Yesterday, I got thrown in Facebook jail for hate speech. I’m currently serving a 3-day sentence (6-days for any group activity). But here’s the deal: the hate speech was AGAINST me, not FROM me.
Around 8 AM PST, some rando slid in my DMs and sent me the following:
In case you are not aware (I also had to look it on Urban Dictionary), a poofter is an Australian slur for gay or otherwise “effeminate” people. Since I’m bi, it’s a slur directed at me.
After having a good laugh, I shared a screengrab of this to my roughly 7,000 followers on Facebook. I also blocked and reported this homophobe. Within an hour, Facebook had locked my account for engaging in “hate speech.” Immediately, I challenged the decision and, to my surprise, within 40 minutes they agreed and apologized.
However, even though they apologized and stated how they “got this wrong,” I am still in Facebook jail. My account is restricted for another 2 days, and I can’t engage in the groups I help run for another 5. For nearly a month, the algorithm will hide my posts in the groups I am in.
FOR BEING CALLED A HOMOPHOBIC SLUR!!!
Now, I realize that much of this is based off an algorithm. But after they acknowledged that they got it wrong, it seems to me that an actual human interacted with this post. That’s why they reversed the algorithmic decision. And yet, I’m still blocked. I was harassed for being openly bisexual, called the Australian equivalent of a f*gg*t, and punished by the social media platform who is supposed to be in charge of eliminating speech like this.
Well, in this instance, and I’m guessing in many others, they got this horribly wrong. Will they care? No. Will they hear the 4 complaints I’ve made since yesterday? No. Will they change their ways? No. Because they are making a shit-ton of money and in today’s society, that’s what matters at the end of the day. They’ll talk a big game about LGBTQ-inclusion, but when it comes down to it, they’ll continually get it wrong.
So, if you follow me on Facebook, bear with me. I can’t post, or comment, or even like others’ comments. Because I was harassed, and Facebook thought I should sit on timeout because yet another Christian decided to spread more of their Christian love hate.
If you wanna get to know me better, please follow me on social media. I’m pretty active on all platforms:
Also, if you’ve been digging my work on here, and want to see me be able to continue writing as close to full-time as humanly possible, please take a look at my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/mjdistefano. Even $1 a month helps bigly!!!
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