Dear Facebook

Dear  Facebook,

I received a warning from FB yesterday that an item of mine had been reported and removed from FB for "violating community standards." The item was neutral. It was not hateful, threatening nor obscene. It wasn't shocking or controversial or even very interesting. Why was it removed? It was reported by a troll.

Democratic, liberal and progressives in WI are under attack by Republican right wing "trolls" and members of a group who call themselves "the knot." They form fake Facebook pages and report Wisconsin activists for FB violations. Many, if not most, activists in Wisconsin have been banned from Facebook at some point.

Even posting a polite dissenting opinion is now taking a risk that trolls will report you and you will lose your FB privileges for hours, days, weeks - or perhaps lose your age altogether.

Among other things, the trolls come to progressive event pages and make hundreds of hateful annoying posts. We have been threatened, our events threatened, the make/model of my car has been published, etc.

But, when they are banned, they just open another account in another fake name

I recently tried to post a sermon from a liberal but mainstream church and FB would not accept it because it had been reported as spam! A liberal mainstream church with a You Tube account had their sermons reported as spam.

Our ability to even operate our friendship pages on FB is being paralyzed very effectively. Because FB operates largely without personal involvement, and trolls have discovered this, liberal & progressive activity in WI is being shut down.

So, we aren't going to let a little thing like this stop us are we? And, I do realize that I am drawing attention to myself with this post. It's just well... I hate to be told to sit down and shut up!

Vivian Creekmore