Love is love, right?
Wrong! Well, according to certain narrow-minded people on Facebook and elsewhere.
For some time now, people who post photos of two men kissing or holding hands, even if they are clothed, have been reported on Facebook. One of the team investigates and often the picture is not removed because it does not violate their community guidelines. Other times, the person’s profile is banned from posting further pictures for a number of days and warned that the account may be deleted if this occurs again.
Michael Stokes Photography, Jesse Jackman and Dirk Caber, myself, along with many others have been victims of Facebook’s reporting system. It seems anyone can object to any photograph and Facebook investigates.
Michael Stokes Photography was recently banned from Facebook for 30 days after posting this portrait of two uniformed gay police officers kissing.
Michael Stokes is gay and has a huge following within the LGBT community. Yet other photographers and profiles who post similar pictures do not receive such harassment. There’s no excuse for this. Michael’s photos fully comply with Facebook’s community standards. While Facebook is free to determine those standards, and we may not agree with them, everyone who follows those rules should receive equal treatment. Otherwise, it’s blatant discrimination.
This picture was reported for nudity on my timeline after I posted it in support of Michael Stokes Photography. Facebook decided it did not breach their Community Guidelines on nudity and it was not removed.
This picture was reported for nudity on my timeline last year.
I had the option to delete it myself. I didn’t. Facebook decided not to remove it.
But the fact remains, anyone can report a picture and it seems LGBT supporters are targeted for attack in this way.
Everyone has the option of moving on, or unfollowing/blocking the profiles whose posts they don’t like or wish to see.
Any sensible person would make that choice.
It seems that certain people go out of their way to hunt down “gay” pictures and take delight in stirring up trouble by reporting such photographs.
Jesse Jackman and Dirk Caber have been targets of abuse and many of their posts and pictures have been reported.
But they are facing the hate, along with many others who want to end this unfair treatment.
Let’s put an end to anti-LGBT discrimination on Facebook.
Please sign this petition to change the reporting policy to prevent harassment and bullying on Facebook.
THE PETITION: Facebook Jail is the suspension or banning of a Facebook user based upon a breach of their terms and conditions. But it seems that they are extremely one sided on what exactly constitutes a breach. Numerous people are being targeted and bullied by Facebook “trolls” and Facebook is punishing the victims of the attack. These people are having innocent posts, pictures and/or links reported as porn or noncompliance with the rules and regulations Facebook has in place for their Community Standards. The same people are being targeted repeatedly, until they are suspended and ultimately banned from the social media network. Many of these victims use the platform as means of advertising and connecting with their clients and/or fans. This is part of their job and their living, which is being severely hindered by users out to malign and cause damage for their own cause, whatever that may be. Perhaps because of a misinformed morality which pushes them to force their belief systems on others, or just for cruelty sake, no one knows.
More than likely, one of the victim’s so-called “friends” is doing the reporting and there is no way for the victim to discover who this person is in order to unfriend them and stop the harassment, nor is there any recourse for them. If they attempt to contact Facebook about the issue, they are ignored and sometimes even banned. They are simply helpless and at the mercy of a severely flawed system.
Make no mistake, this is harassment, bullying, bigotry, homophobia and prejudice. Facebook’s same rules and regulations do nothing about the fact that there are countless pictures of female nudity on Facebook, which are more porn than artistry. Yet many photographs of males, even if artistic in nature and something that would be permitted on cable television, are being reported by unknown suspects. The victims include Artists, Authors, Gay couples, breast feeding mothers and I am sure countless of others. The situation is ridiculous and needs to be stopped.
Facebook has a block option, which can be utilized at any time if the content of someone’s page is unsatisfactory or offensive. It’s just as simple a process as reporting them, except then the heinous material will never darken the offended party’s page again. That doesn’t seem to be enough for these people.
Please also support other Facebook groups:
I Support Jesse Jackman and Dirk Caber
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Lily G Blunt 
Great post. The Love is Love message can’t be shared often and loud enough. As far as those small-minded reporters on FB are concerned, I wished they would get a life. It infuriates me and must defeat their purpose. Seems to me those that do get banned only get more attention on my timeline as soon as it happens. I guess those reporters are not smart enough to figure that out.
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Thank you, Helena. I agree! The ‘Love is love’ message needs to be proclaimed as much as possible. And yes, in the long run, the negative reactions of these petty and ignorant few, will in fact help promote this wonderful message to a wider audience.
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Love the post, Lily. Truly, I wish there was some real competition to Facebook that might force them out of their complacency, and make them face up to their innate, system-built-in biases. Until then, all we can do is fight on.
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Thank you, Anna. Hopefully this petition will result in something positive.
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Love the post. I was unaware of these actions. It is very sad. Find something else to do is what I would say to these reporters
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Thank you, Debby. That was one of the reasons for writing this post, so more people are aware of the Facebook discrimination and the bullying received by many in the gay community.
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It would be nice to know that facebook are keeping track of the people DOING the reporting. But I am sure they aren’t. I saw a well written article from one of the people on the other side of the reporting and some of the things that are posted are truly vile and quite rightly get priority but when you have a section of the community where so many posts are being reported despite being quite obviously not against the rules (unless you are a narrow minded bigot) they need to look at the bigger picture. Are they in fact allow a hate crime to fester? As they are so keen to make money off of peoples posts now its about time they spent some of it supporting those people!
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I hope FB keep a tally of those who report these photographs and the outcome of the reporting. They’d soon see that some people are time wasters and they should be punished for their harassment by having their profiles deleted.
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Well said, Lily. And look at it this way, at least when you were in FB Jail you were in good company if M. Stokes, Jeese and Dirk were there. 😛 (JK – Jail such, no matter the company.)
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Thanks, Andrew. I like your way of thinking 😛
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Well said, Lily. I didn’t joint Facebook for a long time and this type of thing makes me want to leave, but it must be better to use one’s membership to try to change it. Given FB’s failure to change their reporting and blocking procedures does cause one to question the views of those who run it. If there were a penalty for obviously discriminatory and/or blatantly wrong reporting (how could the pictures you show be classed as nude by anyone?) then that may have an effect, especially if the penalty was “three strikes and you’re out”.
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