This past weekend I took part in the Facebook Blackout to
protest FB's unfair and unevenly applied 'community standards/guidelines. To wit, there are hundreds, if not thousands,
of communities dedicated to white supremacy, racism, and violence against
blacks/First People/Latinx/trans people which get reported daily yet are
allowed to remain up and active, yet someone posts a single post criticising
that fact, or critical of white supremacy or racism, and they get their post
deleted and their account suspended, up to 30 days or more.
I took part because my conscience would not allow me to do
otherwise. It hits home for me, living
in a township where a branch of the American Nazi Party is extant. It hits home for me because I have friends
who have been affected by this incongruous application of guidelines. It hits home for me because I've been subject
to these incongruous guidelines. And it
hits home for me because I fit into multiple categories above.
What have I learned this weekend:
1) Twitter, while a decent platform, is horrible for ME to express any kind of thought because I usually need far more than 140 characters to express. There were multiple multiple part tweets in order to get a thought across, with is counter the entire idea of Twitter.
1) Twitter, while a decent platform, is horrible for ME to express any kind of thought because I usually need far more than 140 characters to express. There were multiple multiple part tweets in order to get a thought across, with is counter the entire idea of Twitter.
2) I tried to maintain the same kinds of posts I posted to
Facebook. That was mostly successful,
other than the fact that I had a busy weekend and slipped a lot.
3) I missed a lot of my friends who didn't take part, but am
very proud of those who did.
I honestly missed Facebook...and I didn't. I missed the people, I missed the
communication. But in the interim, I
started this blog, spent time in the real world, and nearly froze my butt off
(what's left of it) after I locked the keys in my car with the engine
running. So there was that. If there's another one, I'll probably take
part again, because this is a message that needs to be heard, and it's one way
for me to make my voice heard and amplify the signal.
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