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11-06-2013, 11:29 AM
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Fight for your faggots! Bristol's Mr Brain's launches campaign after Facebook bans "offensive" term
IT is a delicacy once served up in almost every house in the country. But its name is taboo on the world's biggest social networking site, thanks to those subtle differences between proper English and its American cousin.
Now the makers of the nation's best-known faggots, which started life in a Bristol butcher's shop and were once mass-produced in a Kingswood factory, have launched a campaign urging Facebook to stop banning people from using their product's name.
The recent furore over Facebook banning users for talking about faggots has led Mr Brain's – which started making the savoury snack in Bristol in 1935 – to launch a campaign urging the website to change its rules.
Two Facebook users recently had their accounts temporarily suspended after they wrote about the classic food dish traditionally made from pork off-cuts and offal.
Robert Wilkes, 54, was unable to use his profile for 12 hours after he confessed he 'liked faggots', while 68-year-old Eileen Perrins was also left wondering why she couldn't access Facebook after she posted a picture of the food, which is made from offal and off-cuts of meat.
"It may have a different meaning in America but I used it in a food context," Mr Wilkes told a national newspaper.
The word faggot is often used as an insult to gay people, especially in the United States, and although Facebook admitted the two cases were a Trans- atlantic "misunderstanding", Mr Brain's has highlighted the fact that Facebook still bans use of the word in advertising on its site.
A spokeswoman for Mr Brain's said that when the firm tries to post an advert on the social networking site, the word faggots is always blocked.
She said: "We're really sympathetic to Facebook's need to monitor offensive words, but in the UK faggots are a favourite meal amongst lots of families. Surely there must be a way that Facebook can allow us to talk about a traditional British dish?"
Mr Brain's has now contacted Facebook to argue that the term should be allowed in UK adverts on the site.
The company is urging fans of its faggots to help the campaign by downloading banners and posters from www.mrbrains.co.uk/news and to "Like" their campaign on Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/tastymrbrains.
A spokesman for Facebook said the word faggots is not explicitly banned on the site. When reports are made, Facebook judges content at its face value and where the site does not have sufficient context, it assumes the most common reading. As Facebook is an American website this may mean it assumes the word is a gay slur, which is its most common usage in the States.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Fight-faggots-Bristol-s-Mr-Brain-s-launches/story-20038124-detail/story.html
Fight for your faggots! Bristol's Mr Brain's launches campaign after Facebook bans "offensive" term
IT is a delicacy once served up in almost every house in the country. But its name is taboo on the world's biggest social networking site, thanks to those subtle differences between proper English and its American cousin.
Now the makers of the nation's best-known faggots, which started life in a Bristol butcher's shop and were once mass-produced in a Kingswood factory, have launched a campaign urging Facebook to stop banning people from using their product's name.
The recent furore over Facebook banning users for talking about faggots has led Mr Brain's – which started making the savoury snack in Bristol in 1935 – to launch a campaign urging the website to change its rules.
Two Facebook users recently had their accounts temporarily suspended after they wrote about the classic food dish traditionally made from pork off-cuts and offal.
Robert Wilkes, 54, was unable to use his profile for 12 hours after he confessed he 'liked faggots', while 68-year-old Eileen Perrins was also left wondering why she couldn't access Facebook after she posted a picture of the food, which is made from offal and off-cuts of meat.
"It may have a different meaning in America but I used it in a food context," Mr Wilkes told a national newspaper.
The word faggot is often used as an insult to gay people, especially in the United States, and although Facebook admitted the two cases were a Trans- atlantic "misunderstanding", Mr Brain's has highlighted the fact that Facebook still bans use of the word in advertising on its site.
A spokeswoman for Mr Brain's said that when the firm tries to post an advert on the social networking site, the word faggots is always blocked.
She said: "We're really sympathetic to Facebook's need to monitor offensive words, but in the UK faggots are a favourite meal amongst lots of families. Surely there must be a way that Facebook can allow us to talk about a traditional British dish?"
Mr Brain's has now contacted Facebook to argue that the term should be allowed in UK adverts on the site.
The company is urging fans of its faggots to help the campaign by downloading banners and posters from www.mrbrains.co.uk/news and to "Like" their campaign on Facebook by visiting www.facebook.com/tastymrbrains.
A spokesman for Facebook said the word faggots is not explicitly banned on the site. When reports are made, Facebook judges content at its face value and where the site does not have sufficient context, it assumes the most common reading. As Facebook is an American website this may mean it assumes the word is a gay slur, which is its most common usage in the States.
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Fight-faggots-Bristol-s-Mr-Brain-s-launches/story-20038124-detail/story.html