Racist page denigrating Aborigines disappears (FB)

[Deleted]

This makes it worse in my opinion: Facebook initially removed the page but restored it with a new content label 'controversial humour'.

www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/government/racist-page-denigrating-aborigines-disappears-overnight/story-fn4htb9o-1226446109768

A RACIST Facebook fan page that branded Aborigines as alcoholics has gone offline despite Facebook earlier refusing to ban it.

The Facebook page contained comments stereotyping indigenous Australians as alcoholics and welfare cheats.

It contained pictures of indigenous people with captions that offended some Facebook users and, in some cases, would be considered hate speech.

"How do you kill 1000 flies at once? Slap me in the face," reads one of the photo captions.

Facebook initially removed the page but restored it with a new content label 'controversial humour'.

Yesterday Broadband Minister Senator Stephen Conroy called on Facebook to shutdown the fan page.

Senator Conroy said Facebook's excuse that it can't take down the page on grounds that it would be classed as humour and protected in the US was inadequate.

"I just don't think it's appropriate. This is a page that denigrates our indigenous community extensively. Pretending its humour really doesn't change that," Senator Conroy said at the launch of the NBN Co's second corporate plan in Sydney today.

The page's administrator, posting as Aboriginal Memes, defended the content saying: "These c . . ts live off the tax decent white Australians pay every week, I think we have every right to make fun, actually".

Earlier, the Australian Communications and Media Authority announced it had launched an investigation into the pages.

"The ACMA is currently investigating specific URLs that contain the online content ... after receiving a complaint yesterday," an ACMA spokeswoman said in a statement.

"The ACMA is not is a position to provide further comment at this time given that an investigation is under way."

The pages have also attracted a backlash from other Facebook users with two pages springing up calling for the racist pages to be removed.

Brisbane resident Jacinta O'Keefe also posted a petition on Change.org calling for the page to be pulled.

It's reported that the page is operated by a 16 year-old Perth resident

The furore over the page coincided with a ruling by the Advertising Standards Bureau that Carlton United Breweries should be held responsible for "lewd and crude" comments posted on its Facebook Victoria Bitter beer fan page.

The Australian reported on Monday that the ASB had ruled that comments left by people on the social network site constituted advertising, even though the company had not posted them.

The ruling has placed heavy doubt over the ability of brands to use Facebook and other forms of social media for advertising.

[WOT?*]

But then again, Australia thinks nothing of performing Jackson Five routines in blackface. www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/harry-connick-jr-slams-au_n_313613.html

We just don't get their humor. 8-D

[Deleted]

Aug 9, 2012 3:00:33 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

But then again, Australia thinks nothing of performing Jackson Five routines in blackface. www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/harry-connick-jr-slams-au_n_313613.html

We just don't get their humor.

It was facebook who classified it as humour as far as I can see, or do they have regional team?