Dear all,
Thank you for your support of the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s (OHPI’s) petition urging Facebook to immediately review its complaint procedures and address the fact that Facebook’s review staff are routinely rejecting clear cases of hate speech that users have take the time to report to the social media company. (The petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/facebook-must-stop-allowing-hate-speech.)
OHPI cited the example of the page “Jewish Memes” and of the an image that appeared on this page as clear examples of hate speech which were reported to Facebook, only for the complaints to be rejected by the company. The picture of Anne Frank has the text “Whats that burning? Oh, my it’s my family” super imposed on it. Other examples from other pages include instances of blood libel, holocaust denial and denial of human rights for Jewish people (expressed as the desire to destroy Israel).
The Anne Frank image (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=391646440903215) and the Jewish Memes page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Controversial-Humor-Jewish-Memes/389407607793765) can no longer be accessed from Australia. If you are in Australia, those links will take you to your Facebook profile. They continue, however, to be available to people outside Australia and Facebook refuses to admit this content is hate speech and a breach of its terms of service. The other examples also remain online, and are still visible from Australia (eg this example of blood libel http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=317218638343118).
Please help us by sharing this petition and spreading this information both online and by word of mouth. We won’t give Facebook any money to advertise the petition, or for any other reason so long as this issue continue. That means we need your help to spread the word. If you can share it with just 3 people by passing this e-mail on, or by linking to the petition on Facebook, response to this petition can continue to grow.
Help sharing this with people outside Australia (where most of our signatories are) is encouraged – until we can get Facebook to acknowledge hate speech is wrong, and to commit to reform their systems, lets at least force them to block the content in as many places as possible.
Some reminders:
- Further background can be seen at: https://ohpi.org.au/?p=286
- The petition is available at: http://www.change.org/petitions/facebook-must-stop-allowing-hate-speech
- The Online Hate Prevention Institutes website is available at: http://www.ohpi.org.au
- Donations to support the Online Hate Prevention Institutes important work can be made from our website via paypal and all donations are greatly appreciated.
Thank you again for your continued support in this fight against hate and for urgent reform of Facebook’s complaint review system.
Andre Oboler
CEO, Online Hate Prevention Institute
http://www.ohpi.org.au | http://www.facebook.com/onlinehate
