The Sunday Times’ coverage of a local tumblr page which highlights neighborhood ‘crime’ posts (and racial remarks) made on Facebook, has ensured the website’s viral success. Check out these highlights:

According to news24:

Controversy has arisen over the use of racial profiling by certain neighbourhood watches, the Sunday Times reported.

The use of racial codes, apparently including describing black people as “bravo” and coloured people as “charlie”, in social media alerts, is growing, Media Monitoring Africa director William Bird told the newspaper.

“It really wouldn’t help identify a possible perpetrator. It would be like saying ‘a white male in Norway’.

The newspaper said a website, Suburban Fear, was set up this week to report on civic organisations’ Facebook’s posts – labelling them: “the bastion of white middle class fear”.

Screenshots of posts included on the website include those that refer to “bm,”, meaning black males.

[more here]

Enjoy some highlights below:

I don’t know what’s more alarming – the fact that these people have written these comments, or the fact that they think their ‘community groups’ on Facebook are private.

It’s no wonder people and neighborhoods are moving away from Facebook, and signing up with neighbourhood-specialised platforms, like OurHood – South Africa’s fastest growing online platform for neighborhoods.

Check out more exposed Facebook posts from Suburban Fear here.