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A close friend just got permanently cancelled from face book. No recourse, no re-review, no quarter. Her crime? She is a photographer. She loves taking pictures of beautiful things and posting them on her fb account for the world to see for free.
I’m guilty of nearly the same. I make things. I like to take photos of what I make to show off my skills, express my imagination, brag a bit on my superior creativity (LOL).
I also provide links to a couple of pathetic online stores where my images are emblazoned upon prohibitively expensive products where I might make 3 or 4 cents a sale should someone have a burning need to spend too much money.
I haven’t successfully sold a damn thing online, and that’s largely my own fault for being cheap, lazy and unmotivated, not to mention confused as to how to go about conducting business because deep down inside I am a public school educated bureaucratic personality type with a desire to sell but no skill in that arena. I need a champion. Someone who will tell me I am worthy. Blowing ones own horn is a good thing but eventually, especially if you fail to provide, you end up looking like a vain, egotistical braggart and utter failure as a human being…eg: Gavin Newsom…
That said, I was also subjected to fb’s stern warning a few months ago and accused of trying to sell after I bragged on my latest book Critical Bigfoot Theory. Lucky me, it was just a warning so my pathetically under followed fb pages are safe and both of my loyal followers are safely protected against being subjected to knowledge as to how to buy my book(s). I also got thumped for sharing an obvious joke that fb’s a.i. thankfully fact checked for accuracy and found completely false. They have masked the photo. Thank God lest someone lacking a sense of humor may fall upon the sight. It was promoted as a TEMU warehouse on fire with the caption “A 57,000 square foot Temu warehouse in China went up in flames today. The total loss of inventory has been estimated to be as high as $56.19 USD.” Photo here
?
Thank god for artificial intelligence. Where would we be without it? Sane, for one thing.
The arbitrariness of A.I. cancellations boggles the mind. A.I. takes the “just following orders” mantra on a hundred new and ugly levels. Censorship on steroids.
Apparently the only things one may safely discuss and share on fb videos of kittens, government announcements/admonitions and idiotic memes.
I don’t visit my Meta pages very often. Other than an occasional Marketplace view and a shot of my great grand kids it’s a fairly useless application.
Do you remember when Amazon purged it’s conservative oriented businesses and literally destroyed lives and businesses over politics? It happened at a time when I was seriously considering using their web services for my now defunct craft site scissorcraft. I saw the handwriting on the wall. My image library was already widely panned by search engines because I had a few patriotic images and used such offensive language as Mom, Dad, boy, girl…
These days I operate two personal websites, badly, I may add. I no longer post my images for children to print and color. I’d like to but I need a champion.
I keep two websites because I want to say what I want to say without having to govel for permission or kowtow to rules laid out by children programming algorithms into mindles machinery.
My family and friends knows where I am. They have my address, phone number and email, so I’m not hurting should fb or X or Reddit et al arbitrarily determine I am not worthy of using their services.
However, my friend is devastated. Sadly, she made the mistake of trusting fb to be a major part of her social life and now she is effectively shunned from the tribe with no recourse of appeal over a triviality, a misconception of intent determined through unforgiving programming. The machine does not hear pitiful cries for mercy.
She can no longer connect with her friends, see family photos or even use Instagram or Messenger and she is in pain. Did I mention she is also Jewish, elderly, heart of gold, great grandmother, toastmaster, wife, photographer, bird watcher, has a dog, husband, etc…?
What do 20 somethings programmers know or care about causing psychological harm to real human lives anyway? One size fits all. We must have rules! No exceptions!
There really isn’t a point to this rant. I don’t expect fb or any social media outfit to develop any semblance of A.I. compassion for their customers, there’s no money in that, and with a billion users who gives a shit about losing much less ignoring one individual and unless it happens to you, and you probably don’t really care anyway because you follow the rules…right?
Government and business now hide behind voicemail and online help faqs which are largely useless excercises in futility. Few entities use technical writers to explain their rules and procedures and it appears almost none actually product test with real people to gain an ounce of insight.
Moral of the story? A.I. has no capacity to dictate morality. A.I. may only be authoritarian. It has no capacity for compassion and never will.
Do not place your trust in social media. Get your own website, operate it badly as I do or goodly if you have the skills. If and when you get cancelled by some mindless robot you will still have a voice however small.
Fuck fb/meta or whatever else you want to call yourself. You are irrelvant to my life
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