Thursday, April 22, 2010

Frankel speaks out on 'abusive' link

I spoke to 'Brazilian Sexy' author and West Shokan resident Martha Frankel on a thing called "the telephone" tonight, to talk about her "abusive" Facebook link. (see post below)

Here's her take:

At around 5:30 p.m. today, Frankel re-posted a link to her story on her Facebook account:


When she clicked on it, she said she was taken "to a page I've never seen before."

Instead of going to the Freeman story, Frankel said she received a message that said that Facebook users had reported the posting as "abusive."

For the three of you who don't quite understand Facebook yet, it is important to note that only her Facebook "friends" can see her posts (full disclosure: I became her "friend" today) and only they could have reported her (full disclosure: I wasn't me).

But she said she has more than 3,000 friends (which means I'm not special) because she uses Facebook for publicity. She said the social network is "a great tool" and that because of the abuse report, she was "angry, crazy and scared."

Frankel said that there are really some offensive groups and posts on Facebook, but that, "Me kidding that I'm naked on my home newspaper gets me banned?

"I sort-of push the limits sometimes. But it's only language," Frankel said.

She called her husband and car-collector of the year/sculptor/Artists Soapbox Derby judge/person Steve Heller to access her Facebook account at around 7:30 p.m., after I told her that the link worked in my profile.

On hers, she said the message about abusive content remained.

And then, all of a sudden - on the third try - the link worked.

I've contacted Facebook (I'll buy you a beer if you can find their tech support e-mail in less than 30 minutes) and it says it will get back to me soon.

I'll keep you posted.