I get a kick out of this site for some reason. Like a remnant of the early internet I barely remember.

I must say, I'm not too fond of the modern internet. With the spying, algorithms, and its complete commercialization, it's pretty dystopic. A far cry from the idealism shown in 1990's media.

The internet has changed quite a bit. One of the things that stands out is the complete control and manipulation by larger corporations and telecom companies. If they are either not getting their cut, feel that you are not important enough or do not like what you have to say - chances are you will not be heard/seen by means of algorithm, cancelling, shadow banning or even delisting.

Good luck in trying to reach someone for help in any way. Interesting how if you wanted to talk to an actual person (who gives something other than a condescending canned response) at Google, Facebook or one of the other platforms to resolve an issue - it is impossible.

Back in the day, the average joe had just of much of a chance of a far consistent reach as anyone else. Those days are gone and most people either do not realize it, are too ignorant to understand/care or simply do not know any better.

The strategy of dumbing down of the masses has (and will continue to be) successful.

Just like in real life, when you need to find out how do reach a certain company line. It's not a receptionist that answers, but some computer. If it doesn't recognize what you are looking for... well, more hair tearing out.

I admit that I am too young to remember any differently, but I definitely know that this type of situation isn't good.

And yeah, one of the things I hate the most is shadow banning. If my post/message is being discarded for some bs reason, at least tell me that.

The culture that has been cultivated at some of these corporations such as Facebook (Meta), Google, Yandex, Amazon and Twitter (might be a bit different now since Musk??) is something that would most likely shock most of us. There is certainly an air of superiority over "the masses" and probably policies in place that are designed to keep a significant buffer between them and anyone that they might have to answer to for anything questionable.

Think of all of the information about the individuals that use (and even those who actively do not) their services. That's probably only the beginning of what fosters an enabling environment for those susceptible to be drunk on power.

An example of the ridiculousness of these type of situations (simple lack of the ability to get customer service) I've recently read about on other group about such topics:

Someone has a very popular facebook page about an innocuous topic (absolutely nothing offensive to any group whatsoever) who recently had a problem when they were traveling outside of the USA. The page has a very large following and reach. The page has been active for many years and has had no reported violations of any community standards in the past. When the page owner traveled outside of the USA and attempted to post to their page, it was immediately (most likely by algorithm) blocked for some unknown violation of community standards. There was no message as to what the problem was. The post was consistent and on topic for the page. Nothing offensive and nothing that violated any Facebook policies. There was no message from Facebook, only a link to request a review (which was used). After that, the message on their page (only visible to the page owner - Facebook completely blocked the page to the rest of the world) said two things:

>How healthy is your Page?
>Complete these actions to keep improving (removed for privacy).
>Page health:
>excellent
>Compared to similar Pages with high engagement.
and
>Your Page is in review
>You or another admin requested a review, so someone will be taking another look at this Page. Only people who manage (removed for >privacy) can see this.

So in the past when the page owner traveled outside of the USA, this same thing happened (multiple times over a period of a couple years) and within hours of requesting the "review", the page was reinstated within an hour. There was no message from Facebook as to what caused the problem so the assumption was that there was something triggering the algorithm due to the page owner attempting to post while they were traveling outside of the USA.

This time the page owner went through the same process. It has been over 2 months and the page still has the same messages as quoted above and it is not available to the world. The page owner has sent multiple messages using the links provided in the "Facebook Help" sections and there has been absolutely no response from Facebook.

Of note, there are no issues with the page owner's personal Facebook page or the sister Instagram (also owned by Meta) page of their problematic Facebook page I am speaking of here.

So either Facebook is simply ignoring the page owner due to some glitch in their system or they are not receiving the multiple messages the page owner has sent regarding the problem using the self help links they provided in the help pages. There is no way to speak to a person at Facebook about the issue.

In this type of situation, what does the page owner do? What if the page was a source of income for the page owner and this sort of issue was having an effect of the livelyhood of their family?

Honestly, I wish forums (boards) were still popular. I like the idea of niche communities that have their own platforms instead of some faceless corporation that is basically dominating the market.

Sadly, despite people getting angrier and angrier at big tech, I think they're too deeply entrenched for even an intelligent populace to unseat them from power. Not that I think the populace is that smart, but that's another matter.

I think things will only get worse from here on out, but at least I have this place to go to.