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+---
+title: Facebook censors links to Mastodon
+date: 2021-09-12
+lang: en
+categories: [ blog, censorship ]
+tags: [ facebook, censor, mastodon ]
+translationKey: "facebook-censoring-mastodon"
+---
+
+On Facebook, toxic comments that dehumanize and wishing death on a large group
+of people are "not violating our Community Standards".  Posts that [introduce
+to friends some decent software][masto-ban], are.
+
+[masto-ban]: https://fosstodon.org/@huy_ngo/106917212298115694
+
+## I am not alone
+
+As I started writing this post, I found out that [someone else named John
+Goerzen][jg] had the same experience as me: post removals due to a link to
+Mastodon's page, with no option to appeal!
+From the comment of the post, I found another fedizen with username
+[yhancik][yh] experiencing the same problem.  On [John's post on his
+Mastodon account][jg-social], there is a reply claiming the same problem
+happened when he mentions Diaspora, and another reply mentioning his shadowban
+from Twitter (ha, Facebook is not alone either).
+
+[jg]: https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10285-facebook-censored-me-for-mentioning-open-source-social-network-mastodon
+[jg-social]: https://floss.social/@jgoerzen/106916230772511960
+[yh]: https://octodon.social/@yhancik/106897948169079191
+
+## Why?
+
+They claim this (a post inviting people to join the fediverse, with detailed
+explanation) is *spam*.  They claim that this is to prevent things like *false
+advertising*, *fraud* (they allowed advertisements of counterfeit cash and
+false ads of mobile games, the latter of which is an infamous phenomenon), and
+*security breaches* (need I to say, Facebook *is* the security breaches).
+
+Irony[^0] asides, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they
+actually used some automatic tools to do it to curb spams, then there is no
+reason not to allow appellation.  As a data mining company, Facebook should
+know better than anyone else that machine decision based on data, so-called
+"artificial intelligence" (a more appropriate term is "artificial stupidity")
+is never reliable.  The decision to ban mention of Mastodon therefore seems
+deliberate.  Hence my rather proofless claim in my Mastodon post.
+
+[^0]: I would like to thank my anonymous friend who pointed out to me the
+  irony that I should've realized earlier
+
+Some people pointed out how ridiculuous that claim is: Mastodon, and even the
+whole Fediverse, is insignificant compared to Facebook.  I agree with that.
+However, the hypothesis is totally convincing if you consider that they
+wouldn't want to let users know what a ***free***[^1] social media is like.
+
+[^1]: Free in both <i>freedom</i> and <i>free of charge</i>.  Facebook is as a
+  free service to its useds as dairy manufacturers to cows.
+
+## Respect yourself, say "no" to disservices
+
+Censorship is far from the only injustice Facebook et al have done.
+Dr. Stallman has compiled [a list of reasons to to be used by Facebook][rms-fb].
+I was trapped there with the reasons of keeping contact with my friends, though
+this is more of a <abbr title="fear of missing out">FOMO</abbr>: I have their
+emails and telephone numbers to contact with, even if they're not willing to
+move to a more ethical and secure platform.
+
+The reason I deleted <i>Windows</i> from my machine and switched to Linux was
+the same: I would be disrespecting myself if I keep using those
+disservices[^2].  For the same reason, quitting Facebook is the only sensible
+choice.  Would you make the same decision?
+
+[rms-fb]: https://stallman.org/facebook.html
+
+[^2]: Before some pedant pointing out <i>Windows</i> is not a service, I would
+  say that [using something without owning it][win-tos] is some kind of hiring
+  service.
+
+[win-tos]: https://www.igel.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/EULA-WIN.pdf