Monday Musings: On Being Put in "Censorship Timeout!"

I was talking to a friend on the phone earlier today and she was all up in arms because she had been given a 48 hour "time out" by Facebook.

Once I could get her to calm down enough to try to explain what actually was going on - and move on past the fact that she was just angry because somebody was telling her what to do - she explained that it was her understanding that she had received a temporary suspension for recommending a food supplement that somebody else had been suspended for recommending as an antidote to COVID during a time when countermanding the official narrative would get you suspended by Facebook.

Wow! That's a lot, right?

And yet?

The current suspension had absolutely nothing to do with any such recommendation. In fact she was recommending the supplement for a completely different purpose and one that didn't have anything to do with pseudoscience or dubious claims.

Imagine being banned for recommending a brand of flour for your bread recipe because someone else used that brand of flour to make a bomb...

However, it would seem that the negative connotations with this particular supplement "attached" somehow and now she was getting in trouble for having it in her Facebook feed... In this different capacity.

The ridiculousness of it all struck me as being not all that different from some of the shenanigans we used to go through with friends... in junior high school.

Perhaps you remember them:

"I'm sorry I can't be friends with you anymore because you know Bill whose brother Joe had a fight with Jack who is my enemy!"

Wait... What?

Just thinking about these circuitous routes of "guilt by association" really makes me want to sit and just shake my head.

While I'm at it, I'm gonna just add a footnote here that this is not a statement about Hive, decentralization or the benefit of not being deplatformed here in our community.

Whereas I definitely appreciate that particular quality this post has more to do with what I consider soft censorship in our time.

What's more, the process of even understanding the many and often contradictory narratives makes the whole issue of "what to say" a bit like sailing through a mine field!

It leaves a great many people caught between the proverbial rock and hard place... and often with their livelihoods on the line. Which ultimately perhaps suggests that being independent (aka, self-employed) is against some official narrative since it might give people the impression they actually get to think for themselves...

Now that's a scary thought!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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Created at 2024-06-11 01:35 PDT
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