Facebook>> Hate Speech • Virtual World
After weeks of protests and online campaigning against violence and hate speech, Facebook has bowed down and agreed to review its flawed content policies.
Groups, including US-based Women, Action and Media, and the Everyday Sexism Project—a UK-based Twitter feed—had demanded that the social-networking site banned pages they said promoted violence. “Kicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won’t make you a Sandwich” and “Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs” were two of the pages. Earlier, Facebook denied the complaints citing freedom of speech. Later it changed stance after 15 advertises, including Nissan UK, pulled out their ads from the site.
In a blog post, Marne Levine, Facebook’s vice-president of global public policy, said: “We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards.”
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