Like fellow media giants Google and YouTube, Facebook is once again enforcing an anti-gay double-standard. According to admins operating the Have A Gay Day page, over 100 contributors have been blocked from logging in and banned from posting photos for up to 30 days because an “offensive” image depicting two men kissing was posted last night. It “violates community standards.”
In a statement released following the incident, Have A Gay Day says “the only thing visible was lips touching,” and the photo has been posted numerous times in the past without issue. The caption ironically reads “Did this picture offend you? Did you ever think, maybe your opinion is offensive?”
This isn’t the first time that the morality robot policing gay content on Facebook has blocked LGBTs for the most unoffensive things. Earlier this year, the site attempted to shut down advocacy group Gay Marriage USA’s page for posting another “offensive” photo of an interracial couple, and struck again in October when this photo of gay men kissing was just too much to handle.
In all these cases, Facebook is quick to remind everyone that the company itself does not ban/block users for posting photos that violate Facebook’s “policies and community standards,” but operates a dangerous algorithm that allows hateful users to “report” the photo as “offensive,” effectively shutting down the accounts of LGBTs with blatant homophobia.
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Facebook will most likely reinstate the posting privileges of Have A Gay Day users once they catch wind of the situation, but how many more times do we have to go through this song and dance before this “progressive” company takes banning rights out of the hands of users?
2eo
There is no possible way Facebook had the same operator censoring images. This was absolutely a company decision.
Like Google it isn’t an individual, it’s what they can get away with.
mrsbuela
if that’s the policy they have then I’m heading over to Sarah Palin’s page and reporting every pic I see.
Bjk
Now, we just sit back and wait for all the “1st amendment” supporters from Duck Dynasty to jump on this issue. Facebook won’t know what hit them………….waiting………………….waiting……………waiting………………
sonofabee
Facebook sucks.
Cam
Facebook ALWAYS errs on the side of homophobia. Multiple gay bars have said that their ads were originally blocked until they threatened to complain higher up or publicize.
Ron Jackson
Getting banned by Facebook should be a badge of honor! FB sucks and should be avoided by everyone.
SpunkyBunks
Who uses FB? Cool people are on Twitter. It’s live and I don’t have to look at thousands of stupid “look at me and my baby!” pictures.
2eo
@Ron Jackson: I partially agree, Facebook is an invaluable tool for someone like me, who delights in dismantling stupid people. Their information, locations, dates, pictures, family members, work information.
It exists to be exploited.
Geeker
Facebook is the homophobic soccer mom of the internet!
Kieran
I guess Facebook doesn’t want to offend the “Duck Dynasty” mob. If there was any doubt that gay Americans are second class citizens in the US this yet another flagrant example.
Harley
First amendment rights appear to only apply to conservatives. If a liberal says anything then it “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS”. Martin Bashir? Dixie Chicks? Where were the first amendment bigot hipocrits then. I guess one must APPEAR redneck to enjoy those rights.
viveutvivas
I deleted my FB account a few months ago. If their ridiculous censorship policies, invasive privacy policies, and exploitative business model aren’t enough for you to do that, the fact that it is pretty much the worst-engineered social website in the world should be.
viveutvivas
This keeps happening and Facebook does the minimum possible to fix it. The result is that their policies are effective homophobic. I wish gay people would not just b*tch and moan but actually put some action to their words. It means nothing if you keep using the site. A boicott would speak to their pockets. Just delete your accounts.
AuntieChrist
@viveutvivas: But what about candy crush and all my friends…??? LOL
the other Greg
Facebook: “Moderation” by a mostly homophobic “community” because FB is too lazy to do any of themselves (until after the fact, when they at least, after much prodding, correct it).
Queerty: Pompous claims about moderation, and theoretically a procedure for moderation, but in reality no moderation at all because Q is too lazy to do any of it, EVER. As in, EVER.
Hence, jimbryant, guest4ever etc.
Which is worse?
AuntieChrist
@the other Greg: At least we get to say just about anything we want, which is pretty cool. Huff Post has an expensive bot program and you cannot say S**t there…I said the duck people’s looks and values were antebellum and it was removed…I am fairly certain that if no one EVER responded to he who must not be named and g4e they would give up and go away.
viveutvivas
@the other Greg, @2eo, yet those spam posts promising money to work from home never get removed no matter how much they get flagged, do they? They get similar posts on Huffpo, which is pre-moderated before posts appear, suggesting that that kind of “spam” is in fact paid advertising.
the other Greg
@2eo: WOW! I was unaware of that, 2eo.
Sounds like Smaug the Dragon when Bilbo stole the Arkenstone. ARRRRRRRGH!!! Good for you, Bilbo.
So sometimes our Queerty boys do awake from their alcohol and drug-induced stupor?
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
the other Greg
@viveutvivas: I’ve always wondered about that. Never even tried to post anything at HuffPo, there are too many posts there anyway, nobody will notice you.
Now if only Alternet would ban the 9/11 conspiracy drooling morons. I’m too scared to try to post anything there. Those are some seriously demented lefty Trotsky-ites.
Anyway, it’s much more fun to rattle the libertarian lunatic cages over at Reason. ARRRRRRRRGH!!! Pirates!
(Hints, hints, hints to “jimbryant”!)
the other Greg
@2eo: Btw 2eo, you have GOT to see this!:
“Thus, according to Allegro, Jesus never actually existed. He purported to demonstrate, using philological analysis of the structure of the ancient Sumerian language, that the name Jesus actually meant something along the lines of “semen” and that Christ meant something like “giant erect mushroom penis.” According to Allegro, the Bible (and the New Testament in particular) is really just a series of myths that describe the secrets of the Amanita muscaria fertility cult rather than real people.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/religion-as-a-product-of-psychotropic-drug-use/282484/
jimbryant
How many of you use Facebook? I don’t.
Keep in mind that women are the greatest supporters of Facebook. Yes, those lovely people who claim to be “on the side of the gays”.
dougmc92
I haven’t been able to post on Facebook gay pages for the last 2 weeks- I keep doing a ‘report incident’ but no one has bothered to get back to me…if I didn’t have so much stuff loaded to my page- I’d quit the site and NEVER look back!!
viveutvivas
@dougmc92, Facebook has an option to download all your stuff in one bundle. You can do that and then delete your account.
callenstewart
@Bjk: LOL!!!
callenstewart
I’m reposting this whole thing on FB.
viveutvivas
@callenstpewart, good luck not getting banned.
krystalkleer
FB will be the new titanic soon enough…and someone else will take it’s place…remember myspace? ya me neither!
s312g
I once reported an image on facebook of a bunch of people lying on the ground after the boston bombings, where you could visibly see their limbs lying all over the place and everything. They said that they didn’t take it down because it didn’t violate their community guidelines. This is so fucked up.
AuntieChrist
@krystalkleer: I fuk you big time now. Sham bitch whore.
Sammy Schlipshit
After being persuaded (nagged) a few years ago by a friend to set up a Facebook account, I finally relented.
Right off the bat I hated it.
First thing it did was ask if I wanted FB to scan my address book to see if I already knew anyone with an account.
I said NO….bastard did it anyway.
After a brief time I had had enough. Told my friend to either send me news via email or just forget about it.
Was not easy to delete my account. Even then FB stated that it would hold onto all my data it had collected just in case I wanted to come back.
Fat chance of that.
Now, to make matters worse, HuffPost has now instituted a new requirement where even long term commentators such as myself (over 10 years) would now need to verify through FB.
I wrote HuffPost (no easy feat in itself) explaining why I wouldn’t be doing that and my feelings about FB in general.
After offering to verify myself through Google + or Yahoo, I was told by HP that it was either FB or the highway…no exceptions.
So now, after all those years, my HuffPost followers and others are missing my jewels of wisdom posts.
Commenting on HP had become more problematic in recent months. My guess is there were some of their moderators who just deleted any posting comments they disagreed with. Plus, it also seemed that HP had installed some type of ‘word’ recognition software that automatically deleted comments based on one word….regardless of how that ‘word’ was being used.
Last I checked, the Advocate magazine was also requiring a FB account.
I dread when the next new social site replaces FB. I have little doubt that it will be even more intrusive and obnoxious.
AuntieChrist
@the other Greg: Here’s a link girl.http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=YouTube+buddy+cole+prison&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=B0B387B5DD17A94918F0B0B387B5DD17A94918F0
AuntieChrist
@Sammy Schlipshit: I know right? But then you get sucked in. Nothing we queers enjoy but a good suck. LOL
dannyboi2
Yep, In My opinion FaceBook has been dead and in the same route as MySpace and NING… So 2012… Tumblrs my choice. Lets see if Yahoo, fuks that up too.
viveutvivas
@Sammy Schlipshit, I agree with you completely.
I stopped participating in Huffpo. I refuse to get a “verified” Facebook account just for that. Their moderation had been a bad joke for a while already. Huffpo obviously doesn’t care about losing a large part of their user base since they have been doing their best to drive people away for quite some time.
Since Huffpo don’t pay the content contributors (some of whom are destitute) they make their money off, I think it is high time people stopped using them anyway for purely moral reasons if nothing else. Their quality has become so bad anyway.
debiparna c
Ya right. A whole bunch of us (from all over the world) reported against an image which had a rape joke. And we got a response from FB that it doesn’t violate their guidelines so they won’t be deleting it…with this at the end “hope you were satisfied with our services”
Ananas
Are there any images of heterosexuals kissing on Facebook, if there is then perhaps they should be reported as being equally offensive as two homosexual males kissing…