I've now been banned three times from Facebook. There seems to be a sliding scale, the first one was a day, the second was three days and the third seven days with Messenger shut down as well. As I've said being on Social Media is like being in a club, and you need to abide by their rules and the rules need to be consistent and need to address any potential transgression properly, I don't believe Facebook do, and their bans are almost arbitrary, I have reported racist , misogynist and race iting posts to no avail (but they get clicks don't they) , although Facebook has started to ban some extreme right wing groups and pages.
So here's what happened to me (so far):
- I was watching the Peter Greenaway film "Drowning By Numbers" which is rather excellent art film and three women who murder their partners, and it does contain sex and nudity, but it is both funny and well presented. See if you can spot why I was banned. My problem with this is that it was IMDB that posted the image, which again is hardly explicit. The IMDB page is here.
- I then shared a picture of an Helmut Newton image on the wall of No 28, I am OK with this as I thought the lighting on the image obscured the nudity. Facebook decided it didn't. The image is still on my Instagram feed here and is somewhere in my Facebook photographs without the light obscuration (is that a word)
- The current one, which is virtual entrapment was caused by me sharing an image / link that appeared in my Facebook feed. I thought it was amusing so shared it and was immediately hit with a seven day ban from Facebook and Messenger. Because it was instant that meant the Facebook had decided to share it with me knowing I would probably share with others, so it my opinion I was set up. I have no way of complaining or arguing my case because everything, apart from seeing feeds is now banned for me. When I am let back on it won't be worth pursuing this, but I am now worried that anything I share could result in a ban. I am intending to share this post on Saturday and that may result in a month or permanent ban. The link is here. described by "Well, People Are Painting Glittery Easter Eggs Onto Their Butts Now"
The thing is my only contact on Facebook is via Messenger or a Facebook Posts , so if people are contacting me I cannot reply. So basically this is just a "Beware What You Share" PSA , just because it's in your feed doesn't mean Facebook won't ban you for it. The original post I shared is still on Facebook , so obviously there's a lack of consistency as well.
I just wanted to document this the let people know what happened. I've included "Number 2" from the "Drowning By Numbers" film soundtrack by Michael Nyman a long time collaborator of Peter Greenaway.
