Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Global Protest WILL go on as scheduled

If your boyfriend repeatedly punches you in the face for 2 years, do you go ahead an marry him?

I mean, he promises, he'll stop.

That's about how I feel to Facebook's response today.

For several months now, a group of feminists and activists from around the world have been working on a global protest against Facebook's policies regarding hate speech and violence against women.

While no one is as tired of this campaign as I am, I would feel remiss if we did not move forward as planned. Writing a vague letter a week after a massive global campaign is not the same as changing your policies.

The issue with Facebook has been going on for years. Had it been a priority, they would have fixed it already.  In my dialogue with Facebook over the last 6 months or so, I was told many times that they were "working on it."

There is nothing going on here that they were not already aware of.  And as far as I can tell, many of the offensive pages and pictures still remain on their site.

We can't risk the life of another teenage girl based on Facebook's promise to do something different.

The protest will move on as scheduled.

We wish to congratulate Everyday Sexism, WAM! and Soraya Chemaly - as well as the many other  organizations and individual women and men who worked tirelessly on this campaign.

More than anything, this campaign brought radical awareness to the issue of violence against women and rape, especially as it pertains to social media. Their campaign was EPIC and is sure to go down in herstory.

We are now better organized and better connected than ever before. And that in and of itself is a HUGE victory.

For that, we owe a heap of gratitude and love to Laura Bates, Soraya Chemaly & Jaclyn Friedman.

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