Angry Facebook users demanded the social network remove a page called "Aboriginal Memes," complaining the page was full of racist jokes about Australia's indigenous population. Though it did not respond to the requests as quickly as some users would have liked, Facebook took down the page Tuesday.
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The disgruntled users took their campaign beyond Facebook, starting a petition on online advocacy platform Change.org, "Facebook: Immediately remove the racist page called 'Aboriginal Memes'." The below image, taken from the petition, shows one of the memes which had been posted on the Facebook page.
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Facebook tends not to reply to inquiries regarding specific pages, and did not respond to Mashable's request for comment.
According to the Facebook Community Standards, the company's policy toward hate speech is as follows:
"Facebook does not permit hate speech. While we encourage you to challenge ideas, institutions, events and practices, it is a serious violation to attack a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition."
Before its removal, the Aboriginal Meme's page had 4,000 likes and made jokes about petrol and begging, according to CNET.
CNET also reported that Facebook initially replied to press inquiries about the page as such:
"Thanks for your recent report of a potential violation on Facebook. After reviewing your report, we were not able to confirm that the specific page you reported violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities."
Do you think Facebook should remove offensive pages or leave them up out of respect for free speech? Let us know how you would handle this case in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.