BY MORGAN WELCH
dot429
In the last week of December, Facebook not only removed a photo from the Have A Gay Day page, but slapped a 30-day ban on all of the page’s 106 administrators, claiming that the photo “violates community standards.” After a wave of backlash for its actions, the company changed its mind on January 2; according to PinkNews, a Facebook spokesperson announced that the photo’s removal had been in error and as such had been restored. As for the page’s admins, it denied any had been banned.
A member of the Facebook Policy team, Fred Wolens, told 429Magazine that “there are millions of groups on Facebook, and it simply wouldn’t be feasible to setup [sic] a pre-approval process for this type of content, that’s why we provide report links throughout the site.” In practice, the policy often means that all it takes to get content taken down is enough users flagging it for being offensive—whether or not it violates any rules at all.
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