facebook while black: users call it getting 'zucked,' say talking about racism is censored as hate speech - whiteboard

This is mental week, when high school teacher Carolyn Wessinger of Richmond, California, happily rolls on Facebook during recess.
Her classroom, black. and-
White image of Martin Luther King
Che Guevara and a sign of "resistance to the patriarchal system" are piled high by colored posters, and the whiteboard is covered with plans for pep rallies.
An article by poet Sean William caught her attention.
"On the day of Trayvon's 24-year-old, Liam nyson was on a national talk show trying to convince the world that he was not a racist.
"The Hollywood actor admitted in promoting a revenge film that a female friend told him decades ago that she had been raped by a black man she could not identify and that he was wandering around the street, look for black people to hurt him.
For Wysinger, he's an activist.
Dubb often explores the opposite
The disturbing incident of black racism recalls the dark history of lynching in the United States, when allegations of sexual violence against a white woman were used to defend the mob's murder of black men.
"White people are so vulnerable," she fired and shared William's post with her friends, "the appearance of a black man challenged everything of them.
"Facebook took only 15 minutes to delete her post because she violated the community standards for hate speech.
She will be banned for 72 hours if she posts it again.
Wysinger stared at her phone but was not surprised.
Black people, she says, can't talk about racism on Facebook, and risk being removed from posts and locked out of their accounts, are punished by what is often called a "Facebook prison.
"For Wysinger, the Nissen post is just another example of Facebook's arbitrary belief that talking about racism is racism.
"It will burn you out, and it will also burn you out emotionally," she said.
"Black activists say the hate speech policy and content moderation system set up by white-founded and led companies disappointed people facebook claims to be trying to protect.
Not only are the voices of marginalized groups over-suppressed, they say, but Facebook has rarely acted on repeated reports of racial slander, violent threats and harassment against black users.
Many of these users now think twice before posting an update on Facebook, or they limit the sharing of posts.
However, few people can leave single
Share information and create the largest and most powerful social media platform for the community.
So to avoid being tagged, they use digital slang such as "wypipo", emojis or tags to escape Facebook's computer algorithms and content moderators.
They operate and maintain under aliases-
Register an account to avoid losing content and accessing their community.
They have developed a buddy system that can remind friends and followers when a black activist is sent to Facebook prison to share suspended messages and posts posting them.
They call it "being bullied," and black activists say the bans have had a serious impact, not just one time to isolate people from friends and family for hours, days or weeks, but often from Facebook pages, they operate for small businesses and non-profit organizations.
A few weeks ago, Tanya Felson, the black life problem organizer, deleted one of her posts for hate speech.
"Dear White," she wrote in her post, "it's not my job to educate you or donate my emotional labor to make sure you're told.
If you take advantage of this time and labor, you will definitely get elbow when I see you.
"After being reminded by USA Today, Facebook apologized to Faison and withdrew its decision.
Even former employees are not immune.
On November, former Facebook partner manager Mark Luckie made a call to Facebook on how Facebook treats black users and black employees.
He wrote in the aFacebook post: "One of the most active populations and unparalleled cultural trendsetters of the platform is to divide their communities by the actions and inaction of the company.
"This loss directly reflects the staffing and treatment of many of its black employees.
Facebook deleted his post and said "take another look" a few hours later and reverted the post.
Black Seattle anti---said: "Black people are punished on Facebook for direct racist conversations with US
Racist consultant and concept artist Natasha Marin
Marin says she is one of Facebook's biggest fans.
She created a "compensation" fund to help people get medical appointments or pay prescription fees with small donations, to help single mothers afford groceries or rent, or to buy supplies for struggling new parents.
Recently, she launched a social media project to spread "black happiness" instead of "black trauma ".
She was also banned by Facebook for three days for posting screenshots of racist messages she received.
"For me as a black woman, this platform allows me to say, do something I could not have done," she said . ".
"Facebook is also a place that allows death threats to me and my children.
And Facebook, I'm completely insensitive to N-word.
7 out of 10 blacksS.
According to the Pew Research Center, adults use Facebook and 43% use Instagram.
Black Millennials are more involved in social media.
More than half-55% of black millennials spend at least one hour a day on social media, 6% higher than all millennials, while 29% say they spend at least three hours a day, the Nielsen survey found that this is 9% higher than millennials.
The rise of BlackLivesMatter and other label campaigns shows how important social media platforms are for civil rights activists.
According to the Pew Research Center, about half of black users turn to social media to express their political views or participate in issues that are important to them.
These labeling campaigns are in the context of a surge in hate crime, helping to include the death of police unarmed African-Americans and racial differences in employment in key areas such as public agendas and health.
"If I sit down with Mark Zuckerberg, the message I want to convey to him is: you may not even realize how powerful the things you create are.
The whole revolution can be carried out on this platform.
Global change is likely.
But it's impossible to happen if the real person can't attend, "said Marin.
"The challenge for these companies is to see black women as valuable resources.
This is the wealth on the platform and the people who push the platform forward.
If so, they should be supported.
"There should be policies and community standards that openly support this kind of work," said Marin . ".
"Maybe Mark Zuckerberg needs to sit down with a group of black women who use Facebook and listen to them.
"Facebook has been widely regarded as a platform for years, enabling people to bypass mainstream media or oppressive governments and tell their stories directly.
Now, in the view of some, it has taken on the role of review.
Social media giant Facebook, which has more than the world's population, says it is trying to judge what is hateful with unprecedented power.
From the far right to the far left, Facebook has been criticized for its judgment across the political spectrum.
To help sort allowed and not allowed, it depends on 40-
Last year's first public page list of rules called "community standards.
Facebook defines hate speech as an attack on "protected features" such as race, gender, sex or religion.
Everyone or everyone is treated equally.
These rules are implemented jointly by algorithms and human moderators trained in Facebook hate speech cleanup.
Since July to September 2018, facebook has deleted 2.
The company said that more than half of the 9 million content violated the rules of hate speech, and more than half of them were marked by its technology.
Facebook acknowledged that the tag teams of algorithms and moderators often make mistakes when tagging and deleting content.
It has taken steps to try to make its system more responsible.
Last year, Facebook began allowing users to appeal when personal posts were deleted.
This year, the company plans to introduce an independent expert body to review some of these appeals.
Zuckerberg said last month that there are too many sensitive decisions for Facebook to make on its own.
Recently, a series of violent attacks, including mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand, forced Facebook to deal with the scourge of white nationalist content on its platform.
Zuckerberg wrote: "legislators often tell me that we have too much power in our words, and I agree, frankly.
"At the end of 2017 and early 2018, Facebook explored whether it should provide more protection for certain groups than others.
SaysNeil Potts, Facebook's director of public policy, said that for now, the company has decided to maintain policies that protect all ethnic and ethnic groups equally, even if they are not facing oppression or marginalisation.
He said it would be very challenging to apply more "subtle" rules to the daily influx of content into Facebook and its other apps.
Potts admits that Facebook doesn't always read the room correctly, confusing propaganda and comments about racism and white involvement in anti-racism
A group of protected people were attacked.
Potts said Facebook is looking at how to identify when oppressed or marginalized users "talk to power ".
And ongoing research on the experience of black communities on its platform.
"On the face of it, this is the type of speech we want to encourage, but the language and people are not perfect, so it's not always the case.
"We are exploring further improvements to hate speech policy, which may help to correct some of them," he said . ".
Facebook wants to make sure its policies "reflect how people talk about these topics.
"This is the biggest thing," Potts said, "make sure we are aligned with this community and the way they talk about these topics and make sure our policies are aligned and connected.
Ayo Henry, the mother of four children from Providence, Rhode Island, said Facebook's policies could no longer be out of touch.
Last year, Henry was knocked off by a cyclist wearing a bunlian Jersey when she drove her car into the parking lot of a sandwich shop.
She honked.
He responded twice with racial slander.
She restrained herself in front of the child, but a few weeks later, after leaving roller skating training, Henry found the child again, wearing the same jersey.
The boy tried to push away.
She took out her cell phone.
"I don't know what happened to me.
"This is an impulsive decision," she said . "
"But I want him to know that it's not good.
He apologized and explained that he was "in a bad mood that day ".
She realized how young he was when his body trembled and his hands trembled.
She tried to give him some mother-like advice on why he should not use racial slander.
Henry's video was viewed more than 2 million times on Facebook.
Within 48 hours, Facebook took the video and said it violated itshate's rules of speech.
Henry appealed the decision, but Facebook declined to withdraw it.
Meanwhile, her Messenger inbox is filled with hundreds of racial slurs, derogatory messages and threats that she will be raped or killed.
However, whenever Henry tries to share the video privately with her friends on Messenger, Facebook blocks her.
Support from across the country helped Henry build a network of black activists.
She said that since last summer, they all began to notice that as long as the word "white" is entered in Facebook posts, their posts will be marked and the accounts will be suspended.
Henry said Facebook had suspended her activities many times because she called on white women to join a broader, more interactive form of feminism.
This is not a Facebook post, but a comment on the Post that triggered her longest Facebook pause.
Her post on Facebook drew attention to an antique store in nearby Massachusetts, which refused to remove racist memorabilia hanging on the wall, including a smoking retro ad
"The white supremacy is still continued through 'nostalgia, '" she wrote . ".
One questioned whether the image was actually racist, so Henry answered with a similar image from a jigsaw puzzle box of the same era, which was labeled "Chopped N------.
Facebook deleted the comment and she was sent to Facebook prison for a month.
Henry appealed the ban, but Facebook would not give in.
She said she knew that no one in the black community had resumed their posts by appeal.
"In this country, black people and people of color, we fight for survival every day.
"Now we have to be careful not to publicly complain too much about all forms of oppression, because if you do, then you will be suppressed," she said . ".
"As a black man, it's hard to navigate within the framework of social media, because racism is systemic, and when you realize it's ingrained in a system that's so influential in our country, this is almost the second burden.
"Social media should be a way for people to get together and be able to communicate relatively freely," she said . ".
"It's just another slap in the face for us.
"In the early days, the social justice movement turned black life to Facebook as an organizational tool.
However, their organizers said they were soon attacked by white supremacists who targeted racial slander and threats of violence.
In 2015, after Hurricane Katrina, the "changed colors" formed to organize the racial justice movement on the Internet began to pressure Facebook to stop hate groups from harassing black activists.
Chanelle Helm, an organizer of black life problems in Wisconsin, Kentucky, said the threat was exacerbated in the form of doxxing-posting the organizer's address, phone number and photos on the Internet.
Faisen, the founding member of the black life substance of the Sacramento chapter, was followed.
"Things get a lot more serious," Helm said . ".
"They threaten people with multiple stars from their families.
"Facebook removed a group responsible for some harassment, but change and other civil rights groups said it was difficult for the company to resolve other complaints.
At the end of last year, the New York Times reported that Facebook hired a Republican opposition research company to discredit "changed colors" and other Facebook critics.
"What we see over and over again is what is defined as race --
Neutral decision
"In the end, I am openly hostile to communities that need some freedom of speech protection most," Brandi Collins said . "
Color, senior event director for Color change.
The media justice center began investigating why the content of people of color was removed from Facebook in August 2016, when Facebook closed videos of Baltimore women at the request of law enforcement, live Korryn Gaines
She confronted the police.
Gaines was later shot dead by a police officer in front of her. year-
The son was shot twice.
Meanwhile, black life problem activists and Standing Rock pipe protesters in North Dakota State reported that their content was also removed.
2016 2017 civil rights and other groups write urged Facebook on its content audit system the independent of civil rights audit and established a working group to put forward suggestions.
On last May, Facebook agreed to anauditas its attempt to control the damage found by a vague Russian organization that trusted users impersonate political information about the American bombing target and the 2016 presidential election surrounding the split.
One of the main goals of the Internet Research Institute on Facebook is African-Americans.
On the same day, facebook bowed to the demands of civil rights groups and announced a second audit of anti-human rights allegations.
Conservative bias led by former senator and Arizona Republican Jon Kyle.
Steven Renderos said there was little progress in how Facebook handled racial-motivated hate speech against the African-American community or the erasure of black User speech, senior campaign manager at media justice center.
Last summer, after black girl Nia Wilson was stabbed to death by a knife-wielding white man at Oakland railway station in California, black women gathered on Instagram to mourn.
"When we see another of us murdered and bleeding down the street, we can't help but think: it could be me, it could be my daughter, a sister, my best friend, "Black activist Rachel Carter wrote. “You okay sis?
If you don't, I get it.
I feel heavy, distant and numb at this moment.
I feel angry, frustrated and heartbroken.
Cargle asked only women of color to respond.
"I need to give us this space to check in with each other.
Comments from black women flocked. “I’m scared.
For my family, for my friends, for myself, for all the other black women . "
Some white women opposed being excluded from the conversation.
Instagram quickly deleted Cargle's post, saying it violated guidelines for hate speech.
"Hundreds of black women's comments were seen and heard by their peers, loved and cared for by their sisters, and received the comfort and love they needed, Cargle wrote at the time.
"Did you see this?
Do you know that we were not only killed in the street, but also punished for grief?
Instagram later overturned the decision.
The civil rights group says they have largely abandoned Facebook and taken the initiative to protect black users, instead calling on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate the company.
The changed colors have asked Zuckerberg and Cook Lille Sandberg to attend the civil rights summit this spring, but they have not agreed to do so.
At Facebook's general meeting, the color change was the decision to replace Zuckerberg as chairman of the board.
"At the end of the day, Facebook hasn't solved one of the biggest issues of interest to the civil rights community," said renderos. "That's how it handles content moderation, and how the platform will become a place where civil rights are protected. ".
"Frankly, many of the organizations we work with are tired of waiting for Facebook to decide what changes it will make for itself.
"Sean Sanders, who works in public relations, said he thinks Facebook doesn't care.
Sanders is the person technology companies are looking for when they tell their stories to the media.
He used Facebook to connect with reporters.
He was also suspended three times for expressing his thoughts on racism.
"A platform can cut you off at will, which is exhausting me.
Not only did I cut off contact with my family and friends, but I also cut off contact with my work and craft.
"This is the part that really makes me understand," Sanders said . ".
"It is impossible for black people to die.
Black people should not shut their mouths to identify these things that always happen.
"I 'd love to ask Mark Zuckerberg: What the hell are you doing?
You are a mess.
That's what I said to him.
"It's not just black people who have been removed.
Andy Mara, executive director of the transgender legal protection and Education Fund, said black allies were also in trouble.
In a Facebook post at the end of January, Mara called on Asian Americans to protect "black and brown people facing the impact of white hegemony" but was deleted by Facebook.
Marra twice called for her Facebook post to be revoked, which shared an article from a popular blog showing an Asian man throwing a sign of "white power" against black life
"This article expresses the oppositeblack racism.
The article also sets out critical feedback on how other people of color-especially those of color in the Asian community, including me as an Asian-should oppose racism in all its forms, she wrote in an appeal rejected by facebook.
Only when a friend contacted Facebook to defend Marra's Facebook post was Marra's Facebook post restored.
Critics say the only way Facebook can correct a content review error is to build that connection, but that's not a channel for anyone to seek a remedy.
Taking Samreen "sammi" Lewis and Erica Morales as examples, two activists of color say that their Facebook page, three symbolic brown girls, has been deleted three times, once
They say that each of them is repeatedly banned and sometimes there is little suspension of service before being hit by another person.
Lewis estimates that in the past year, she has been attracted in half from facebook.
Their protests are unheard of, and every time they have to rebuild their Facebook page from scratch, they lose followers.
"Basically we don't matter.
The damage done to us is eternal and sustainedFacebook)," Lewis says.
"They would rather shut us up for their comfort than admit the damage they caused.
"In 2017, poet, Black Liberation organizer and activist Didi Delgado captured the growing anger of the black community with a media post titled" Mark Zuckerberg hates black.
"At the time, Delgado issued two bans on Facebook on suspicion of hate speech.
Delgadowrote said: "It means that paranoid trolls lurk on my page and report anything, hoping that I have violated the vague" standards "imposed by Facebook ".
"It's kind of like a white guy who has the flexibility to call the police whenever he sees a black guy outside.
Other than in this case, they found that it was not my physical presence that threatened me, but my digital presence.
When asked what has changed since she posted a viral post, Delgado said nothing.
"Black, gay, bisexual and transgender
"Male and female users are still being overbanned for public opposition to oppression," she said . ".
Today, Delgado spends less time and effort on Facebook and sometimes does not say what he thinks there.
"Sometimes it is more important to keep this direct communication channel open than to risk being banned by public positions," she said . ".
Finally, Wysinger did the same.
On February, Wysingerdecided decided not to risk being fired from Facebook by reposting herpost about actor Nison.
Just a few days before her 40 th birthday, she didn't want to be thrown into Facebook prison and missed the chance to celebrate with her family and friends.
But, she said, she wants facebook to know that the company has hurt black people in the process of making them silent.
"Facebook doesn't want to protect me or any other person of color or any other marginalized citizen who has been attacked by hate speech," she said . ".
"We have trolls all the time.
Those who go through your page and say hateful things.
But no one wants to protect us.
They just want to protect their bottom line.
"Anything I share, I'm sharing it because what's happening to me is personal.
"This is the platform Facebook has been building," she said . "
"It once asked: how do you feel?
Well, today I feel like I'm being targeted by the trans-whites of CIS.
"Read more: USA Today reports on the inclusion, diversity and fairness of techMore on Facebook and race: Facebook removed ads mentioning Africa