Tag Archives: page

After the report, the backlash: Facebook bans posts on Vox Political page due to vexatious complaint

In context: The image that Facebook said showed support for “dangerous individuals or organisations”. Do you think that’s what it does?

This is utterly despicable.

After This Site’s article on the Labour Party’s 851-page report into the way anti-Semitism complaints weren’t investigated by a right-wing team – whose factional opoposition of Jeremy Corbyn led them to do nothing in a bid to make him look incompetent, Facebook has banned This Writer from posting on the Vox Political page hosted by that platform.

But get this – it isn’t because of the link to my article about the Labour report. No, it’s because someone complained about an article I published nearly four years ago.

I received the following message today:

“You can’t post or comment for 30 days
“This is because you previously posted something that didn’t follow our Community Standards.

“Vox Political
“14 September 2016 ·

“Suspension of Attlee’s nephew proves Labour’s ‘compliance team’ does not understand satire http://wp.me/p4Sru1-6AR

How we make decisions

“We use either technology or a review team to remove anything that doesn’t follow our standards as quickly as possible.

“We use the same Community Standards around the world for everyone on Facebook.

“Different regions of the world have their own review teams trained on the standards.

“We don’t allow symbols, praise or support of dangerous individuals or organisations on Facebook.

“We define dangerous as things such as:

• Terrorist activity
• Organised hate
• Mass or serial murder
• Human trafficking
• Organised violence or criminal activity

“Because your post goes against our Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organisations, only people who manage Vox Political can see it.

Accept Decision
“You won’t be able to request a review and we’ll update other people who manage Vox Political.

Disagree with decision
“We use your feedback to make improvements on future decisions.

“We usually offer the chance to request a review, and follow up if we got decisions wrong.

“We have fewer reviewers available at the moment because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We’re trying hard to prioritise reviewing content with the most potential for harm.

“This means we may not be able to follow up with you, but your feedback will help us do better in the future.

Thank you for understanding.

I didn’t understand – and I told them so in no uncertain terms:

“Your Community Standards system has stopped working properly.

“Its team has banned me from posting on my page Vox Political because of a link I posted on September 14, 2016: : Suspension of Attlee’s nephew proves Labour’s ‘compliance team’ does not understand satire http://wp.me/p4Sru1-6AR

“I believe the decision was based on the image accompanying the link, which was the image that had led to Clement Attlee’s nephew’s suspension. If I am right then it shows your community standards team has no understanding of satire either.

“The claim is that, in posting it, I am showing praise for dangerous individuals or organisations but this is nonsense.

“The image is a commentary on then-UK prime minister David Cameron. It depicts him as Adolf Hitler, and quotes Hitler saying the best way to remove people’s rights is piecemeal, because then they do not realise their rights have been removed until the time they could successfully get them back is long past. It was a comment on Mr Cameron’s policies at the time and was an expression of opposition to those policies – not of support for either him or Hitler (who I suspect was the “dangerous individual or organisation” implied in your notice banning me from posting.

“I supply a screenshot of the image, in its place in the article. Clearly your Community Standards team never bothered to visit the article or read it, as this would have made the matter perfectly clear.

“Please restore my ability to post to my page IMMEDIATELY and explain why you allow your Community Standards team to ban people from posting on their pages on the basis of such poor evidence-gathering, which is utterly unacceptable from an organisation that claims to act responsibly.

“As the article that appears to have caused the offence is now nearly four years old, I am guessing that Facebook must have received a complaint about it. Who issued that complaint? Will you be taking action against them, or at least refusing to accept any further vexatious complaints from them?”

I note that Labour’s report (The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014-2019) states on page 847: “Currently, half of all antisemitism complaints the Labour Party receives come from one individual, who is trawling social media for evidence.”

I wonder if the complaint to Facebook originated with the same individual.

Interestingly, Labour’s report appears to describe this individual as one “who is highly abusive towards Party staff and Party members and submits large numbers of poorly formatted and poorly evidenced complaints”. The report’s author then tries to make it seem praiseworthy that Labour is giving such a deranged individual the time of day.

If the complaints are similar to this, both Labour and Facebook should not only refuse to countenance any further correspondence from this individual, but should name and shame that person – to ensure they cannot spread their poison any further.

Who is it, Labour? Who is it, Facebook? Tell us now.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.


The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Racist and Islamophobic Facebook group was set up by Tories to support Boris Johnson

Racism is hard-wired into Conservatives. This poster was from 1964.

If you’ve ever wondered why left-wing groups on Facebook get so much attention for alleged racism or abusive content – here’s your answer.

This Site was implicated in an accusation related to one of the groups where I’m an administrator earlier this week – but it turned out to be a nonsense based on a few comments from readers, rather than having any connection to the creators of the articles.

The contrast with the Facebook group in this story, by Evolve Politics, could not be more stark.

Created by Conservative Party members and representatives, its members and commenters post material of the most inflammatory racist and Islamophobic nature.

The Evolve story states: “Several Conservative Party politicians are among the leadership team running a disgustingly racist pro-Boris Johnson Facebook group in which members regularly spout despicable antisemitic conspiracy theories, openly joke about ‘bombing Mosques’, revel in ‘shooting immigrants’, and call black people and immigrants “wogs“, “Muzrat blacks” and “ragheads“.

“A huge amount of the posts use unashamedly racist, far-right language – especially ones lambasting immigration, refugees, minorities, and in particular, Muslims.”

If you can bear to read more of this disgusting behaviour by members of the racist party that currently runs the UK, visit Evolve and see the story for yourself.


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.


The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Even Labour’s ‘page does not exist’ web notification scores a direct hit on the Tories


Is any further explanation necessary?

This is brutal – and brilliant.


Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.


The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

It seems SOMETHING good has come from the Charlottesville violence

Defend Europe, in their vessel C-Star, intended to block refugee boats leaving the coast of Libya bound for Italy [Image: Defend Europe].

Crowdfunding sites based in the United States are closing down pages dedicated to right-wing campaigns in the wake of the violence at Charlottesville.

The decision has affected not only campaigns to support James Fields, the man accused of driving his car into counter protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, but also – for example – right-wing group Defend Europe, that set sail on the Mediterranean to stop refugees reaching the continent.

Crowdfunding sites including GoFundMe and Kickstarter (in the case of Mr Fields) say they have policies prohibiting hate speech and abuse, and Patreon (Defend Europe) says the bid to obstruct the rescue of migrants who set sail from North Africa was “likely to cause loss of life”.

This Writer applauds the decision by the crowdfunding sites to stop supporting fascism.

I’d like to quote a personal friend, Jim Campbell, who posted eloquently on the subject of the so-called “alt-right” today (August 16):

“There were ‘good people’ on the alt-right side of the Charlottesville march?

“Let’s be clear: if you are happy to stand with, march with, people carrying swastika flags and chanting Nazi slogans, you are NOT good people. You are an apologist for Nazis. You are an enabler of Nazis. You are on the wrong side of morality; you are on the wrong side of history.

“Espousing the Nazi creed is an inherently violent act. It is endorsing the idea that some people are *less human* than others and can have violence visited on them with impunity.

“America: the words of your President and the weasel-worded apologism of his supporters shames you. Britain: the silence of our elected government shames us.

“We laid waste to Europe for six years settling this argument. We sacrificed a generation of brave young men settling this argument. We know where travelling this road leads and, if your side of the argument involves declaring the supremacy of one race over others, it ends with a length of piano wire and a street lamp.”


Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.


The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Cameron’s ego-boost on Facebook is a costly mistake

140310facebook

Someone should have told David Cameron: If you have to pay for some things, they’re not worth having.

It seems an Eton education isn’t as useful as we’re always being told.

In a desperate bid to make the Conservative leader seem more popular than he really is, the Tories have paid around £7,500 (according to The Independent) on adverts to get more fans on Cameron’s Facebook page.

There has been an increase in the number of fans – they’ve more than doubled to 128,000 – but commentators have questioned the value of the exercise, pointing out that Ed Miliband is the least popular main party leader on Facebook but Labour has led all recent election opinion polls.

The Tories said the strategy was “above board”, pointing out that such campaigns are commonly used by American presidential candidates (another indication of the Conservative love of all things American, even when they are costly and pointless – NHS England users take note).

Meanwhile, according to the Indy, “A Lib Dem insider… branded the campaign ‘pretty pathetic’, while Labour MP Sheila Gilmore added: ‘There is no end to his ego.'”

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

Vox Political really needs your help.
This independent blog receives no funding other than readers’ contributions.
Without YOUR help, we cannot keep going.
You can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Alternatively, you can buy the first Vox Political book,
Strong Words and Hard Times
in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook