If you publicly share content online, then you should know… people see it.
In my experience, most of the people are decent people, event GREAT people.
But there’s that 1%.
That 1% is ugly.
That 1% is nasty.
That 1% is gross.
They may be mentally unwell… terribly, terribly unwell.
Some… may even be threatening.
Anytime we share content… we have to be aware that our content reaches some of that 1%.
I have experienced that 1% minimally, but on almost every social network I have a public presence. My first eye opener was a comment on one of my Flickr photos several years ago. Oh, and then came YouTube.
Most of these social content sharing sites have tools to help protect ourselves, such as blocking.
The Facebook PAGE has this thing called, BANNING.
A Facebook page administrator can BAN a fan for any reason… whether called-for or not. I am not here to discuss whether or not folks should be banned. The way I see it, if you are in my house – you will follow my rules – stated or per-my-mood.
But Facebook.
And banning.
A.K.A. BANNED FANS
The word BAN leads one to believe a fan is, um… BANNED.
Cast out.
On the streets where they belong.
Nope.
In fact, banning a person from a page is *almost* worse that giving them full access. You see, though the damned banned cannot like or comment on a post or photo… the banned CAN share that page’s post or photo or video or whatever.
THE. BANNED. CAN. STILL. SEE. EVERYTHING.
Oh, and share it with their friends.
If like attracts like… that CANNOT be good.
Imagine my surprise when I viewed my page activity one day and saw one of my BANNED users SHARED MY PAGE’S PHOTO ON HIS PAGE.
In essence, Facebook is taking the 1% and giving the ickiest of our population an extra-special creepy way for these folks to… CREEP.
I would not call it banning. I would call this putting that person into CREEPER MODE.
Facebook is not forthcoming about this backdoor. But I found Facebook’s statement on banning and I will share it with you because you need to know:
Since this discovery I am sharing even more carefully on my Facebook page. But imma tell you, there are some sick, sick people out there. It doesn’t matter how benign a shared photo or any content is… it is always at risk when it comes to this 1%.
Maybe it’s 5%. I am not a social scientist.
Years ago I shared a post about laundry and socks. I’m a mom. I do laundry. I fold more lundry than I speak words some days. I know I am not alone. 99% of the interaction on that post was from other moms who shared the same laundry struggle. But that 1% represented and I learned about a little something called a sock fetish.
::blink blink::
The problem is, it is 100 million percent impossible for those of us who are *normal* to predict what that 1% will creep on, defile, obsess over… or download.
Does this mean we shut down the internet?
Well, that isn’t going to happen. So what do we do?
Not only am I being even more choosy about what I share, but I am sharing with you. I hope you will share with others.
This is just another reminder of how we need to know about the platforms we are using. We need to know about our privacy, or not privacy… not only personally, but professionally.
If you run a Facebook page and think banning someone is helping you… it may not be. Unless it’s to silence a spammer. In that case, it works.
I know Facebook is free, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t educate ourselves and tell others what we are learning about this free service. I
