Facebook Blocked Our Account Because We’re Muslim

This morning I sat at my computer, as usual, getting caught up on Facebook notifications from the night before. As I sipped my coffee, I scrolled the timeline to see what’s good in the morning news headlines and what I’ve missed while catching a few hours of shut eye. I read a few comments and cleared tags and links. After only a few hours into this routine…it happened. That awkward moment when I transitioned from my laptop to my iPhone and all of a sudden I couldn’t log in.

There wasn’t anything to panic about as sometimes the iPhone updates and resets itself. No problem I thought to myself, just reenter the login and back to business as usual. Tried to log in, password did not work. Still, no outstanding red flags as that has happened before as well. I just thought I’d do a password reset and boom, I’d be back to business. But no, that didn’t work either. This time, a box popped up on the screen and explained why I was having all of these difficulties. The account that I have shared with my husband, Rufus – Jenny Triplett, since 2007 was temporarily blocked because of a post. Ok, wait…what? This never happens.

The post that was removed was something that was in the news, all over the news, not fake news, but actual and factual and actually viral news. I was in bewilderment as to why Facebook was having a problem with it saying that it went against their Community Guidelines. Well, it is news and every major news outlet posted it. How is that a problem? So, I decided to do more research. I found the screenshot of the tweet in articles all across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and yet, none of those account were blocked. Black Twitter even created a hashtag in regards to it and thousands of folks hopped aboard to talk about it or rather tear it a new one.

Besides for already having a serious problem with Facebook and post suppressions, some of our posts have been removed without our knowledge, links have been broken or the page would be removed completely. We have never received any notifications as to these posts being against Community Guidelines. Mostly, they all have all been news articles but for some reason only get removed from our page. Other Facebook users are free to post and have conversations about various news tidbits on their pages without intrusion from overseers. What conclusion would you draw from this?

Giving a warning about posting things against Facebook Community Guidelines made me think that this is something deeper. Some little Facebook social media manager has targeted us and our posts. This blatant abuse of authority of blocking posting to our account for 24 hours is their way of getting back at us for speaking the truth. Our page comes from the belly of truth. People come to our page for truth. Truth trumps falsehood all day long. In my opinion, this Facebook policy is being used unjustly and even after I contacted support they did not release our account.

The notice states that our personal account was blocked. But I couldn’t post to Rufus – Jenny Triplett Husband and Wife Team or Prisonworld, our Fan Pages, either. So what is this really about? Control issues? Punishment for pointing out a ghastly mistake? Whatever it is it isn’t fair across the user board. If the blocking was because of this post, everyone else should be as well. That would be thousands of people as just about everyone is talking about it. It has been all over the television and yet, it was against Facebook Guidelines. Really y’all…really. I’ve seen people talk about hanging or killing President Obama and it was never removed from Facebook. Is it because this was about Trump that there’s an issue? Is this Facebook social media manager a Trumpster trying to administer unfair punishment? It really makes you think.

It seems as if Mark Zuckerberg has let Facebook get out of control and his employees do as they please. It pleased someone to slap a block on my pages for no reason. Although employees should not have to be micromanaged, there should also be checks and balances. This particular employee needs to be checked and they need some balance in their life. And maybe even a little diversity too. Do I feel we were specifically targeted? Yes. Do I feel our account is especially watched and trolled? Yes.  Why? In my honest opinion I believe it’s because we’re Muslim. Facebook is just like any other agency that targets Muslims and what they say. Although we have our fair share of trolls, this definitely feels like a Facebook administrative move because it covered our Fan Pages as well which had nothing to do with the post on the personal page.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where our antennas are always tuned and our reflexes are on edge. So what do we do with these types of situations? We turn negatives into positives. Thanking Facebook for the past 24 hours. Here’s three reasons why:

• Channeled energies from one social media to another. It was refreshing to get to know and engage with new Instagram followers.
• This tap on the shoulder has made us even more aware of the value of our posts. Facebook has made us feel special. This just doesn’t happen to anyone. Our African-American Muslim voice platform has just heightened and become even more crucial.
• The Twitterverse loves to hear about ongoing ills with Facebook. Just a few tweets to the peeps and now even more people are interested as to why this happened. People are saying…wow…I posted that but nothing happened to me? Why y’all?

Some may say there is more to life than Facebook. Yes, there is, but the freedom to post when and what you want, especially if it’s news, is being stripped away slowly but surely under this new presidency. The so called freedoms that the soldiers have been fighting for are being stripped, not by enemies of foreign decent but by those that live and breathe on American soil. The very freedoms that the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect are being shot down and held hostage by a white collar workers.

That’s why this is an issue. If you have company and community guidelines, they should apply to everyone. When you single people out and say no, these rules are only for you and put you in the corner for an appointed time, that’s discrimination and also bullying. The evidence has been presented and you can judge for yourselves. As for this judge, I’ve already ruled. Facebook, guilty as charged.