Sometimes things just drop into you lap…

Yesterday I wrote about the ability that the large monopolies have to censor any of us at any time…

I have a Facebook friend from elementary school. Really nice person then and now. She posts about her dogs, her horses and her 100+ year old Father. Nothing ever negative or political.

She just posted this morning that her friend who only posts positive messages and quotes scripture was suspended from Facebook for 20 days… never posts anything political or negative or demeaning…

I’m grateful that my posts have not been censored…YET….

Not such a great thing to be grateful for…

76 thoughts on “Gratitude Saturday”

    1. From what my friend said, she was given no warning or explanation. See….this is exactly what I was trying to warn about yesterday. Everybody is so excited that He was shut up and shut down, they are failing to see the bigger picture. Greatest smoke screen ever. Divert the attention so people don’t see what’s behind the curtain.

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      2. Someone commented yesterday that they can disengage from Amazon at any time. I asked what he would do if WordPress got bought by one of them and they banned his page because he writes haiku and they consider that cultural appropriation….

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      1. That’s what my daughter said. But somehow, that’s scarier to me…if I have an enemy, can I just report them and watch while it takes weeks to unravel?

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  3. That also happened to a friend of mine. She quit FB for good. FB has us all classified according to our political leanings. You can find it in settings. I don’t remember the exact place, but if you dig around you can find out how you are categorized.

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      1. I can’t remember where I found out how to see Facebook’s “file” on me but it was there… I too never post anything political or negative, but was surprised @ how much they thought they knew my leanings. I think some of it was based on the advertising they think I would like..pretty sure they get that data from my cookie crumbs

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  4. I don’t do facebook, but maybe it was due to the content of a ‘friend’ comment (as I understand it, they are hard to vet?)
    And the whole reason I do self-hosted WP is because I own my own website/content and can screen all comments if so desired…we can even now ‘unfollow’ our followers – that made my day as a few were porno-trolls.
    But to your point yesterday – yep, gotta stay sharp as best we can.

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    1. But to block someone with no warning or explanation? And to not be able to reach anyone by phone to ask about it? Doesn’t that seem wrong by any standard? While I get they are private….this isn’t right

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  5. Facebook just randomly deleted my NYC photos from a couple of years ago because it included photos of the Weed Wagon. They said I was promoting drug use and when I challenged it I got a note that they were too busy to reconsider decisions.

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    1. Exactly. Things like this are ridiculous because they are out of context. Especially given what is sometimes allowed. And how can you be too busy to explain why your rights were potentially violated?

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  7. Facebook certainly has its issues, just like all other media, social or otherwise. I do appreciate that they finally have warnings on some posts that are blatantly false. People who keep sharing them deserve to be fact checked. It’s all a little too late IMO.

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      3. I’m not sure, but I’ve seen a lot of anti gay slurs in the guise of holier than thou rhetoric. Honestly, IMO that song is vulgar for the sake of being vulgar but that’s another subject. I have mostly chosen the no explicit version of songs for my playlists. Why fill my head with lazy, ugly language?

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      4. Anything can be used for bad. Should we ban Mark Twain? Is that book really derogatory? I just read A Woman is No Man. The book shows how the Quran can be used to advocate violence against women. Do we ban the Quran or this particular novel? Who decides? An algorithm? A person? And to be given no reason for being censored? How is that fair treatment?

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      6. Well, as it’s complicated, we should not be letting Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple or Microsoft the license to answer or fix it

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    1. There’s a point where hyper vigilance leads to guilty before proven innocent, and profiling. Aren’t we supposed to be going against that?

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      1. I was listening to some people talk about it and they were talking about putting “speed bumps” into the process. It would slow down the process of liking and retweeting. If someone had to go to the trouble of copying and pasting something, MAYBE they would think twice. Of course, I believe in freedom of speech, but private companies have terms of use that you have to agree with in order to use their platform so that protects them in a way. I think fact checking needs more work.

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      1. I’m making light of it..but I really shouldn’t. Just got done reading an article about the suffering of restaurant owners..no indoor dining, restrictions on alcohol, add that to this and you have some scary witches brew cookin’..

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      2. I know. Yet people are too concerned about eliminating the words mother and father and replacing it with parents because that makes everyone feel better…

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      3. As if communication wasn’t already an issue, and that’s with people for whom english is a first language! I was signing my mom up with the hospital’s online system so she has a hope of getting her covid vaccine and our little community hospital is now using all “neutral” language..my mom would have been so hopelessly confused.

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      5. Can’t do it LA..We need six categories: Have one, don’t have one, want one, don’t want it anymore, working towards getting one, working towards getting rid of it. (And all of a sudden, calling everyone “their” seems like a good option.)

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  13. Wow! It makes zero sense to me that Facebook should shut down your friend’s account. They should, at the very least, provide their reasoning for such a move. And yes, it is worrisome that big online companies have so much power. Perhaps our governments can make laws to govern their activities. I hope they do.

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  14. Now, now, it’s easy. Just repeat after me-

    “Do not question our tech overlords for they know what is best for the masses.”

    The individual is an extremely dangerous entity. And when allowed to speak freely becomes exponentially more dangerous. Accept their label and step in line with the group.

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      2. This morning the headline interview on Chris Matthews was Tim Cook, the story being is big tech being too intrusive, pretty much what I asked the other day. Cook said it is Apples job to solve some of the countries biggest issues. I can’t tell you that was it exactly, but you get the gist. I want to know why he didn’t think Snowden and people getting killed because of what he leaked wasn’t serious enough for them to get Snowden’s password….I’m pretty sure that was treason too.

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  16. Someone could have reported your friend and so FB shut her down until it was investigated. Sometimes it’s swearing, sometimes it’s a word that has a double meaning, sometimes, it’s a repost she forwarded and sometimes it’s nothing. But they have stricter laws now since there were so many Q anon sites they neglected to ban. So now they are on high alert. My cousin was banned and she was clueless as to why. We figured out it was something she reposted. It was a political joke and didn’t seem offensive. Quite honestly I’m amazed I haven’t been banned for expressing my liberal views.

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    1. Haley said that too. But the thought of being reported scares me more. Does this mean we now tell in one another if we do something they don’t like, or have a different opinion? This doesn’t seem right to me at all

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  18. Facebook needs to get itself together. It’s a screaming hot mess. And honestly, a bit too little too late in the trying to “fix” it is what’s caused this situation. How disappointing that your kind and caring friend is in this predicament!

    I’ve become such an FB creeper, just going on there to see who’s doing what. Turns out two of our HS classmates just got married, ten of my friends (actual real life friends) got the covid shot. I like seeing people’s kids and pets. I’m a HUGE fan of meme-y Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny posts. I can’t FB too much anymore. It’s depressing. It’s disappointing. It makes me feel old and tired.

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    1. I like the family stuff…hearing about people and their offspring. Fun pics. I’m tired of the sharing of ridiculous stuff. I want fun when I’m on Facebook. If I wanted news I’d turn it on

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  19. It has gotten really bad. I was told today of a woman who only posts inspiring quotes and pictures of flowers. Her account has been suspended. She called the number provided and was only able to talk to a computer who was, of course, unable to provide her with a reason. I think the only thing we can do is completely get rid of our accounts. If no one is on the app, there will be no advertising dollars, and stock will drop. I did it this week and it felt so good. There are fledgling apps that provide for free speech, and they will improve and get bigger servers as the demand increases.

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      1. You are right, and what is scary is when that bleeds over to reports to government. They don’t even need to be factual. That is a future scenario that I hope never happens, but when you talk to people who have lived under communism, it seems like a real possibility.😞

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      2. You know what scared me? I was watching an interview with Tim Cook and he said that his goal is to solve the worlds problems. What does that mean, and who appointed him to decide what is and isn’t worthy?

        Liked by 1 person

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