Standards....

OK I am mad. At Facebook. Again.

I wrote a status about it on my Facebook page, but it wasn't enough...I feel the need to vent my anger further.

This morning while going through my newsfeed I came across a picture of a severely disabled woman, clearly disfigured - or in essence someone who doesn't fit the mould of 'attractive'. On the picture is a message saying, 'Tag a friend who would smash her'.

Thousands of people had commented and indeed done what was asked. One of my friends had commented (I am unsure in what capacity, perhaps he was disgusted as I was) and consequently, Facebook deemed it appropriate to share on my news feed as something I might like. This is not the first time something like this happened, so I reported the photo.

I reported it under the limited reasons that Facebook allows me to do....because I believe that it was harassment, suggesting sexual violence, and in general intimidating.

All good so far. I was pleased about my contribution to keeping some level of decency on Facebook. It is a wonderful networking tool, and I enjoy the fact that I can keep up with friends all over the world on it - however, Facebook apparently did not believe that I had a point. It refused to remove the photo, stating that it did not violate their standards....doesn't that say it all?

Some of you will know that a friend of my recently posted a photo in memory of her new born baby who had died in childbirth. This photo was removed under Facebook's standards of decency.

So encouraging aggression, sexual violence, harassment, intimidation to someone is perfectly adequate, but the memory of a child is inappropriate? Sorry, but who's f**king standards are these?

My only options as advised by the standards police at Facebook was for me to block the page that had posted the photo; that I had to choose to 'opt out'. Well, because of the way Facebook is run I was never given the chance to actually bloody 'opt in'.

I am sick of it. I have no interest in things I have never signed up for, just simply because a friend of mine may or may not have found something of interest, or because they commented on their great aunt's photo - stop suggesting things for me Mark Zuckerberg, and stop judging everyone by Facebook's disgustingly immoral standards.