Dear Facebook Executive Team, Board of Directors, Venture Capital Investors, Employees and Community Members:
I don’t have to tell you this, social networking is amazing. It brings people together to share like never before. Photos. Words. Ideas. Interests. Causes. Of course, the promotion of hate toward any person based on their race, color, religion or national origin is frowned upon. In fact, we have laws in the U.S. to protect everyone against some in the human race who have an inability to self-manage bigotry, bias and hatred.
I know you’re busy with your startup. But I hope you take a moment and consider: While you are growing membership and topline revenue, while you are meeting with potential strategic partners and selling more advertising, while you are doing all the great things that come with building an internationally recognized company and brand, could you do one thing for me? Could you take a look at this, and please say if it meets your standards and terms of use? Could you please read the postings by your very enthusiastic 31,000+ members who are “fans” of a group that appears to foster feelings less than positive about cyclists?
I’ll be upfront, I’m not a big Facebook fan, so I can’t say if there are other Facebook groups espousing similar “humor” against people for other activities like cycling. That’s something for you to “manage” as your build your community. Good luck. I can imagine if any of your members of this cycling group kills or maims a cyclist with their vehicle, a very good lawyer and his or her research staff will turn up material in the discovery phase of a civil lawsuit in an attempt to reach into the deepest pockets — yours. Sure, that may be considered a financial setback. And the loss of life is irreplaceable. But imagine the goodwill and karma you could engender just by simply doing the right thing. I have a few cycling friends who I believe agree with me.
Regards,
Jeff Bean, San Diego, CA – husband, father, taxpayer, motorist — and, yes, cyclist
Related posts:
- Open letter to ESPN Radio It’s not often, I rant here on BC. The last time was an open letter to Facebook for its hosting of a “group” fan page that included images of cyclists being maimed by automobiles and motorists. All in good humor, free-speech advocates would say. So, now the stakes get higher....
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Jeff,
Did you use the report function to highlight these particular pages to the Facebook teams? I presume that you did, but just in case not it’s worth asking. Anyone else who reads this post and feels the same way probably should too – the more the content is flagged, the more likely the Facebook guys are likely to notice that this sort of content doesn’t paint them in the best of shades.
I reported this group, images and comments using the report button. In addition I sent an email to abuse@facebook.com a couple days ago and here is their response
“Thank you for reporting this potential abuse on our site. We will review the reported material and remove anything that violates our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. If warranted, we will either warn or disable the user responsible.
In the future, please feel free to use the “Report” links located near most pieces of content on the site to report offensive material to Facebook. We will then review the material and take appropriate action based on our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Rest assured that these reports will be kept confidential.
Remember that you should also contact the authorities if you ever feel threatened by something you see on the site.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,”
I’d suggest we need to get as many cyclists and other intelligent, thinking people to hit the report button on this one. I’ve just added my report suggesting that the page incites hate against others and encourages illegal behaviour on our roads.
Rodney, Paco and Peter – Thanks for the pointers. I just reported several member comments (and the two horrific attempts at humor with a carnage photo) that do clearly do not meet the standards of safety, per Facebook’s lengthy terms of use. I find it amazing that with all the algorithms Facebook can develop to make money and monetize “content”, they can’t better police their very own platform without our help, which requires us to be Facebook members. If we have to band together as a real community and “report” every day to defend ourselves against hate speech, then we will.
Jeff, sadly it isn’t in their interest to police the content unless forced to. There is quite a lot of discriminatory content out there, and this is by far not the worst.
They are not alone in this attitude – YouTube is largely the same, as are many other sites. It’s much like the web as a whole condensed into one location.
Thanks for putting in official writing what all of us have expressed on Facebook/Twitter. I’m 100% with you. I’ve been a Facebook member for almost 2 years now and it’s been good for my business to be honest, but my excitement is rapidly dwindling when I see hate groups running wild like this.
I have just suspended all my Facebook Ad spending until this is resolved. I know it’s a drop in the ocean, but that’s the essence of change…one drop at a time!
Time has also come to give proper credit to the hard work of people like Jeff Helfand in the US of http://www.veloreviews.com and Simon Tucker in the UK of http://www.cyclesocial.co.uk who build social network sites centered around the cycling community. I can vouch for them that you’ll NEVER see hate groups get out of control as currently on Facebook.
Keep spreading the message and let Facebook (or any other network for that matter) know we don’t tolerate hate!
Markus Neuert
Director – CYCLEFILM Productions
Jeez, what’s wrong with these people? Why do they hate cyclists this much? Glad to be living in the one and only cyclenation of the world, The Netherlands…
I also alerted the Facebook “authorities to this “group” of cretins, using the “Report” links.
30,000+ members! Though I notice an increasing number are cyclists who are tangling with its supporters. Waste of time IMO.
Incidentally, I’m recovering (slowly) from a catastrophic injury sustained last summer, after an unplanned “meeting” with a distracted driver.
Well expressed. Bravo! Sadly this is only one of hundreds of similarly venomous so called “fan” pages set up for the express purpose of spreading hatred.
I’ve been a FB user for almost 5 years…ever since my oldest child went to college and urged me to join to stay in touch with her. And I’ve watched it bloom into something – like most any other tool – that really demands mindful management.
Thanks for speaking up. I urge everyone who reads this to send along similar sentiments.
Allison
Nothing against bicyclists that bike responsibly. But I can understand the irritation caused by the San Francisco, Austin type critical-mass bicyclists. Certainly not enough to start a FB group threatening to kill them.
But, come on, folks. This is NOTHING like the hate associated with race, color, religion or national origin. Facebook letting Holocaust denial groups go on undisturbed, now that’s an issue of hate. Roots run deeply there.
There’s no hate here anywhere near the level of viciousness, dark history or discrimination we see in so many other places. Rally against it, sure. But don’t compare it to REAL hate. Please.
Markus, thanks for the referrals to sites of Jeff Helfand and Simon Tucker. I will do my best to help promote and encourage readers to engage. See you soon in San Diego. Safe travels. JB
Ian, you expressed what I left incomplete. The great service that THIS type of hatred can serve is to motivate us to react similarly to the real thing. I plan on using what I was inspired to learn about Facebook’s policy of reporting abuse to ensure that I don’t pass by the other stuff (race, religion) without speaking up in the future. In fact the last time I personally faced this kind of overt hatred I was so overcome that I remained mute. (See my post at http://bit.ly/8F8BG5) I detest intolerance. And when it’s used to incite violence, whether against cyclists or against immigrants to this country we should speak up. Bravo to all that have commented. And thank you, Jeff, for helping to ensure that I don’t ever remain mute against this stuff again.
Ian, thanks for your comment. BikeCrave values all opinions. The only way things change is when people get involved. Unfortunately, it also usually comes down to laws and lawsuits. I drew links to both for this particular post. I support the cycling community and write about cycling on this bike blog. That’s the focus. If you have a passion to change other things, I recommend you stand up, take a clear position and lead the way.
Great letter Jeff – to the point and heartfelt. I think if we can bring a small group of cyclists together for a small event such as a tweetup in Las Vegas, we can certainly bring far more to disband the group. Keep the voices raised!
Raymond, thanks for the note and best wishes on your recovery. A bike versus a car does not favor the person on the bike. I’m glad you’re on the mend — and hope the distracted driver only makes that mistake once. JB
It is worth reporting these hateful groups to Facebook. There was one recently called ‘just want punch cyclest in the head when they wont move out your way’ [sic]. It had similar content to this one. It has been deleted.
Refer in your report to Facebook’s term at http://www.facebook.com/terms.php – in particular look at section 3 (“Safety”), items 6, 7, and 12:
“6. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
7. You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.
…
12. You will not facilitate or encourage any violations of this Statement.”
Thanks for posting about this.
Here’s something we should support http://yieldtolife.org/ they can also be found on Facebook