After 13 years and losing 860+ friends, being censored hurts. I've been with Facebook longer than most of my adult relationships.
Do you suppose it was because I am a female writer with the audacity to write books specifically for women? Or could it really be the "scandalous" art on the book cover that others can post, but the writer cannot? I honestly do not know the answer because there is no one at Facebook to ask these crucial questions.
There is no legal recourse for censoring, silencing, and oppression on Facebook. A senior attorney at the Civil Liberties Union of NY informed me that Facebook is a private entity and can do whatever they want because we agree to their terms to use it. Although Facebook seems like a public forum, it is not. Free speech and individual rights are not guaranteed as they would be in a public town square.
Don't you find it unnerving when friends suddenly disappear without explanation only to emerge a month later feeling ragged and beat down by a system that suddenly yanks access without due process, leaving others shaken and afraid that they will be next?
Facebook acts more like a totalitarian regime than a "social" media platform, and it is getting worse by the day. What are we really getting in exchange for our freedom and sale of our personal information for advertising and God-knows-what-else? All we want to do is connect with each other, share ideas and laugh at kitten photos. We want community, not an abusive platform that mines our data for dollars and takes money from foreign entities to create division and skew elections.
Have you ever wondered how Mark Zuckerberg became a $113.5 billionaire*? He did it by selling our personal data and access to our eyes and minds. There may be no fee to join Facebook, but we definitely pay a cost. He saw our need to connect, rounded us up like cattle and sold us out.
I am moving to the MeWe community, an open forum with no censoring, no advertising, and no selling of personal information. Yes, it is new, and most of your friends won't be on it, but it is similar to Facebook and simple to use. Perhaps we can migrate to MeWe as we migrated from MySpace to Facebook years ago. I hope you try MeWe because I will miss seeing photos of your pets, families and the fantastic meals you enjoy! Please friend me at https://mewe.com/i/cathynorton3. If you find any other cool, safe places to connect online, please drop a note in the comments.
I've also decided to move my reader's forum to my website, so I will never lose access to it. I am still setting it up, so please give me a minute to figure it out. Thanks so much.
*per Google on 10/30/2021
Image courtesy of MeWe.com
Comments