Facebook Refuses to Remove Group Promoting Anti-Cyclist Violence

Screenshot from the Facebook group promoting dooring, among other acts that injure cyclists.

A

number of Streetsblog readers have noticed a particularly loathsome

group that has sprouted up on Facebook and has a legion of fans. As of

this writing, more than 32,000 people are fans of "There’s a perfectly good bike path right next to the road you stupid cyclist,"

a group page with a bunch of anti-cyclist screeds and some pretty nasty

photos of bicycle crashes and car-on-bike violence. Facebook has

concluded that the group does not violate the site’s terms of use and

will not shut it down.

"It’s a stupid and offensive joke and unfortunately there are still

people who don’t see that bicyclists have the same rights as

everyone else," said Marc Caswell, Program Manager at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "It’s a cruel example of the

ignorance of cyclists’ rights. We would encourage people to report it

as offensive."

The

site is full of the vitriol one has come to expect online and in

anonymous comment sections, but unlike blogs or online forums, all the

fuming leaves a clear path to the users who posted it.

The first user to link the group was from Australia, and several of the references to road rules

are of British provenance or from former British colonies. In the

"About Me" section, it reads: "No matter how far to the left you are,

you’re taking up my road. My car is hard, and i am not slowing down!"



A photo from a road race on June 3, 2008 in Mexico, when a drunk driver killed one cyclist and injured more than ten others. Posted to the group by Sean Tysoe

In addition to creating a counter group called "HELP REMOVE this HATE GROUP against cyclists!",

a number of cyclists have become fans of the original group and have

posted agitprop in the form of bicycle photos. While there are

disturbing photos of cars creaming cyclists and road signs promoting

violence against cyclists, the photo album is full of pictures of the

kind of bike porn you might expect on Bike Blog or Fixed Gear Gallery. And there are easily as many photos of "Share the Road" signs as the opposite.

Streetsblog asked Facebook whether this group violates their Terms of Use, particularly sections 6 and 7, under

"Safety":

6. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.

7.

You will not post content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic,

or that contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

Facebook’s

Simon Axten told us the group has been reviewed and deemed kosher by

the company’s staff. Presumably the reason they are not removing this

group boils down to how one interprets the phrase "actionable threats

of violence." Here’s Axten’s explanation:

We

take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities very seriously and

react quickly to remove reported content that violates our policies.

Specifically, we’re sensitive to content that includes hate speech

and/or actionable threats of violence. The goal of these policies is to

strike a very delicate balance between giving Facebook users the

freedom to express their opinions and beliefs, even controversial ones,

and maintaining a safe and trusted environment. We’ve reviewed

this group and determined that it doesn’t violate our policies. We

encourage users to report anything they feel does violate these

policies using the report links located throughout the site. Thanks.

Posted to the group by Chelsea Kerr

Any legal minds care to comment?

H/T Bike Portland.