The Minion Memes are Okay, But Not This?
March 10, 2020 7:17 AM Subscribe
I have Facebook, locked to friends-only. I also have a blog about classic movies. Most of my Facebook posts are simply links to my latest blog posts with a brief "hey, it's a new post" message. But last night, four of those posts got blocked by Facebook for "violation of community standards". …..Why? And how can I make sure it doesn't happen again?
The only thing I can think is that somehow I've triggered an algorithm that thinks I'm spamming people, or that I've run afoul of the "intellectual property" algorithm by featuring a screenshot from each movie in my review, that is showing up on the preview of the link. If it's the screenshot, I can easily just not display that image. But if it's some kind of spam trap, I need to know how to contact a human being to override that - I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm not charging anything, my blog is simply me yammering about movies.
Please note that I will need to keep Facebook since this is how many of my family members stay abreast of each other, and my leaving Facebook means that Aunt Mary or Cousin Mike no longer would get to read my blog.
The only thing I can think is that somehow I've triggered an algorithm that thinks I'm spamming people, or that I've run afoul of the "intellectual property" algorithm by featuring a screenshot from each movie in my review, that is showing up on the preview of the link. If it's the screenshot, I can easily just not display that image. But if it's some kind of spam trap, I need to know how to contact a human being to override that - I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm not charging anything, my blog is simply me yammering about movies.
Please note that I will need to keep Facebook since this is how many of my family members stay abreast of each other, and my leaving Facebook means that Aunt Mary or Cousin Mike no longer would get to read my blog.
Why?
You know how every question about why cats do something can only be answered completely accurately with "because cats are weird"?
Because Facebook is fucked, that's why. Algorithmic curation, especially when performed on behalf of a corporation whose overriding goal is maximum intrusion into the lives of all users, is just going to do shit like this until it doesn't.
If enough people in your position were to kick up a stink about it then Facebook might be motivated to re-tweak whatever tweak they just applied to their entire user base that makes this happen to your usage-style minority du jour. But don't count on it. Facebook is big enough now not to give two shits about what its users think; the only reason to be on Facebook is because that's where everybody else is, and that fact is now so far past the tipping point for self-sustainability that they simply don't need to care.
posted by flabdablet at 7:36 AM on March 10, 2020 [4 favorites]
You know how every question about why cats do something can only be answered completely accurately with "because cats are weird"?
Because Facebook is fucked, that's why. Algorithmic curation, especially when performed on behalf of a corporation whose overriding goal is maximum intrusion into the lives of all users, is just going to do shit like this until it doesn't.
If enough people in your position were to kick up a stink about it then Facebook might be motivated to re-tweak whatever tweak they just applied to their entire user base that makes this happen to your usage-style minority du jour. But don't count on it. Facebook is big enough now not to give two shits about what its users think; the only reason to be on Facebook is because that's where everybody else is, and that fact is now so far past the tipping point for self-sustainability that they simply don't need to care.
posted by flabdablet at 7:36 AM on March 10, 2020 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: Hi Bill - if you wanna MeMail me contact info, maybe we can combine forces. I'm going to experiment with posting my next link WITHOUT that screenshot image and see if that makes any difference, and if it helps shed light I'd be happy to pass on my report.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:37 AM on March 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:37 AM on March 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
maybe the fact that you mostly post links to the same site is somehow setting off a facebook alarm that you're a spambot or something?
That would get your flagged on most reddit-like sites, so maybe facebook is using a similar moderator function somewhere?
I'm not sure I have a suggestion, other than maybe posting a bit that isn't just links so facebook thinks you're real? - I know that facebook periodically blocks the use of some URL shorteners like tinyurl, so if you're using one of those you could stop, too?
posted by euphoria066 at 7:46 AM on March 10, 2020
That would get your flagged on most reddit-like sites, so maybe facebook is using a similar moderator function somewhere?
I'm not sure I have a suggestion, other than maybe posting a bit that isn't just links so facebook thinks you're real? - I know that facebook periodically blocks the use of some URL shorteners like tinyurl, so if you're using one of those you could stop, too?
posted by euphoria066 at 7:46 AM on March 10, 2020
Anecdotally, so take this with a grain of salt, a friend who is currently taking a course to learn how to improve his organization's social media presence told me that Facebook now heavily disfavors links to external sites -- so a post containing a link to a YouTube video will get much less exposure than a post containing a Facebook video. Aggressively identifying external links as spam could be part of the same set of policies.
posted by mekily at 7:49 AM on March 10, 2020
posted by mekily at 7:49 AM on March 10, 2020
I got kicked off fb for 24 hours after I posted a photo of a pigeon reading a book called “pooping on people” with the caption “I’m hanging him up in the bathroom”. I got a note saying this was hate speech. So I can vouch that fb is random and dumb and although I used it for family stuff that made me mad enough to just close my account. No one from fb ever answers my request for review btw so....I feel like there’s not much you can do to avoid these things without any known guidelines. So dumb.
posted by yodelingisfun at 12:24 PM on March 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by yodelingisfun at 12:24 PM on March 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
There's at least a plausible rationale for that one, based on context-blind idiot machine recognition of the phrase "I'm hanging him". Betcha you'd have had no problem if what you'd said was that you intended to display this in the bathroom.
But be that as it may, I thoroughly approve of the solution you adopted. Fuck Zuck.
posted by flabdablet at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2020
But be that as it may, I thoroughly approve of the solution you adopted. Fuck Zuck.
posted by flabdablet at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2020
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Due to my own podcast and blog about old monster movies, I run with a lot of other movie podcasters and bloggers and one in particular is getting flagged exactly as you are.
He is unable to post is own blog posts on FB, they are marked as spam, I believe.
I am uncertain as to WHY he's getting these messages about "community standards" but I wanted to let you know you're not the Lone Ranger here.
I know he is still working on getting some sort of answer.
Another twist is that sometimes other folks on FB can't share his blog posts, either.
Sorry, I don't have an answer, just wanted you to know this is recent and you are not alone.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 7:28 AM on March 10, 2020 [1 favorite]