The Hate World According To Facebook: Only 139 People Want To Kill Gays For Fun. Right.

But I'll bet the T-shirt sales were astronomical.

The end of the week doesn't mean the end of hate, especially on Facebook. Although the I Kill Gays For Fun Facebook page was discovered almost almost two weeks ago (and since Wednesday has been taken down) it has recently been "discovered" by sites such as Firedog Lake and Joe.My.God. The fact that it had 139 "likes" is disturbing to many.

But why should it be?

The beauty of Facebook is how it brings everything and everyone in life together: it can be as boring or inspirational, as mundane or exciting as its participants. Its situations and comments are bound not by a qwerty imagination, but by, well ... nothing. But it can also limit, contain, restrain - by mutual interest and consent: those 139 "likes" are probably all Facebook friends.

And therein lies the problem: Facebook spillover. Hate pages and their fans/followers/likes spawn lesser sites and more comments than one can imagine. And like a televangelist who demonizes one group of people, the site originator knows that one hate site trumps a thousand "we must love" sites by its effectiveness and sheer intensity.




While one in five   divorcees claim that Facebook   helped ruin their marriage, almost   one-in three Facebook users   say they have been bullied online, so it's not really surprising that hate pages have an enormous impact on Facebook users' lives (now over half a billion people). The "hate" pages come in all forms, from mild and (almost) amusing to terrifying:

I Hate Reading   has 438700 likes. Besides the fact that it seems to promote illiteracy, the site attracts kids who think its cool to be a rebel and hate reading. There is also a site named   I Hate Books .

I Hate The New Facebook Homepage   garnered 3000 members back in 2009 and even Mark Zuckermann joined. It was a spoof that people got PWND with.

I Hate Mondays   Facebook page with 328,000 likes. Who doesn't?

There are hate pages for individuals alive and dead:

There's a   Casey Anthony   hate page with 288 likes. Many think there should be more than that.

The   I Hate Ghandi   Facebook page may have only garnered 2400+ fans but it riled Indian authorities.

Last June, a teen was the   subject of a Facebook hate page . She needed (and got) an enormous amount of emotional support from family and friends.


And just because corporations and public utilities are people too (according to Citizens United):

I Hate Walmart   has the slogan "The High Cost of Low Price" and has 42,405 likes.

Lowe's withdrawal of ads   from American Muslim garnered 28000 expressions of support.

I Hate Sally Mae   Facebook page has 3,771 likes and hardly any of them were OWSers.

I Hate McDonalds   has only 3242 likes, perhaps because EVERYONE likes something at McDonalds.

I Hate MUNI   is actually one I should befriend, but with only 179 likes it's not effective enough.

Hate Pages   is still up as a site where you can post all your hates. It has 448 likes


The potentially violent:

I Want To Kill The Dumb b*tch   who threw kittens in the river has 10413 likes.

I want to kill you sometimes   has 12216 likes

Pro-rape pages   which exemplify today's war on women.

Of course, in more civilized countries, hate speech is not tolerated at even the Facebook level: in   Christchurch,New Zealand , commentors who joined in on a hate page opened themselves up to criminal prosecution.

The "Christian" Facebook group planning to hack and abuse gay-related websites should be alarmed at that one. And don't forget, SPLC-listed hate groups like   Family Research Council   and   American Family Association   have Facebook pages disseminating false information about the people they hate (which is why they are listed as hate groups in the first place).*

And yes, there is a Facebook page,   I Hate Kittens , leading some to believe that 39 people are assh*les.


Facebook Morality

Facebook does not tolerate hate speech. While we encourage the discussion of ideas, institutions, events, and practices, it is a serious violation of our terms to single out individuals based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or disease  

Define "hate speech." "I kill gays for the fun" is obviously hate speech, but Facebook decided that   Holocaust denial was not hate speech   and denial pages could stay. Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church has a Facebook page - 844 likes. Surely the "Man Addicted To Hate" should have been booted off a long time ago.  

Maybe Facebook is like so many of our social institutions, fearful of ostracizing anyone until it's too obvious ... and sometimes too late.


Then there are things people hate about Facebook...




*Interestingly enough, both have less than 200 likes. Hmmmm...