Facebook is a company that spends billions of dollars on its security and enforcement. But its ability to keep banned users off the platform leaves a lot to be desired.
The tech giant has been under intense scrutiny for the past few years about the spread of misinformation on its platform. It has tightened the rules, adding fact checks and increasingly removing fake news and lies. These changes have caught up with Australian misinformation super-spreaders like Craig Kelly, Pete Evans and Reignite Democracy Australia, who have been banned from the platform.
But at the same time the platform’s rules leave gaping holes that allow nearly anyone to easily evade a ban. It’s against the company’s rules to let people who have been banned create similar pages, and yet many users have returned in one form or another.
Here’s Crikey’s guide to the easy ways that anyone can avoid a Facebook ban.
1. Run for politics
Facebook told Guardian Australia that the tens of thousands of dollars worth of advertisements featuring Craig Kelly run from the United Australia Party Facebook page do not violate the platform’s rules. The fact that the page was for the party broadly and not Kelly specifically, despite his prominent placement, means that it is not considered ban evasion.
Similarly, Pete Evans’ Facebook page for his since-aborted run for Senate for Rod Culleton’s Great Australian Party was also reviewed as acceptable by Facebook, despite his “Chef Pete Evans” page being banned — that is, a page for the exact same person.
2. Use a business or group as your front
Another trick is to have a business as a front for your content. Pete Evans has also maintained a presence on the platform with a Facebook page for Evolve Network TV, where he posts pictures of his cooking and links to his podcast featuring anti-vaxxers, cryptocurrency boosters and self-help gurus.
Far-right provocateur Avi Yemini has also been able to work around his Facebook ban using both a repurposed Facebook page for former political group Liberty Alliance, and the Rebel News Australia page, to almost exclusively post his own content. That’s after he was banned from Facebook for hate speech. Facebook has been made aware of his pages but left them up.
3. Just claim you’re a different part of the same outfit
Anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown group Reignite Democracy Australia was banned from Facebook for misinformation. But that hasn’t stopped the group from creating a number of state-based groups to continue to undermine vaccine hesitancy on the platform.
This, it appears, is just a result of a lack of enforcement. But since Australia’s most prominent anti-vaccine groups can easily evade one of the world’s most sophisticated tech companies, it doesn’t instil confidence in Facebook’s ability to police its own platform.
Can you please ban James 1 from your platform on the grounds that he is busy spreading misinformation, and that his barking mad rants are incredibly boring.
Agreed. Rants of the kind we see here today are criminally irresponsible.
I certainly can see that there is a BIG CONSPIRACY between government and “Big Pharma”. If it wasn’t for that we would still be waiting for a vaccine and other breakthrough drug treatments. It’s actually a collaboration between funding and science, nothing unusual or underhanded.
From “VACCINE DEATH REPORT” ( link in Post above )
The past decades several official government agreements were signed, in nations across the
world, that provide every vaccine manufacturer with 100% protection from any and all liability. It
doesn’t matter how much destruction their products may cause, how many millions of deaths
and permanent disabilities they inflict, nobody has any recourse.
Governments worldwide made sure that no vaccine company can ever be held
accountable for what they are doing to people around the world.
No health insurance will ever cover the costs resulting from vaccine damage. They simply do not
reimburse the vaccinated, when they get into trouble. You’re completely on your own. Nobody will
come to your rescue. Yet… the same governments that refuse to protect you from possible
destruction of your health, life and beloved ones, mandate these deadly injections, and require
them for shopping, travel, gatherings and even banking services.
F A L S E & D E C E P T I V E
According to ‘health officials’ around the world, the vaccines do not protect
anyone from getting infected, do not prevent transmission, and people still need
to wear masks, keep distance, isolate themselves, be quarantined, etc. 74% of
infected people of a mid summer outbreak were vaccinated. The start of
immunization campaigns shows also dramatic spikes in deaths. In short: nothing
changes. Yet, they want to make constant booster injections part of our lives. The
claim ‘the vaccines are safe and effective’ is therefor proven false and deceptive.
Was your, very welcome absence for several weeks, due to having a head, or full body, transplant?
Something cyberish that is immune to GatesVax?
Another digusting article aimed at some of only people barve enough to tell the truth. Something Cam Wilson doesn’t understand & judging by his scribbles so far he never will be a real Journalist. Those of us who do find it “unusual” to have alternative Medical advice Censored find the info, because something smells & we are being lied to daily.
If you’re interested check out https://tinyurl.com/sn6xtz4w for some interesting facts not Media BS. The artuicle is comprehensive & factual — “All you need to know about COVID vaccine safety”
Ah, the old stalwarts, replete with raNdOm capItalS and even randumber rants.
I doubt that you’ve been missed.
How does it feel to self+succ, so hard?
To refute the lies in this article it’s important to realise that Australia is NOT lucky in the way this Covid “Pandemic” has been handled. You cannot hide forever & a flu virus will be something we all have to deal with -like it or not. This means you should be looking at all available information – It’s your life & your body!
Big Pharma is being well protected & the dangers of an untested so called Vaccine are being hidden. This should not be a surprise – the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ involved are mind boggling & Govts are compromised!
For factual read check https://tinyurl.com/uckx9cwd “VACCINE DEATH REPORT” Excellent summary
“I fooled myself. I had to. I didn’t want to see it, because I would have then had to think about the consequences of seeing it, what followed from seeing it, what I must do to be decent. I wanted my home and family, my job, my career, a place in the community.”
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45
Google the people behind the two links provided by James and see if you would rely on them.
Everybody needs an angles, especially when making things in the real world.
You ought to visit it sometime – get out of that dreary basement.
So the vaccinated are catching covid at rates much higher than the unvaccinated? That’s a relief; I would be very, very worried about unvaccinated people catching covid – and much, much more likely being hospitalised and dying – if they also caught the virus at the same rate as the vaccinated. Instead I am just very concerned that unvaccinated people might be exposed to the coronavirus.
And what’s “$$$$$$$$$$$$$” James 1? Is that meant to boggle the mind?
The array of dollar signs is indicative of the amount these imposters expect the unthinking to “spare” for them. No different from happy clapper pastors.
When I got to the bit about “spare a few dollars”, I thought I must be on the site of a prosperity religion televangelist.