Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
As much as I hate to admit, I spend a lot of time on the Facebook Social media site. Too much time, actually. Normally, the time I spend on Facebook could be spent doing more productive things like – taking out the trash. Or, like – digging holes in my backyard that I later fill back in.
However, this past Saturday I found myself placed in “Facebook jail” for twenty-four hours as a result of a meme I posted. The experience was both irritating and exhilarating.
What Did I Do?
So, I guess the first thing my readers will want to know is; “What did I do to get thrown in Facebook jail?” Well, it seems I posted a meme that offended someone in the great Facebook content reviewers department. Way back in 2017 (eons ago for Internet time) Facebook started hiring actual human reviewers to monitor their content. This was in response to pronounced criticism from numerous sources about content such as the thousands of unchecked Russian-sponsored “bots” crawling across Facebook in 2015 and 2016. These bots spread massive dis-information about then-Presidential candidate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and made her then-opponent slime-ball Donald Trump look like a saint (my apologies to actual slime balls). Among other misinformation.
So Facebook hired humans to stomp out misinformation whenever it appeared. Starting in 2018 Facebook actually posted written guidelines about the community standards being enforced. Which probably helped people know why their accounts were getting blocked and even shutdown.
This past Saturday, August 14, 2021, I innocently ran afoul of Facebook’s community standards. I discovered this when I went to “like” a post – I received a pop-up notice stating that because two of my recent posts violated community standards, my account was blocked for twenty-four hours. One post was a meme, the other my commentary on the meme.
Offending Facebook
So first, my Facebook-offending meme.
Accompanying this meme was my commentary.
A Saturday morning public service announcement. I’ve been considering another career change.
And that was it. A violation of “community standards” so dire the almighty Facebook blocked me from commenting or even “liking” any posts for a solid twenty-four hours. A bit of satire at the expense of the ever-increasingly crazy Pro-Coronavirus Pro-Human Sex Trafficking trump-supporting MAGA-morons got me virtual jail time.
Doing It Again
So I guess I am supposed to feel chastened by being out in the penalty box for twenty-four hours. I’ll admit, I experienced a bit of frustration in not being able to comment upon posts or click the “Like” button. For an initial few minutes I experienced panic, thinking my friends would be short-changed not receiving my commentary. But, somehow, the Internet didn’t shut down. My Facebook friends didn’t forget about me. The world moved on. The twenty-four hours penalty passed and I’m back posting and commenting and nobody even seems to have noticed.
So to avoid the horrendous risk of going back into Facebook jail, I will refrain from posting this meme again. Please do not attempt to post this meme yourselves. Really.
