Oh, the irony. Just as I’m ready to say that gender bias is dead on social networks like Twitter and Friendfeed, Facebook proves me wrong. Sadly, it is still alive and well there.
Here’s the backstory, since many readers here probably aren’t familiar with what has gone on before. In a nutshell, Facebook banned breastfeeding photos, claiming they are obscene. Facebook’s official position is this:
“We agree that breastfeeding is natural and beautiful and we’re very glad to know that it is so important to some mothers to share this experience with others on Facebook,” writes Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt in response to queries about the site’s policy on breastfeeding photos. “We take no action on the vast majority of breastfeeding photos because they follow the site’s Terms of Use. Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those Terms and may be removed. These policies are designed to ensure Facebook remains a safe, secure and trusted environment for all users, including the many children (over the age of 13) who use the site. The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”
The absurdity of their position speaks for itself. But until recently, it was merely absurd. Now it’s hypocritical.
There has been a brewing controversy about a Holocaust denial Facebook group. (No, I won’t link to it. If you must see it with your own eyes, search Facebook.) Despite many, many complaints, Facebook will not ban it.
My original thinking around the Holocaust denial group followed what we wrestled with at CNN Interactive back in the day when we had our share of these loonies, too. The problem with the deniers is that their speech does not fall into the strict definition of hate speech, and so we had to allow it, as repugnant as it is.
However, Facebook’s Terms of Service are far more fluid. From Techcrunch, with a title worth repeating: Jew Haters Welcome at Facebook, As Long As They Aren’t Lactating:
If Facebook doesn’t want to take a moral or ethical stand on the issue, they can easily make a case that the groups violate their terms of service. These groups violate multiple sections of the TOS, particularly Section 3. There’s an easy way out of this for Facebook, and it also happens to be the right thing to do. Why in the world must they draw a line in the sand and then stand on the same side as Holocaust deniers is beyond me.
Section 3 is a catch-all laundry list of reasons why groups may be banned. It’s the same section, by the way, that Facebook used to ban the breastfeeding moms, and Mike Arrington is right: It’s hypocritical and cowardly to ban breastfeeding moms but allow Holocaust deniers to use the Facebook platform to spread lies and foment hate against Jews.
As Mike points out, making a statement that the group is not going to promote hate, while the very fact of its existence is for that single purpose is a lie. Similarly, the position that breastfeeding photos are obscene is also a lie. It’s ridiculous.
But there’s another thread worth looking at: gender bias. Erin (QueenofSpain) is pretty angry about the fact that there wasn’t really much support for the mommybloggers when they were banned. Reading through the comments on this post left me feeling cold and slimed. They’re truly offensive. To a woman — to THIS woman — they slide beyond the limits of commentary that’s productive and straight into childish, Digg-boy titsandass commentary. While some men step up and defend the right of these women to put their breastfeeding pictures up, no one steps up to take on the incredibly rude, demeaning, and sexist commentary. Not one person.
It’s just there, sitting on the Techcrunch site like the ugliest of all trolls, drooling and lathering over the nerve of some women to dare to be…women. I am not saying this is something that Mike Arrington should have deleted, or responded to. But it blows out my hypothesis that gender bias is less of an issue in the era of Twitter than it has been in the past.
Clearly it is still alive, well, and marching on in the form of sexist comments. It’s downright mind-blowing to me that the first series of comments on his current post have NOTHING to do with Holocaust denial and EVERYTHING to do with breast-baring.
Just amazing. It seems that on the Internet, there are still many males (I won’t call them men) who don’t have any respect for women, and have no problem demonstrating it on a daily basis.
This is bully behavior. When women are demeaned for breastfeeding or wanting to promote breastfeeding (which was the original purpose of the group) by men who fail to see the hypocrisy in Facebook’s decision matrix around these two groups, they are being marginalized and bullied. It’s wrong, but I’m not exactly sure what could be done to prevent and/or stop it.
Here’s one idea: Let’s see some of the mature, responsible members of this large universe called the Internet stand up not only against Holocaust deniers, but also for breastfeeding mothers.
My first candidate suggestion: Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg, try this exercise:
- Look at this image.
- Then look at this one.
After you have viewed them both, tell me which of them gives you the most visceral reaction. Which one do you think runs the risk of causing Facebook NOT to be a ’safe, secure and trusted environment for ALL users’?
If you say it’s the breast, you are indeed not only a hypocrite, but an intellectually dishonest male chauvinist pig hypocrite.
If it’s the other, then it’s time for you to enforce your terms of service fairly, or not at all. But banning breast images while allowing far more offensive, bullying, harmful, unsafe behavior is just a slap in the face to every woman who spends even one minute on your site.
Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to share this on Facebook. And that will be the last time I go there until they have resolved this matter in a way that treats EVERYONE fairly.
Freedom of expression is not uniquely male. It’s time for Mr. Zuckerberg, et al to learn that.
Update: I’m embedding the hot Friendfeed conversation into this post.
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