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Post by Joanna on Dec 26, 2015 20:15:53 GMT -5
Facebook Deems Black Cock Inn 'Racist or Offensive' A pub called the Black Cock Inn has had its Facebook page banned for “racist or offensive language” because of its name. The watering hole has served customers in Llanfihangel Talyllyn in Brecon Beacons, Wales, under the name since 1840 – but the social media giant banned its page after a complaint from a member of the public.
Manager Lee Garrett, who has operated the pub for the past 12 years, said he attempted to explain the situation to Facebook, but had not received a reply and was not expecting the ban to be lifted. “We live in a historically agricultural area and there are plenty of cockerel (rooster) based names for pubs around here. We have the Three Cocks, the Cock Inn, the Cock Hotel; it’s just a name,” he explained. “We had a personal Facebook page because we are in a small village in a rural area. We had 450 friends and those are mostly people who live here or within reaching distance and we used it to keep them updated about what we were doing.”
But things changed. “In July,” he continues, “I had this strange phone call from a woman who said she found our name offensive and her children had to cover their eyes to avoid seeing the name. Then days after I put our Christmas menu on Facebook, I tried to log back in and had a notice come up on the screen saying my account was suspended because of racist or offensive language. I think someone has made this complaint and Facebook is just such an automated service that once this complaint goes in, it goes to a computer and they just automatically banned us. There’s no one there to assess it properly and use some common sense.”
Since the banning, the pub has set up a business profile on Facebook to remain in touch with locals online. Source: Joseph Curtis, The Daily Mail, December 25, 2015.
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Post by catherine on Dec 27, 2015 15:05:57 GMT -5
No one ever said the people who operate Facebook were smart, but I didn't know that were that dumb.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Dec 27, 2015 17:00:54 GMT -5
Like the article said, it is very automated. Someone reports a page for racism or porn or whatever, and if offensive photos or language is detected, they suspend it. The account owners probably could have appealed to Facebook and had the suspension overturned.
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Post by madeline on Dec 27, 2015 17:07:44 GMT -5
Like the article said, it is very automated. Someone reports a page for racism or porn or whatever, and if offensive photos or language is detected, they suspend it. The account owners probably could have appealed to Facebook and had the suspension overturned. It may be automated, but someone had to enter that "offensive" language into the program and a fool that doesn't know that "cock" is another word for "rooster," or "cockerel" shouldn't be programming anything.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Dec 27, 2015 17:14:50 GMT -5
If it can be construed as offensive, they err on the side of precaution. I agree some things they consider offensive are ridiculous, but some silly user reported the account for that, which should have never happened to begin with. Since they changed their page to a business page, they may not have the same problem.
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Post by natalie on Dec 29, 2015 16:19:12 GMT -5
So anyone with the name Badcock or Woodcock would be banned from using Facebook and would need a name change? I agree, this is silly.
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Post by aprillynn93 on Dec 29, 2015 17:05:20 GMT -5
I am not exactly sure how Facebook's automated system works. Perhaps if it is a surname it would not be suspended. It probably depends on how it is used. If someone with that surname somehow did get suspended for it though, they would not be forced to change it. They would just report it to Facebook and the suspension would be lifted.
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Post by jason on Apr 18, 2017 13:21:01 GMT -5
I am not exactly sure how Facebook's automated system works. Perhaps if it is a surname it would not be suspended. It probably depends on how it is used. If someone with that surname somehow did get suspended for it though, they would not be forced to change it. They would just report it to Facebook and the suspension would be lifted. Why do you always defend things like Assbook, Muslim immigrants, Hillary Clinton and everything else that brings harm to our country? Are you an immigrant or just an uninformed liberal?
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Post by aprillynn93 on Apr 18, 2017 13:42:25 GMT -5
I offer alternative possibilities if I have any, regardless of which side they are for. Much to the chagrin to my liberal friends, many times I have offered alternative explanations for Trump's actions and actions of other conservatives. There are almost always 2 sides to every story. Both sides seem to want to paint the other as all evil, but that is rarely ever true.
This is how I keep balanced, and avoid getting all worked up needlessly.
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Post by jason on Apr 20, 2017 18:16:57 GMT -5
I agree there are 2 sides to every story: the right side and the wrong side!
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