I was banned by Facebook

 

On 20 August 1944, Count Schwerin von Schwanenberg was brought before the Nazi ‘People’s Court’, charged with treason. He was unshaven and wore no tie. Prominent in the July plot against the Nazi regime, he knew he was about to hang. 

When Nazi judge Roland Freisler angled for an apology, Schwerin would not be cowed, but spoke out about the ‘many murders’ of the Nazi regime ‘at home and abroad’ – drawing Freisler’s apoplectic ire. Hoping they would obtain useful propaganda footage, the Nazis filmed this exchange, and the film has survived – a powerful example of a person speaking truth to power.

 

I posted this clip on Facebook, with some background information, as part of a regular series of posts promoting my book Treason, which recounts the German resistance to Hitler.

 

I have posted the clip a few times before. 

 

This time I received a notification from Facebook that my post was blocked, because it violated Facebook’s community standards. 

 

I was plunged into the Kafkaesque realm of Facebook’s processes.

 

The notification stated ‘this is because you previously posted material that violated Facebook’s community standards’. The previous week, Facebook had notified me of such a breach, but when I asked for a review, they overturned this and apologised for getting it wrong. According to Facebook’s retraction, there was no previous breach. But there was no way for me to point out this mistake to Facebook.

 

The notification set out Facebook’s standards – all laudable – but did not say which standard was breached, nor how. 

 

Despite failing to specify what was wrong, Facebook required me to select from a menu my reason for saying that the post should not be blocked. This is like someone on trial being told to defend themselves when they are not told the charge.

 

Despite this absurdity, I asked for a review and marked the option ‘The post does not violate Facebook’s community standards’.

 

Facebook then advised that they try to have a person review the decision, but could not guarantee this, because of staff shortages due to Covid. 

 

Really? There are plenty of people they could hire to do this task, even during Covid. It’s a task that could readily be performed online. The excuse was specious.

 

Having asked for a review, I received a prompt response. Facebook had reviewed the post (evidently by its algorithms, not by a person, who would scarcely have had time to watch the video clip and read the post). Facebook stated that they had reviewed the post and confirmed that the post violated Facebook’s community standards. Again, they did not say why.

 

One thing is clear: Facebook’s algorithms are incapable of distinguishing an anti-Nazi post from a Nazi post.

 

Facebook then asked me whether the communication from them had been helpful. When I marked that it had not, they thanked me and said they used responses to improve their service.

 

Facebook notified me that there was a right of appeal to Facebook’s ‘Oversight Board’. 

 

This ‘right’ of appeal is illusory. According to Facebook’s own figures, in 2021, the Oversight Board received over a million appeals, but the Board published just 17 decisions, overturning Facebook 11 times. Opting for an appeal was like buying a lottery ticket.

 

Even though a waste of time in terms of reversing the decision, I decided to lodge an appeal anyway. When I tried to click on the link, nothing happened – just the wheel of death as the attempt to log in timed out. I did this several times. Even getting to the Oversight Board was blocked.

 

This was not the first time I’ve had trouble with Facebook’s ‘standards’, with the same opaque processes.

 

Over several years I built up an earlier page promoting my book. I paid Facebook money to promote it, and the page grew to have over 11,000 followers. Then Facebook closed it down (and the linked Instagram feed), without any recourse, saying it violated their community standards, and again failing to say which standards, or how it breached them. Just before publication of my book, I lost all the investment of time and money made in building up this following.

 

As I emailed Facebook (of course, there was no reply) the page 

 

did not violate Facebook’s published community standards. Nor does it violate community standards as any reasonable person would understand them. The content, dealing with the bravery of those who stood up to the Nazi regime, usually at the cost of their lives, is entirely in accordance with the highest community standards.

 

It is important that the events of the Nazi regime, the mass murders which have given us the terms ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’, are widely discussed and known. The efforts of those who struggled against that regime should also be part of our shared discourse.

 

I can’t speak truth to Facebook, because they are not listening. Bizarrely, the business takes a perverse pride in its refusal to support its customers. Who knows how Facebook’s processes are intended to work – but it is clear that this platform is not a safe place to invest. It is only capable of dumbing down our shared discourse and, as a result, diminishing our community.

Count Schwerin von Schwanenfeld

Ulrich-Wilhelm, Count Schwerin von Schwanenfeld (1902-1944)

- at his trial before the Nazi 'People's Court'

Schwerin was a firm opponent of the Nazis even before they came to power.

He was a leading member of the so-called ‘Kreisau circle’.

As adjutant to Field Marshal Witzleben he had numerous connexions with high-ranking military and civilian figures, often liaising between the civilian and military arms of the resistance. He was a close friend of Peter Count Yorck von Wartenburg and Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg.

In 1938, he was involved in the projected coup at the time of the Sudeten crisis.

After the war began, he became aware of a massacre of Jews which took place in a gravel pit on his own estate. He passed this information to many in the resistance.

In 1942, after Witzleben’s dismissal, General Oster (one of the architects of the German resistance) appointed Schwerin to the Abwehr (military intelligence) office at the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht – High Command of the Armed Forces) in Berlin, where he could continue work for the resistance.

In September 1943 Schwerin met Claus von Stauffenberg at the OKW in Berlin.

Schwerin was pessimistic about the chances of the July plot succeeding, but he continued to work for the project and advocate the necessity of assassinating Hitler.

On the day of the coup he drove General Beck (the conspirators' designated post-Nazi head of State) to the Bendlerblock (Home Army headquarters and the nerve centre of the coup). He waited for news with Claus von Stauffenberg’s brother Berthold, along with Yorck and Schulenburg. 

He was present for the fiery conference between Claus and Witzleben late that evening. The field marshal had been appointed head of the German armed forces by the conspirators, and was furious at the mistakes that meant that the coup was unravelling.

Schwerin was arrested in the Bendlerblock after the coup collapsed.

His elderly mother, wife and sons were taken into custody under Sippenhaft (kin vengeance).

On 20 August 1944, Schwerin was brought to trial before the People’s Court. An edited film of the proceedings has survived. Schwerin spoke of the ‘many murders’ committed by the regime - at home and abroad. He was cut off by presiding judge Roland Freisler’s thundering invective.

Freisler sentenced him to death.

On that last day, the wife of a political prisoner saw him:

I was standing at the heavy iron inside door of the prison, trying to talk an SS man into taking in a parcel for me. Suddenly the prison door opened, and through it strode calmly and erectly a man with his hands bound behind his back, followed by a little Gestapo man who looked to me like a reptile. The SS man whispered to me: ‘That is Count Schwerin – Plötzensee.’ I knew what Plötzensee meant, and through my mind there flashed the realization: ‘This is a man who knows how to die.’

Schwerin had just enough time to write a short letter to his wife before he was executed:

My darling: Now the last hour has come.  

I can give you no further counsel, I can ask you only to make the youth of our children as happy as possible under all the present restrictions. Think of your own childhood. Let the boys study a great deal and adopt professions suited to their capabilities and fitting them for advancement … 

I go to my death unbowed, with the firm conviction that I have done nothing for myself, and everything for our fatherland. This must remain ever a certainty for you, and something you tell our sons over and over. You know that my actions were at all times directed to the welfare of Germany, in the family tradition of an ardent patriotism outweighing all else …  Bring up our sons as Christian noblemen, with neither narrowness nor slackness in their convictions.  

And finally, from my overflowing heart, thanks to you for your love that made my life beautiful. Be brave, and preserve your love for me to the end of your life.  

I must stop. Greet all those whom I love and who have loved me and cherished me.  

I embrace you and the boys in thought, with eternal gratitude to you.  

Your Ulrich-Wilhelm

His family members survived the war.

This is an edited extract from TREASON: Claus von Stauffenberg and the Plot to Kill Hitler