Facebook unfriended me. Why? So far as I can tell, it’s because I’ve been using Facebook to advocate for decentralization of social media. And apparently the algorithm didn’t like that. This morning, sometime between 8:54am and 9:06am Mountain, Facebook disabled my account. Just after 8:54am, I copy-pasted the content of my latest Twitter post into a new post on Facebook. At 9:06am, a friend received a Facebook notification indicating that he needed to update his trusted contacts because I was no longer available. Here’s the exact text and link that I posted to both Twitter and Facebook: “Now is the time to build, promote, and adopt decentralized social networks. The future of humanity depends on it. Ben Goertzel gets it right. Read his explanation. https://www.coindesk.com/decentralized-social-networks-next-big-blockchain-opportunity ” ( 22 January 2021 ) Now is the time to build, promote, and adopt decentralized social networks. The future of humanity depends on it. Ben Goertzel gets it right. Read his explanation. https://t.co/3DMsYiQdLa — Lincoln Cannon (@LincolnCannon) January 22, 2021 When my friend’s notification came to my attention, I attempted to access Facebook. I was able to login. But I wasn’t able to see anything except the following message: “Your Account Has Been Disabled. For more information please visit the Help Center. Your account was disabled on Jan 22, 2021. If you think your account was disabled by mistake you can submit more information via the Help Center for up to 30 days after your account was disabled. After that, your account will be permanently disabled and you will no longer be able to request a review.” Facebook Screen Shot on 22 January 2021 at 11:04am Mountain I clicked on a link at the end of the message. It took me to the Help Center. There I found a link to request a review. Clicking on that link took me to a form which requested my full name and photo ID. I filled out the form, providing my name and a JPG of my government issued ID. Then I submitted the form. In response, I received the following message: “We Cannot Review the Decision to Disable Your Account. Your Facebook account was disabled because it did not follow our Community Standards. This decision can’t be reversed.” Facebook Screen Shot on 22 January 2021 at 9:26am Mountain Why Facebook Disabled My Account I don’t know for sure why Facebook disabled my account. I didn’t receive an explanation. There was no reference to particular Facebook Community Standards that I might have broken. There was no indication of how I might have been violating Facebook’s terms of service. Moreover, I have never received a warning from Facebook. And I didn’t receive a warning today. They provided no information beyond what I’ve quoted above. I’ve never used Facebook or any other social media to advocate violence, political or otherwise. And I’m a political centrist. In fact, during the political controversies of 2020, I repeatedly insisted on civility to such an extent that it frustrated some of my more partisan friends. So we can’t plausibly look for an explanation there. We could imagine a conspiracy among people who dislike my religious views. There’s plenty of strong anti-Mormon and anti-Transhumanist sentiment out there. Perhaps, banding together, a group of people reported or otherwise flagged my content on Facebook as inappropriate. But this seems a bit paranoid to me. I don’t think the cause was the link that I shared, in itself. Quite a few other people have shared that link on Facebook. In fact, at this moment, their API indicates that the link has received at least 88 likes, shares, and comments across Facebook. And that number has been increasing throughout the day without Facebook banning others for it, to the best of my knowledge. So I think the cause must have been the comment itself. Or, more generally, it may have been an emerging pattern in the comments of my posts. For a long time, I have advocated replacing Facebook ...