The NUS Black Students' Campagin is urging all students to sign the petition below before Friday 10th of August, to put maximum pressure on Facebook to remove BNP user pages.

Unite Against Fascism and the National Union of Students are calling on the web-based social networking group Facebook to remove user pages that belong to the BNP, stating that it is in contravention of their terms and conditions.

This follows the decision by Vodafone and First Direct to have adverts removed from the site which were posted on BNP group pages. These pages include inciteful images and comments against the Muslim community, racist cartoons, anti-immigration statements and a link to their website which contains racist, Islamophobic, homophobic material and other fascist propaganda.

Fascism has no place on Facebook

We the undersigned call on Facebook to terminate immediately the accounts promoting the fascist British National Party (BNP). The BNP has stated its aims of an all-white Britain which would only be possible through violence and shutting down democracy. Its page includes a link to the BNP website which contains racist, Islamophobic, homophobic content and promotes the BNP’s opposition to mixed race relationships. BNP user groups on Facebook contain racist and inciteful images and statements against Black, Muslim and migrant communities.

The BNP’s views pose a direct threat and are offensive to many Facebook users and people in society. In areas that the BNP target with its hate propaganda, racist attacks increase. In the year that the BNP targeted Barking and Dagenham, spreading racist lies about the African community in the area, racist attacks increased by 30%. The BNP uses the internet to attempt to recruit for its fascist cause and to give legitimacy to its hatred.

The Facebook’s site explicitly states that a user’s account can be terminated if a user fails to adhere to its terms and conditions, which includes agreement not to upload, post, transmit, share or make otherwise available content that can be deemed “harmful, threatening…harassing…hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable”.

We welcome the decision of First Direct and Vodaphone to withdraw advertising from Facebook after their adverts were posted near BNP content. We call on other commercial companies to follow suit until Facebook take action on this matter.

We therefore call on Facebook to take immediate action by removing British National Party related groups from its site.

Name:

Position:

Organsation:

Email:

Please copy this text into an email and send to unite@ucu.org.uk

Yours in Unity,

Ruqayyah Collector

NUS Black Students' Officer

NUS Anti-Racism/Anti-Fascism Convenor

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