I'm scheduled to be released from Facebook "jail" today, a week after I
was suspended from the social networking platform for a satirical
cartoon I posted six years ago that supposedly violated
"Community Standards." My only guess is that it popped up in the daily
"Memories" feed and got tagged there. Bear in mind, the post was
perfectly okay in 2015, when I shared it from another account.
Ah, Community Standards... a vague set of rules established to protect
Facebook from criticism that it harbors Bad People Thinking Bad
Thoughts. But the standards are subjectively interpreted, and randomly
and arbitrarily enforced by buggy AI software that doesn't understand
the concepts of satire, sarcasm, and parody.
I was suspended two years ago for this picture, which Facebook's
artificial intelligence bots tagged as "hate speech":
It's an obvious, self-deprecating male joke. I was offending men? Women?
The dog?
Facebook has an appeal process, and for several times each day in the
past week I stated my case in the form supplied, hit the send button,
and received this:
I think it's hard coded into the page.
What's particularly frustrating is the whole banning business is totally
opaque. You're told you can't post for a specified period of time, and
then are directed to review the Community Standards to make certain you
don't do it again. But in many cases, Facebook doesn't tell you what it
was you were doing that triggered the censorbot: violating some
advertising rule, promoting hate speech, etc. It's like being pinched by
the feds, having them hand you the
U.S. Code, and telling you to read it to discover why you were
arrested.
And of course, there's no way to actually contact a human being at
Facebook. If you go to the page to report a problem and send them the
details, you just get a pop-up acknowledging submission.
The guy in the video sums up the whole thing. Understandably NSFW
language, but it's no worse than some of the stuff that appears on
Facebook that, for some reason, doesn't get flagged for violating
community standards:
-----
Thought of the day: "I rise only to say that I do not intend to
say anything. I thank you for your hearty welcomes and good cheers."
(Known as Grant's perfect speech.)
-Ulysses
S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23,
1885)
(More Ulysses S. Grant quotes)
Speaking of dead presidents... on
this day in 1994, Richard
M. Nixon was buried on the grounds of the Nixon Library in Yorba
Linda, California.
Contemporary Thought of the Day: Just think, in 30 years this
country will be run by people who were home schooled by alcoholics.
-----
Among other things, today is Babe
Ruth Day, Marine Mammal Rescue Day, Matanzas
Mule Day, Morse
Code Day, National
Devil Dog Day, National
Prime Rib Day, National Tell a Story Day, International
Design Day, and World
Tapir Day.
-----
On this date in 1810, Ludwig
van Beethoven wrote Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59, Bia
515) for solo piano, commonly known as Für
Elise. One of his most popular compositions, and one of the most
famous piano pieces of all time, it was not published during his
lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig
Nohl ) 40 years after his death.
-----
On this day in 1897, Grant's
Tomb was dedicated. Officially the General Grant National
Memorial, President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia Grant are
entombed there. Thus, "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" is a pedantic,
trick question. No one is buried there.
-----
Sheena
Easton (b. Sheena Shirley Orr, 27 April 1959) is 62 today. She
had 15 US Top 40 singles, seven US top tens and one US No.1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 between 1981 and 1991.
-----
The current junior United States Senator from New York, Cory
Booker, (b. Cory Anthony Booker, April 27, 1969) is 52 today.
Notable quote: "Before you speak to me about your religion, first show
it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you
love your God, show me in how much you love all His children." (More
Cory Booker quotes)
-----
On this date in 1981, Xerox
introduced the first commercially available computer mouse.
-----
On this date in 2011, the 2011
Super Outbreak devastated parts of the Southeastern United States,
especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee.
205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and
injuring hundreds more.
-----
Florida man
indicted for selling over $1 million worth of toxic COVID-19 'miracle
cure' that was bleach.
-----
Why
the world should worry about India. The world's largest vaccine
producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge—and that's
everyone's problem.
-----
When you see a headline like Biden
isn't banning meat, USDA chief says, you just know it's just another conservative
delusion.
-----
Now this is great investigative journalism, no sarcasm intended:
the REAL reason McDonalds' ice cream machines are always broken.
-----
This looks interesting, but is it really necessary? Of course, the original
1961 film was a yet another take on Shakespeare's Romeo
and Juliet, which itself was based on the 1562 narrative poem The
Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet and a 1556 work by William
Painter.
And speaking of movies, the
television rating for the Oscars® plunged 58% from 2020, with
less than ten million viewers tuning in.
Categories:
Computers,
Cory Booker,
Covid-19,
Facebook,
Florida,
Ice Cream,
Ludwig Nohl,
Ludwig van Beethoven,
McDonald's,
Oscars,
Republicans,
Richard Nixon,
Romeo and Juliet,
Sheena Easton,
Steven Spielberg,
Ulysses S. Grant,
Weather,
West Side Story,
Xerox
Home
KGB Stuff
Commentwear
E-Mail KGB
Donate via PayPal
Older entries, Archives and Categories
Top of page
