Advertisers and users are upset at inadvertent tolerance of abuse of women on the site. So why isn't Facebook taking more action?
Last week, Laura Bates, of the Everyday Sexism Project, tweeted a message to FinnAir, asking the company if it knew its advertising appeared on a Facebook page endorsing violence against women. The company responded:
"This is totally against our values and policies."
Several other angry advertisers felt the same way.
I doubt that most advertisers are aware of how regularly this situation occurs. For example, this morning, a Duracell battery ad is visible on a group page called "I kill bitches like you;" Sexy Arab Girls, "join our page for more porn videos," was sponsored by the Wilberforce Dinner "Honoring Cardinal Timothy Dolan," and the now-removed page, "Domestic Violence: Don't Make Me Tell You Twice," populated by photos of women beaten, bruised and bleeding, was the platform for Vistaprint.
"We occasionally see people post distasteful or crude content. While it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies," a Facebook spokesperson explained, when I asked what Facebook's response to similar pages is.
"However, there is no place on Facebook for content that is hateful, threatening, or incites violence, and we will not tolerate material deemed to be genuinely or directly harmful."
Facebook has detailed procedures for handling complaints and clearly states that user safety is a company priority. Given the astounding volume of people and content that Facebook deals with (more than 1 billion users), the company only acts when content is reported. The issue is, therefore, how words like "hateful" and "genuinely" "harmful" are defined, and, importantly, whether or not men and women understand "safety" differently.
Facebook moderators deal with real instances of violence and crime every day. "Not real" content depicting rape and the physical abuse of girls and women is often categorized by Facebook as [Humor] and readily viewed. Recent examples include a photograph of a man carrying a limp girl with the caption, "Rohyphnol: When Traditional Dating Methods Just Aren't Cutting it!" and the page "I Love the Rape Van". The company tries to address complaints within 72 hours, but pages like "Raping Babies Because You're Fucking Fearless" can remain up for more than a month.
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.
First, what is notable about cases like Rapebook co-founder Trista Hendren's is the comfort and speed with which opponents resort to violent rape and death threats using misogynistic language. Facebook's guidelines prohibit hate speech, even though hate speech is, in fact, protected in the US by the first amendment. Users comfortable with denigrating women manipulate a review process that does not recognize sex-based hate speech and is not set up to consider context. Specifically, Facebook has no reporting mechanism for considering how a hostile environment (treating rape and violence against women literally as a joke or ignoring content that is viscerally threatening) might affect its female users.
Second, what people like Hendren are protesting is not easily mocked hurt feelings, but systemically tolerated hate, degradation, objectification and marginalization of girls and women, behind which loiters actual violence. Women, acculturated to a world where one in three women will be sexually assaulted (in the US, that number is one in five; for men, one in 77), cannot separate this reality from their online experiences. Domestic violence statistics reflect a similar epidemic. The vast majority of perpetrators in either case are men. This dynamic is reflected in online misogyny.
"At first, people started posting pictures of women and young girls being raped or beat up and commenting on the page saying things like, "I will skull-f**k your children," explains Hendren. "Then the harassment moved offline after our personal information was posted all over Facebook. I was called and emailed repeatedly. Later my address and children's names were posted as well."
Despite the fact that Facebook representatives may have done their best to work closely with Rapebook, the administrators closed the page after months of receiving up to 500 messages a day, including photographs of actual rapes and child pornography. Hendren's photo was used to create rape memes. She has left Facebook. It's important to note that people who supported Rapebook's efforts were unwilling to publicly show their support in Facebook, for fear of similar targeting.
How is this not a loss of free speech for these users (overwhelmingly women), resulting from bullying, harassment and misogyny? The people left feeling comfortable at Facebook are rape apologists and those who create content glorifying the debasement of women.
A common retort to all of this is: "This is the internet. It's offensive. If you don't like it, leave." That is correct: speech on the internet can be offensive and the right to be offensive is vital to democracy. But Facebook is not "the internet". Facebook is a company with principles and community standards that create a reasonable expectation in users that it will enforce rules it itself has established in an unbiased manner. Facebook is perilously close to allowing "freedom of speech" to be used as a defense of unjust actions that are clearly intimidating and silencing female users.
If Facebook is already considering these issues, they aren't sharing that fact. Last week, a new page was created on Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg LEAN-In And Remove Misogyny from FB. According to Bates, Facebook is resolute in not responding to the Everyday Sexism campaign. Advertisers are, however, and as the saying goes, money talks. But is it too much to hope for that Facebook's famously pro-woman chief operating officer might do something about Facebook's misogyny problem before she is simply forced to act because it's hurting the company's bottom line?
The Guardian: Facebook's big misogyny problem by Soraya Chemaly
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Facebook Advertisers Enraged By Their Ads On Pages About Rape
Lots of Press on this today.
Charities such as Shelter and businesses including Vodafone have seen their Facebook adverts appear on pages about rape and violence.
Dove Cosmetics, the RSPB and audiobook site Audible are also among those who have complained to Facebook that group pages with titles such as “Raping!”, “Drop kicking sluts in the teeth” and “This is why Indian girls are raped” have all featured their adverts.
Facebook has been criticised in the past for failing to remove graphic material quickly, despite making $1.33 billion (£869 million) from advertising revenue in the last quarter alone.
Advertisers were alerted by Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, the Times reported. Shelter said on Twitter that it would be “contacting Facebook to see if there's anything we can do to stop this from happening” after its advert appeared on “Raping”, a page ‘liked’ by 4,400 people.
The RSPB contacted Facebook after its adverts appeared on a page called "Indian girls", as did those from Audible. The charity said "Unless they can assure us that they are working out a way to guarantee this kind of thing doesn't continue, we will be forced to consider our advertising options."
On another page, called "Drop kicking sluts in the teeth", an advert for Dove cosmetics appeared. Dove said it was “shocked to see our advert” on “Drop kicking sluts in the teeth”, and added the company has “spoken to Facebook who have removed this page completely". The ‘closed group’ page is however still active, listed with a “controversial humor” warning.
Dove claimed it would be "refining our targeting to reduce the chance of any adverts appearing on similar pages".
Miss Bates told The Times "If advertising on Facebook means your ad could appear on hundreds of rape pages, advertisers should consider that very carefully indeed."
Vodafone contacted Facebook after its commercial content was featured on a page called "This is why Indian girls are raped", alongside pictures of scantily clad Indian women.
Although the page was removed by Facebook it was swiftly replaced by an identical page.
Facebook said adverts on its site are targeted towards individual users, not towards pages. It claimed it aimed to act quickly to remove offensive material deemed to be "genuinely or directly harmful".
By Matt Warman
Business Insider: Facebook Advertisers Enraged By Their Ads On Pages About Rape Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-enraged-by-their-ads-on-pages-about-rape-2013-4#ixzz2QamSYuHD
More articles:
The Times: Advertisers vent their fury at Facebook
Daily Mail: Outraged advertisers find their products on Facebook pages glorifying rape and domestic abuse
Charities such as Shelter and businesses including Vodafone have seen their Facebook adverts appear on pages about rape and violence.
Dove Cosmetics, the RSPB and audiobook site Audible are also among those who have complained to Facebook that group pages with titles such as “Raping!”, “Drop kicking sluts in the teeth” and “This is why Indian girls are raped” have all featured their adverts.
Facebook has been criticised in the past for failing to remove graphic material quickly, despite making $1.33 billion (£869 million) from advertising revenue in the last quarter alone.
Advertisers were alerted by Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, the Times reported. Shelter said on Twitter that it would be “contacting Facebook to see if there's anything we can do to stop this from happening” after its advert appeared on “Raping”, a page ‘liked’ by 4,400 people.
The RSPB contacted Facebook after its adverts appeared on a page called "Indian girls", as did those from Audible. The charity said "Unless they can assure us that they are working out a way to guarantee this kind of thing doesn't continue, we will be forced to consider our advertising options."
On another page, called "Drop kicking sluts in the teeth", an advert for Dove cosmetics appeared. Dove said it was “shocked to see our advert” on “Drop kicking sluts in the teeth”, and added the company has “spoken to Facebook who have removed this page completely". The ‘closed group’ page is however still active, listed with a “controversial humor” warning.
Dove claimed it would be "refining our targeting to reduce the chance of any adverts appearing on similar pages".
Miss Bates told The Times "If advertising on Facebook means your ad could appear on hundreds of rape pages, advertisers should consider that very carefully indeed."
Vodafone contacted Facebook after its commercial content was featured on a page called "This is why Indian girls are raped", alongside pictures of scantily clad Indian women.
Although the page was removed by Facebook it was swiftly replaced by an identical page.
Facebook said adverts on its site are targeted towards individual users, not towards pages. It claimed it aimed to act quickly to remove offensive material deemed to be "genuinely or directly harmful".
By Matt Warman
Business Insider: Facebook Advertisers Enraged By Their Ads On Pages About Rape Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-advertisers-enraged-by-their-ads-on-pages-about-rape-2013-4#ixzz2QamSYuHD
More articles:
The Times: Advertisers vent their fury at Facebook
Daily Mail: Outraged advertisers find their products on Facebook pages glorifying rape and domestic abuse
If We’re Leaning In, Is Zuckerberg Reaching Out?
Facebook’s Culture of Misogyny
Obviously, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, reached out to Sheryl Sandberg as she leaned in to her ambitions. The rest of us? Not so much. Facebook’s misogyny is, in the words of sexist extraordinaire Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, “legend—wait for it—dary!” Oh, yeah. Facebook is like an out-of-control party in your virtual backyard, complete with rape jokes and sexualization of young girls. But never fear: there are no pictures of breasts nourishing children. Because, you know, that would be a total buzzkill.
My first thought when I read about Lean In was, “If Sandberg is concerned about women, why isn’t she dealing with Facebook’s misogyny?” This week, Elizabeth Plank has asked that question in her spot-on article, “Why Facebook Needs to Lean In and Fix Its’ Woman Problem.” I love this article because it gets right to the point: while we can’t expect Ms. Sandberg to speak for every woman, it is disturbing that she has not even mentioned Facebook’s sexism, particularly its promotion of rape culture and the impact it has on women. I encourage you to read this article and participate in the Twitter campaigns Ms. Plank mentions, using the hashtags #SupportTrista and #LeanIn.
Zuckerberg’s Responsibility
It’s important to name the person calling the shots here, the one with more power than Sandberg: Mark Zuckerberg. In her revealing article, “Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins From Leaning In?” former Facebook employee Kate Losse, who has written a book about Facebook’s internal culture entitled Boy Kings, says: “…by launching a feminist platform, Sandberg is able to contain the broader threat that a feminist critique poses to Facebook’s business, simultaneously generating more power for herself and her organization—Silicon Valley “revolution” at its finest. This maneuver, as I learned in my years at Facebook, is how the game is played, and both Sandberg and Zuckerberg play it well.”
Woah. Think about that a minute.
Zuckerberg, boy king extraordinaire of a corporate empire that uses sexism as capitalist fuel, hitches a ride on a feminist platform and gets to keep promoting rape culture all the while. So, do I think Zuckerberg is gonna woman up and tell the cadre of Facebook bullies that they are hurting women, who he so values and wishes to lift up?
Why no, no I do not. At least, not without serious encouragement.
Do I think Sandberg is only playing this game, and has no concern for other women? Absolutely not. I think she genuinely cares about lifting women up, and is playing a man’s game by the man’s rules—just like we all do, to survive and to thrive. If, along the way, we can empower ourselves and others, awesome. But we still have to play the game, right?
What we need, my friends, is systemic change. Sandberg has the power to ask Zuckerberg to use her feminist platform to create cultural change, within the company and for the millions of women who use Facebook. But she might not even be thinking in those terms.
The Lean In conversation has shown itself to be open to expanding dialogue and ideas: one of the things I love about it is that it hasn’t been swallowed up by a sound byte. Let us continue to expand its boundaries by asking Sandberg to woman up and tell Zuckerberg it is time for him to woman up, to reach out to those who are trying to lean in to a system that is stacked against us, all in the name of “hilarious” sexism.
Make no mistake, womaning up will take courage—from Sandberg, from me, from you, from Zuckerberg (who is going to face a posse of angry sexists, just as he has been facing angry feminists). From all of us.
But I just know we’re up to it—otherwise, what’s the point of leaning in at all?
By Elizabeth Hall Magill
Read full post here.
Obviously, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, reached out to Sheryl Sandberg as she leaned in to her ambitions. The rest of us? Not so much. Facebook’s misogyny is, in the words of sexist extraordinaire Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, “legend—wait for it—dary!” Oh, yeah. Facebook is like an out-of-control party in your virtual backyard, complete with rape jokes and sexualization of young girls. But never fear: there are no pictures of breasts nourishing children. Because, you know, that would be a total buzzkill.
My first thought when I read about Lean In was, “If Sandberg is concerned about women, why isn’t she dealing with Facebook’s misogyny?” This week, Elizabeth Plank has asked that question in her spot-on article, “Why Facebook Needs to Lean In and Fix Its’ Woman Problem.” I love this article because it gets right to the point: while we can’t expect Ms. Sandberg to speak for every woman, it is disturbing that she has not even mentioned Facebook’s sexism, particularly its promotion of rape culture and the impact it has on women. I encourage you to read this article and participate in the Twitter campaigns Ms. Plank mentions, using the hashtags #SupportTrista and #LeanIn.
Zuckerberg’s Responsibility
It’s important to name the person calling the shots here, the one with more power than Sandberg: Mark Zuckerberg. In her revealing article, “Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins From Leaning In?” former Facebook employee Kate Losse, who has written a book about Facebook’s internal culture entitled Boy Kings, says: “…by launching a feminist platform, Sandberg is able to contain the broader threat that a feminist critique poses to Facebook’s business, simultaneously generating more power for herself and her organization—Silicon Valley “revolution” at its finest. This maneuver, as I learned in my years at Facebook, is how the game is played, and both Sandberg and Zuckerberg play it well.”
Woah. Think about that a minute.
Zuckerberg, boy king extraordinaire of a corporate empire that uses sexism as capitalist fuel, hitches a ride on a feminist platform and gets to keep promoting rape culture all the while. So, do I think Zuckerberg is gonna woman up and tell the cadre of Facebook bullies that they are hurting women, who he so values and wishes to lift up?
Why no, no I do not. At least, not without serious encouragement.
Do I think Sandberg is only playing this game, and has no concern for other women? Absolutely not. I think she genuinely cares about lifting women up, and is playing a man’s game by the man’s rules—just like we all do, to survive and to thrive. If, along the way, we can empower ourselves and others, awesome. But we still have to play the game, right?
What we need, my friends, is systemic change. Sandberg has the power to ask Zuckerberg to use her feminist platform to create cultural change, within the company and for the millions of women who use Facebook. But she might not even be thinking in those terms.
The Lean In conversation has shown itself to be open to expanding dialogue and ideas: one of the things I love about it is that it hasn’t been swallowed up by a sound byte. Let us continue to expand its boundaries by asking Sandberg to woman up and tell Zuckerberg it is time for him to woman up, to reach out to those who are trying to lean in to a system that is stacked against us, all in the name of “hilarious” sexism.
Make no mistake, womaning up will take courage—from Sandberg, from me, from you, from Zuckerberg (who is going to face a posse of angry sexists, just as he has been facing angry feminists). From all of us.
But I just know we’re up to it—otherwise, what’s the point of leaning in at all?
By Elizabeth Hall Magill
Read full post here.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Desensitization and Media Effects
To understand the effects of repeated exposure to violence, researchers have suggested that viewers become comfortable with violence that is initially anxiety provoking, much as they would if they were undergoing exposure therapy. According to Gordon Paul and D. A. Bernstein (1973), exposure therapy is widely regarded as the most effective clinical therapy for training individuals to engage in behaviors that were previously inhibited by anxiety responses. Originally, researchers emphasized a therapeutic counterconditioning technique known as "systematic desensitization," in which the patient was gradually and systematically exposed to a graded series of anxiety provoking objects or situations. Many researchers, including Edna B. Foa and Michael J. Kozak (1986), have demonstrated that simply exposing a patient to frightening stimuli, regardless of whether it is presented in graduated form, will significantly diminish the anxiety or negative affect that the stimulus once evoked. This logic may be applied to the effects of repeated exposure to media violence.
More recently, Daniel Linz, Edward Donner-stein, and Steven Penrod (1984, 1988) measured the reactions of adult men to films that portrayed violence against women, often in a sexual context. The viewings took place over a period of several days, and comparisons of first-day reactions and last-day reactions to the films showed that, with repeated exposure, initial levels of self-reported anxiety decreased substantially. Furthermore, the research participants' perceptions of the films also changed from the first day to the last day. Material that was previously judged to be violent and degrading to women was considered to be significantly less so by the end of the exposure period. Participants also indicated that they were less depressed and enjoyed the material more with repeated exposure. These effects generalized to responses to a victim of sexual assault in a mock trial presented to the men at a later time. Men who had been exposed to the sexually violent films, compared to a no-exposure group, rated the victim as being less severely injured. The men who had been exposed to the violent film, again compared to men in a no-exposure control group, were also less sympathetic to the rape victim portrayed in the trial and less able to empathize with rape victims in general. These effects did not emerge following exposure to a single film. Longer film exposure was necessary for it to affect the violence-viewing participants' general empathetic response. Linz and his colleagues (1984, 1988) suggested that the viewers were becoming comfortable with anxiety-provoking situations much as they would if they were undergoing desensitization therapy. Carol Krafka and her associates (1997) observed these same effects for women who viewed sexual violence. Linz and his colleagues (1989) also showed that a reduction in physiological responsiveness accompanies repeated exposure to sexualized violence and that viewing violent films results in less sympathy for victims of domestic violence as well as rape victims.
"In conclusion, exposure to violence in the mass media may result in a desensitization effect in which viewers experience diminished feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy toward victims of actual violence. Research has shown that viewers who watch large amounts of media violence show less physiological reactivity to violence in other contexts. Men and women who are exposed to sexual violence in the media also show less sympathy toward rape victims portrayed in other contexts and are generally less able to empathize
with rape victims. However, resensitization to victims after desensitization may occur given a sufficient rest period"
Read complete study: http://www.bookrags.com/research/desensitization-and-media-effects-eci-01
More recently, Daniel Linz, Edward Donner-stein, and Steven Penrod (1984, 1988) measured the reactions of adult men to films that portrayed violence against women, often in a sexual context. The viewings took place over a period of several days, and comparisons of first-day reactions and last-day reactions to the films showed that, with repeated exposure, initial levels of self-reported anxiety decreased substantially. Furthermore, the research participants' perceptions of the films also changed from the first day to the last day. Material that was previously judged to be violent and degrading to women was considered to be significantly less so by the end of the exposure period. Participants also indicated that they were less depressed and enjoyed the material more with repeated exposure. These effects generalized to responses to a victim of sexual assault in a mock trial presented to the men at a later time. Men who had been exposed to the sexually violent films, compared to a no-exposure group, rated the victim as being less severely injured. The men who had been exposed to the violent film, again compared to men in a no-exposure control group, were also less sympathetic to the rape victim portrayed in the trial and less able to empathize with rape victims in general. These effects did not emerge following exposure to a single film. Longer film exposure was necessary for it to affect the violence-viewing participants' general empathetic response. Linz and his colleagues (1984, 1988) suggested that the viewers were becoming comfortable with anxiety-provoking situations much as they would if they were undergoing desensitization therapy. Carol Krafka and her associates (1997) observed these same effects for women who viewed sexual violence. Linz and his colleagues (1989) also showed that a reduction in physiological responsiveness accompanies repeated exposure to sexualized violence and that viewing violent films results in less sympathy for victims of domestic violence as well as rape victims.
"In conclusion, exposure to violence in the mass media may result in a desensitization effect in which viewers experience diminished feelings of concern, empathy, or sympathy toward victims of actual violence. Research has shown that viewers who watch large amounts of media violence show less physiological reactivity to violence in other contexts. Men and women who are exposed to sexual violence in the media also show less sympathy toward rape victims portrayed in other contexts and are generally less able to empathize
with rape victims. However, resensitization to victims after desensitization may occur given a sufficient rest period"
Read complete study: http://www.bookrags.com/research/desensitization-and-media-effects-eci-01
Monday, April 8, 2013
Direct Threat on Facebook against Me & My Children
Go and pay Trista xxxxx a visit at xxxxxxxxxxxx xxx, xxx xxxxx
She might even let her kids xxx, and her her camel jockey Muslim daughter, xxx out of the basement for visitors
You won't win Trista, we have already won!!!!
Posted to https://www.facebook.com/StopRapebook?ref=ts&fref=ts
She might even let her kids xxx, and her her camel jockey Muslim daughter, xxx out of the basement for visitors
You won't win Trista, we have already won!!!!
Posted to https://www.facebook.com/StopRapebook?ref=ts&fref=ts
The Other Side of the Story
We were alerted to this earlier, posted with the following comment: "Help me spread the truth about Rapebook. If the media doesn't tell the truth, we will!"
It seems they want to tell their side of the story, and I think this video does a great job of it, other than the fact that I have been improperly tagged as Admin MF.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyszv6_rapebook_webcam?fbc=85#.UWNCcparlaf
It seems they want to tell their side of the story, and I think this video does a great job of it, other than the fact that I have been improperly tagged as Admin MF.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyszv6_rapebook_webcam?fbc=85#.UWNCcparlaf
Causes of sexual violence / Rape Statistics
Lest we forget why we began this fight, I am including several sources of information about the possible effects of rape, including PTSD and suicidal thoughts. We would also like to further explore the psychological impact of rape jokes and graphic content on social media sites to survivors of sexualized violence. If anyone has more information about this, we would welcome your insights.
Causes of sexual violence
Causes of sexual violence are debated and explanations of the cause include socioeconomics, anger, power, sadism, sexual pleasure, psychopathy, ethical standards, attitudes toward the victims and evolutionary pressures.
Rape culture
Rape culture is a term used within women's studies and feminism, describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence.
Within the paradigm, acts of sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem "acceptable". Examples of behaviors said to typify rape culture include victim blaming, trivializing prison rape, and sexual objectification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_sexual_violence
The Mental Health Impact of Rape
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/mentalimpact.shtml
Rape Victims Prone to Suicide
by Kevin Caruso
Rape is a horrible crime. And it effects the victims for the rest of their lives. Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are common conditions among rape victims.
Numerous rape victims have suicidal thoughts. Many die by suicide.
Sexual assaults are, unfortunately, extremely common.
In the U.S., a sexual assault occurs every two minutes.
Here are some additional disquieting statistics about rape:
17% of American women have been the victim of sexual assault at some point in their lives.
In 2002, there were 247,730 sexual assaults -- Approximately 87,000 were victims of completed rape; 70,000 were victims of attempted rape; and 91,000 were victims of sexual assault. (Data is from the National Crime Victimization Survey and does not include data on victims 12 and younger.)
About 44% or rape victims are under the age of 18.
15% of rape victims are under the age of 12.
93% of the rape victims age 18 and under knew the rapist. Of these rapists, 34.2% were family members and 58.7% were acquaintances.
In 2001, it was estimated that only 39% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the police.
66% of rape victims know their assailant.
40% of the rapes occur in the victim's home.
20% of the rapes occur in the home of a friend or acquaintance.
10% of the rapes occur outdoors.
8% of the rapes occur in parking structures.
Rape has long-term emotional consequences that can lead to suicide.
It is quite common for rape victims to suffer from depression. And untreated depression is the number one cause for suicide.
About 33% of rape victims have suicidal thought.
About 13% of rape victims will attempt suicide.
Suicide attempts may occur years after the rape.
-------------------------------------
If you have been raped, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE
It does not matter whether the rape happened recently or long ago, please call. People want to help you.
And remember that all rapists are cowards, criminals, and losers and belong in prison.
There never is an excuse for rape, and it is always a very serious crime.
Causes of sexual violence
Causes of sexual violence are debated and explanations of the cause include socioeconomics, anger, power, sadism, sexual pleasure, psychopathy, ethical standards, attitudes toward the victims and evolutionary pressures.
Rape culture
Rape culture is a term used within women's studies and feminism, describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence.
Within the paradigm, acts of sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem "acceptable". Examples of behaviors said to typify rape culture include victim blaming, trivializing prison rape, and sexual objectification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_sexual_violence
The Mental Health Impact of Rape
http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/mentalimpact.shtml
Rape Victims Prone to Suicide
by Kevin Caruso
Rape is a horrible crime. And it effects the victims for the rest of their lives. Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are common conditions among rape victims.
Numerous rape victims have suicidal thoughts. Many die by suicide.
Sexual assaults are, unfortunately, extremely common.
In the U.S., a sexual assault occurs every two minutes.
Here are some additional disquieting statistics about rape:
17% of American women have been the victim of sexual assault at some point in their lives.
In 2002, there were 247,730 sexual assaults -- Approximately 87,000 were victims of completed rape; 70,000 were victims of attempted rape; and 91,000 were victims of sexual assault. (Data is from the National Crime Victimization Survey and does not include data on victims 12 and younger.)
About 44% or rape victims are under the age of 18.
15% of rape victims are under the age of 12.
93% of the rape victims age 18 and under knew the rapist. Of these rapists, 34.2% were family members and 58.7% were acquaintances.
In 2001, it was estimated that only 39% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to the police.
66% of rape victims know their assailant.
40% of the rapes occur in the victim's home.
20% of the rapes occur in the home of a friend or acquaintance.
10% of the rapes occur outdoors.
8% of the rapes occur in parking structures.
Rape has long-term emotional consequences that can lead to suicide.
It is quite common for rape victims to suffer from depression. And untreated depression is the number one cause for suicide.
About 33% of rape victims have suicidal thought.
About 13% of rape victims will attempt suicide.
Suicide attempts may occur years after the rape.
-------------------------------------
If you have been raped, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE
It does not matter whether the rape happened recently or long ago, please call. People want to help you.
And remember that all rapists are cowards, criminals, and losers and belong in prison.
There never is an excuse for rape, and it is always a very serious crime.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Sheryl Sandberg "LEAN IN" and Remove Misogyny from FB
If you have not "liked" this page, please do so!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheryl-Sandberg-LEAN-IN-and-Remove-Misogyny-from-FB/469683616434059?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheryl-Sandberg-LEAN-IN-and-Remove-Misogyny-from-FB/469683616434059?fref=ts
Troll Attack
Apparently the trolls are planning an attack based on the picture posted from Report FB Misogyny and photoshop it some way because they believe it to be one of the Admins from Stop Rapebook.
"This is the main admin of both Rapebook & Report FB Misogyny.
Why she posted this image, I've got no idea.
But she's responsible for destroying some of our favorite pages.
So anybody that can use photoshop or anything of that sort, do whatever you want to this image and send it in to the page.
Trust us, we've got a plan.
-Vaas"
While I am sure all of us would love to claim this fab body, it is not, in fact, one of our admins.
On top of attacking the supposed admins of our page, this page also targets specific rape victims, Jews and African-Americans. I don't even want to repost their vile garbage.
https://www.facebook.com/AsLongAsItsOffensive4?ref=ts&fref=ts
Update: There are more sites participating:
https://www.facebook.com/FubarParanoia
"This is the main admin of both Rapebook & Report FB Misogyny.
Why she posted this image, I've got no idea.
But she's responsible for destroying some of our favorite pages.
So anybody that can use photoshop or anything of that sort, do whatever you want to this image and send it in to the page.
Trust us, we've got a plan.
-Vaas"
While I am sure all of us would love to claim this fab body, it is not, in fact, one of our admins.
On top of attacking the supposed admins of our page, this page also targets specific rape victims, Jews and African-Americans. I don't even want to repost their vile garbage.
https://www.facebook.com/AsLongAsItsOffensive4?ref=ts&fref=ts
Update: There are more sites participating:
https://www.facebook.com/FubarParanoia
Facebook Needs A Report Option For Child Abusive Material
February 2013, and Facebook are still no closer to having a report option for content found on their site pertaining to Child Abuse Material. Instead we are given these (or similar) report options...
- Drug use
- Spam or scam
- Graphic violence
- Hate speech or symbol
- Nudity or pornography
Imagery of a child being abused is NOT nudity or porn. It's a crime scene.
They are the evidence depicting children as being victims of a serious crime and possibly in need of help, and why victim identification is so important.
When content as sensitive and horrific as this is submitted, it needs experienced people ready to deal with reports. People who.....
* who are able to remove content as soon as it's possible.
(understandably take down time, will vary, depending on content)
* who are able to analyse what has been reported
* who can determine if the content is illegal, and if so
* who are able to trace where it appears to be located
With the relevant law enforcement contacted, to initiate investigations into (any) victims and perpetrators related to the content.
Facebook as the leading social networking site, should also take the lead in helping combat online sexual exploitation of children. In the UK alone, the number of people accessing illegal images has risen 48% in four years, with up to 35,000 indecent images of children were being found daily.
Facebook needs a function, that stands apart from the "normal" report process, with child sexual abuse reports being submitted straight to a dedicated online reporting system.
INHOPE, for example, some one like this is ideal, they respond to reports already and have a network of 43 Hotlines in 37 countries. Facebook could provide a secure mechanism for it's users to click, which would link directly to the online report form, ensuring the content is investigated.
INSHORT: Facebook needs a report function in place, that is specific to "Child Abuse Material" - (sexual imagery which focuses on children) and which links to a "hotline" who have a dedicated online report system. If this feature were to be put in place by Facebook, it would ensure that any content reported, IS investigated, IS passed to the relevant LEA and the Internet Service Provider hosting the original content IS notified.
Behind every image, there is an exploited, abused and helpless child. Not one should go unnoticed.
Thank you all in advance for your support
Admin @ Peters Law. A Voice For All Children
Admin @ War Against Child Abuse (W.A.C.A)
Admin @ Prevent Child Abuse
Admin @ S.T.E.A.M
* This petition is ONE of TWO created in collaboration with #Op SafeKids
Sign the Petition:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/advocatesunite
- Drug use
- Spam or scam
- Graphic violence
- Hate speech or symbol
- Nudity or pornography
Imagery of a child being abused is NOT nudity or porn. It's a crime scene.
They are the evidence depicting children as being victims of a serious crime and possibly in need of help, and why victim identification is so important.
When content as sensitive and horrific as this is submitted, it needs experienced people ready to deal with reports. People who.....
* who are able to remove content as soon as it's possible.
(understandably take down time, will vary, depending on content)
* who are able to analyse what has been reported
* who can determine if the content is illegal, and if so
* who are able to trace where it appears to be located
With the relevant law enforcement contacted, to initiate investigations into (any) victims and perpetrators related to the content.
Facebook as the leading social networking site, should also take the lead in helping combat online sexual exploitation of children. In the UK alone, the number of people accessing illegal images has risen 48% in four years, with up to 35,000 indecent images of children were being found daily.
Facebook needs a function, that stands apart from the "normal" report process, with child sexual abuse reports being submitted straight to a dedicated online reporting system.
INHOPE, for example, some one like this is ideal, they respond to reports already and have a network of 43 Hotlines in 37 countries. Facebook could provide a secure mechanism for it's users to click, which would link directly to the online report form, ensuring the content is investigated.
INSHORT: Facebook needs a report function in place, that is specific to "Child Abuse Material" - (sexual imagery which focuses on children) and which links to a "hotline" who have a dedicated online report system. If this feature were to be put in place by Facebook, it would ensure that any content reported, IS investigated, IS passed to the relevant LEA and the Internet Service Provider hosting the original content IS notified.
Behind every image, there is an exploited, abused and helpless child. Not one should go unnoticed.
Thank you all in advance for your support
Admin @ Peters Law. A Voice For All Children
Admin @ War Against Child Abuse (W.A.C.A)
Admin @ Prevent Child Abuse
Admin @ S.T.E.A.M
* This petition is ONE of TWO created in collaboration with #Op SafeKids
Sign the Petition:
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/advocatesunite
Another Page Attacking Us on Facebook
The page also attacks Muslims, African-Americans, overweight people and many other groups.
This page has the same name as ours, "Rapebook". Many of these pages have been created to mock our page and make it appear that we are making comments on other pages that we are not. They use our same profile picture and banner to make it appear like the Rapebook page. (which is no longer active.)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rapebook/459576220778190
Thank You
I just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge all those who have been tremendously supportive these last weeks. I can not possibly thank everyone by name - nor should I probably given the current environment.
I also want to acknowledge that there have been at least 6 women (and one man) who have worked very hard on the Rapebook page. And I would be remiss if I did not specifically thank Melissa and Dirk, who have done a tremendous amount of work while also receiving threats.
There are also numerous other Facebook pages and groups that have been doing this same work for quite some time. All of these groups have my deep thanks. I would like to recognize each of these groups but also do not want them to be hounded by trolls as we were.
To those who have written about this issue, worked on this blog, helped to spread the word and/or offered emotional support, I am truly grateful to each one of you. I am very thankful for the friends and family who have done so much these last weeks, particularly my beloved husband and my mother.
Thank you, and thank you!
I also want to acknowledge that there have been at least 6 women (and one man) who have worked very hard on the Rapebook page. And I would be remiss if I did not specifically thank Melissa and Dirk, who have done a tremendous amount of work while also receiving threats.
There are also numerous other Facebook pages and groups that have been doing this same work for quite some time. All of these groups have my deep thanks. I would like to recognize each of these groups but also do not want them to be hounded by trolls as we were.
To those who have written about this issue, worked on this blog, helped to spread the word and/or offered emotional support, I am truly grateful to each one of you. I am very thankful for the friends and family who have done so much these last weeks, particularly my beloved husband and my mother.
Thank you, and thank you!
Trista's Last Letter to Facebook
Fred,
I appreciate that you always respond quickly and politely - and that you have been proactive about taking pages down. But I have to be honest. Sympathy is not action and it's not enough. I don't want you to do anything because you feel sorry for me. I want you to do it because this is happening to MANY women and girls - and it is the right thing to do.
You and I both know that US law enforcement is severely understaffed and underfunded. They are unlikely to do much of anything, as has been the case with nearly every woman I have spoken to. So trying to offload this to them really does not fly with me. It is your site, and the consequences are your responsibility.
You have said changes were in the works for months. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. It has only escalated and become worse.
If Facebook has the ability to monitor people who are not even on Facebook, you can not tell me that you don't have control over your own site. Even if we do not agree on rape jokes, you cannot tell me that a lot of the other stuff should not be on Facebook.
Facebook does not have to be a platform for rapists, pedophiles, men who beat up and kill women or other criminals. The way I see things now, Facebook is no better than a hotel owner who rents out a room to a creepy man with a half-naked child and listens to her scream while he counts his money.
Trista/Fri, March 22, 2013 12:38 pm
No Response from Facebook
I appreciate that you always respond quickly and politely - and that you have been proactive about taking pages down. But I have to be honest. Sympathy is not action and it's not enough. I don't want you to do anything because you feel sorry for me. I want you to do it because this is happening to MANY women and girls - and it is the right thing to do.
You and I both know that US law enforcement is severely understaffed and underfunded. They are unlikely to do much of anything, as has been the case with nearly every woman I have spoken to. So trying to offload this to them really does not fly with me. It is your site, and the consequences are your responsibility.
You have said changes were in the works for months. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. It has only escalated and become worse.
If Facebook has the ability to monitor people who are not even on Facebook, you can not tell me that you don't have control over your own site. Even if we do not agree on rape jokes, you cannot tell me that a lot of the other stuff should not be on Facebook.
Facebook does not have to be a platform for rapists, pedophiles, men who beat up and kill women or other criminals. The way I see things now, Facebook is no better than a hotel owner who rents out a room to a creepy man with a half-naked child and listens to her scream while he counts his money.
Trista/Fri, March 22, 2013 12:38 pm
No Response from Facebook
Press Covering Rapebook Story
Fem2pt0: #SupportTrista: Woman Challenges Facebook Rape Pages and Is Targeted for Rape
The Daily Beast: ‘Rapebook’ Targeted on Facebook
Raw Story: ‘Rapebook’ activist targeted with rape and assault threats on Facebook
Jezebel: Facebook Watchdog Group ‘Rapebook’ Throws In The Towel
ABC News: Oregon Mom Challenges Facebook on Rape Posts, Becomes Target for Threats
KATU 2: Woman takes on Facebook to stop inflammatory rape posts
Policymic: Why Facebook Needs To Lean In and Fix Its Woman Problem
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Report Facebook Misogyny Says Goodbye to Facebook
Dear friends, supporters and fans, Facebook administrators and members of the media,
Please share this post and photo liberally. I have disabled posting to the page and commenting but you can like and share like crazy if you will. :)
I have been blocked for the past 3 days because trolls heavily reported our list of links to report. Our list showed no pictures and interestingly many are still up on their respective pages which is evidence of who FB supports and holds dear. -That's right the rapists, trolls and those who seek to intimidate and harass girls, women and anyone else that gets in their way. We still encourage our fans to report pages when they violate fb's own rules against hate speech and inciting violence against any population.
Also last week I was blocked for posting a picture of a bare-breasted woman with the words "my body belongs to me" written on her body. She was protesting oppression. AGAIN I received no warning from FB and they blocked me from my own pages. Hence donning my self designed pasties as a way of sticking to FB enforced standards. Heaven forbid someone risk burning their eyes by looking at someone's (gasp) nipples! But a photo of a pregnant women thrown to the bottom of some stairs while the man who threw her(at the top of the stairs) is calling her a filthy whore; well that is just humorous by FB standards.
Effective immediately, the report facebook misogyny page will no longer be active on Facebook. This page has achieved what it was set up to do. It has shown that Facebook’s terms and conditions are null and void. We will leave the rest of the work for Facebook to do – or not.
Report Facebook Misogyny
Facebook: Lean In and Do Something
Dear RapeBook, i have all of your details, your education, your names, your profiles & your phone numbers, even your addresses, also all of your pages, including your daughter's who shouldn't even be allowed on facebook in the first place XD So if i was you i'd fuck off because i live in Munich, Germany too much love from Two Sheep.
Rapebook You better not get pregnant, i will kick you down the stairs & use the coat hanger, your daughters bad enough !!!
Love Two Sheep
Just for rapebook, we'll have some domestic violence -Hilld1
Alan Berry Address: Am Stxxger Unit xx, xxx, xxxx, Germany
Phone Number: 089xxxx
Personal Profile: http://www.facebook.com/melisxxx
Daughters Profile: https://www.facebook.com/lxxHusbands Profile: https://www.facebook.com/dixxx
Work/Travel Page: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloxxx
Travel Page: http://www.facebook.com/Bxxx
Daughters art page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lydias-art/1181846283375xxx
ADMIN MF:Name: Melissa Flaherty
Rapebook i dedicate this post to you, i'm going to rape your arse...... SLOTH STYLE BITCH !!!!!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-Give-Two-Sheep/108379339342139
Friday, April 5, 2013
A call for stories of (feminist) administrators
I followed Trista’s blog and story
of the last couple of days because of my own experiences on Facebook. My story
isn’t as extreme as Trista’s. I didn’t get any death threats, but it is clear
to me that Facebook tries to make people like me, like many feminist
administrators, inactive
I’m an administrator of a page who
addresses women’s issues all around the world with a focus on sexual violence.
Since I signed up for this position I experienced some unacceptable behaviour
from Facebook.
Some time ago, I started to report
pages and pictures on Facebook who clearly promoted rape, child abuse and
violence towards women. I was really surprised and shocked after finding out
Facebook didn’t remove some of the reported pictures and claimed they did not
have abusive content. And I was even more surprised after Facebook decided to
allow some abusive pages to exist under the name of ‘controversial humour. For
example: the page ‘raping babies is funny’.
After I started to report some
content Facebook started blocking me. At first it was a couple of hours, days
and then I was blocked the first time for one month. The reason given by
Facebook was a post that included nudity which I honestly never posted on my
page. The second time I was blocked for 30 days it was because I posted a link
to a photography project that included some nudity. I admit, I was violating
the terms of the social network that time, but 30 days seemed overrated in
contrast to the many abusive pictures I reported before and did not get removed.
Two weeks ago, half of my page was
deleted: all private messages, every post from the last 6 weeks, a great amount
of wall posts by fans, and more than 500 pictures (200 timeline pictures which
did not violate any terms and album of more than 300 pictures of women from
different cultures all around the world in traditional clothing which also
didn’t violate any terms).
I contacted Facebook. Their
response: ‘We found some posts which included URLs previously marked as abusive
which caused them to be deleted. (…),’ claiming the content was restored. But none
of the content was restored and the response suggests that everything that gets
reported gets automatically deleted. If that was the case Facebook wouldn’t be
a contribution to the growing rape culture.
I asked for a better explanation.
Their new response: ‘Nothing has been removed from the page in recent days.’ I
explained this clearly was not the case and up till now I got no real
explanation for what happened. After contacting Facebook, I was blocked again
for 30 days. This time, no reason was given.
A couple of days ago I received a
message from a supported of the page asking why he was blocked. Looking at the
ban list, I found out many pages that support us, and many people who often
comment on our posts were put on that list.
It is clear to me that Facebook
doesn’t appreciate people who actively report disturbing content, confronting
them with their policy and try to silence them by making them incapable of being
active on the social networksite.
After posting the news article &
video with Trista’s story yesterday I got a
lot of feedback from other female admins of pages about women’s issues
who experienced the same as her: death threats of bullies or trolls and being
blocked by Facebook because of reporting abusive content and exposing the
contribution of Facebook to the rape culture.
With this blog I want to make a call
to other feminist admins and collect similar stories. Are you an admin of a
page promoting women’s rights, try to diminish the large content of abusive
content towards women and children on Facebook and get censored for it by the
Facebook's head quarter? Send us your story/ experiences and we will post it on
this blogspot in order to expose Facebook’s real policy and strategy.
Or you not an admin but experiencing exactly the same? Feel also welcome to share your story.
If you receive any death threats
make sure to contact your local police office.
Stay safe & strong!
K.
Effective immediately, the Rapebook page will no longer be active on Facebook.
Dear friends, supporters and fans, Facebook administrators and members of the media,
Effective immediately, the Rapebook page will no longer be active on Facebook. This page has achieved what it was set up to do. It has shown that Facebook’s terms and conditions are null and void. We will leave the rest of the work for Facebook to do – or not.
We believe that Facebook is not a safe place for children and that the content displayed there far, far beyond the pale as far as the average internet user could be expected to tolerate on a social networking site. Or rather, THE social networking site.
This content ranges from distasteful comments, like mocking the death of the victims of 9/11, via threats to the physical well being of political opponents, to collections of pictures of naked children or very graphical pictures of victims of all sorts of violence and incidents.
Facebook does make a display of severely banning content that goes against the terms and conditions that each and every user signs when setting up an account on Facebook, but in reality will not do nearly enough to uphold these terms and conditions.
We set up 'Rapebook' to report such content. We also sought the proximity of Facebook administrators and regularly emailed them with the intention of being absolutely certain that the things we reported were seen by Facebook administrators.
We soon gathered a small following of Facebook users who supported us in reporting content that goes against the terms and conditions of Facebook. The results were mixed, the actions taken by Facebook rarely swift and seldom sufficient to uphold their own rules.
Child porn was quickly deleted, but a profile with a collection of photos of Indian women, gathered without their permission and lathered with sexually explicit comments, still exists today. After reporting this profile, Facebook specifically stated that it does not violate the terms and conditions in a way that Facebook deems ground for deletion.
When we widened our targeting of content that violates the terms and conditions, we pinpointed content that promotes hate speech towards minorities, such as races or women, or taking enjoyment in crimes like rape and murder. Facebook deemed the vast majority of these not offensive enough, stating that they are 'controversial humor'.
At the same time, feminist activism is targeted for quick deletion by
Facebook. Facebook will leave a picture of a woman who lies, obviously physically hurt, at the bottom of stairs, captioned 'next time don't get pregnant'. At the same time Facebook will delete a picture, taken from a news item, of a woman who displayed her breasts at a political protest and temporarily ban all the administrators of a page that displayed it.
During this part of our experience, we asked Facebook to delete some pictures, also showing nudity or displaying extreme hate speech, from a page with more than 138 000 fans. Other pages get removed from Facebook altogether for showing such content.
In return, the owner of said page asked his fans to target 'Rapebook' and its owners specifically. When they did, they did so in no uncertain terms. We received death threats and our page became a true repository of illegal content because of these fans posting these pictures on our 'wall' and in comments below our articles. The result is plain for all to see:
http://www.facebook.com/StopRapebook (Warning: graphic content, vile language)
We reported these actions. To our knowledge, no accounts have been deleted by Facebook, nor has the page that targeted us, nor has its owner. Note: after we reported these actions, Facebook again stated that they do not violate the terms and conditions of Facebook in a way that warrants any sort of action on their part.
It is curious how any of our information was made public, since none of the Admins on this page were public and should have been known only to Facebook. We were all targeted by people putting our personal details (home address/phone number) on a site for hackers and that serious attempts were made to hack our page and personal accounts. These actions weren't addressed by Facebook to our knowledge. In fact, Facebook came across as very lax about our personal safety.
The implications of the passive approach of Facebook towards applying their own terms and conditions clearly constitute a situation where they have rendered these void, by not acting against these violations, despite acknowledging fully knowing of existence.
The same holds true for violations of foreign laws. For example, in
Germany displaying a swastika is illegal. Facebook tolerates the display of swastikas in the full knowledge that they are visible in Germany, whilst specifically targeting Germany as a market, in German. It is only a matter of time before legal action is taken against this.
We are not lawyers, but the continued disregard for law and decency shown by Facebook is bound to have a very negative impact, not only on its current users, but also for the company itself in the not so far away future. We can but guess as to the reasons Facebook is not willing to even moderately address the lewd and partially criminal activity it hosts. Does policing cost too much money? Can't they be bothered?
Not long ago, Microsoft became the one and only real player in the market for operating systems. Holding a monopoly on a market has made MS a target for many legal actions and very precise scrutiny by the law. With great power comes great responsibility.
We think that Facebook holds the de facto monopoly on social networking and bears a likewise responsibility to keep this market a safe and clean environment for all its customers, particularly children and young adults.
For now, we can only state one thing with absolute certainty: Facebook needs to be labeled and marketed as adult content. It is no place for children or even adolescents.
Kind Regards,
Trista, Melissa and Dirk
Effective immediately, the Rapebook page will no longer be active on Facebook. This page has achieved what it was set up to do. It has shown that Facebook’s terms and conditions are null and void. We will leave the rest of the work for Facebook to do – or not.
We believe that Facebook is not a safe place for children and that the content displayed there far, far beyond the pale as far as the average internet user could be expected to tolerate on a social networking site. Or rather, THE social networking site.
This content ranges from distasteful comments, like mocking the death of the victims of 9/11, via threats to the physical well being of political opponents, to collections of pictures of naked children or very graphical pictures of victims of all sorts of violence and incidents.
Facebook does make a display of severely banning content that goes against the terms and conditions that each and every user signs when setting up an account on Facebook, but in reality will not do nearly enough to uphold these terms and conditions.
We set up 'Rapebook' to report such content. We also sought the proximity of Facebook administrators and regularly emailed them with the intention of being absolutely certain that the things we reported were seen by Facebook administrators.
We soon gathered a small following of Facebook users who supported us in reporting content that goes against the terms and conditions of Facebook. The results were mixed, the actions taken by Facebook rarely swift and seldom sufficient to uphold their own rules.
Child porn was quickly deleted, but a profile with a collection of photos of Indian women, gathered without their permission and lathered with sexually explicit comments, still exists today. After reporting this profile, Facebook specifically stated that it does not violate the terms and conditions in a way that Facebook deems ground for deletion.
When we widened our targeting of content that violates the terms and conditions, we pinpointed content that promotes hate speech towards minorities, such as races or women, or taking enjoyment in crimes like rape and murder. Facebook deemed the vast majority of these not offensive enough, stating that they are 'controversial humor'.
At the same time, feminist activism is targeted for quick deletion by
Facebook. Facebook will leave a picture of a woman who lies, obviously physically hurt, at the bottom of stairs, captioned 'next time don't get pregnant'. At the same time Facebook will delete a picture, taken from a news item, of a woman who displayed her breasts at a political protest and temporarily ban all the administrators of a page that displayed it.
During this part of our experience, we asked Facebook to delete some pictures, also showing nudity or displaying extreme hate speech, from a page with more than 138 000 fans. Other pages get removed from Facebook altogether for showing such content.
In return, the owner of said page asked his fans to target 'Rapebook' and its owners specifically. When they did, they did so in no uncertain terms. We received death threats and our page became a true repository of illegal content because of these fans posting these pictures on our 'wall' and in comments below our articles. The result is plain for all to see:
http://www.facebook.com/StopRapebook (Warning: graphic content, vile language)
We reported these actions. To our knowledge, no accounts have been deleted by Facebook, nor has the page that targeted us, nor has its owner. Note: after we reported these actions, Facebook again stated that they do not violate the terms and conditions of Facebook in a way that warrants any sort of action on their part.
It is curious how any of our information was made public, since none of the Admins on this page were public and should have been known only to Facebook. We were all targeted by people putting our personal details (home address/phone number) on a site for hackers and that serious attempts were made to hack our page and personal accounts. These actions weren't addressed by Facebook to our knowledge. In fact, Facebook came across as very lax about our personal safety.
The implications of the passive approach of Facebook towards applying their own terms and conditions clearly constitute a situation where they have rendered these void, by not acting against these violations, despite acknowledging fully knowing of existence.
The same holds true for violations of foreign laws. For example, in
Germany displaying a swastika is illegal. Facebook tolerates the display of swastikas in the full knowledge that they are visible in Germany, whilst specifically targeting Germany as a market, in German. It is only a matter of time before legal action is taken against this.
We are not lawyers, but the continued disregard for law and decency shown by Facebook is bound to have a very negative impact, not only on its current users, but also for the company itself in the not so far away future. We can but guess as to the reasons Facebook is not willing to even moderately address the lewd and partially criminal activity it hosts. Does policing cost too much money? Can't they be bothered?
Not long ago, Microsoft became the one and only real player in the market for operating systems. Holding a monopoly on a market has made MS a target for many legal actions and very precise scrutiny by the law. With great power comes great responsibility.
We think that Facebook holds the de facto monopoly on social networking and bears a likewise responsibility to keep this market a safe and clean environment for all its customers, particularly children and young adults.
For now, we can only state one thing with absolute certainty: Facebook needs to be labeled and marketed as adult content. It is no place for children or even adolescents.
Kind Regards,
Trista, Melissa and Dirk
Oregon Mom Challenges Facebook on Rape Posts, Becomes Target for Threats
An Oregon woman who helped create a Facebook page to fight trolls posting violent and sexual content on the website found herself the target of vicious threats and vile material posted on her page.
Trista Hendren, 38, of Portland, Ore., founded a page on Facebook called "Rapebook," which aims to flag and report inappropriate and misogynistic content on Facebook. The page focuses on violence against women and children, especially rape.
But her dedication to removing the offensive content caused the people posting it to turn on her, she says, as first reported by ABC News' Portland affiliate KATU.
"It's a protest to make people more aware of what was happening [on] Facebook," Hendren told ABCNews.com. "I have two young kids and I wasn't political at all and assumed it was a safe, happy place where you were there with your friends and then I realized that it's really not."
Facebook said that content that clearly violates their terms is removed, but content that is "distasteful" but not illegal or in violation of the terms has the right to stay up.
"There are a lot of rape jokes on Facebook," she said. "It's sad to say that some are worse than others so it's sad to say you kind of have to pick your battles."
For Hendren, the battle against ugly content took an even uglier turn when people and groups posting the material targeted her.
They posted hundreds of threatening messages and vulgar photos on her personal Facebook page and the group page. They found her phone number and email address and posted it online, she said.
"They're pretty scary. They did actually post photos of women and girls being raped in the pictures," she said. "The message was pretty clear -- either shut down this page or we are going to make you pay somehow."
One message to Hendren on the group page that was viewed by ABC News began, "I'm gonna trace your IP address then come to your house in the night in a possum suit knock you out take you back to my cellar where you'll wake up hung from the ceiling by meat hooks..."
The rest of the post was graphic and violent.
Another post ended, "LOCK YOUR DOORS, MOTHER******S. WE'RE COMING FOR YOU."
A fearful Hendren took down her personal Facebook page as well as a blog where she wrote about her children and posted photos of them. The Rapebook page is still up, but Hendren is no longer listed as an administrator.
"I felt like I could spend 24 hours a day every day and it would still be an overwhelming problem," she said. "This is a problem Facebook needs to deal with. They have plenty of money, they have the technology and they just don't want to."
Facebook explained in an email to ABCNews.com that the problem is more complicated than taking down inappropriate content.
Hendren still wants to help combat inappropriate content on Facebook, but is relieved to be off the social media site.
"I'm happy to be off of it," she said. "I don't hang out with people who think rape is funny. Why would I want to put myself in an environment where that happens?"
Read full story at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/oregon-mom-challenges-facebook-rape-posts-target-threats/story?id=18887931&page=2#.UV8e35arlac
Trista Hendren, 38, of Portland, Ore., founded a page on Facebook called "Rapebook," which aims to flag and report inappropriate and misogynistic content on Facebook. The page focuses on violence against women and children, especially rape.
But her dedication to removing the offensive content caused the people posting it to turn on her, she says, as first reported by ABC News' Portland affiliate KATU.
"It's a protest to make people more aware of what was happening [on] Facebook," Hendren told ABCNews.com. "I have two young kids and I wasn't political at all and assumed it was a safe, happy place where you were there with your friends and then I realized that it's really not."
Facebook said that content that clearly violates their terms is removed, but content that is "distasteful" but not illegal or in violation of the terms has the right to stay up.
"There are a lot of rape jokes on Facebook," she said. "It's sad to say that some are worse than others so it's sad to say you kind of have to pick your battles."
For Hendren, the battle against ugly content took an even uglier turn when people and groups posting the material targeted her.
They posted hundreds of threatening messages and vulgar photos on her personal Facebook page and the group page. They found her phone number and email address and posted it online, she said.
"They're pretty scary. They did actually post photos of women and girls being raped in the pictures," she said. "The message was pretty clear -- either shut down this page or we are going to make you pay somehow."
One message to Hendren on the group page that was viewed by ABC News began, "I'm gonna trace your IP address then come to your house in the night in a possum suit knock you out take you back to my cellar where you'll wake up hung from the ceiling by meat hooks..."
The rest of the post was graphic and violent.
Another post ended, "LOCK YOUR DOORS, MOTHER******S. WE'RE COMING FOR YOU."
A fearful Hendren took down her personal Facebook page as well as a blog where she wrote about her children and posted photos of them. The Rapebook page is still up, but Hendren is no longer listed as an administrator.
"I felt like I could spend 24 hours a day every day and it would still be an overwhelming problem," she said. "This is a problem Facebook needs to deal with. They have plenty of money, they have the technology and they just don't want to."
Facebook explained in an email to ABCNews.com that the problem is more complicated than taking down inappropriate content.
Hendren still wants to help combat inappropriate content on Facebook, but is relieved to be off the social media site.
"I'm happy to be off of it," she said. "I don't hang out with people who think rape is funny. Why would I want to put myself in an environment where that happens?"
Read full story at: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/oregon-mom-challenges-facebook-rape-posts-target-threats/story?id=18887931&page=2#.UV8e35arlac
Thursday, April 4, 2013
A New Low
The trolls have now gone after the children's book I wrote and given it a low rating to mess with book sales.
One review actually reads: "This book is awful. I feel sorry for anybody who purchases it. Girl's are not God. In fact I find it offensive! I was brought up to respect men and to obey them!"
Since I track all sales myself, it is fairly obvious that none of these people have actually purchased books.
For Internet trolls, Freedom of Speech is not Freedom from Accountability
This idea, that bloggers are somehow threatening free speech by outing anonymous Internet users, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment. It is not an impenetrable shield for anonymity, nor does it make any American immune to accountability for our actions.
The First Amendment protects us from our government, but rarely from each other. In other words, the same law that gives Brutsch the right to say despicable things also gives Chen the right to call him out for it.
In fairness, being confused about the Constitution’s protection of free speech is understandable. The First Amendment is so short, it could be reprinted verbatim in two tweets, and yet it is quite possibly the most complex and carefully parsed law in the land.
The First Amendment is a protection granted by the government against the government. But outside journalistic circles, it typically gets simplified down to the idea that we can say whatever we want without repercussions. Of course we can’t.
Free speech always carries implications far beyond the legal system. It can get you ostracized by your friends, families and peers, not to mention making it difficult to find a job or seek public office. That’s always been the case, but it used to apply only in rare cases of whistleblowers and political dissidents. Today, the Internet has opened the danger of accountability to millions who live in a digital universe where being anonymous is the norm instead of the exception.
In times gone by, anonymous authors and snarky gossip columnists made the decision in advance to hide their identity specifically because of the content they were creating.
Today, that model has been flipped. Many Internet users begin within the comforting cloak of anonymity and then, seduced by the lack of consequences for their actions, start saying things that they would never say in public. Some devolve further into trolls, clutching that anonymity cloak as if it made them invisible. When it is suddenly stripped away, they realize just how precarious of a situation they’ve made for themselves.
Their only hope at that point is to recast themselves martyrs of free speech. They see their impending accountability and use it to terrify their legion of anonymous Internet peers. “Today, they came for me. Tomorrow, will they come for YOU?”
That’s an argument that occasionally has legs. When a record label sues an Internet service provider for the names of its users in hopes of finding an illegal downloader, we all get nervous. Companies rarely have the right to know about what we each do in the privacy of our own homes, and all of us are right to be concerned.
But in the case of Internet trolls like Brutsch, we’re not talking about being exposed for our private actions. We’re talking about being exposed for our public actions. We’re talking about accountability.
Read full article: http://www.blogworld.com/2012/10/16/for-internet-trolls-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-accountability/
The First Amendment protects us from our government, but rarely from each other. In other words, the same law that gives Brutsch the right to say despicable things also gives Chen the right to call him out for it.
In fairness, being confused about the Constitution’s protection of free speech is understandable. The First Amendment is so short, it could be reprinted verbatim in two tweets, and yet it is quite possibly the most complex and carefully parsed law in the land.
The First Amendment is a protection granted by the government against the government. But outside journalistic circles, it typically gets simplified down to the idea that we can say whatever we want without repercussions. Of course we can’t.
Free speech always carries implications far beyond the legal system. It can get you ostracized by your friends, families and peers, not to mention making it difficult to find a job or seek public office. That’s always been the case, but it used to apply only in rare cases of whistleblowers and political dissidents. Today, the Internet has opened the danger of accountability to millions who live in a digital universe where being anonymous is the norm instead of the exception.
In times gone by, anonymous authors and snarky gossip columnists made the decision in advance to hide their identity specifically because of the content they were creating.
Today, that model has been flipped. Many Internet users begin within the comforting cloak of anonymity and then, seduced by the lack of consequences for their actions, start saying things that they would never say in public. Some devolve further into trolls, clutching that anonymity cloak as if it made them invisible. When it is suddenly stripped away, they realize just how precarious of a situation they’ve made for themselves.
Their only hope at that point is to recast themselves martyrs of free speech. They see their impending accountability and use it to terrify their legion of anonymous Internet peers. “Today, they came for me. Tomorrow, will they come for YOU?”
That’s an argument that occasionally has legs. When a record label sues an Internet service provider for the names of its users in hopes of finding an illegal downloader, we all get nervous. Companies rarely have the right to know about what we each do in the privacy of our own homes, and all of us are right to be concerned.
But in the case of Internet trolls like Brutsch, we’re not talking about being exposed for our private actions. We’re talking about being exposed for our public actions. We’re talking about accountability.
Read full article: http://www.blogworld.com/2012/10/16/for-internet-trolls-freedom-of-speech-is-not-freedom-from-accountability/
Call for Submissions
If you have faced difficulties on your Facebook page, we want to hear from you. Feel free to comment below with your story or email one of us directly and we will post it for you.
Which Cultures Find Raping Babies Funny Facebook?
A woman says she's received rape threats, even death threats, for helping create a Facebook page aimed at cleaning up Facebook.
Trista helped create a page that puts a spotlight on other Facebook pages potentially harmful to women and children.
She and a group of women established "Rapebook" a few months ago as a way to get pages that joke about or glorify rape off of Facebook.
"Threatening and joking about rape or even threatening rape is not free speech," Trista said.
Rapebook encourages fans to report pages they consider abusive. In many cases the effort has been successful, because pages promoting pedophilia or child pornography have been removed.
But that's prompted backlash against Trista and her group. They've been accused of censorship.
"I'm gonna trace your IP address then come to your house in the night in a possum suit knock you out take you out back to my cellar," read one post.
"So they (posted) my picture and my email addresses, my phone number, where I live," Trista said.
She also showed a reporter pictures that were posted to her page.
"These are all actual pictures of women being raped," she said.
Trista has since deleted her personal profile and taken measures to protect herself, but she believes Facebook should do more.
"I feel like they have the tools that they could make it a better space, but they choose not to. It must be profitable on some level" for them not to do so, she said.
What does Facebook say about this?
Spokesman for the social media giant, Fred Wolens, said Wednesday afternoon that it evaluates reported pages on a case by case basis.
What about the one labeled "controversial humor"? It's about raping babies.
Wolens said the company has looked at the page but "it's not making credible threats to any particular person and they've determined the attempt is to be funny. ...(Facebook) tries to have a very permissive attitude toward humor because different cultures have different views of what is or isn't humor."
But it's an attitude that Trista doesn't find funny at all.
"I definitely don't think it's a safe place for women or especially children," she said. "I would never let my kids have a Facebook page after this because there's so much on there that's really scary."
By Anna Canzano KATU On Your Side Investigator Published: Apr 3, 2013 at 9:31 PM PDT
http://www.katu.com/news/investigators/Woman-takes-on-Facebook-to-stop-inflammatory-rape-posts-201374001.html?tab=video&c=y
Trista helped create a page that puts a spotlight on other Facebook pages potentially harmful to women and children.
She and a group of women established "Rapebook" a few months ago as a way to get pages that joke about or glorify rape off of Facebook.
"Threatening and joking about rape or even threatening rape is not free speech," Trista said.
Rapebook encourages fans to report pages they consider abusive. In many cases the effort has been successful, because pages promoting pedophilia or child pornography have been removed.
But that's prompted backlash against Trista and her group. They've been accused of censorship.
"I'm gonna trace your IP address then come to your house in the night in a possum suit knock you out take you out back to my cellar," read one post.
"So they (posted) my picture and my email addresses, my phone number, where I live," Trista said.
She also showed a reporter pictures that were posted to her page.
"These are all actual pictures of women being raped," she said.
Trista has since deleted her personal profile and taken measures to protect herself, but she believes Facebook should do more.
"I feel like they have the tools that they could make it a better space, but they choose not to. It must be profitable on some level" for them not to do so, she said.
What does Facebook say about this?
Spokesman for the social media giant, Fred Wolens, said Wednesday afternoon that it evaluates reported pages on a case by case basis.
What about the one labeled "controversial humor"? It's about raping babies.
Wolens said the company has looked at the page but "it's not making credible threats to any particular person and they've determined the attempt is to be funny. ...(Facebook) tries to have a very permissive attitude toward humor because different cultures have different views of what is or isn't humor."
But it's an attitude that Trista doesn't find funny at all.
"I definitely don't think it's a safe place for women or especially children," she said. "I would never let my kids have a Facebook page after this because there's so much on there that's really scary."
By Anna Canzano KATU On Your Side Investigator Published: Apr 3, 2013 at 9:31 PM PDT
http://www.katu.com/news/investigators/Woman-takes-on-Facebook-to-stop-inflammatory-rape-posts-201374001.html?tab=video&c=y
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Global Protest
A collective of feminists & human rights activists from around the world have organized a global protest to spread awareness and mount additional, intensive pressure on Facebook to CHANGE. The protest will be held May 29-31.
We had worked in conjunction and solidarity with the #FBRape campaign. Both campaigns have been long in the works and were created to compliment each other. Despite the big win, we are still planning to move forward as planned. Here's why.
We are asking all who write/blog to cover Facebook during these days.
We are asking all feminist admins to post extensively about this on their FB pages May 29th-31.
Tweet it. Blog it. Pin in.
We have made it easy - more than 100 existing articles listed here for your posting convenience
Please use the logo above as your Facebook Profile picture during these days.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
When Does Facebook Take Rape Threats Seriously?
In my experience, never. But here's an interesting article about another woman in Sweden.
http://www.dailydot.com/society/facebook-sexism-rape-threats-hm-julia/
http://www.dailydot.com/society/facebook-sexism-rape-threats-hm-julia/
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