THE LATEST THINKING
The opinions of THE LATEST’s guest contributors are their own.

Facebook’s Community Standards are a bad joke
Posted on January 16, 2023 22:40
0 user
The social media giant enforces its policies in a frustratingly inconsistent manner, to say the least.
New Twitter boss Elon Musk is attempting to level the playing field at the social media platform by making it a more open forum via less suppression and censoring of conservatives and Republicans.
If only someone would do something similar at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, where that social media platform’s Community Standards are often applied in arbitrary and capricious fashion.
I should know, because as I write this, I am in the midst of a three-day ban on posting, commenting or liking anything on Facebook for the grievous sin of sharing a photo illustration of an underwear-clad Hunter Biden – ne’er-do-well son of President Joe Biden – in a garage filled with boxes labeled “Classified Documents” and a Corvette.
As I plan to post this column on Facebook, I have elected not to include the photo illustration. Chilling, is it not?
The photo illustration is just that – an illustration – created as commentary on the classified documents scandal the elder Biden finds himself embroiled in after crowing on “60 Minutes” last September that he did not understand “how anyone could be that irresponsible” in referring to former President Donald Trump’s own classified documents debacle.
I was sent a message by Facebook that claims I “attempted to share a private intimate image,” adding said content was removed because it “threatens or promotes sexual violence or exploitation.”
This is unmitigated balderdash for a number of reasons.
First of all, the younger Biden is a public figure. The photograph of him in his skivvies used in the photo illustration was obtained from a larger batch of photos and documents found on his laptop that raises serious questions about his personal life, business dealings, and foreign entanglements. Said photo – and worse, much worse – has been all over the news and social media for some time now.
Second, the notion that this is in any way sexual violence or exploitation is absurd on its face.
Biden the younger’s underwear in the photo in question provides the same coverage as would a Speedo (sorry for that mental image) if he were strolling on a beach. He is also wearing sunglasses, shoes, and a scarf, which means one could argue – and I do – he is even more clothed than he might be at the aforementioned beach scenario.
Facebook, it should be noted, is populated with all kinds of photos and illustrations of folks more scantily clad than the president’s son in that photo.
Third, it has not gone unnoticed by me that several of my Facebook friends have posted the same photo illustration with nary a peep from Zuckerberg’s politically puritanical minions.
One Facebook friend hypothesized that someone tattled on me for posting the photo illustration, mentioning that my day job as a reporter covering Washington state government might have something to do with my current stint in Facebook jail.
I do not know about that, but I would not be upset if a more open-minded billionaire wanted to buy Facebook.
Comments