Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
by Lo
Dandelion Salad, editor
December 26, 2017
I’m “temporarily restricted from joining and posting to groups until Jan 2, 2018 at 1:52pm.” That’s the message I received from Facebook today.
I am very, very angry about this. There is no reason for this blocking. I only posted to 4 groups today and all were marked as “Spam” by FB. Of course, it is not Spam.
An entire week of not being able to share the posts into FB Groups! I have made an appeal but I did that last time it happened and it didn’t work. FB wants Pages to have to pay them to “boost” their posts. FB thinks all the Pages are for-profit businesses, which they are not.
Again I will need your help in sharing the posts on Facebook or other social media for the next week, more so than usual.
Here is the post I tried to share in FB Groups today: Socialism: Creating a World to Change Our Lives by Sam Friedman (must-read)
The best way to not miss a new post: Subscribe Via Email using the WordPress Follow Button.
PS: Will need your help to share these new posts, too:
How It Could Finally Be Possible to Prosecute War as a Crime by David Swanson
Today’s Students–Slavery by Debt by Ellen Brown
What Would Socialism Be Like? by Leela Yellesetty (must-read)
Against Identitarian and Generational Divide and Rule by Paul Street
Happy New Year! The Radical MLK by The Anti-Social Socialist
Dandelion Salad 
Whats worse you get temporarily blocked for sharing a page to a group just once.
It only takes one time and FB puts the block on you for days or a week. Sharing a Page seems like “spam” to FB as they think all Pages are for-profit businesses which, of course, is not true.
People insist on saying it’s because of spam, but it has nothing to do with it. Looks like posting some kind of links from other pages on Facebook do that. I can say by myself, because I once posted a video and got instantly blocked.
Yes, exactly correct.
What some of us who have been blocked are wondering is, who is doing the blocking? Did a person from one of the Groups mark the post as “spam” because they didn’t like the post/link? Or did we post to too many Groups too quickly so FB thought that we were “bots” not real people? FB does not tell us why we were blocked. Nor do they ever look into it and unblock us.
I imagine it could be the same algorithm that detects “spam”. Once I couldn’t post anything, even links for my photos in other people’s posts/comments. It’s all managed by bots and Facebook won’t do anything, even if you complain or try to contact them. That’s why (actually just one of the reasons why) this social media is going down.
I agree with you. Rarely can I add a link to someone’s comment section without it getting marked as “spam”, doesn’t matter if the link is to a photo of mine on Flickr or a link to a blog post that relates to whatever the post is talking about. Hopefully more and more people will get fed up with FB and use it less and less each day.
I’m using MeWe.com now. Please join the Dandelion Salad Group, if you do decide to use MeWe. Privacy comes first at MeWe and there is no tracking.
https://mewe.com/join/dandelion_salad
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This just happened to me, which is how I came across this blog post. I also have a Facebook page that is not-for-profit, where I simply share inspiring quotes, articles and videos. I also belong to a number of related groups where I share this content regularly (in compliance with group rules) and it is always well received (lots of likes and positive comments). Now all of a sudden my posts are being marked and removed as spam (in every group I share them to) and I’m now restricted from posting any any group until mid-next week. In addition I’ve also recently had comments which I posted on some of my friends posts automatically and randomly marked as spam. All of it seems to be entirely random, and I’m never given an explanation. I don’t advertise. I’m not selling anything. I don’t make money from the content I share. And everything I share is completely relevant to the pages I share it with. I get the sense that Facebook has some kind of algorithm that is randomly targeting people. It’s aggravating, but at the same time, I don’t get the impression they intend to address the problem.
I’m very sorry to hear this, Nada.
It’s happening to many people now; seems to get worse every day.
I’ve had comments thanking people for sharing a blog post get marked as SPAM by FB. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Recently FB has been posting my Page’s post on my Newsfeed saying “Only you can see this.” Then saying that “3,600 more people can see this if you pay $10 to boost your post.” FB thinks all Pages are for-profit businesses totally disregarding all of the non-profit Pages entirely.
I’ve joined MeWe.com. Made a Dandelion Salad Group there, https://mewe.com/join/dandelion_salad.
Direct link to add me: https://mewe.com/i/lo.daniels.
For more info in a short promo video for MeWe: http://www.mewe.com/#not4sale
Could try a post to multiple groups at once program or schedule your posts every five mins.
If I could post to multiple groups at once, FB would think I was a “bot”. Don’t know what you mean by schedule my posts every five minutes? On FB?
There’s Postcron and other apps that do that. Also meant on FB there’s the feature where you can schedule your post on groups you admin.
Oh, thanks for the info. I don’t use apps. I also don’t have any groups that I admin.
Could try report a problem but still no response.
First block happened in December last year but didn’t last long since I sent an appeal, but now I sent dozens of appeals with no reply back.
Yes, I’ve sent the appeals, too. No response from FB either.
Had a comment of mine on a friend’s post who shared my post marked as “spam” today. It’s getting out of hand; totally ridiculous. People are going to stop using it.
I got blocked twice for a week, I’ve been posting and sharing to groups for years without being blocked.
Sorry to hear that, Michael. The same with me. It’s getting worse there everyday for many people. Comments are being marked as spam when they aren’t. Trouble posting links in comments, etc.
After the blocking ended, I have been sharing to Groups without any problems… so far. I think someone in one of the Groups must have flagged my post for some reason or other. Or I posted too fast and FB thought I was a bot. I really don’t know.
Some reason since late last year the FB rules had gotten twisted.
I think the first time I was blocked into posting into Groups was Sept. 2017, so yes, you are correct.
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It’s somehow linked to money. All of the so-called social media platforms today are vastly different than 15 years ago. In the boardrooms I can hear the question: “How do we monetize the feeds?”. I know because I was in those boardrooms for many years.
Yes, it’s definitely linked to money. FB wants the Pages to pay them so their posts will be seen by more of their own followers! FB limits who sees the posts in the Newsfeed. It’s ridiculous.
Helllo Dandelion.. I have the same problem but only for 3 days, in this case a pro Palestinian post I shared demanding freedom for Ahed Tamimi and her family.. here I think: https://www.facebook.com/mike.gilli.9. so I’m allowed to post if only my friends see it….ANNOYING. Also it seems Google is ‘deranking’ blogs and sites they don’t like so you appear OK, but on page 3 or 4… Best of luck with them, your salad is delicious!
Thanks for your comment, thefreeorg. Glad you enjoy the Salad.
Good that your block was for only 3 days. But still sorry that you had to go through that at all. The very first time I was blocked on Facebook was because of a pro-Palestinian post. A friend of mine shared the post, and one of his friends marked it as “spam” or offensive, or something.
Yes, Google is deranking the socialist and other left leaning blogs and websites. Pure censorship!
wow…they blocked a pro-palestinian site. who is monitoring the fb monitors?
It wasn’t a site but a post (article).