"In protest of Facebook's refusal to remove fansites that "joke" about rape, I will not be on FB on November 1. I challenge everyone who is a woman or who loves a woman to copy this to their status and then stay off FB tomorrow."
I saw this on a friend's Facebook status yesterday evening. As I feel particularly strongly about this subject matter (Just to clarify, I've not ever experienced rape or anything similar, and I pray I never do.), I then proceeded to copy that status to my own profile, then closed my Facebook window (as it was close to midnight). I'll be back on tomorrow at some point.
Some poking about on Google has brought up several news articles blasting Facebook for not banning fanpages on the social networking site which make blatant rape/nonconsensual sex jokes. Now, common sense and old-fashioned chivalry say that to remove these offensive fanpages is the right thing to do, right? I mean, Facebook does say they do not accept any content that is "hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence", according to their Terms of Service.
But those same terms of service, according to Facebook, say that the rape jokes are nothing more than an opinion, and therefore are exempt from this rule.
The countless people (both men and women) who have suffered from rape beg to differ.
So Facebook, tell us this: Why will you remove any and all content that is pornographic, violent in nature, pokes fun at transgendered folk or insults Muslims, yet you will back multiple fan pages that allow several thousand people to laugh at the victims of sex crimes, liking these "jokes" to the rude jest that would be told in an average bar?
I'm too furious to continue this rant. I'll be back tomorrow once I've cooled down.
For more information or rants:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/10/abuse-based-facebook-offensive
http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/facebooks-pro-rape-page
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/30/facebook-refuses-pull-rape-jokepages
And possibly the worst Facebook page I have seen in the four years that I've been a user:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/You-know-shes-playing-hard-to-get-when-your-chasing-her-down-an-alleyway/227051983998683
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