It’s been more than a year since Clementine Ford, an Australian feminist, found her Facebook blocked for telling a harasser what do do with himself. Promising to improve, Facebook has contended that new community standards and better handling of threats on their service would hopefully eliminate this kind of problem.
Years later, however, women are reporting the same old, same old, and wondering what is going on with Facebook’s community standards.
In a series of Facebook posts over the Mother’s Day weekend and slightly before, women came forward to discuss their concerns over Facebook. One woman, a friend, posted her experience asking not to be named.
The message seen on the right, went far beyond what should be acceptable on a social media forum like Facebook, and certainly not appropriate for her to receive by direct message.
The message, which came from someone she didn’t know, wasn’t the first negative message she had received on the service, only the most recent.
Many of the messages were likely linked to her promotion of feminist ideas, which seemingly made her a target for trolls.
Now, with a message like this one, you’d think that Facebook would open up the doors and look to find a way to stop this kind of problem.
Maybe a time out for the sender?
Maybe, like Clementine Ford, a 30 day suspension on their account so they could get their act together, right?
Well, that isn’t what happened at all.
After reporting the message to Facebook, the common message was received:
“We’ve looked over the message and though it doesn’t go against one of our specific community standards...”
This isn’t a surprise to many women, who have for some time wondered about whether or not Facebook was interested in protecting them.
When asked “What went wrong? How could it be better?” the person who received the harassing message had a simple response:
“The post is advertising sexual material that advocates sexual assault and correctional rape against feminists. It was sent to someone who publicly states she’s a feminist. How is this not against community standards?”
Facebook, of course, has not responded.
Facebook has been in hot water before, as the company financially benefits from user rates, and has done little to stop these concerns by women or persons of color.
www.theguardian.com/…
To the founders of Rapebook, a page started last fall to "tackle misogyny on Facebook by sharing and reporting pages", content trivializing sexualized and domestic abuse is intrinsically hateful and harmful. Immediately, the page became the target of massive trolling and administrators were threatened with violent rape and death and bombarded with graphic images and porn. Posts, such as one urging people to give a donation to an anti-violence campaign at Amnesty International, generated more than 100 comments, including "fuck that. hit that hoe (sic)," and "Domestic violence is a 2 way street you hypocritical cunt." This suggests hostility. Which might provoke anxiety. And create an environment that does not feel safe to the average woman. Studies show that content like this is triggering and degrades the ability of consumers of the content to empathize with victims.
When I spoke to Facebook representatives, they responded quickly and were forthcoming about their policies. Guidelines are clear about harassment, bullying and hate speech – which is why this problem is not about constraining people's "free speech". It's about how mainstream misogynistic norms are embedded, not only in Facebook's interpretations of "free speech", "safety", "humor" and "credible threats", but in the very way their review process is structured.
That was 2014. In that moment, Facebook promised a better environment and stronger community guidelines. If people reported threats or completely inappropriate content, Facebook would deal with it.
3 years later, the environment has seemingly not improved, and women are finding that their reports of harassment still fall on deaf ears.