2. I was not looking for likes. I do not care about likes. I did not know one could follow people, only businesses.

3. Who would I have been coordinating with? Especially the book and art reviews. I am clueless as to who else has shared the Reason articles. I have shared articles many times over the years, as most others do. Why was I flagged this time.

* * * *

I'm more surprised than angry, but quite honestly, this seems nuts.

What do you think?