Tag Archives: Facebook

Mary Mitchell O’Connor welcomes row-back from Facebook on beheading video

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Social Network site’s policy on violent content still open to question

Fine Gael Dun Laoghaire Deputy, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has today (Wednesday) welcomed the decision by Facebook to remove a beheading video from the site and said the company’s willingness to re-examine the issue is proof of the volume of public sentiment against such horrific violence.

Deputy Mitchell O’Connor went on to say that while Facebook has committed to combatting glorified violence, its commitment to ensuring that graphic content is shared responsibly is open to question.

“Following on from a public backlash surrounding the publication of a beheading video on Facebook, the media giant has backed down and conceded that the video ‘improperly and irresponsibly glorifies violence’ and removed it from view. The company has committed to strengthening the enforcement of its policies on graphic content, ensuring that an emphasis is put on the context of the material and whether or not it is being shared with an age appropriate audience and contains a warning about what the material contains.

“While this is to be welcomed, I am still concerned that this is leaving our young people exposed to violent images and that videos and images of a graphic nature can be shared publically on people’s walls for a considerable amount of time before it is reported and removed.

“Our children are being increasingly exposed to violent material, through video games, TV and movies and through social media. I do not think that allowing material of a graphic nature to be shared on Facebook for the purpose of condemning it is acceptable. People can be made aware of what is going on in certain places without having to witness it first-hand. I am calling on Facebook to re-think the issue and to place an outright ban on explicitly violent material once and for all.”

24 October 2013

Facebook allows decapitation videos while banning certain breastfeeding images

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Social media giant needs to explain rational behind prohibition policy
Fine Gael Dun Laoghaire Deputy, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has today (Tuesday) called on the social media giant, Facebook, to clarify the thinking behind the company’s strategy where the banning of material to its website is concerned.
Deputy Mitchell O’Connor said the fact that violent and explicit images of decapitations can now be posted and viewed on Facebook, while certain images depicting a mother about to breastfeed her child need to be explained.
“Following on from the lifting of a temporary ban, which was put in place by Facebook in respect of graphic content, images of a violent nature can once again be posted and viewed on the site. The ban, which was put in place earlier this year following complaints from the public about certain images, among them a video of a masked man beheading a woman in Mexico, was said to allow the company a chance to examine its policy in this area.
“While this approach, in itself, is unfathomable, the situation is even more unbelievable, when consideration is given to the fact that, in Facebook’s own words, ‘photos that show a fully exposed breast where the child is not actively engaged in nursing….violate Facebook’s terms’.
“In response to reaction to this new policy from, among others, David Cameron PM, Facebook has said it will consider attaching warnings to content of a violent and graphic nature. The company asserts that the social media network should be a forum where people can post content of this nature so that it can be condemned. It maintains that its approach would be different if the content was being celebrated or the actions being portrayed were being encouraged.
“This is an astronomically naïve view being expressed by a company that really should know better. How on earth does Facebook know the motivation or intentions of the people viewing the material? The prevalence of this sort of content is desensitising people to the horrors of acts of such violence, and this is most noticeable in our young children who are increasingly viewing this material as the rule rather than the exception.
“Facebook is showing increasingly little regard for its younger users, their safety and protection from sinister practices. Just last week, a decision was taken to allow 13-17 year olds to share their posts publically on the internet, raising the risk of their welfare being compromised.
“I am calling on Facebook to explain the thought process which allows for such policies to be adopted and for the ban on beheading videos to be reinstated without delay.”

23 October 2012