Facebook Doesn't Consider Page Honoring Rapists 'Violent'

The New Zealand teen rapists known as the Roast Busters met many of their victims over social media and had an active Facebook page where members of the group bragged about getting girls occasionally underaged girls drunk and then gang raping them. When news of their exploits broke in local media, the page disappeared. Now, a new page honoring the club has popped up in its place. And Facebook won’t do a damn thing about it.

There’s no evidence indicating that the new Facebook Roast Busters page was set up by members of the group themselves, or just some idiotic kids trying to troll the web. But regardless of who’s behind it, the page, on its surface, exists to promote the interests of a group of admitted rapists who, thanks to the bumbling of almost every authority figure their victims encountered, continue to walk free. And many of the postings on the page were threats of rape against the rapists themselves. Which — while it may appeal to a person’s basest thirst for vengeance — is not okay.

That’s why one reader thought to contact Facebook and ask that the page be taken down, only to discover (WHOOPSIE) that Facebook doesn’t have a violation category that specifically flags “sexual violence.” I poked around a little, and the closest I could find to reporting glorification of sexual violence/rape was by ticking the “This page shouldn’t be on facebook” option and then ticking “sexually explicit content” (not accurate, really), “violence or harmful behavior,” or “hate speech.”