Day: 17 June 2016

Facebook playing the man, not the ball.

Facebook are slapping ludicrous 30-day bans on my account. I am talking to their PR agency about it.

Last night Facebook slapped another 30-day ban on my account for sharing this photo of a graffiti’d bill-board of Jason Ball, candidate for the Australian Greens in the Melbourne seat of Higgins.

 

I have been advised to contact Facebook’s PR agency N2N in Sydney to resolve this matter:

N2N

So I sent them an email and await their reply:

From: Michael Barnett
Date: 17 June 2016 at 10:50
Subject: Fwd: Facebook repeatedly banning my account for 30-day periods
To: facebook@n2n.com.au
Cc: …

Hi Jack,
Thank you for taking my call.
Below is the email I sent to your main email address.
As I said on the phone, I run the Facebook group “Proud to be a Second-Class Australian“, that I started in 2009. This group has an immediate reach of over 3,000 people, all keen equality advocates, including a range of media contacts and other high-profile community members.
I have documented two of my previous Facebook bans here:
As you can see, there is no logic for the bans on my account given the content posted.
I can be contacted on ….
I hope you can assist in a prompt resolution of this unpleasant matter.
Regards,
Michael.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Michael Barnett
Date: 17 June 2016 at 10:30
Subject: Facebook repeatedly banning my account for 30-day periods
To: info@n2n.com.au
Cc: …

Dear N2N,

I write to you as a well-known activist in the LGBTIQ community in Australia.
I have just received a 30-day ban from Facebook for sharing a photo of a bill-board of Green’s candidate Jason Ball graffiti’d with the word FAG on it.  Please see attachments.
I have received 2 similar 30-day bans in the last year for similar issues, ie sharing content raising awareness of hate content.
I find this response from Facebook outrageous, especially as I have no recourse.  It damages my mental health and causes me great personal distress.
I am in constant contact with the LGBTIQ media who are very keen to understand why I am receiving these 30-day bans for sharing content that is deemed to be unacceptable, yet is simply raising awareness of attacks on LGBTIQ people.
I will follow this email up with a phone-call to your office.
Sincerely,
Michael Barnett.

UPDATE: N2N managed to get my 30-day ban overturned and my Facebook account was restored to normal the morning of Saturday June 18.