Media Release
For immediate release: 3 November 2011

NZCWNZ’s ‘Day of Action’ campaign targets Facebook

The National Council of Women of NZ (NCWNZ) is part of an international ‘Day of Action’ to pressure Facebook to take down pages that promote rape, sexual violence, and violence against women.

NCWNZ is a long established not for profit organisation whose objective is to achieve equal opportunities for women and improve their quality of life and well-being. NCWNZ President Elizabeth Bang said, “As an organisation working to improve the status of women and build a society in which women are safe, NCWNZ is joining a concerted international push to make Facebook remove this material”.

NCWNZ President Elizabeth Bang said that, “The continued existence of pages including one which supports raping your girlfriend in her sleep, isn’t because Facebook is unaware of their existence – its because the site has explicitly refused to put a stop to them.

“Despite protests from almost 200,000 people, the pages haven’t been removed. Facebook seems to have decided they are just amusing”

Facebook has defended its refusal to remove the pages supporting sexual violence, saying that, “.... what one person finds offensive another can find entertaining.”

Elizabeth Bang said that this is completely unacceptable. “NCWNZ is therefore joining other organisations in the US, the UK and Canada, and upping the ante. Today we are asking people to tweet at Facebook the names of pages that promote rape, sexual violence, and violence against women with the hashtag #notfunnyfacebook. The idea is that if more people see the offensive pages that Facebook is protecting and make their views known to Facebook, the site will have to cave in to the pressure.

“NCWNZ has already started a petition to let Facebook know that New Zealanders do not condone a culture in which rape and violence against women are OK. In the space of just three weeks, over 2500 people have signed it. Now we’re starting the second phase of the campaign,” said Elizabeth Bang.

“We encourage all New Zealanders – men and women - to take a stand on this issue and support our Day of Action.

ENDS

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