“We do not allow hate speech on Facebook because it creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence…Sometimes people share content containing someone else’s hate speech for the purpose of raising awareness or educating others. In some cases, words or terms that might otherwise violate our standards are used self-referentially or in an empowering way.” – Facebook Community Standards, October 2020 Update

In public post to Facebook I linked my recent article Ignoring Domestic Terrorism and the Propaganda that Blinds Us to Its Threat. As is normally the case, I shared a link to the article without any issues. Multiple other people also shared the link with no problem.

To my dismay, many other people were not allowed to share the link, with Facebook claiming it violated their so-called community standards. Some were banned for a day and at least one person posted that they received a 30 day suspension from Facebook.

I cannot explain why anyone was chastised because of the article link. Some used quotes from the article and were perfectly okay, while others were told by the Facebook police that the content violated their so-called community standards.