Skip to main content

Facebook strangely withdraws an innocent Gujarati article without stating reasons

By Rajiv Shah 
Recently, reputed Gujarati journal "Sarthak Jalso", edited by well known writer Urvish Kothari, published an article by Shruti Shah. I posted its pdf version, sent to me by Urvishbhai, on a blog Shruti and I run: https://saankal.blogspot.com/.  
The article is about our seven year long stay in the former Soviet Union during the turbulent period that led to the collapse of the Communist rule -- 1986-93. I thought Gujarati readers would be interested in reading the article, hence I posted a link of the blog post on Facebook.
Prompt came Facebook's reply: the link violates it's community standards, so I should withdraw the article or send my objection. I sent objection, but nothing happened! 
I don't understand which community standards was the Facebook referring to. The link carried snapshots of cover of "Sarthak Jalso" and first page of Shruti's article. 
The cover has photograph of two towering mountain edges very close to each other and a person, visible very small, walking in between. How can any of it be violation of community standards? Which ones, after all? Facebook appears to offer no answer.
The article is in Gujarati, and it's about Shruti as Russian-Gujarati translator in Moscow's Raduga publishing house. Facebook's algorithm wouldn't read and understand a word of it, I presume.
Something appears to be fundamentally wrong with Facebook's automatic algorithm. How can it not allow a totally innocent article's blog link with photos posted? 
Sounds strange, as I also posted the same link on X, formerly Twitter, and it immediately posted it. Despite all the controversy surrounding X, it seems its algorithm is sounder than that of Facebook.
Anyway, click here to read Shruti's article, focusing on her work as translator amidst a collapsing country.

Comments

Post a Comment

NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor

TRENDING

Ahmedabad world’s least climate resilient major city: AlphaGeo study

By Rajiv Shah  A new study has ranked Ahmedabad as the least climate-resilient major city in the world , highlighting a dangerous gap between the city’s extreme physical vulnerability to climate hazards and its capacity to adapt. Cited by The New York Times , the analysis, conducted by geospatial artificial intelligence firm AlphaGeo , places the Indian city at the top of a list of global urban centres most exposed to climate risk.
Post a Comment
»

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.
61 comments
»

The making of a self-made woman: How eighty sheep changed everything for Kalawati Ninama

By Vikas Meshram*  About forty-two kilometres from Rajasthan's Banswara district, in the tribal heartland of Ghatol block, lies the small village of Ubapana. This is where Kalawati Ninama, her husband Dhulji, and their four children make their home. Their days unfold much like those of their neighbours—bustling mornings, long hours of farm labour through the afternoon, and evenings spent tending livestock. For this family, farming and livestock were once simply a means of putting food on the table. Today, they have become the sturdy foundation of something far greater: genuine self-sufficiency.
Post a Comment
»