CW: racism
Anonymous Facebook platform ExeHonestly has been criticised after posts relating to neo-Nazi memes were published yesterday, 3 November.
One of the posts read: “People’s favourite number? Mine’s 1488”, making reference to the fourteen-word white supremacist slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”. The phrase was coined by David Lane, founding member of white supremacist terrorist organisation The Order, and has been used as a call to arms for neo-Nazi movements. An additional post applauded the Exeter Chiefs for winning a match with a score of “14-88”, a falsified result.
A further post included the riddle, “What accounts for 13% yet 52%?”, which can be identified as a copypasta post originating in a Reddit thread aiming to promote stereotypes about crime in Black communities.
All posts have since been deleted.
Students drew attention to the posts yesterday (3 November) on Twitter, with the official University account responding that the post had been reported to Facebook.
ExeHonestly via Facebook
A University spokesperson said: “Exehonestly is an anonymous Facebook page open to anyone to post content and operated by anonymous administrators. We have deep concerns about the content these administrators post that affect our community and we urge our students not to use it.
“We have reported our concerns about the site to Facebook, and now escalated matters to the Police Hate Crime Unit and will work with them to identify those responsible. If we obtain specific information about any of our students posting abusive or offensive content we will take immediate and appropriate action.
We have reported our concerns about the site to Facebook, and now escalated matters to the Police Hate Crime Unit
University spokesperson
“Racism cannot be tolerated in any form in our community and students can contact us with information or concerns through our ‘Speak Out’ website: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/speakout/.”
The ExeHonestly administrators have been made to apologise in the past for allowing offensive posts through their screening system, including one in November 2018 claiming that “no N-word November” would be a “real challenge”.
