Her Voice Blog

For those of you internet culture-savvy folks, you may have seen the recent backlash surrounding Facebook’s allowance of pro-rape fan pages (be advised, that link contains images and language people may find disturbing).

This isn’t the first time Facebook has been criticized about rape pages, and it might not be the last, either. These pages post graphic, deplorable and despicable content that advocates the abuse, rape and drugging of women. Yet, these pages are allowed to exist on Facebook since they technically don’t violate Facebook’s terms of service (though this assertion is certainly dubious).

But I don’t want to spend this whole post discussing the merits of whether pro-rape fan pages should exist (they shouldn’t), and instead I’d like to focus on the double standard that exists on the social media giant, especially when it comes to advertising.

Facebook is arguably the most-recognizable forum for speech in the digital age. It is the new town center, if you will. Since Facebook is not a government entity, it isn’t bound by the U.S. Constitution to grant anyone the privilege to say whatever they want in its space. However, if it’s going to regulate content, it should at least do so with some consistency.

For instance, pictures of women breastfeeding are a no-no on Facebook (it violates the “pornography” clause), even though the message surrounding that image has the potential to be much more positive than anything on a rape culture page. By the same token, a tattoo studio had a picture of one of its tattoos removed (again, pornography). The tattoo was a mural on the chest of a cancer survivor who had both her breasts removed.

As its terms of service exist now, it’s okay to create a page which makes advocating the abuse of women, yet it’s inappropriate to market to women using a picture of a woman breastfeeding. What’s wrong with this picture?

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.