Is Facebook Biased?
April 26th, 2010
Recently, a new page popped up on Facebook that sparked attention and has drawn over 1.5million fans. The title of the page is “DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN”.
(*NOTE* This is the actual title of the page, not a typo on our part. Smart people know that Swayze, Fawcett, and Jackson all died LAST year, not this year)
Some are supporting the page saying it is their 1st Amendment Right and they are only expressing their freedom of speech. But others have cited Facebook’s TOS Policy that forbids “hate groups”. Since the message on this page is clear, you would think that it in fact violates Facebook’s rules. But no!
According to ABCNews, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement that though the anti-Obama page “may be considered distasteful and objectionable to some,” it doesn’t violate Facebook’s policies.
So since Facebook has now said that this isn’t a violation, we decided to see of this would hold true for making our own page.
We tried to create a page titled:
“DEAR LORD, LAST YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PUBLIC SPEAKER IS SARAH PALIN. AMEN”
But to our surprise, that contains a word or phrase that is blocked. So do they prohibit saying anything bad about public speakers while it’s OK to say something about the president?
Here’s the screen shots of what happened:
We have also tried several variations changing the named person and or their description, all with the same results. One thing to point out though, we managed to start a page using Nancy Pelosi’s name. Since it was in poor taste we immediately deleted it.
A counter page has been set up calling for Facebook to remove the original death page. Here is the link
*UPDATE*
Since we first started watching this story, we’ve been watching the comments coming through the original page. This was posted a little while ago:
and
and
So Facebook says this group doesn’t violate their “hate” policy?
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Try – my favorite soccer mom and see if it works
Where are you guys protesting the “death to george Bush” pages? Oh wait, you’re not.
mlm, show us a link to a current page on Facebook and we will protest it.
So, mlm….does pointing out that some in the past have hated BUSH make it right? I ask the same question as the admin : Show us a link to a current page!!!!
How is the Palin page attempt offensive and the Obama one not??!! Stupid biased facebook.
There was just a discussion about this yesterday on one of the pro-healthcare pages on facebook. There were some VERY interesting facts revealed. The admin for that page also tried several variations of the page and couldn’t get any of them approved. Also, facebook has basically shut down the two top pages in terms of fan count, in support of the health care law. Each page’s admin was forced to create a new page and lose thousands of members. Check out the discussion here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=111820475501133&topic=43 I think it basically proves facebook’s bias.
Try taking the word ‘amen’ out and see if they accept it.
If you go through the fan pages, you can see Facebook actually has “Sarah Palin” blocked, so the names now have periods in them to get past it “S.arah P.alin” Try that & see what happens!
They’re all over me like a cheap suit in regards to posts or images unsuitable for “Children”
Hypocrites.
No “children” can see any content on my page.
I’m the creator/admin of the Facebook page “Can this poodle wearing a tinfoil hat get more fans than Glenn Beck?”; the page has been “publish blocked” (i.e., I can no longer add new content or status updates to the page, but I can comment and do basic administrative tasks) since February 18th.
Since then, I’ve received nothing but “form letter” emails from Facebook in my attempts to get an explanation of exactly what the precise TOU violation was so that I may have the block lifted. Meanwhile, pages like the one cited in the article as well as other “anti-Obama” pages continue to exist.
Here’s the page URL –
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Can-this-poodle-wearing-a-tinfoil-hat-get-more-fans-than-Glenn-Beck/334162806080
And a relevant article from the MSNBC “Red Tape” blog –
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/03/poodle-in-tin-hat-at-center-of-facebook-rights-fight.html
Please sign my actual petition to have the page removed – http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/clean-up-facebook
And I have many more screen shots I’m collecting myself so proof does exist, in more than one set of hands!
Ummmm, hello!! I’m a liberal who did protest when all those things were being printed about George W. Bush (whom, for the record, I abhorred). I protested out of respect for the office of the President of the United States. I called Fox News and Clear Channel to voice my outrage and you know what? They wouldn’t carry that story. Fair and Balanced my eye.
I tried to make a page that just said “SARAH PALIN”. Nothing else just the words “Sarah Palin” I got the excact same warning in the pink box as shown above in the article. You are not allowed to make any page using the words Sarah Palin on Facebook. What’s up with that?
I “liked” the page in order to report it and voice my opinion on how disgusted I was. These people are just pointing their finger at the one person that is the head of our Executive Branch, right now. No one is thinking back and process the “snowball effect”. Our economy has become this way once we entered into Iraq. War spending does this every time. Our society is so numb to even looking into the past to realize this, that I “unliked” the page once I realized I was writing to a bunch of people that would rather live in ignorance.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=302323726581
here is a sarah palin facebook page for you, “i bet we can fine 1000000 people who thinkg sarah palin is an idoit.
i am a regular poster on the “prayer” page. i originally went in there to be a troll. i found it wasn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. when i tried to open up an honest dialogue with the petition to remove the prayer page (the 700,000 member one) i was blocked immediately. i asked if feeding the prayer page all that hate was a productive way to combat it. when i was blocked for asking that simple question, i decided that i would rather be on the side of free speech than the side of censorship.
an unexpected result of the prayer page is conservatives and liberals have gathered in the same place, and after some angry interaction, everyone sort of settled down a little, and people started becoming friends. people on all sides of the political spectrum started to find common ground.
yes, there are some racists. there are also some rabidly angry obama supporters. it’s just like america. and, just like america, we all need to find a way to live with each other peacefully.
this page is not what the national media makes it out to be, but we do appreciate the attention that the media has been giving us. it helps the diversity grow every day.
To all you “dipshit conservatives”……get a life. Barack Obama is our President and deserves the respect that Office holds. Stop all the bellyaching before a civil war breaks out(which in some way or another will be President Obama’s fault)!
For eight years if anyone even had the gall to criticize George W. Bush, they were considered anti-American, unpatriotic and even traitorous. As soon as Barack Obama was elected the criticisms began and have not stopped. To criticize a president is ok. In fact, if you do not agree with his policies you can criticize all you want. If all you do is criticize without any alternative solutions for our problems then you need to learn to think for yourself because all you are doing is being one of the blind led by the blind. To even state that you wish a president would die in office may not be exactly criminal, but it certainly is tasteless and could possibly get you some special attention from th Secret Service. To threaten the president’s life is criminal and should get you arrested and put in jail and possibly charged with treason. Imagine all the teabaggers and republican exstremists in jail. Makes me giddy to imagine it. I truly wish that every person I have seen on facebook that threatened to president’s life would truly be arrested. Freedom of speech ends at that point. You simply are not free to threaten any president’s life no matter the party affiliation.
Yes Facebook is biased. What John says about the Pro-Healthcare groups is also true. I was one of the co-admins of the larger group I bet we can find 1,000,000 people who support the health care bill…and we had over 17K members and we had to remake our page. We are now (as of 7/11) remaking our group for the 3rd time! And we have lost A LOT of our members from Facebook constantly making us remake our pages…I cannot help but plug our group either…so if anyone is Pro Healthcare out there feel free to join us! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_114683318620212&id=121624704592740¬if_t=group_activity
Anyhow as far as why you couldn’t make a page. Sarah Palin trademarked her name so now people can’t use it and Facebook probably got some money from her to stop people from making anti-Sarah Palin pages…but there are a few out there. I am a member of the Tin hat one who commented here too! (Also there is one about a steak getting more fans than Sarah Palin – Mister Steak is great!)
So yes facebook is biased, that page is STILL out there as of today…and its sickening. More and more hate groups are in America today and its because people cannot stand that a black man is in office and its sad….