So even if your blind, deaf, & dumb you’ve heard about the Kevin Smith Southwest airline incident. I am NOT going to rehash or add my commentary on whether what Southwest did was right or wrong or whether Kevin Smith is really that fat. Not important. What is important is the comments Southwest has allowed to be post on their blog.
A small sample- You can read all of them here & here:
- “To be honest, I would not want to sit next to a fatty on an airplane. They smell and overflow into my seat.”
- “Yes he may have fit in the seat but I bet he was on the lap of the person next to him. Lose weight people, people say it’s in their genes, that’s a load of crap, it’s in the 4000 calorie Buffett that you eat. It’s that Ice cream sandwich. I can’t stand fat ass people.”
- “If you eat too much, you have to pay for 2 seats. Stop complaining you overindulging fatwad.”
Hate speech is defined as ” speech perceived to disparage a person or group of people based on their social or ethnic group”. I am pretty sure these comments fall hard in the line of hate speech and thus extremely inappropriate for a brand to be hosting on their site. No brand wants to be seen as a conduit of any type of bigotry. Ever. But low & behold Southwest is hosting a conversation spewing with lil’ pieces of hate on every page. I am frankly shocked none of these comments were removed during moderation. I thought that maybe Southwest had made a big boo boo and no installed a moderation system into their blog.
But shock & awe Southwest’s blog user guidelines state:
“This is the point where we insert the “fine print” and discuss the guidelines for posting. Nuts About Southwest is a moderated site because we want to ensure that everyone stays on topic—or at least pretty close to it. We would LUV for you to post your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and questions, but when you post, make sure that they are of general interest to most readers. Of course, profanity, racial and ethnic slurs, and rude behavior like disparaging personal remarks won’t be tolerated nor published.”
So. Wait. Really? Southwest does enforce comment moderation? Sure doesn’t seem like it. I am pretty damn sure that last time I checked saying something like, “To be honest, I would not want to sit next to a fatty on an airplane. They smell and overflow into my seat.” was pretty damn rude. Plus something like “I can’t stand fat ass people,” counts as profanity, no?
People are entitled to their opinion, and agree Southwest needs to allow people to add their two cents. But, I am clearly shocked by how loose they have been with comment moderation. It’s not like people who agree with Southwest’s perspective can’t share without using profanity and degrading comments against fat people. I happen to think this comment is written well with out being offensive or profane:
“As for the others who are offended by the policy – why should the rest of us pay for your inability to get fit? Working on it? Bravo to you! Until you get there, though, pay for the extra seat or drive. Southwest has always had the best service, best prices, and best flight attendants! My family will remain loyal customers.”
After reading this and really thinking about it I have decided to not fly Southwest. Is it because of Kevin Smith? Not directly. Is it because Southwest on their own blog has gone against their corporate policy and allowed hateful comments to remain posted on the site? YES! In essence, by not removing these they impart have ignored the hurtful and awful nature of these statements. I don’t ask for much of brands, just that in a public forum, they stick to their legal responsibility & refrain from supporting or posting hate speech. I am sorry Southwest you broke that rule.
Also, Southwest just an FYI You might want to take those comments down because according to your legal disclaimer & the nature of comments that made it through your filter -you could be sued. Or you can hope, just like one of your commentors, that ” [fat people] just stay home till they have shed the pounds and can join the human race.”
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