So, in all my years I have never once been in trouble with the law, apart from that pesky speeding fine…oh and that restraining order (but let’s not mention that!). You can imagine my horror last Saturday morning when I went to share a book review in a book group and a notification popped up advising me that my access to Facebook had been restricted for 6 days due to the number of posts I shared and the possibility that I was in fact spamming!!!!!
It quickly hit home, I had effectively been put in Facebook Jail! Me? Little miss innocent, lover of the books and all things bookish!
Once the shock had worn off, I began to get a little bit pissed off! What was my heinous crime? What assault had I committed against the social media community? How offensive and derogatory had I been? My answer:- I am a book blogger and I write book reviews and cover book events on my blog. I use SOCIAL media as a means to share that book love and I share it on my own Facebook page and in book groups (which I presume are full of book-loving members!). My reviews, I feel, are fair and honest; I’ve never slated anyone or been insulting, so what on earth is it that I have done?
Facebook does give you the right to appeal your sentence but they ignore any appeal you make. There is no explanation as to what you have done wrong or if you have upset anyone. When you go onto their help and support pages you get masses of information about algorithms and bots, none of which made any sense to me! What I did manage to work out is that either one of two things has happened, a. Facebook has regarded my posts as spam as I post in too many groups and/or too often (though I certainly don’t post any more than any other blogger or indeed reviewer) or b. someone has reported my posts for being spam. I am maybe being paranoid but I do worry that the answer is B as it has also happened to a couple of other bloggers I know and none of us post excessively and certainly not in groups which don’t actively seek book reviews.
If the answer is B. then I’m sorry but it hurts and it sucks! Seriously, if you don’t like me, my reviews or the books I read why not just unfollow me, mute me or unfriend me? Why report me for “spam” when all I’m doing, is the same as you and that is sharing the love of books? And if it is this then why is Facebook not taking a closer look at what they are “banning”? In the article I share below, Facebook themselves admit that some pages may be the victims of saboteurs so why are they allowing this to continue! I have reported posts, where there has been hate crime, extreme violence or pornography, incitement to violence, sectarianism, images depicting animal suffering or suffering of another individual and I’ve had the stock reply from Facebook telling me the post “doesn’t violate their community standards” – ok can someone explain why book reviews do?
Anyway by the time you read this, I will be out of jail. I will do my best to adhere to the “confusing” rules of social media and remain out of jail.
For those wishing to remain out of jail and wondering about the ins and outs then this handy little post gives you tips on how to keep your record clean!
Me, I’m off to share my book love and fingers crossed I stay out this time!
Scottish Crime Fiction Blogger and Author 
Hhhmmm, option b is unfortunately very feasible and could well happen as people are like that, in my young years I have noticed that! đŸ™‚ They could be jealous or just be doing it to bring themselves some fun, yes, there are people around who are that sad!
You might be paranoid! But if/when it happens to me I’m fairly, hell, I guarantee that my first thought will be that some c#nt has reported me because they don’t like something about a post or they are just sad and have ran out of tissues and need something to do! đŸ˜‰
The sharing bit sucks though, it really does. it’s the same with twittah, book bloggers get banned but yet we all (I’m presuming) get followed by, retweeted by s#x bots and spammers but genuine people get put in jail.
I can’t say I’m surprised by facebook though and them not bothering, it’s the same with twittah and wordpress, your complaints fall on deaf ears as they just don’t care!
Well, to answer your question ‘How offensive and derogatory had I been?’ if the best you could do was the same swear word that you used in this post then not very! However, I need to take umbrage at the wording of ‘How offensive and derogatory had I been?’ cos I sure as sh#t know that everything I post could be classed as offensive and if it’s derogatory too then well, that’s just a nice extra! đŸ™‚
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Lol Drew, I swear like a trooper in real life but I’m too feart to put the words down in writing! Go figure! Anyways, I’m paroled for now and will be maintaining a low profile, not prolifically sharing and so if it happens again then it is likely to be someone being malicious. Well, you know what if it floats their boat?! Banned Bloggers may start to seem more intriguing to others đŸ˜‰
Ha, anyway I’d like to see them try contain you in a jail cell!
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Hmmmm I more convinced than ever it’s B and even more so when you see it happening to the same bloggers over and over. I’m surprised I haven’t found myself in the same predicament as I do looooove to share bookblogger posts.
Keep doing what you are doing Sharon, it’s just a shame you aren’t able to find out why you ended up in FB jail to stop it happening again x
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I know Lorraine but we bloggers must keep the faith! If it is B then it says way more about the person(s) doing this than anything we are posting! x
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I really hope that it isn’t ‘B’ but suspect that it is, which is really sad. Because then everybody is going to be on edge, not knowing who the viper is. Or even if there is one. It’s horrible.
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I know, but just need to keep on sharing the #booklove and try stay on the right side of the social media law! đŸ˜‰
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Keep fighting the good fight! đŸ™‚
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ah thank you!
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Hope you are out of jail by now, and if so, welcome back! hope it was a mistake on their part!
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I’m out now! Thank you! Xx
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Sorry to hear about this, sounds so unfair, especially as there is no way to actually discuss this with someone at fB. I have heard similar frustrations about Amazon when something goes wrong in this way.
However, I did come across your lovely blog via your FB post about this injustice, so some good came out of it!
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Aw thank you for such a lovely reply! X
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Option B can’t be real surely.. that would be awful. I really think it’ll be the poor algorythms from FB himself that caused it. So unfair!
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