I wrote an article (more of a blog). Someone reported it, and it was subsequently suspended. I received an email notification about it. This is what it said:
Hello,
After review of the post, Medium’s Trust & Safety team has found it to be in violation of site policies (https://medium.com/policy/medium-rules-30e5502c4eb4), and it has been suspended.
Site policies prohibit harassment or personal attacks, regardless of disagreement or who may have started it. If you find content that violates Medium’s rules, please flag it or email it to us for review.
Repeated violation of our rules may result in additional suspensions, decreased distribution of your posts, and potential suspension of your account.
Thanks,
Trust & Safety
Obviously, that means I harassed someone or what? I’m not going to write an appeal because, let’s face it, legal stuff is not fun. I would rather write another blog, hehe. Honestly, I’m not paid to write; on the contrary, I pay for a Medium membership. I write to empty my thoughts and for fun. If I can’t even do that, why am I paying for this platform?
I wrote an article called “Bachelor Encounter with the Serial Litigator.” Former Bachelor contestant Clayton finds himself in a bizarre legal battle with Laura Owens. All I did was read the public court documents about two public figures. Well, one may be a limited public figure (podcasts, TEDx talks, articles about this person in newspapers, etc.). I included photos of court document summaries and wrote that I have so many questions.
If you want to read what I wrote, I shared it on X (Twitter), so you can see for yourself.
So based on the email I received, I’m supposed to have harassed someone. Who? The court in the USA, the parties, the lawyers?
So, here is the Medium Rule:
Harassment
Medium exists to share and discuss ideas. We don’t tolerate harassment, which includes:Bullying, threatening, mocking, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so
Engaging in a repetitive or targeted campaign of harassment against someone or a group of people
Using derogatory language, racial slurs, or obscenities to disparage or attack someone or a group of people
Using Medium features like responses, private notes, mentions, follows, lists, highlights, or requests in a way that attempts to or does annoy or harass someone, or to draw inorganic attention to your content on Medium
I never attacked anyone or told anyone to harass, mock, or whatever. Yes, I formed an opinion based on evidence and wrote down questions. Maybe the questions were seen as mocking. This case is extraordinary, and I feel like one party is gaslighting us and the other party. I couldn’t help but express my inner thoughts in the way I wrote them in that article.
This threat part is really funny to me. “Repeated violation of our rules may result in additional suspensions, decreased distribution of your posts, and potential suspension of your account.” If I did lose an account, it is no loss to me; on the contrary, it’s a small gain. I wouldn’t have to pay a monthly fee.
Is Medium also susceptible to mass flagging?
False flagging? Apparently not, if they found a violation of rules.
Am I really breaking the rules without even knowing? It would be nice if Medium pointed out what was so bad and which part violated the “rules.”
Is it really a human who reviews flagged articles? They say they do.
That was my little rant for today. Thanks for reading!
