To spice up the site and give people more freedom to express
their viewpoints, Facebook started offering fan page feature. It is still free
and any user can utilize it to share their interest or viewpoint on an issue
with like minded folks. The concept seemed promising as celebrities and
companies began to take advantage of the feature. But there were also those who
used it to express hatred. Facebook does have guidelines against such element.
They
do warn against bullying and spilling hatred. But this does not have much
impact. What makes this worse is the fact that the free page feature is now
being utilized to humiliate or insult ordinary citizens. Generally, middle or
high school kids are the victims. To all
of us, this looks bad, but to Facebook, probably this is still freedom of
expression. Try reporting one page. Your effort will go in vain. Compelling
Facebook to get an abusive page deleted is no more easy, but possible. The
officials do not care how much the page hurts its target. They seem to have engulfed
the notion that reporting done by only one user or handful of people cannot be
taken credible. Most often it is shown by the little note they send to
reporters’ dashboard. It states why the page has not been taken off. Of course,
they try to be all formal with an abnormal justification according to which the
abuser has not gone against Facebook guidelines. That is the reason why so many
people had to come forward with their own sites and petition page to urge
people to compel Facebook to remove certain abusive pages. Most of them, however,
have not succeeded in their mission. Hope should still be kept alive. Recently,
without using any sites from outside, a group got a big hate page deleted. It
had more than 40,000 likes.
 |
Shah Rukh Khan at Yale University |
The hate page was against Indian actor, Shah Rukh Khan. He
has fans all over the world and often is said to be more famous than Tom
Cruise. The group’s effort has proven this to be true. The hate page in
question was probably two years old. It actively displayed fake crude materials
about the actor which angered his fans from day one. They did report the page multiple times, but
instead of seeing it go, they witnessed increasing likes. For celebrities, hate pages are nothing new. They have both lovers and haters. They learn to accept it all. But
for fans, this is not digestible. Love
is mysterious in its own way. Face to face contact is not required to go by its rules. The
actor’s fans, also known as Srkians internationally and Shahrukhi in some
European countries, have unwavering loyalty to him. They stand by him through thick and thin. They
do not shy away from protecting him from his haters and enemies. They made news about it.
The hate page
had no influence over his movies and stardom. Yet a time came when Srkians
became determined to get it removed at any cost. Some birdies stated that
hacking the page was a part of their plan, but it was eventually dropped. The
final decision they agreed upon was to get it reported by as many people as
possible continuously for weeks. First,
his Indian fans embarked on doing the task. But just as shown above, Facebook
did nothing about the page. At the end, they urged his fans from other
countries to join hands and this is where things got interesting. Some little birdies
whispered that in this war against the hate page, his Middle Eastern and
Israeli fans fought together. The mission began spreading like wildfire. More and more countries joined in. Constant reporting went on and the page kept
disappearing, and coming back. Finally, the day came when the reporters were
told by Facebook that the page was removed for good.

So ladies and gentlemen, reporting still works, but only
when it is constant. How many reports are needed is still unknown. Some say
only 200. Others give a higher number. Shah Rukh Khan has infinite number of fans.
It is safe to assume that the hate page we just talked about was reported
million times. Interestingly, one
important fact these fans have brought to light is that the Facebook note we
find within the dashboard about why a page is not removed is mere a sign of
slothfulness of its officials. Otherwise, the company has hidden agenda.
No comments:
Write comments