TWH – First, let’s take care of the main issue.
On Tuesday, we posted the horrible story about the killing of Sonya Massey, “Heathen imagery appears during video of fatal shooting of a Black woman“.Β
The link above is active, and we never removed the story from our site. The post remains active on other social media platforms like Instagram and Threads, both owned by Meta, as well as our other social media accounts like Reddit, X, Mastodon, and Bluesky.
But today, Facebook decided that the TWH coverage of the story violated their terms of service and was somehow offensive to the community. We appealed and re-posted. The post was removed again.
We have no answers from Facebook at this time. We do know that the second removal must have been via Facebook’s automated AI system because it was taken down the instant it was posted.
The topic and content of the post remain widely available on Facebook. Here is a brief smattering some with even more shocking imagery:
Second, we have been receiving more reports of other Pagans and Witches experiencing similar events on their social media and have been slowly gathering data about which posts appear targeted and which seem to pass AI or human scrutiny.
Recently, for example, Shifra Nerenberg, Intuitive Advisor & Animal Communicator in Asheville, contacted TWH about a similar experience on TikTok. Her posts were removed by that platform’s system for going against their community guidelines. The hashtags were #queerwitch and #jewishwitch. She sent us the following screenshots:
If community members are experiencing similar issues to the one above, we invite you to tell us about it by emailing tips@wildhunt.org.
Third, clickbait is one concern that occasionally emerges in comments to TWH posts. Facebook is replete with clickbait and spam to the point that their monitoring system is on a constant mission to find them. (Helpful tip to Facebook: your system is not working. The advertisements for magical incense and beautiful mystical macrame almost always lead to fake websites for virus protection or car repair ‘insurance’).
The Wild Hunt receives no advertising revenue. We gain no funding through anything perceived as clickbait. Visits to our site count against our allocation from our Internet Service Provider. You will never see anything on our site that brings any form of revenue other than the links on how to donate.
TWH is 100% community-sponsored. No advertising, just donations. We barely cover our costs. We pay our writers, editors, and staff. Some refuse to accept pay. Some even donate to keep TWH running because they feel our work is critical. We’ll take this opportunity to say we hope you will too.
Here’s how: Flipcause (for tax-deductible donations where allowed), Patreon, and PayPal.
Blessed Lughnasadh and Blessed Imbolc!
Thank you again for the privilege to serve our community.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
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