I had a Facebook account.\u00a0 I used it for researching for my undergrad degree: war crimes, arms industry, connections between religious cults and weapons (that is scary); end-timers; the plethora of arms in the USA and its consequences; mass shootings; historical political revolutions; why people believe what they do.\u00a0 History, psychology, just war theory, religious extremism, politics.\u00a0 But when I got critical of the NRA and arms industry and using facts to counter their arguments in their own groups, my Facebook account got blocked.\u00a0 Weird.<\/p>\n
I created another Facebook account for my postgrad study.\u00a0 Similar subject areas, but used it in particular for eco stuff.\u00a0 Having noticed some trends in how organised trolling is done, I started outing some trollers, in particular in Greta Thunberg’s feed.\u00a0 There are scores of them posting the same memes and every account has one picture, one post on the wall, a home town and a university.\u00a0 They may have many friends, all with the same structure.\u00a0 Anyway, after a couple of days of showing these accounts were all interlinked and behaving in the same way … my Facebook account was suddenly deleted.\u00a0 No reason given.<\/p>\n
I created another Facebook account for personal use.\u00a0 Real me, real photos, real location and history.\u00a0 Again I noticed the trends in trolling and posting.\u00a0 For example, have a look at Boris Johnson’s feed and watch for a few days.\u00a0 As soon as he posts anything, there is an instant, fast and steady trickle of near-identical posts using the same memes over and over.\u00a0 These are obviously created by a script.\u00a0 But it gives an effective impression of genuine support and others are drawn in.\u00a0 Any programmer or script kiddie should be able to see how the algorithm works.\u00a0 And just time the rate of comments and likes – see how there is a linear degradation of the rate as would be expected as the comments increase in number.\u00a0 And with the next post it starts again.\u00a0 Almost all the posts and likes on his feed are created by one or more bots.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I just posted something expressing my view on a social issue on a local group.\u00a0 The abuse started within seconds.\u00a0 The respondents were really nasty, and each had fakes bits to their profile so they could not be identified.\u00a0 Cowards.\u00a0 I’ve had that before but this was fast, nasty and furious.\u00a0 And in a page that has been very quiet for months and my post was on-topic.\u00a0 Very odd.<\/p>\n
I’ve had enough of Facebook.\u00a0 I think it serves no good but enables an awful lot of bad.\u00a0 And trying to use it for good is not appreciated by Facebook.\u00a0 Some of what goes on is vicious, some dangerous, much deceiving and some downright sinister.\u00a0 It does not make me happy.\u00a0 I won’t be back there.\u00a0 I’ve seen enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had a Facebook account.\u00a0 I used it for researching for my undergrad degree: war crimes, arms industry, connections between religious cults and weapons (that is scary); end-timers; the plethora of arms in the USA and its consequences; mass shootings; … Continue reading