Hey Facebook, stuff it.
I have been posting my columns on Facebook on a pretty regular basis so my friends, classmates and relatives can keep up with me.
Never have been a huge user of the platform, but it is a way to keep up with my friends. I usually keep postings to a “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Anniversary.” I don’t post where I had dinner, take a selfie or even slip into a conversation about what marshmallow is the best.
But, apparently, I ruffled the rulers on high and they have suspended my Facebook account. Freedom of speech, I think not, at least not on Facebook.
I think it’s hilarious that a weekly newspaper publisher is being banned from the world-wide mammoth that is Facebook because, apparently I wrote something in a column that triggered a red flag.
Maybe it was when I mentioned my brother got hit in the head by a duck when we were younger? Facebook is known to be very pro-duck.
Possibly it was when I mentioned we were improving the newspaper. Facebook frowns on someone cutting into their media agenda and portraying any news that they haven’t already scarfed up, without paying for it I might add. Nope, it has to be when I mentioned our family dog that we lost a while back. Facebook likes for their dogs to be dressed up and doing something funny. Maybe I crossed the line when I mentioned something that tugged at people’s hearts instead of enraging them and making the division between us all the larger.
It has seemed that many folks have suffered the same fate by posting things that must not jive with Facebook’s overall view of the world. It certainly can’t be anyone of the Biden bandwagon, and it certainly be all the folks condemning the Republican party and former President Donald Trump. That type of material literally was a flood on Facebook.
I don’t have a problem with that. I think everyone should be able voice their opinions. I never thought Facebook was the place for it. Remember at the top? Keeping up with friends and relatives was the whole idea, at least, that’s what I thought.
As the past presidential election neared the tone and tenor of Facebook changed and people on both ides vented some awful stuff. I’m able to shut that out, but now that Facebook has their guy in office, anyone that possibly doesn’t agree falls into their massive mouth.
Believe me, I can live without Facebook, just like I have lived without Twitter, Instagram, and any of the other hundred things out in the world.
What I do have is a problem with censorship and this certainly feels like it. Just seems like after I mentioned in a column, that President Biden will most likely not finish out his first term and that Vice President Harris was hand chosen to carry on the Democratic ideal, but with more energy and vigor that I got shut down.
No threats, no curse words, just an opinion. That’s not healthy folks, in fact, it’s downright stupid. If we all have to think the same things and be on the same side then problems aren’t solved, they are delegated to someone else to make decisions for us.
Not this American. I’ll live without Facebook, but my opinions will keep flowing and maybe I can help solve some problems by listening to other opinions and ideas. Facebook seems to only want their agenda out there.
Wait, wait, I think I have it. It has to be when they found out I was looking at Jeeps a while back and I never clicked on their ads they kept bombarding me with after my first Google search.
OK, now I’m in even bigger trouble…I mentioned Google. Crap!
If you see me, say “Hey!”
Dee McLelland is Publisher of the Coastal Courier and the Bryan County News.