Dolly Parton, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift tribute acts stage protest over Meta 'ban'

[Distinctly Average]

 

Summary

It appears systems at Meta have been a little over zealous with regards to impersonation of people. In this case, tribute acts worldwide have been affected

 

Quotes

Quote

 

Tribute acts have staged a protest outside Meta's London HQ after having Facebook and Instagram profiles deleted because of rules banning people from impersonating others.

Dolly Parton, Freddie Mercury and Adele impersonators were among those fighting the "unfair" moves, which they said were putting their livelihoods at risk.

"They are banning us," said one act.

Meta told the BBC such performers were allowed but are required to make it clear they are not the actual star.

Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and George Michael also joined the supergroup of tribute acts outside the UK offices of the social media platforms' parent company on Tuesday.

 

Kelly O'Brien, who performs as Dolly as a nine-to-five job, told BBC Breakfast they were going to go straight to Meta "because we've had enough."

"We started a campaign three months ago," she explained. "We had a little bit of interest from Meta, promising that they would take care of all of our accounts.

"Some of us got our accounts back, but yet again we've been banned. It just keeps happening over and over and over."

O'Brien said her act, The Dolly Show, had thousands of followers across Facebook and Instagram, but that her accounts were closed down last year.

She added: "It's happening internationally, globally. And I get contacted daily from tribute acts all over the world saying, 'Please help me. What can we do? This is my livelihood. This is my business. We want to spend money on this platform but Meta aren't letting us. They're banning us'."

 

My thoughts

While my immediate reaction was this is quite a funny story when it popped up on the radio news that didn’t last long. So many people rely on the platform, and spend money with them, to support their livelihood. ‘Dolly’ has had her page taken down and re-instated 6 times now apparently costing her thousands in lost earnings. Meta, alone with Luther media platforms have become intrinsically linked with people’s income. It is so easy to loose that whether it is down to a glitch or a change of policy. However, unless you are a big channel like LTT, they are challenging at best to communicate with. While putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad way to run a business, many small firms or individuals have done just that, but is it really their fault?

 

Sources

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66028976

[Brooksie359]

Imagine relying on meta to make money. I would have thought other social media sites would be way more important for reach than meta. Then again I guess you would get the boomer audience from meta so for some it might make sense but for younger audience I feel like meta isn't very popular. Oh just realized it includes Instagram. They probably only care about Instagram tbh. 

[manikyath]

imagine having a moderation system so broken that someone can be taken down for impersonation and reinstated 6 times.. you'd assume after the second time there's an internal 'double-check reports for this' flag on the account or something...

[Distinctly Average]

7 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Imagine relying on meta to make money. I would have thought other social media sites would be way more important for reach than meta. Then again I guess you would get the boomer audience from meta so for some it might make sense but for younger audience I feel like meta isn't very popular. Oh just realized it includes Instagram. They probably only care about Instagram tbh. 

I personally don’t have a Facebook account. Having said that it does seem that so many do rely on it and simply expect you to know what is going on because of it. For many it has become their main avenue of communication. While I would have thought these entertainers would be better off with their own websites under their control, Fb does give them a greater and easier reach. Shame Fb seems a bit broken to me.

[Brooksie359]

2 hours ago, Distinctly Average said:

I personally don’t have a Facebook account. Having said that it does seem that so many do rely on it and simply expect you to know what is going on because of it. For many it has become their main avenue of communication. While I would have thought these entertainers would be better off with their own websites under their control, Fb does give them a greater and easier reach. Shame Fb seems a bit broken to me.

I wouldn't even say they need their own website. I am just surprised they wouldn't use Twitter as their primary way of communication. I guess I am just used to most of the content creators posting news and whatnot on Twitter which makes more sense than meta. I mean that's basically all I use Twitter for is getting updated info on what certain people I follow are doing. Granted they did say meta and Instagram so I imagine Instagram might be the main issue here because Instagram seems like something more people use and would actually look at these people. I mean not to be mean but I feel weird using meta as a source of news on people like this. I mean for me when I used meta it was only to keep in touch with friends and family. 

[TVwazhere]

20 hours ago, manikyath said:

imagine having a moderation system so broken that someone can be taken down for impersonation and reinstated 6 times.. you'd assume after the second time there's an internal 'double-check reports for this' flag on the account or something...

"Did we ban this guy already"
"I dont know. Did you check the log history?"
"No, I just went ahead and banned it. It looked like it had some recent activity but I ignored it"
"Ah yes, that seems reasonable".

 

-Moderators, probably

[manikyath]

35 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

"Did we ban this guy already"
"I dont know. Did you check the log history?"
"No, I just went ahead and banned it. It looked like it had some recent activity but I ignored it"
"Ah yes, that seems reasonable".

 

-Moderators, probably

you assume there are moderators at meta, how quaint

[TVwazhere]

20 minutes ago, manikyath said:

you assume there are moderators at meta, how quaint

Oh I was talking about LTT moderators /s

[Brooksie359]

44 minutes ago, manikyath said:

you assume there are moderators at meta, how quaint

Honestly I can't imagine trying to moderate something like meta. That sounds like trying stop a river with your hands. I guess they simply only respond to things that get reported or flagged by some automated system. 

[Distinctly Average]

31 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly I can't imagine trying to moderate something like meta. That sounds like trying stop a river with your hands. I guess they simply only respond to things that get reported or flagged by some automated system. 

You would have thought than after a ban and a site is restored after moderation then flags would be added to prevent the system doing it again. One of the cases mentioned has had their account removed 6 times.

[Brooksie359]

21 minutes ago, Distinctly Average said:

You would have thought than after a ban and a site is restored after moderation then flags would be added to prevent the system doing it again. One of the cases mentioned has had their account removed 6 times.

Yeah you would think but it might be something that wasn't built out like that originally and it would be complicated to retroactively add it to the code. I know someone who has gotten suspended a bunch for getting spam reports in a game because they are a streamer and also have insane aim so he has to message admins of the game to reinstate his account even after this has happened 4 times prior. I would assume they would do something about it but it seems like there isn't something built into the system for this type of situation. 

[Commodus]

Mark Z, Mark Z, Mark Z, Mark Z... I'm begging of you please don't give a ban!

Mark Z, Mark Z, Mark Z, Mark Z... please don't block me just because you can.

 

(Seriously: Meta needs better, more consistent moderation)

[Tan3l6]

Zuck used to be human, now he's like: