Is it time for political repercussions on social media?
I have a Facebook group of 14,000+ local residents of a town in New England. I founded the group in 2013 and have been running it ever since.
We have been through some dramatic ups and downs. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Sometimes, I acted on emotion – either my own emotion or that of other people. I have a few regrets (to be honest, not all that many) but as with any job, nothing will ever go perfectly.
I have really tried – in general – to be fair. Fairness and openness is important, especially in a massive community setting.
To that end, I established rules that apply universally, regardless of political affiliation. For example, “No general political discussion. No political promotion.”
This rule means that a member cannot post about political protests or rallies and that such posts will be taken down because they break the rules.
It means a post about a pro-white supremacy rally would carry the same weight as a post about an anti-ICE rally. It allows me, as group admin, to apply these “no politics rules” universally.
Because fair is fair, right? Let’s apply the rule to “both sides.”
I’ve had some version of this rule in place for nearly 13 years.
In the past several months, there have been several posts in my group about anti-ICE protests. I couldn’t bear to delete them, despite my very clear rules. Despite them being reported multiple times. Despite the laugh react emojis and the rude comments from other group members, which, if I caught them, I removed.
My bias was right there, pretty much out in the open, but I couldn’t bring myself “to be fair.”
In the past month, eight people have been killed by ICE. 32 people were killed by ICE in 2025. Right now, there is a sick five-year-old detained in ICE custody, crying for his mother. A literal child IN JAIL.
Last night, I threw my rule of no politics in the group officially, out the door.
🔴 I banned any member who laugh reacted to the anti-ICE protest posts.
🔴 I banned any member who commented rudely on those posts.
🔴 And I made a post announcing the change. I tagged everyone in the group.
The majority of the comments were positive. It was so disarming to feel the relief coming through my phone’s screen:
” No one is exempt from these assaults. History is repeating itself. Different country, different time & different dictator. We should take note of how Minneapolis & St Paul are caring & protecting each other.”
Thank u and I couldn’t agree more. We need to take care of eachother.
Thank you!! This is not a right or left issue. We are better than this … We protect our neighbors!
Thank you it’s about time people started speaking out against White Supremacy
There were a bunch of negative, self-righteous, and ChatGPT-written comments, too. My favorite were the “I’ll pray for you” comments. I really hope they can put their prayers for Alex Pretti’s family ahead of their prayers for the local Facebook admin that they disagree with.
I wanted to share this with you because if you are feeling like democracy is going the way of MySpace, then maybe you need to speak out, too.
I know that a lot of us feel really helpless right now. Of course, if you’re in America, call your (and other) senators. Run for local office – heck, run for dog catcher! Support your neighbors. Donate to those in need (here’s the Stand with Minnesota donation site – every little bit helps!).
And if you admin a Facebook group, take a stand.
Because when American citizens are being executed on the street in broad daylight, any “both sides arguments” need to go directly in the trash.
In my case, if my group members are laughing at the suffering of protestors being executed, they are no longer entitled to group membership. There need to be repercussions for hate.
It may seem trivial, but sometimes it really is the little things.
Maybe when the world is a better place, and they abandon their political cult, I’ll let them back in.
But not today.
