What Does Facebook Owe Us?

Is this porn?

Artwork by Jay Aheer - Simply Defined Art

What about this?

Michael Stokes image cropped from Facebook. Here's a link to his website.

The artist who created the first image, Jay Aheer, got a take-down notice from Facebook, on the grounds that the image violated community standards for nudity. The artist who created the second image, Michael Stokes, is currently on a 30-day suspension from Facebook, because apparently his work doesn't meet Facebook Community Standards, either.

Screenshot from 1/26/15

Lately, there's been a lot of chatter on my Facebook stream about people having their work taken down or their accounts suspended because they've run afoul of the Community Standards police. However, that police force is primarily made up of other Facebook users, who report images they find offensive.

And one person's pornography is another person's art.

In the discussions on my Facebook stream, words like censorship, harassment, and homophobia get tossed around. Digging a little deeper, I learned that if I knew where to find them, I could see pages dedicated to antisemitism, violence against women, child pornography, and animal abuse.

What do Facebook's Community Standards have to say about that?

Here's a link to the Facebook Community Standards page. According to the opening statement on the page, the goal is to...

"...help you understand what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed."

The list of standards include statements about violence and; threats, self-harm, bullying and harassment, hate speech, graphic content, and nudity, among other things. It all makes perfect sense, until you consider that it's possible for someone with a set  political agenda to target specific users by reporting images or content that doesn't fit their ideology. Here's are some excerpts from an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, written by author Sara York regarding the Michael Stokes suspension:

Michael Stokes, a photographer out of Los Angeles, California, was targeted by an individual and told that she would “ruin him” because he posts artistic photos of male models. 

Yes, we all know Facebook has community standards, however Facebook’s standards are double standards, allowing abusive photographs of women, pornography of women, images depicting women in demeaning situations, and other abuses to stay on the site and yet photos of two men fully dressed but kissing are deleted. Do you really want to be known as the company that supports abuse towards women and gay men? 

Stop allowing people who habitually report clean gay images and images of the male form from trying to “ruin” good people who are working to foster equality.

(You can find the full letter HERE.)

I've recently read a number of news articles and blog posts from people who have had images or other content taken down by Facebook, and the process appears to go something like this: a user posts something, another user sees it, takes offense, and reports it, FB takes it down, and then FB researches the content to see if it really does fail to meet their standards. Sometimes content is restored. Sometimes it isn't. And not all take-downs get researched, because the number of reports exceeds the capacity of FB to handle them all.

So one user with an bee in their blister really could make a lot of trouble. Which had me asking myself a question.

Why does it matter?

Because really, Facebook is a business, and businesses are allowed to make their own rules about how their business is conducted. Facebook doesn't charge users for it's service, so if their business model doesn't allow for woman's nipples or two men kissing. it's their prerogative to limit that kind of content.

Right?

Except Facebook isn't like any other business. This quote from the post Fascist Facebook attempts to explain why...

Facebook is a not just a private corporation; Facebook is a crucial component of contemporary popular culture. Facebook is a place and an activity that large portions of the world use today. According to a 2013 Pew study on the social networking practices of Americans, as of September 2013, 71% of online adults use Facebook (the numbers for young adults are even higher). For many people, Facebook is essentially a required social activity. ..

...When such a critical part of global human culture, when the world’s de facto social media platform, is privatized, monetized, owned by a private company whose primary concern is not creating a safe, non-oppressive environment in which individuals can share their experiences, interests, and ideas with one another without fear of harassment or attack, but rather extracting profit from every possible social interaction, there is great reason to be concerned. 

Now that's the rub, isn't it? Almost every single person I know has at least some interaction with Facebook. My kids have FB accounts, as does my mother. And Facebook is making money off of every single one of it's users. They make billions (yep, that's a B) of dollars from advertising revenue off their 1.35 billion (yep, another B) active users.

I figure if they're going to make money off the time I spend on their site, they better treat me the same as every other user.

That's why FB should work to prevent an individual or small group with an agenda from interfering with other users. While there's a place for standards, most questionable content can be handled with the "hide this post" feature, and I think Facebook should do more to keep targeted harassment from happening.

There are several concrete suggestion for how to limit abuse in this petition created by Taylor Law, found on Change.org - Change the Reporting Policy to Prevent Harassment and Bullying. Among other things, the petition suggests flagging users who report more than five posts in a one-week period to help identify users with an agenda. There are over 13,000 signatures on this petition, and it'll eventually be sent to Mr. Zuckerberg.

Because all we want is a level playing field.

What do you think about Facebook's standards? Have you had your content reported? Thanks for reading along.
Liv


UPDATE
This appeared in my Facebook stream a little while ago...

Facebook has reinstated the Michael Stokes Photography page, the one under suspension when I first wrote this post. I'm encouraged that their process of investigating reported posts does work, though it's still not perfect. Mr. Stokes history of take-downs & suspensions speaks to that. At any rate, thought I'd share...
Liv

To tsū or not to tsū...

So...tsū...

It's a new social media website, sort of like Facebook with mint green borders. And right there you want to stop me, don't you? You want to ask, "Oh Liv, why would I want to join another social media site?"

Why would you?

Honestly, I didn't want to. I would love it if I could just hang out on Facebook and Twitter and get to know readers and other writers and talk about my dog or my kids and sometimes tell them about my writing projects. I probably still will, but Facebook is threatening to change the rules (again), which may limit what I can say.

So...tsū...

I joined about a week ago, and have so far connected with people I knew from FB and twitter, but also with people that I didn't know, that I'm getting to know, which is cool. So far my stream has skewed heavily toward book promotions, but I'm hoping that'll even out some, and allow for more actual communication. So far, I'm having fun, and I've earned $0.21 for my trouble.

I mean, who doesn't want to get paid for using social media? That's one of the main differences between tsū and Facebook. The ads on tsū are blatant, taking up the right sidebar, and don't appear to be slanted at all to my interests. Which is kind of a relief. Sometimes FB can feel a little stalkerish, the way ads for shoes show up ten minutes after you looked at a pair of shoes in a different browser. But the way tsū works - and I might be a little Pollyanna here - is they earn revenue from advertisers, then give some of it back to the users who are providing and interacting with the website's content. 

As an interface, I've found it more intuitive than Google+ and a helluva lot easier to use than Ello (which, jeebus, I'll never be that hip). It's similar to twitter, in that you can organize your content by hashtags, but less abstract because you can write in complete sentences, since you're not limited to 140 characters. There are no minions behind the scenes, organizing your stream by what they think you want to see (ahem, Facebook), so if you miss someone's post, you have to go to their page to find it. Also, tsū doesn't have the ability to form groups, though there's a push among members to get the developers to add that feature.

So...tsū...

So far, so good. There may be some deep, nefarious plot to steal my personal data or otherwise ruin things, but I like what I've seen. If you're, interested, here's a link to a how-to post by someone who has clearly drunk the cool-aide. (And I mean that in the nicest possible way.) Or if you want to join, let me know and I'll send you a code.  I don't see it replacing Facebook, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to do things on tsū that Facebook won't allow.

Have fun at your holiday parties this weekend...because I know you have holiday parties this weekend. Cheers!
Liv

Social Networking: WANATribe

The WANATribe is here! Check out this post by Kristen Lamb, where she describes her motivation for creating the site and what she hopes to accomplish: 

 

I bring you...A gift -  A New Era For The Digital Age Artist

  

Because I took one of Kristen's classes last winter, I've had the opportunity to play around on the site for the last few weeks. Then this week, I sent the link out to a few friends who I thought might also be interested in being part of it. Along with a couple of takers, I got an email back from one woman who essentially said,

 

I think this is cool, but what did I just sign up for?

 

That prompted some thought on my part, and an interesting exchange of emails. To answer her question, first, the WANATribe site is intended to be an independent social networking site, geared towards creative types - writers, film makers, whatever. It's a place where you can find a supportive network of like-minded individuals who work together to promote EVERYONE's success.   

 

WANA = We Are Not Alone 

 

It's a little bit Facebook and a little bit BookBlogs with a helping of Twitter, and really, it's so very new (like just since Monday, right?) that there's still time to figure out what it IS. So far everyone I've met through that organization is pretty awesome. There's a wide range of writers there - some unpublished, some indies, & some traditionally published, so there's a lot of experience to learn from. There are also smaller interest groups that you can join, where the discussions are more focused, and classes to improve your skills.

Why yes, I did drink the cool-aid. It was yummy.

I think the key is that if you want to do this, (meaning, be a writer), you need to figure out a strategy for social networking and acknowledge that you're going to have to put some time into it, especially if you go the self-publishing route. EVERY author needs some kind of internet presence - heck, everyone who's trying to sell anything needs to figure out the internet. You're likely going to end up with a combination of sites that you're involved with, probably some combination of a blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, the WANATribe, and so on. Not saying you MUST do any one of these, but each is a tool, and you need to figure out how to use them.

But if you're reading this, you probably know all that.

The big challenge (and this is one I struggle with every single day) is how to find time for the social networking angle and still get some writing done. Because you know, it's fun. I like chatting with people on twitter or Facebook and catching up with blogs through Triberr. And the benefit is I've met some pretty cool folks from all over the world who I consider my friends. I'm still getting some writing done...it's just slower.

 

If you're just starting with all of this, remember that you don't need to do it all at once, just take it one change at a time and see what fits and what doesn't. Check out Kristen's post, or go right to the WANATribe site and see what it's about. And for those of you who've been at it a while, what's your secret for finding the balance between social networking, writing, and, you know, the rest of your life? Inquiring minds want to know...

Peace,
Liv