Facebook Porn Police Clean Up 'Butt, Crack, Nipple' Content
With Facebook's meteoric rise in membership and popularity, the site has been forced to not only tinker with its Terms of Service, but to also address salacious, insulting and otherwise inappropriate messages and pictures. People over the age of 30 have been flocking to the site, and, in order to appeal to this contingent as well as the original audience of college students, administrators are trying to maintain the fun spirit of the site while keeping content inoffensive. To help achieve this goal, Facebook employs 150 "cleaners" whose primary responsibilities involve removing flagged, offensive material.Newsweek recently spoke with David Axten, one such "porn cop" who enforces "the Fully Exposed Butt Rule, the Crack Rule and the Nipple Rule," as he judged 75 flagged pictures out of the 438,848 waiting to be inspected. David Kirkpatrick, author of the upcoming book 'The Facebook Effect' believes such enforcers play a vital role in Facebook's success because similar networking sites, like MySpace, were "essentially shanghaied by pornography and sexual displays."
While we agree that such steps may be necessary for Facebook to appeal to more sponsors and to a wider audience, the crackdown will likely result in a significant drop in the shady photo-related arrests and firings we do so love to cover. Oh well, it was a fun ride. [From: Newsweek]
Bill Gates at Microsoft -- a Look Back
Posing for Teen Beat Magazine Back in 1983
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At the launch of Windows 95
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Introducing Windows 98 in 1998
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Pie in the face in 1998
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Unveiling Windows XP in 2001
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At the World Economic Forum in 2008
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_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dissapointing said 4:35AM on 5-06-2009
Bravo! I applaud the move, but I'm curious about the outdated freedom of speech argument. I want to be a "cleaner".
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Dissapointing said 4:39AM on 5-06-2009
The article sounds bias. It reminds me when the smoking ban started in restaurants and then in public buildings, and then across the county, then across the state, and so on. So many whiners. But after the whining simmered down dramatically, the assembly of humanoids was more peaceable and my ashtma was able to subside. Hey, I feel for ya. No one likes being told what to do. But sometimes it's for our own good. Have some self respect people. And Facebook will still continue to do well like it always has, just as much as those restaurants did, even when they initially thought they would fail.
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Ricky Becker said 7:49AM on 5-06-2009
Big brother is watching everything you do! Not that I agree with every group that was listed above, i know that people now have access to way too much personal information. Facebook is a great way for people to catch up with old and lost friends, but I find it morally reprehensible for
schools, possible employers, and just cranks to spy on individuals. As we gain in technology, the world becomes a place ruled by tribal, homoginized society. Once again it's the Thought Police looking to make any inroad to steel your right to think and express for yourselves. Why is nudity of any type considered inappropriate? Are we Victorians? As much as I find a vast majority of comments posted on these news stories offensive, racist, homophobic, and just plain rude, I think that people have a right to think stupid thoughts. They don't have a right to exert control over my life in any form, that is what laws are for. We haven't come very far out of the forest as a species.
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john said 3:10PM on 5-15-2009
talking about banned groups The Cleavage Club was one which had such a big following that they actually made it into their own social network. Check it out http://www.thecleavageclub.com . They basically allow everything that facebook and myspace don't i think its a brilliant idea, get to chat to HOT GIRLS!! http://www.thecleavageclub.com/gallery
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