Women’s rights activists in Britain and the US have accused Facebook of promoting rape and “rape culture” after the social networking site refused to take down pages on which users made jokes and apparent confessions about sexual assault.
Petitions urging the site to remove pages such as “You know she’s playing hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alley” have been signed by more than 3,600 people in the UK and 175,000 people on the US website Change.org.
They say the material found on the pages is a clear violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions, which bar hateful or threatening content. “This is hate speech,” said Jane Osmond, who has campaigned on behalf of the UK petition. “I find it very disturbing that Facebook don’t appear to see the connection between pages such as this and the prevailing rape culture we have in our society.”
Facebook has refused to take the offending pages down, insisting they are intended to be “a place where people can openly discuss issues and express their views”.
