In Buddhist economics, each person’s well-being is measured by how well everyone and the environment are functioning in a society that provides a comfortable life with access to basic nutrition, health care, education, and the assurance of safety and human rights and the health of the ecosystem. Central to living a fully developed and meaningful life are human rights, including free speech, provided by a transparent and honest government.

Buddhist economics integrates “right speech”, which is included in the Eightfold Path for relieving suffering. Right speech includes abstaining from lies, not causing enmity, abstaining from rude and abusive language, or indulging in idle gossip. Within a meaningful life, we want to use speech to relieve suffering and never to harm others or nature.

Only national governments can ensure basic human rights for all people within their borders and instill trust in all levels of government. In the United States, we take our right to free speech, protected by the First Amendment from government interference, for granted, until it is threatened. We assume that freedom means having the right to say and do and live as one pleases. Censorship takes away the right to free speech, and can even keep you from saying it.

Under the Trump Administration, free speech rights for the press and even individuals are under threat, with White House proclamations that journalists are dishonest and the media is the opposition. Although the media and individuals are protected against government restrictions on free speech, these restrictions do not apply to private businesses. This is where the fake news and alternate facts on the internet come into play. Facebook was seen as allowing fake news to have an impact on what people read and thought before the election, and Facebook finally set up algorithms to ban fake-news sites from using ads to spread fake news.

But the pro-Trump forces still are in charge of what users see on Facebook, because now the pro-Trump forces are able to get Facebook to cut off users with posts that are not in agreement with Trump policies. Once the pro-Trump forces complain that a post is “misleading” and the user (complainer) has “high negative experience”, then the “offending” site seems to be tagged like fake news and is banned from boosting posts. Censorship in practice!

This happened to my Facebook page for my book Buddhist Economics (Bloomsbury, Feb 21, 2017). https://www.facebook.com/Buddhist-Economics-973198039490789/. I shared an article from the Washington Post, with a short post explaining why investment in fossil fuel infrastructure is not a reasonable investment. Someone made a private complaint to FB, and I could no longer boost my posts to reach out to others, and I will never know why. Nine hours later, Facebook sent me an email that stated:

“Your ad account has been disabled for promoting ads which violate our Facebook Ad Guidelines. Any ads you are running under the Ad Account ID listed above have been turned off. If you believe this has been a mistake, please contact us.”

I requested information about why my ad account was disabled. Four days later, which I think is a long time to respond, Facebook sent me an email that stated (emphasis added):

“Your account has been disabled for not following Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines. Ad accounts are evaluated for policy compliance and quality of ad content. When accounts have run ads that are not policy compliant, they are disabled. Your account was disabled for running misleading ads that resulted in high negative feedback from people on Facebook. Our goal is to provide the highest quality user experience. We reserve the right to close an account creating ads contrary to these objectives. For this reason, if any of your ads have been removed or your ad account has been disabled, we will be unable to reactivate either. Please consider this decision final.”

Yep, Facebook can (and does) disable an ad account when a user privately complains about a post, and their decision is final with NO APPEAL.

With help from attorneys and Facebook contacts, eventually the ban was lifted on the seventh day. I will never know what happened because the ban was “magically” lifted without an email from FB. What I do know is that you can have your ad account banned because of a complaint, and you will never know why.

Complaining about posts seems to be another wrinkle in misinformation on Facebook, along with the “fake news” and “alternative facts”. Censoring and its impact cause a highly biased outcome in what users see on Facebook. We are living in the age of fake news and alternative facts and now “negative complaints.” Censorship had an impact on my “right speech” to protect people and earth. Personally I can tell you that being censored chilled me to the bone.

Together we must fight censorship to keep free speech alive!