Facebook’s Developing Stance on Heathenry

I recently created a Facebook profile for myself as Ragnvold Thorson. When I didthis s I transferred downloaded information from my Facebook Public Figure profile and reposted it on my newly created profile. Several of my posts were flagged as “not meeting community standards”. In My appeal to Facebook, I stated that I transferred these posts and that I was unclear why they were flagged. I explained that these same posts were accepted before without issue and that there was no ill intent.

About a month later my account was locked without any explanation other than I had violated their community standards. My profile was still visible, and I could read posts and what not, but I could not make posts, comment, like, create or join groups. Effectively the account was useless. A second attempt at an appeal and attempts to comminate with a real person all failed. Facebook had made the decision to silence me based upon an algorithm.

Facebook has the right to ban, block, silence, etc., anyone or organization it wants. This is not the issue. The issue is that the posts are visible on my other account and elsewhere on their platform and were just reposted. Also, I can search Facebook and fid similar posts on other profiles and groups. Thus, we need to ask the question, is Facebook’s algorithm flawed?

At this point you may want to know what the post in question was. I posted an image of the Nine Nobel Virtues. I realize that many in the Heathen community are rejecting these virtues as “racist” because of some bogus origin story that everyone wants to believe. The fact of the matter is that The Nine were a collaboration of prominent American Heathens in the early 1980s, mainly Edred Thorsson. In 1984 the ratification of The Nine were put to a vote by all member of the Asatru Free Assembly. (I vote Yes to ratify.) The fact that there is debate on this is amazing seeing as how so many of us were there at the beginning and remember the real story! I digress, the fact is that if you do a search for “The Nine Noble Virtues” using Facebook search, you will find thousands of posts and picture.

Facebook has an evolving stance on Heathenism and Asatru. In June of 2020 the new policy stated that Facebook ““prohibit claims that people from a specific race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity or immigration status are a threat to the physical safety, health or survival of others.”. On the surface this is a fine policy. However, the algorithm was developed by folks who are not Heathen and do not understand the nuances of the practice. What is going to happen is that heathens, honest, good heathens are going to singled out and banned. Keep in mind that neo-Nazis take our symbolism and use it for hate and ill. They wear Mjolnir on their necks and tattooed on their skin.

I could be banned simply for having an avatar that shows me as wearing my Thor’s hammer if someone felt so inclined to interpret the act as being one aligned with hate and white supremacy.  – Wyrd Designs

Facebook & Freedom of Speech – Wyrd Designs (wordpress.com)

Wyrd Designs has a great article on this subject. They cite that any symbol deemed and listed as a “hate symbol” will them be flagged on Facebook and other social media platforms. Thus, anyone with a Mjolnir image on their page could be banned. It is really that simple.

I do not blame Facebook for this generalization. They have to make brad blanket policies in order to do business effectively. They are a busines. However, when an appeal is made and it is pointed out to the unknow oracle of Facebook that the very same post was fine on other profiles, groups, and pages and they ignore that fact to block a user, they become hypocrites. I am not going to pretend that I know how Facebook makes it decisions, or even if there is a real person involved after the programing of the algorithm! All I know is that as Heathens we will be targeted because Nazi scum and rightwing racist pricks have no concept of true heathenry and the Ancestral Germanic tribes. They just want to be some perverted twisted Nazi Viking that only existed in the demented mind of Adolf Hitler.