I was just bipping around on the internet, looking at books I might buy for the class library, when I came across the following snippet on a publisher's website:
Elsewhere in the free speech files, women are reporting that Facebook has been censoring their responses to the blizzard of sexual misconduct allegations, deleting comments that contain sentiments such as “Men are scum.” Under the social media giant’s standards governing “hate speech,” white men are considered a protected group, which can inordinately penalize users who speak out about important issues related to inequality. One woman who was suspended for writing “men continue to be the worst” points out the double-standard in Facebook’s implementation of the policy: “There was one guy who was threatening to find my house and beat me up… I got banned before I could even successfully report it.”
The double-standard is real.
What ARE Facebook and Twitter's standards governing "hate speech"? Wouldn't you like to know?
Dang, that's some really messed up stuff. Although I do feel a little bit offended by the "Men are scum" part, either way, they shouldn't remove their posts because it's hate but on a lower level. Honestly, they shouldn't be removing their comments like this. Instead they should remove comments such as death threats or other extreme ones. Really interesting how freedom of speech was censored by Facebook, what a shame.
ReplyDeleteWow, I would I have never known this had you not commented about this! This is crazy because now I would like to know what the standards are for everyone one and what they take as offensive. It's quite hypocritical that only women's comments are considered offensive and what men are saying isn't being looked into! I've seen lots of comments from men on a woman's post saying super crude and sexist things-giving women every reason to say "Men are scum." But if you want to get rid of one thing you need to watch for others. It's like killing a Hydra. That one head leaves but more heads grow back.
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