Oh damn. I lost my show’s Instagram account and all access to Threads because I tagged my personal account as a collaborator in a few posts (because I had more followers on the personal account) and they claimed that I was “artificially boosting my post” or something like that. I really hate Meta.
Check me on this, Seth, but this isn't the first time Zuck & Co. have tried to mute your input. I recall previous podcasts of yours which dealt almost exclusively with that topic. It's a shame, because I have no doubt but that you put a great deal of energy and thought into what you put up on Facebook. The obvious problem is that, as it came to the FB hierarchy, it was pearls before swine.
As for rebuilding on FB, I'm not horribly sanguine about that, nor should you be. In an age where displeasing Trump can result in all sorts of untoward action, trying to be a freethinker on a platform which gives every indication of disdaining freethought may amount to pissing into the wind. Bluesky may be a somewhat satisfactory alternative, though it is nowhere as considerable in its scope as FB is ... and maybe that's a good thing, too. Personally, I enjoy your posts here on Substack and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
In any case, I wish you luck, my friend. Take good care, always.
My question is, why do you even want to be on Facebook considering Zuckerg's ingratiating himself with this administration? I bet FB won't skip a beat in turning over an account holders social media history upon request.
Facebook did the exact same thing to me a couple of years ago. When I first started using Facebook I created a page for my Microsoft Excel courses and I had spent years telling all of my people in my YouTube videos and whatever to like and follow my Excel Facebook page, and then just out of nowhere, they decided to delete it because of no particular given reason. And I've got other pages for my Microsoft Access videos and from my company in general, but for some reason they decided to delete that Excel page.
But Facebook is garbage in the first place because you spend all that time and effort building a follower following, and you get people liking your stuff. And then when you do decide to post on your page, it only goes to maybe 10% of your viewers of the people who've chosen to follow your page. If you wanna hit all of them, you have to pay Facebook for that privilege. So it's garbage. Facebook is absolute garbage. The only reason I continue using it is because a lot of my friends and family do, but I cannot wait until someone else comes along and knocks them off their pedestal.
My two favorite Facebolk moment is that time in 2017 when I saw a comment saying that refugees should be shot as they approach the border. I reported it but couldn't resist also leaving a reply saying "you're a racist idiot". Within an hour I received a 24-hour ban; a week later I was notified that the racist idiot hadn't violated Community Guidelines.
Same happened to me yesterday. I wasn't using FB or IG at all (public holiday Monday here in Australia, was pottering around the house), tried to view my FB in the evening and discovered the ban. Lodged an appeal (hoping a human might review the situation) and two hours later got the perma ban confirmed. I managed to back up my FB - I think - but lost all my Instagram pics instantly. Picking up the pieces and considering my social media options.
uh. so i am a die hard atheist. My cousin is a fan of yours and she just told me about this and I...thought it sounded funny. And reading this....man....i hate to say it but either you are lying...or you have someone else managing your FB proffile...and they lied to you. Because for you to get a deletion like this....you have to go through about 20 major FB violations. You start with 24 hour bans...a few of those. Then 3 day bans. Then 30 day bans. And you have to get over 6 30 day bans....before they even threaten you with deletion. Also...every single time you get flagged...FB sends you DETAILED INFORMATION on why they are flagging you. You are acting like...this was s urprise...and you say FB doesnt even tell you what you did....and that is just flat out untrue. I would like you to clarify. Please explain.
My first instinct is to go nuclear on your comment for its cluelessness, but instead, I'll state the obvious.
I've been on FB for 16 years with occasional strikes given to my account for any number of things either unfairly flagged or arbitrarily considered "offensive." When you criticize and even mock religion, thousands of posts every year make you a target.
So (and since you didn't bother to ask before implying I'm a liar) yes, I've had strikes and bans of all kinds - 24 hours, 30 days, monetization limits, bans on livestreams, more - and in my opinion, none of them were warranted. Yet this is the situation with today's Facebook: free speech isn't truly allowed to breathe and be free, and anyone who gets their knickers in a wad can gang up to activate algorythms before some third-party reviews it and mashes the "confirmed violation" button.
And no, flags aren't given context. Ask anyone who'd had to scrounge around to find out exactly what went awry...and where. FB has a long history of simply penalizing people without giving reason. Ask David McAfee, an activist who just had his own account dumped with no cause given.
In whatever world you occupy, I hope you're treated more fairly than you've treated this situation. I hope you're approached in good faith and with consideration. And I hope your interlocutor doesn't start the conversation with, "You might be a liar."
Why? Because adults get the facts before they point the finger.
I love it. I wish it were actually true, but I love, “… adults get the facts before they point the finger“.
One of my biggest peeves is when people are confidently wrong when it could have been avoided with just a little bit of acknowledging what they don't know about the situation and some non-accusatory inquiry.
it is WAY WAY different now in the last 6 months or so. But, FB reviews...work now and they are quick. I had a profile deleted 2 years ago after dozens of bans. Every time I did a review it said....we dont have staff to do a review...and they just busted you. Not anymore. I have had 5 bans this year....every time I clicked review....my page was restored in minutes and I got an apology saying that after a review it was found i did NOT violate. So....get back on there. THere are no more BS bans anymore.....I got a deletion message like this last month....clicked review...page back in 20 minutes and review cleared me. Seth....actually had to have done something here to get deleted....he just isnt telling us what he did.
it is WAY WAY different now in the last 6 months or so. But, FB reviews...work now and they are quick. I had a profile deleted 2 years ago after dozens of bans. Every time I did a review it said....we dont have staff to do a review...and they just busted you. Not anymore. I have had 5 bans this year....every time I clicked review....my page was restored in minutes and I got an apology saying that after a review it was found i did NOT violate. So....get back on there. THere are no more BS bans anymore.....I got a deletion message like this last month....clicked review...page back in 20 minutes and review cleared me. Seth....actually had to have done something here to get deleted....he just isnt telling us what he did.
After a recent meme playing on Darwin's Theory of Evolution by showing a guy on a cliff with the caption "Go ahead, it's just a theory," Facebook struck me for encouraging suicide, asked if I needed mental health resources, and informed me that my account was at risk of deletion. (I'd had another meme struck last year, and another before that.)
Was it my fault I posted the meme? OK, fine. You win. May your wisdom help us all elevate our thinking.
I got the "encouraging suicide" strike for a meme using James Franco saying "first time?" while on the gallows in Buster Scruggs. The strike came 2 years after I posted the meme.
They've swatted me a few times for legit stuff. Like Evac Notices during a fire. Moose that a driving a truck, drinking beer with a human strapped on top = FB moderator says "that never happened" ~ yeah, they were right but it's effing funny & there's more. Good luck Seth ... see you around. I'll follow.
There's an explanation: Zuckerberg is looking to replace Musk and reap significant benefits. Trump just needs a rich man capable of keeping him in power and controlling Congress. The candidate must submit to his conditions. And crushing non-Christian and non-Jewish people is only one of them.
Is there a chance that someone hacked your account and then posted something to trigger the removal? Did you have a 'trusted person' set up on your account that FB/Meta could use to verify your identity? This is happening more and more to ex-Christians by a bunch of theobro hacks.
Oh damn. I lost my show’s Instagram account and all access to Threads because I tagged my personal account as a collaborator in a few posts (because I had more followers on the personal account) and they claimed that I was “artificially boosting my post” or something like that. I really hate Meta.
Ugh for real! Especially considering how often those billionaires constantly do actual unethical crap to boost their own agendas.
Check me on this, Seth, but this isn't the first time Zuck & Co. have tried to mute your input. I recall previous podcasts of yours which dealt almost exclusively with that topic. It's a shame, because I have no doubt but that you put a great deal of energy and thought into what you put up on Facebook. The obvious problem is that, as it came to the FB hierarchy, it was pearls before swine.
As for rebuilding on FB, I'm not horribly sanguine about that, nor should you be. In an age where displeasing Trump can result in all sorts of untoward action, trying to be a freethinker on a platform which gives every indication of disdaining freethought may amount to pissing into the wind. Bluesky may be a somewhat satisfactory alternative, though it is nowhere as considerable in its scope as FB is ... and maybe that's a good thing, too. Personally, I enjoy your posts here on Substack and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
In any case, I wish you luck, my friend. Take good care, always.
My question is, why do you even want to be on Facebook considering Zuckerg's ingratiating himself with this administration? I bet FB won't skip a beat in turning over an account holders social media history upon request.
Facebook did the exact same thing to me a couple of years ago. When I first started using Facebook I created a page for my Microsoft Excel courses and I had spent years telling all of my people in my YouTube videos and whatever to like and follow my Excel Facebook page, and then just out of nowhere, they decided to delete it because of no particular given reason. And I've got other pages for my Microsoft Access videos and from my company in general, but for some reason they decided to delete that Excel page.
But Facebook is garbage in the first place because you spend all that time and effort building a follower following, and you get people liking your stuff. And then when you do decide to post on your page, it only goes to maybe 10% of your viewers of the people who've chosen to follow your page. If you wanna hit all of them, you have to pay Facebook for that privilege. So it's garbage. Facebook is absolute garbage. The only reason I continue using it is because a lot of my friends and family do, but I cannot wait until someone else comes along and knocks them off their pedestal.
My two favorite Facebolk moment is that time in 2017 when I saw a comment saying that refugees should be shot as they approach the border. I reported it but couldn't resist also leaving a reply saying "you're a racist idiot". Within an hour I received a 24-hour ban; a week later I was notified that the racist idiot hadn't violated Community Guidelines.
Same happened to me yesterday. I wasn't using FB or IG at all (public holiday Monday here in Australia, was pottering around the house), tried to view my FB in the evening and discovered the ban. Lodged an appeal (hoping a human might review the situation) and two hours later got the perma ban confirmed. I managed to back up my FB - I think - but lost all my Instagram pics instantly. Picking up the pieces and considering my social media options.
uh. so i am a die hard atheist. My cousin is a fan of yours and she just told me about this and I...thought it sounded funny. And reading this....man....i hate to say it but either you are lying...or you have someone else managing your FB proffile...and they lied to you. Because for you to get a deletion like this....you have to go through about 20 major FB violations. You start with 24 hour bans...a few of those. Then 3 day bans. Then 30 day bans. And you have to get over 6 30 day bans....before they even threaten you with deletion. Also...every single time you get flagged...FB sends you DETAILED INFORMATION on why they are flagging you. You are acting like...this was s urprise...and you say FB doesnt even tell you what you did....and that is just flat out untrue. I would like you to clarify. Please explain.
My first instinct is to go nuclear on your comment for its cluelessness, but instead, I'll state the obvious.
I've been on FB for 16 years with occasional strikes given to my account for any number of things either unfairly flagged or arbitrarily considered "offensive." When you criticize and even mock religion, thousands of posts every year make you a target.
So (and since you didn't bother to ask before implying I'm a liar) yes, I've had strikes and bans of all kinds - 24 hours, 30 days, monetization limits, bans on livestreams, more - and in my opinion, none of them were warranted. Yet this is the situation with today's Facebook: free speech isn't truly allowed to breathe and be free, and anyone who gets their knickers in a wad can gang up to activate algorythms before some third-party reviews it and mashes the "confirmed violation" button.
And no, flags aren't given context. Ask anyone who'd had to scrounge around to find out exactly what went awry...and where. FB has a long history of simply penalizing people without giving reason. Ask David McAfee, an activist who just had his own account dumped with no cause given.
In whatever world you occupy, I hope you're treated more fairly than you've treated this situation. I hope you're approached in good faith and with consideration. And I hope your interlocutor doesn't start the conversation with, "You might be a liar."
Why? Because adults get the facts before they point the finger.
I love it. I wish it were actually true, but I love, “… adults get the facts before they point the finger“.
One of my biggest peeves is when people are confidently wrong when it could have been avoided with just a little bit of acknowledging what they don't know about the situation and some non-accusatory inquiry.
Sorry to hear this, but they did this to me last year, too. The appeal process is just a black hole. I refuse to set up another account with Meta.
it is WAY WAY different now in the last 6 months or so. But, FB reviews...work now and they are quick. I had a profile deleted 2 years ago after dozens of bans. Every time I did a review it said....we dont have staff to do a review...and they just busted you. Not anymore. I have had 5 bans this year....every time I clicked review....my page was restored in minutes and I got an apology saying that after a review it was found i did NOT violate. So....get back on there. THere are no more BS bans anymore.....I got a deletion message like this last month....clicked review...page back in 20 minutes and review cleared me. Seth....actually had to have done something here to get deleted....he just isnt telling us what he did.
it is WAY WAY different now in the last 6 months or so. But, FB reviews...work now and they are quick. I had a profile deleted 2 years ago after dozens of bans. Every time I did a review it said....we dont have staff to do a review...and they just busted you. Not anymore. I have had 5 bans this year....every time I clicked review....my page was restored in minutes and I got an apology saying that after a review it was found i did NOT violate. So....get back on there. THere are no more BS bans anymore.....I got a deletion message like this last month....clicked review...page back in 20 minutes and review cleared me. Seth....actually had to have done something here to get deleted....he just isnt telling us what he did.
After a recent meme playing on Darwin's Theory of Evolution by showing a guy on a cliff with the caption "Go ahead, it's just a theory," Facebook struck me for encouraging suicide, asked if I needed mental health resources, and informed me that my account was at risk of deletion. (I'd had another meme struck last year, and another before that.)
Was it my fault I posted the meme? OK, fine. You win. May your wisdom help us all elevate our thinking.
I got the "encouraging suicide" strike for a meme using James Franco saying "first time?" while on the gallows in Buster Scruggs. The strike came 2 years after I posted the meme.
They've swatted me a few times for legit stuff. Like Evac Notices during a fire. Moose that a driving a truck, drinking beer with a human strapped on top = FB moderator says "that never happened" ~ yeah, they were right but it's effing funny & there's more. Good luck Seth ... see you around. I'll follow.
There's an explanation: Zuckerberg is looking to replace Musk and reap significant benefits. Trump just needs a rich man capable of keeping him in power and controlling Congress. The candidate must submit to his conditions. And crushing non-Christian and non-Jewish people is only one of them.
Got the info and link to this from Noah Lugeons.
This sucks but I'm glad your pushing through.
XO
Is there a chance that someone hacked your account and then posted something to trigger the removal? Did you have a 'trusted person' set up on your account that FB/Meta could use to verify your identity? This is happening more and more to ex-Christians by a bunch of theobro hacks.