Online you’re on your own to fend for your domain

In real life, you are protected from almost everything. This is normal, accepted and agreed by everyone. The police and all EMTS are a vital part of any society. Oh boy, have we seen them in action in recent years! And then there is the military, which protects you from any negative external effects.

How does this translate online? Well, there is the police, as usual, when YOU break the law. So far all is well, as it should be. Be nice! If your parents did not teach you that, then… someone should.
Now for the grey area. We’ve been living with the constant, and illegal, exfiltration of personal data from our own personal or corporate devices for a few years now. I’m not going to open the topic of GDPR and what it has done for everyone – how it has changed our lives “for the better“.

Let’s delve into the areas not mentioned: Shadow banning
What is shadow banning? Shadow banning, also known as stealth banning, hellbanning, ghost banning and comment ghosting, is the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from some areas of an online community in such a way that the ban is not readily apparent to the user, whether the action is taken by an individual or an algorithm. Read more on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_banning

Imagine this law turned against you: in every EU country it is illegal to refuse service to a customer in a shop without a legally acceptable reason. Shadow banning you from a shop would be the equivalent of not being able to open the shop door – or having your card declined – or not being able to order something because it is out of stock at the checkout, because they know who you are and they simply disagree with you. You have not broken any specific law, so they can ban you publicly (you have not stolen or broken anything in their store) – so they have to resolve this without being visible to the watchful eye of the law – because they do this en-masse. They target you specifically, and there is no one to complain, because who can help you?

Now, when all the controversies of the social media segment doing this – sometimes even to top government officials – are exposed over the years, you realise that – you can have the freedom to have an opinion, but you are not allowed; you would work with certain companies and platforms, but you are not allowed; your funds are frozen, stolen; accounts are suspended; banned – and the only mention is their infamous terms and conditions – always rigged in a game of double standards.

Everything’s fine so far, we seem to be dealing with this as the norm, as the new standard. When we agreed this, I don’t know, somehow I missed the vote. Anyway… What is changing rapidly is the retaliation. If you think there is nothing worse than a shadow ban, think again. Online bullying is evolving daily and is so existentially worse that it shocks normal perceptions. Getting hacked, attacked, phished, DDOS-ed is now business as usual.