Facebook censorship and the curious case of John McAfee
A short story from beyond the pale.
A short story from beyond the pale.
Let me tell you a story.
I may pose a rhetorical question or three along the way too.
On 2nd September 2022, I posted the article linked at the bottom of this introductory paragraph. It was, in short, a film review or a documentary film review of the strange life and strange times that often surrounded one of the world’s most famous men and who’s life continues to echo into a future long after his death. It’s one of my better articles if I may blow my own trumpet as it allowed me to gambol off-piste and outline the love I have for documentary film and the filmmakers who paint the narrative around the jagged periphery edge of the real life story of our central protagonist. I had no particular love or affection for John McAfee but after listening to numerous interviews and podcast appearances over nearly a decade (and then his seemingly suspicious death) I was intrigued enough to watch and thoroughly enjoy this madcap documentary chronicling, for all intents and purposes, the final decade of his strange, strange life.
So my first question is: Why did Facebook immediately ban the promoting of my article and place my account on that beautifully Orwellian sounding “Restriction”?
“Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee” (2022)
“Hello. I’m John McAfee”medium.com
Apparently I’d breached their “Community Guidelines” by promoting or suggesting self harm or suicide and I was to be put on the naughty step for 30 days.
As suicide or self harm is never mentioned within my article (and it was never read by a human being and censored immediately), then presumably the pen picture I chose for the headline of my article must be to blame. It’s fucking mad I’ll grant you. A picture of an arguable madman taken long before his eventual deep dive into the abyss.
Care to take a guess from where I appropriated this picture?
I snaffled it (with due thanks and courtesy) from the Washington Independent but I could have equally said a courteous thank you to Esquire, Wired, IB Times, TecMundo or even Youtube, before using it as the headline image for my article because it’s hard hitting, reflective of the man at the centre of the documentary storm and because it’s fucking mad. Right?
So my next question is: Why is my article censored, without a word being read by a living, breathing, human being and why is it banned entirely on a picture freely available on the internet?
I have exactly 38 followers on Facebook. I do not seek followers and use it purely to stay in touch with old friends and family back home and to post my many and varied articles from here for their viewing pleasure should they so desire. This isn’t even really about censorship and it never was. An algorithm digitally decreed that I was spreading destructive hate and self harm, or of suicide or suicidal thoughts, and after helpfully offering some links for help and advice and mental health awareness, my article was banned and my account placed on restriction for 30 days.
Couldn’t give less of a shit if I actually tried but my question still stands:
Why was my article banned and censored on the basis of a picture freely available on the internet?
The answer is a lack of humanity.
How many human beings at Facebook have read my article?
How many human beings at Facebook can I talk to and convince to reverse their decision?
How many human beings at Facebook have given the article they banned, censored and restricted a fleeting nano-second of consideration?
The answer is of course zero to all of these questions.
And we don’t live in a Matrix?
Postscript
On 11th March 2023 an attempt was made to re-post the very same article under discussion here on my Facebook account.
The very big problem is, it wasn’t me.
So the article banned and censored by a computer algorithm has been banned and censored once more, by a computer algorithm, and even though I didn’t re-post the non-offending article that shouldn’t have been banned and censored in the first place, my account is now on a 60 day restriction.
Because of a computer algorithm.
Care to hazard a guess at how many human beings at Facebook wish to discuss the possible hacking of my account? The re-posting of my article by a third party unknown to me? Perhaps they’d care to explain to me why they’ve censored the free speech of a customer of theirs? Or acknowledge the absurdity of censoring an article, any article, yours, mine or the man in the sea or the man in the moon, based purely on a freely available photograph used throughout the known world?
I’ll see you in the future sometime folks. Buckle up.
Thanks for reading. My library here is a cave of wondrous delights and the best bit is, the entry is free. Alternatively, here are my three most recently published works of future Pulitzer Prize winning ramblings and musings:
That was the week that wasn’t
A letter to a friend.medium.com
“Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Worth every minute. Across every universe.medium.com
Montaña de Madrid demasiado empinada para Rojos galantes
Real Madrid 1 Liverpool 0 (6–2 on aggregate), 15th March 2023.medium.com