Here Are All The Surprising Things You Could Get Banned From Facebook For Doing

Including saying ‘men are trash’

All The Surprising Things You Could Get Banned From Facebook For Doing

by Phoebe Parke |
Published on

Ahh Facebook, the place to share holiday pics, see what your old school friends are up to without actually having to speak to them, and laugh at memes that were trending on Twitter a year ago.

Facebook wants to be THE place where users can read news, talk with friends and buy everything from clothes to beds without leaving the app – but it keeps coming under fire for doing things like allowing people to mark themselves as safe using the app after some atrocities and not others, allegedly listening to users’ conversations and helping the spread of fake news.

Now, Facebook has been banning users who post disparaging comments about men, including: ‘men are trash’, ‘men are scum’ and ‘all men are ugly.'

US comedian Kayla Avery shared her experience after being banned for commenting ‘men are the worst’ under a post trolling her.

Speaking to the Daily Beast, she said: ‘There was one guy who was threatening to find my house and beat me up.

‘I got banned before I could even successfully report it.

‘How else can we have a genuine reaction to what’s going on? Facebook is absolutely silencing women.’

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Here are the most surprising things you could be banned from Facebook for doing:

1. Writing ‘Men Are Trash’

Comedian Kayla Avery isn’t the only one who had a 30-day Facebook ban for posting negative comments about men, according to The Daily Beast nearly all the women in a group of 500 comedians who posted variations of ‘men are scum’ on Facebook were banned.

2. Sharing articles about breastfeeding

An Australian mother was banned from the site after sharing a piece about ‘nipple blanching’ – a condition where the blood flow to the nipple is limited – in a private Facebook group after the imaegs were said to violate Facebook’s nudity policy.

3. Posting a picture of a female nipple

A little cleavage and men’s nipples are fine by Facebook, but post a female nipple and you’ll likely be banned.

Facebook’s community standards state: ‘We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks. We also restrict some images of female breasts if they include the nipple, but we always allow photos of women actively engaged in breastfeeding or showing breasts with post-mastectomy scarring. We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures. Restrictions on the display of both nudity and sexual activity also apply to digitally created content unless the content is posted for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes. Explicit images of sexual intercourse are prohibited. Descriptions of sexual acts that go into vivid detail may also be removed.’

4. Posting a picture of a burn victim

Controversially Facebook removed a picture of former Fireman and burn victim Lasse Gustavson twice, before admitting their mistake, according to The Telegraph who write ‘the network reportedly said it was a "regular occurrence" when burns are clearly visible.’

5. Sharing an image of period blood

Who can forget the controversy stirred up when auhor and illustrator Rupi Kaur shared an image of a woman with period stained trousers on. ‘you deleted a photo of a woman who is fully covered and menstruating stating that it goes against community guidelines when your guidelines outline that it is nothing but acceptable’ Rupi wrote. ‘the girl is fully clothed. the photo is mine. it is not attacking a certain group. nor is it spam. and because it does not break those guidelines i will repost it again. i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be okay with a small leak. when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified. pornified. and treated less than human.’

While some of these show that Facebook is making an effort to combat hate speech and graphic content, the current system which looks at posts without context – according to the Daily Beast Facebook moderators can’t access demographic information about the poster, and they view posts and comments individually without the context of other posts - can never truly understand the nuance and context of some of these posts.

A ‘ban now, explain later’ system just doesn’t work in some of these instances as users aren’t able to appeal the ban once locked out of the app, and so have to use other platforms not owned by Facebook (like Twitter) to bring attention to the fact that they’ve even been banned.

Banning people creates a feeling of guilt around having open dialogues about these issues (including sexual harassment) and stifles public conversation that people can learn from – we don’t want a situation where people are scared to express their opinions online.

If Facebook wants to ban the use of certain offensive words, phrases and images that’s a great idea – but they need a highly sophisticated system to manage it.

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Follow Phoebe on Twitter @PhoebeParke

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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