Facebook, you need to do better.

Recently, in headlines across the world, there have been reports out of New Zealand about a group of teens who call themselves the Roast Busters. These guys are accused of, amongst other things, the rape of teenage girls (that the community, schools, and police apparently knew about this and did nothing is a story for another day).

Incredibly, they had set up a Facebook page whereby they bragged about their rapes. This was eventually removed by Facebook.

Go them, right?

Not so, because the men behind the page (or people pretending to be them…) simply set up another one. After reporting the page to Facebook, stating that it was graphically violent, I was surprisingly disappointed when they rejected my report, stating that the page didn’t breach their community standards.

That was two days ago. After rejecting my initial report, Facebook then removed the page. There was no “whoops, you’re right, threats of rape and violence aren’t cool with us”. They didn’t even notify me that they’d updated their stance and removed the page. 


A new page sprung up today in its place. Again, I reported it. First, for “containing credible threats of violence”. Apparently the tag line of “Fucking up hoes 4 fun” and actually threatening the journalist who initially reported on the issue isn’t a “credible threat of violence”

I decided to try a different path, and reported it for being sexually explicit. Because we all know rape is about sex, right? No go. Facebook again rejected the submission.

So here’s my question to you Facebook: Are your reviewing standards simply not up to scratch, or are you okay with violence against women? You simply do not get to have it both ways. You simply cannot reject these reports, on the basis that they don’t violate your community standards, whilst also saying you will continue to remove pages which threaten violence against women

Facebook, you need to do better. By not properly reviewing these pages in the first instance, you are letting them linger and garner more attention that needed. By allowing the pages to remain, you are doing more than simply ignoring it, you are supporting it. These are not just young boys having fun, they are young boys threatening violence and rape, and who, according to news reports, have indeed acted out these threats. By not acting swiftly, you’re further victimising those who have already been attacked, and you’re giving an open, and far reaching, platform for the perpetrators.

Facebook promised to do better after WAM forced them into removing pages that were dedicated to violence against women – it’s time they started acting on their promises.