Facebook To Ban Religious Posts, Memes After Criticism From Atheism Groups
Posted about 5 days ago |
In a closed-door session with shareholders on Tuesday 27 January, 2015, Facebook
executives wheeled out a set of new rules which, when implemented later
this year, will ban their users from creating status updates and image
posts related in any way to religion, while also vowing to disband
groups and take down pages with religious goals or affiliations.
Facebook will introduce their new rules in three waves. The first
will see religiously-themed pages being removed, as well as religious
groups, private or otherwise, being disbanded. The second wave will
prohibit the posting, sharing, and general distribution of religious
images and memes; images asking Facebook users to pray, or encouraging
them to believe in one or any religion, will be banned, with warning
messages and even account suspensions for those who repeatedly attempt
to violate the rule.
The third and biggest wave, which is due to come near the end of the
year, will impact regular Facebook users themselves, with new filters
which will seek out status updates that use “religious keywords,” such
as “Jesus,” “prayer,” “Church,” or “God.” Facebook staffers will read
flagged status updates to determine whether they should be removed or
not, with warning messages and suspensions going out to those who
violate the rule.
Not all religious content will be banned from Facebook, though. Paid
advertisements for religious organizations, services, and events will
still be allowed. Also, promotional pages for movies, books, and video
games with religious themes will be exempt from the new bans, though
what Facebook refers to as “primary religious texts,” such as the Bible,
The Torah, and the Quran, will not be given this exemption.
The new anti-religion rules come after several waves of protests from
atheist and agnostic groups, who claim user-created religious content
is offensive to them and, as one group put it, “promotes generation
after generation of forceful indoctrination into their belief systems,
which we do not want our children exposed to.”
“For years, religious groups have been allowed to spread their
propaganda on Facebook and other social media sites freely, so this is a
huge win for thinking people everywhere,” says Amber Wallace, founder
of the American Atheist Coalition, the group that led the charge on the
new Facebook changes. “Religion is fraudulent in nature. I consider this
a win not for atheists, but for humans of free will everywhere. A life
without religious dogma is definitely a life worth living.”
Atheist author John Rush says the new rules will end one of
Facebook’s most nefarious double-standards. “Last year, Facebook
announced `satire’ tags for satire websites, and this week, they
announced a new war on `hoax sites,’ like Daily Currant or The Onion.
They say they want to ban hoaxes and get them out of News Feeds. But
what about religion? That’s the greatest hoax ever carried out on
mankind, but you didn’t see anyone at Facebook taking a stand, not until
now anyway. It’s nice to see an end to their hypocrisy, at long last.”
But Facebook users of faith aren’t thrilled about the new rules.
“When is Facebook going to realize that it isn’t their job to police
their social network?” asks Reverend Mike Weis, who plans to file a
lawsuit over the bans. “There’s such a thing in this country as freedom
of speech. Facebook isn’t obligated to the first amendment, but we, as
users, should expect it of them. Blocking content because some minority
of users finds that content offensive is the exact antithesis of what
this nation of ours was founded on. And that means, in the very least,
that Facebook is about as anti-American as a website can get.”
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