Avoiding lewd content on social media, namely Facebook

[Sketcher]

Facebook has a policy against lewd content. You can report a post if it's problematic. The one time I had a FB friend share a non-original image that was inappropriate, I either asked him to not post it or reported it, and he was apologetic. Didn't have to block him or defriend him or anything. There was another time when a FB friend of mine posted pics of himself at an adult-oriented convention, but he was called out on the indecent background image before I even saw it.

 

[seeking.IAM]

I have friends who post content I don't want to see or read. Often it is lewd or political. I generally remain friends with such persons but "unfollow" them so their content doesn't hit my news feed.

Sometimes, I also unfollow someone as a way of exerting some control over myself. For example, I have a Christian family member who posts things that are diametrically opposed to the Jesus I know. I have tried, and sometimes failed, to not respond to his posts that represent a different Christianity than the one I know. I eventually unfollowed him so I wouldn't see his stuff and be tempted to respond to it. That will make family gatherings go more smoothly.

 

[DogmaHunter]

How do I avoid lewd things on social media? For example, I was scrolling down through Facebook like normal only to find a lewd video on the Facebook feed on my account. Needless to say, I erased the video. My questions are, was it my fault to even stop to accidentally scroll down and trying to avoid such lewd content only to erase it later? I did my best to avoid this video, or sometimes, a lewd photo. I erase that content, which is all I could do. Should I erase not only the content of the video but also to longer have any " contact" with said Facebook friend?

Even better: erase your facebook account.

Social media is extremely destructive. It is destroying the very fabric of a social society.
The name "anti-social media" is a much better fit.

Some of the founders of Facebook, who don't want anything to do with it anymore, even said so themselves: they created a monster and they are sorry for it.

The other day I read an interview with one of them where he was talking about a meeting they held during the "early days". The subject was how to make sure that people would keep coming back and would keep posting new content. They had psychologists there as consultants.

In that meeting the "like" button was born.
It is the key of (anti)social media. It literally is an exploit of a human psychological weakness - and they knew it. He called it a "nasty social feedback loop".

The guy's kids are forbidden to use social media.

When a dude who became a billionaire with a certain product, forbids his kids to use said product - then you know everything you need to know.

What are your thoughts on someone known or unknown putting up such stuff on social med?

It is not a problem for me, because I wouldn't even touch (anti-)social media with a long stick.

 

[DogmaHunter]

Ads can be a problem. I've found them to be influenced by what I read, words I type, especially by anything I look at for sale online. Sometimes that translates out in strange ways, I've found with looking for medical-related things.

Best solution I've found for that is to go on Amazon and click on about ten things in a row that are very "safe" ... books, or pet supplies. That will usually clean up 95% or better of ads (until I get into a conversation about surgery again).

Doesn't it bother you that facebook is thus clearly registering your every click?
And then presenting you with a tunnel vision, by choosing FOR YOU what data will be of interest to you?

What bothers me immensly about such things, is that if it would happen in the real world instead of in cyber-space... it would be profiling and serious invasion of privacy and illegal.

Imagine, for example, the mailman first reading all your paper mail to know which ads he needs to stuff in your mailbox. It's utterly disgusting.

 

[DogmaHunter]

Interesting solution! especially if it works!

Unsettling solution, actually.

It means that facebook is watching your every move and thus spying on you.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Doesn't it bother you that facebook is thus clearly registering your every click?
And then presenting you with a tunnel vision, by choosing FOR YOU what data will be of interest to you?

What bothers me immensly about such things, is that if it would happen in the real world instead of in cyber-space... it would be profiling and serious invasion of privacy and illegal.

Imagine, for example, the mailman first reading all your paper mail to know which ads he needs to stuff in your mailbox. It's utterly disgusting.

Bothers me? Somewhat.

But it's not only FB that does it. Pretty much if you use the internet, it's going to happen.

How that works out in practice, for me, is not a problem at all. I don't randomly surf, I keep a tight control of my FB news feed, I use ad blockers, and I am really good at ignoring ads when I do see them.

And the system can be manipulated. It's easy enough to visit an online pet supply, an online book store, or something innocuous, click around for a minute, and that will shape my ads for weeks or months.

But you really can't use ANY online sites without this happening. And it's easy to see the effect of. Just once visit something with high online ad frequency (medical needs are a good bet) and then see what happens to your web experience every place you visit.

It's not FB's fault (who I don't visit that often and never click on ads from) ... it's the INTERNET at large that is to blame.

My personal behavior is extremely innocuous, so they aren't going to get anything more condemning on me than the fact that I'm a Christian, which I don't hide anyway, or my profession, which is almost public knowledge.

But yes, it's a terrible invasion of privacy IMO. Just not one that happens to damage me personally, so for me I will continue to use the internet the same as I do now.

 

[DogmaHunter]

Bothers me? Somewhat.

But it's not only FB that does it. Pretty much if you use the internet, it's going to happen.

How that works out in practice, for me, is not a problem at all. I don't randomly surf, I keep a tight control of my FB news feed, I use ad blockers, and I am really good at ignoring ads when I do see them.

And the system can be manipulated. It's easy enough to visit an online pet supply, an online book store, or something innocuous, click around for a minute, and that will shape my ads for weeks or months.

But you really can't use ANY online sites without this happening. And it's easy to see the effect of. Just once visit something with high online ad frequency (medical needs are a good bet) and then see what happens to your web experience every place you visit.

It's not FB's fault (who I don't visit that often and never click on ads from) ... it's the INTERNET at large that is to blame.

My personal behavior is extremely innocuous, so they aren't going to get anything more condemning on me than the fact that I'm a Christian, which I don't hide anyway, or my profession, which is almost public knowledge.

But yes, it's a terrible invasion of privacy IMO. Just not one that happens to damage me personally, so for me I will continue to use the internet the same as I do now.

I realise it's perhaps a tad off topic, but I'll reply anyway.

You are half correct. You don't need to use facebook for this to happen. Indeed, you go to a website with ads, and it will show you ads based on surfing history. And depending on if "they" have access to it, also your mailing history.

You are wrong however, that this is just how "the internet" works. It is not.
It's how online advertising works. Online advertising is largely in the hands of 2 companies: google and facebook.

When you go to website X that has ads, it's not website X that's keeping track of your data. It's the google/facebook plugin included on that website that does that. If you are not logged in to google / facebook at the time of surfing, the data is saved in a profile with a hardware / browser id. Once you log in on goolge/FB with that device, the anonymous hardware/browser profile is linked to your google/FB accoun.

This is how these companies build "super profiles" on you.
They know what your accounts are, which devices you use, which websites you frequent at what time of the day, who your contacts are, what you are mailing about, etc.

I agree there is no escaping, currently.
Precisely because it is all done "in the background" with the use of server-side plugins and client side cookies. And all that, without explicit consent of the user.

In Belgium, FB was called out on it. On websites that use a FB plugin (typically the thumbs up button), they treated both FB users and non-user in the exact same way, while only FB users had agreed to their terms of service. So they were forced to stop collecting info from non-FB-users. They said that "it couldn't be done" without blocking all "public" FB features (= ability to see public pages without logging in). Belgian authorities persisted and as a result, FB simply blocked all public FB features in Belgium. Now, it is impossible to see a publnic post or moveclip or whatever. All pubic content viewing (and data gathering) now requires being logged into FB. They thought such a move would cause belgium to back down, but luckily they did not. They accepted this "solution" and now they are stuck with it, lol.


Anyhow, to summarize: no, this is not how "the internet" works. Instead, it is how FB and Google's advertising business works.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I realise it's perhaps a tad off topic, but I'll reply anyway.

You are half correct. You don't need to use facebook for this to happen. Indeed, you go to a website with ads, and it will show you ads based on surfing history. And depending on if "they" have access to it, also your mailing history.

You are wrong however, that this is just how "the internet" works. It is not.
It's how online advertising works. Online advertising is largely in the hands of 2 companies: google and facebook.

When you go to website X that has ads, it's not website X that's keeping track of your data. It's the google/facebook plugin included on that website that does that. If you are not logged in to google / facebook at the time of surfing, the data is saved in a profile with a hardware / browser id. Once you log in on goolge/FB with that device, the anonymous hardware/browser profile is linked to your google/FB accoun.

This is how these companies build "super profiles" on you.
They know what your accounts are, which devices you use, which websites you frequent at what time of the day, who your contacts are, what you are mailing about, etc.

I agree there is no escaping, currently.
Precisely because it is all done "in the background" with the use of server-side plugins and client side cookies. And all that, without explicit consent of the user.

In Belgium, FB was called out on it. On websites that use a FB plugin (typically the thumbs up button), they treated both FB users and non-user in the exact same way, while only FB users had agreed to their terms of service. So they were forced to stop collecting info from non-FB-users. They said that "it couldn't be done" without blocking all "public" FB features (= ability to see public pages without logging in). Belgian authorities persisted and as a result, FB simply blocked all public FB features in Belgium. Now, it is impossible to see a publnic post or moveclip or whatever. All pubic content viewing (and data gathering) now requires being logged into FB. They thought such a move would cause belgium to back down, but luckily they did not. They accepted this "solution" and now they are stuck with it, lol.


Anyhow, to summarize: no, this is not how "the internet" works. Instead, it is how FB and Google's advertising business works.

LOL, true, it was an oversimplification. I did not mean that "the Internet" itself collected such data. But as you said, for all practical purposes, if you want to broadly use the Internet, this is what happens.