Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
by Lo
Dandelion Salad, editor
March 1, 2018
“You’re temporarily restricted from joining and posting to groups that you do not manage until Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 11:55am.” 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.
Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
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 few days, more so than usual.
Here is the post I tried to share in FB Groups today: Abby Martin: Corporate Lobbyists Use Intimidation, Not Bribery
Also today, a comment I made to a Page that shared today’s post that read, “Thanks for sharing.” was marked by Facebook as Spam! That is not the first time that has happened either, but it was the first time from a Page that I “Liked”.
The best way to not miss a new post: Click the Follow button.
There are alternatives to Facebook.
Updated: March 3, 2018
Please help out and share these new posts with your friends on Social Media:
Zac Corrigan: Socialists Support the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike
Now Is The Time For Revolutionary Change–Reject Greed-Based Destruction
From the archives:
“Temporarily Restricted From Joining and Posting to Facebook Groups” by Lo
Liberals These Days are Largely Cold Warriors by William Blum
Chris Hedges and David North: Organizing Resistance To Internet Censorship
The Two-FacedBook by William Bowles
Dandelion Salad 
This is a common problem and one which I have repeatedly suffered from. I suspect that FB systems read repeated shares from outside sources as spam. Sometimes they will allow 3 shares and then stop any more. I understand you frustrations as FB is a good way to share and improve traffic, although for some of us it is unreliable and of course controlled by those who we may be ideologically opposed to. In short, Zuckerberg is a wanker. I understand that many are now moving towards Steemit. Have you looked into this platform? It may be more suited to those from North America.
Thanks, RebelVoice. Steemit may be another choice for a blogging platform.
Right now I’m also using MeWe.com and Minds.com. I enjoy using both of those newer social media platforms.
Minds is the best for graphics, however there are very few people on the Left and many, many that are right wing and all out fascists there. The way that it is set up other people’s posts show up on your homepage feed when they “boost” their posts. I’ve had to “block” many people so I don’t see their posts again.
MeWe is slowly growing a good number of people on the Left. There are so many “progressive”, Green Party, environment, etc. type Groups there. Found 2 Socialist Groups there as well. I found it very easy to start there by setting up my own Group for Dandelion Salad posts only. All the members are good people to add as contacts and it is very easy to invite your contacts (friends) to join your Group(s).
Both of these newer sites are much better than Facebook as there is no censorship and much less tracking.
Never heard of MeWe. Must check it out sometime. Thanks.
Have you seen this yet? From AdBusters: http://featured.adbusters.org/mindjourney/011/
I like the idea, ‘the total elimination of Facebook’! Thanks for sharing it.
Many of us on the activist side of things are on VK.com. I’ve had an account there for 2 years now and have ramped up usage recently. Minds.com was too complicated to want to figure out, a bunch of hoo-hah about earning points and $$, maybe Patreon got inspired by it. I got MeWe just last month b/c Facebite has gotten so onerous. I too have had those censorship issues plaguing me.
I don’t know which outfit is going to win out, VK or MeWe, perhaps it will all sort itself out fairly pain free. The goddamn DNC/HRC Dems might have done us all a favor by their insane Russia bashing when social media is all said and done after this rough spot in its evolution..
Maybe the kids and grandkids won’t have to live short, brutish and nasty lives in a nuclear wasteland if we’re lucky too. Cheers.
Unfortunately vk.com is only accessible if one has a mobile phone. Are there possibilities to get verification without mobile phone?
I was going to ask the exact same question.
A friend of mine on VK did say that she omitted the phone number and was able to make an account there. I haven’t tried yet because I will not give out my phone number.
Thanks, David.
I also use Minds.com and do like they way they’ve set up the points system as you can use those points to boost your posts so more people will see them. The unfortunate thing is that I’ve only found about 5 to 7 people on the Left that are engaging there regularly. I belong to 3 Groups, only one is active recently. There are a lot of people on the right, even far-right, fascists and racists. I’ve had to block many people. Many of the people subscribing to my account are ones with photos of a scantily dressed woman and nothing else but links to whatever site he/she wants you to click on, so those spam accounts need to be blocked, too.
I have a Facebook account, but I only use it to post new texts from my blog for public view. I don’t know if anyone looks at them or even is able to see them. Sometimes people send me messages on Facebook, but I don’t even read them. I don’t have time for Facebook. When it gets warmer, I will work in the garden and the computer will only be switched on every second or third day to check the news.
Of course, I would like to communicate with people and exchange views, but not on Facebook. I hoped, that some discussions would happen on the comment page of my blog, but my articles are not of the quality which people entices to comment. So I leave it.
I enjoy your articles on your blog, of course, I love cats and gardening, too. My blog is not a personal one but kind of a mini-website where most of the writers send me their latest articles to be published and the others gave me permission to republish them from their main blog or website. I fill in with finding the videos to post.
Facebook is the main referrer to the blog posts and I have a Dandelion Salad Page there which is where Facebook has blocked me from sharing links to the various Groups. It has taken many years but it now has over 3,360 followers.
I understand now why Facebook censorship hurts you. I wonder if WordPress also has quiet ways to suppress certain blogs.
No, I don’t think suppressing “certain” blogs would be in WP’s best interest. They have made some poor decisions over the years and I know changing how they do “tags” to having the Reader has lowered views from WP bloggers and readers. Not sure when you began here, but I started in the middle of 2007 and at that time all the tags and categories underneath our blog posts went to a global WP tag page. So, if I posted something on Capitalism, and any of my readers clicked the tag for Capitalism they would go to a page on WP open to the public and see all blog posts using that tag. We can still do that with the Reader but it’s a closed system for only logged in WP users and not very convenient to use. What I have done to find new blogs is save a few tags, like Capitalism (https://wordpress.com/tag/capitalism) and see what other bloggers are posting.
Other tags saved using the Reader:
https://wordpress.com/tag/socialism
https://wordpress.com/tag/communism
Sorry this google/nsa censorship is affecting D.Salad too, unfortunately you are in superb company! This is a coup against our constitutional rights to defend ourselves against masqueraded tyranny! As it turns out we were suckered into another deception by the snot drooling pus oozing “ROTTING CLASS”!! The most unworthy, despicable, slimy, degenerates that ever oozed from a cess pool to infect Humanity. This description is known across our Galaxy and extends beyond to the eternal reaches of the UNIVERSE! (Other than that, everything is just GREAT!)
Well, haha, you definitely have a way with words, Ron. So very good to hear from you. I think of you often.
Actually some of what you said may be true. This particular censorship is by Facebook. The other censorship from Google has been noticed in the decline of views on my older posts. The ones that would normally come up when someone does a search. The Left websites and blogs have been eliminated in the Google searches since last April.
See: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/chris-hedges-and-david-north-organizing-resistance-to-internet-censorship/
What is also going on recently on Facebook, is that the posts being shown on everyone’s newsfeed is now posts without links. It makes it very difficult to share links to the blog posts and have them be seen even by those who follow/Like the Dandelion Salad Page on FB. Facebook wants the Pages to pay them so those posts can be seen by the followers of Pages. Large websites have both the funds to boost their posts and large numbers of followers so their posts are still seen. It’s the independent and non-profit Pages that are being hurt the most.
I’m hearing of more and more people spending time in FB jail. I’m on MeWe as well, but find it time consuming to post there. I’ll be glad when we no longer have to deal with FB.
It’s almost everyday that I hear from friends having the same censorship/blocking from posting into Groups, having their comments marked as spam, etc. It’s getting worse all the time.
MeWe is a little bit different than FB, but I like how they do the sharing into Groups. It’s much easier than FB. You can do a search if you belong to many Groups, or just scroll down and click the box next to the name of the Group.
Not sure what you mean by it takes longer to post there.
Almost forgot to mention that MeWe does not track you like FB does and it doesn’t sell your data either.
Many thanks for putting in a plug for Mewe. I’ll be sure to look for your there. Far too many people have a relationship with Facebook that borders on codependent helplessness. But Facebook is not our Master. We can vote with our clicks.
Yes, please do add me on MeWe.
I agree with you that we can vote with our clicks and go elsewhere. It’s a bit tough during the transition time, but it won’t be long before FB is another Myspace.
I’ll note this in an upcoming blog post, but I have to say, I don’t get why progressives support Facebook. Facebook should be dropped, period. Regardless, I know DS is only trying to amplify progressive voices and messages.
I’m not a “progressive” but a Socialist. Anyway, it’s been useful to reach a larger audience. One of those can’t live with it, or without it kind of things.
I suggested using MeWe.com in this blog post. Been there for a short while and it is slowly growing with more people on the Left.
When I first began blogging here I was still using Myspace.com. I felt forced to move to Facebook as no one was using Myspace any longer.
Acknowledged
share….
Thanks, l8in.