This is the story of how Facebook’s blanket prohibition against people with sexual offenses, regardless of their crime of conviction or current risk of recidivism, has affected people like CJ who are simply trying to turn their lives around, become a productive part of the community, and provide for their families. Facebook doesn’t discriminate in this fashion against any other subset of people with criminal convictions. Someone could literally be a mass murderer and yet – according to Facebook’s terms of service – that wouldn’t be a disqualification to have a Facebook Marketplace store. But having a sex-related conviction on your record does!
While Facebook’s policy excluding registrants may be perfectly legal, it begs the question: Does Facebook believe in second chances? Do they support a person’s efforts to rehabilitate and redeem themselves, or would they prefer to destabilize and impoverish such people, pushing them towards desperation and unpredictability? If Facebook truly wants safer communities (as they claim) they should take a long, hard look at their own policies which make our communities less safe.
Lives on the Registry is a NARSOL project with one mission: to tell the stories of the one million-plus people listed on sexual offense registries across the US. We focus on their stories, their families, and their struggles to reintegrate back into a society that is often indifferent or hostile. We shed light on the oppressive laws that put people on this unconstitutional blacklist and keep many of them there for the rest of their lives without any hope of being removed, no matter how much they’ve changed or improved their own lives and the well-being of the community.
NARSOL is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization exclusively dedicated to defending the constitutional liberties of registered citizens and their families.NARSOL opposes dehumanizing registries and works to eliminate discrimination, banishment, and vigilantism against persons accused or convicted of sexual offenses through the use of impact litigation, public education, legislative advocacy, and media outreach in order to reintegrate and reconcile affected individuals and restore their constitutional rights.
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