I am in a battle that feels like a David and Goliath story. I have spent the last few days angry, frustrated and sad. Big tech has come against me and God’s ministry and has “shadow banned” my social media page. And now I am not getting much traffic to my social media page.
What is SHADOW BANNED?
I have only just learned about this phrase because a very popular social media ministry that I follow recently made the comment that they have been shadow banned.
According to Wikipedia, “shadow banning, also called stealth banning, ghost banning or comment ghosting, is the act of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from an online community so that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned. For instance, shadow banned comments posted to a blog or media website will not be visible to other persons accessing that site from their computer.
By partly concealing, or making a user’s contributions invisible or less prominent to other members of the service, the hope may be that in the absence of reactions to their comments, the problematic of otherwise out-of-favour user will become bored or frustrated and leave the site…”
WHAT DID SHE DO?
What did I do, you ask? I dared to post a link from this social media giant to my little blog page, Seek His Goodness. The article is titled “Pray for Your Leaders”. In this article, I mentioned the words DEMOCRAT and REPUBLICAN. Those words must have trigged something in big tech’s algorithm (a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer) to cause my page to be made invisible. In layman’s terms, they didn’t like what I had to say and they turned the knob-of-visibility to my page to the mostly “off” side.
Or was it the words PRAY or UNITY that set them off? I don’t know and they won’t tell me. The link they provided to give me specific details was broken and did not take me anywhere. Surprise, surprise.
MY RESPONSE?
What do I do now? Well, I have to admit, I spent a few days feeling sorry for myself. But, yesterday morning, as I was getting ready for my weekly virtual Bible Study, I heard the Lord say “You are never alone” (which is actually the title of the book our group is reading) and “Speak to the mountain”. Immediately, I was reminded of who I am and WHO HE IS! I felt like the Lord was telling me it was time for me to practice what I “preach”.
How does this small-town Texas lady fight this big social media giant?
By declaring and decreeing the WORD OF GOD over my problem. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: God’s word never comes back void (Isaiah 55:11). When I speak God’s word out loud, it “goes” forth and does what God’s words tells it to do.
Here is my declaration and decree:
Lord, I give you thanks and praise for who You are! I thank you that Your Word never comes back void. It does what You intend for it to do. (Isaiah 55:11). Today, I speak to that mountain that the enemy has placed before me and I tell it to be removed and cast into the sea. I believe! And I thank you, Lord, that those things which I have said will come to pass (Mark 11:23). By Your Word, Lord, when I decree a thing, it shall be established for me and the light of God’s favor shall shine upon my ways (Job 22:28, AMPC). And just like in the story of David and Goliath, I say to you, mountain, “You come against me (with your virtual) sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands! (1 Samuel 17:45-46).
And NOW, I will stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before my eyes! (Exodus 14:13). I will not be afraid! I will stand firm and will see the deliverance the Lord will bring me today! (1 Samuel 12:16)
In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen!
It takes a stubborn person to dig deep into their faith and speak such bold words. Let faith arise in me and in YOU! Friends, I believe that the Lord gives us each a mission. I believe that the Lord is raising up His children to take up territory for His Kingdom and His Glory. I believe that Seek His Goodness is my mission.
I do not believe that God would have me to create a website (blog) and a social media page that is designed to spread the gospel and give hope/encouragement to others only to have it to die a quiet death. I believe I am being trained on how to speak His Word into the atmosphere to cause His Angel Armies to take up territory in the area of influence that He has assigned to me. I believe I am being trained to stand firm on His Word.
Thank you, Facebook, for awakening the SPIRITUAL GIANT that is in me! You may think that you have defeated me, but you, apparently, have not met my GOD!
I will keep praying, declaring, decreeing and fighting! Now is not the time for me to shrink back in my faith! Now is the time for me to stand firm on the WORD OF GOD!
Never shrink back!
