91 per cent think ExeHonestly shouldn’t be taken down after allowing racist posts
‘I had no idea those posts were Nazi propaganda, so why should they?’
Emily-Jane Heap91 per cent of people do not believe that confession page ExeHonestly should be taken down after allowing racist posts.
In a poll of 1,120 people on The Tab Exeter's instagram story, asking whether ExeHonestly should be shut down, at the time of writing 1024 answered no, with just 96 voting yes.
A series of posts on Exehonestly were found to have Neo-Nazi and white supremacist origins. Screenshots of the posts have been circulating on Twitter after students realised the confessions had racist connotations.
Third year physics student, Jake, told The Tab Exeter the posts "would've gone completely unnoticed if the university hadn't made a big statement about it. Only people who would've been aware of context would've even realised they had Nazi references."
Sophie added: "I think it's a simple mistake to make (re. Admins) because I wouldn't have read those posts and thought anything of it – they can't be aware of every little thing, surely? I had no idea those posts were Nazi propaganda, so why should they?"
This comes after the University decided to escalate the accusations to the Police Hate Crime Unit in a bid to identify those responsible.
One of the controversial posts offered a bag of sweets to those who could answer the riddle: "What accounts for 13%, yet 52%?".
A reference to a statistic circulated by white supremacist online communities, who claim that "despite making up only 13% of the population, blacks make up 52% of crimes."
Another post read: "People's favourite number? Mine's 1488".
This is a combination of two white supremacist symbols. The first being 14, which is shorthand for the fourteen-word slogan "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children", coined by David Lane, a member of white supremacist terrorist group 'The Order'. The second is 88, which stands for "Heil Hitler"; H being the eighth letter of the alphabet.
Both posts have since been deleted.
ExeHonestly admins have denied responsibility.
They told The Tab Exeter: "if we were aware of the meaning we would not have approved the post."
Related stories recommended by this writer:
• Exeter uni reports ExeHonestly for allowing ‘Nazi propaganda’
• Exeter uni to escalate ExeHonestly complaint to Police Hate Crime Unit
• ‘We’re not responsible for any crime’: ExeHonestly admins respond to racism controversy