“I have been a member here for two weeks now because of trouble with Facebook, which I am completely done with. I hope to find peace here because on Facebook I only got more angry and angry.”
“I came here because I was blocked on Facebook, because I posted Zwarte Pieten photos.”
“I ended up here as a refugee from Facebook because I am against censorship.”
A few examples of messages shared on Friendweb. The social medium has gained thousands of new members since Facebook’s ban on stereotypical Zwarte Piet expressions.
“Friendweb is certainly not an anti-Facebook site or, at the moment, a pro-Zwarte Piet site, but you would almost think so when you see the numbers of ‘Facebook refugees’ and what concerns those people,” says founder Martin. Brook.
Friendweb now has dozens of Zwarte Piet pages and groups that are followed and liked by hundreds of people. In September, the social medium gained nearly 4,000 new members – the total membership is now around 10,000. “We currently process between 200,000 and 500,000 clicks per day, which is also new for us,” says Beek.
No censorship
Facebook announced at the beginning of August that it would remove images, photos and videos in which Zwarte Piet is depicted in a stereotypical manner. At Friendweb these photos are not removed and that is also the reason for the attention according to Beek. “There is no censorship on Friendweb. The administrators rarely block people. We do, of course, issue restrictions or delete messages if necessary, but always after contact and for good reason.”
Friendweb does have house rules, Beek explains. “We set things that are on the edge ‘only for friends’, things that really cannot be tolerated, we replace with a statement. We impose restrictions on people who regularly commit this, even within the gray area. by labeling their account as ’18 + ‘. ” Visitors to such a profile will then see a warning and these people can only post messages for friends.