The Simple-Mindedness of Facebook Censorship
A couple of days ago I was watching a YouTube video about WWII. This particular documentary was talking about Hitler’s extended family and the fact that a couple of his nephews were caught by the Soviets during the war. The program mentioned some of the complexities of his family tree. But one thing caught my eye—the video included a picture of Hitler as a baby—something I had never seen before. It occurred to me that probably even the most hardened killers, murderers and sadistic psychopaths looked sweet and innocent as children.
So I took a screenshot of Hitler’s baby pic and posted it to Facebook with this caption, “Everyone seems sweet and innocent as a child.” Within 24 hours, the post had disappeared. I got a warning from Facebook that the item didn’t meet its community guidelines. So I pressed the button to “file an appeal” and got a near instantaneous denial. I then took the step of filing an appeal with the newly formed Facebook review board. I don’t know how long it takes to work its way through the system.
Now, I couldn’t care less about Facebook. They can shut down my account as far as I am concerned. I’m not really going to take the time to explain the post. If you don’t get it at face value, then my taking the time to explain the point probably won’t do any good. Since I’m a journalist, I emailed Facebook’s press office and told them I was doing a story and was seeking a comment. So far they haven’t responded. Now I’m making a YouTube video of my own about the censorship.
I’m glad the government has initiated an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, and I hope the company is broken up. But it does show a certain simple-mindedness that is the essence of cancel culture—the utter inability to understand context. This is how silly Big Brother in Silicon Valley has become. It turns out that business may ultimately become the greatest threat to free speech in America, something the Founding Fathers never really dreamed of.