Edgar Allen Poe and Anne Rice would starve on Vocal

On occasion I like to write stories or poems bases on horror or inspired by shows like The Walking Dead or Man in the High Castle. Sometimes it is simply a good old fashion mob micro fiction story which by its nature contains a hit (murder), a kidnapping, or some type of bloody crime. I write mostly for my own fulfillment but I do enjoy posting them on sites like Vocal, Medium, All Poetry, and others. I do this both to get feedback and sometimes, I make someone's day. I a word full of digital and often fake content, I find reading unique pieces and writing a few of them myself. It is therapy.

As much as I love Vocal, there has been, so far, Vocal has twice either rejected or excluded my writing because my piece contains "graphic material." The first instance was for a challenge about eleven months ago. Vocal allowed the piece to publish, but it was not allowed for the challenge because of the content. The only thing I can see in the story that would not be PG was one half a line - "The plan was simple, kill one of the replacement driver." I thought it was silly that this platform rejected it for the challenge, but it was an early piece since I was new to Vocal so I didn't make a fuss. For sure, it was not going to win anyway.

Just today, Vocal rejected a poem about baby zombies. It was about zombies, so of course it was a bit graphic. I would rate the poem, at most, PG13. The feedback from the rejection was the boilerplate "contains graphic material." To top it off, the piece sat in the submitted queue for over 24 hours. It wasn't until I submitted a support ticket, that it was quickly rejected.

I am all for moderation. I don't want to see hate speech, racism, pornographic stories, or such things on Vocal. What I am questioning, and would love some feedback (if anyone reads this) on where the boundaries are between a story or poem about fictional violence or gore and treating this platform like middle school English class. [As a side note, my first oral book report in third grade was about a swamp monster. I believe the book was Swamp thing.]

I love to write. My mind goes nuts at times with wacky ideas. As I develop a style, will Vocal be the platform that I can use to share my writing or will it be a place where I can only post 'safe' pieces? I suspect that Vocal would censor any passage from Stephen King or Anne Rice. Would The Masque of the Red Death pass the reviewers reject button if Poe submitted it today?

Would love to hear your thoughts or any shared experiences.