“Hello, @cfallaras. Your Instagram account has been suspended because this or the activity in it does not meet our community standards. If you think we made a mistake, you have until April 24, 2024 to appeal the decision. If you don’t take action, your account will be permanently disabled.“. Cristina You Will Fail received this Saturday a “not coincidental” message from Meta, a notification that he describes as “attack against women’s voices“.
The columnist of Public I couldn’t access her profile, where she “collects messages from women who narrate the sexist violence they suffer,” in part, because of the “fear” of doing so in court or in the media. He account lock It occurred six days after the publication of a “story” that caused the resignation of Íñigo Errejónand only two days after Sumar’s former spokesperson resigned from office, according to him, for having “reached the limit of contradiction between character and person“.
Instagram reactivated the Fallarás account a few hours laterafter the avalanche of criticism and messages from colleagues, many, of the feminist movement. The writer acknowledges on the phone that the “collective strength of feminism” will mark a before and after in the operation of the platform and highlights that her profile is now “a safer space than ever“, a “recognition and healing tool” for all victims. What happened and why Meta, property of Mark Zuckerbergthreatened to close the journalist’s account indefinitely?
On October 21, Fallarás published the first testimony that accused Errejón of episodes of abuse and sexist violence. The first messages pointing to Sumar’s former spokesperson in Congress – some, with codes to not proclaim their identity – began to circulate on Twitter on October 22that is, a day later. On Wednesday the first reactions with names and surnames arrived, but they did not go viral. Errejón resigned on Thursdayshortly after Public advanced that it was “on the tightrope” after the accusations of harassment made. Neither Add neither More Madrid They took action on the matter until October 24, four days after the publication of the first testimony.
“What happened was absolutely extraordinary. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a collective action – the women’s protest – achieved modify the decision of a platform and its normal operation. Meta’s response shows the strength that both women and networks have at this time. Instagram belongs to a private companybut if we use it correctly, we can make progress. In this case, They have had to modify their policy and cancel the closure“says Fallarás. The journalist says that the director of Meta called her personally to apologize and appreciates the “humanization” of the processes in technology companies.
The usual mentions you receive instagram in the digital conversation –TikTok, Facebook and, fundamentally, X– multiplied this Saturday by 20, going from peaks with 80% positive comments to peaks with 80% negative messages. This change in trend set off alarm bells. “Meta measures the impacts it achieves on different social networks. The graph shows a peak in negative comments that coincides with the suspension of the account [de Fallarás]. The search provides data at a global level: if we were talking only about Spain, the percentages would be multiplied by a thousand,” he explains to Public Julián Macías Tovardirector of Digital Pandemic.
A barrage of complaints on Instagram
“Since I published the testimony against Errejón, I have received more than a thousand messages (…). Many of them were stories of other sexual assaults carried out by more politicians, cultural people, journalists… If they take away my account, all those testimonies are lost. It would have been an attack against all of them, a destruction of the tools, few, that we have. for breaking the silence surrounding sexual violence against women“, lamented Fallarás shortly after running out of Instagram. The writer confesses to Public that the account was blocked, as explained by Meta, due to a “barrage of complaints“.
Julián Macías Tovar details the modus operandi that Instagram has followed and that technology companies usually adopt in these types of situations. “The cascade of unusual mentions surely activated the alerts from the Meta analysis team. The algorithm blocked the account after the complaints received and, when they manually reviewed what happened, they had to call her and return the activity,” underlines the network analysis expert. Meta has recognized Public that they do not have “more information about it”.
Fallarás has been publishing on its Instagram account for a year and three months the stories of women who narrate the episodes of sexual, psychological, physical or economic violence who suffer every day. This is not the first time Meta has blocked your account. On March 1, a message also appeared as soon as you opened the application saying “publication of inappropriate content“. The journalist already denounced at that time the “censorship” of the networks against “the struggle of women to reveal the sexual assaults we suffer“and remembered that the violent content “of all kinds” circulate without any type of control on the Internet.
The work of compilation, activism and listening carried out by Fallarás goes back a long way. In 2016, The writer launched the #Cuéntalo en X campaign –at that time, Twitter–, but the “hostility” of the platform accelerated its transfer to Instagram. The publication of the testimony against Íñigo Errejónwhich caused the closure of her account and the subsequent reactivation, represents an “unprecedented” advance, a turning point in the feminist struggle. “Women’s collective action has defeated trolls. We are not going to remain silent, we are going to continue collecting and publishing testimonies; our strength is stronger than silence,” concludes the journalist.
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