As any cannabis user who shares their experiences via popular online social media platforms, the inevitable happened this weekend: my account was disabled.
Thankfully when it happened, I was high (surprised?) and I was happy in my surroundings, happy IRL, so the digital inconvenience was merely a shrug.
While I am not surprised that my account was disabled, I am surprised that my original response was to merely appeal the decision with Meta and continue to censor myself even more so I wouldn’t lose my invisible space on this virtual planet of likes, comments and shares.
So this experience has led me to the question — why do we allow Big Tech to censor us, and come back? And we come back quieter. QUIETER. This is even worse. Having to silence ourselves at risk of social ostracization, and for some, a punch to our bank account.
The easy answer may be many of us may feel we do not have another choice. Instagram and TikTok have monopolized the social media industry and both platforms are strongly against cannabis. Yet we are in the cannabis industry, we want to connect and build our businesses, our brands, so what do we do? If we continue to allow censorship time and time again, are we saying we’re okay with it?
Texas has so many strong cannabis advocates. Advocates who fight and who do not stand in line with others, awaiting for mass approval. I feel through support on other platforms, we can begin to stop fearing the Big Brother aspects of the tech industry and the childish slap on the wrist when we smoke a fucking joint.
I’ve created a Discord server for the Texas cannabis community with hopes that we can find solace on a more private platform and not fear that at any moment all that we have built can be taken from us.
You can’t deactivate community.
What happens when we’re all censored? We change the game. We change the landscape. We mustn’t forget we hold the control.
I have also decided to use this platform, this website, far more often. It’s exciting as if I am back to the days of LiveJournal and Tumblr where humans would write and write and create and share. It feels more personal and I am finding it more comforting writing this at 12:12 (!!!) a.m. then scrolling through IG. To more late night writings where you have to go out of your way to read what someone has to say.
xoxo, canna chill
TLDR: Have a cannabis account.
