AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me)
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Update: The page in question was down Sunday night but now is back up again. Update on update (1:15 p.m. ET): page is down again. Page admins can set a page to nonpublic/private/not viewable at their pleasure, so it’s unclear what the source of this little two-step is. Without comment from Facebook, that remains unknown.
Over the weekend, a Facebook page appeared that claimed it existed for families united against “autistic shooters.” It’s unclear whether or not the administrator of the page was attempting satire or parody or being serious or somewhere in between, but the entire page used a jocularly vicious tone in its extended series of false claims that could have had no other effect but to cause harm and damage to autistic people.
Given the glee that the administrator evinced over the negative response to the page, the intent could not be in doubt: to compound for the autism community the pain that we all feel over yet another national tragedy.
To my certain knowledge, within hours of the page’s appearance, there were hundreds of requests to Facebook to remove this page, in addition to a petition to request that it be removed, which had thousands of signatures. From what I understand–and from my own experience–for almost two days, Facebook’s repeated response was to assert, again and again, that the page did not violate Facebook’s community standards. ETA: Evidently, Facebook continues to think that because the page, taken down last night, is back up again.
In those standards, Facebook states that it wants “people to feel safe when they use Facebook.” Yet the company allowed that page to stay up, with false statements about autistic people posted purely for the purposes of stigmatizing and marginalizing this group.
No one who is autistic and no family member of any autistic person could feel “safe” on Facebook with this kind of publicly available page, which just before it was taken down had 200+ likes (and currently has 244), making these kinds of claims, available to anyone to find and yes, believe. Hate groups attract people who aggregate around a common cause. This page provides the glue for them.
Undoubtedly, like a hydra, other similar pages will crop up. ETA: Last night, another one did–clearly, someone out there suffers from a dearth of intrinsic resources. And the original page itself is back up again. Indeed, these pages aren’t the first. Hamfisted trolls are rarely original, but they certainly can be insistent. And Facebook should be more responsive to people’s complaints about them. They weren’t.
The original page targets a marginalized group and does so with a limited (if any) effort at irony and with considerable malice, which clearly established it as existing solely for the purpose of causing harm. It is an utter failure at everything except being crudely malevolent and damaging.
That it violated Facebook’s community standards was immediately apparent, and why Facebook’s moderators requires thousands of reports and still can’t manage to make that determination is unclear.
Facebook’s Community Standards regarding hate speech plainly state that Facebook will remove content that directly attacks people based on, among other things, “serious disabilities or diseases.” Autism is considered a disability under federal law.
The site’s standards also state that
Organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred against these protected groups are not allowed a presence on Facebook. As with all of our standards, we rely on our community to report this content to us.
The community did so, repeatedly, reporting both the page and specific posts, only to be met for days with rebuffs stating that the page did not violate community guidelines.
I was told that perhaps a certain critical mass of people needed to cry foul before moderators would really pay attention. Some actual person seemed to be aware of the complaints because the turnaround period for denying the requests for takedowns became increasingly shorter over time.
But if we’re to rely on a critical mass for Facebook moderators to do the right thing, what happens to marginalized, stigmatized groups that can’t mobilize the kind of outcry that the autism community can?
One post on the now-deleted (and now-resurrected) page referenced, “the soulless, dead eyes of autistic children,” calling them “cold, calculating killing machines with no regard for human life!”
Yet Facebook, the same site that routinely removes images of women breastfeeding, has specifically refused to take even this single post down, even after hundreds and hundreds of complaints.
That Facebook page was clearly intended to cause, at the least, emotional harm and foment negative attitudes about autistic people. I would think that Facebook would have had some liability worries about leaving up a page that attacks a protected group of disabled people in this way, out of ethical and legal concerns that someone might take it seriously enough to act on it personally.
Sure, the page and its content are puerile and should be something that reasonable people could ignore.
If you’ve spent any time in the trenches seeing how people view and write about and treat autistic people, though, you will understand that “reasonable people” aren’t the ones who tend to get on board with this kind of thing. For example, from long experience, I’m absolutely certain that some of the comments on this very post will reinforce how that page accurately reflected the viciousness that people can express.
Pages like that perpetuate the tendency to use and the acceptance of using autism as a slur and reinforce the stigma around the condition, both of which are becoming more common. Indeed, Facebook previously deleted a page that was entitled “Autism and Aspergers people are retards” because they found that it violated their community standards. It’s not like they’re not aware that this kind of problem can arise.
Late Sunday evening, while the page was still live, I reached out to Facebook for comment about this situation and an explanation for why their moderators determined repeatedly that the page and its individual posts did not consititute hate speech targeting a protected group of disabled people. Within a couple of hours of my having reached out, the original page was taken down. It shouldn’t have taken any longer than that for Facebook to do the right thing. ETA: And now that it is back up again, it’s clear that Facebook still hasn’t done the right thing.
SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywi...ses-to-remove-page-vilifying-autistic-people/
This isn't the first time Facebook has refused to ban a page that attacked Autistic individuals. See here: https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/facebook-refused-to-ban-autism-hate-page.10076/
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Update: The page in question was down Sunday night but now is back up again. Update on update (1:15 p.m. ET): page is down again. Page admins can set a page to nonpublic/private/not viewable at their pleasure, so it’s unclear what the source of this little two-step is. Without comment from Facebook, that remains unknown.
Over the weekend, a Facebook page appeared that claimed it existed for families united against “autistic shooters.” It’s unclear whether or not the administrator of the page was attempting satire or parody or being serious or somewhere in between, but the entire page used a jocularly vicious tone in its extended series of false claims that could have had no other effect but to cause harm and damage to autistic people.
Given the glee that the administrator evinced over the negative response to the page, the intent could not be in doubt: to compound for the autism community the pain that we all feel over yet another national tragedy.
To my certain knowledge, within hours of the page’s appearance, there were hundreds of requests to Facebook to remove this page, in addition to a petition to request that it be removed, which had thousands of signatures. From what I understand–and from my own experience–for almost two days, Facebook’s repeated response was to assert, again and again, that the page did not violate Facebook’s community standards. ETA: Evidently, Facebook continues to think that because the page, taken down last night, is back up again.
In those standards, Facebook states that it wants “people to feel safe when they use Facebook.” Yet the company allowed that page to stay up, with false statements about autistic people posted purely for the purposes of stigmatizing and marginalizing this group.
No one who is autistic and no family member of any autistic person could feel “safe” on Facebook with this kind of publicly available page, which just before it was taken down had 200+ likes (and currently has 244), making these kinds of claims, available to anyone to find and yes, believe. Hate groups attract people who aggregate around a common cause. This page provides the glue for them.
Undoubtedly, like a hydra, other similar pages will crop up. ETA: Last night, another one did–clearly, someone out there suffers from a dearth of intrinsic resources. And the original page itself is back up again. Indeed, these pages aren’t the first. Hamfisted trolls are rarely original, but they certainly can be insistent. And Facebook should be more responsive to people’s complaints about them. They weren’t.
The original page targets a marginalized group and does so with a limited (if any) effort at irony and with considerable malice, which clearly established it as existing solely for the purpose of causing harm. It is an utter failure at everything except being crudely malevolent and damaging.
That it violated Facebook’s community standards was immediately apparent, and why Facebook’s moderators requires thousands of reports and still can’t manage to make that determination is unclear.
Facebook’s Community Standards regarding hate speech plainly state that Facebook will remove content that directly attacks people based on, among other things, “serious disabilities or diseases.” Autism is considered a disability under federal law.
The site’s standards also state that
Organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred against these protected groups are not allowed a presence on Facebook. As with all of our standards, we rely on our community to report this content to us.
The community did so, repeatedly, reporting both the page and specific posts, only to be met for days with rebuffs stating that the page did not violate community guidelines.
I was told that perhaps a certain critical mass of people needed to cry foul before moderators would really pay attention. Some actual person seemed to be aware of the complaints because the turnaround period for denying the requests for takedowns became increasingly shorter over time.
But if we’re to rely on a critical mass for Facebook moderators to do the right thing, what happens to marginalized, stigmatized groups that can’t mobilize the kind of outcry that the autism community can?
One post on the now-deleted (and now-resurrected) page referenced, “the soulless, dead eyes of autistic children,” calling them “cold, calculating killing machines with no regard for human life!”
Yet Facebook, the same site that routinely removes images of women breastfeeding, has specifically refused to take even this single post down, even after hundreds and hundreds of complaints.
That Facebook page was clearly intended to cause, at the least, emotional harm and foment negative attitudes about autistic people. I would think that Facebook would have had some liability worries about leaving up a page that attacks a protected group of disabled people in this way, out of ethical and legal concerns that someone might take it seriously enough to act on it personally.
Sure, the page and its content are puerile and should be something that reasonable people could ignore.
If you’ve spent any time in the trenches seeing how people view and write about and treat autistic people, though, you will understand that “reasonable people” aren’t the ones who tend to get on board with this kind of thing. For example, from long experience, I’m absolutely certain that some of the comments on this very post will reinforce how that page accurately reflected the viciousness that people can express.
Pages like that perpetuate the tendency to use and the acceptance of using autism as a slur and reinforce the stigma around the condition, both of which are becoming more common. Indeed, Facebook previously deleted a page that was entitled “Autism and Aspergers people are retards” because they found that it violated their community standards. It’s not like they’re not aware that this kind of problem can arise.
Late Sunday evening, while the page was still live, I reached out to Facebook for comment about this situation and an explanation for why their moderators determined repeatedly that the page and its individual posts did not consititute hate speech targeting a protected group of disabled people. Within a couple of hours of my having reached out, the original page was taken down. It shouldn’t have taken any longer than that for Facebook to do the right thing. ETA: And now that it is back up again, it’s clear that Facebook still hasn’t done the right thing.
SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywi...ses-to-remove-page-vilifying-autistic-people/
This isn't the first time Facebook has refused to ban a page that attacked Autistic individuals. See here: https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/facebook-refused-to-ban-autism-hate-page.10076/
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