 |
| Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims (image via Facebook) |
I love that woofy, gay Pennsylvania state legislator Brian Sims does not back down from trolls and haters.
So, last week when a woman who appeared to be named “Jill Freb” sent him a message on social media reading, “You get out, f*gg*t,” Sims didn’t pause to share the comment with his followers.
Sims wrote, “Anyone know my new friend Jill?” He posted a pic of the comment and asked his peeps to report the comment to the powers that be at Facebook
But then, is a strange reversal, Sims himself was blocked from posting on his own account for sharing Kreb’s homophobic comment.
“Last night, I got back from the governor’s swearing-in ceremony,” Sims told Metro Weekly. “I went to put up some information about the swearing-in and a trans candidate who’s announcing a campaign today, and I got a notification that, because of that specific post with her telling me to “get out” and calling me a “faggot” — not even the other posts associated with it — I had been blocked from all my accounts, both public and personal.”
THIS IS REAL? So that post, where I got called a faggot last week on Facebook ...publicly on my Page, @facebook has banned ME for 24 hours as a result it! Anyone at @facebook or @fbnewsroom care to explain this one?!?! pic.twitter.com/6ngslvLMOX— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) January 16, 2019
Eventually, Sims got his Facebook account reinstated, admittedly because he happens to know some folks there.
So I guess the advantage of knowing a few people at Facebook, some journalists who saw this post, and a whole lot of organizations that interact with Facebook is that my account was reactivated. THANKS! No explanation. No response yet from @facebook. What. About. Everyone. Else? pic.twitter.com/mZd3YwrBL1— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) January 16, 2019
But Sims wasn’t done with the issue.
“I have dozens of connections to Facebook and had to use all of them to fix this,” he wrote. “What happens to the person who doesn’t know anyone there?”
He went on to say he never received any “explanation from Facebook Diversity, Government and Politics on Facebook or Facebook HQ” about the lockdown.
Eventually, Facebook responded to MetroWeekly with a statement regarding the ‘mistake.’
“We allow people to share messages they receive even hateful ones,” wrote the Facebook spokesman. “Removing this post was a mistake in misunderstanding that it was discussing a message Representative Sims had himself experienced. The post does not violate our Community Standards and has been restored and Representative Sims is no longer in a feature block.”
But Sims still has concerns for the free speech of those who may not have his connections or position.
“This isn’t just about getting my Facebook page turned back on,” said Sims. “This either needs to continue or start a conversation about what Facebook is doing, authentically, substantively, to make sure they’re not culling legitimate speech and not endorsing, supporting, or lifting up illegitimate speech — whether it’s hate speech or fake accounts.”
Keep fighting, Brian. We think you're awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.