<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font><font size="-1">
<div class="entry-date">Weekend Edition January 10-12, 2014<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/10/fascist-facebook/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/10/fascist-facebook/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<div style="float: right;"><br>
<div id="_atssh"
style="visibility: hidden; height: 1px; width: 1px; position: absolute; z-index: 100000;"><iframe
src="http://ct1.addthis.com/static/r07/sh142.html#"
style="border: 0px none ; height: 1px; width: 1px; position: absolute; z-index: 100000; left: 0px; top: 0px;"
title="AddThis utility frame" id="_atssh515"></iframe></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>The Social Network Giant's
Double Standards</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Fascist Facebook?</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle"><big><big>by BEN NORTON</big></big></div>
<div class="main-text"><big><big> </big></big>
<p><big><big>Is Facebook flirting with fascism? The question might
prove difficult to answer with a resounding “yes or no,” but, to those
who have been keeping track of its recent censorship practices, the
answer appears to lean heavily toward the affirmative.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Yesterday, on 9 January 2014, after over five years of
operation, popular Facebook page Anarchist Memes was permanently taken
down by Facebook. With approximately 90,000 likes and hundreds of
comments each day, Anarchist Memes established itself as one of the
radical left’s most prominent Facebook pages. It posted feminist,
anti-racist, pro-LGBT*QA, and anti-capitalist content numerous times a
day. For years, the page and its administrators experienced endless
harassment and trolling, yet it demonstrated an outstanding, resolute
commitment to establishing a safe, non-oppressive digital environment.
Racism, misogyny, cisheterosexism, ableism, classism, anti-Islamic
prejudice, and other forms of bigotry were never tolerated. The page’s
many administrators have, true to the cooperative anarchist tradition,
created a democratic system of accountability to determine how to
delete particular oppressive comments, as to prevent needless
censorship while simultaneously creating a genuinely nonthreatening,
non-hierarchical space for readers—a true rarity on the internet today.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Facebook, nonetheless, demonstrated on numerous occasions
that such a feminist, anti-racist, anti-cisheteronormative environment
would not be tolerated. The page was flagged numerous times for content
that “violated” Facebook’s <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);"
target="_blank">Community Standards</a> and “<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);"
target="_blank">Statement of Rights and Responsibilities</a>,” rather
ambiguously-delineated guidelines that suggest a commitment to liberal
principles without dabbling in the difficulties that come with
concretely articulating the specific moral values on which those
principles are based. Facebook claims to be opposed to expression that
supports “Violence and Threats,” “Bullying and Harassment,” “Hate
Speech,” “Graphic Content,” and “Nudity and Pornography.” In actual
practice, however, it is clear that the company is only opposed to
particular kinds of violence, harassment, hate speech, and more.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Just a few months ago, Facebook generated much controversy
for its intransigent refusal to remove photos glorifying rape and
violence against women. Soraya Chemaly wrote of “<a
href="http://bennorton.com/facebook-flirting-with-fascism/Facebook%27s%20big%20misogyny%20problem"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://bennorton.com']);"
target="_blank">Facebook’s big misogyny problem</a>,” noting Facebook
takes no issue in hosting pages like “I kill b**ches like you” and
“Domestic Violence: Don’t Make Me Tell You Twice,” featuring scores of
photos of beaten women. These individual pages were taken down as a
result of the controversy the article generated, yet, today, many
similar misogynist pages still exist. Spreading even more egg on its
face, Facebook proceeded to lash out against those critiquing its
censorship practices, blocking administrators of feminist pages who <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/31/facebook-locks-out-campaigner-women"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.theguardian.com']);"
target="_blank">uploaded pictures protesting the site’s misogyny</a>.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>A page titled “<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/StopRapebook"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);"
target="_blank">Rapebook</a>” was formed to protest Facebook’s
misogynist practices. It explained that Facebook had no problem with
“collections of pictures of naked children or very graphical [sic]
pictures of victims of all sorts of violence and incidents.” After a
bit of press coverage was generated around this issue, Facebook quickly
deleted the child porn, but allowed pages “lathered with sexually
explicit comments” to continue posting, unhindered. Rapebook began to
report content that “promote[d] hate speech towards minorities” or took
“enjoyment in crimes like rape and murder,” but Facebook refused to
remove the material, calling it “controversial humor.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>At the same moment, Facebook had no problem targeting what
was obviously feminist activism. In the words of Rapebook
administrators, it 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.” Administrators of pages that regularly promoted violence
and threats, bullying and harassment, hate speech, and graphic content
subsequently sicced their fans on the administrators of Rapebook. The
latter began to regularly receive death threats, harassment, and more
explicit content on their page, but Facebook insisted that such
comments did not entail violations of its hallowed “Community
Standards.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Rapebook declared itself no longer active on 5 April 2013,
writing it had “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.” Much to the chagrin of
any seeker of justice, it appears as though Facebook has chosen the “or
not” option.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Anarchist Memes has been one among Facebook’s many
political targets. The company’s attack on the page stands as a salient
example of how Facebook’s Community <em>Double</em> Standards work in
actual practice. In the past several years, Facebook has removed
harmless material and banned administrators many a time. In the past
months, this censorship has been particularly vehement, with several
instances of the company removing Anarchist Memes’ content. In each
incident, Facebook’s reasoning was needlessly severe at best,
flagrantly reactionary at worst.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>In the first incident, Anarchist Memes posted a picture of
a Klansman who had accidentally set himself, instead of a large wooden
cross, on fire, accompanied by the words “IRONY, it strikes at the best
of times.” Facebook took the picture down, claiming it violates its
community standards.<br>
<img class="aligncenter" alt="KKK IRONY"
src="cid:part1.06060402.01010506@freedomarchives.org" height="320"
width="400"></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p style="text-align: left;"><big><big>In the second incident, Facebook
took down a picture featuring a portrait of famous Ukrainian anarchist
communist Nestor Mahkno with the text “You may be anti-racist… but are
you shoot anti-Semites on sight anti-racist?” Again, Facebook took the
picture down and banned several of the page’s administrators.<br>
<img class="aligncenter" alt="Makhno & anti-Semites"
src="cid:part2.01000906.09060008@freedomarchives.org" height="524"
width="473"></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Some might argue that removing these two instances could
be justified according to Facebook’s “Violence and Threats” guideline.
Neither of the two constitutes a threat, by any stretch of the
imagination, but the two might be considered violent, if one were loose
enough with the definition. The problem, of course, arises in that
Facebook has no problem conveniently applying a much more specific
definition of the term when it comes to allowing sadistic images of,
say, rapist men beating their partners, but it takes issue with harming
racists. Strange? Of course, but this is how the corporation’s
Community Double Standards work.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>While these first two pictures might be contested
vis–à–vis Facebook’s “terms and conditions,” the third and fourth
instances of Facebook censoring Anarchist Memes in these past months
are so resoundingly draconian as to verge on the absurd.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p style="text-align: left;"><big><big>In the third, Anarchist Memes
posted a picture simply reading “Some women have penises. Get over it!”
No violence, no graphic image (no image at all), no nudity, no
pornography, simply text that happens to say the word “penis.”
Facebook, however, took the photo down and banned some of the page’s
administrators. Transphobic much? Facebook apologists would argue in
the negative; those who have been keeping track of Facebook’s
well-documented transphobic and homophobic tendencies in the past few
years, on the other hand, would know that <a
href="http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/06/03/facebook-belatedly-remove-transphobic-hate-page/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pinknews.co.uk']);"
target="_blank">the site has an ugly history of allowing anti-LGBT*QA
hate speech</a>.<br>
<img class="aligncenter" alt="some women have penises get over it"
src="cid:part3.06050702.03070807@freedomarchives.org" height="480"
width="320"></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p style="text-align: left;"><big><big>In the fourth incident,
Anarchist Memes posted an Eat That Toast! cartoon depicting how strange
stalkers who consider themselves “nice guys” really look to others.
So-called “men’s rights ‘activists’” went berserk. While Facebook might
have puerilely objected to the use of the word “penis” in the third
instance—an instance of censorship that can hardly be justified in
light of its allowance of sexually violent comments on countless
bigoted pages—in this fourth case, the censorship absolutely,
positively cannot be justified.<br>
<img class="aligncenter" alt="nice guys mra bullshit cartoon"
src="cid:part4.03010701.08080909@freedomarchives.org" height="384"
width="412"></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>In response to this ridiculous censorship, only several
weeks ago, Anarchist Memes declared a “Feminist Week,” devoting itself
to posting more feminist material than usual. It changed the header of
its site to feature eminent anarchist Emma Goldman, and changed its
characteristic logo from the red and black that traditionally signify
anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism to the purple and black that
signify anarcha-feminism.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>This brings us to yesterday. 9 January 2014 was the last
straw. Facebook took Anarchist Memes down for good.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p style="text-align: center;"><big><big><img class="aligncenter"
alt="Anarchist Memes unpublished"
src="cid:part5.01070902.09070404@freedomarchives.org" height="165"
width="478"></big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Anarchist Memes has since appealed Facebook’s decision, in
last efforts to get the site back up, but the chances do not look good.
In the meantime, the page’s administrators have not given up. They
revived an old version of the page that had been created as a backup
(because of similar problems in the past with harsh Facebook
censorship) but had been inactive for months. In just one day, <a
href="http://www.facebook.com/anarchistmemes1"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.facebook.com']);"
target="_blank">this new Anarchist Memes page</a> garnered over 2000
new likes—a telltale sign that Anarchist Memes has developed a
community of committed activists around the world devoted to fighting
oppression in all of its forms.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>An Anarchist Memes administrator provided a statement on
the affair.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>White supremacist groups have their Facebook pages
allowed up and are able to get away with whatever racist material they
want to post, but anti-capitalist, feminist, and anti-racist pages are
constantly harassed by MRAs [so-called "men's rights 'activists'"],
ancaps [so called "'anarcho'-capitalists"], white nationalists, and
fascists and Facebook will take down those pages without batting an
eye. I have reported several posts from pages that were overtly bigoted
and had Facebook tell me that it doesn’t violate their standards and
that I need to read their rules and stop abusing the reporting process.</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The moral of the story: You can post pictures of men
beating women; but you can’t mention the mere existence of a particular
sexual organ on a transgender individual. You can post racist, white
supremacist content until the cows come home, but, if you criticize
creepy male stalkers, you will be banned. This is Facebook. It uses its
ambiguous “terms and conditions” to its advantage. It can cry “Graphic
content!” or “Nudity!” when it opposes particular content, and it can
allow graphic content and nudity go unaddressed when it is not opposed
to it.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>If this were any other website, perhaps the issue would
not be as big of a deal. After all, the mainstream corporate media
publishes racist, misogynist, cisheterosexist, ableist, classist, and
anti-Islamic material quite regularly. Facebook, however, is an
interesting beast because it is such an important website, culturally,
socially, and economically.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>It is common for individuals, especially those influenced
by the right-”libertarian” movement in the U.S., to say “Well, if you
don’t like Facebook, just stop using it.” These are the same people who
say, “If you don’t like your job, boss, and/or work environment, then
just quit and start your own small business”—as though anyone can
simply drop everything and find the capital to start a small
business—the very same ones who insist, “If you are racially and/or
sexually harassed at that store, then just stop going there and shop
somewhere else”—as though that is always a tenable economic
opportunity. For those of us in the <em>real</em> world, however, we
see that life is never, under any circumstance, this simple.
Utilization of Facebook is not a matter merely of “use it if you want;
don’t use it if you don’t.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Facebook is a not just a private corporation; Facebook is
a crucial component of contemporary popular culture. Facebook is a
place and an activity that large portions of the world use today.
According to a <a
href="http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/March/Pew-Internet-Social-Networking-full-detail.aspx"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://pewinternet.org']);"
target="_blank">2013 Pew study on the social networking practices of
Americans</a>, as of September 2013, 71% of online adults use Facebook
(the numbers for young adults are even higher). For many people,
Facebook is essentially a required social activity. For those who do
not wish to become social pariahs, it has become an obligatory ritual,
an inextricable part of the contemporary global sociocultural fabric.
For organizations, clubs, artists, musicians, bands, writers,
photographers, fans of all sorts, and more, it is an invaluable,
nonpareil way to spread the word, to connect like-minded individuals
around the globe.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>When such a critical part of global human culture, when
the world’s <em>de facto</em> social media platform, is privatized,
monetized, owned by a private company whose primary concern is not
creating a safe, non-oppressive environment in which individuals can
share their experiences, interests, and ideas with one another without
fear of harassment or attack, but rather extracting profit from every
possible social interaction, there is great reason to be concerned.
Facebook’s attack on Anarchist Memes has demonstrated that Facebook’s
bigotry extends beyond misogyny, beyond an unwillingness to take down
pages that are blatantly white supremacist, racist, fascist,
cisheterosexist, and more. Facebook’s censorship practices are
political.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>In making this point, I am not suggesting that Facebook
has chosen to harshly target Anarchist Memes strictly because the page
is explicitly anarchist; I would, however, posit that discounting such
a point entirely would prove a fool’s errand. In mainstream Western
public consciousness, the term anarchy still carries absurd
connotations of chaos and violence; the term is often employed as a
synonym for “disorder.” Actual anarchism, on the other hand, has a long
and noble history of devotion to human justice, equality, and
liberation, boasting some of human history’s most important political
thinkers, figures, and organizations, including Peter Kroptokin, Noam
Chomsky, Goldman, Makhno, the IWW, Revolutionary Catalonia, the Free
Territory, the autonomous Shinmin region, the Zapatistas, Abahlali
baseMjondolo, and much, much more.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Historically speaking, the anarchist movement adopted an
intersectional approach to oppression decades before other radical left
movements, indefatigably criticizing cisheteronormativity, misogyny,
and racism at a time when some well-established Marxist-Leninist
parties were overtly discriminating against members for being Jewish,
or for refusing to conform to a heterosexual, cisgender binary,
considering homosexuality (and feminism) “bourgeois decadence.”
Fortunately, today, the vast majority of the radical left (including
most Marxist-Leninists) has adopted the intersectional approach to
oppression pioneered by many anarchist organizations, and has too
incorporated anarchism’s invaluable ideals of direct-democratic
organization, horizontalism, direct action, and more. Ignorant of this
history, many might, without any research, side with Facebook in its
reactionary criticism of Anarchist Memes, justifying knee-jerk
partisanism with tired, historically baseless myths. Anarchist Memes,
nevertheless, was guilty of nothing save for doing its best to fight
back digitally against the racism, patriarchy, and cisheteronormativity
that dominate mainstream discourse and culture.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>All of this established, it is important that I herein
offer one final, yet very significant comment. Although Facebook’s
censorship practices are certainly political, they do not evince some
kind of right-wing conspiracy to silence all leftist dissent. It is
important that we do not adopt this kind of conspiratorial conception
of the site. The problem is not that Facebook hires a bunch of racist,
misogynist, cisheterosexist moderators to ban content they deem
problematic. Nay, Facebook is a corporation. Like all economic
institutions operating within a capitalist system, its only commitment
is ultimately to its shareholders. It may (and does) make political
decisions in that process, but its exclusive goal is to increase its
profit. Any political decisions necessarily contribute to this
exclu$ive goal.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Accordingly, Facebook has outsourced as much of its labor
as possible. The Telegraph ran a story in March of 2012 titled “<a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9118778/The-dark-side-of-Facebook.html"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.telegraph.co.uk']);"
target="_blank">The Dark Side of Facebook</a>,” explaining that actual
human beings are the ones doing Facebook moderation, not bots, not
algorithms, and that these people are located in the so-called Third
World. They are underpaid, overworked, exploited workers who merely
follow the rules they are told to follow. An ex-worker described his
work day as one in which he sits for hours flagging pictures of
“Paedophilia, necrophilia, beheadings, suicides, etc.”, admitting “I
left [because] I value my sanity.” Another worker, a 21-year-old
Moroccan, explained “It’s humiliating. They are just exploiting the
third world.” These moderators—located in Morocco, Turkey, the
Philippines, Mexico, and India—have three options when confronted with
flagged content: “delete it; ignore it; or escalate it, which refers it
back to a Facebook employee in California (who will, if necessary,
report it to the authorities).”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>The problem is not with these moderators. This isn’t some
right-wing contingent, bent on silencing all of the world’s activists;
they, like most of us in the global capitalist economy, are exploited
workers, seeking simply to put bread on the table. We should not blame
them for following the orders of their superiors, nor should we blame
them for “missing” racist, misogynist, and cisheterosexist content.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Facebook might try to defer responsibility, to blame its
employees—a common practice among powerful corporations enduring public
scrutiny—but the problem isn’t with its employees, mere individuals
working within a corporate institution. The problem is with the
structure. The problem is with Facebook’s Community Double Standards.
The problem is with Facebook itself.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big><em><strong>Ben Norton</strong> is an artist and activist.
His website can be found at <a href="http://www.bennorton.com/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.bennorton.com']);">http://bennorton.com/</a>.</em></big></big></p>
<big></big></div>
</font></font>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>