No? Well…<\/p>\n
My relationship with Facebook has always been amiable and simple. I use it primarily to see photos and videos of my brand new great-nephew, Jack, in his very jazzy onesies with matching caps. And then I go on to photos and videos of baby animals.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, when on Facebook, I replied briefly to a comment from a pal and then walked away from the computer for a minute. Glass of water, or something.<\/p>\n
When I returned, there it was \u2013 a tinted box on my screen containing a message from Facebook, couched as a communiqu\u00e9 from a strict schoolmarm. Here\u2019s the gist: FB was not going to publish my comment because it contained derogatory and\/or otherwise unacceptable language. FB suggested I consider amending what I\u2019d written.<\/p>\n
Into what hellhole of depravity had I sunk to deserve the censure of Facebook?<\/p>\n
Well, during the 2018 election campaigns, I read news about Cindy Hyde-Smith,<\/a> a GOP senatorial candidate in the deep South, a woman who had openly been exhibiting a distinctly antebellum, um, philosophy.<\/a><\/p>\n I’d seen some of a news conference she’d given in which she was questioned about her…uh…political philosophy. I have never seen anyone running for office so bad at communicating with the media. That was a nice way of saying Cindy Hyde-Smith appeared to be substantially stupid. A GOP wrangler stood by her side and answered a lot of the questions directed at her. When she answered questions, she’d say, “I refer to my previous statement about that.” Over and over.<\/p>\n It was mind-boggling, back in the days when I still had a mind available to be boggled.<\/p>\n Although I don\u2019t get my news via social media, some of these Hyde-Smith stories had also appeared on my Facebook page and had stimulated my Facebook cohort to offer comments about this candidate. Here are a few: \u201cold bitch;\u201d \u201cbum bitch;\u201d \u201cskeletal thing;\u201d \u201cthe C…nt;\u201d \u201cold cow;\u201d \u201clow-lifer;\u201d \u201cdanger to society;\u201d \u201chang her high!\u201d \u201cA germ.\u201d<\/p>\n Two women friends shared remarks about the candidate\u2019s professed Christian faith and questioned how any Christian could be a racist. Or how any racist could call herself Christian. I think hypocrisy was cited; it usually is in such cases.<\/p>\n So there they were, my Facebook friends, laying out the word string, \u201chypocrite, racist, Christian,\u201d when I helped by adding the supplemental \u201cwhite trash.\u201d<\/p>\n BAM. Facebook swatted me.<\/p>\n Was I crushed? Hardly.<\/p>\n In fact, since Facebook had been in the news then — and still is — precisely for not doing to malevolent trolls what it did to me, I felt censored right into the zeitgeist.<\/p>\n No longer a fairly obscure writer, I was part of this huge story. (For a few seconds I worked on a proportionately modest swagger.)<\/p>\n But I was also mystified. Because, on the flip side of this new universe, I\u2019ve never been a victim of Facebook\u2019s inadequacy in censoring or tagging fake news and vile propaganda. Indeed, when I first learned about troll farms, I made a valiant effort to find some of their stuff on Facebook. Never could.<\/p>\n As for privacy, if Facebook has been selling my personal traits in the Marketplace, the Marketplace has not gotten what it paid for. I\u2019ve never clicked on an intrusive ad, never once bit on enticing links to, \u201cGuaranteed to get rid of stomach fat!\u201d I\u2019ve never bought anything advertised on Facebook or through any other internet advertising vehicle.<\/p>\n If my identity has been ripped off, why am I still sitting here fully integrated, my financial doings undiminished, my privacy uninvaded?<\/p>\n So good for me, bad for Mississippi, whose junior senator is now Cindy Hyde-Smith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No? Well… My relationship with Facebook has always been amiable and simple. I use it primarily to see photos and videos of my brand new great-nephew, Jack, in his very jazzy onesies with matching caps. And then I go on … Continue reading