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In August 2024, there were reports in the media and social networks that Meta* blocked the biologist’s account on Facebook* for writing about the Algerian athlete in X. We checked how correct such statements are.
August 11 Telegram channel Mash (1.2 million views at the time of writing this analysis) said (spelling and punctuation are preserved.-Approx. Ed.): “The famous British popularizer of science and the creator of the word“ meme ”of Richard Dokinza was banned on Facebook (recognized as extremist)-because he called the boxer-transgender from Algeria Iman Khalifa Male Maskovo Khvitter. " The post also provides a scientist's tweet in which he spoke about the lock. The same version is stated on the television channel blog "360"In" Zen "and on the website of the publication News.ru.
A slightly different version of this story is also common. On the eve of August 10, in the channel ATEO Breaking (259,000 views) said that the lock followed after the scientist called Helif a man not in the social network X (formerly Twitter), but directly on Facebook. Similar posts appeared in the channels "Nevzorov** "(605,000 views),"Signal"(75 000),"SVTV News - Libertarian media"(72,000) and in some publics in"VKontakte".
However, in most publications it is not directly indicated in which social networks Dokins wrote about Helif. So did the channels "The ax live"(918,000 views),"Ax - hot news"(254,000),"KB"(251 000),"Dmitry Vasilet"(165,000),"Bankst"(136 000),"Heaven is"(128 000) and"Sheikh Tamir"(125,000), as well as publications Life And "Chalk".
July 29 c 20:50 Moscow time in his profile in the social network X dokins Placed post (already deleted, but his copy stayed in the Google cache), in which he shared a link to article The Reduxx extreme right site with the heading: “Urgent: two Boxers, which will compete in the Paris [Olympiad] 2024, were previously disqualified from the women's world championship for the presence of the XY Chromosomes.” Dokins accompanied the link with the signature: “Two men who pretend to be women will be able to bore with real women at the Olympic Games.” One of the athletes mentioned in the text was the Algerian boxing Iman Helif (in the screenshot below - on the left), which became one of the most discussed Person of the Paris Olympiad, and August 9 - champion Games.
August 2 is also in the social network X Dokins I complainedthat Facebook blocked his account: “My page on Facebook was deleted for no reason, and we did not receive an answer either from Meta or Facebook to solve the problem. It's about some of my words? " The record scored more than 110,000 views.
On August 10, the scientist said in tweet (this post is also removed, but the sun -handled copy) that his page is still not available: “My account on Facebook was completely deleted, it seems (they didn’t call me the reason) because I tweeted that genetic male boxers, such as Iman Helif (XY is not subject to discussion), should not fight women at the Olympic Games. Of course, my opinion can be discussed in a civilized way. But frank censorship? " This publication of the biologist was encouraged: according to the archive, before removal, she collected at least 19 million views and 9,000 reforms. The owner of the social network X Ilon Musk, who was also noticed by the tweet. reputed Dokinza wrote: "Wow." Later a billionaire Shared The post of another blogger about removing the scientist’s page and noted: “Facebook, also known as META, can never be trusted.”
At the time of writing this analysis Account Dokinza on Facebook is available. How reports Friendly ATHEist, the scientist’s profile was restored no later than August 11 data programmer and blogger Anatoly Sparrow, the day before). “Verified” did not find any posts about Helif on Facebook. Of course, the biologist could delete the record how he did it with his tweets mentioned above. However, Dokins on August 10 himself stated that he “tweeted” about the boxing, that is, he wrote on the social network X, where such a post was actually published on July 29. So some Russian-speaking Telegram channels were at least mistaken where the scientist wrote about the athlete.
Moreover, Dokinz himself did not claim that his account on Facebook was blocked precisely because of Helif's tweet. So, on August 2, he wrote that he did not know why the profile was deleted, and wondered if any of his statements caused his statements. After more than a week, the scientist repeated that he did not know the reason, but suggested that the matter could be in the record of boxing on the social network X. However, could the publication on one social network lead to blocking in another, given that these platforms belong to different companies and they have different moderation rules?
According to the representative of Facebook, she could not. August 10, when the news was encouraged about the removal of the Dokinz account, commented on the situation director META for public relations and communications Dani Lever. “Everything was completely wrong. The account of Mr. Dokinza seemed to be hacked, so we took measures to protect him and prevent the unlawful use of the page. This step was taken on July 30. His last post was published on July 25 (at the time of writing this analysis, the last publication of July 23. - Approx. Ed.), Even before the beginning of the Olympic Games, and was not even connected with boxing. This action (blocking. - approx. Ed.) In any way, it is in no way connected with the content posted by Mr. Dokins, and now we are in the process of restoring the page, we are waiting for it to be protected. Although we were focused on ensuring the safety of the page, we regret that we could not inform the account owner more promptly. ” She said Lever. On the same day at 22:18 Moscow time she wrote And the scientist himself: “Removing your page was a measure of precautions in connection with signs of potential compromise, and not because of any problems with the content you posted. We are actively working to protect the page and quickly restore it as soon as we ensure security. Perhaps you were not notified in a timely manner while we were focused on protecting your page, and for this we apologize. ” Employee META reacted And for the accusations of the mask: "A completely standard procedure for Ilon: shoot, get ready, aim."
Despite the statements of the representative of META, the network has already come up with more than one version of how the post in X theoretically could affect the deletion of the page on Facebook. For example, X users were outraged by the tweet of dookins, and then for some reason they began to be sent complaints On his profile in another social network. There is also a similar hypothesis: Facebook users saw in their news feeds the screenshot of the scientist tweet, found his account and complained to moderators. There is a more conspirological option: supposedly, the Pokinza page was deleted by one of the Facebook employees. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to confirm any version, even if one of them is true. The commentary of the representative of META corresponds to a more believable scenario: the biologist page without proper notice was temporarily blocked by the platform algorithms due to suspicion of hacking, and the situation was resolved due to the fact that in the X a complaint of Dokinza was encouraged.
On the network you can find more than one example of such a story. For example, in March 2023, Metro was released on the website of the newspaper article Under the heading “Meta removes the accounts of hacking on Facebook and Instagram*, and with them years of irreparable memories.” The author of the publication, journalist Lee Bell, specializing in technology innovations, told how once on Instagram he received a notice of blocking an account. It turned out that the problem was with his profile on Facebook (both social networks belong to Meta): someone broke the page and published posts that violate the platform standards. At the same time, the reports of the journalist in two social networks were tied to each other. Despite the appeal, Bell could not gain access to Instagram or Facebook within two weeks (although Meta claimed that a little more than a day is required to verify data). The company ignored the request to comment on his article and instead provided the information not related to the case with advice on ensuring the security of accounts. Nevertheless, after sending a request to the press service of the META Page Bell on Facebook and Instagram, they were restored within 12 hours. “This is a kind of privilege for the press. But it is a pity that not everyone who lost their account as a result of hacking can afford the same luxury, ”the journalist concluded.
In his article, he talks about the experience of less successful users - for example, the story of a girl from Ireland, whose profile on Facebook was hacked and blocked. Before the expiration of the 30-day appeal supply, she went to the international headquarters of the company in Dublin and begged employees to help return the page on which memories of her late father were stored. At the time of writing, the attempt to restore access continued. Bell also gives the story of a man whose account on Facebook was blocked after hacking. According to him, he wrote every day on Facebook and Meta through Twitter, but did not succeed-after a 30-day period allotted for appeal, the account was removed forever. Another hero of the article was hacked to Facebook profile and finally removed with the Instagram account. Readers of Metro in the comments, and numerous users shared similar experience. Reddit. Some of them argue that, like Dokins, they could not get a response from the support service or it took a lot of time. In addition, it is not known whether the biologist initially received any notifications from the platform.
Thus, there is no good reason to argue that Facebook deleted the scientist’s page because of his tweet, in which he called the athlete Iman Helif a man. Most likely, the profile of dookins was only temporarily blocked in connection with an attempt to hack, since complete and irrevocable removal usually occurs only after 30 days. At the same time, until the end of time allotted for sending an appeal, the owner of the page must receive notificationthat his account is not visible to other Facebook users and that the profile cannot be used. However, the platform declaresWhich in some cases does not send a warning before turning off the account.
"Verified" released a detailed one text About the Algerian boxing. After her first battle, at the Paris Olympics, in which Helif won in less than a minute, the network questioned her gender-some media claim that the athlete has a “male” Y chromosome, others call her a transgender and a former man. The evidence that Helif made a transgender transition is no, that is, it can be argued that she deliberately did not change the floor during her life. As for the allegations of the “male” Y chromosome and the level of testosterone in the body of the athlete, they are currently at least controversial and are based on conflicting data.
*The Russian authorities consider Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.
** Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation Brought Alexandra Nevzorov in the register of the media, “foreign agents”, and the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg Recognized His family is an “extremist association”.
Photo on the cover: screenshot video @poetryofreality (YouTube)
Update of August 14, 2024: Added a description of other cases when META blocked user accounts due to hacking attempts. The previous version of the analysis can be found By link.
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