So apparently on Facebook you can use the word"ni@@a" while making fun of Barack Obama,

[Lunabell]

but I can't call someone a stupid racist. I hate Zuckerberg.

[Karadeniz]

1. He needs to delegate the ethics leadership entirely.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. You can probably chalk this up to the fact that this particular word is, unfortunately

imho (but not really my business) ... uttered by folks in the AA population fairly copiously.

And I know this in no small part because I listen to a fair bit of the hip-hop.

Guessing that's why it's not flagged. It has 'become part of the vernacular', if you will.

I would guess that the more offensive spelling would've resulted in the post being removed.

[KPN]

4. Well, that would be the explanation/justification anyway. nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

6. True ... and when you get down to it, if there's anything Facebook knows about you

Other than what your email is and who your friends are ... it's your skin color.

It would not be at all hard for them to bar Caucasians from using that term, while allowing darker skinned people to use it.

However ... that kinda opens up a can of worms they might not want to deal with.

[KPN]

10. Ah heck, that would be an easy algorithm. It's all

BS and owner preference.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

11. Technically, it's fairly 'easy', but socially, it's less so ...

Would someone who's, say ... 1/2 black ... be 'allowed' to use the term?

How about a dark-skinned person of Indian descent who grew up in Compton?

And if you deployed these systems, you'd get some people who'd freak out ... hey, I see that my black friend uses that word all the time, but me, Mr White Dude, gets my post removed ... CENSORSHIP!!!

My guess is that these are the sorts of the complexities they'd rather not deal with, and they leave terms alone that are more 'situational', while banning terms that nobody would use without it being offensive.

I have no love for Zuck, but as a programmer since I was 12 ... I have a bit of empathy for how complex it can be to 'automate' outputs when you have a huge variety of possible inputs.

[KPN]

12. The devil's always in the details.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

3. Same with Instagram.

I reported someone for posting blatantly anti-semitic memes and I got a message saying they didn't find anything wrong, meanwhile a picture of my partner in a modest Target bathing suit was taken down for being lewd.

[Maru Kitteh]

7. Zuck owns Instagram too now I think.

could be wrong but that's the impression I had

[mzmolly]

5. Instagram is

the same. People can use racial slurs, but not call out racists.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

9. That spelling of that word is a racial slur if you're not AA ...

If you are, it's much less unacceptable.

The more offensive spelling I'm sure would be recognized as a slur and removed coming from anyone.

Though on another level, that is a bit of a cop-out, because FB knows (or has a pretty damn good idea) whether you're AA or not.

And I'd assume that person using it in the OP's case is probably NOT AA. But I'm not positive.

[Initech]

8. Don't engage the trolls. Just block, report and move on!