Comment by oenton
9 hours ago
> That goes against Facebook policies
Yes.
> and the account would get banned.
Might get banned? Sure. Would get banned? No. You can’t say that with certainty. From my own experience reporting comments exactly like that the automated report is almost always closed the first time. If I appeal to a human reviewer (if they still have those?) it’s a 30/70 chance, 70 being the chance the report is closed again since “this doesn’t violate our…”
> Not to mention that’s a gigantic strawman.
A strawman of what? Are you claiming this doesn’t happen or do you just have qualms with the frequency claimed that it happens? I encounter deplorable comments like that daily. Granted I’m one data point but you haven’t presented your data points that lead you to conclude GP’s comment is a gigantic strawman.
It’s a strawman because you went for the absolute worst comment. If towns had the power to remove comments from their pages, 99.9% of the time it would be used to remove comments that criticise the local government. I’d rather read the occasional deranged tirade thank you.
Full disclosure: I’m not a lawyer
But I think the person you responded to - “towns can’t delete comments” might be overstating it?
A quick Google search surfaced multiple articles. They all stress that comments can’t be deleted due to their viewpoint, but they can be deleted for other reasons -such as obscenity or violating the platform’s TOS.
The ACLU article seems to have the strictest criteria - stating a comment cannot be deleted unless it is advocating for violence.
I don’t know how this plays out in practice.
- https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/asked-and-answered/can-a...
- https://www.masc.sc/uptown/01-2025/dont-just-delete-comments...
- https://www.aclupa.org/what-first-amendment-means-government...