Facebook Censoring The Truth Again

The snowflakes at Facebook are big mad about two posts that have been deemed as 'going against community standards'.   Community Standards that are shifted more than Donald Trump does with the truth.

One of the posts that was blocked was one from POLITICO which blows up the prevailing media narrative that 'Bernie Sanders does well with young voters'  by interviewing a group of young Latinx voters in Florida who will not be voting for him today.

Why aren't these Latinx voters flocking to Sanders as other Latinx peeps in other parts of the country are?   Because the Florida Latinx peeps are either Cubans or they came from Latin American countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela.   They either personally experienced or hear the stories from their grandparents where socialism went horribly wrong or they dealt with authoritarian regimes.

So unlike their peeps in the Southwest, they are looking at Sanders through a different lens and set of experiences, and talk about in the article why they won't be voting for Sanders because of it.

But that POLITICO article is being taken down from people's Facebook pages who post it for the nebulous 'Community Standards' reason.

What inquiring minds wanna know is why this article is being stricken from people's Facebook pages.

The other post that is being wiped off of people's Facebook pages is one from The Root and the Very Smart Brothas looking at the COVID-19 response and asserting it's a natural response of white supremacy.

It breaks down why Republicans, and conservative white peeps in general, seem to be in knee jerk reaction mode when it comes to the coronavirus and any criticism leveled at Dear Orange Misleader in terms of how badly he and this misadministration handled this COVID-19 pandemic.

It makes the case that white supremacy is permeating through this response, and that's plausible, especially since Dolt 45 has started racistly referring to COVID-19 at the 'Chinese Virus'.

But that article is plucking some vanillacentric privileged nerves, and as routinely happens on Facebook with any post or article critiquing the behavior of white people, whiteness or white supremacy, it gets labeled as a 'violation of  Facebook's 'Community Standards'

Frankly, what they're doing is censoring commentary that is uncomfortable for them to hear, and it's irritating when they do this.   It's even more irritating when Facebook censors commentary from Black writers that is critical of whiteness and white supremacy.


TransGriot Update:   Turns out that these aren't the only articles being blocked.  Facebook is claiming it's a glitch. 

What Happened To Trans-Fusion Radio?

Last Friday night there was supposed to be a Trans-Fusion Radio show on the subject of the trans prefix and whether it was necessary to identify ourselves as such or just use 'woman' to ID ourselves.

For the record, I think we should unapologetically ID ourselves as trans women, but that's another post.

When 7 PM CDT hit I was in my Dallas hotel room tuned in and eagerly expecting to hear the voices of my Dallas based sisters Mieko Love, Leshay Weeks and R. Pocahontas Duvall Crowe.   

But what I and everyone who tuned into Power214.com that evening got was silence, and when I called the show's number it just rang without being picked up.

When I called Mieko Saturday morning to find out what happened to that Friday's show, I was angered to find out that since mine and Dee Dee Watters' visit to the Power214.com studios back in April during the BTAC conference, they have not been treated with the respect they were due as one of the more popular shows on that Dallas based broadcast platform.

In fact Trans-Fusion Radio has become so popular beyond the Dallas- Ft. Worth area, the other Power 214 platform shows noticed and expressed their desires to do collaborative shows with the Trans-Fusion Radio team, according to Love.   

But they were receiving no love from the station's cisgender Black male owner, who was getting squeamish about the increasing popularity of the show and bristling from comments he was hearing from the Dallas Black community that Power214.com was 'the t****y network'.

The owner revealed that alleged community critique in conversations with the Trans-Fusion team,  then in the wake of the conversation started showing up late to produce Trans-Fusion Radio. 
Even though it was his tardiness that would delay the start of their show, he wouldn't make up for his late arrival by extending their paid for two hour time block into the next show . 

When the Power214.com studios moved to a new building at the intersections of Alpha and Preston Roads in far north Dallas, the owner asked if they were coming along, but said it in such a way that gave the Trans-Fusion team the impression he wouldn't be disappointed if they didn't.

Power214.com also has a online magazine that does feature interviews with the podcasters to promote their shows.   In the time that Trans-Fusion Radio has been part of that station, they have never had a feature article done on them.

So being fed up with the shady treatment they were getting for their t-bills, the Trans-Fusion team started looking for a new broadcast studio home just in case caca hit the fan and the Power214.com owner went full transphobe and cancelled the show.

The final straw was the Dallas Morning News article written by award winning journalist Lauren McGaughy to discuss the epidemic of anti-trans violence in Texas that seems to be centered on the DFW area.   McGaughy interviewed the Trans Fusion team for the story and wanted to take some photos of the Trans Fusion team at work in the studio for Friday's show.

Most rational business owners would jump at the chance to get free media publicity about their business.  But the transphobic station owner started tripping, probably because of who was getting the publicity and why. and the Trans Fusion team had enough of his crap.

Trans-Fusion Radio is moving to a new home, and as soon as they have done so, they will let everyone who loves their show know what night and time it will be broadcasting from their new platform.   I also hope that there is a way they can file a complaint against Power214.com under the Dallas non discrimination ordinance that covers anti-trans discrimination

And I hope that Trans-Fusion Radio is broadcasting sooner rather than later, because the DFW area, Texas and the world needs to hear their voices.

Why Was Diamond Stylz's You Tube Video Blog Deleted?

On the YouTube platform, video bloggers chronicle everything and discuss many subjects.   Some of the folks who do so have become famous for doing so.

Some of the video bloggers handling their business on YouTube have become famous for doing so.

As with written blogs, there are very few Black trans video bloggers discussing subjects from our perspective.  The person who is my counterpart in the video blogging world in terms of longevity, gravitas and reach is Diamond Stylz.

She has been video blogging since 2009, and you have seen over my 12 years of work on TransGriot me put up some of her videos here because what she was thoughtfully talking about at the time was on point and needed to be amplified.

I was dismayed to find out that after nearly a decade in operation, YouTube suddenly deleted all of her videos from their platform.

Her crime?  She posted a video of her hitting her own hand with a whip with no nudity, violence or foul language.  But according to them that was an 'egregious violation of their terms of service'?

Really?   Can you say this is some shady BS?  Thought you could.

This #BlackTransMediaPurge happened despite the fact that Diamond had zero strikes according to their 'three strikes and your video blog is out' policy.

Diamond is also upset and mystified as to why they did it.  "If they had a problem with that hand video, they should have just deleted it, given me my first strike, and moved on," she said. "'But for them to just delete all my videos was wrong and shameful."

I agree, and this YouTube action reeks of the twin evils of racism and transphobia.   Would they have done this to Gigi Gorgeous?  Hell naw. 

Hopefully YouTube will reverse this unjust action and reinstate her video blog that she put a decade of work into building.

We'll see     

Diamond Stylz Comments On The BET-B Scott Controversy

Catching up on all the news I missed while traveling, and I'm just hearing about BET hiring the androgynous B Scott and then demanding he not wear heels on the red carpet for the BET Awards.

WTF?  

Cheryl Courtney-Evans has her theory on why BET was hatin' on B Scott despite hiring him because his claim to fame is being that over the top androgynous personality.

Diamond comments on it in her latest video as well.

 

10 Worst Countries To Be A Blogger

The Internet and especially the blogosphere have become invaluable for the dissemination of information to the chagrin of political spinmeisters, the powers that be and repressive regimes trying to restrict the free flow of information.

With increasing internet penetration in the rest of the world blogging cultures have exploded in Asia and the Middle East. Unfortunately, as the Committee to Protect Journalists will tell you, the repressive governments in the region are moving just as quickly to stifle the information revolution before it gets started.

The CPJ just published their list of the 10 Worst Countries to Be a Blogger. Click on the link to discover why they made the list.

1. Burma
2. Iran
3. Syria
4. Cuba
5. Saudi Arabia
6. Vietnam
7. Tunisia
8. China
9. Turkmenistan
10. Egypt


The CPJ determined this dishonor list by compiling a series of questions compiled by Internet experts to assess blogging conditions worldwide.

* Does a country jail bloggers?
* Do bloggers face harassment, cyber-attacks, threats, assaults, or other reprisals?
* Do bloggers self-censor to protect themselves?
* Does the government limit connectivity or restrict access to the Internet?
* Are bloggers required to register with the government or an ISP and give a verifiable name and address before blogging?
* Does a country have regulations or laws that can be used to censor bloggers?
* Does the government monitor citizens who use the Internet?
* Does the government use filtering technology to block or censor the Internet?

These criteria were used by CPJ regional experts to nominate countries for this list. The final ranking was determined by a poll of CPJ staff and outside experts.