Hildur Lilliendahl Viggósdóttir
A well-known Icelandic feminist has been banned by Facebook for outing sexism online. In February, Hildur Lilliendahl Viggósdóttir set up a Facebook album called “Men Who Hate Women,” which is made up of screenshots documenting sexism on Facebook — such as this photo of a woman in her underwear strung up like a pig with an apple in her mouth. The caption reads, “Feminist found in town this morning — captured and put on the grill.”
“I started the album after hearing ridiculously misogynistic things in the media, even from public figures and politicians,” Hildur told British newspaper The Telegraph. “I had the feeling that people didn’t realise how harsh is the response that feminists receive for speaking up. I wanted to shed a light on how vile it is.”
Responses to the album have been varied. Along with praise, Hildur has received a number of death threats. Last month, an Icelandic man made a public Facebook status saying, “If I ‘accidentally’ ran over Hildur, she is probably the only person on earth that I would back up over, and leave the car on top of her with the hand brake on!! Put this in your ‘men who hate Hildur’ folder, Hildur Lilliendahl.”
So she did. And now Facebook has given her a 30-day ban for posting screenshots of other people’s Facebook statuses, which is against Facebook guidelines — even when those statuses are public.
A Facebook spokesperson had this to say: “At Facebook we deplore bullying. We made this rule because screengrabs are one way that bullies can try to bypass privacy and sharing settings.”
So publicly posting death threats is completely okay, but documenting those death threats breaks the rules? Come on, Facebook.
“What I’m doing is not radical—I’m just re-posting the internet on the internet,” Hildur said. “Every comment on the album has already been made publicly. I’m not taking it from a friend’s news feed or a private conversation.”
This isn’t the first time Hildur’s album has been reported, so she also created a Tumblr page so the album wouldn’t be lost. You can check it out here (but, fair warning, it’s all in Icelandic).
Images from telegraph.co.uk, karlarsemhatakonur.tumblr.com
