We challenged Facebook’s community guidelines to tackle harassment, and we won!

Criticism of a public figure or their stances is VERY different from harassment and bullying. While Facebook has made some recent progress in removing misinformation and dangerous hate speech, content that “criticizes or objectifies, including commentary based on looks or sexual activity” is allowed for the most part. This has undoubtedly perpetuated harassment and bullying of public figures.

In 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was targeted with obscene sexual content and harassed on a Facebook group, to which action from Facebook was deemed delayed and insensitive. This does not include the years of harassment Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, and countless other elected officials, community leaders, and activists have endured due to inaction from Facebook. But now, after months of deliberation, Facebook has drawn the line between criticism and harassment.

Earlier this year, I joined other leaders in providing Facebook with input on the issue of harassment and sexual obscenity targeting public figures. I am happy to report that these efforts have led Facebook to finally amend their community guidelines globally.

“After months of external consultations and internal deliberation, we have amended our Community Standards to disallow content that obscenely sexualizes an individual, including a public figure, through statements of intent to engage in a sexual activity or advocating for the targeted individual to engage in a sexual activity… We are working to provide additional protections for individuals whose public persona are of a limited scope, such as activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.”

-Kim Malfacini, Facebook Content Policy Manager

Some of the key themes that were heard by Facebook include, but are not limited to:

• That sexualization disproportionately affects women, particularly those challenging historical power structures in politics, journalism, and activism.
• Sexualization delegitimizes, silences, and in some cases endangers women.
• Negative impacts of this content impact a broader audience than just the intended target. Such content can serve to ultimately curtail users’ expression more broadly.
• Repeated and coordinated harassment is seen as most problematic.
• Sexualization is considered more severe than commentary on physical appearance.

The public is free to criticize, but public figures, elected officials, and other community leaders who are our representatives deserve safety and protection from online bullying.

      

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