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Social activists harassed over photos on Facebook
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Social activists have in recent weeks been repeatedly harassed by false reports made by anonymous users to Facebook administrators, accusing them of posting inappropriate images that contain nudity. The identities of the complainers and their motives remain unclear, with some Facebook users commenting that they might be the work of supporters or even employees of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve received such a notice,” Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤), a member of the Black Island Youth Front who took part in the Sunflower movement, said on Facebook, after receiving yet another notice from the social media’s Web site administrator that someone reported that her profile picture was inappropriate, saying it involved “nudity.”
The photograph in question shows Lai in a business suit holding a cellphone. It does not contain any nudity — neither did her other pictures that were reported as being inappropriate.
“Seriously, I don’t block people from leaving messages on my Facebook wall. I only delete some harassing messages. If you don’t agree with me, I challenge you to a debate here — unless you are one of those harassers whose messages that I deleted,” Lai said.
Dozens of other people who have been involved in anti-government demonstrations recently — especially the Sunflower protests which occupied the legislature in March — have experienced the same harassment.
The profile picture of attorney Tseng Wei-kai (曾威凱), who has provided pro bono legal assistance to protesters arrested by the police, a picture of Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) with a jellyfish taken in an aquarium, and a picture of a human hand holding a candle to commemorate the victims of Typhoon Morakot in August 2009 posted by Huang Yen-ju (黃燕茹), who took part in several anti-government demonstrations in recent years, were also reported to contain nudity.
Savungaz Valicinan, an Aboriginal rights advocate of the Bunun tribe who also took part in the legislative occupation, said her profile photo was not only reported to contain nudity by an anonymous Facebook user, but she was also accused of using a “fake name.”
Savungaz said it was her Bunun name, but her Facebook account was temporarily suspended.
Savungaz then used the Mandarin phonetic translation of her Bunun name, but she was again reported to be using a fake name and her Facebook account was again suspended.
She was forced to use her Chinese name, Lee Pin-han (李品涵).
“Both Savungaz Valicinan and Lee Pin-han are my legal names,” she said, showing a picture of her national identity card that displays both names. “I think I was picked at for some reason.”
“It must be someone from the KMT who did it,” Facebook user Lin Ming-yao (林明嶢) said in a comment about the harassments.
Many other Facebook users agreed with Lin, saying that KMT supporters or even employees probably reported the pictures and the use of Aboriginal name as inappropriate.
source: Tapei Times
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