Scores of women had their accounts shut down in wake of #MeeToo protest FB is banning women for calling men ‘scum’

Washington. Dec. 4: In a reply to a friend’s Facebook post in October, comic Marcia Belsky, in a sarcastic tone, said, “Men are scum”. Little did she realise that she will be banned for it from the social platform for 30 days. But that was exactly what happened, The Daily Beast reported.

The severity of the ‘punishment’ by the social media giant for such a relatively innocuous comment shocked Belsky. But she realised this was not an isolated case after her female friends revealed they had more or less faced similar situations.

Countless women who via the #MeToo movement came onto Facebook to express their frustration and disappointment said that many of their accounts were shut down or banned for periods ranging from one to seven days due to their posts on men.

Women who hinted that since “all men are ugly”, country music star Blake Shelton “winning the sexiest man isn’t a triumph” were locked out of their accounts.

Benign posts such as “men ain’t shit,” “all men are ugly,” and even “all men are allegedly ugly” and have been removed.

“I posted men are scum in November and I received a seven-day ban. It’s still on,” said comedian Alison Klemp.

Some like Kayla Avery, a comedian in Boston, has been banned around 10 times by Facebook and is currently at the end of her third 30-day ban.

She said she got banned for posting “men continue to be the worst” after her page was flooded with trolls making derogatory and sexist comments. She said she “felt helpless to stop their hate”.

“There was a guy who was threatening to find my house and beat me up,” she said. “I got banned before I could even successfully report it,” she added.

In late November, nearly 500 female comedians, women decided to post some variation of “men are scum” on Facebook on November 24, as a form of a protest. Nearly all of them were banned.

On November 28, comedian Rae Sanni documented her experience of being banned by Facebook on Twitter, which went viral and many other women began to share their stories.

Avery created a website to document these women’s tales. The site, FacebookJailed.com, shares women’s experiences of being ‘punished’ by Facebook for making benign comments about men or hitting back at trolls. They would also show how their reaction would highlight Facebook’s inaction against insults and racial slurs of men.

“Comedian and writer Rae Sanni has been targeted by Nazi trolls who hurled dozens of threatening and violent messages and comments at her for days,” a recent post reads.

When asked why a statement such as “men are scum” would violate community standards, a Facebook spokesperson said the statement was a ‘threat and hate speech toward a protected group’ and so action had to be taken. — Agencies