Facebook Allows Hate Speech Against Fat People

Facebook protects many groups from hate speech. Here's one they don't offer protection to: Fat People. Check out these Facebook groups:

• beautiful girls, all over the world, except you. fat bitch.
• If sex is such good exercise, why are there fat sluts?
• You're not "thick", you're a fat-ass in denial
• I don't hate you 'cause your fat, you're fat because i hate you.
• "Do you ride Elephants in India?"..."No, do you ride fat people in America?"
• i hate fat/ugly people that try to act bitchy. like no, your fat.
• Friends don't let friends bang fat bitches
• I would carry you to the moon and back...LOL jk, your fat and i'd die
• Being Fat and Ugly
• we all know a fat slag who thinks their fit
• You're wearing a tight clothes and you're fat....that's not good.
• SHUT UP AND GET NAKED. LOL jk... your fat
• HIT THE GYM FAT ASS !!!

Terrible grammar and lack of creativity aside, this cannot stand. When a user starts a Facebook group, they're notified that:

"groups that attack a specific person or group of people (e.g. racist, sexist, or other hate groups) will not be tolerated. Creating such a group will result in the immediate termination of your Facebook account."

The entire purpose of the above groups is to propagate hate speech against fat people, specifically women. Can you imagine similar slurs being cast on any other group? Yes, you can. That's why Facebook is so rigorous in removing groups that attack federally protected minorities. That's fantastic--except lots of minority groups that aren't federally protected under the EEO laws, including gay or transgendered people, and Facebook appears to have silenced hate-groups against them. And it's not because there isn't a single person on Facebook who hates gay or transgender people enough to take two minutes to start a group. It's more likely that every time a group of that nature pops up, it's very rightfully flagged and removed.

Well, the fat-hate groups listed above have been flagged numerous times, and yet they remain. What's worse, multiple women have had their pictures used without their permission in Facebook fat hate groups. Bloggers such as Fat Nurse, Definatalie, and Pretty in Plus all write of experiences with this.

Shannon Russell of FierceFatties.com and the creator of the Facebook group, "Facebook, Please Stop Permitting Fat Hatred", who is currently pressuring Facebook to expand its definition of "hate speech," says that his emails to the company about this matter have remained unanswered. He goes on to say, "The sole purpose of these groups is for brow-ridged mouthbreathers to collectively exercise their inferiority complexes at the expense of others. There's no reason why Facebook should continue to allow hate speech directed at any group, let alone to defer their ethical rights and responsibilities to an outmoded federal mandate."

If Facebook is in the business of deciding what constitutes hate speech, they must be evenhanded about it. The cruelty of such groups cannot go unchecked, and we must all remind Facebook of this until they're gone. If you're outraged and interested in doing more, join "Facebook, Please Stop Permitting Fat Hatred" and let Facebook know that this kind of imbecilic, vile hatred against any group is not okay.

 

Follow Laura Beck on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mrpenguino

Comments

[jav1231]

10:46 AM on 08/25/2010

There's no such thing as hate speech. There's simply speech. You either disagree with it, like it, or are agnostic towards it. "Hate Speech" as used culturally is essentially speech one disagrees with and wants to see stifled. Thus, eroding the very notion of Free Speech because whoever has the power determines what "hate speech" is.

[Matt Loomis]

11:37 AM on 08/01/2010

I thin next we should make the lazy a protected group too. Or how about the obnoxious, or the ones with a bunch of staples in their face, or the ones with neck tattoos.
Despite propaganda to the contrary, you not only have to choose to be fat, you have to go out of your way to be fat.
Sorry, not buying this one.

[Emily aka Miley]

08:51 AM on 07/23/2010

Just because you see a fat person ONE day and hate them, you do not know what is going on in their life and how they may look next month, people can change you know. SLOWLY, but they can.

[Emily aka Miley]

08:28 AM on 07/23/2010

As an obese (245lbs at 5'2") woman in recovery for eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, over exercising, and binging), I do find this offensive. Yes I know I am fat, and I have been finally losing weight the healthy way (15 pounds in 2 months, a bit fast, I know) , but I do not feel that calling people fat or making fun of fat people is ever appropriate. People do not understand how hurtful words can truly be. why do you think I developed an eating disorder?

[FatNSassy]

09:43 AM on 07/13/2010

I have mixed feeling about this. On one hand, hatred against any group should not be tolerated. If FB has an anti hate policy, it should be applied uniformly. On the other hand, those who start or join these groups are losers. It has been demonstrated in multiple studies that those who bully have issues. For anyone who knows a bully, plain old common sense reveals they have little going for them. Personally I love my 240lb body. Every time I look in the mirror, I see a beautiful healthy women. The insecure simply don't have the power to change my perceptions of myself. Why give them any attention at all.

[chbrules]

08:17 PM on 07/12/2010

Oh, look. The advocating of censorship of speech. The irony of a newspaper to print such a thing.

[FatNSassy]

09:37 AM on 07/13/2010

Just curious if you would make the same comment if the subject of the hatred was about any other group!

[die Fledermaus]

01:12 AM on 07/14/2010

Again, Facebook, as a privately owned company, has every right to censor and screen any material on their site. Their membership is also welcome and encouraged to comment on what they would or would not like to see happen on Facebook. There is absolutely nothing unconstitutional about that. Maybe you should review that amendment before trying to defend it.

[satanlite]

08:51 AM on 07/12/2010

It is pretty sad. Simple people have an inner need to locate an enemy to attack - it makes them feel good. It's simple. But even complex people do it too. I suspect not as many though.

[Charlotte Bloebaum]

03:49 PM on 07/09/2010

Agreeing with Russ above - why must we constantly criticize others not like ourselves. We are all a drain on society because there are too many of us. I am not overweight either, but my 2 adult children are and we love them no matter what. They are not to be criticized, there is nothing to criticize them for. We are what we are and not up to me or anyone else to judge anyone based on size or any other physical thing. Russ is right - speaking as a practicing Catholic - and a very confused one at this time, the abuse issue is appalling. We censor medical marijuana patients because they have conditions that cannabis helps - but we want them all in jail sick or not. We do not allow smoking anywhere - I have personally never believe the crap re second hand smoke. Yes, we all know smoking, drinking alcohol, street drugs are harmful to us but the fact is that we are all going to get sick and die and if we have no money or health insurance, someone else foots the bill. Overweight people are not sinful, peculiar, threats to the environment or to society. What ever happened to live and let live - perhaps we should be cleaning our own houses rather than criticizing everyone else out there.

[sarah2k]

01:12 PM on 07/09/2010

I've been reading about fat acceptance issues for a long time, although I'm not and never have been particularly fat. Probably just became I'm a girl and therefore obsessed with body issues (sad but true).
Comparing the comments at HuffPost to the comments at Jezebel I knew would be an interesting contrast; I find Ian Gonsalves's intense interest in this issue amusing, and more than a little bizarre. I'm not surprised that by the garden-variety "fat haters" like Ian, plus more than a few more "englightened" fat acceptance people. The most interesting though I think are the people in between, who admit to thinking the really fat are gross, yet are good enough people to recognize that groups like "beautiful girls, all over the world, except you. fat bitch" are pretty reprehensible, and should at least in some way be discouraged.
Because the truth is, I don't really think the Ians of the world really give that much of an eff about the health of the people they find so disgusting. They just find them disgusting, and rationalize their disgust. I've heard that homophobia is generally rooted in most people's disgust for anal sex - not that surprising, considering we're conditioned to find feces disgusting. It doesn't really make that much sense to me (evolutionarily) why we find fat people so gross, but the truth is, we just do. It's not about health, and it's not about personal responsibility, it's just about repulsion.

[Atchka]

05:15 PM on 07/11/2010

I love these little pockets of sanity scattered throughout the comments. Insightful stuff, Sarah.

Peace,
Shannon

[satanlite]

09:18 AM on 07/12/2010

I think you're right on several counts.

[RadicalRuss]

12:40 AM on 07/09/2010

Seems like most of the commenters here are missing the point. Whether someone is fat because of conscious choice, unconscious habits, health apathy, or serious medical condition is irrelevant. Whether men find lower BMIs more attractive is irrelevant.

The point is that to protect federally-protected groups (religion, race, ethnicity, disability) and non-protected groups (gays, lesbians, transgendered) from Facebook hate groups while not protecting fat people is hypocritical.

Some here seem to think that because being fat is a "lifestyle choice", and an unhealthy one at that, it is OK to hate on that group. But aside from the federally protected status, how is "Being Fat and Ugly" any less reprehensible than "Being Catholic and Pedophilic"? Religion is not an immutable characteristic; it is a "lifestyle choice". Furthermore, one must eat to live; one must not pray to live. Oh, and I can prove cake exists; fat people never exploited, colonized, and forcibly made natives fat for hundreds of years; and nobody ever covered up thousands of fat men raping little boys (well, maybe some of those priests were a little portly...)

[Ian Gonsalves]

04:25 AM on 07/09/2010

There are now almost 200 comments here, but they are mostly from the same 4-5 people, meaning almost nobody has taken the time to really get all that worked up about this issue. We would much rather discuss what sarah palin is wearing or how soccer fans will react to the hot girl planning to run nude though town. I'm still waiting on that "Fat is Beautiful" Facebook group... Can't wait to see how that turns out...

I'm only still here out of morbid curiosity when it comes to the way obese people rationalize and cherry pick facts to feel better about being unhealthy.

[Amy Wilson Hays]

10:05 AM on 07/09/2010

Wow, Ian, your not getting it are you? I hope in the future that you receive as much compassion as you have shown here when you are gravely ill. Do you know what cancer is? Since you are so healthy you might want to be grateful and not take it for granted. I hate to break it to you but we all get sick and we all die. It's part of the human condition. Don't squander your health by being ignorant.

[RadicalRuss]

02:46 PM on 07/09/2010

Your comment makes it seem as if you think fat people should feel awful about being unhealthy. Or that optimum health should be the goal of every person.

I'm reminded of Denis Leary's routine on smoking, where he points out that Sammy Davis Jr. smoked every day of his adult life and drank booze like a fish and died at age 64. Or that smoking will take ten years off your life. "Yeah, but they're the ones at the end! They're the adult diaper, kidney dialysis years - you can have those years, we don't want 'em! I'll take 64 Sammy Davis Jr years over those any time!"

And spare me the "fat people cost society" arguments... everybody costs society. I'm 6' 250lbs, but I'm also childless. A perfectly healthy triathlete dad with two kids is costing society more than I ever will.

Being fat could be considered unhealthy, but so is being a coal miner, an NFL lineman, or a beer drinker. So what? Why do so many feel the need to hate on one type of unhealthy, but not others?

(If you're really concerned about America's obesity, ask yourself why a Big Mac costs half as much as a salad. Rush likes to point out we're the only country with obese poor people... yeah, because they're eating the food they can afford.)

[Atchka]

05:03 PM on 07/11/2010

RadicalRuss gets 5,000 points for kicking @ss so handily and heartily.

As someone for whom both issues are incredibly poignant (a priest I respected immensely in my youth has turned out to be a predator) for me. Thank you for summing things up so succinctly.

Peace,
Shannon
Atchka.com
FierceFatties.com

[patches12]

01:10 PM on 07/12/2010

I think fat people should have their own airlines with special seats. ALL PUBLIC TRANSIT should have a "FAT SECTION" where the seats are triple wide and we need to ensure that all toilets are built to accomodate the very wide bottoms of fat people..

I mean come on... lets get this right!!!!

[Amy Wilson Hays]

10:57 PM on 07/08/2010

Ian, please be careful. I had thyroid cancer, Hashimoto's, and hypothyroidism that went undiagnosed for years because of stereo types against fat people. Do you know what the thyroid does? I controls the cell's ability to metabolize. It's the signal to each cell's nucleus to create the proteins used in metabolism. It affects each and every cell in the body. Because of years of ignorant doctors that told me just to loose weight and I would be fine, I had to have total thyroidectomy and it had cancer. I did not CHOOSE to have cancer. By what you wrote you are suggesting that I chose to be fat and have thyroid cancer. Your reality isn't always so clean cut. Most people who are fat do not choose to be fat. If it was such an easy thing to loose weight or if people choose to be fat there would not be such a market for weight loss products.

[Ian Gonsalves]

03:57 AM on 07/09/2010

Hardly, I've made it VERY clear that I am well aware of the tiny (very very tiny) minority of people who have a legitimate medical excuse. I'm sorry for what happened to you. For most of the others it's just a lack of willpower, laziness, and denial that keeps them heavy. It's sad really, they don't even know what they are missing, they *think* they feel normal but they have no clue how much better they would feel if they slimmed down to a healthy size.

[Amy Wilson Hays]

10:13 AM on 07/09/2010

The thing about it is that's what they said about me until they took my thyroid out and low and be hold it had cancer and was full of cysts. It was a biological disease called Hashimoto's. I was fortunate enough to find a doctor willing to check just to make sure. How many other obese people are out there that remain undiagnosed because of the doctors and people telling them just to loose weight and they will be fine. Are you so sure that over indulgence and laziness is the cause? How can you tell the difference from one fat person to the next? If you have that ability maybe you should become a doctor. Or better yet why don't you show some compassion and caring since you don't know?

[Amy Wilson Hays]

10:26 AM on 07/09/2010

I should add that when I was in college for years I worked out 2 to 3 hours a day. I did both aerobic exercise and weight training and I never lost the weight. I was a college student so I didn't have much money for food and I didn't have a car. So I biked or walked every where I went. You would have said I was lazy and lacked will power if you just looked at me. But the reality was far different because I had a disease called Hashimoto's. I was stronger then most students because of all the working out I did. But you wouldn't have guessed it just by looking at me. Please be careful in your judgment of others. You really don't know the whole story. I am not trying to pick on you it's just this thinking you have almost cost me my life. If my disease had progressed further I would died of it. I know because my great aunt died of it. My grandmother's identical twin. My grandmother had thyroid cancer to. And much of my family suffers undiagnosed today because thinking like this. The disease slowly kills the body and weight gain is a symptom of the disease not the cause.

[Ian Gonsalves]

07:09 PM on 07/08/2010

Sorry Shannon but you are wrong on this, being overweight is a choice for the vast majority of people. It's the EASY choice because eating right and staying active is HARD to do, nobody is saying it isn't. And since it is clearly a choice it's also subject to the same scrutiny any other personal choice is. Politically correct or not people have every right to comment on that choice. I would say the same thing of smokers, religious people, drug addicts, and all the other choices one can think of that impact our lives. We can argue over the details but you will never convince people that being fat is healthy and positive.

[Mariellen Wood]

08:34 PM on 07/08/2010

Yep, being fat is certainly the choice I wanted to make for my life. I want people to make fun of me for my weight. I want them mooing at me, calling me names, telling me I don't deserve to live, telling me that I just need to get up off my fat arse and put down the cookies/cakes/whatever, telling me that I'm going to die in 5 years if I don't lose lots of weight yesterday (if that was the case, I'd have been dead 25 years ago), telling me that I should wear tents instead of nice clothing (or better yet, not even leave my house so they don't have to look at me). Yeah, if being fat or thin was something I had any choice about - fat is NOT what I would have chosen for myself, I can guarantee you that. Most people who are fat have dieted, and dieted, and dieted, and exercised, and exercised, and exercised - and what has it gotten them? Nothing but fatter than they would have been if they had never dieted to begin with. I've said it before and I'll say it again - IF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN FAT, YOU DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!!! And yes I'm shouting, I'm so sick and tired of people who have never been fat thinking they know all the answers when not even doctors and researchers can agree on what the answers are.

[Ian Gonsalves]

04:11 AM on 07/09/2010

Your level of denial is simply stunning. Nobody is born fat, some babies might be a little bigger than others but if you were already overweight by the time you are two or three I suggest kicking your parents square in the junk. They crippled you for a good chunk of your childhood and that's a sad thing indeed. The thing is, you can put the blame wherever you like, but in the end the responsibility to take care of your own body rests on you. I have pretty bad neck muscle issues, or at least I used to, after spending a very painful few weeks in bed as a teenager unable to move my head I quickly learned that I would need to really stay on top of that muscle group to keep it strong and limber. It has not bothered me since. By your logic I should have just thrown up my hands in defeat and spent the rest of my life in bed.

[Emily aka Miley]

08:35 AM on 07/23/2010

Yes Mariellen!! Tell 'em!!!! I did not CHOOSE to be fat.

[Gina Syers]

11:28 AM on 07/09/2010

What a nice guy you clearly aren't. You might be right in saying that struggling against one's very nature by exercising and dieting until one's physically sick with hunger could be the cure for all the evil fat people in the world, but then some people might believe that extensive prayer can be the cure for homosexuality, or surgery can be the cure for being black. Just because people can lose weight, doesn't make them deserving of hatred and ridicule. I've been overweight my entire life, just like my parents and grandparents before me, so who should I kick in the nuts? The first of my ancestors to be fat? Kinda hard, that. The medical fact is, the human body doesn't like losing weight, it only likes putting it on, so it's not just positive mental attitude and willpower that's stopping all the millions like me from losing weight. Like Mariellen said, unless you've had to lose a significant portion of your body, don't preach to the rest of us.

[Ian Gonsalves]

01:54 PM on 07/08/2010

Bottom line here, Facebook is clearly in the right, they do exactly what is required by law by taking down the "hate speech" of protected groups and letting everything else past. If you want to start a group called "I hate blacks/Old people/Women" it obviously won't fly, but if you want to call it "Fat chicks are lazy" that's your choice, and if you are a person who is offended by that, feel free to start a "Fat is beautiful" group, I'm sure you'll have 100,000 members overnight.

[Atchka]

03:06 PM on 07/08/2010

What about "I hate gays"? Homosexuals and transgendered persons are not protected groups. Do you think Facebook should allow gay bashing groups? Because you can't find any currently.

Peace,
Shannon

[Ian Gonsalves]

05:17 PM on 07/08/2010

Those are both protected groups, for the reasons already stated. Have you made a "Fat is beautiful" group yet?

And let's not stray too far from the point here, Facebook, as you say, is a private company so they can do as they like as long as they are not inciting violence. Currently they seem to only be inciting whining which, last time I checked, is not illegal...

[jav1231]

10:50 AM on 08/25/2010

What law? There are no hate speech laws in the U.S. Maybe they take them down in the U.K. I dunno. The U.S. has within it's law the protection of hate speech, as it should. Hate speech is relative.

[popart]

12:37 PM on 07/08/2010

mean is never nice...i have major issues with fat people....i cant enjoy a meal in a restaurant if i have to look at fat people eating....i dont enjoy the beach on a hot summer day if there are fat people in their swimwear around me...i hate looked at newspaper photos of groups of any age that have more than one or two fat people pictured in them...fat children ugh. but i know many fat people who are dears..lovely and precious people.....i would not hurt them for anything with a mean comment...and neither should you.

[kicksnake]

12:40 PM on 07/08/2010

You may also want to look into getting some help for allowing the existence of fat on other people have such a significant impact on your life.

[die Fledermaus]

03:13 AM on 07/09/2010

This.

"I wouldn't hurt them by saying anything mean, but I will say they make me physically ill if they burden me with their presence."

Really? Really?!?

[Mister Biggles]

11:53 AM on 07/08/2010

Freedom of speech.

I am constantly amazed at the number of people who do not understand the meaning of the word freedom.

You are free to not care about people who say things you don't like.

[die Fledermaus]

03:27 AM on 07/09/2010

You are also free to take a business like Facebook to task for supporting a practice you don't agree with. Pesky thing, freedom of speech. It swings both ways.

[Mister Biggles]

08:32 AM on 07/09/2010

Not if you get your way...

[Pot]

11:58 AM on 07/11/2010

There is no such thing as freedom of speech on a website or any privately owned establishment. The freedom of speech specifically refers to goverment censorship.