Suspended on X, Betrayed by Facebook: The Ups and Downs of Social Media
Suspended on X and fed up with Facebooks clickbait, I have lost all trust in social media. Here is why these platforms have finally pushed me away.
By. Jacob
Edited: 2025-11-04 11:36
I used to have an account called JacobSeated (my old alias) on X (formerly known as Twitter), but my X account was suspended shortly after I posted something critical of Elon Musk. I cannot say for certain that this was the reason, but it seems highly suspicious.
After posting the criticism, I realized I didn’t want such negativity to linger on my profile, so I deleted the post and closed X for the day. When I logged back in, my account was suspended. Oddly, it showed that I was following and followed by 0 people — the only indication that something was wrong. No notification appeared; later, I saw a message saying I was “Rate limited”, and I was completely unable to make changes to my account. Eventually, I was met with a suspension notice — again, without any explanation. That is a serious democratic problem and an abusive denial of service that should be criminalized.
The account was relatively new and mostly inactive; I primarily used it for reading. There was no chance I had done anything inappropriate. I have been far more provocative on Facebook — depending on your definition of “inappropriate” — yet nothing there would come close to what many others post daily. During COVID-19, I did write a few angry personal messages, but even those were arguably justified given the circumstances.
My X profile being suspended is not a major issue in itself. Years ago, I deleted my old account that had thousands of followers, only to recreate it later because Twitter/X locked out non-logged-in users from even reading posts. That, too, is a huge problem. For someone who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” Elon Musk should allow public reading access without forcing people to create accounts.
I have since created a new account and was already in the process of changing my nickname. I never truly liked my old alias — though I fancied the way the combined words looked. It was chosen years ago without much thought. Now that I’m developing a new portfolio website, it feels like the right time to pick a new name.
Losing Trust in Social Media
My recent suspension on X, seemingly without a valid reason, only deepened my growing skepticism toward social media platforms.
After Meta began flooding my Facebook feed with clickbait garbage, my once positive attitude toward Facebook — and even my status as a Meta Verified subscriber — quickly turned into frustration and resentment. I felt disrespected and, in a sense, violated. My reports of hacked accounts and spam were ignored or rejected, while my feed was filled with algorithmic junk. It felt like being algorithmically abused.
As Meta blatantly failed to enforce its own guidelines, I stopped caring whether others broke them. Out of frustration, I began reporting offensive and irrelevant material, but nothing changed. Even after contacting Meta Verified support twice, they couldn’t fix the issue.
To try to control the flood of garbage in my feed, I:
- Blocked countless pages and profiles I wasn’t following
- Reported them for harassment or spam
- Clicked “Not interested” on every irrelevant post
- Set my feed preferences to exclude low-quality clickbait
None of it helped. The flood of junk never stopped — mostly fake pages and bots. At least 99% of what fills my feed is unwanted, insulting trash that feels like an invasion of personal space. My feed should be a space for friends only.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Dangerous Remarks About Fact-Checkers
After Mark Zuckerberg made unfounded claims that “fact-checkers are too politically biased”, I lost the last bit of trust I had in Facebook’s integrity. Such remarks are not only false but dangerously irresponsible, as they fuel conspiracy theories about systemic bias and undermine factual discourse. It’s grotesque to think people actually believe such nonsense.
Even if a few isolated cases of bias exist, they must be understood within the broader context of the U.S. political landscape. Those rare imperfections only underscore why fact-checking remains essential.
Intellectually Eroding and Socially Dangerous Content
The content I’ve been seeing on Facebook lately is not only unwanted but potentially intellectually eroding. It can easily influence sensitive individuals to adopt foolish ideas or extremist views.
The material — of which I’ve saved numerous screenshots — includes:
- Pages sensationalizing a viral story about a woman claiming to have slept with 100 men in one day.
- Images of extreme body modification (e.g., people with horns implanted in their heads). While I respect personal freedom, I also reserve the right to find such content revolting.
- Sex and gender-related posts presented to provoke disgust, often featuring people with exaggerated or grotesque styles.
- Numerous posts from “China state-controlled media” pages sharing seemingly trivial stories — raising the question of why they’re targeting foreign audiences if Facebook is banned in China. Propaganda networks, perhaps?
- Endless celebrity clickbait — meaningless stories designed to waste users’ time, often duplicated across fake pages.
- Stories about murderers, such as Luigi Mangione.
- A post showing a maggot-infested chicken. (Not kidding.)
I won’t include the screenshots here, but they’re available in my Nextcloud drive if anyone is interested: https://drive.beamtic.com/index.php/s/W55k9PJYQS7imaB
Ideas for Improvement
The constant flood of clickbait and Zuckerberg’s dismissal of fact-checkers have pushed me toward exploring alternative, decentralized social platforms. I’ll keep my Facebook account to stay in touch with friends, but I now view the platform with deep skepticism.
Joining decentralized networks like Element or Matrix.org is becoming increasingly appealing — even for users who previously saw no need. The uncontrolled spread of misinformation and clickbait makes these platforms feel unbearable.
Still, decentralization poses its own risks, as content may go completely unchallenged. Here are a few ideas for improving social media — perhaps worth expanding into a dedicated article:
• Stop flooding users’ feeds with irrelevant clickbait and spam.
• Personal profiles should not be arbitrarily suspended; transparency and due process must be required.
• Regulate content transparently by labeling misinformation and linking to credible fact-checks instead of deleting posts outright.
• Use AI-assisted moderation to help identify and contextualize repeat falsehoods efficiently.
• Combine community notes with professional fact-checking; they can complement each other.
• When debating misinformation, display arguments for and against in real time and archive them once resolved. Defeated arguments should not be allowed to endlessly resurface, and users repeating them should be redirected to documented explanations. Public discourse cannot thrive amid recycled falsehoods.
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