Comments featuring the word ‘gay’ mysteriously disappear off Gillette UK’s Facebook page
Men’s shaving and grooming giant Gillette has launched an investigation after a PinkNews reader complained that non-offensive comments featuring the word “gay” were being erased from the company’s UK Facebook page.
On Wednesday morning, Gillette UK’s Facebook page posted the statement: “Girls affect most decisions a man makes”: Adrien Brody on style. Do you agree?”
Several other users subsequently commented by saying: “not if you’re gay”.
However, within seconds, the comments had been deleted, but other comments that hadn’t mentioned the word “gay” remained on the page.
When PinkNews posted the comment “not if you’re gay” shortly before midday, it was also deleted.
On Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman for Gillette told PinkNews: “We’re sorry this has happened. However, the only comment we have deleted from this post or the wall used language that could be considered offensive and derogatory and so was removed according to our house rules.
“We haven’t removed any comments or posts that matched the post your reader made – and we can’t find record of these posts or your test. We have also tested the site with our own comment using the exact words from your reader below and this hasn’t been removed yet. We are working with Facebook now to understand exactly what has happened and why certain posts aren’t visible.”
On Thursday, Facebook told PinkNews that it had not removed any posts from the page.
