Principal who suspended 28 calls for probe after Facebook inaction
Noel Malone, who suspended 28 students at Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom, Co Limerick, after offensive material about a teacher was posted on the social network, said he was dismayed by Facebook’s inaction.
Facebook has yet to respond directly to Mr Malone but in a reply to TD Niall Collins, who took up the issue on the school’s behalf, the web company’s director of policy for the UK and Ireland, Simon Milner, claimed that only an offensive photograph had been reported. As it was subsequently deleted by whoever posted it, it could take no further action, he said.
Mr Malone had queried why the photo was allowed to be posted in the first place, given that images are monitored and offensive images are a breach of Facebook’s own regulations.
Mr Milner said in his letter: “Since the photo was deleted by the user, we cannot verify why the Facebook agent who reviewed it concluded that it did not violate our statement of rights and responsibilities.”
He claimed that because the Facebook account on which the material was posted was set up using a false name and had since been closed down, it could not be examined further.
“Because the individual photo, rather than the account as a whole, was reported to us in the first instance, the overall nature of the account was not looked into,” he said.
Mr Malone described the reply as “dismissive”. “We gave them the actual account but they didn’t look into it,” he said. “They didn’t do anything as far as I can see for four or five days. Now they say have no way of looking back at it.
“It seems incredible to me that a very large company like this would have absolutely no information on something that was posted on their website or that it would not have information in the back-up files.”
Mr Malone also took issue with Mr Milner’s contention that a special fast-track complaints system was in place for schools and other organisations to raise issues directly with Facebook rather than having to go through a generic online reporting process.
Mr Milner said: “We understand that schools and the safety community would like a direct escalation channel. With that in mind, our public policy team designed a system for these groups to reach Facebook directly to report violations.”
Mr Malone said he knew nothing about any such channel and had been unable to find anything out about it. “I think the Data Protection Commissioner needs to look into this,” he said.
Mr Milner could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The students involved in the incident had all supported the offensive material by “liking” it on their own Facebook pages. They have since served a two-day suspension and Mr Malone stressed he was not pursuing the issue with Facebook to further punish the students.
“This is about Facebook rather than the students, but I am aware that by raising the issue, extra publicity has been generated and I have been in touch with the parents of all the students to offer counselling through our guidance counsellor or external counselling if any student needs it,” he said.
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