Am I Paranoid, Or Is Facebook Censoring Me?
Posted on July 11th, 2013 in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
I think a post of mine got censored on Facebook. Here’s why.
Last week, I read a NYT profile of New Jersey senatorial candidate Cory Booker that discussed his friendship with that state’s governor Chris Christie. One incidental point caught my eye: Booker, the Times reported, had introduced Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to Christie (Zuckerberg had given a bunch of money to Newark schools), and Zuckerberg had helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Christie.
So that struck me as interesting, because Christie, as you may know, is an avid foe of gay marriage, and I was surprised that a Silicon Valley guy, whose company is supposed to be progressive (lean in!), would donate money to an anti-gay politician. (Because let’s be honest, there’s no way that you can be against gay marriage and not be anti-gay.)
So I posted something to that effect on my Facebook wall, or whatever you call it—something about “I wonder how many gay users of Facebook know that Mark Zuckerberg is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for anti-gay Chris Christie.”
For sure, I thought, I’d get a few comments about that—I don’t post a lot because I don’t trust Facebook on privacy issues, but when I do, I always get some comments. And this kind of thing is right up the alley of a lot of Facebook users. And, frankly, I have a lot of gay friends. (I went to Yale, so, you know..)
So I waited for the discussion…and waited…and waited…
Nothing. Not one comment.
That’s strange, I thought. One thousand-plus friends, most of whom I actually know, and not one comment?
And it occurred to me that, since Facebook apparently controls what people see in their newsfeed, maybe it censors posts about Mark Zuckerberg. And so nobody else but me even saw that post.
Anyone out there heard of anything like this before? And is that even possible? Or am I just being paranoid?
Would love any thoughts on the matter…
7 Responses
7/11/2024 9:20 am
fascinating… why don’t you ask one of your FB friends whether they can see your post? if what you say is true and word got out, FB might loose a lot of users, which Google Circles would love.
7/11/2024 11:25 am
I’m pretty sure I saw your post. I’m annoyed by how intrusive facebook is, however, in wanting to sort what I see. My facebook newsfeed keeps switching itself from “Most Recent” to “Top Stories.” The first includes all status updates/posts from my friends list, the second uses some sort of facebook algorithm to decide which stories to post. (Could this algorithm be sorting out your post?) Like most people I assume, I have adjusted whose posts I want to see in my newsfeed, so I’m annoyed when it switches to the “most recent.” I’ve done a better job sorting what I want to see than fb can. There are a lot of acquaintances whose posts I quietly exclude from my feed, especially if they are active posters. If I don’t actively adjust the setting for any given “friend” (to see all their posts or to exclude them), it seems that the default setting when I add a friend is to see “most updates” in my newsfeed (rather than “all” or “only important”). This means that there is again some sort of algorithm at work. Richard, you were on “most updates,” and I’m almost certain your update was in my newsfeed.
7/11/2024 10:25 pm
I also think I saw it on Facebook.
7/12/2023 10:52 am
Okay, sounds like I’m just being paranoid then. I’m actually glad to hear that.
7/1/2024 9:05 pm
You are not paranoid they are doing the same thing to me!!
7/1/2024 9:06 pm
They won’t allow to post certain opinions on certain threads it will show on a gray tint where only I can see it and the comment number won’t go up!
11/21/2015 1:03 pm
As of last week they started doing the same thing to me! I am freaking out and this bothers me tremendously!! Never thought I’d see that in this country. I don’t know if my posts are just pushed to the bottom of the newsfeed or completely removed, but it started with the first and now I fear its the second. I’m beyond pissed!