Let’s open by thanking the handful of people who have reached out to tell me that Facebook is taking down the Grok posts they share. The Platform marks them as spam and removes them for violating community standards. It is expected, and we know, but we don’t just have to take it.
The Community Standards include an obscure reference to spam links or spam on the destination page. We don’t do spam, but they might be referring to Disqus ads or some other automated advertising, which I feel is only spam when it happens alongside political opinions with which they disagree. One man’s spam is another man’s can of processed meat.
What can I say? Facebook sucks that way.
As a reminder, our “return” to Facebook was always predicated on the knowledge that we were still having our reach suppressed and that it was more an exercise for people who wanted to come to the ‘Grok Facebook Page themselves in search of content—because they happened to be on Facebook. Facebook was never going to be cordial about letting anyone see it in their feeds (and if so, only a few) or share it, and now they’ve proven the latter to be true. I’m not saying don’t share – please share! But you might have to do it differently.
What to do – Not Much We Can Do
Facebook is pulling our content, not just when you share it but directly from the Grok Facebook page. The automated AI, or whatever they are using, is pulling down posts about memes and letters to legislators with no links in them. Is this spam?
So, while we still share content there, we remind people to go directly to GraniteGrok.com and skip the despotic, free-speech-hating middleman. We are suggesting you try that instead. Share a link to the home page, which is less likely to get a takedown than a specific article. Put the article title in your remarks if you think that will get them to where you want them to go sooner.
Maybe add something like “See the Stories Facebook Keeps Taking Down.”
These takedowns will only get worse as the election nears, so we would appreciate you sharing the homepage link instead (often!)…not that Zuckerberger meister Berger’s minions (automated and human) won’t use the spam excuse to pull that post as well.
They will.
We should also remind you that since Facebook only colludes with the government, it can and will remove content for any reason at any time, and that’s their call. The collusion to suppress speech with the government is a problem for the government and the courts, not Facebook or anyone else. Though you’d like to think abetters of partisan political censorship would pay some price in the marketplace for such collusion.
I’m not convinced they will.
Social media fans can find ‘Grok content uncensored on Telegram, Signal, Gab, MeWe, Minds, and X. We also share some content on Locals if you are there.