META/Facebook Removed/Unpublished Thinking Humanity Facebook Page with 7.2 Million Followers Without Reason

Social media platforms have revolutionized communication, sharing ideas, and connecting with people worldwide. Amongst them, Facebook is among the most popular platforms millions use globally. However, the recent removal of the Thinking Humanity Facebook page with 7.2 million followers has raised concerns about the power of Facebook to censor content without proper justification.

UPDATE 27 APRIL 2023

Hey everyone!
Amazing news - Thinking Humanity is back on Facebook! It took almost two months, but we finally got the page republished. Facebook apologized for their mistake and helped us out, as it turned out we didn't actually violate any of their terms.
Thank you so much to everyone who supported us and sent us messages during this tough time. We couldn't have done it without you!
We're excited to be back and can't wait to keep sharing all kinds of amazing content with you. Here's to a brighter future on social media!
Cheers

META/Facebook Removed/Unpublished Thinking Humanity Facebook Page with 7.2 Million Followers Without Reason

On March 5th 2023, Facebook AI Algorithms mistakenly removed our 9-year-old Facebook page "Thinking Humanity", which had organically gained more than 7.2 million followers all these years. The page was dedicated to promoting positive news, inspirational stories, scientific discoveries and various articles on different topics.

The page had a monthly reach of 80-100 million people just before it was falsely unpublished.

On a seemingly regular day, the page was removed by Facebook without any warning or explanation. The page administrator tried to reach out to Facebook to find out the reason for the removal, but the efforts were met with no real answers.

I was left in a state of shock and disbelief, as I have dedicated 10 years of time and effort to grow the page to its current level of success.

For an unclear reason, the page was taken down, and no explanation was given by Facebook/META. We strongly believe this is an algorithmic false flag and request a manual human audit of the page and the page to be republished again.

The Sexual Exploitation of Adult violation photo can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cwt80J3xmQ6gt9Plmf3E9RJVYzs4k6Qf/view.

The Snow Addiction page was removed for sharing links that did not have snow

3 months earlier, another page we created in 2013 was removed. @AddictionToSnow, "Snow Addiction" was removed because we shared some articles that did not have snow and were considered spam. The page has no violation and was removed without further notice.

Both pages @ThinkingHumanity and @AddictionToSnow had one common issue before the pages were taken down. The message below was shown at the bottom of the quality section of the page:

Your Page is at risk of being restricted or unpublished for repeated violations against our standards on Inauthentic Behavior. Your Page may also experience reduced distribution.

And suddenly,

Your Page has been unpublished due to continued Community Standards violations.

Apparently, something triggered META's AI Algorithm and falsely removed the pages.

The option we had to appeal was to click a button on both pages, and @ThinkingHumanity also had an extra appeal form that we submitted, and no one answered after 4 days. @AddictionToSnow doesn't even have the option to appeal with text; there was a link in the email that was broken!

We have also tried informing some members of the Oversight Board via LinkedIn. The Oversight Board mentions:

"The Oversight Board was created to help Facebook answer some of the most difficult questions around freedom of expression online."

We have asked for explanations and a human audit of both pages, especially for Thinking Humanity, which has been a very painful emotional situation.

We have been used all these years to have restricted pages, photos mistakenly removed, some of them even reviewed and come back, and even the same photo reviewed and still taken down!

We know that META/Facebook AI Algorithms are not the best and that the restrictions and violations coming from nowhere are even worse. But a page with 7.2m fans with a 9-year track record of stories, links, and photos to be removed without explanation and no support is really painful.

We also include some of the violations we had in the past, and we shared with our Reddit Community; you can judge by yourselves... 

A photo against suicides marked as suicidal and random other violations coming from nowhere.

Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThinkingHumanity/comments/wsbtji/suicidal_photos_according_to_metafacebook_deserve/

"Thank you" very much, Facebook/META, for treating us like criminals.

And how can I forget the Child Nudity violations coming from uploaded photos from 2013! We are in 2023, but let's restrict @WeRHumanity with 4m fans! At least that page is still published; however, it is RED, at risk with 2 Child nudity violations and 1 spam violation that is definitely not spam.

Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThinkingHumanity/comments/wdelv9/congratulations_metafacebook_for_this_great/

Thinking Humanity Facebook page was one of many pages that were removed by Facebook without proper justification. In recent years, there have been numerous instances of Facebook censoring content that did not violate any of its community standards. This has led to criticism and outrage from people who believe that Facebook has too much power over what content is shared on its platform.

I still remember the page "The Idealist" with 15m followers that vanished overnight around 5 years ago...

Removing the Thinking Humanity Facebook page with 7.2 million followers without justification is a clear example of Facebook's power over content creators and their communities. It highlights social media platforms' need for more transparency and accountability regarding content moderation.

As social media platform users, we can demand accountability and transparency from these companies. We should raise our voices against unjustified removals of pages like Thinking Humanity and hold platforms like Facebook accountable for their actions.

How to help us republish the page

1. Go to the Facebook Help Center by visiting https://www.facebook.com/help/.
2. Click on "Report a Problem" in the upper right-hand corner.
3. Select "Something Isn't Working" on the "Report a Problem" page.
4. Explain the issue by stating that the Thinking Humanity Facebook page was unpublished or removed without proper justification.
5. Provide relevant details such as the page's name, the number of followers, and your thoughts. 
6. Click the "Submit" button to submit the report.

You could use the example below:

Dear Facebook Team,

I am writing to bring your attention to the removal of the Thinking Humanity Facebook page with 7.2 million followers (@ThinkingHumanity , https://www.facebook.com/ThinkingHumanity/) and the Snow Addiction page with 120k followers (@AddictionToSnow , https://www.facebook.com/AddictionToSnow/) without any proper justification. As loyal followers of these pages, we are deeply concerned about the sudden removal of these pages, which have provided us with valuable information and thought-provoking content over the years.

We respectfully request that Facebook reviews and human audits the pages to determine the reason for the removal and republish them immediately. We believe that the pages have not violated any of Facebook's community standards and that their removal was an error.

We urge Facebook to take immediate action and rectify this issue as soon as possible. We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter and look forward to the reinstatement of the pages.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

What else could we do?

• Tweet or post on other social media channels: Let's use social media to raise awareness about the issue. Please tweet about it using hashtags like #ThinkingHumanity, #BringBackThinkingHumanity and #FacebookCensorship. You can also post on other social media channels, such as Instagram or LinkedIn, to reach a wider audience. It's important to spread the word and let people know what's happening.
• Contact Facebook support through other channels: Aside from sending a message to Facebook, you can also reach out to them through their official social media channels, like Twitter or Facebook Messenger. Explain the issue and ask for assistance in getting our pages published again. The more people who report the issue, the more likely we will get their attention.
• Contact Facebook's Oversight Board: Another option is to report the issue to Facebook's Oversight Board. This is an independent organization that reviews Facebook's content moderation decisions. Share our story and provide as much information as possible to support our case.
• Contact media outlets: We can reach out to and share our story with them. Ask them to cover the issue and bring attention to the unjustified removal of our pages. This will help us reach a wider audience and put more pressure on Facebook to take action.
• If everything fails, we will create a petition.

By working together and taking these actions, we can raise awareness about the unjustified removal of our Facebook pages and work towards getting them republished. Let's stay persistent and keep advocating for our content.

This was written by Alkis Sarantopoulos, the creator and owner of www.thinkinghumanity.com and the pages "Thinking Humanity", "Thinking Art", "We are Humanity", "I Want to Travel the Whole World", "The Finest Minds", "I Know that I Know Nothing", "The Most Beautiful Quotes", "Our Beautiful Paradise" and "Snow Addiction, with more than 10 years of community building on Facebook.

You can follow Thinking Humanity on other platforms as well:

-Facebook Group

-Instagram

-Twitter

-Pinterest

-Reddit

-Telegram

-Youtube

I would like to thank everyone for being part of this big family, and if you take the time and report the issue to Facebook to help us republish the page, that will be forever appreciated! Much love to all Thinking Humans that have been part of this journey all these years with the ups and downs, and we hope and aspire for a brighter future!