An Irish woman has launched a campaign to put one small Limerick town on the map after it was blacklisted by Facebook for being too offensive.
Ann Marie Kennedy ran into difficulty on the social networking site when attempting to update where she was from on her profile, as Facebook deemed the name ‘Effin’ far too offensive for their tastes.
Ann Marie’s friends encountered similar problems and rather that sit idly by and be content with anonymous stalking like most Facebook users, Ann Marie was determined that Facebook be took to task for such outrageous discrimination or ‘placism’.
Ann-Marie ran into further problems, however, when she tried to set up a page ‘Please get my hometown Effin recognised’ only to find that Facebook blocked that aswell, possibly because they were unable to distinguish whether Ann-Marie meant the town ‘effin’ or whether she was simply pissed off about wanting to have her effin town recognised.
She said: “I would like to be able to put Effin down on my own profile page and so would many other people around the world who proudly say that they are from Effin – but it wouldn’t recognise that.
“It keeps coming up as Effingham, Illinois; Effingham, New Hampshire; and it gives suggestions of other places.
Kennedy added that Facebook will recognise the fact that she’s from Limerick, but not specifically from Effin. We implore you to try and read the following sentence without bursting out laughing.
“It will recognise Limerick but I’m not from Limerick city, I’m from Effin. I’m a proud Effin woman. And I always will be an Effin woman,” she added.
After Facebook resisted her numerous attempts to put Effin on the social networking map, Kennedy went on the Ray D’Arcy show to tell the nation about her dilemma and although Ray showed some sympathy, he also made the quite valid point that when they were handing out place names, Limerick must have been last in line.
“As it goes Limerick probably has the most odd names, because there’s Bruff, Meanus, Hospital, Oola and Doon is there too,” said D’Arcy.
We wonder if Facebook adopt a similar policy when dealing with place names such as F*cking in Austria, Whiskey Dick Mountain and Bald Knob in America or Cockup and Titty Hill in England? We have a feeling that Effin could well be the only place not getting a fair crack of the whip.
So is it just Ann-Marie, or have other people from Effin encountered similar problems on Facebook? Feel free to let us know in the comment box below.
