Facebook 'Friends' Getting Away With Hate Speech
UPDATED 05/03/11 6:59 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It has created a communications revolution by reuniting long-lost friends and connecting strangers.
But Facebook is also being used by those expressing hate speech, despite a company policy against it.
One Chicago man has been the victim of a bigot on the popular social-networking site. CBS 2's Jim Williams reports, he's fighting back.
Shelley Howard is a man about town. He's an artist who's created rock posters and now he's a target on Facebook.
One of Howard's former Facebook friends-CBS 2 is not revealing her name--went on the attack, posting hateful, racist, antisemitic and anti-gay rants.
One post read: "These are the same Heebs who use the biblical source to say God gave us the land of Israel."
Another said: "Go with the Negro and it will end up in tears or an STD or violence."
Howard was appalled. He investigated and was convinced the person was using a phony name and posting a profile photo of a real TV actress.
He deleted the person as a Facebook friend and sent a warning to hundreds of others.
"You are friends with a vile racist and you probably don't know it," Howard said.
That drew the person's wrath, and she posted scathing comments about Shelley Howard himself.
One post about Howard read: "Only a loser baby boomer Jew would even have 2,300 friends in the first place. You guys will literally never change. It must be in your DNA to be so bizzare and insecure."
Howard and his friend Amy Dabbouseh believe they know who real the person is.
"I'm about 99 percent certain," Dabbouseh said.
They reported the incidents to Facebook, which says it does not tolerate hate speech.
"I would tell you hundreds of -- I repeat hundreds -- have reported both the fake profile and hate speech and absolutely nothing has happened," Howard said
A company spokesman said: "We don't typically comment on actions taken against specific accounts or pieces of content. However, our team ... will act based on our community standards."
Late Tuesday afternoon, Facebook administrators apparently took down the offending page.
