Free State Militia may be able to handle anything in the apocalyptic wastelands of West Virginia, but the role-players of "Fallout 76" have once again been hit hard by their biggest enemy, Facebook.

FSM, which follows the in-game faction "Free States," has been banned from the social media platform once before; FSM was accidentally included in a purge of violent militia groups from Facebook last October, and on January 9 banned again (discovered by Polygon), although FSM members accept that it is almost certainly related to last week's violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and the subsequent crackdown by the social media platform on extremist groups, this latest ban has not been communicated by Facebook regarding.

Facebook, of course, has a policy against dangerous individuals and organizations. And while no one would think for a minute that the Free State Militia is actually plotting to overthrow the government, you can see how auto-moderation would have a huge problem distinguishing them from real-world militia groups.

Faction leader Non_Serviam79 (Bobby) told us via DM, "Starting a FB page was easy; it was more of a convenience than an attraction to FB. The platform's reach has since become a great place for factions to find new members, but in light of the ban, Bobby says he will not be returning.

"As for the club, I'm 100% done with FB. I'm personally leaving the club myself. I think it's time for a detox.

Bobby stresses that the group's content is 90 percent lore, with events and photos filling the rest. But even with scrambling and removing the "Militia" part from the name, the group remains in Facebook's line of sight. 'FB is taking a hard line on certain things, and it's their right to do so. I am not trying to get FB to change their ways. But I am no longer going to be disciplined by those who refuse to overlook the language of the flag."

Rampant use of words like "militia" is exactly the kind of behavior one would expect from a real example of trying to stay under the radar, and it is a dead end."

"Masked language is very likely a tactic that FBs are aware of," Bobby acknowledged, adding, "but without communication from them, it is impossible to know.

"Mature games designed with adult themes will contain dark content," Bobby concluded. 'Fallout 76 is a post-nuclear war game. Raiders selling humans into slavery, raiders killing innocents, drug use, and alcohol are all common themes. What we see and hear in the real world is reflected in the fiction.

It is a very strange case indeed. A harmless role-playing group may make perfect sense in its context, but when taken out of the same context in the here and now, it can sound like something else entirely. We asked Bethesda and Facebook about the group's suspension: Bethesda said "no comment" and Facebook has yet to respond.