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I believe I have accumulated two moderation strikes on my Facebook account for (relatively politely) calling out posts for being racist/xenophobic. Both cases

by epgui 1y ago

I believe I have accumulated two moderation strikes on my Facebook account for (relatively politely) calling out posts for being racist/xenophobic. Both cases my comments were flagged as promoting hate, ironically. The appeal mechanism is a joke: you press a button, and two seconds later you get a notification saying your appeal was reviewed and denied.

pesus 1y ago
I got a week long ban for calling someone out for being a Nazi. The person openly praising Hitler did not get banned at all. At the time I thought it was mere incompetence, but in hindsight, it seems more like intentional malice.
- AceJohnny2 1y ago
  "Shoot the messenger!"
- bachmeier 1y ago
  Are you implying that being banned from Facebook is a bad thing?
  - qualeed 1y ago
    I'm pretty sure they are implying that it might be a bad policy to not ban nazis.
  - bryanrasmussen 1y ago
    even if you would think people should be happy about being banned, they always get annoyed https://medium.com/luminasticity/facebook-deleted-my-account-after-i-posted-about-delicious-cranberry-muffins-abeecbe25f09 https://medium.com/luminasticity/facebook-deleted-my-account...
  - pesus 1y ago
    Depends on the reason. I'm saying that banning someone for calling out a Nazi and not banning the Nazi is a bad thing.
- vkou 1y ago
  It's not intentional malice, it's just 2025 - an age where calling someone a fascist or a racist is worse than being one. If that doesn't make a lick of sense to you - it's simple. The latter is an offense against a nebulous, undefined outgroup of people, while the former offends a particular person. It's the same reason why someone can steal a dollar from a million people, but why you'd go to jail for punching the thief in the face.
  - pesus 1y ago
    This was back around 2019 or so, but you're not wrong at all. Back then Zuckerburg et al at least pretended to be against hate speech. It's so much worse now.
  - 2980672166760 1y ago
    "Everyone I disagree with is a nazi"
    - pesus 1y ago
      Did you miss the part of my 2 sentence comment where they openly praised Hitler? That makes someone a Nazi.
      - vkou 1y ago
        I think they were aiming to provide a live demonstration of my postulate.
      - deleted 1y ago
        [deleted]
- rl3 1y ago
  >The person openly praising Hitler did not get banned at all. Content moderation at Meta is a joke now. I reported an account multiple times for hate speech. The account's photos were comprised entirely of racist caricatures of black people. Like absolutely vile, hateful shit. Each time, I received a notification along the lines of: [paraphrasing] "We found that the account in question did not violate our community standards. Therefore, we did not take any action. Thanks for the report." Yeah, OK. Gross.
  - Tostino 1y ago
    I don't think I've ever gotten a response from a corporation other than "this totally obvious Nazi adjacent content seems fine to me".
  - anthem2025 1y ago
    [flagged]
AceJohnny2 1y ago
Was this within the last couple years? How much you wanna bet the appeal is handled by an AI.
- dragonwriter 1y ago
  Its probably just a variant on a placebo button.
  - analognoise 1y ago
    Where if you have the temerity to complain, you’re immediately labelled a rebellious non-conformer and banned forever.
brianmurphy 1y ago
[flagged]
anthem2025 1y ago
[flagged]
maxwell-neumann 1y ago
I’ve experienced something similar in attempting to report very explicit and outrageously racist posts and comments. Zero action on blatant neo-Nazism (including specific threats of violence), and several lost appeals. However, far more benign posts and comments that don’t really violate the ToS are often flagged. This is quite prevalent on Instagram especially, which is quite worrying as it’s acting as a radicalisation tunnel for large numbers of impressionable young people. It’s almost as if the algorithm attempts to throw you into a far-right rabbithole because they know it boosts engagement.
- zamber 1y ago
  That's exactly what happens. The algo does not judge how hurtful a rabbithole may be - it optimizes for engagement with some moderation sprinkled on top. I've tried to make my facebook feed palatable for a couple months and eventually passed up on trying. I'd rather IM my family about cat photos than engage with their fringe political views. Same goes for colleagues on LinkedIn. Tentacrul did a good video on it and more across the years https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyJBJTHyO0&pp=ygUWZmFjZWJvb2sgaGlzdG9yeSB0ZW50YdIHCQmyCQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyJBJTHyO0&pp=ygUWZmFjZWJvb2s...
torginus 1y ago
Had this happen to me on Reddit. After I reported a post, nothing happened, then I messaged the mods, and they agreed with me that the post should be taken down and they did. A day after it was taken down, I got a warning message from Reddit that my report has been rejected, and I should stop falsely reporting content, or else.
euroderf 1y ago
FWIW, I've been cut off twice, appealed twice, been reprieved twice. Some heckler I guess.

by epgui 1y ago

pesus 1y ago

I got a week long ban for calling someone out for being a Nazi. The person openly praising Hitler did not get banned at all. At the time I thought it was mere incompetence, but in hindsight, it seems more like intentional malice.

AceJohnny2 1y ago
"Shoot the messenger!"
bachmeier 1y ago
Are you implying that being banned from Facebook is a bad thing?
- qualeed 1y ago
  I'm pretty sure they are implying that it might be a bad policy to not ban nazis.
- bryanrasmussen 1y ago
  even if you would think people should be happy about being banned, they always get annoyed https://medium.com/luminasticity/facebook-deleted-my-account-after-i-posted-about-delicious-cranberry-muffins-abeecbe25f09 https://medium.com/luminasticity/facebook-deleted-my-account...
- pesus 1y ago
  Depends on the reason. I'm saying that banning someone for calling out a Nazi and not banning the Nazi is a bad thing.
vkou 1y ago
It's not intentional malice, it's just 2025 - an age where calling someone a fascist or a racist is worse than being one. If that doesn't make a lick of sense to you - it's simple. The latter is an offense against a nebulous, undefined outgroup of people, while the former offends a particular person. It's the same reason why someone can steal a dollar from a million people, but why you'd go to jail for punching the thief in the face.
- pesus 1y ago
  This was back around 2019 or so, but you're not wrong at all. Back then Zuckerburg et al at least pretended to be against hate speech. It's so much worse now.
- 2980672166760 1y ago
  "Everyone I disagree with is a nazi"
  - pesus 1y ago
    Did you miss the part of my 2 sentence comment where they openly praised Hitler? That makes someone a Nazi.
    - vkou 1y ago
      I think they were aiming to provide a live demonstration of my postulate.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
rl3 1y ago
>The person openly praising Hitler did not get banned at all. Content moderation at Meta is a joke now. I reported an account multiple times for hate speech. The account's photos were comprised entirely of racist caricatures of black people. Like absolutely vile, hateful shit. Each time, I received a notification along the lines of: [paraphrasing] "We found that the account in question did not violate our community standards. Therefore, we did not take any action. Thanks for the report." Yeah, OK. Gross.
- Tostino 1y ago
  I don't think I've ever gotten a response from a corporation other than "this totally obvious Nazi adjacent content seems fine to me".
- anthem2025 1y ago
  [flagged]

AceJohnny2 1y ago

Was this within the last couple years? How much you wanna bet the appeal is handled by an AI.

dragonwriter 1y ago
Its probably just a variant on a placebo button.
- analognoise 1y ago
  Where if you have the temerity to complain, you’re immediately labelled a rebellious non-conformer and banned forever.

brianmurphy 1y ago

[flagged]

anthem2025 1y ago

[flagged]

maxwell-neumann 1y ago

I’ve experienced something similar in attempting to report very explicit and outrageously racist posts and comments. Zero action on blatant neo-Nazism (including specific threats of violence), and several lost appeals. However, far more benign posts and comments that don’t really violate the ToS are often flagged. This is quite prevalent on Instagram especially, which is quite worrying as it’s acting as a radicalisation tunnel for large numbers of impressionable young people. It’s almost as if the algorithm attempts to throw you into a far-right rabbithole because they know it boosts engagement.

zamber 1y ago
That's exactly what happens. The algo does not judge how hurtful a rabbithole may be - it optimizes for engagement with some moderation sprinkled on top. I've tried to make my facebook feed palatable for a couple months and eventually passed up on trying. I'd rather IM my family about cat photos than engage with their fringe political views. Same goes for colleagues on LinkedIn. Tentacrul did a good video on it and more across the years https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyJBJTHyO0&pp=ygUWZmFjZWJvb2sgaGlzdG9yeSB0ZW50YdIHCQmyCQGHKiGM7w%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MPyJBJTHyO0&pp=ygUWZmFjZWJvb2s...

torginus 1y ago

Had this happen to me on Reddit. After I reported a post, nothing happened, then I messaged the mods, and they agreed with me that the post should be taken down and they did. A day after it was taken down, I got a warning message from Reddit that my report has been rejected, and I should stop falsely reporting content, or else.

euroderf 1y ago

FWIW, I've been cut off twice, appealed twice, been reprieved twice. Some heckler I guess.