It’s clear that the only reason fascistbook dumped Cheetolini was because the coup d’etat failed, not because Cheetolini’s words and actions were inappropriate.

It’s common knowledge that innocuous phrases such as white trash and fake goth are quickly censored (*), but many users reports phrases like white men, white males, and even yt or men are now being deleted and users receiving suspensions.  Meanwhile rape threats continue without punishment, as do hate speech and slurs against Black people, People of Colour and LGBTQIA people.  Tag groups are being silenced while cops and other undesirables have groups that spread racism, hate and incite violence without punishment.  The racism and hypocrisy aren’t even hidden anymore.

(* Yes, only governments can censor.  But when corporations are doing it at the behest of, to please, and under pressure from governments, it’s still censorship.)

A humour group I’m in regularly used the British and Australian term seppo (rhyming slang for americans: yank ~ septic tank), until censorship recently began, posts getting “zucced”.  I’m starting to wonder if my own preferred term of derision for unpleasant americans – yanqui – will start being censored.  Some people speculate there’s a crackdown in advance of the inauguration, but I suspect it will continue afterwards.

Facebook Groups Say They Were Censored Just for Using the Word ‘Men’

Tag group admins claim that anything even remotely negative about men gets automatically flagged or taken down. The same doesn’t seem to apply to posts disparaging or even threatening women.

If you spend a decent amount of time on the Internet, it’s hard not to come across Facebook tag groups. Tag groups are Facebook groups with seemingly bizarre names, such as “This post is so relatable I’m going to show it to my therapist”, or “sounds stoned and wholesome but okay”. These group names sound like comments so they can be tagged in the comment sections of relevant posts.

But while they may seem to be all fun and games, over the years, tag groups have emerged as a space for people to have open and safe dialogue about the issues we face as a society. Many tag groups are dedicated to discussing everyday injustices in the patriarchal world that we live in, including mansplaining, emotional abuse, and manipulation of the other genders by men. And with its unevenly enforced hate speech policies, Facebook seems to be cracking down on that. 

[. . .]

It was in 2019 that Facebook groups first started going private or even secret (where one could only join by invitation), for fear of being reported, or “zucced” for their content. “Zuccing” is when a Facebook group is invaded by bad actors who post porn or other content banned by Facebook, report that content, and, in turn, get the group deleted.

“I would get notifications from Facebook itself saying a post or member comment has been deleted,” says Ashley Brooks*, admin of another group that calls out cisgender men’s practice of taking up space in discourse around issues that aren’t about them. “We can’t always see what it is, only sometimes. It gets very frustrating, especially when the post is not problematic at all and members get upset thinking we are the ones censoring them.”