Why Does Facebook think Mary Poppins is Hate Speech?

Well, there is a question I never thought I would ask myself. Good old wholesome Disney family movie to everyone else, but to Facebook, its hate speech. It's laughable, and who would believe it, but here we are.

It was a quote directly from the movie, showing pictures of that scene. Was it a little sexist? Yes, admittedly so...but it was a fun little dig after a week's worth of men all over facebook rejoicing at the nomination of Brett Kavanagh and fearing for their sons. I didn't consider it hate speech, just another sexist joke, which felt kind of true at the moment. Facebook apparently considers it hate speech though. 

What does Facebook officially define as hate speech? 

"Our current definition of hate speech is anything that directly attacks people based on what are known as their “protected characteristics” — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or serious disability or disease."

However, I have seen countless posts about how women are gold digging bitches and have reported them, as well as ablest slurs and racist bile, but those comments are never against Facebook's Community Standards when I report them. Facebook didn't even think there was an issue with the man I reported for telling a woman that if she continued talking the way she was, she would end up in a ditch soon.

I don't really feel the need to go into it more deeply because you can try it out yourself; there is no shortage of disgusting vile hate speech on Facebook to report. Or try posting that quote from Mary Poppins on your own page and see what happens. Or post “Men are Trash”. That gets you banned for sure. I have a friend who has been banned several times for commenting it on articles about men acting like complete garbage. I could hardly believe it when he told me about it so I researched it, and here are some articles if you wish to read more on the subject:

Mic.com

Twitter

The Next Web

So even though I was surprised, I also wasn't really that surprised. What DID really surprised me though, was that Facebook would not allow me to send a report contesting the validity of my ban. There was a link urging me to do so, but the link made sure to inform me that no one would personally read it, and then it wouldn't even let me submit it. For my entire ban, I was unable to submit the report informing them it was a harmless Mary Poppins quote. 

On the same day, over 800 Independent media pages such as the Free Thought Project, Filming Cops, The Anti-Media, and Policing the Police were expunged from the platform. The pages were deleted just like the Bernie Sanders groups were before the election. I know when the Sanders groups came back after that, they were never the same. Suddenly they were filled with Bots and Trolls and Trump supporters.

I started thinking about who Facebook really is as a company. They mine our data, they creep me out with their ads proving they are listening to me through the microphone on my phone...I was so Lasse Faire about it because I assumed all companies do that, but they don't.

During my time off from Facebook I researched Facebook alternatives. Instagram and What’s App are owned by Facebook and though I might create an Instagram account, I would never post anything original on it.

 There are some really interesting choices out there for messaging and social networking, but of course, the main problem is that everyone is on Facebook. Ello and Mastadon look great, but no one I know is there. Telegram might be nice; they encrypt your messages and have chat bots just like Facebook messenger. I am sure they will have replacements for my word of the day messages. Discord is great, my gaming group uses that, but they are my only friends who use it. The alternative I decided on was Tumblr, supplementing it with things to cover the other features I will miss.

The events feature is so difficult to replace. There are local alternatives to keep me up to date with major events going on, but I know I am going to miss a lot of invites from my musician friends who do all their networking on Facebook.

I love being connected to the people I love and there are some amazing groups I am going to miss like crazy, but I can’t stay comfortable being a farm animal for Facebook to use without caring.

Rape: the Four Letter Word is already on Tumblr if you would like to follow me there, I am in the process of transferring things there now from our Facebook page.  Unsurprisingly, the ‘download entire album’ feature is not working at this time.