Progress: a lawyer has drafted a demand letter for me, and I am having it sent! Also, I contacted the WA state AG office, which was advice given to me by someone who emailed me after seeing Instagram stories about my plight. She is also an area artist who had the same issue and got her account reinstated after reaching out to them.
One thing I've heard over and over again through my research is that even if your account is reinstated, there is a chance it will almost immediately be flagged to be banned again due to your data containing something that will continuously ping the AI detection system. Some users have resorted to buying new smartphones and wifi routers in an effort to combat this. What utter insanity.
According to this article, there have been bans happening for a while:
In January 2025, Meta introduced a new moderation strategy called “More Speech, Fewer Mistakes,” which prioritized AI enforcement on only the most severe violations, such as terrorism and CSA, relying more on user reports for lesser issues. This shift was criticized by the Oversight Board as rushed and insufficiently assessed for its potential human rights impact, but it was pushed forward regardless.
By May, large numbers of Facebook groups and user accounts were suddenly suspended, accusing them of serious violations. Meta attributed this to a technical error, but the bans quickly spread to individual users.
Things worsened quite a bit through the summer, when many more users were wrongly flagged for CSA. Likely caused by overly sensitive AI systems which cast too wide of a net, this led to a surge in false positives and the removal of legitimate accounts.
Meta has been relatively silent on this issue while people and their businesses continue to be banned throughout their platforms. And, of course, they plan on cutting 10% of their workforce (8,000 jobs) next month. What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway, on to the much less doom-y topic of fermented beans. I grew up eating natto, and I’m a big fan of it — it’s basically a special type of small soybean that is cooked and then inoculated with bacillus subtilis var. natto, a potent probiotic bacterium. It’s a tough mf, and able to survive stomach acid, heat, and even freezing. It provides a great source of vitamin K2, helps with gut health, and is the only source of nattokinase, an enzyme proven to dissolve blood clots and lower blood pressure. People say it’s a superfood, whatever that is.
My husband has described it as smelling like feet and having a “snot-like” texture. My daughter is a little more willing to eat it but she says it “tastes like coffee and cheese” and doesn’t love it. I don’t think either of them are super wrong, actually…but that is why I’m obsessed. I know, it doesn’t make any sense. Even in Japan, a lot of people seem to think it’s gross. I’m not sure why some of us love it so much, since I really am not a huge fan of stinky cheeses and such. I must say though, there is something that is almost addicting about its pungent, tangy, slightly bitter flavor, and the slime that coats your mouth…the health benefits, as far as I’m concerned, are secondary!
(My husband takes nattokinase in supplement form, so at least that is available to people if the taste/texture combo is too off-putting.)
The price of the little packs of natto that are sold in Asian grocery stores kept rising, so I figured I should start a little natto home-fermenting operation. It ended up being surprisingly easy, and now I can be endlessly stocked full of snotty beans!
For the very few people who want to know how to make it (and so I can maybe share with people who want it in the future), here you go —
Homemade natto recipe!
1/4 of a tsp of natto spores
For the sauce, mix and heat (keeps well in a jar for up to a month):
1/4C soy sauce
1/4C mirin
Sugar to taste
Dashi powder, about 1tsp
Rinse, and then cook the beans until tender (but not mushy). You should be able to mash it with your fingertips, but make sure it’s not crunchy or super soft. You can boil it in some water or steam it, but I stick it in the rice cooker with 1” of water coverage and cook it on regular for the full cycle, check its doneness, and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes if still a bit crunchy.
While the beans are hot, prep a square cake pan or glass tupperware that will fit all of the beans by boiling water and pouring it in to sterilize. Dump the water and use a sterilized utensil (I use a slotted spoon) to add the beans to the container.
Mix natto starter with about 1tsp hot water and pour over the beans. Mix well.
Add a layer of saran wrap directly on top of the beans (it should be touching the beans!) and make sure there isn’t a lot of gapping. poke a few holes through that layer of saran wrap with a clean toothpick.
Add another layer of saran wrap over everything, tightly. Do not poke holes in this layer.
Now to ferment — this needs to happen at 98~110F. You can do this in various ways — an Instapot that has a yogurt setting (you can cook the beans and ferment directly in one which is pretty neat!), oven with a proof setting with the right temperature parameters, yogurt maker, or in my case I use my dehydrator set at 104F. Ferment for 18-24 hours; you know it’s ready when it smells a bit like cheese and develops a white film over everything.
Once it’s done fermenting, put it in the fridge for an additional 24 hours to deepen its flavors. After that I divide them up in small containers (About 2T per container) and stick them in the freezer.
I defrost one container in the microwave and mix it with some of the sauce and a bit of Japanese mustard, plop it on top of multigrain rice and eat it for breakfast, daily!
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