Disturbing racist Facebook photo causes furore

In the news lately for all the wrong reasons, Facebook is going through a rough publicity patch. The latest, garnering strong reactions from across the world, is a display image of a white man posing with a gun in front of a seemingly lifeless body of a black child. The picture had been posted on the page of ‘Eugene Terrorblanche’, playing on the name of white supremacist leader Eugene Terre’Blanche, who was murdered in April last year. The picture was published by the Sunday Times on Sunday, 28 August when a reporter stumbled upon it while searching for Eugene Terre’Blanche. Social media networks and radio stations were filled with condemnation of the picture and what it depicts. Peepa David*(name changed), Pretoria, says, “It’s upsetting when you see that people will stoop so low and put such disgraceful pictures on social networking sites. Long after our freedom struggle and the affirmative action in place, one wouldn’t expect someone to be so brave as to put a picture which is so medieval in nature.” After the story broke, the user blocked access to his photos to all but his friends. Information on his profile described his interest in knives, firearms, close-combat fighting and weapons. [caption id=“attachment_72396” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Facebook photo at the centre of controversy.”] [/caption] According to report published by the Sunday Times  today, the police had questioned the man from Knysna in 2007, when the picture first surfaced. Hawkes’ spokesman Colonel McIntosh Polela, who had investigated when the picture first leaked in 2007, said, “The man was taken in for questioning and told the police that he had paid the child to pose.” Overnight, anti Eugene Terrorblanche groups and pages mushroomed on Facebook. At the time the story went to press, ‘Antifanpage: Eugene Terrorblanche’ had 798 likes, and ‘Protest group against Eugene Terrorblanche’ had 600 members. Some wall posts on the antifan page mention they’d seen the picture earlier in chain mails a few years back and condemned it when they first saw it at that time too. Another bone of contention for most who have seen the profile is why Eugene Terrorblanche’s almost 600 friends never reported the picture. The fact that the pictures have been circulating for quite sometime now, and the laxity on the police’s end in not probing further whether the child was alive, have also raised concerns. Pukkhats Zaka *(name changed) says, “I don’t know if the picture has been doctored, or whether the child was paid or not, what I do know is that when I see it, I am filled with hate for those who are part of this sick guy’s friend circle.” It’s only a matter of time though, till further investigation into the picture tells us whether the crime was actually committed, whether the child was only pretending to play dead for money or whether they the pictures were doctored by some fanatic racists eager to instigate and get a reaction.