It is the end of March 2022 and just when I think that I have seen everything weird on Facebook, I am once again surprised by the platform and its seemingly deliberate self-destruction. The latest own-goals or foot-in-the-mouth episodes revolve unsurprisingly, around censorship and security.
It really does seem that the ‘bots’ running Facebook are programmed to create havoc and make the platform a laughing stock. I am beginning to think that Facebook is well on the way to becoming the Internet’s biggest joke. If it is not so already. It would indeed be funny, if so many did not rely upon the platform for communication.
The ongoing (at the time of writing), Russo-Ukrainian War has thrown up a variety of problems. Some of them relate to censorship and some to misinformation. There appears to be an element of confusion over what is acceptable and what can be shared. Yet we are also seeing (and not just on Facebook), a great deal of carefully edited propaganda. The news being shared is often edited in such a way that we are unable to perceive the truth of what is happening. We see only a one sided story that lacks proper context. This is to be expected but the unquestioning attitude of the masses is disappointing.
The manipulation is evident but inconsistent, confusing and subject to error. While we are all being persuaded to fly our Ukrainian flags and if you refuse to succumb to such requests, face defriendment. Facebook penalises others for expressing their views forcefully. One woman I know was temporarily banned from Facebook for posting; ‘f**k the Russians.’ Did Facebook ban her for the use of the word f**k? If so, why are so many others who use the word so freely; not now facing similar bans? Could it be (and I do not seriously believe this), that Facebook objects to people being rude about the Russians and secretly supports the Russian invasion?
It is very puzzling but perhaps the real problem is that Facebook has grown so large and so unwieldy; that the automatic programmes that run it can no longer cope. I am sure that most people on Facebook (outside of Russia and China anyway), would quite happily like to see the Russians get ‘f**ked’ in the Ukraine. Perhaps even as far as getting ‘f**ked’ up the Urals. Yet this issue as outlined above, makes the platform a source of justifiable ridicule. Incidents such as this are an embarrassment for Facebook, no doubt about that but the people behind ‘Meta’ are oblivious of such errors.
The second issue facing the more high profile user, is security and account validation. The introduction of ‘Facebook Protect’ that requires unnecessarily stringent proof of account ownership, has led to some people losing control of their accounts altogether. This new security measure has yet to affect me, although I have a like or fan page, I am not a high profile personality. This blog and my own Facebook page does have reach but not enough to get the attention of the Facebook algorithms.
Those high profile users who are unable to satisfy the new Facebook benchmarks and the validation requirements, have faced a loss of material and followers. Years of work has been lost and they cannot even message their followers, to ask them to switch to a new page. They are faced with having to rebuild afresh from a new page and because of this, some have chosen to leave Facebook altogether. Their attempts to contact Facebook and communicate with a person as opposed to an automatic service, have proved futile in many cases.
The big question that remains however, is why are Facebook doing this? We appreciate the need for security. I am sure we all know someone who has had their account cloned. I know of one writer who has had his publishing page cloned. There is no doubt that Facebook has security issues but if users are denied access to their own created pages, there must be a flaw in the system somewhere.
As is often the case with Facebook and other web based organisations, there are no satisfactory explanations forthcoming. There are no ‘humans’ available to address the issues and so, users will remain dissatisfied. The public image of Facebook has been marred for years now but to me anyway, everything they do only makes the situation worse.
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https://www.facebook.com/The-Chattering-Magpie-55497799224/
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Daniel Bran Griffith - The Chattering Magpie 
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