Bannination

I have yet to be banned from Facebook. I don’t talk about my problems: I block and delete them. I’ve never experienced the “Posted man with nipples exposed, or two fully-clothed men kissing, and got kicked off social media for a few days.”

Somehow, I managed not to be banned from Absolute Write when I was still an active member. I even waded into the world of P&CE, complete with special password because the conversations got so heated, and while P&CE was the reason I finally left the platform (I lost some serious respect for a couple of people I once considered friends), I never got banned. I think I may have been warned once via private message from a moderator. I was asked to back the fuck off a conservative asshole. In my defense, they were fucking stupid, and they started it.

Facebook has changed their rules. Starting next month, we will not be able to talk about sexual orientation. Somehow, this is considered solicitation. Here’s a decent article explaining how this could attract and help trolls.

I’ve already seen Indie authors experience some serious shit from Facebook, as noted above. One of my author friends posted a book cover of two fully-clothed dudes giving each other a peck under some mistletoe for a Christmas novella last year. They lost Facebook privileges and the posts marketing the book were all removed. The cover was fine for Amazon and other booksellers, but not for Facebook. Meanwhile, suggestive photos of a woman going down on a guy, showing the dude’s bare torso and the back of her head, are within community standards.

Now, they’re going to start policing what we say to each other. Again, excuse me? Part of the rampant rape culture in this country is simply this: we never talk about the rampant rape culture in this country. When we don’t talk about it, people can’t tell the difference between a simple offhand comment, flirtation, and intent to commit rape. The recent discourse over the song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” proves this. Yes, we need to talk about sex, and we need to do so without fear of being misunderstood or banned. Isn’t that what freedom of speech is all about?

Censorship is the tool of Nazis, dictators, and liars. Now that we have a man who questionably is all three as our President, big money groups who want to influence how people think have begun taking over our social media. They paid for the president, and now they’re trying to punish anyone who thinks differently by threatening to ban us from social media platforms.

It’s not just Facebook. Have you seen what’s happening on Tumblr? Bye, Tumblr. I was there for the pr0n. I’m not alone. Don’t judge me – it’s research. Quick pics and .gifs are easier on the eyes than videos, and you can quickly scroll past if it’s too intense. As a demi, I can tell you most of it is way too intense. I do a ton of fast-scrolling, but there are also some cute pics on sites like Love for Boys that have inspired me to write. I have to wonder if sites like theirs will continue to exist after December 17. It’s not pr0n, not always, but if YaoiCon is considered an 18+ convention simply for the gay, maybe all gay content will also be considered “adult content.”

We are not corrupting the youth by talking about sexuality. Most of us are sexual beings, and even those who are asexual need to have some way to figure that out. We need to move toward being more open and accepting of sexuality. This seems like the final frontier in the US in so many ways. Our ancestors came to this country to escape religious persecution and somehow the puritans still manage to control language and nudity in this country centuries after Europe loosened their restrictions.

We’ve made great strides toward equality and sexual freedom in the last ten years. Trying to police Facebook now, after years of begging them to do something about hate speech and being rebuffed, is an obvious sellout to conservative interests.

Please don’t make me go back to Ello.