Referencing a Belly Button on Facebook Got Me Banned for 24 Hours
January 21, 2022. Forever the day a random, outside-the-box belly button referenced got me banned from commenting or posting on Facebook for 24 hours. Granted, based on my social media feed the last year or so, it seems like relatively anything will get you banned these days. Welcome to the world today.
Let me give you some background, first. Since every day seems like some kind of "National Day" now, yesterday (Thursday, January 20) was deemed "National DJ Day," and it's one of those days where you see your favorite radio host post about being grateful and appreciative for people who have helped them get along in the industry as well as listeners that have supported them throughout the years.
...my comment was gassing him up; hyping him up with positivity, but in our usual sarcastic way (hence also jokingly insulting myself along the way.)
One of my former bosses, who is one of my biggest mentors and also one of my best friends, posted about his appreciation for the day and the people he has worked with over the years. The ironic thing, considering the fact I got banned for what they consider "violence and incitement," is that my comment was gassing him up; hyping him up with positivity, but in our usual sarcastic way (hence also jokingly insulting myself along the way.)
"No one better, Papa! And I'll throat punch anyone who challenges it. (Actually, let's be real, I'm a little guy so it'll be more like a belly button punch.)"
So, let's recap real quick -- I literally said that no one is better than him, called myself a little guy so insulted my height, and made a sarcastic reference to a punch, including the phrase "belly button punch," and this is what I receive on Facebook shortly after.
Make no mistake -- I know it was probably the "throat punch" portion of the message that probably flagged what is more than likely some bed of keywords they have written in some kind of code that triggers something like this to happen. And I actually commend Facebook for keeping an eye out for violent messages and cracking down on bullying, since 85% of social media is an absolute dumpster fire of a wasteland.
But there's a difference between keeping an eye on stuff to crack down on actual threats of violence, and just going full bore and dropping the hammer down on anything. I've never been in a fight in my life. My friends nonstop tell me that I'm one of the best hype people they know. If you run through the list of posts I make on any social media, it's always something sarcastic to make people laugh or positive to make people smile with the full intent to cut through all the negativity on social media and just the world in general.
I just feel like we're at the point where we ask, "When is enough, enough?" When is enough restricting what we say, what we do, and just all the censorship we're getting hit with lately in general, enough? I get that this Facebook ban situation seems like a 100% first-world problem, and I'm not necessarily denying that, but when you look at the big picture of how we're literally handcuffed in everyday life these days -- it just all adds up.