Facebook Shuts Down Human Pets
Posted by Nick O'Neill on May 8th, 2008 10:58 PMHuman Pets, an application with over 50,000 active daily users, was shut down by Facebook due to pornographic pictures that were supposedly showing up within the application occasionally. Patrick Shyu, the developer of the application, was notified at 12 am in the morning and was given a 2 hour time frame to take down the photos or have the application removed. Patrick made a series of frantic emails to Facebook to keep the application up but was unsuccessful. This was in response to the following email from Facebook:
Hi Patrick,
We ask that you remove your application from the site until you have removed all pornographic content. Our pornographic policy is very strict and we gave you a deadline until now 11:00am pacific time Thursday 8 May 2008 and all pornographic content has not been removed from your application. Below are just a few URL links of content that violates our Platform Application Guidelines section I.1 (see http://developers.facebook.com/guidelines.php). We take this violation very seriously and will have to disable your application until you have fully complied with our policy, unless you take it down to remove the content.
[Links to 10+ pictures]
Sincerely,
Facebook Platform Developer Operations & Suppport
This is just one of many emails that were exchanged in a series of emails between Patrick and the development team. Patrick had apparently devised a system which enabled users to mark uploaded content as “adults only”. Facebook’s platform team was not in favor of this and after a substantial amount of back and forth the application was ultimately shut down. The problem was that when Patrick prevented users from uploading pornographic images, they revolted and ended up posting more making it impossible for the moderators to handle the volume.
Ultimately Patrick needs to make his application work if he is going to accept image uploads. I would argue that they should use the Facebook platform for uploading photos and as such the users who are uploading photos that violate the terms of service will be banned. I can’t currently access the application to see how it functions but here is where it used to be. It will be interesting to see if this application is added again or if it’s gone for good.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I used to actively use this application in its early stage. It was a fun application full of quirky people and interesting content it started going down hill when members were turning it into a porno hub prostituting “auctioning” (naughty pics or videos) of themselves in exchange for pixel points to “buy” pets. It was starting to get disturbing.
People were also taking it too seriously. Accusing each other of “theft” if another user would BUY their “pets”.
Starting and getting into fights with other members.
The uploading of pics mostly lewd ones started when they came up with the “shop” option where you can open a store and upload photos and attach a caption to go with it. Users then can “buy” that as gifts to give to their pets.
Many users then uploaded pornographic images to sell, sex sells, to get more points.
It suddenly lost all its charm for me.
I stopped using the application right then and there.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:13 am
this is very upsettingI have alot of friends on that page and I miss them dearly. you could of given him more time to deal with the massive task. you are ruining facebook by doing this. this is the only reason I even log on to facebook is that page. it rocks, give him a break! and let him get our page back, PLease!!!!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Please bring back HP, miss the fun.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Oh man, this is stupid… I paid a membership, and now expect it refunded.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:37 am
THIS IS SUCH CRAP!!! WHAT ABOUT ALL THE DRUG SMUGGLING APPS AND CRAP LIKE THAT?? LIKENESS UNRATED HAS SEXUAL SHIT IN IT TOO. THEY SHOULD MAKE AGE RESTRICTIONS ON APPS SO THAT THE ADULTS CAN ENJOY THEMSELVES TOO. WAS FACEBOOK NOT ORIGINALLY CREATED FOR MORE MATURE PEOPLE?? MAYBE THEIR SHOULD BE AN AGE RESRICTION ON WHO CAN USE FACEBOOK ALTOGETHER!!
BRING BACK HUMAN PETS!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:49 am
if PARENTS stop their KIDS from getting on facebook(age limit)then we would’nt have a problem..
i’m not a member so i cant see the “adults only”.
human pets was the best thing on facebook,for me & my friends.
please bring it back.why punish us when the PARENTS of the young ones that somehow got in should be SLAPED!!!!!!!!!
May 9th, 2008 at 1:58 am
bring back HP. its not fair to other who use the application wisely.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:02 am
I am greatly upset by what has happened..I worked very hard in Human Pets to take care of my pets and earn points.
When it was removed, I had half a million points invested in pets, had over 200K in items purchased from the shops, and had 300K in my account.
I was very committed to this application as were many, many people.
There will always be people who will abuse the system,but don’t punish everyone.
I made some wonderful, everlasting friendships in this application, and cared very much for these people.
I am deeply saddened about it being ripped away from us with NO warning to us users.I am positive there are many individuals right now that are devastated by this loss.
To many of us, it was much more than an application on FaceBook.
I know I am only one person, but I am one strong person, that believes that I must stand up for what is right or wrong, and this was wrong.
There could have been more of a notice to Patrick, and adequate time given to clear out the users who refused to stop promoting this particular type of pornography.
Please have Human Pets returned to us, with a plan set in place to correct the problem. We would all appreciate it being brought back with all our assets in their original place, as well.
I am sure most of us are completely willing to work within guidelines.
Awaiting your response,
Bonnie Brady
May 9th, 2008 at 2:54 am
this is real sad. I hope Patrick removes the adult content and facebook re-instore this application
May 9th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Human Pets is the only reason I go onto Facebook at all. There must be some compromise.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Just bring HP back and only ban the members not respecting your porn policy, I miss my friends on hp and the laughter and banter we had……Its not fair to punish the world because some people couldn’t respect you….
Please
May 9th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Fascinating! Yours is the first post I could find on the disappearance of Human Pets from Facebook. It’s true, there were a lot of pornographic photos and videos on HP and they were easy to find. And people got ridiculously angry whenever they were reported for posting porn.
I agree…Patrick and his team needed to ban people who posted porn.
May 9th, 2008 at 5:10 am
i fell as a use of that app it was a bit unfair to do so fast.If they wanted the could have disabled the shops and gift items and to do this the site should have been put under ” out of order” till so and site should have been locked till the program was sorted instead of a straight kick i understand the problem and agree to that is not need it ect. but its also unfair to the good use who has made good frioend and have not added them to the fb and i wish if the could not find a nice way around the problem they should at least let the user to get the friend in hp to there fb and i hope that fb took it that they gave him 2hours to do some thing i feel with a huge program like hp it extremly hard to do that and all we know he got notic 30min cos he went out for a bit the loo or wat ever as i know i miss this with in 2h as not always at my pc i could under stand if fb gave him 48 or even 24 hours notic
i feel fb could have under stood that alittle better
and feel even if then dont let the program back they could at least give a chance for ppl get find the friends they had
regards
chris bussey
May 9th, 2008 at 5:40 am
Hi. Firstly I have only been online properly for about 9 months. I have the time to write this because I have just had a back operation. Human pets as an application helped me forget about my discomfort, both before and after my operation. The majority of people from all over the world that I spoke to on the application were Adult, positive, and very friendly. Personally I thought that membership to adapt your page was a good idea, especially as a charity benfited.
I did not see the need for the adult images on this application at all. A bit of titalation maybe but not more thanyou see more on most beaches and daytime tv nowdays. I hope that the Facebook team realise that Human Pets was a fantastic platform for actually meeting people, swapping ideas, bringing out creativity and sharing knowledge. Which is what the web is for..isn’t it? Please consider bringing it back.
Unfortunately as in so many cases there will be those who like to push back against regulations and I agree that any, and I mean any user found to be breaking the rules especially where pornagraphy is concerned should be banned. (although a code of acceptability needs to be created) and the offending item removed immediately. I for one volunteer my services as a moderator and I am absolutley positive that if it a matter of policing the site, there would be no problem at all in getting enough people to do it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Thank you Patrick Shyu for making my life a lot easier than it could have been. Paul Hayman (Strange Paul to my friends on HP)
May 9th, 2008 at 5:42 am
very interesting…
Thing is, I was using this app for a while, not for the activities mentioned above, though. As it is/was a dating site of sorts, inevitably it could get a bit saucy, yet I never came across pornography as such. There were a few stories about users posting a lot of flesh, yet never as nude as even 70s playboy and then there were the misuse of female model photos obviously just taken from the web and set up as fake girl accounts. Yet most of those were actually banned by the admin eventually, keeping the community rather clean, at least from my perception.
The rather big question is, if human pets is gone, what will replace it as there will be a demand for a similar service.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Honestly, this is really to some degree as much a Facebook problem as it is HP problem. I think that the 50,000 HP daily users only scratches the surface & believe there are near to 600,000 total users ?!
There is no real mechanism for Facebook to bulk address multiple users at short notice which substantially contributed to the problem & that discussions were solely between Patrick & facebook rather than Facebook & HP users which is where the majority of the problem lied & where Facebook need to seriously concentrate their focus on.
& realistically, If they had links for Patrick to see, then they effectively had some of the true/real offenders if you wish to call them that to which they could apply their controls upon without globally affecting all & many/most legitimate users of HP.
yes, maybe control is needed, but certainly in no way at all how this has now been so atrociously performed.
A serious gap has been left with the removal of HP, one which leaves some huge social repercussions this weekend & no doubt will have many questioning & seriously reviewing their facebook ‘allegiances’. Upsetting whackos & freaks via legitimate controls appropriately applied is one thing, upsetting friends exercising legitimate & controlled global social interactions is a completely different exercise which has now left a huge a significant bad taste for all faceBook HP users.
An emphatic ‘Boo’ to facebook for the poor lacklustre way in which this exercise has been so inappropriately performed.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:43 am
you people should take a look at the internet some day
soon
there is more porn than anyone could see in their lifetime
you really need to grasp reality and and return human pets to the fb apps
it was the one app that made fb useful and fun
the rest of your apps are infantile and poorly written
having little or no interaction
thank you norman stone
May 9th, 2008 at 6:56 am
The very best aplication on Facebook and the main reason i log on to this site,
Was removed without any warning to the shock of i guess what must be over 50,000 active daily members.
At the very least facebook could have spared a thought for this subcomunity and given us all notice that the aplication was to be removed,
thus allowing us to add all our human pets friends to facebook friends lists.
On a more personal note..
I loved Humanpets and spent months building up points i had a little shop and took hours carefully crafting * NON ADULT* gifts i made good friends on there and am glad that i was a part of it.
If HUMANPETS was to set up outside of facebook i would join and start again like a shot it really was more than just a facebook aplication anyway.
BRING BACK HUMAN PETS.
BRING BACK HUMAN PETS.
we are behind you Patrick
Ian Smith
Leicester England
May 9th, 2008 at 7:12 am
WE WANT OUR HUMAN PETS BACK THIS ISN’T FAIR YOU HAVE A LOT OF OTHER APPS WITH BAD STUFF GET RID OF THEM TO THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FREE COUNTRY NOT A MICKY MOUSE DICTATORSHIP.YOU HAVE PISSED OFF A LOT OF PEOPLE
May 9th, 2008 at 7:29 am
I so need that HP application back. I met so many friends through that application and now I am so sad that I cannot contact them anymore…..there is no point in hole FB if it punish all the people for someone being obedient….
May 9th, 2008 at 8:13 am
OMG! I’m so glad you posted this, because I really didn’t know what was happening. This is outrageous. I hope HP comes back quickly….
May 9th, 2008 at 8:14 am
I’d like to know what Patrick Shyu is planning to do in terms of REIMBURSING those of us that invested in his MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM (like I did) in his Human Pets application.
I had no idea that the Adult Content issue was actually an issue since there was a clearly identified “Red Light District” section which presumes that the “Adults Only” content label was being enforced - but in any event that honor system SHOULD BE tied to the shop owner uploading/adding an item to the Market.
Either way, the membership fee was tied to a duration - and if this duration is not going to be honored due to a policy violation issue between Facebook Big Brother and the Developer - then Patrick Shyu either needs to comply and return the Human Pets application to Facebook OR reimburse those of us that paid for the membership program in a pro-rated manner based on the difference between our membership expiration date and the date when the Human Pets application was removed from Facebook (05/08/08).
May 9th, 2008 at 8:21 am
this Patrick guy should just make his own website i am sure all his fans will follow?
May 9th, 2008 at 9:00 am
First i would like to say that i think this is ridiculous. Im not even an HP user anymore, but its ridiculous.
Two things… 1. Ive seen many pornographic pictures slip onto facebook, are you going to shut yourself down???
2. In regards to the statement about the ‘adults only’ pics (deemed unacceptable by facebook), why is there a specific app designed for posting your ‘adult pics’ in an album that requires a password set by the owner??? why is that acceptable??
Seems to me, facebook is jealous of Patricks success.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Ow, poor patrick. Talk to him from time to time, good guy. I hope they get it back up.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I think that the members who were in the wrong should have been banned, then this whole thing would not have turned out this way.
I for one miss it already and I only heard about it today!
This has been a joy for many people, many of these people could not have had this kind of social life elsewhere and they actually really NEEDED it.
pity pity pity
If it gets restored, I hope we can keep our current profile points, shops, etc.
Later
May 9th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Please bring back Human Pets. It was a fun application and was great for communicating with people from around the world.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I am so so so sorry this all happened. No one warned us. How could we kno that FB doesnt like “adult only” items? I dont know what to do now cause I might have lost some friends thanks to this.
And it is not the same to write on the walls and to meet in Express and chat all together.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I understand why you are saying about this, pornographic images on a PG rated site isn’t a good thing, we all discussed this ourselves… and thats why the become a ‘member’ option was available… so that only members could see them, being you had to have a paypal account to buy a membership, you have to be over 18 to view them! so whats the problem?
all there needs to be is a filter so that youngtsers cant lie about there age, and anyone under 18 cant view adult content….
Sorted!>??
Now lots of us ‘members have paid money to a member, and it is going to waste… we only paid to be members so we can keep the adult content in the shops,
… explaination please…
May 9th, 2008 at 10:11 am
oh yeh and PS! check out OWNED!
they have worse pictures in there… and it is not set to adult, so ANYONE can view it!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hi in reply to shutting down Human pets , this is so sad many of my pets i have traveled to visit , and hope some common sense will come of it ,id just paid 3 months membership
So ive lost contact with my friends (Mates ) As Australia is a massive continent
Please think about some new system
regards
Ian
May 9th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hi i would like to make a formal complain to Facebook for the sudden disconnection of the human pets application.
patrick is only one man and i think he has done everything to comply with your sites terms and conditions but unfortunately he was not able to get it all in time
i can say applications such as private photo gallary and a few select other also have not so favorable images and have not been removed
This is outrageous and it seems the application was targeted
If you truely want to better your service you should thing of the users more.
at least give a warning to the people using it
a formal warning from facebook to remove items would have been a more reasonable telling the users not patrick to remove the items
because with over 50 000 active users its not possible to keep up and delete everything in 1 day
Regards
Marc Mendes
May 9th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
As an an avid Human Pets user I was shocked to find my favorite application gone.. poof.. while I agree that the pornopgraphic content was not appropriate for an application open to all ages, I hope that Patrick and the Facebook team can work out a compromise as I, and many other people, love our daily interactions with other friends on Human Pets and want it back as soon as possible.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Why would they shut down this app and let the most porn-filled applications get away with it? Fun Wall and Super Wall are the main vectors for porn on FB…Why not them?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
All our private mail: gone. That is what annoys me the most. FB should have given at least a 24 hour warning notice to HP users that they were pulling the application. A lot of users would then have had a chance to save text and contact information.
Shutting down HP under the ‘oh but we want to protect the kiddies’ banner is complete b.s and an evil, down right frightening sign of what is to come if this invasion and control of our privacy is accepted. There’ll be no stopping them. What next: banned based on your religious views or sexual preference? I’m using fb right now only to try to find people I’d promised to send postcards to for giving me HP points via auctions and to keep up with HP news. I support a fully independant HP site and then I will definitely leave fb on principle. These cyber mommies and daddies of ours at fb have our names, dobs, addresses, phone numbers… We give them everything, and they take away our freedom of choice and ground us. If enough ‘adults’ walk from fb, advertisers might take notice too as the 12 year old white middle class Christian kiddies fb seem so suddenly to want to target as their main audience can’t use a credit card. And we all know the only thing that will hurt them is a slimmer wallet.
How many of you actually got harassed by random HP users? How many of you actually received unsolicited pornographic spam messages or comments? It’s no good blaming HP users who ignored the adult content rules: the internet is full of porn and sites that people either as individuals or groups find objectionable. You just don’t go to those sites. You think the internet would be completely shut down if enough people beaten senseless by alcoholics complained about ‘How To Make Cocktails’ sites? I absolutely loathe and detest animal cruelty, but don’t see a hope in hell of having sites advocating such things being pulled, and nor would I want to. I’d rather people I don’t agree with still have the right to say whatever they want, as long as I can to, and without being subjected to such things by force. FB does not feel the same way and again, I think what they are doing is very, VERY dangerous.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Finally! I’ve been looking all over for a reason to the disappearance of an application that I have checked daily. I can’t figure out why this application did not just stand on it’s own as a website all by itself; Then it really doesn’t matter if there are nude pictures or not. Besides, isn’t there an issue with the fact that Patrick was making money off of this application, via the “Membership” and whatnot??
May 9th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
The porn type photos were a minor part of the app… and most of the members would not miss them…
those who over-reacted to the restraint that was exercised spoiled a good thing for everyone…
and isn’t that the way of the world…
Can there not be some compromise reached? bring back HP and maintain a minor calm???
It was the reason for going to facebook..
and frankly some of the other apps are more just as bad but less honest
May 9th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Reading your article on Human Pets, one cannot help but wonder how much information is actually reaching you guys.
So you may see what I mean, look at this topic, being discussed right now over at the Developers´ Forum:
This isn’t Porn Part III - The Insolence of Funwall
http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?id=14312
Granted, a LOT of critical issues are being brought up there. Sooner or later, they WILL need to be addressed, even more so, taking into account the Agreement signed by FB with the Attorneys General.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Good for Facebook in dealing promptly with pornographic content. I’m wondering if there are any plans to deal with the nudity and obscenity on Bumper Stickers?
May 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
very well said Lina!