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| Rebecca Gomperts (Women on Waves) |
Facebook
temporarily removed the profile picture of Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch founder
of Women on Waves, an organisation that works to provide women with safe, legal
abortions. The image consists of a block of text providing information on how
women can self-induce an abortion without the assistance of a doctor. Women on
Waves was furious, but media attorney Quinten Kroes said there was little they
could do.
Rebecca
Gomperts was shocked when she received an email from Facebook informing her
that her profile photo had been removed because it violated the website’s terms
of use known as the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
Apology
Meanwhile
Facebook has sent her another message, apologising for the removal, and
claiming it was an error. Ms Gomperts was given permission to reinstate the
image. She assumed that the service's change of mind was prompted by the flood
of protests and publicity it had created.
Describing
the contentious picture, Rebecca Gomperts said,
“It’s
actually a sticker we designed to provide information on how women can safely
induce an abortion using a medicine called Misoprostol. The text is based on
information and research from the World Health Organisation. So it is really
quite safe.”
The
English-language text says that to induce a safe abortion women should buy 12
Misoprostol tablets at a pharmacy. They are advised to say the drugs are
intended for ‘their granny who has arthritis.’ When the tablets are taken a few
hours apart they will induce labour accompanied by abdominal cramps and vaginal
bleeding eventually leading to a miscarriage after about 10 hours. Diarrhoea is
the most common side-effect. In case of a high fever and severe pain women are
advised to see a doctor, who should be told the patient suffered a miscarriage.
Legally
unassailable
Women on
Waves says the removal of the photograph is in violation of article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights - which specifically mentions ‘the right
to ... seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media’ – and
the European Convention on Human Rights. However, media and privacy lawyer
Quinten Kroes says this not entirely true:
“Women on
Waves refers to very basic human rights, such as the freedom of expression.
These fundamental rights are primarily intended as protection from government
interference, which is not what this is about. Facebook has not removed the
profile photograph as a result of pressure from any government, but on its own
initiative. From that perspective, Facebook could argue its own freedom of
expression was at stake here. Facebook cannot be made to spread ideas the
company does not support.”
Mr Kroes
says Facebook's legal right to remove the text is based on its' extensive and
legally unassailable terms of use: “They will undoubtedly include articles granting
Facebook the right to remove specific texts because the texts violate certain
norms or prompted complaints from other users.”
Men kissing
This is not
the first time Facebook has removed photographs from profile pages for alleged
terms-of-use violations. Earlier, photographs of partially nude people, works
of art involving (too much) nudity and of kissing men fell victim to Facebook’s
censorship.
“It really
worries me that there should be so much censorship on the internet. Regardless
of whether it’s Google or Facebook,” says Rebecca Gomperts, “Because when you
no longer know what’s going on, you can also no longer discuss it. That’s what
we all should protest against.”
Kroes says
leaving Facebook is the only thing users can do to protest against the removal
of photographs. And indeed, Ms Gomperts is considering leaving Facebook in
favour of its competitor Google+. But that site has just this week become the
subject of a fierce discussion on its strict terms of use.
US
columnist MG Siegler angrily reported that his profile photograph had been
removed because it showed him giving the middle finger. Since then, numerous
people in the US have expressed their support by posting photographs on their
Google+ profiles in which they make a similar gesture.
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