Facebook has been accused of
“enabling vicious Jewish hatred” after telling users an image
depicting human remains on a shovel below the tag line “How to pick up
Jewish chicks” did not breach its standards.
Just days after back flipping on its
decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a
napalm bombing, the social media giant is again under fire over its handling of
posts reported as offensive.
In reply to complaints about the
shovel image – which was widely shared, “liked” 21,000 times, and
received more than 37,000 comments – Facebook said: “We reviewed the post
you reported for displaying hate speech and found it doesn’t violate our
community standards.”
Under its community standards policy,
Facebook says it “removes hate speech” that attacks people based on
their race, ethnicity, national origin and religious affiliation.
“We
allow humour, satire or social commentary related to these topics, and we
believe that when people use their authentic identity, they are more
responsible when they share this kind of commentary,” the policy says.
The image was posted to a page
attributed to a Queensland man late last month and shared 2280 times. It has
now been removed but tens of thousands of comments, many of which are
anti-Semitic, were still visible in the thread as late as Thursday.
A Facebook spokesman said the image
was removed for breaching community standards and that the company was still
investigating.
But 24 hours after being asked, the
spokesman could still not say when the photo was taken down. Facebook could
also not explain why only the photo was initially removed and not the entire
thread – which is standard when a post is pulled.
But 24 hours after being asked, the
spokesman could still not say when the photo was taken down. Facebook could
also not explain why only the photo was initially removed and not the entire thread
– which is standard when a post is pulled.
