This man had his post removed for violating Facebook’s rules on “hate speech”. Social media companies’ rules are often blunt in their application, without any consideration for context.

This man had his post removed for violating Facebook’s rules on “hate speech”, as statements of inferiority in relation gender are taken literally and are banned.

Fear about the spread of so called “disinformation” and “misinformation” during the COVID-19 pandemic led social media companies to suppress discussions about public health policies.

The stifling of free expression led social media platforms to brand posts by academics about the efficacy of wearing face-masks as “false”. It also led to any articles by investigative journalists about the origins of COVID-19 wrongly being flagged as “false”.

Widespread concern about self-harm content online led to the deployment of algorithmic censorship tools on platforms like Instagram, which attempt to detect and erase the images of online users who have self-harm scars.

Far from supporting self-harm survivors, these systems stigmatise mental health and label pictures of individuals as “disturbing”.