Why I Refuse to Leave the Metaverse

If you frequent any social media, especially those run by Meta, you are probably aware of recent developments in the name of ‘free expression’ – though exactly what the Meta megalomaniac means by this is yet to be ascertained. Writer, artist and University of Portsmouth PhD scholar Lucy Ashton investigates.

Allegedly, Meta want to reduce bias. You can read what scant information is available so far at the link below. Suffice to say, there is no clearly defined means for the community to self-regulate. The Meta boss’s own words suggest that bias is inherent in anything that the new Trump administration might not like. Bias, according to the new community guidelines, is woke.

There is a clear move away from inclusivity and diversity. What most would consider hate speech is now permissible. You can now call someone mentally ill on the basis of their sexuality – as long as they are not heterosexual. The guidelines read: ‘We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and
homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like “weird”.’

And Mickey Carroll of Sky News writes, ‘Expressions of hate against a person or a group on the basis of their protected class are also no longer banned on the platform, and neither is referring to transgender or nonbinary people as “it”.’

I do wonder how many people will face Meta jail for insulting Christians. I suspect that a loophole will gape as Meta find ways to suggest that Christianity is the one true faith, not a religious affiliation and therefore outside acceptable free expression.

I tried to verify all this by reading the guidelines myself, but unless I ‘accepted all’ for Meta cookies, I was unable to access them – and I always refuse the unnecessary ones about storing things on my device etc. I don’t know if it makes a difference honestly, but I try…

And so should you. Try. Try not to sink into apathy. Believe me, I have days when I just can’t. I have to look away. But I cannot turn my back and fall silent. I do recognise that if we are to remain engaged, there are times when we must rest. It’s that oxygen-mask thing, and once you have your breath back, we go again.

The philosopher Maxine Greene was convinced that people can choose to resist the thoughtlessness and savage inequalities that threaten to undermine our communities. She believed that the arts connect us – and encourage cultural diversity and community-making. She believed that the arts are vital for becoming wide-awake to the world. Like Greene, I encourage you to seek out work from the border – read the book, watch the film, listen to the music, that is beyond the familiar and habitual. Greene believed that this would lead us to imagining, and reconceiving, and revisualising, what is possible for our ‘deficient’ society. Now is the time to seek out the arts from the border.

Many more of us will now find ourselves at the border. Yes, it is a much safer and more comfortable border than many inhabit – but we are there, nonetheless. If you are LGBTQIA+ or an ally, if you are anti-racist, if you believe in free expression that does not resort to personal insults when someone disagrees with you or is simply different to you, if you are disabled, if you are not a xenophobe or an ableist or a misogynist… you, my friends, are on the border with me. We have far more in common than anything that may seem different about who we are and how we live.

We have tried to tell you – once they come for one group, they will come for us all. Only those who are useful to them are not on the border. We are not useful. We are on the border. So, be the voice from the border. Comment the love, the contradiction, the link to some verified research. Post the joy. Share the helplines, and the offers of sanctuary. Share the hope.

This is the way that we bring warmth into places – how we can affirm and reaffirm our beliefs in justice and freedom and respect for human rights – as Greene might say if she was still here to encourage and challenge. If she were still here with us, she would remind
us that only if more and more of us come together to incarnate principles of welcome and inclusion of everyone are we likely to bring a community into being. Right now, we need to keep coming together to maintain communities under threat from those who would push
us into ever narrower margins.

So, let’s stay in the places where we have built communities, even if we are no longer wanted there. Let’s refuse to be pushed further out and keep giving our IRL communities a voice in the virtual world, and work on finding other ways to be together in person again.

Let’s stay and refuse to let them silence us and others who inhabit the border. And whilst we are at it, let’s create more and more beautiful work at the border. Write your poetry, paint your pictures, raise your voice, tell your stories.

 

Picture: ‘President Donald J. Trump welcomes Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, to the Oval Office of the White House.’ (Official White House Photo by Joiyce N. Boghosian)

This file is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, it is in the public domain. It has been re-used here under those conditions.