Take Down —

If you haven’t yet read about our campaign to face down Facebook for its hypocritical enforcement of their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, check out Laura Beck’s coverage on HuffPo and Irin Carmon’s piece in Jezebel.

Specifically, Facebook is neglecting to exercise Section 3. Safety.

We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help to do that, which includes the following commitments:

…

6. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
7. You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

You will recall that Facebook is mainly concerned for “protected groups,” although Facebook Lady would not clarify this term and whether it applied to sexual orientation and gender identity or not.

Since she would not give me an answer, I decided to test it myself. You may recall that I created an alternate Facebook persona, Bob HomoHater, who then created two Facebook groups promote gay hatred, “Homosexuality is an Abomination” and  “I Hate Gay People.” I took a screen cap of the former:

I threw in Leviticus for some added realism. But other than that, no text, no pictures and no wall posts.

I then reported both groups from my real Facebook account on June 25. I don’t know the last time I checked them, but as of Sunday evening, July 11, both groups are no longer around and Bob HomoHater has been banished from Facebook.

That means it took 16 days or less to banish a hate group aimed at a non-protected class.

Curious, no?

And, as per Facebook’s rules, Bob HomoHater was banished from Facebook as well.

Shake it out and here’s what you’re left with:

• Facebook does not recognize hostility toward fat people as a violation of Sections 3.6 and 3.7 of its “Rights and Responsibilities”
• Facebook claims this is because these rules only apply to “protected classes”
• Homosexuality is not technically a federally protected class
• Two gay-bashing pages with zero members (aside from the creator), zero photos and zero content were removed within 16 days
• Meanwhile there hundreds of thousands of people belongs to hundreds of groups and pages, the sole existence of which is aimed toward the humiliation, degradation, dehumanization and hatred of fat people
• Most of these groups have been reported repeatedly for stealing photos to bully, intimidate and harass
• Yet only one group has been removed recently and Facebook refused to explain why

Alright Facebook, for whatever reason, you really, really, REALLY want these fat hating groups to stay put because of “free speech” and some such bullshit.*

But let me propose this to you.

Many of these groups (and I haven’t researched enough to know how many… yet) are directed specifically at fat women.

Not fat men and women.

Just women.

Hell, even their titles are aimed squarely at women alone:

• beautiful girls, all over the world, except you. fat bitch.
• I hate fat girls who wear tight shirts! ew..
• Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah Ah Ah. Take your shirt off!!.. LOL jk don’t. You’re fat.
• Put your breasts away, you’re fat and they’re not nice.
• i HATE fat chicks who think there hot!
• No Fat Chicks!
• Friends don’t let friends bang fat bitches
• Curves ARE sexy, but being obese is not.
• “Big Girls” by Mika is morally wrong
• I hate when fat girls wear tight clothes!!
• I Hate Fat Chicks That Think They’re Hot
• Fat chicks in leggings, Australia says no.
• The awkward moment when a fat girl says she’s fat…
• Fat legs camel toe, make a man go, HELL NO!

And let’s face it, even the groups whose titles aren’t explicitly attacking fat women are using photos of fat women and generally reserving their nastiest vitriol for fat women.

Since Facebook thus far refuses to act, or even so much as explain the inconsistent policy laid out by Facebook Lady, we’re going to have to take matters into our own hands.

The one area where FB does seem to be responding is regarding copyrighted photos. Therefore, I am asking for your help in identifying stolen photos on these 50 groups and pages. Go through and see if you recognize any content, then post a link on our group site, “Facebook, Please Stop Permitting Fat Hatred.” If you recognize the person, or if the photo is you, please contact that person and direct them to Facebook’s page for Intellectual Property Infringement.

But while you’re going through, feel free to report any and all photos of fat women you see for “Attacks individual or group.”

That is Step 1: Deprive the assholes of their snark fodder.

Step 2 is not for the faint of heart. We start another Fatty Flood, which is reverse-trolling (so-called since these groups are pretty much troll villages to begin with). Visit our Facebook group for details on which site we will be targeting.

The first group I reverse-trolled is now pretty much a spam graveyard. I can’t be 100% on why most of these assholes dropped off, but my theory is that I made is so uncomfortable for them to comment, so awkward to engage, that it was easier to just walk away.

The second group I did this to (and several valiant fatties joined in the fray) was shut down. Nobody knows why.

In any case, it can be both cathartic and empowering to confront fat haters “face-to-face.” Tell them to go fuck themselves, tell them that you love them anyway and want to give them a big squishy hug, explain in detail all the soft, luscious parts of your body that you love… flood their page with everything they never wanted to hear from a fatty.

It can get confrontational, so if you’re short on Sanity Watchers points, I don’t recommend it. But if you’re ready to do battle, come join us.

And finally, the third step is that we will be creating a new website to document fat hatred and for all those in denial about it’s existence. We will also post a petition to ask Facebook to include fat hatred in it’s “protected groups.” With a petition it will be easier to get an accurate reading of how many people find their current policy unacceptable.

The website will be similar in substance and style to excellent blog “First, Do No Harm,” which document cases of fat prejudice and discrimination in the medical field. It would be a permanent extension of Big Fat Deal’s post “How Do Strangers Treat You,” and would be used to further publicize the impact that fat hatred has on people.

Which brings us to the question I hear most from people sympathetic to Fat Acceptance, but who don’t see the point of raising hell about this Facebook policy. I would answer them with a question: How do you propose to help people realize the devastating pervasiveness of fat hatred that has penetrated all corners of our society?

Individual fat activism is one solution. Last week, we suggested just four unique ways in which a person can be a fat activist, regardless of your strengths or weaknesses: confrontation, leading by example, small steps, and guerrilla tactics.

Although each is a powerful way to exert influence on family, friends and strangers, we also need to be looking to changing society’s overall perception of what is and is not acceptable.

The traditional route would be marching in the streets and demanding equality. Although there is a place for that, the modern world is a much different one, as evidenced by the comparison of Iraq War protests to Vietnam War protests. The modern world has a different set of tools for voicing opposition that are just as powerful, if not moreso, than the ones used by the youth of the Vietnam era.

Our greatest strength is in our ability to mobilize without regard to distance, time or circumstance. I can begin a protest today and others may join tomorrow or a year from now, but so long as the protesters remain vigilant and motivated, the impact can be just as powerful.

The main problem is finding an issue to focus our efforts on. Fighting for Fat Acceptance is one thing, but fighting a specific example of fat hatred by an organization as powerful and popular as Facebook gives Fat Acceptance a focus, a goal, and a metric by which to judge our success.

Our focus is to remove fat hatred from Facebook. Our goal is to convince Facebook to include fatties in its “protected groups” (if not to simply ban outright hatred of any particular group, as per its “Rights and Responsibilities”). Our metric is the awareness we raise through the media of this particular issue.

We currently have damn near 500 members of our Facebook group, and the vast majority came from the HuffPo and Jezebel stories.

500 people.

500 people who want their voices to be heard, will be heard.

500 people who want Facebook to listen, will get Facebook to listen.

500 voices speaking in unison cannot be ignored.

I will limit what I ask of these 500 people so as to not waste their precious energy and focus, but when I post a CALL TO ACTION, I hope that each and every one of you will take the time to fight with us on this issue.

Facebook will change it’s policy or it will have to contend with the wrath of the Fierce, Freethinking Fatties.