{"id":9042,"date":"2013-08-13T09:37:35","date_gmt":"2013-08-13T09:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9042"},"modified":"2013-08-13T09:37:35","modified_gmt":"2013-08-13T09:37:35","slug":"facebook-bans-pro-israel-columnist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9042","title":{"rendered":"Facebook bans pro-Israel columnist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fbban\"<\/a>By Ruthie Blum. For the past two months, I have intermittently been barred from Facebook.<\/p>\n

The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom<\/em> column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on, and removed from, my page. I was warned that if I continued violating Facebook\u2019s \u201ccommunity standards,\u201d I would be banned from the social network for good.<\/p>\n

The notice included a link specifying these standards, and a demand that I click to acknowledge I had read and understood them. Failure to do so, it said, would result in my inability even to open Facebook to read my newsfeed. I complied.<\/p>\n

The following statement appeared: \u201cFacebook gives people around the world the power to publish their own stories, see the world through the eyes of many other people, and connect and share wherever they go. The conversation that happens on Facebook\u2013and the opinions expressed here\u2013mirror the diversity of the people using Facebook. To balance the needs and interests of a global population, Facebook protects expression that meets the community standards outlined on this page. Please review these standards. They will help you understand what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underneath the explanation, examples of unacceptable content were listed. Among these were \u201cviolence and threats,\u201d \u201cself-harm,\u201d \u201cbullying and harassment,\u201d \u201cgraphic content,\u201d \u201cnudity and pornography,\u201d and \u201chate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was puzzled. Neither I nor anyone else who had shared articles with me had engaged in any of the above. And, as eagerly as I searched, I couldn\u2019t locate a single dirty picture on my timeline.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the only activity visible, other than the occasional photo of one of my family members, was political in nature.<\/p>\n

Since global politics is what I write about\u2013with an emphasis on the defense of Israel and criticism of its detractors\u2013this is obviously what dominates my Facebook page. Comments on pieces I post are also related to issues of foreign policy, Zionism, anti-Semitism, the Middle East and the United States.<\/p>\n

What, then, could possibly be the reason for my suspension?<\/p>\n

Figuring at first that it must be some kind of error, I simply chalked it up to spam and waited until I was allowed back into Facebook\u2019s good graces.<\/p>\n

When this warning appeared a second time, however, I did what I always do when baffled by cyberspace\u2013I called my kids. After admonishing me for being an idiot where the Internet is concerned, one of them told me to change my settings. This would prevent other people from posting on my page without my permission. I took his advice and assumed I had solved the problem.<\/p>\n

The very next day, I received the warning again, this time with a slightly harsher tone. After all, I had become a serial offender. I was banned not for 24 hours, but for three days. This meant that not only was I unable to post anything, but I could not even \u201clike\u201d anyone else\u2019s posts.<\/p>\n

The only good thing about this was that it gave me the chance to snap back at my son that maybe I\u2019m not such an idiot. I had done as he had instructed, and \u00a0was still getting the menacing message. Ha.<\/p>\n

The next step, we decided, was to send a message to the folks at Facebook. Hey, I hollered, I haven\u2019t been posting anything incendiary. Please advise. Alas, no response was forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Again I returned to the rules of conduct, to see if I could decipher what I was doing wrong and how I could make it right. The clue was at the bottom of the \u201ccommunity standards\u201d page, in a paragraph titled \u201cReporting abuse\u201d: \u201cIf you see something on Facebook that you believe violates our terms, you should report it to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, someone has been complaining about me to Facebook, reporting abuse on my part. This person clearly doesn\u2019t like what I have to say\u2013which is always from a conservative viewpoint\u2013and has come up with a way to silence me through bullying.<\/p>\n

It is actually he or she who is violating Facebook standards, not I. But there is nothing I can do about it, other than go on the defensive, and so far not very effectively.<\/p>\n

This is exactly how the enemies of Israel operate. They repeatedly accuse the Jewish state of acting in an illegitimate fashion, thereby placing the burden of proof on the unwitting defendant. It is a brazen and shameless tactic. And it works like a charm.<\/p>\n

Facebook is a private enterprise that has the right to choose its users. Those users do not pay for the privilege; and it is a huge privilege for writers to have access to such a massive readership. Whoever has been targeting me knows this full well.<\/p>\n

He or she is also aware that all one has to do to ruin Israel\u2019s reputation is to cast aspersions. Social networking takes care of the rest.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong> (7:55 pm): The Observer received the following statement from Facebook:<\/p>\n

As our team processes more than one million reports each week, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we mistakenly removed content from<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Ruthie Blum\u2019s profile, and worked\u00a0to\u00a0rectify the mistake as soon as we were notified.\u00a0We\u00a0apologize for\u00a0the\u00a0inconvenience\u00a0caused due to the removal of this content, and we have already taken steps to prevent this from happening in the future.\u00a0Additionally, we have removed any blocks on associated accounts. – <\/i>The Observer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ruthie Blum. For the past two months, I have intermittently been barred from Facebook. The first time it happened was in June, when I tried to post my Israel Hayom column. Suddenly, a window popped up, telling me that inappropriate material had been found on, and removed from, my page. I was warned that … Continue reading “Facebook bans pro-Israel columnist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[178,5071,5070],"class_list":["post-9042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-united-states","tag-israel","tag-pro-israel","tag-ruthie-blum"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/fbban.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9044,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9042\/revisions\/9044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}