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Woman Posts Abusive Facebook Messages She’s Received From Men, Facebook Bans Her

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 04:55 PST, Jun 21, 2015

Clementine Ford’s attempt to showcase the array of repugnant messages she receives on Facebook from men only ended up proving just how flawed the website’s disciplinary policies are, as she was banned instead.

Ford posted one message without a top on, but she also made sure to keep most of her breasts out of shot. Ford decided to post this message in response to Australian TV Show Sunrise’s recent Facebook post that stated that women who took nude selfies only had themselves to blame when these pictures were subsequently hacked.

Ford wrote on her Facebook page, “I have taken nude photos of myself and sent them to lovers. I’ve taken nude photos of myself when I’m bored. I’ve taken nude photos just because I have a smart phone and it’s fun. None of that means I have asked for my privacy to be violated, my photos stolen and my very self made available for public humiliation and judgment. Consent is everything.”

Ford went on to explain that she was writing this post because Sunrise had started their story about hundreds of women’s phones being hacked for nude photos with, “When will women learn?”

She then added that Sunrise should have instead asked, “Why do men continue to view women as objects they can defile and violate while the world watches and tut-tuts.” Ford insisted that Sunrise were victim blaming, before continuing, “They are saying it’s the responsibility of victims of crime and assault to prevent it and not the responsibility of society to make such crimes intolerable and unacceptable.”

Because of this post, Ford received a hoard of negative messages. She then proceeded to add 21 new screenshots of the messages to her Facebook page that documented some of the requests for nude photographs that she’s received from men. You can check out the barrage of messages here.

However, soon after posting these pictures and her original message, Ford, who works as a writer in Australia, was suspended from Facebook for 30 days for “violating community standards.”

In fact, Ford admitted that in the few hours after she had made her post she had received hundreds and then thousands of abusive messages. Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Ford stated just how backwards she thinks Facebook and its investigation process is.

“It’s not just inconvenient to me personally, it demonstrates exactly how backwards FB and its investigation processes are. I have reported numerous misogynistic posts in the past only to be told they were acceptable under FB’s guidelines.

So to have them turn around and ban me for the fourth time for merely showing what kind of vitriol is routinely sent to me by cowards determined to hide behind a defence of ‘rights to abuse women privately and not to be held accountable for it,’ is actually deeply upsetting and enraging.”

Ford was backed up by a swell of support from people across the world though, who responded with their own messages that highlighted why Facebook, in their opinion, was so out of order.

Ford’s ban was subsequently uplifted on Sunday, and while she admitted that she was over the moon that “common sense [had] prevailed,” she now hopes that it “sets a precedent for all future victims of online FB harassment and becomes a win for all users who have done nothing wrong except stand against injustice and hate.”

[Image via Mirror]

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