I snapped a picture at the grocery store yesterday: the brand of skim milk we’ buy cost $2.99 a gallon for the longest time. A while back it hit $3.74. Yesterday a special sign said it was “Priced Right” at $4.40.
When I got home, I opened my phone and decided to share the pic, along with a comment about milk becoming a luxury item – even before the coming reduction in food stamp benefits!
Surprise, my post wouldn’t load onto Facebook. I couldn’t see others’ posts either.
Today I tried again and got a message. My account had been closed because I violated “community standards.”
Community standards on Facebook? In recent days I’ve seen 99% naked women, proclamations that Donald Trump is God – or that he’s the TACO king. People wanting “foreigners” (even though they were born in America) deported without court action mixed with a lot of pictures of great meals and lousy parking.
As friends know, I’ve posted a lot of sunsets and travel pictures. I point out obvious things like a store door saying “Do Not Enter” atop an “Enter Here” graphic.
I don’t think that was it.
I’ve reposted political stuff critical of Republican actions and I had a long post a few days back on the reality of work requirements. In other words, ideas at odds with the Republican view of the world. To the GOP I am politically incorrect and have to be silenced.
I get no official reason for my expulsion, no example of the standards I breached. To appeal I have to give Facebook complete access to my phone (including all pictures) and they might look at my situation…might.
Though 41 years late, 1984 is here.
Yes, Facebook is a private for-profit, pro-billionaire Friend Of Trump company. They can run their site the way they want. That’s pretty clear after a couple of hundred years of First Amendment cases.
The sad part is that this lowest common denominator of social media connected me with a lot of high school classmates, relatives, far flung friends and interesting updates from the north city tornado to the war in Ukraine. All those human and intellectual connections are gone.
So, if you want to get information to me use my email – until the Republicans go after that.
F$@K ZUCK!!!
Glenn Koenen
Note: The illustration for this article was created with AI to avoid any brand identifier, copyright infringement or any other pettiness that might get Glenn banned from any other social media platform. The price of Milk HAS jumped dramatically in the last two months. Perhaps, it has something to do with the absence of immigrant labor on American Dairy farms?