TS
Thomas S

1 reviews | Active since Aug 2018

23 Apr 2023, 11:50

Facebook "Erasure" Without Check

I submitted several ads to Meta, for display on Facebook. Meta checked each one separately, and approved them. Then they banned them all, writing, "your account will be permanently erased", which they said could be any moment.

The ads, though, were still "under review" at this moment (Facebook hadn't double-checked them yet). And the problem was "multiple reports" (which, presumably, is public opinion). I carefully went over Meta policy, and could find no fault. At the same time, Meta reported two attempted hacks of my ad account, from Europe. This means that there was a two-pronged attack on the ads, though not necessarily from the same source.

Meta restored my ads. However, this is sub-standard behaviour. They apparently made a string of fundamental errors in their own vetting process (if the original approvals were in error, I don't think so). Then they banned someone, who was posting good-heartedly, not on checks against policy but on reports. Suppose, e.g. that some people were averse to the word "Postmodern" in my ad. This in fact caused a problem on Goodreads.

Trying to guess what could be wrong, I removed some editorial reviews from my ads. But these reviews are official publisher reviews, have long been public on multiple sites, and should not present the slightest problem. History has too many examples of people removing materials from circulation, not on sound criteria, but on "reports".

Meta's choice of the word "erased" to describe their action (it evokes "erasure", a key term in postmodernism and existentialism), is either what they really mean, or seems to be a striking philosophical misjudgement.

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