Exeter Uni says ExeHonestly are responsible for racist posts
They said ‘a 10-second Google search’ would have indicated posts were offensive
Emily-Jane HeapThe University of Exeter is holding ExeHonestly admins accountable for racist content posted on the site.
This comes after ExeHonestly denied responsibility for a series of posts found to have Neo-Nazi and white supremacist origins. They claimed: "if we were aware of the meaning we would not have approved the post".
A spokesperson for the University of Exeter told The Exeter Tab: “The Exehonestly administrators are responsible for the content they post on their site.
"For the administrators to claim ignorance about posting offensive content on multiple occasions is either not credible or is evidence that they are not capable of hosting a community site. A ten second internet search would have indicated that the latest posts were offensive to everyone in our community."
He added: “The University has tried to reach out to the Exehonestly administrators but their anonymous and unaccountable operation is not acceptable in addressing serious issues of racism and mental health.
"The latest incident is now a police matter. We urge our students not to use the Exehonestly site and if we obtain specific information about any of our students posting abusive or offensive content we will take immediate and appropriate action.”
The University have escalated complaints to the Police Hate Crime Unit.
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.
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