A few years ago, as part of its quest to sanitize communications and keep you safe and sound and Disney friendly, Facebook forced me to take down an entire album that contained images of people in China reacting to my Torture exhibition. The exhibition contained nine giant, high resolution photographs that were re-enactments of the torture images that leaked out of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and forever changed the way people regarded Americas moral authority.(President Obamas failure to prosecute the perpetrators, especially in light of the recent Senate report, and Dick Cheneys vile, unapologetic response to it have not helped repair the damage.) While I showed these images in the United States and London, the exhibit in Beijing, China was particularly interesting. There was question as to whether I would even be allow to show the images in China, and since I was in Beijing for the show, we were a little nervous. It ended up being very well received, and thousands and thousands of photographs of photographs that were reenactments made for some interesting discussion. However, Facebook doesnt believe any of you who have liked this page are capable of understanding the images of an event that had such a significant impact on Americas global understanding or mature enough to understand the context without being titillated perhaps, by images that contain nudity. The military and press did feel that images of testicles or anuses were so much more offensive than the torture itself that they blurred those out in any releases they made or whenever they published them. It was that idiocy, in part, that inspired the reenactments. Anyway, more recently, Mark Zuckerberg saw the terrorist attack against #CharlieHebdo in Paris as a perfect event to tastefully promote Facebook as a bastion of free speech. Despite the removal of images containing breasts, nudity, or other offenses as well as use of the word faggot and other epithets - regardless of the context. So perhaps Zuckerbergs change of heart, and his evoking of Charlie Hebdo, even using the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag, distasteful as it may be to use a violent tragic act of terror to promote his commercial social network as a free speech zone, means Facebook has grown up finally. Just to be safe, however, I made sure to put his quote on the image itself. Perhaps now, we can have the mature conversation I was hoping to have with you all before the album was deemed in violation of Facebooks policy. And the recent release of the senate report, and continued running of Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo, (as well as Americas new policy towards Cuba), suggests its still a conversation worth having. Glad Mark Zuckerberg has seen the light. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage. I wont let that happen on Facebook. Im committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence. #JeSuisCharlie -- Mark Zuckerberg, January 8, 2015
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 06:02:10 +0000
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