If you want to cause a controversy in the world today then Facebook is the place to go to. There have been plenty of pages and pictures banned from the site so let’s take a look at some of them to see if they were really that bad.
The Facebook Breastfeeding Scandal
If you have travelled to places with other cultures at any point you will notice that the act of breastfeeding is one of the things which is viewed completely different in different places. While mothers will openly do this in public in some countries in others it is viewed as something strange and possible unnatural to do in front of others. Facebook doesn’t like it and many mothers have been very upset to see their pictures deleted.
The Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Debate
If what you want to do is cause a bit of a stir then you could set up an event called Everybody Draw Mohammed Day to try to support people who have been threatened for creating images of the Islamic prophet. This controversy started with images of Mohammed appearing on South Park, leading to internet death threats for the people involved. The Islamic faith doesn’t allow for artistic representations of Mohammed and the appearance of this page led to Facebook getting banned in Pakistan until the offending page was blocked for people living there.
The Evesham Township Police Mug Shots
A fantastic idea from the people at Evesham Township Police was to put the photos of people they had arrested for drunk driving on their Facebook page. It pointed out on it that they were innocent until proven guilty but that didn’t stop us all going onto it and seeing them all as criminals, did it? They have since taken the images down due to the furore it caused, which seems a shame. I wonder whether drunk driving rates have gone up since they stopped doing this? Or maybe people just don’t spend so long putting on makeup and brushing their hair before they get sloshed and grab the car keys now.
The Facebook Holocaust Debates
The subject of the Holocaust is another deeply controversial issue which has been hotly disputed on Facebook. Sites such as Everybody Draw Holocaust – apparently a response to Everybody Draw Mohammed – fuelled the flames of another Facebook scandal. The Holocaust has also been subject to Facebook pages denying its existence, something which is classed as a crime in a number of countries across the planet. It is something which has seriously tested Facebook’s banning policies and whatever they do about it there are going to be millions of people upset about their actions.
The Effin Disgrace
After seeing how religious differences and breastfeeding can cause such huge problems it is nice to see that the Irish can bring a smile to our faces. They named a town Effin, God bless them. This is quite close to what people would say if they wanted to say the F word but their auntie was sitting next to them or they were watching the Pope on the TV. Facebook in all its wisdom banned the use of the town’s name but order was restored and Effin can now be used as your home town on Facebook if you like.
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