I received a warning, doesn’t say for what, but my account “could be restricted” if I violate again. Violate what? Will I be sent to Facebook jail yet again?
I search around in my scrolling and reading, clicking away, sharing posts then I find that a post I shared in a private group, from a reliable source on Facebook, or quite possibly, one I’ve shared from a writer friend, was deemed false and marked on the post ‘content not available’. But that’s not enough. There must be warnings to threaten me as a punishment for sharing such posts that despite showing up on other pages as perfectly legit – without being marked ‘content not available’ on those same articles. And oddly, I’m never told why an article on writing I may have shared from a friend’s blog is deemed false. False because why? How about an explanation besides “article deemed inappropriate”? A book review is not inappropriate, among many other nonsensical rulings.
Funny how posts linger on some pages, and when others share the same post, they get reprimanded from Fakebook. What’s good for the goose is apparently, not good for the gander. If the Fakebook police don’t like it, remove it and move on, even though you’re invading my ‘private group’ space and freedom of thought and speech. Spare me your idiotic messages about why you push your authority, warning me I’m on probation (once again), and putting people in Fakebook jail timeouts. Almost not surprising coming from a site that has a difficult time promoting democratic ads and plays politics with the opposition .
There is no privacy on Fakebook. Most of us know this, yet, there we still are, while they sell our personal info to 3rd parties – where most of those ads come from that follow us. Many of my close writing friends feel mutual sentiments about FB, yet we feel stuck there as a place to stay in touch and interact. Somebody needs to take them on and make a better site WITHOUT privacy invasion. MeWe is the closest to trying, and Sally, me and Colleen and about a dozen other writers gave it a try for awhile, posting just as we always did on FB in various groups we set up. But I don’t think that site is ready for primetime because every group seems private, there’s no newsfeed, and keyword searches for a topic you may be interested seeing posts about, mostly just offer other groups to join, everything seems to be a private group you must join to be able to interact or read anything, that’s an epic fail. The concept is great, but there’s much left to be desired for the user. And then there is Liker.
Liker seems to be a social media site many EX Fakebook patriots have and are moving to by the droves. I’ve only just signed up there, and I’ve seen lots of posts via there prior, and yes, there’s a live newsfeed!. This is their slogan:
Liker is a smarter, kinder social network that is reimagining social media. “Our feed is fully customizable and filled with intelligent posts that are free of hate. We are the kinder, smarter social network .’
I kind of like the idea of freedom of speech without being censored or patroled. It seems like this site is growing daily and is user friendly, so I think I may venture getting more involved with it. Apparently, I’m not alone as a disgruntled Fakebook user, based on the many recommends I’ve read, and some of the comments I’ve seen on Liker:
” Closed my FB account 2 days ago. Pushes Authoritarian rule and with Trump pushes dictatorship.”
“I’ve been in FB jail so many times, I can’t stay out for more than 15 days.”
DGKayewriter.com 
That’s terrible, Debby – we are their innocent victims and they couldn’t care less. There’s no-one to contact, of course, when you need help – despite them making a fortune from our personal data. Toni x
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Correct Toni. There is no support, and even when they take off our content and leave a message, not telling you what the problem is, only leaving a vague statement, and nowhere to dispute their authoritarian rule. 😦 x
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Time we all voted with our feet (or mouse!) I think!
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Right on Anita/Jaye ❤
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I haven’t been sent to Fb jail, Debby. I’m probably too small a fish for them to notice, but it sure can’t be pleasant for you.
I know nothing of Liker and look forward to hearing more about it from you.
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Thanks Norah. I’ll be doing more investigations on Liker, as I’ve only just joined but not yet surveyed everything. 🙂
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Odd. I’ve never been in Facebook jail and when I had my personal account, I let the bucket of manure fly in any direction I wanted. When I posted a meme about Hitler and how to trick people into Socilism, I was warned, and I shot right back at them. They restored the meme and nothing else happened.
My tolerance with Facebook had been waning for about three years and last spring was the last straw. Closed it all down. Now I have a Facebook account in my author name and allow no friends. I consider it a public billboard and post only book stuff to it, leading people away from Facebook. I never lead people to Facebook; it’s not where I want them.
I won’t be trying Liker or any other new social media platform. I prefer my blog, and that’s where I’ll stay. While Liker may claim to give you freedom to post what you want, I can’t see it happening if they stay true to their mission of “free of hate”. What constitutes hate for them? Supporting a particular political figure? Running down one? In a world of billions, everyone has their own version of hate.
I’m a red neck from the backwoods, so a post would have to be pretty crude and threatening for me to claim it as hate. I enjoy a good joke regardless if it’s running down a particular group of people or me. I’ll laugh at just about anything if it’s funny.
Zuckerberg’s teat is to runnig dry. I’m surprised people still promote Facebook and use it as their main platform. A website where I control what is posted and what ads are shown is the best option.
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Bravo to all you said Diane. 🙂
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Oh my gosh, Debby! You are generous, activie, prolific, and pretty. You CAN”T go to Facebook jail. What are they thinking. I wonder if I’m next!
I’ve heard of MeWe, but not Liker. Both probably good venues, but I’m loathe to change because I’m a member of so many FB groups.
Bottom line: When any large entity dominates, their power grab causes havoc as we see.
So sorry, Debby!
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You said it Marian. TOO MUCH POWER. And same as you, I’ve hung in at FB because of the groups and readership, but I detest their policies controling us under their finger what we can and can’t post, locking us out of our pages, and no plausible explanations with zero support. 😦
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No, never heard of ‘Liker’, but it’s good to see you looking for an alternative to Facebook. As you know, I left Facebook some three years ago. I’ve never looked back and know I made the right decision. However, I’m one of those who learned the hard way that spreading yourself too thinly on social media is not good for one’s wellbeing. I’m sticking to just two social media accounts.
Interestingly, recently, I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter saying they’re leaving or deleting their Instagram accounts. I believe Facebook own Instagram? I wonder if people are leaving for the same reasons as you’ve highlighted in your post, Debby?
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Hi Hugh. Yes, I’m with you on spreading thin. I only ever concentrated on two social media sites, FB and Twitter. All the while despising FB for their policies and monopolization of people’s privacy. And yes, I’ve heard of a few closing their Instagrams. I too haven’t even opened my Instagram in almost 2 years. No time. And yes, FB took over Instagram. So not surprised. 😦
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Oh, you violator! Lol. FB was just too much for me, Debby. Parts of it were wonderful, but too much of it got me upset, so I gave it up. I remember when you switched to MeWe, but I wasn’t ready to try another platform. Liker sounds interesting. I hope they end up being a kinder place to visit, but I wonder how they’ll accomplish that without censuring. I’ll be curious to see how it goes.
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So will I Diana. I signed up but having done anything there yet til I do more investigating 🙂 x
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I also get told that I can’t comment on that post: “The content you are trying to react to is not available anymore…” What good is FB if this is what I get? I’ve had a gmail account hacked, and my Instagram account hacked since I came back to FB. I hate it!
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Yup, I know Sis. FB is lawless and fully approved by US senate, carte blanche. Are we really surprised? 😦
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I haven’t heard of Liker. I did seriously downsize my FB pages (I used to have about 10) beecause I don’t like their totalitarian attitudes. Freedom of speech seems to be in the eye of the beholder to them. I have started switching from Twitter to Parler for the same reason.
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Thanks for sharing that Jacqui. Now hmm, what is Parler? Oye! More social media choices lol. 🙂
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Hi Debby! I have not been to FB jail but I have seen many friends go there and not sure what puts them behind those virtual bars. Sharing writing posts doesn’t seem terrible in any way so I’m not sure what the FB algorithym deams is wrong there. I had thought about joining MeWe but now see from your review of it here that it’s not ready for the bigtime so I’ll hold off on creating an account there. I hadn’t even heard of Liker before reading your post. I look forward to hearing more about it and whether it’s worth setting up another password for ~ So many passwords, oh my goodness me! Sending love
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Lol, I hear you on the passwords! I still have a few groups I started on MeWe, perhaps in time I’ll go back there, but I think Liker might be the right one. If I get a good feel for it, I’ll write more about Liker here. ❤ xx
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I’m sorry to read about this, Debby. I’m sure your post wasn’t worthy of “Facebook Jail.” Anything that restricts free speech is a questionable platform. I don’t understand a lot of things about Facebook’s regulations. Another thing that frustrates me is not speaking to someone live when I have a problem. Most of the time, I don’t get any response when I leave a question.
They don’t know who they’re messing with, Debby. Give em hell! Oh, I’ll be sure and write after you get locked up. 😎
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LOL Pete, thanks for being my ‘pen pal’, LOL. Yes, forget it, there is no support on Fakebook. There is a roundabout way to contact them, but nobody I know, including myself has never ever got a reply. 🙂 I’ll check out Liker more specifically on the weekend and see if it’s worth really starting up again. I’ll keep you posted! 🙂
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Thank you Sally Star! ❤
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I am with you Debby, especially after they forced that disneyland format on us. I do use mainly for keeping in touch with friends around the world which it is useful for and also to promote books but always to groups which I thought were least likely to catch the attention of the vindictive little bot beggars with their distorted algorithms that they follow to the letter. The human imput is in those algorithims and clearly they have thrown in a bunch of words that they deem offensive but without the nuance of context. I have reblogged and I will take a look at Liker at some point.
One of my main dislikes of MeWe was the creepy stalkers who thought it was a dating site! I am too old and grumpy to put up with much of that…instead of grateful as they assume!
It will be a shame for FB to lose you because you are such a staunch supporter of so many of us and your sharing there is much appreciated..♥♥
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts here Sal. Yes, we know all about the FB gremlins, don’t we? I’ve stuck around despite my displeasure for that site, for just as you say, sharing and promoting in various groups. I will do more investigating on Liker for us, but so far, I have to say, the system there does seem more like FB layout than MeWe did. I will check on the stalker situation. You are just too damned beautiful and can’t keep those suitors at bay! LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL 🙂 ❤
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It’s all a nightmare, Debby. I haven’t attempted any marketing or promoting of my own books for ages (it achieved nothing, I didn’t like it, and it stressed me out), and my only promotion of others is through reviews and sharing other people’s posts (mostly on Twitter through Triberr). I deleted one of my Facebook pages and haven’t posted anything on groups for a long time, because I also fell foul of rules or regulations that seemed to change every second, and I couldn’t keep up with. So I might share my posts on my own page or my personal wall, and that’s as far as it goes (well, and I use messenger to keep in touch with some members of my family and friends, but that’s it).
I had interesting conversation about books on BookLikes, but the site has fallen into weird hands and it’s difficult to keep in touch with the same people (there’s a group on Goodreads, but I don’t like Goodreads very much).
So, other than the blog and some interaction on Twitter (only with people I already know), I don’t have much time for anything else. What used to be thought of as “social” media is anything but.
Good luck with everything.
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I hear you Olga, and it is all so time-consuming, yet, keeps us visible – a definite Catch 22. ❤
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My Facebook friends barely make it into double figures. I’m a dinosaur plagued with a suspicious nature. It really bothers me how much of my information companies try to harvest. I go to options to manage cookies and once I’m finished with that I then have to go through the individual vendors (now, there’s an impressively long list) and try to turn them off too. Some companies won’t let me opt out of things – FB is one of them. There is no need for someone else to know where I am every second of the day, need to track me through other tech I own (I don’t even have a smart phone so that’s not too relevant) and place cookies to know every site I visit and what I did there. I’ve made some great friends on facebook and for that I’m grateful, but the downside worries me enormously. If there was a way to use social media without it expecting the right to spy on you I’d be delighted. I’ll be interested to see your feedback on Liker
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Thank you Alex for chiming in. You are correct, they steal everything they can from us and haunt us in ads everywhere we go, and don’t forget the telemarketer calls, where did they come from? Arg. I will do my Liker investigations on the weekend and keep you posted 🙂 x
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I guess my life is too boring for Facebook to be concerned with what I do or post. I had never heard of Liker, but your post made me curious, and so I went and signed up. Thanks for the recommendation…
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Lol Jim. Yay, glad you signed up. I did too, just barely finished setting up my page but I will work on things there on the weekend, and look for you! 🙂
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I served my time in FB jail. It was when I posted a link from my blog to FB and was told it had been deeemed offensive. I, and a few people on my behalf wrote to FB objecting t their actions and I was released. I don’t want to start all over again on a new platform especially as most of the people who visit my blog do so from FB. I’ll be interested in how Liker turns out.
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Thanks for sharing your experience Mary. I do have to say, you’re the first person I’ve heard of that got their sentence reversed LOL. Sally and me never even get replies. 🙂
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I thought I’d posted something on this a an hour or so ago. Seems I hadn’t! I’ll have another stab at it.
I don’t have Twitter and my FB friends are only just into double figures. I’m a dinosaur with a tendency to view the Internet with huge suspicion. I’ve tried to remove cookies from sites I visit, not forgetting the pages (and pages) of Vendors that need individually dealing with, too, some sites won’t let me do this. It bothers me that companies can harvest my information with impunity. There is no need for someone else to know where I am every second of the day, to link my devices, take a note of my IP address, track every site I visit and monitor how long I’m on there for and what I do. I have the shutter closed on my webcam because I know that AI routinely tracks eye movements to see what attracts your interest. Not even Orwell could have foreseen this. I’ve made some wonderful friends over Facebook and am reluctant to close down my account for that reason alone. However, when an organisiation uses a hidden agenda for banning things the slippery slope gets much, much steeper. Let me know how you get on with Liker, please!
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Hi Alex, I love that you came back, but I did see your other comment and replied??? WTH? 🙂
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I went through everything slowly twice but somehow I missed the first one. Must be one of those senior moments – sorry!
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Omg, really? Okay, don’t be hard on yourself. WordPress is still playing hide and seek with many! 🙂
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Sistah….they banned the dudes at one point. yeah. So I started politely forwarding them– through their channels you do this on– one post each day and asking in what way was this breaching their rules. They got fed up first. They are a monstrous regime frankly. OOPS. I hope they never heard that.
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Sistah! Arg, they don’t like the Dudes? So not surprised. Just know, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes with FAKEBOOK, politically. Notice how they’ve come down much more authoritarian in the past 4 years???????? Coincidence? I think not! 😦 ❤
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I left FB quite a while ago now, and have never looked back. I’m happy using just WordPress, Twitter and Book Funnel. x
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Glad you found what works for you Stevie 🙂 x
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Facebook Jail!! I like Facebook less and less every day. Thank you for sharing this, Debbie. I’m going to check out liker. 🙂
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Great Gwen. I’m going to survey it good this weekend and place updates in our FB groups 🙂
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I had my ups and downs with Facebook, Debby. There was a time when I posted, it didn’t let me even on my own page, or just the link went through without an image. I’m not active on Facebook enough for them to pay attention to me. Lately, I could post my reviews on my personal and author page. I could also post on several groups. I tried MEWE when you first invited me but I couldn’t manage more than one or two social media.
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Thanks for sharing your experience Miriam. I know, we did try hard on MeWe, there wasn’t enough exposure there. I’m going to check out Liker thoroughly this weekend and update you guys on my discoveries. 🙂 xx
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I have never had a good relationship with Facebook. One question to ponder. If Liker is hate free how do they propose to keep it that way? Surely there has to be a bot to recognize hateful remarks because people are going to use them. So then the censorship starts all over again.
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You make a good point John. I’m going to investigate the ropes and share updates. 🙂
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Never heard of Liker but I know, knowing you, that you’ll investigate and report to us! 🙂 I keep wondering if I should stay on FB. I pay no attention to political ‘stuff’ and actually there is little that comes my way on my FB page, which is helpful. And I love connecting with the blogging friends I’ve made, and my high school and college friends who I haven’t seen “in person” in years. And I like photos that come from my brother/sis-in-law and neices and nephews. So for those reasons, I’m stahing in…. for now… Interestingly, I have a Roughwighting FB page that I believe FB hardly ever shares “out there,” probably because I refuse to pay “advertising” for it. Sigh. xo
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Hi Pam. Yup, you are a prisoner of FB like all of us for the same main reason – staying in touch with friends and loved ones and photos. That’s what makes it so hard to leave, the connections. In the meantime, FB has a field day with all we share, behind the scenes. I actually never liked FB. I opened an account in the beginning and after a few years I deactivated it. It really hurt to reopen it and become exposed to the world when as an author I needed to get exposure. I still resent it, but still there. Yes, I will doing a lot more research and come back with more. 🙂 xx
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Wonderful! 😉 I didn’t even know you were so dangerous, Debby? Lol
Thank you for recommending Liker. I’m here now! Facebook wanted a current passport photo of me over two years ago, otherwise my account would be blocked. There is no photo of me all over the Internet. Lol Then i will upload one to Facebook? 😉 But I have a lot of name related people on the net. They all look so different that there’s something for everyone. Am I vain? Lol
Thank you for sharing your experiences with FB, Debby! Best wishes, Michael
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Lol Michael. I had to laugh as I did notice wherever I see you comment or post, you do have a different name and photo, lol. Good for you! Yay, you signed onto Liker! I will find you when I visit there later! And lol, I’m not dangerous, probably only a wanted by the Facebook guardians. 🙂 🙂
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Hi Debby – I’ve never needed to do FB or got excited about it – but I’ll be interested re the new Liker product … the problem I see … is that companies and organisations use FB – eg the government (the UK one!) and BBC, NHS + doctors et al … so how do we get rid of FB … not likely I suspect. Perhaps Mr MZ will eventually become like Mr WG … who knows – but challenging for those in publishing … the Amazon scenario is another one … life goes on – take care!! all the best – Hilary
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Hi Hilary, you sure hit both pegs on the head. Facebook and Amazon, two giant corporations who monopolize everything. From much of what I read on FB forums, the masses are all sick and tired of domination, so this should motivate smaller competitors to get better. Hopefully. 🙂 xxx
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I have difficulties with all platforms and social media, Debby. FB banned my Robbie’s Inspiration URL because someone reported my C-19 boot cake as inappropriate [really!]. I just left it and after a few weeks I could post again. I just don’t have the time to run about sorting out this kind of problem. Twitter banned my Roberta Writes profile for about 2 weeks, I have not idea why. My dear sister contacted Twitter and resolved the issue – I still don’t know what it was. They seemed to think I was a robot? Amazon has taken away most of my reviews for While the Bombs Fell which is very upsetting. I don’t even know how to ask about it. I’ve left it and hope they are put back in due course. I had the same problem with another book and the reviews did eventually come back but it took weeks. Strangely, this is the worst part of writing for me, having to deal with this sort of nonsense.
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Oh Robbie, you’ve certainly had your fill too with techno madness. I hate that these tech giants manipulate our livelihoods without anywhere to resolve anything. I know 2 other authors who’ve had their URLs banned from FB without any reason. Just awful! 😦
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Many of us have love-hate relationship with Facebook. I spend time there, as others do to connect with friends. I enjoy Twitter and my YouTube Channel. I had lots of issues with Pinterest. People stealing my original pins. I only post my blogs and interviews there now. With all technology, there are the good and the not so good. With awareness, we have the power to choose where to invest our energy.
Thanks for introducing me to Liker and let me know how it is. 😀 I don’t have the bandwidth at the moment to start up something new.
Many Blessings
Lisa
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Thanks for leaving your thoughts and good advice here Lisa. It seems many of us love/hate FB, or hate/endure FB. In the end we all have choices and I’ll continue to explore. ❤
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I’ve never heard of Liker… I totally hear your frustration with Facebook, Debby. As I was reading your post, I kept thinking “but Facebook is huge and all-encompassing and powerful, no other medium could ever match it.” So, when you brought up Liker and shared some of the reactions to it, I thought “maybe there is (or will be) an alternative one day.”
I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook, just like I have with social media and technology in general. I do wonder whether pro-Trump posters were put in Facebook jail as well?
Looking forward to reading the comments here in the future to see what the verdict is about Liker.
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Thanks Liesbet. I know us writers have a love-hate with FB. Before I started publishing, I didn’t like social media. I had deactivated my FB for years before I had to force myself to reaactivate for a platform to mingle with other writers and share our work. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t! Yes, I’ll get back later on the Liker situation. 🙂 xx
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This week I had notification that a short video on my YouTube channel had been age restricted, as it was deemed inappropriate for children.
It’s a few seconds panning across some countryside and one building, no people in sight.
Go figure.
To add insult to injury (it really isn’t any inconvenience, but it’s the principle of the thing), they provided a link where you can contest the decision.
Of course, it doesn’t work.
Hmmm…
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Oh no Deb, now Youtube is turning into FB? What about the millions of inappropriate videos on there and your landscape is age restricted. You know this BS is? It’s the lack of human intervention and letting AI run all these bloody sites. Half the time they get it wrong and nobody to claim our case to because they’re all bloody machines and robots! It’s awful! 😦
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Personally I’ve had more trouble with YouTube than Facebook. I posted a video of one of my competitions, and there is music playing in the background – nothing to do with me, the shows always have music playing, but they accused me of using copyrighted music without permission. That was a couple of years ago, and I just let them remove the music, so the video still plays but it silent (no problem, sound isn’t important), but just last week I had the same accusation for the same video, but from Belgium. I guess the bots are busy…
Actually, Amazon censorship is my biggest issue – one of my covers shows the rear view of a topless woman – totally appropriate for the book, but it means I can’t advertise it, as apparently ‘no naked torsos’ covers the rear view as well as the front. Sigh. Another site there’s no arguing with. Going to have to pay for a new cover at some point 😦
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AI has the monopoly on us, fits in well with the authoritarian theme trying to take hold in so many places these days. 1984 coming.
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😦
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