I spent over a week writing a comprehensive and compassionate post for a chronic illness Facebook group I'm part of. It basically talked about my thoughts (as an information studies professional) on why it is unacceptable to use disability and chronic illness as a judgment-free pass to use generative AI in its current state, and why genAI is not an accessibility tool. It was a response to posts by folks saying the opposite.
I still have the text post thankfully (ironically, I started writing it in Tumblr and it's saved in my drafts here because I am untrusting of FB).
The post was published without issue. I published it under a custom anonymous username, because it was my first time posting in this group, I just moved, and knew I wouldn't have energy to defend myself if it came to that. The group in question does not require posts get pre-approved, so my post was published and appeared on the group page immediately without FB eating it.
In the first couple hours of it being live, some genuinely decent conversation got started. While there was some nonsense to a couple comments, it wasn't nearly as vitriolic as I had been bracing for, and I didn't feel like I had made some massive mistake posting it.
The next day when I went to check on the post again, it was just gone. I went to the 'Manage Posts' tab in the group where I'd posted it, and there was nothing. There was no indication that an admin had removed it (and I don't know why they would -- it did not go against group rules, and while it was arguing against genAI use, that sentiment was heavily softened, and not at all shaming, judgmental, or cruel). There was just no indication that I had ever posted anything in the group at all.
I've had Facebook eat my posts before, usually before they ever get published. I've chalked it up to glitches in a very shitty app. And of course I totally understand if there are circumstances when an admin removes posts or whatever. Like, even if I disagree with reasoning, I do get that there are (hypothetically) humans in charge of these groups that have control over what content is acceptable.
I did not know though, that FB has secret algorithms to moderate content, which can remove published content at any time for any reason, without any indication that that's what happened.
Considering my post just vanished into the ether with no indication that it ever existed, I am more inclined to think Facebook itself removed it, and not one of the group admins. After all, FB algorithms are more likely to target anonymous posts (understandable I guess? but I have so many more questions about how/why this works the way it does).
So FB successfully silenced a well-researched professional talking about a topic related to their professional discipline, which happened to be generative AI. And while my writing nudges folks away from using it and normalizing it (for the time being), imho what I wrote is overly generous to the technology, far more than other posts and comments I have seen (and far more than I actually believe and what genAI and the tech industrial complex truly deserve, but shaming people about their use of genAI isn't my jam). Was it because I posted anonymously? Or was it because I posted content FB's algorithms are programmed to try to censor?
All of this is fascinating to me.
Maybe I will actually publish the post here too, even though some of it is in direct response to content elsewhere on the web.
