Petition Facebook To Remove Material That Promotes Rape Culture

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

OK, this should probably go in Activism, but this section gets more traffic. A friend linked an article which focused on the "You Know She's Playing Hard To Get When You're Chasing Her Down An Alleyway" page on facebook, the fact it still stands, and the fact the media have ignored plenty of complaints about the page. The article can be found here. About halfway down the article, it details this petition that asks Facebook to remove material promoting rape culture and addresses the fact that Facebook has no option for users to report sexual violence.

Anyways, just thought I'd draw your attention to it. Now off to send the link to a few friends... Every signature and letter to your local MP helps. I'll be composing my letter to my local MP tomorrow.

[giyadas]

here's a group called TheWatchers on fb which reports offensive fb pages to get them taken down.
www.facebook.com/groups/thewatcherz/
I found it on the I bet we can find 1,000,000 proud feminists on facebook page. (948 and counting)

[edd1337]

what about when Sharon osbourne was joking about that man's penis getting cut off? its hatespeech surely

[Beachcomber]

Of course there are other things to worry about. Most of us can worry about more than one thing at a time luckily though .

Joking about abusing or assaulting women, is a form of hate speech, and it normalizes male violence. We are so used to this sort of thing that it doesn't even register on some people's radar - which is pretty disgusting when you think about it.

'But I was only joking' is an age old line that has been used by all sorts to discriminate against others, degrade them and insidiously communicate that they belong to a lower status group.

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

No, I don't. I honestly don't. Sorry, kind of skim reading at the moment.

[Vixaxn]

Do you think there should be two Pages supporting or 'liking' someone who has genitally mutilated their partner?

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

Nope, it's still there as "chasing her down an alleyway".

Can you sincereley not see how this matters?

Try reading this

[Vixaxn]

Hmm, I clicked the link and it says 'You know she's playing hard to get when she gets out a restraining order' And people, men and women are making their own punchlines, like 'when she cuts off your penis.' So did they have to change their name? it doesn't seem like 'rape jokes' to me.

Facebook is quite lenient about its content. it doesn't even seem to be moderated. It has a page for Lorena Bobbit, which hundreds of people 'like' and a 'Free Catherine Becker' page (the woman who drugged her husband and cut off his penis). It also has a 'Don't Free Catherine Becker' page. I think there are more important things to worry about than some dodgy jokes or pages on FB, tbh.

[Pan]

There's a fb group I came across a few days ago, whilst googling something else entirely. A collection of the most pathetic unpleasant and nasty little 'jokes' around women and their bodies. The title is transparent and can't really be missed

but fb has no concerns it appears.

[edd1337]

Perhaps because facebook sees it as sexualised or something. I agree though, that's pretty messed up

[HereBeBolloX]

Facebook doesn't believe in freedom of speech FGS.

It bans pictures of mothers breastfeeding.

But allows rape jokes.

Think that tells you what their priorities are.

[DontCallMeFrothyDragon]

LeBOF, that was brilliant. It's a shame they didn't keep that in the episode.

[LeBOF]

...

[edd1337]

Tell me about it, in the USA there's announcements on their intercoms about being arrested for making jokes

[LeBOF]

That is the only reason I would ever move to the Middle East, to avoid that show.

You can't make a joke about bombs in an airport.

[edd1337]

Those examples pretty much apply everywhere. We have it better than most to be fair, can you imagine a show like Loose Women in the middle east?

[SardineQueen]

The point of the OP I think is that this sort of thing potentially falls under the existing "hate speech" laws, but that everyone is so immune to hate speech against women that they don't notice it as much as they do when it is against other groups. And that it should be noticed and treated in the same way. I think that is a perfectly reasonable point.

[Tyr]

The fact that our freedom of speech is curtailed (increasingly so) in other areas does not mean that others should jump on the bandwagon and try and ban something themselves, no matter how revolting they find it.
Why not start another FB page making a mockery of that one? Or just ignore it, rather than drawing attention to it.

[SardineQueen]

Schoolchildren can't speak however they want to their teachers without consequences

Ditto people in the workplace

[SardineQueen]

Official secrets act
If you are in certain jobs you have to put aside your personal views in favour of what you are supposed to say

[SardineQueen]

There are things that you can be arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned for saying.

Hate speech, inciting violence, that sort of thing.

You can't say anything you want, some things will have consequences. If I stood on my high street shouting "burn all the black people" that would be illegal.

Also it is illegal for people to use speech in a harrassing or threatening way to others.

off the top of my head, there may be more.

[edd1337]

Explain why we don't have freedom of speech (UK)

[AyeRobot]

As Twisty says in this blog post about censorship :

"The liberation of women from patriarchal oppression is more important than a man?s right to 24-hour access to poontang. It?s more important than a woman?s right to the performance of sexy empowering femininity. It?s more important than a scholarly analysis of a canonical work. It?s more important than censorship.

Censorship has meant this and that and the other thing over the years. The government won?t let you burn flags. The authorities herd you and your ?Who Would Jesus Bomb?? protest sign into a ?free speech? zone when Dubya shows up at a rally. The secret police throw you in prison for writing stuff unflattering stuff about your totalitarian government. Your library uses content-control software. The TV network bleeps out your (or Gordon Ramsay?s) F-bombs. The self-censoring Internet feminist uses the word F-bomb instead of the word fuck for no reason.

In the context of Internet feminist discourse, however, censorship seems to be something only feminist dissidents do, probably because we hate freedom! Censorship means ?the practice of feminists voicing dissenting opinions on the Global Accords Governing Fair Use of Women.?"

Hate speech against women doesn't really count as such in many eyes. Will sign.

[Beachcomber]

Thanks DCM - will sign the petition.

As you say, this is not freedom of speech - it is hate speech and thereby oppressive. There are supposed to be rules about things like this, in civilised societies, which respect human rights. Of course it is worth speaking out against this sort of thing. Most people are decent and don't want this sort of crap polluting the internet. Just as most people wouldn't accept jokes about 'You Know You Have Taken Your Jolly Jape a bit too far when you and your mates show up at a black person's house dressed in a white gown carrying flaming torches'.