Sunday, August 26, 2007

Letter to Facebook regarding my account suspension

My fellow lactivist and friend Gen has started a facebook group in regards to my Facebook ban. Please join.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5066391459

And here is the letter, also composed by Gen, protesting my suspension. Please feel free to copy and paste and send an email to privacy@facebook.com. or a snail mail to 156 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301.

Dear Facebook Administrators,

I can only imagine how difficult it must be to monitor and maintain a site as grand as Facebook. With millions of members uploading photos and videos everyday, it must be virtually impossible to police the activity yourselves, hence the reporting system you chose to install. This "Neighborhood Watch" system is an ingenious way to stay on top of any activity that violates the Terms of Use as outlined by yourselves. However, even you must admit that such a broad allowance of watchdog citizenship can lead to all sorts of discrimination and personal vendettas.

Karen Speed is a militant breastfeeding rights activist - she's the first to admit it. But there are far bigger fish to fry than a mother who chooses to post photos of herself breastfeeding in her personal folders andl in breastfeeding support groups. She did not try to force her photos onto anyone who should not have been prepared to see them; after all, a folder labeled "breastfeeding" will contain photos of a mother's breast, and a group in support of breastfeeding will have the same paraphernalia.

Meanwhile, groups with photos of erect penises, exposed labia, and stills from Jenna Jameson movies are allowed to exist, regardless of complaints from persons such as myself.

That, however, is neither here nor there. My actual complaint is regarding Facebook's act of discrimination, intended or not, against Karen Speed. According to law in California, which is where I believe you are headquartered, a woman has the right to breastfeed in any location, public or private, that she is allowed to be in. Breastfeeding is a basic human right of mother and child, and it is protected by civil laws. A photo of a woman breastfeeding is no more scandalous or sensational than that of a woman bottle-feeding or spoon-feeding. In fact, a pair of augmented breasts in a skimpy bikini show more than what most women show while breastfeeding.

Karen Speed simply wants to share her pride and joy of being able to breastfeed her children with other like-minded people; unfortunately, someone who is not of this mind, took it upon themselves to repeatedly report her photos, even though they were posted in her personal folders and in breastfeeding support groups. In other words, this was an act of prejudice, and Facebook's suspension of Karen's account, in its support of such prejudiced ideas, was a blatant act of discrimination.

Please contact your in-house legal team regarding the terms of use, as I don't feel photos of a breastfeeding mother and infant are in any way pornographic, "harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable or which restricts or inhibits any other person from using or enjoying the Site, or which may expose Company or its users to any harm or liability of any type."

Thank-you very much for your time and effort regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

"your name here"

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi there,

I tried to join the Facebook group, but the link just takes you to my homepage, and I can't find it in search.......?

Does it still exist?

Happy to help in any other way,

Cheers,
KS

JQ said...

try this link....

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2517126532