During the last US elections I began receiving threats via private message on Facebook. I was confused by this at first because my messages were set to ‘friends only’ and so random people should not have been able to message me!
The threats were varied and many: from threats to rape me, threats to cut me into small pieces and bury me in the person’s backyard, to threats of murder. I duly reported all of these messages to Facebook and received a reply for each one stating that the messages did not ‘violate their community standards’ and did not (in their opinion apparently) ‘constitute a credible threat which would be acted upon’. I replied to Facebook saying that if this was the case then I could only conclude that they HAD no community standards and asking them on what basis they had concluded that the treats were not ‘credible’. Facebook initially didn’t reply but, after about 25 messages from me asking the same thing, they finally responded by saying I could block the person if I was worried! I then replied stating that this would be a pointless action since the profiles were fake anyhow and they undoubtedly had many profiles and, as fast as I could block one, another message would appear from someone else. Facebook didn’t reply.
The Police however, and to their credit, DID act. Facebook was ‘difficult’ to say the least with the police but did eventually hand over the information requested and the perpetrators were dealt with.
But then I wanted to establish just HOW these people had managed to message me in the first place? It was then that I discovered that, in some countries, including the USA, Facebook was allowing people to message me (and anyone else who had their privacy settings organised so that non-friends could not message them) by paying a tiny amount, I can’t remember exactly what the amount was but it was 25 cents or some such thing, and once the person had paid, they could message me with gay abandon. The Facebook information stated that once the person had paid, their message would be sent to my ‘other’ folder (or to my ‘message requests’ if I had messenger) but they (Facebook) could not guarantee that I would read it (but, hey, Facebook would still get the money!)
I then contacted Facebook to ask if they were happy making money out of allowing people to abuse me - for that is exactly what they were doing — asking people to pay for the privilege of sending me a threat or abuse, refusing to act when I reported it, but presumably jiggling their coins gleefully at Facebook Towers. I have no idea if Facebook still do this, but if so, they need to stop immediately.
Again, Facebook told me I could block people or not accept the messages. I pointed out that this was no real different to someone standing outside my house waving a gun around and shouting ‘I’m going to shoot you’ — me blocking up my ears wouldn’t prevent them from acting! In the same way, I would rather SEE the threats that are being made in order that I can report them. Facebook, once again, didn’t reply.
I was publicly called a pedophile repeatedly — this seemed to become the ‘go to’ abuse for a while as I know of many others who also had the same thing happen. Things posted on public threads I had commented upon stating I was a registered this and a registered that (I’m not, just to be clear!). Facebook also refused to remove those posts on the grounds that they didn't have any information which proved these claims were false!
More recently, and mostly in response to some articles I’ve written against Islamophobia and racism, II’ve had a speight of messages with very similar text — all claiming that I am on a ‘list’ and people are ‘watching me’! Frankly, I coudln’t care less but I am just sick of being threatened and of social media companies allowing people to get away with this.
There is also a terrible irony — the same people who threaten and abuse me for standing up against Islamophobia, the people who claim that ‘Islam subjects women’ — are perfectly happy to threaten to rape me — so just WHO is subjecting women is fairly obvious, and it isn’t Islam!
For me personally, Facebook has been worse than Twitter. Twitter HAVE acted occasionally — not that often — but certainly more than Facebook. But for other people I know, Twitter have been equally bad.
I also know of people who have reported YouTube videos for homophobic and/or Islmophobic content and also been told that these videos do not ‘violate their community standards’.
It is surely about time we had our own hashtag — something like the #MeToo one — where all of those people who have suffered repeated and regular abuse and threats on Social Media and had the relevant SM platform refuse to act, can come together and start acting together to get this changed. It MUST be changed and it CAN be changed. Social Media platforms certainly shouldn’t be allowed to charge users money in order to abuse other users — that is beyond outrageous!
I think abuse and threats have become so commonplace that most of us just ignore them these days. WE SHOULD NOT. Report them, report them, and report them again. It cannot be allowed to fester and grow. These social media platforms offer a wonderful eye onto the world, they offer us the chance to meet people we might otherwise never have met, to learn from them, to communicate with them and to access the world in what could be a wonderful way. Instead, they are choosing to use ‘freedom of speech’ as a veil for nazism, fascism and criminal threats. Not to mention fake news and election interference. This MUST stop and it WILL stop, but only if we are united and continue to report hate and take action against hatred, abuse and threatening behavior.
Facebook made a big thing last week about banning the Britain First (a racist British group) from Facebook and also banning the two leaders of the group (who were both in prison for hate crimes) from their platform. What they did NOT tell the media was that the group had already set up another page with a varied spelling (one word spelt wrongly) and Facebook did not remove THAT page and, despite everyone reporting it, they still have not removed it as far as I know. And so they were perfectly happy to get media coverage about supposedly ‘banning’ the pages, all the while knowing the pages still existed. It is laughable and disgusting in equal measure.
If you’ve been threatened or abused on a social media platform — do not stay quiet. Report it to the platform concerned, report it to the police if you are threatened, report it to the various organisations who will support you and help you to act (links below) — TellMamaUK in the UK or the SPLC in the US are both very good at providing support and guidance for people in these situations. Do not stay quiet, do not stay alone, talk about it, tell people about it. Together we will not be silenced and we WILL win…
Tell Mama UK
SPLC #ReportHate