Online activists launch campaign ‘for a better FB’
G Preetha, with 24,000 followers, launched the page after she was bombarded with abusive messages in Malayalam on July 28
ALAPPUZHA: Online activists peeved at Facebook policies have launched a campaign called “For a better FB". They held a meeting with Facebook team in the US and India on Tuesday demanding linguist experts who understand regional languages and cultures to review contents.
G Preetha, with 24,000 followers, launched the page after she was bombarded with abusive messages in Malayalam on July 28.
She reported it to Facebook with the help of friends and supporters, but the social networking service providers washed their hands off saying, “The posts doesn’t violate community standards”.
Meanwhile, the hate posts continued even insulting her autistic son with his pictures. Many Facebook users - men and women alike - stood by her in solidarity.
But the misogynists went a step further making them also their targets. She and her friends met the Facebook policy team with the support of Global Voices Advocacy defending free speech online.
The cis-india.org also came in their support and south Asian women’s organizations and feminist groups in the US joined hands.
“There was a talk of a deadline during the meeting... Further discussions are going on with special case studies on appointing a panel and also to understand the cultural complexity of the various regions,” its latest post says.
This is not for the first time Kerala Faceboo-kians targeting women with hateful messages. Last year, a TV anchor registered a complaint with cyber police after her official fan page came under perverts' attack. But nothing happened so far.