hate speech – Dispatches From The Front

FACEBOOK MAY WANT to see itself as a platform for others to share news, not a publisher that intervenes to filter what appears on the site. But the world keeps getting in the way.

The latest demand for Facebook to exercise something like editorial control comes from an Austrian court, which ruled yesterday that the company must take down posts identified as “hate speech” in a case brought by the country’s Green party over insults to its leader. “There’s a multitude of ways to enforce the court’s decision in case Facebook is not willing to fully comply,” says Alexander Nessler, an attorney at the firm representing Greens politician Eva Glawischnig in the case. “In the end, it’ll depend on Facebook’s actual reaction.”

Over the weekend, a Facebook page appeared that claimed it existed for families united against “autistic shooters.” It’s unclear whether or not the administrator of the page was attempting satire or parody or being serious or somewhere in between, but the entire page used a jocularly vicious tone in its extended series of false claims that could have had no other effect but to cause harm and damage to autistic people.

Given the glee that the administrator evinced over the negative response to the page, the intent could not be in doubt: to compound for the autism community the pain that we all feel over yet another national tragedy.

To my certain knowledge, within hours of the page’s appearance, there were hundreds of requests to Facebook to remove this page, in addition to a petition to request that it be removed, which had thousands of signatures. From what I understand–and from my own experience–for almost two days, Facebook’s repeated response was to assert, again and again, that the page did not violate Facebook’s community standards. ETA: Evidently, Facebook continues to think that because the page, taken down last night, is back up again.

Tag: hate speech

A Court Order to Terminate Hate Speech Tests Facebook | WIRED

Facebook Declines to Remove Page Vilifying Autistic People | Forbes