Facebook learns that sexism is bad for business

Social media platform Facebook has learned that sexism is bad for business, scaring away lucrative advertisers and souring relationships with users. On 21st May 2013 Women, Action & the Media (WAM!), the Everyday Sexism Project and author/activist Soraya Chemaly launched a campaign to call on Facebook to take concrete, effective action to end gender-based hate speech on its site. Since then, participants sent over 60,000 tweets and 5000 emails, and the coalition grew to over 100 women’s movement and social justice organizations calling for Facebook to changes its policies. Facebook finally capitulated on 27th May 2013.

“Facebook has long allowed content endorsing violence against women. They claim that these pages fall under the “humor” part of their guidelines, or are expressions of “free speech.” But Facebook has proven willing to crack down on other forms of hate speech, including anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and homophobic speech, without claiming such exemptions.” The coalition called on Facebook to make the only responsible decision and ban gender-based hate speech. It listed prominent companies whose Facebook ads have appeared alongside violent, hateful content and called on activists to contact companies directly. This was enough for Nissan and the insurance giant Nationwide who pulled their ads immediately. Organizers then turned their attention to advertisers like Dove, American Express, ZipCar, Disney and MacDonalds among others.

Facebook capitulates

Within a week the coalition’s #fbrape campaign had been quoted by countless journalists and media commentators with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg both receiving letters, emails and messages. The spectre of Facebook’s first shareholder’s meeting on 11th June 2013 being disrupted by protestors arose so by 27th May 2013, Facebook finally capitulated. In a statement, Facebook addressed the coalition’s concerns and committed to evaluating and updating its policies, guidelines and practices relating to hate speech, improving training for its content moderators and increasing accountability for creators of misogynist content.

Facebook also invited Women, Action & the Media (WAM!), The Everyday Sexism Project and members of the coalition to contribute to these efforts and be part of an ongoing conversation on the issue of how Community Standards around hate speech are evaluated and to ensure best practices represent the interests of our coalition.

Social Activism Works!

“Our mutual intent is to create safe spaces, both on and off-line. We see this as a vital and essential component to the valuable work that Facebook is doing to address cyber-bulling, harassment and real harm”, explained Soraya Chemaly, “it is because Facebook has committed to having policies to address these issues that we felt it was necessary to take these actions and press for that commitment to fully recognize how the real world safety gap experienced by women globally is dynamically related to our online lives,”.

“We have been inspired and moved beyond expression by the outpouring of energy, creativity and support for this campaign from communities, companies and individuals around the world. It is a testament to the strength of public feeling behind these issues.” says Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project.

Jaclyn Friedman, executive director of Women Action and the Media (WAM!), said: “We are reaching an international tipping point in attitudes towards rape and violence against women. We hope that this effort stands as a testament to the power of collaborative action.”

Click here to read Facebook’s Controversial, Harmful and Hateful Speech statement

About Women, Action & the Media (WAM!)

Women, Action & the Media (WAM!) WAM! is an independent North American nonprofit dedicated to building a robust, effective, inclusive movement for gender justice in media. WAM! builds community and activism to advance women’s media participation, ownership and representation. Volunteer runocal chapters operate year round activities.

Visit us online at www.womenactionmedia.org

About Everyday Sexism

The Everyday Sexism Project is an ever increasing collection of over 30,000 women's daily experiences of gender imbalance. Contributors include women of all ages, races, ethnicities and sexual orientations; disabled and non-disabled, religious and non-religious, employed and unemployed. Recently expanded to include sites for 16 countries worldwide, the project has been featured on television, radio and in newspapers and magazines around the world, and is the subject of a documentary film by a BAFTA winning director as part of the international Chime for Change initiative, spearheaded by Beyonce.

Visit www.everydaysexism.com for further information

About Soraya Chemaly

Soraya Chemaly is a feminist cultural critic, writer and activist. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and Salon and she is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, RHRealityCheck, Role/Reboot, Feministe, The Feminist Wire, Fem2.0, Ms. Magazine Blog and Women Under Siege, among other media. She makes frequent media appearances to discuss the role of gender and sexualized violence in politics, religion, education and media, including NPR’s Talk of the Nation and Sirius XM’s Progressive Radio. She is currently writing a book on these topics.

www.sorayachemaly.blogspot.com or www.sorayachemaly.tumblr.com.