Facebook accused of promoting 'rape'

Facebook has been accused of promoting 'rape culture' by activists after refusing to remove pages joking about sexual assault, a media report said

The claims came after the social networking site refused to remove pages that feature jokes and apparent confessions of sexual assault posted by users, Daily Mail reported.

A petition titled "demand Facebook remove pages that promote sexual violence" was set up on US website change.org, signed by more than 3,600 people in Britain and 175,000 in the US, the Mail said Saturday.

"This is hate speech, I find it very disturbing that Facebook don't appear to see the connection between pages such as this and the prevailing rape culture we have in our society," the newspaper quoted Jane Osmond, who campaigned on behalf of the British petition, as telling The Guardian.

Facebook added to their defence that similar content including jokes about rape can be found elsewhere online.