2 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Posting about the L.A. protests? Apparently that can get you banned from Facebook
Apparently, acknowledging the existence of violence can get you kicked off Facebook.
Rebecca Solnit 's account on Meta's social media network has been suspended, the San Francisco author and activist posted to Bluesky on Monday, June 10.
'Facebook decided to suspend my account because of a piece (below) I wrote Monday about violence which in no way advocates for it (but does point out who is violent in the current ruckus),' Solnit wrote.
She included a screenshot of Facebook's explanation of its decision, which reads, 'Your account, or activity on it, doesn't follow our Community Standards on account integrity.'
Solnit did not explain how, beyond timing, she believed that the essay in question, 'Some Notes on the City of Angels and the Nature of Violence,' written on her independent site Meditations in an Emergency, was the reason for her ouster.
Meta did not immediately respond to the Chronicle's request for comment.
'I think maybe it's begun, the bigger fiercer backlash against the Trump Administration,' her piece begins, referring to the clashes in Los Angeles between protesters of President Donald Trump's immigration policies and the California National Guard deployed by Trump against city and state officials' wishes.
'All they can do is punish and incite, and I hope that some of the protesters are telling them they're violating their mission and maybe the law,' the essay continues. 'We are escalating because they are escalating.'
The 'Men Explain Things to Me' author goes on to question longtime right-wing and media narratives that stereotype protesters as violent while giving law enforcement a pass for much more harm to people and property.
'One thing to remember is that they'll claim we're violent no matter what; the justification for this ongoing attack on immigrants and people who resemble immigrants in being brown is the idea that America is suffering an invasion and in essence only a certain kind of white person belongs here,' she writes.
The piece never advocates meeting fire with fire. Instead, it argues for a defiant yet nonviolent response.
'I believe ardently that nonviolent resistance is in the big picture and the long term the most effective strategy, but that doesn't mean it must be polite, placid, or please our opponents,' she writes.
Solnit concludes by enumerating the kinds of violence the Trump administration has perpetrated — against the environment, against the First Amendment, against women, against his personal enemies, against the very notion of truth.
'It is up to us to defeat that agenda,' she writes.
Solnit said she appealed the suspension. On Wednesday, June 11, she shared a screenshot of Facebook's response saying it decided to disable her account: 'It still doesn't follow our Community Standards on account integrity. You cannot request another review of this decision.'
Solnit noted that she doesn't think a Meta higher-up has it in for her, despite the popularity of her account. She cited 'inane algorithms that often delete posts' as the likeliest explanation. (In April, the Chronicle reported on Meta's rejection of an ad promoting a Northern California Pride festival.)
Even so, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cozied up to the Trump administration, dining with the president at Mar-a-Lago and appointing Trump ally Dana White to his company's board. Meta also donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.
Meta's Community Standards on its account integrity page state that the company reserves the right to restrict or disable accounts that risk 'imminent harm to individual or public safety.'
Solnit is the author of more than 30 books, including 'Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas' and the children's book 'Cinderella Liberator,' which Marin Shakespeare Company
