Lede

Social networks sell you a megaphone, then act shocked when you use it without asking the landlord’s bot for permission.

Hermit Off Script

This week’s annoyance is simple: people keep building their minds inside somebody else’s app and calling it freedom. Never ever, if you write your own thoughts or ideas or concepts, use a social network profile as your home base – no matter how “free” and “no rules” they claim it is – because the minute somebody complains, your account can get blocked temporarily or closed. And I am not even talking about extreme stuff, offending people, disrespect, or anything abnormal – just everyday talk where someone does not like you had a different opinion, or you expressed it differently than they want. It hits left, right, and the brave souls in the middle. I am not against closing or forbidding violent or offensive content at all, especially with so many bots out there. Still, the assessment is often automated and dumb, and even a temporary lock means you lose access to write your ideas where others can see them. Maybe your thoughts are stupid or nonsensical – fine – but they can still matter to some groups, or just let people joke and have fun about the world’s stupidity without bias or fear of bullies guarding the gates. Your own website is the only real way to do it: if it is public, it is for everyone, no side picking, people come back or not. If your profile is suspended, nobody can read anything, and that is the whole point broken. Unless you write only for yourself, then it is a personal journal, not a writing journal, even if writing it down always has that hidden hope that one day someone will read it.

PS: If you really want to keep the bullies out, do not just “have a website” – gate it. Private site, login-only, invite links, and backups. Let the public platforms be your poster wall, but keep the real writing in your locked room, where the keys are yours and the bouncers work for you, not the mob.

What does not make sense

• “Free speech” that needs a permission slip and a mood ring.
• “No rules” marketing, followed by a 12,000-word rulebook and a roulette wheel.
• “Community standards” enforced at scale by machines that cannot read tone, irony, or context.
• “Appeal available” meaning “fill in a form and wait while your work evaporates from feeds”.
• “Public square” run like a nightclub: bouncer first, questions never.

Sense check / The numbers

1. Meta said that in December 2024, it removed “millions” of pieces of content every day, that these actions were under 1 per cent of daily content produced, and that “one to two out of every 10” actions may have been mistakes. [Meta]
2. YouTube revised its July to September 2023 figures to 893,635,095 comments removed, with 99.5 per cent first detected by automated flagging, and 26,483 video reinstatements recorded in the same revision table. [Google Transparency Report]
3. TikTok reported 159 million people in the EU, about 18 million pieces of violative content removed in the EU from July to December 2024, and an automated moderation accuracy rate of 99.1 per cent for H2 2024. [TikTok Newsroom]
4. The EU says that once the Digital Services Act was fully in force on 17 February 2024, all online platforms must submit statements of reasons for moderation decisions to the DSA Transparency Database. [European Commission]
5. From 1 July 2025, the EU implementing rules began applying to harmonise DSA transparency reporting, including reporting on content removed, accuracy of automated moderation, and account terminations, with first harmonised reports due by end of February 2026. [European Commission]

The sketch

Scene 1: “The Free Platform”
A writer happily paints a mural on a giant rented wall labelled “Your Profile”.
Bubble 1: “Look, Mum, I published!”
Bubble 2 (tiny on the lease): “We can repaint whenever we like.”
Scene 2: “The Complaint Button”
A faceless hand presses a button marked “Report: I Disagree”.
A cheerful bot landlord arrives with a padlock.
Bubble 1 (bot): “We have reviewed your vibe.”
Bubble 2 (writer): “You have reviewed nothing.”
Scene 3: “Keys in Your Pocket”
Same writer quietly building a small house labelled “My Website”, with copies stacked in the shed.
Bubble 1: “I post here first.”
Bubble 2: “Then I visit the apps like a tourist.”

What to watch, not the show

• Engagement economics: outrage travels faster than nuance, so the machine rewards sparks, not light.
• Scale: billions of posts means automation first, context never.
• Incentives: platforms optimise for growth and ads, not for preserving your archive.
• Brigading and bots: coordinated reporting can look like “consensus” to an automated system.
• Centralised distribution: one login becomes your entire printing press, until it does not.
• Regulation pressure: rules increase reporting and removals, but not necessarily wisdom.

The Hermit take

Build your home on land you own, then invite the crowd in.
Anything else is renting your voice by the hour.

Keep or toss

Keep the reach and the conversation.
Toss the delusion that your profile is a library.
Publish on your own site first, back it up, then syndicate like a grown-up.

Sources

• Meta – “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes” (Jan 7, 2025):
  https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/
• Google – YouTube Community Guidelines enforcement notes (Transparency Report Help Center):
  https://support.google.com/transparencyreport/answer/9198203?hl=en
• European Commission – DSA transparency and statements of reasons:
  https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/dsa-brings-transparency
• European Commission – Harmonised transparency reporting rules under the DSA (Publication 01 July 2025):
  https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/harmonised-transparency-reporting-rules-under-digital-services-act-now-effect
• TikTok Newsroom – DSA fourth transparency report on content moderation in Europe (Feb 28, 2025):
  https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-eu/digital-services-act-our-fourth-transparency-report-on-content-moderation-in-europe