The terrible case of Laila Roth
My own documentary
She never showed her face,
insisting on her anonymity and privacy
to better cultivate her concentration
on her thoughts on writing and communication
and collecting art to share
just for the sake of taste and beauty.
This was taken as a provocation
and misunderstood completely,
so she was repeatedly reported,
blocked, had her account disabled and suspended
and was finally locked out;
and all her protests against violation
of her freedom of expression, thought and privacy
was met by the intolerance of mortal silence.
Finally she was admitted back if only she submitted
an ID and legal evidence of her existence,
as if her output of six years of art and poetry
was not enough. Her argument for not complying
is that facebook has no right to claim her identification
since she never made a legal business of her art and poetry,
made no transactions and used only her right of communication
and of privacy, which facebook violates most blatantly.
That is the awesome challenge of a single woman
against the suppressiveness, autocracy, intolerance
and almost persecution of a private user
only because she is what she is.
Facebook has started sending me friend suggestions from people I travel with on the train because it thinks I sit with them every day, The stuff I look at online appears as adverts on other web pages, Where will it all end ? and yes its easy to fall foul of the cyber police, I sympathize with such predicaments. Best Keith
I never thought I would come across a poem about Facebook! The basic truth is, Facebook is a business. It isn’t there to provide a service, it’s there to make money out of advertising. The only aspect of your existence that interests Facebook is your consumer profile. What adverts you’re likely to respond to, what spam they and their ilk should be sending you. There’s a brilliant novel called The Circle by Dave Eggers. You’ve got to read it!