Member-only story
The BBC Got Me Suspended
Reposting a BBC article landed me a three-day stint in Facebook Jail.
Sunday evening, October 3, 2021 Frances Haugen appeared on CBS News 60 Minutes and explained how social media titan Facebook is damaging to teen psyches and American democracy.
The following day — coincidence or not — as Ms. Haugen testified before a congressional committee the world at large experienced a blackout on the trio of platforms Facebook owns.
Somehow, I managed to live through the great Facebook/Instagram outage of 2021. (Apparently…I have a job!)
I woke up Tuesday and began my usual morning routine of checking notifications and news headlines and, to my surprise, found that in all the time Facebook spent dealing with downed platforms and PR damage control, they generously found the spare time to suspend my account for three days.
Why?
On September 27, 2021, I reposted an article from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Afghan citizens who were supportive of the Taliban. I made no alterations to the article or the pull quote and reshared it to a private discussion group as it was originally posted by the BBC.
The BBC got me suspended!
Like…what!?
