Why Medium Needs A Troll Filter

I got caught in its Spam Filter and lost income but there’s no filter for trolls

After consultation with a pub’s editor, I decided to upload an article I thought would surely provoke Medium’s ire. It was a reminder that official U.S. government policy, approved by Congress and renewed by every president since George Dubya, authorizes medieval-style torture of prisoners of war or anyone the CIA, military, or government functionaries deem worthy of humiliation and abuse. It’s about war crimes.

It wasn’t the content so much as the photos that I suspected were objectionable, although all had been published by major news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and featured in CBS’s 60 Minutes. Social media sites are like that. You can upload erotica but images, or even content that might burden one’s conscience or offend the particular political orientation of the platform, can inspire retribution.

Almost immediately, my Medium account was suspended. No warning, no email notice, no kiss-my-ass. Nada.

In the time it took to get the account unblocked, I’d already lost two days’ income, around $100. On a platform that’s recently cut way back on payments to writers, it was an astounding blow.

I decided never to write on Medium again but later reconsidered how I’d come to the platform as a reader and as a writer perhaps I owed a measure of loyalty to my followers. I’m not happy that pubs like The New York Times and The Atlantic have rolled out their magic carpets and flown home, nor am I thrilled that Medium has killed some very popular pubs like The Ascent and PSILY. So, I decided to hang in there, at least until my subscription expires in December 2021.

I reached out to Medium about the suspension, and here is their reply:

Spam filter?

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