Canceled by a Bot
For a few years, when Facebook was in its infancy and I was still teaching small children, I peeked in periodically, but I didn’t engage. I marveled at people who posted three, four, five, or more times a day. I was still trying to figure out how to find an unfettered hour in the evening when I wasn’t grading papers, planning lessons, or making phone calls to parents to applaud their children’s efforts.
And then, in 2009, I retired from my 30-year teaching career and started an online nourishment counseling business. To do this effectively, I needed to garner “a following” through newsletters, blogs, social media—every avenue available to me. Pretty soon, “I” was that person posting three, four, five, or more times a day. It paid off. I collected 30,000 fans on my Chocolate for Breakfast Fan Page. I had a thriving blog. I even found myself writing in two highly regarded magazines: Oprah and Runner’s World. They pitched me. I had no idea just how remarkable that was until, many years later, I began submitting poems and essays to literary journals and magazines.
I don’t think we truly understand how much we “turn over” when we attach ourselves to social media platforms. My first rude awakening occurred when Facebook decided we had to pay to play. My “fan page” went from phenomenal engagement with hundreds of individuals responding to and interacting with my posts, to … crickets. Facebook changed the algorithm and my followers disappeared virtually overnight.
That should have been a major red flag but I stayed on the platform because, by that time, I’d also become quite accustomed to (and enamored with) my ability to interact with friends and family members all over the world.
And then, last week, seconds after posting a reminder on my personal Facebook page (and in a group I run) that historian
I could use any of the following documentation: passport; driver’s license; National ID card; marriage certificate; official name-change paperwork; green card, residence permit or immigration papers; tribal identification or status card; voter ID; family certificate; visa; National Age Card; immigration registration card; tax identification card.
This was after the request for “live” facial recognition.
I grabbed the least vulnerable form of ID, my voter registration card, and snapped a photo. I was told, via Facebook Messenger, that my ID would be stored securely and deleted within 30 days— “after we finish confirming your identity.” I was told, also via Facebook Messenger, “We might use trusted service providers to help review your information.”
The process took less than 24 hours. The next day I received notice that my account had been permanently disabled with no further opportunity to appeal. Twenty years of memories, photos, groups I’ve managed; the little notices that showed up in my Facebook feed reminding me of the week I spent in Paris; myriad pages and posts I’d saved. Don’t even get me started on the 2000 friends and followers, relationships fostered over each iteration of my life. Or the 30,000 individuals I collected on that FB fan page.
Oh, and did I mention the link that initiated the shutdown was a Red Wine & Blue event featuring Heather Cox Richardson who was scheduled to speak about the threats inherent in Pr0ject 2025? In the days that followed my removal from Facebook, friends and colleagues chimed in to say that the Pr0ject 2025 references they were posting on Facebook to educate their friends were being flagged by a bot.
Coincidence or calculated response? We’ll never know.
To learn more about this project:
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https://navigatorresearch.org/the-policies-of-project-2025-a-guide-for-progressives/?
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Sue Ann, I am so sorry this happened to you. I know very well the beauty, inspiration, connection, and leadership you have curated on that platform and FB is much worse off for the loss. xo
Sue Ann - the Red, Wine and Blue speaker who hosted Heather Cox R. said that it was meta doing this. Then they say to confirm your identity if you put up politcal ads. So far I've been ok with Red, Wine & Blue material on my site. Fingers crossed.