Facebook shuts down KKK group
The Isle of Man is, perhaps, one of the lesser-known parts of the world.
Perched in the Irish Sea, slightly to the left of some of the more miserable parts of England, it is most famous for a motorcycle race in which someone always seems to get killed.
Now the Isle, whose strange three-legged flag looks like something the Masons might appreciate, is famous for something more: a Ku Klux Klan Facebook group.
It seems some wise and sensitive people decided to get together and "Keep the Isle of Man white and free from foreigners." They dubbed themselves the "Isle of Man KKK."
95 deep-thinking humans from the island's population of some 76,000 signed up for this group. One described the group's goal as wanting to "clense (sic) the Isle of Man".
The members left charming messages such as "Damn blacks and indians (sic), coming over here taking our jobs - who the **** do they think they are?"
One might also wonder who the members of the group think they are. According to the local newspaper, the Isle of Man Today, 33 of the KKK members were students at the Ballakarmeen High School.
Perhaps one of them was the bright spark who used a slightly more colloquial version of what is known here in the U.S. as "the n-word."
After Ballakarmeen High School officials got wind of the ill breeze being created by the group, they alerted Facebook, who swiftly (for Facebook) shut the group down.
However, those same school officials appear not to believe their students are racists. Deputy Head Teacher Paul Kane told the Isle of Man Today: "There are one or two ambiguous remarks from our students but we think these were intended as sarcasm. I'm pleased that the vast majority disagree with the sentiments of this group and want nothing to do with it."
However, after one BHS student had left a message that the group was "racist and immature," a student from King Williams College replied: "I'm not paticularly (sic) immature, but I am slightly racist."
Perhaps it is slightly pleasing that this site has been removed. However, one commenter to the Isle of Man Today's article suggests that the issue may go far beyond these 95 Facebook group members.
Using the moniker BS, the commenter wrote: "Thank you for putting this up! I came to the Island a couple of years ago and hand on heart I have never been anywhere so racist in my life!"
Perhaps BS will also choose to form a Facebook group.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
Wouldn't that be a one letter alphabet??
I totally agree with you. The world has and still is moving on, and it is time these people grow up and get a life. It must be terrible to live with all that hate! That was so yesterday!
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You should tell the people who have hatred against homosexuals, lesbians, pedosexuals, etc. that as well. The fact is that there is a LOT of hatred in this world, and it can all be traced back to religion and children being taught by their parents that they are 'better' than someone else.
Personally, I taught my children the EXACT opposite of that. I taught them that they are no better and no worse than anyone else, so they have NO right to force someone to do something or to not do something, unless that other person is putting someone else in danger of death or physical injury without their permission.
"The Isle of Man is cursed with 33 cowards whose pea-brains only hold a 3-letter alphabet, KKK."
Wouldn't that be a one letter alphabet??
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One letter, repeated three times. Would it have been better if he called it a three CHARACTER alphabet?
Look, we all know we're not dealing with the sharpest tools in the shed here ... ;-)
I kinda wish they hadn't shut the group down. It might have made for a good laugh or two. Personally I prefer to keep this kind of stupidity and hatred as close to exposed as possible, otherwise it festers underground until it erupts into violence.
It doesn't mean Facebook has to support it either. Facebook isn't, believe it or not, required to in any way. Not legally, not morally, not ethically.
@ductape36: then jesse jackson would be out of a job.
Facebook has choosen not to support this group in any way. It's within their rights and perogatives to do so. If they like they could just as easily and with equal justification get rid fo the pro-life and choice groups as well. However, they haven't. My feeling is that the life/choice debate is, like it or not, a compelling and worthwhile discussion while they feel that racial hatred serves no purpose and they don't wish to be associated with it even passively. Really, it's not about what you want or what I want or what anyone else here wants. It's all about what facebook wants and, as you say, if you don't agree with it then you are under no obligation to make use of their services.
Neither does the rich and the poor.
Racism and prejustice do fit into this, but we will NOT always have it and we do NOT have to accept it when the other people are simply stupid as hell and have been brainwashed by their parents into thinking that they have a 'reason' for their prejudice and racism, when they really usually do not.
As for the racism aspect, as long as they aren't harming anyone I feel it's their right to feel and say whatever they want to. Racism is everywhere, even in many people who try to deny it. It's just a part of human nature, whether we like it or not.
Yep, they sure do. They have the right to say anything they like.
They don't, however, have a right to use Facebook servers to do it. If they want to set up their own computer servers, that's one thing--but the Facebook servers don't belong to them. Facebook has the right to make any rules they want; they can even say there's no discussion of Fig Newton cookies or TV sitcoms if they want to, and nobody's rights are being violated.
You have the right to say what you want. You don't have the right to use other people's computers to do it.
Your guys are quite right. I didn't mean to imply that Facebook should have to allow that kind of behavior on their service. I definitely wasn't clear on that and I stand corrected.
I also hope I didn't give the impression that I approve of that kind of repugnant behavior.
It may be part of human nature (to the degree that there will always be lazy, blame-shifting wasters utterly unwilling to accept responsibility for all their own failures) but its effects on the rest of us will only be limited if it is made clear at every opportunity that the rest of us will not tolerate this crap.
"All people need to be more accepting of others, no matter who they are."
If this is what you believe, why are you not accepting of this group?
I am an atheist and find your forcing of your beliefs on me via this post to be rude. But, if that is what makes you happy, then I am happy for you.
You need to be more accepting of everyone. Step, back, take a look at yourself and soften your heart towards others.
The phrase 'There but for the grace of God go I" is hardly a deep religious sentiment. In fact, while not entirely free from religious connotations its been in such common usage for so long that it has hardly any real theological weight behind it. It is, in fact, little more than a turn of pharse, nothing but a base idiomatic expression. So it's hardly someone trying to impose their beliefs on you any more than someone screaming out "Jesus Christ!" when they hit their thumb with a hammer.
Also, I don't see this person expressing any sort of hatred for this group. I don't see anyone forcing their beliefs on you. The only thing I see is someone being a little quick to take offense where no offense is offered.
It's good you can see the irony.
Typical bloody aethiest, always looking for offense where there is none.
What ever happened to freedom of speech?
Does this mean that because I do not like American Idol (along with a lot of other people) Facebook should also remove their fan site?
And should Facebook take down the American Idol fan group? If Facebook finds it offensive or contrary to their corporate mission then yes, they should take it down. Should they take it down just because you don't like it? Probably not.
The only instance I'm aware of in which 1st amendment rights applies to private property is in limited cases in shopping malls and centers. Physical locations that open themselves up to the public. However, this is more limited and curtailed than, say, a sidewalk. In cyberspace however, this principle has not been applied by the courts cf Langdon v. Google
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2007/02/search_engines_3.htm and
http://news.cnet.com/The-freedom-to-disallow-speech-in-cyberspace/2010-1030_3-6164943.html
If this has been changed in the past couple years please provide some reference to that.
Any privately owned web page or any other kind of public board has the right to limit the opinions expressed. The phone company does not have the right to limit what you can talk about on their lines, however even that can be argued the other way.
Something to think about.
Something to think about.
(Note: I'm not arguing that Facebook was under any obligation to keep this site up - as others pointed out, it's Facebook's servers and Facebook's rules and Facebook's decision whether or not to allow this material to be associated with their site. But you have to admit it's going to be harder to track this groups activities now! Or are you so stupid as to think the group will disband now that they've been kicked off of Facebook?)
Hi Guys.... !
it's bad to discriminate; they were discriminating and hating based on (race, ethnicity, religion, etc); so we get to (hate, discriminate, ostracize, etc) based on their (beliefs, religion, etc)...
i dont get the logic... to hate and discriminate, because we're mad at someone for hating and discriminating... it's circular.
eye for an eye i suppose; leaving the whole world blind; and not one person innocent.
Targeting someone for something which does no harm to anyone (skin colour, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation) is descrimination.
Targeting someone for something which does harm other people (persecuting others, deliberately disavantaging them, spreading harmful lies about them) is not.
It's the difference between offense and defence or the difference between hitting someone because of the colour of their skin and hitting someone because they were going to hit my mate, because of the colour of his skin.
...so, is it safe to say you're still sore about McCain losing?
If person A kills person B just because they got mad, it is less of a crime than if they did it for money.
Face book is a privately owned web based service. They can choose to only talk about dog food and ban anyone who talks about anything else. They can choose to ban anyone who does talk about dog food. They even have the right to change the rules 15 times a day. You have the right to stay away from Facebook if you want. I honestly don't think they or anyone else would care a bit.
Sadly, it is always the "white man" who is punished in racism. This is not an opinion, it is a well-known fact.
As the old saying goes, you see a group in college for "African Americans", you see a group for the Jewish, but the instant there is a group for whites, everyone goes insane.
This world is still racist, just in increasingly more subtle ways than before.
Every race has their idiots, i suppose.
What I find even more disturbing is do a search on Facebook for "Hitler" or "Al Qaeda" and look at what comes up:
F*** Al Qaeda, I Hate Al Qaeda, Screw Hitler, Hitler Sucks, etc...
There are even groups for people who hate kids!
My entire point here was not that hate groups are "okay", but merely to point out that the removal of this group goes against the existence of these other groups.
If you remove one, you need to remove them all.
It is simply time to STOP ALLOWING HATE FILLED VINDICTIVES AGAINST ANYONE!
- by maxrmnf May 3, 2009 9:40 AM PDT
- That is awful.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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