In 2017, we've found ourselves saying things like “men are trash” more than ever – and with decent reason. Overwhelmingly, it would be fair to think that actually, men might be trash. Facebook disagrees. After being banned from Facebook for ‘hate speech’ 10 separate times for posting things along the lines of fair comments like “men are the worst”, comedian Kayla Avery started facebookjailed.com, a site that collects people’s stories of being banned – while also exposing legitimate hate speech that is allowed to continue on the platform.

Women have been banned for expressing their frustration at men or for sharing their stories in the wake of the #MeToo campaign, with comedian Marcia Belsky being suspended for commenting “men are scum” underneath a friend’s post about her sexual assault. In response to these stories coming to light, a Facebook spokesperson said “we understand how important it is for victims of harassment to be able to share their stories and for people to express anger and opinions about harassment – we allow those discussions on Facebook. We draw the line when people attack others simply on the basis of their gender”.

But Kayla’s website has found a double standard – where Facebook vows to protect people who are being attacked for their race, gender or sexuality, facebookjailed found that users posting threats of lynching, personal attacks on women, and “women are scum” have all escaped being banned. It also found that posts about activism, democracy, and protesting white supremacists do get people banned. The fact that Facebook considers women saying “men are trash” in response to stories of sexual assault hate speech is troubling, too. In light of recent events, a widespread fear and even dislike of men at large is to be expected.

Context is important, too – when we hear about someone being sexually assaulted and say, “men are scum”, maybe we don't actually entirely mean it. I've got a lot of friends who are men, and I would go as far as to say that they individually are not trash. But “toxic masculinity is dangerous and some men abuse their power to assault vulnerable people – some are OK though!” just isn’t as cathartic or easy. For women to express their discomfort with men (who are, bear in mind, for the most part more privileged and powerful than them, so “hate speech” is a questionable term to use here) with something as throwaway and inoffensive as “men suck” and to then be banned from Facebook entirely is nothing short of censorship. And in the current news cycle, you can understand why a woman might be frustrated. There’s a lot worse we could say right now, trust me.