Pillocks or Zionists?

I have been banned from Facebook for a second time. The first time was some years ago, when I posted a simple statement along the lines of ‘with Brexit, the UK has shot itself in the foot’. The morons who ran the community standards system at Facebook told me that I was advocating violence, rather than just pointing out the stupidity of the UK leaving the European Union. I seem to remember that ban lasted for a week. In this latest episode, I have been permanently banned and was initially told that I have departed from community standards with regard to cybersecurity. The transgressions possibly include: accessing others’ accounts using deception; obtaining others’ login information for unauthorised access by phishing, obtaining account recovery data, or using dodgy code (malware, spyware or greyware); committing or enabling hacking; or spreading spam (see appendix). Not only do I not know enough about computers to do this, but I have no interest in doing so. However, there is one thing I have noticed recently and that is an increase in the number of people who wish to befriend me on Facebook, and when I check them out there are either very few or no posts, or stuff which is bland. This has been something I have had for many years from blokes who want to flog me fossils or minerals (I don’t collect either), or young ladies with much of their anatomy on display. I assumed that the latter were probably from Russian troll farms.

I was also accused of advertising stuff, which I presume you have to pay for, to have it put on Facebook. I advertise nothing. All I do is post stuff that I have written, mostly about politics or science, or comment on other people’s posts. In fact the myriad advertisements on Facebook are one of the exceptionally annoying features of the medium. I certainly see a lot of advertisements, and unless they are of something interesting, I tend to block the advertisers.

If I wish to appeal this latest decision, which I can do in the next 180 days, I apparently have to give them a clear image of my face, presumably along the lines of a passport photograph. This I am very reluctant to do, given that Zuckerberg has hitched his wagon to the Trump fascist caravan, along with people like Bezos and Thiel, and initially, the idiot Musk.

While I was writing this rant, I hunted around the web to see if any other people had had a similar experience recently. What I found was astonishing. Just a quick peruse showed that there were dozens of people who had a similar experience to me. Many were dumbfounded because like me, they believed they had not transgressed any of the rules given as the excuse for their banning.

Again, while I was writing this rant, I stumbled across a video on Substack by a young bloke called Guy Christensen who has been banned permanently from Facebook and Instagram for posting something in support of the Palestinian people1. His story was that Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, has, in the last two years, hired numerous former Israeli Defence Force personnel and installed them as moderators for these platforms, which allows them to decide what is acceptable speech on Meta’s media2. This seemed a bit too far-fetched to me; that was until I chased it up online.

Indeed, Meta has been requested by the Israeli Government to delete posts on Facebook and Instagram, that are even vaguely in support of Palestinians. Citing ‘internal Meta data’ a Dropsite News has revealed that whistleblowers have reported Meta has complied with 94% of these requests since October 7th, 2023, the day of the appalling Hamas attack. This apparently amounts to over 90,000 posts, presumably some of which are mine3-5.

It is perhaps worth noting that even after several years of having no dramas with Facebook, it is only after posting assorted items (referring to the Gaza genocide) here, and sending links to them on Facebook over the last few weeks that I was banned. While I started a couple of years ago writing about Gaza, once in December 20236, once in January 20247, and once in January 20258, they have become more appalled in recent weeks9, and include powerful quotes from Mandy Patinkin10 and Miriam Margolyes11. Some of these have had links posted on assorted other social media. If I did consider submitting a photograph to Facebook, I will probably use a photograph of a deceased relative. However, submitting stuff on the perpetration of the genocide in Palestine by the Israel Defence Force, which I will continue to do, would probably only lead to me being banned again. Perhaps it is time to look somewhere else. One of the sites mentioned by Guy Christensen could be worth looking at. It is called Upscrolled12. I’ll check it out. I might also have a hunt around for others.

Sources

Appendix: Meta rules on cybersecurity13. They do not allow the following:

Attempts to compromise or access accounts via unauthorised means, including:

Accessing accounts, profiles or other Meta entities other than one’s own through deceptive means or without explicit permission from the account, profile or entity owner.
Obtaining, acquiring or requesting another user’s login information, personal information or other sensitive user information for the purpose of unauthorised access, including through the following tactics:
- Phishing, defined as the practice of creating communications or websites that are designed to look like more trusted or reputable communications or websites for the purpose of fraudulently acquiring sensitive user information.
- Social engineering, such as repeated or consistent attempts to harvest or acquire the answers to common account or password recovery questions.
- Malware, Greyware, Spyware or other malicious code, as described below.

Attempts to share, develop, host or distribute malicious or harmful code, including:

Encouraging or deceiving users to download or run files, apps or programs that will compromise a user’s online or data security, including, but not limited to:
- Malware, defined as code or software designed to harm or gain unauthorised access to systems. This includes programs designed to harm computer systems, as well as software designed to extract money from victims, such as ransomware.
- Spyware, defined as code or software that collects data on users and sends it to third parties without the informed consent of the user or that uses the data for illicit purposes (e.g. sextortion, blackmail, illicit access to systems).
- Greyware, defined as code or software which detracts from the use of hardware or software and may be difficult to remove from a computer system or network.
Creating, sharing or hosting malicious software, including browser extensions and mobile applications, on or off the platform that put our users or products and services at risk.
Threatening, admitting to, or enabling hacking – Including by sharing or advertising software, courses or products that enable people to circumvent security systems, including software that encourages hacking of software or credentials
Providing online infrastructure, including web hosting services, domain name system servers and ad networks that enables abusive links such that a majority of those links on our services violate the spam or cybersecurity sections of the Community Standards.

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Pillocks or Zionists?