“Your account with the
username Spiritual Reflections by Marshall Davis has been suspended for
violating our Standard Terms of Use and Acceptable Use Policy. Please review
our policies for more information on the types of content we don't allow.”
Ouch! I felt like a criminal. What did I do wrong? I reread
my blog post and reviewed the policies carefully, and I could not find any
possible violation. I wanted to think it was because my revolutionary spirituality
was too much for people to handle. But I suspect that the reason is a mention in
my July 4 post of the far-right group The Proud Boys and their merchandising outlet
“1776.”
That was likely caught by some mindless bot or algorithm,
which assumed I was endorsing them rather than condemning what they stand for.
Any human reading my post would have seen what I was saying. But that would mean
involving real humans in the process, and my suspicion is that service uses
only monkeys. (hint!)
I have tried to contact a human with two emails asking for a specific reason for my suspension, but so far I have not heard back. I am
not holding my breath. Unfortunately that means I had to find another means of
distribution. It also means my timely post on the Declaration of Independence is
out of date. But if you are still interested in my thoughts on this historic American
document even after the July 4 holiday, you can access it HERE.
That is assuming I will not be canceled by my new subscription
service for the same unspecified reason. Now I know what it feels like to be President
Trump banned from Facebook. It almost makes me feel sorry for the guy. Almost. Oh,
Oh! I hope that statement is not grounds for being banished again! Careful,
Marshall, Big Brother is watching!
By the way, the new service is called follow.it. They have been very helpful in
transferring my account and all my subscribers – including you - to their service.
They are staffed by real humans with names who answer emails promptly.
Follow.it has lots of options for subscribing if you want to explore it. They even
said that if I posted a link to https://follow.it/
in this article, they would be happy to give me a $10 credit. But of course I would
never do something like that!
This post will be the first time I have used this service, so I will see how well it works in delivering a good looking article to your inbox. I might have to tweak it to get the presentation the way I want it. The last service did not work well at all. A lot of people were not getting my blog. I could not even get them to send it to me! And I never got any help fixing the problems. So in retrospect I guess it was good they suspended me. As the Bible says, “All things work together for good…” Even cancel culture.
I'm a cartoonist and once did an illustration of children holding candles forming a peace symbol. I wanted it as the image on a credit card but was told that the company rejected it because it was "political." Children wanting peace -- political. Huh. I was able to get through to a human and they reversed the decision. I hope this works out for you!
ReplyDeleteAs you know better than I, the Bible says lots of other things about canceling greatly more than what you have described, such as whole cities. But that is not why I write. I enjoy your insightful blogs, so I am pleased that you have secured an alternative vehicle for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDelete(secular humanist, Rod Forsman)
I am not surprised that you were banned by the "company that shall not be named". I read the piece that got you kicked out and it makes sense. They are removing what they consider right-wing, conservative, etc. publishers.
ReplyDeleteIndeed your mention of Proud Boys might have been trigger, but you also used several buzz words such as "unalienable Rights, God, Life, Liberty, 1776, Critical Race Theory, African slaves, Indian savages".
While I don't know the exact construction of the algorithms at "the company that shall..." I do know that combinations of these words and phrases will often indicate right-wing content. It seems context does not matter. -sigh-
Good that you are using another delivery system (thanks for that tip, by the way). I know people who use "the company..." and will be recommending that they find another or at least reduce their dependence on the this one.