Facebook blocks woman for 24 hours over ‘hate speech’ after she jokingly wrote on a thread about nail polish ‘why are men so dumb?’
- Candace King, of Detroit, wrote ‘why are men so dumb’ in meme poking fun of men and women over who can tell the differences in nail polish color
- King said her post was immediately deleted from comments section
- She received a notice from Facebook saying she was banned for 24 hours
- Notice said her comment did not follow community standards for hate speech
A Detroit woman was banned from Facebook for 24 hours after she wrote ‘why are men so dumb’ in response to a meme about men and nail polish.
Candace King said the social media giant kicked her out for a day after she responded to a meme that said women will notice a difference in two different shades of purple, while fellow commenters said men would not notice the difference.
‘I posted on there ‘this is a different color, why are men so stupid’ and then 5 seconds later, the comment just disappeared and I was like what’s going on,’ King told Fox 2. ‘At first I thought it was a joke (and) I’m like yeah right I’m blocked…what? But it was real, for sure.’
In the comment section of the meme, some commenters noticed that women could tell the difference between the two shades of purple nail polish while some men could not, leading Candace King to post her comment on the matter
King, of Detroit, said her comment was made as a joke and could not believe it caused her to be banned from Facebook for 24 hours
King checked the countdown on when she could post on Facebook again
The original post poked fun of men and women arguing over two shades of nail polish
She said she received a message from Facebook on Friday alerting her that her comment did not follow community standards for hate speech and that she was banned from the platform for 24 hours.
Facebook defines hate speech as a direct attack against people rather than concepts or institutions based on protected characteristics, like gender.
King said that while the comment was meant as a joke, Facebooks algorithm misinterpreted it as hate speech even though a person would understand the context.
“I feel like it’s a comment in jest, and maybe if an actual person was reviewing this stuff, King said.
King was back on Facebook over the weekend, but she added that she had to be careful with her comments because another incident could cause a longer ban.
“I got the warning that if I do it again, the punishment will be more severe,” Candace said.
Facebook did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
Facebook has previously faced criticism for its policies after it banned President Donald Trump from its platform earlier this year.
Last month, Facebook also reversed its position on banning users who claim that Covid-19 may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.
In April of last year, Facebook had announced that it was imposing limits on ‘harmful misinformation about COVID-19’.
In February of this year, the company announced that it was expanding its crackdown to include claims that the virus was man-made. In a blog post, Facebook said that it would not allow conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines.