Someone inside Facebook has provided Breitbart News with a document titled “Hate Agent Policy Review.” It describes the circumstances by which the Social Media giant might declare you an agent of hate and filter you accordingly.
Those signals include a wide range of on- and off-platform behavior. If you praise the wrong individual, interview them, or appear at events alongside them, Facebook may categorize you as a “hate agent.” … if you self-identify with or advocate for a “Designated Hateful Ideology,” if you associate with a “Designated Hate Entity” … for possession of “hate paraphernalia,”
Even neutral conversations captured about someone already labeled a hate agent could result in your being tagged. This means discussion or debate about things or people Facebook has decided are hateful, whether you support them or not, might put you on the path to being labeled as an agent of hate.
These are all subjective and arbitrary, of course, like the okay symbol hoax, for example. The kid Sherry Frost likens to a racist could be well on his way to being banned if he is old enough to be on the platform.
And of course, “statements made in private but later made public.”
Yes, Facebook monitors you through your smart devices. They all do. It started as a way to market to you more effectively. Keywords trigger an ad response aligned with a conversation you’ve had, the next time you are online. The platform makes ads available, and if you click them, they make money.
But Facebook has a working policy to use that to filter, limit, or ban your access to their universe. Which will, of course, mean clicking on fewer of their ads. But I guess that’s a sacrifice they are willing to make.
And why not? There’s currently nothing with the marketing power and reach of Facebook. They figure, they can afford to do that sort of thing, and it makes them feel good about themselves. And until someone builds something similar – yes, some pretenders are trying – they can be as partisan and discriminatory as they like.
I’m not saying you should leave Facebook. But understand that they are listening, and you probably gave them permission if you gave them access to your microphone. And, yes, they will use that against you.
The internet is not private. It never was, not really.
