Facebook is censoring Vegans
It’s become more and more frequent lately that when Vegans share videos that show the truth of what is happening to the animals as a result of people buying and eating animal products, Facebook will either block their posts or ban them. Yet at the same time Facebook is full of advertising of animal products because any company can just pay Facebook to show their ads.
Now on the one hand it may seem like regular users can’t complain. After all, Facebook is a free service and so we are under their rules which they call “community standards”. However when a person can not use social media to talk about what matters most, it defeats the point of the website.
Is Facebook for just irrelevant chitchat that makes no difference in the real world or is it acceptable for people to use it to promote what really matters? Everything depends on the answer to this question.
Suppose I stop using Facebook and just stick to other outlets like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, or WordPress. Even if I do, suppose those sites also follow the example of Facebook and ban accounts which share information that society doesn’t like?
How far does this go? Will someone be banned for their views on politics, religion, or lifestyle choices? Is the internet going to be the place where we have freedom of speech or will we be forced to give up entirely on the internet as a means of reaching people with our message? If so then where do we speak?
Let me tell you, people DO NOT listen to me in real life when I explain why I am a Vegan. They ask me but then I tell them and they still don’t get it and just throw back excuses for their behavior and tell me I should eat meat or that I should have a “cheat day” where I eat cheese because “nobody will know”. Or that eating eggs is okay because “free range”, or they talk about how they like the taste of bacon.
And I tell them the names of good documentaries that explain everything and give them links but do they watch them? No. Instead they just bring up the issue to me in person and attempt to argue with me at work, which is the only place I have interactions with humans.
In fact I don’t go around at work telling people I’m a vegan. They are always the one to bring it up! “Aren’t you going to eat chicken?” “Why don’t you eat ice cream?”, or some other comments like that. When I tell them I’m vegan they say “Oh, I didn’t know that! What made you change?” So I tell them and they look at me in the most repulsed way. Then they go on living their life as if nothing has been said. The only difference is that my hatred of humanity grows every time as a result of the ignorance and selfishness I see.
So no, I don’t bring it up in the world outside of the internet because I’m too sick of people’s reactions. So I generally share things related to veganism on the internet because it’s the only place where I can say something and they people choose whether or not they read or watch. The internet is therefore less threatening both to me and others than the “real world” is.
Yet that doesn’t stop them from banning my friend Poffo repeatedly for the things he has shared on Facebook. So I’m getting really annoyed at this point and really considering what I’ll do about it.
This was brought to my attention recently because of Poffo being banned yet again for sharing a post, which ironically was already on a public Facebook page. His mother had to relay the message to his friends.
Chastity White Rose 