Facebook refuses to take down rape joke pages  Staff Reporter
Campaigners' petition dismissed by social network on grounds
that material is opinion, "no matter how offensive".  Women’s
rights activists in Britain and the United States have accused
Facebook of promoting rape and “rape culture” after the social
networking site refused to take down pages on which users made
jokes and apparent confessions about sexual assault.  Petitions
urging the site to remove pages such as “You know she’s playing
hard to get when your [sic] chasing her down an alley” have been
signed by more than 3 600 people in the UK and 175 000 people on
the United States website  They say the material found on the
pages is a clear violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions,
which bar hateful or threatening content. “This is hate speech,”
said Jane Osmond, who has campaigned on behalf of the UK
petition. “I find it very disturbing that Facebook don’t appear
to see the connection between pages such as this and the
prevailing rape culture