Cancel Culture:
Facebook cancelled me. Why? I don't know.
January 20, 2022 Los Angeles, California – I, the author and artist known by my professional pen name, Andrew Lawrence (and blogger Stu Pitt), have been cancelled by Facebook (Fakebook?). I went to sign in to my Facebook account on December 16, 2021 only to find that my account has been closed, disabled, possibly permanently. With no warning, no advance notice. My account page stated I "violated Facebook community standards". I have no idea what they are talking about. I have been posting my conservative, sane, often funny and satirical comments, on the Facebook news feed – daily - for many years and am very careful not to promote violence, et al. Do I post comments that I consider as comedy? Yes. Satire? Yes. Patriotic? Yes. Ranting? Sometimes. Sane? Very.
Besides being a Facebook member, as Andrew Lawrence I am also the published author of more than 20 nonfiction books and a fine art photographer with a portfolio of over 1,000 photos and, as Stu Pitt, am the author of over 600 Stu Pitt Stuff blog posts since 2009.
I was a valued member of the Facebook community. Valued by sane members. Until now. Suddenly, Facebook cancelled me. My Facebook account is now disabled, by Facebook. As an author and multidisciplinary creative I have been wiped off the face of Facebook. With no warning, no specific explanation. Sitting at my desk at home, when I saw that my Facebook account had been disabled, by Facebook, I thought there must be a mistake. Or that I was dreaming. Or that I had time traveled back to the future, to Nazi Germany.
Why, specifically, was I cancelled? Facebook didn’t say. Suddenly, did some radical prominent Dem or offended Dem donor, or an algorithm at an unaccountable social media source arbitrarily decide I should be silenced, arbitrarily decide that I should have no social media voice, no right to peacefully protest online, no freedom of online speech? Is one’s opposing opinion no longer tolerated or allowed online by the left in the once-freest country in the world? Is the social media cancel culture gaining MORE unlimited unaccountable power?
With no specific information given as to why my Facebook account was disabled, perhaps permanently, I submitted the offered Facebook request form for reconsideration and reinstatement. Here is the Facebook message posted on my account. “Andrew, you disagreed with the decision on December 16, 2021. It usually takes us just over a day to review your information. Your account is not visible to people on Facebook, and you can't use it.” It’s now been more than a month without my Facebook voice. And the message also states that, due to Covid and less available staff, they may not be able to review my account at all!
I have no other recourse and no other way to find out exactly why Facebook cancelled me, why my account was disabled. Only the vague “violation of Facebook community standards”.
It's now been more than a month. I am permanently cancelled. With no specific explanation.
Regarding my long-term extensive daily commenting and active presence on Facebook, as a human, a native-born lifelong American, a senior citizen, and an author and artist, I am now suddenly cancelled, made extinct, and powerless, with no online Facebook access, no Facebook voice and no freedom of online speech. And no recourse.
I have only one response.
F U, Facebook!
UPDATE:
It is now April 2023 and I am still cancelled, with no specific explanation, no review and no recourse.