Monday, April 26, 2010

Facebook or Facecrook? Holding Facebook accountable for so many things isn't easy. To Boycott or Not?

[A bit of this post has been changed/revised, on 27 April, 2010ECD, since being posted yesterday.]

[image is from here, and can be found at site linked to by clicking on "HOW FACEBOOK STOLE MY FREEDOM", below]

This is a post about Facebook's silencing of acceptable speech, its unwillingness to do all it can to keep folks save from predators, and other problems with Facebook that, to date, they have not addressed or corrected.

I begin this post with a link to an account of Facebook's homophobia, written and reported by Darian Zam. (Darian, imo, could stand to learn how fucked up it is to use the term "r*tard". But it's not the use of THAT discriminatory and hurtful term that he got in trouble for. Oh, no.) You can click on the title just below read his story of being silenced by Facebook for really silly reasons. I wouldn't quite say Facebook stole his freedom, but you can read for yourself:

HOW FACECROOK STOLE MY FREEDOM

[Here's just the beginning of his story:]

So, people want to know, why did I get my account deleted from Assbook TM?

Isn't it obvious? I say what I am thinking, (but not usually before thinking about it). I'm very rude and it annoys the hell out of everyone!

Seriously, I made a sarcastic remark about the "sanctity" of traditional marriage having little merit as my status:

May 24 Darian Zam is dubious about straight marriage given the track record, but thinks they should still be allowed to.

I left it there for three or so days for a change, just simply because I have been WAY too busy with work to have time for recreational activities.

I had my account disabled [by Facebook]

* * *

This is something to ponder: 410 MILLION people are members of one online social networking service: Facebook. Of them, 175 MILLION log on daily. WOW! That does present many options for many things to occur. Given that most people on Facebook are social dominants, by class, race, and/or gender, I have not been surprised to learn how many antifeminist groups have existed there. But some feminist groups are there as well. Does Facebook serve or do a disservice to radical activists? Who does it report and how? What is its stance with making safety issues for underage people and anyone else who may be victimised by a cyber-predator, who is also a sexual predator offline? More on that issue is linked to below.

But in all honesty, this may be the most self-serving post ever on my blog!!!

I have had a Facebook page for about three years. I've deactivated it when I wasn't visiting or using it much, but in the last weeks I've been more active on it, posting critiques of white het men, networking with radical feminists, and putting up links to some of this blog's posts. All of this is within the stated acceptable uses of Facebook.

I also have publicly warned feminists about an antifeminist man posing as a feminist woman, in order to gain access to personal information about feminists with Facebook pages. Again, this is acceptable to Facebook, according to their rules and regs. I have also witnessed people going on Facebook pretending to be a DECEASED radical feminist. This is against their policy. That page is still up.

But suddenly (a couple of days ago and currently, with no word or warning from them) I can't log on to Facebook, and a message page comes up when I try to telling me "your account has been deactivated". I have written to a couple of the most relevant departments about this, and have heard nothing back from them. I still have no reason, no explanation, for why my page was shut down. People, this is not the worst thing in the world. I promise, I'll get through this. Life does, as they say, go on.

But Facebook has been critiqued lately for not employing a "panic button" system to help protect victims of sexual predation. This button system is in place in many other online social networking sites. Why not on Facebook?

Also, as noted above and below, Facebook routinely and with no accountability or sense of responsibility to its members, de-activates accounts without telling people what they did that warranted that action. Why?

For those reasons and others, I'm posting what follows. I think there's about 8000 more important things that dealing with this, to be clear. The issue of providing a clear and easy way to sound an alarm about predators on Facebook seems like the most important issue that's come up to date, aside from the fact that sex offenders are all over the place, and rampant antifeminism, and gross features and fun personality test questionnaires that appear on Facebook, such as "Which Serial Killer are You?". And the practice of "buying and selling" people, just as a joke--[I'm not laughing]--on Facebook.

For more on the panic button/predation issue, see *here*. I'd like to see Facebook be more accountable and responsible about these issues and others. I'm not sure the Facebook addicts can get on board with a boycott. We'll see. It is worth knowing how much people are growing dependent on one website for social networking and connecting with family and friends, colleagues and activists.

Here's one person's (screenname: "mrblonde") call for a boycott, with comments to him below, about experiences they have had. Some of their concerns dovetail with mine, some do not. But here's the information, all of which is from boycottowl.com, *here*. Whoooo knew there was a boycott owl??? ;) That attempt at humor was for Ellen Degeneres. She'll get it.

Boycott of Facebook

Facebook boycott details

Boycott Originator

mrblonde | Email this user

Boycott Title

Facebook Deactivating Accounts Without Notice

Boycott Description

There are posts all over the Internet about Facebook banning people and their accounts with absolutely no notice and no way to contact them to learn why. This is totally unacceptable. I know they are a free service but so many people depend upon their Facebook pages for both personal and professional reasons that they should offer some type of customer service. Facebook must have so many users that they don't to care about upsetting so many people so let's see if we can join together to make our numbers even bigger!

Boycott Demands

My demands are simple and are shared by hundreds (if not thousands) of other people whose comments I have read all over the Internet:

Implement a system to notify us when Facebook deactivates accounts
Provide a clear reason why the account has been disabled
Tell us specifically what we need to do in order to reactivate our account

65 people have joined this boycott

Boycotts of this company Total views of this boycott
Company responses

4 2,133
0

Boycott Comments

Click here to add a comment for this boycott.

Anonymous

Facebook Deactivated with NO warning I was on my account on Saturday morning, updated my status, went back 2 hours later and my account had been deactivated! There was NO warning! I then emailed them asking why they had done it. I have ALL my family photos on there, some on there that I lost when my previous laptop crashed so those are all I have. I have all my overseas friends from school on there! I have had no warnings, they just deactivated the account! And no one bothers to get back to me!!!! I have just under 2000 contacts! I do charity work through Facebook as well as run my ladies events as well. This is not right!

Anonymous

Regaining HACKED Facebook Account My account was recently Hacked. Someone requested a EMAIL CHANGE on my account and Facebook allowed this to happen. Now my account is in total suspension. Seems they want to place the responsibility on me for Malicious Software on my workstation. They even went as far as to suggest my EMAIL ACCOUNT was compromised. NOT! I reported this incident withing 45 minutes after my wife sent me an email stating that someone was on chat asking for money to get me back from LONDON! I was asked by Facebook to send an email with a scanned ID ( in this case a drivers license ) and answer a few questions regarding my DOB and residence. DONE. A week later and I am nowhere with Facebook after COUNTLESS EMAIL and sending all correspondence that has taken place with each of my attempts for some answers..but all I get is a reference BACK to the link from which I submitted the initial HACK. Geese...somebody must have removed all pages except 1-4 of their TECHNICAL SERVICES MANUAL used by the Facebook Team ( of losers ).

Anonymous

Customer Service? What a JOKE! 2 weeks ago Facebook disabled my account with NO warning. I went thru every step possible in the "help" section. I have never received an email concerning the issue. I had an old account that was unused for 2 years I had cancelled. I was able to go back to the old account which was STILL active and start using it again but I have lost everything on my main account and Facebook could obviously care less.

Anonymous

facebook is crap! Hello all,
My facebook account was hacked into this past week and the hacker not only changed my password, so that I no longer was able to acces my account, but they were also using my account to contact all of my friends/family and requesting money to help get "me" out of a foreign country. I went to the help and support page, which was a waste of my time. You can't even ask for help without either paying for it, or fitting into a pre-selected very very vague catagory. I didn't even get an e-mail response sending me the link to reset my password when I clicked on the forgot password link. Due to the overwhelming amount of complaints that have NOT heard a response, I was afraid to validate payment wondering if they would collect the money and still not respond. Now my account has totally vanished into thin cyber space, and there is nothing I can do about it.

Anonymous

AGREE WITH "WHAT A MESS" I HAD A BOUT 30 ALBUMS! AND NOW THEYRE ALL GONE! DO NOT TRUST THIS SITE FOR MAINTAINING YOUR MEMORIES!!! BACK UP ALL YOU INFO ONTO AN EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE! GOOD LUCK!

Anonymous

facebook account Disabled my facebook account has been disabled. I can not get any help at all!! I have put alot of time and effort into my account, having played mafia wars for along time now, and all my 2000 friends are gone. I got no warning or reason to why my account was shut down. I would like my account back before I lose my mafia wars game altogether, and if I have to start again I will NOT. use FB, thats for sure.

Anonymous

Ticked at FACECROOK I say somebody who has time to set-up a youtube video about facebook not getting back to us all would send a message to users of F.B. and to the MORONS that aren't helping us. The dude is a billionare and can't even set up HELP for us users that MADE him rich!!! Bull frogs!! I am a victim of this as well and I am NOT happy but I don't have the time to youtube, plus I am not that talented. Or, you can email fox cable news to expose those incompetent no good caring jerks!!!! I just want to get in my account delete everything and then tell them to go fly a kite somewhere crappy. Hopefully someone reading this who is creative and talented could come up with a youtube video that will spark interest in this matter and get a fire under their tushes to get this resolved last year!! Thanks! p.s. they are holding "our" information hostage.......

PLEASE VOTE NOW (Monday) FOR MALALAI JOYA for the PEOPLE'S CHOICE HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD!!!!

I've been posting about the magnificent and courageous work of feminist activist Malalai Joya, and now is your time to show one form of support. See below, and link back to the source of what follows if you wish, *here*.

VOTE TODAY-- help Afghan feminist Malalai Joya win People's Choice award

Published by Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Monday, 26 April 2010
We're hoping you can take a minute to help Afghan feminist and parliamentarian Malalai Joya win the People's Choice Human Rights Award. (http://contest.humanrightsaward.org/). The voting closes today -- Monday, April 26th -- and it's a very close race. Please vote for Malalai and pass this on to friends. The Campaign for Peace and Democracy co-sponsored a public forum in New York City with Malalai last October, and she has been key to our work opposing the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition to the well-deserved recognition, Malalai would receive $1000 towards her humanitarian work in Afghanistan. You can vote here: http://contest.humanrightsaward.org/entries#39102 You will be asked for a password, but you can create it on the spot with no hassle. This Wikipedia entry about Malalai will give you an idea of who she is: Malalai Joya (born April 25th, 1978) is an Afghan politician who has been called "the bravest woman in Afghanistan." As an elected member of the Wolesi Jirga from Farah province, she has publicly denounced the presence of what she considers warlords and war criminals in the parliament. She is an outspoken critic of both the Taliban as well as the present Afghan government of Karzai and its western supporters. In May 2007, Joya was suspended from the parliament on the grounds that she had insulted fellow representatives in a television interview. Her suspension, which is currently being appealed, has generated protest internationally and appeals for her reinstatement have been signed by high profile writers, intellectuals such as Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, and politicians including Members of Parliament from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. Joya has been compared to the symbol of Burma's democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi. Joya has written a memoir with Canadian writer Derrick O'Keefe.[6] under the title of Raising My Voice. Please vote now at http://contest.humanrightsaward.org/entries#39102 -- and, if you can, send us a brief email at cpd@igc.org to let us know you've cast your vote. In peace and solidarity Joanne Landy and Thomas Harrison Co-Directors Campaign for Peace and Democracy www.igc.org cpd@igc.org P.S. Remember that the Campaign for Peace and Democracy now has a Facebook group. Please join us! Campaign for Peace and Democracy 2790 Broadway, #12 \| New York, NY 10025

"Man Boobs", or Oh, Please, with "Boobquake" and the White Het Guys selfishly being ALL FOR IT!

[this image of yet another obnoxious WHM jerk, is from here]

Mild warning: another man boob is featured below.

Please click on the title of the piece that follows, to link back to the original source. I don't think extensive analysis is needed here.

Russell Blackford thinks he's NOT a "pseudo-feminist" by defending and promoting the Boobquake phenomenon. Clearly, Russell Blackford is a big boob. Here's his very silly (but apparently well-argued because he mentions a feminist, discusses feminism, and tells us all what really smart people--white het guys--think about this matter.

In Support of Boobquake

Russell Blackford

Russell Blackford
Metamagician and the Hellfire Club

Posted: Apr 26, 2010

Good for Jen McCreight of Blag Hag for coming up with the idea of Boobquake.

For those who don’t know, this little meme ridicules the idea that “immodest” dressing by women leads to lascivious thoughts from men, which results in fornication and adultery—which, in turn, cause earthquakes. The idea was proposed a few days ago by a senior cleric in Iran, but of course it’s in line with the common thought in Islam that there’s something wrong with a woman “showing her beauty to the world”. Christianity is not much better, of course: there’s a long tradition of Christian theologians problematising women’s (and men’s) bodies, deprecating sexual beauty, and expressing anxiety about sex itself.

Go back to the Church Fathers, to Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome, for example, and look at what they have to say. Their writings are saturated with ideas of sexual sin and shame. Those ideas have carried right through to the present day, but they are absurd, miserable, and life-denying ... and they deserve our mockery. They exemplify the way that religion does dirt on the good things that this world has to offer.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of 1980s pseudo-feminism that took a similar attitude to that of Christianity and Islam, problematising displays of female beauty and even expressing disgust with heterosexuality itself. The worst offender was the egregious Andrea Dworkin—who died relatively young back in 2005. In her case, good riddance. These pseudo-feminists merely use feminist-sounding language to rationalise the religion-based anti-sex morality into which they were socialised. But they lack the self-insight to understand that it’s what they’re doing.

Get it clear: there is nothing wrong with the beauty of the human body, male or female, nothing wrong with enjoying it, and nothing wrong with displaying it to the world. If you’ve been blessed with physical beauty, then for Aphrodite’s sake display it; take pleasure in your good fortune, and let other people take pleasure in it. Strut your stuff, and don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed about so-called “immodesty”. Feel free to scorn the moralism of Islamic clerics and anyone else who tries to put you down.

I find it incredible that there’s still so much irrational, religion-based shame and guilt about the body even within Western societies: so much fear of the body’s beauty, and of its power to arouse sexual feelings. We see this shame, guilt, and fear even among atheists, many of whom have not fully liberated themselves from traditional morals. (For Zeus’s sake, what’s the point of being an atheist if you still buy into the same morality as the religionists? You need to get beyond that.)
Let’s return to a healthy pagan value-set. For the Greeks, beauty, creativity, analytical intelligence, athletic ability, and many other things would have been seen as excellences that it’s good for a human being to have. Unfortunately, few of us possess them all (I most certainly don’t!), but all of them are worthy of enjoyment and celebration wherever and whenever we do encounter them. All of these human excellences open up possibilities of one kind or another, and give a sort of power to those who possess them; all of them are admirable; and all of them can be used to bring pleasure to others.

Anxiety about the body and its beauty is sometimes rationalised on the basis that we should value cognitive abilities above physical beauty, though I’d love to see a rational argument as to why we should adopt any particular hierarchy of values. In any event, this is not a zero-sum game. You can have many of these human excellences; they don’t exclude each other; and you can take a proper pride in them all. (As it happens, most of the beautiful women whom I’ve been fortunate enough to know have also been highly intelligent and creative. But why expect otherwise?)
Apparently, judging from this follow-up post, Jen McCreight has been given a hard time by some of the remaining pseudo-feminists—Dworkin has gone, but they’re not quite extinct—who still purvey a miserable 1980s ideology. Well, let them, but they deserve no more respect than Islamic clerics, or Vatican officials, or irrationalists of any other species.

Russell Blackford is a fellow of the IEET, an attorney, science fiction author and critic, philosopher, and public intellectual. Dr. Blackford serves as editor-in-chief of the IEET's Journal of Evolution and Technology. He lives in Newcastle, Australia, where he is a Conjoint Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle.

COMMENTS

billmerit • DC • Apr 26, 2010

I am trying to get a patent for 'artificial cleavage' which will let anyone get the boobs they want without surgery. It would be a holographic projection from a necklace.

Julian Real • http://radicalprofeminist.blogspot.com/ • Apr 26, 2010

Hi Russell,

Are you referring to Andrea Dworkin's work to hold pimps accountable for what they do when trafficking women? Or her work to challenge rape as natural and inevitable? Or her work to show that pornography is an industry comprised of gross sexual exploitation, profiting corporate pimps, not women as a class.

I'm unclear from your statements. She was not affiliated with or supportive of any major patriarchal religion, that's for sure. She wrote a whole book critiquing the U.S. Christian-dominated Right-wing, in fact.

Are you talking about her pointing out the tyranny of the "Beauty Industry" which tells women incessantly that beauty requires buying products and modifying their bodies, because, naturally, women are supposed to think of themselves as unattractive? Are you talking about the feminist critiques of beauty that are racist and anti-lesbian?

And, what background do you have in Feminist Studies to make yourself an authority on what is and is not "pseudo-feminism". What is legitimate feminism, to you? The variations that don't critique systems of oppressive power and privilege and entitlement, such as those based on white supremacist and male supremacist ideologies?

I look forward to your reply.

A REPLY:
From a man named Kyle, and not from Russell himself.

Posted by Kyle Munkittrick on 04/26 at 12:12 PM

Julian,

Dworkin allied herself with Christian conservatives to get porn censorship bills pushed through state legislatures. Those bills ended up largely ignoring the kind of porn that subjugates and objectifies women. Instead, the laws were excuses to declare lesbian and BDSM erotica and pornography obscene. Duggan and Hunter's "Sex Wars" make it clear that Dworkin and MacKinnon's efforts were both wrong in principle and in practice.

I agree with you, however, that neither Russell Blackford, nor anyone, has authority to declare some specific brand of feminism heterodox.

As for the other questions, I'll let him dig himself out or down deeper, as the case may be.

MY REPLY TO KYLE:
Re:
Dworkin allied herself with Christian conservatives to get porn censorship bills pushed through state legislatures.

That's entirely incorrect. I was there. The activists who worked on this issue worked with many city councils, and, surprise, some city councilors are liberal and some are conservative. Some of those who "got it" about pornography being harmful to women on civil rights grounds, not criminal ones, were conservative men, just like some conservatives get that abuse of animals is wrong. If someone appeals to a conservative city councilor to get any animals rights or human rights ordinance passed, does that mean the activist is, themselves, "right wing" or "conservative" or promoting right wing policies and politics. I don't think so.

What you are stating is consistent with media misunderstandings and academic sloppiness (and antifeminism) in its telling of history on the matter of feminist antipornography activism in North America.

Dworkin was quite on record for opposing state censorship approaches to regulating pornography. She co-drafted a civil rights law--she could have drafted a censorship law, yes? The law she co-drafted and supported politically supported women harmed in and by those who use misogynist pornography to sue the harmers on sex discrimination grounds, not on criminal ones. It did not empower the state to remove pornographic materials. Have you read their law? You can find it here:

http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/other/ordinance/newday/TOC.htm

Re:
Those bills ended up largely ignoring the kind of porn that subjugates and objectifies women.

Wrong again. The Dworkin-MacKinnon ordinance was designed specifically to address and provide recourse to most of the women used and harmed in and by the industry. It defined pornography in terms of what pornography, at the time, regularly and routinely did to women. Where are you getting your information from? A secondary source, perhaps?

Re:
Instead, the laws were excuses to declare lesbian and BDSM erotica and pornography obscene.

You're speaking about what Canadian legislators decided to do with the Dworkin-MacKinnon law, which Andrea Dworkin did not support. You're aware of that right? How is Dworkin responsible for what Canadian legislators do? That's giving her a bit too much power, yes? You know she did not approve of what they did, yes?

Re:
Duggan and Hunter's "Sex Wars" make it clear that Dworkin and MacKinnon's efforts were both wrong in principle and in practice.

Right, Duggan and Hunter's misreading and misunderstanding of the whole matter. Gotcha.

Re:
I agree with you, however, that neither Russell Blackford, nor anyone, has authority to declare some specific brand of feminism heterodox.

As for the other questions, I'll let him dig himself out or down deeper, as the case may be.

I welcome him to try.

News from Amnesty International, Canada. Is this new to you? Much of it was new to me. Why?

[image is from here]
Also wanted for gynocide, pimping,
starting sexual slavery and
the international trafficking
of women and girls of color
to white het men.
This poster could and should read:
"500 YEARS OF SEX TOURISM"

As is clear to many who do human rights work, who work to end violence against women, it becomes obvious, with a kind of never-ending re-introduction, that what U.S. white men know about the world, generally, is very little. We protect ourselves from feeling what the effects are of what we do. We block out, or sexually fetishise, our violence against other people. We pretend the world revolves around us. We worship a god who looks strikingly like us. This is woeful and wretched enough.

But that U.S. white men frequently proclaim ourselves the most knowledgeable people on Earth, as well as the smartest, the wisest, and the most politically and economically capable (cough), as well as the most moral, the most ethical, the most fair, the least criminal, the least diseased, the most honorable, the most honored, the most celebrated, and the most revered, what ought become clear, with increasing sharpness, is how full of shit white het men are about what they say about themselves as a group. And note: they have no opposition to being thought of a group when they misperceive THEIR rights being threatened. When they delusionally feel threatened, which is often, they organise, whether in White Nationalist groups or Men's Rights groups, to protect what's "theirs". That anything at all is "theirs" exclusively is only so due to white het men's illegal, corrupt, immoral, dishonorable, and utterly inhumane commitment to and committing of gynocidal and genocidal atrocities, to this day.

What follows is cross-posted from *here*.

Amnesty International and Women's Human Rights

Related Campaigns

Stop Violence Against Women
Stolen Sisters

Recent Postings

Algeria: Investigate and prosecute attacks against women
Bans on full face veils would violate international human rights law
Haiti’s emergency response must include protection from sexual violence

Amnesty International and Women's Human Rights

Amnesty International regularly documents a range of violations of women’s human rights through reports, news releases, public statements, and letter writing actions. We work with women human rights advocates and like-minded organizations to encourage governments to enforce women’s human rights as defined in various international and regional human rights standards. This blog covers the full range Amnesty's concerns in the arena of human rights for women, including sexual and reproductive rights; violence in armed conflict, the community and the home; women human rights defenders; and protection of women’s economic, social and cultural rights.