Facebook Pedophile Survey Sparks Backlash, Apology

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By    |   Monday, 05 March 2018 05:59 PM EST ET

Facebook is facing backlash for a survey that asked whether pedophiles should be able to ask underage girls for "sexual pictures."

A number of users were able to see the poll at the top of Facebook's home page this weekend, the New York Post reported.

"In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Faebook's policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for sexual pictures," one question in the survey read, the Post reported.

One of the possible answers to the question was to vote that "the content should be allowed on Facebook, and I would not mind seeing it." Poll-takers could also vote that "content should be allowed on Facebook, but I don't want to see it," the Post reported.

Screenshots of the poll were posted on Twitter by an editor at the Guardian, the Post reported. Jonathan Haynes tweeted, "I'm like, er wait is making it secret the best Facebook can offer here? Not, y'know, calling the police?" USA Today reported.

Another question asked who should decide whether pedophilic content was allowed on Facebook, the Post reported.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday that the survey was a "mistake," and that "this kind of activity is and will always be completely unacceptable on FB," the Post reported.

Facebook also said in a statement: "We understand this survey refers to offensive content that is already prohibited on Facebook and we have no intention of allowing," USA Today reported.

In 2017, the BBC discovered dozens of images and pages on Facebook that contained child pornography, USA Today reported. Facebook was also criticized recently for violence on its Live streaming service and the use of Russian bots to try to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Twitter users were outraged by the survey.

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TheWire
Facebook apologized after a survey asking users whether pedophiles should be able to ask underage girls for "sexual pictures" sparked backlash.
facebook, pedophile, survey, backlash
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2018-59-05
Monday, 05 March 2018 05:59 PM
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