Facebook removes racist Spongebob Travyon Martin GIF

 

Facebook has removed a racist GIF after a search for the term Spongebob Squarepants revealed an image of the cartoon character preparing to shoot Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, who was killed in 2012.

The animation shows the character picking up sweet wrappers before becoming irate at the level of littering, taking out a gun and shouting 'not on my watch'. However the cartoon has been distorted to show a racist word along with an image of the 17-year-old killed by neighbourhood patrol volunteer George Zimmerman.
Its presence on Facebook was flagged to the BBC by a concerned user who was "disturbed" to find it while searching for SpongeBob SquarePants GIFS to send to a friend on the social network's Messenger app.
Facebook declined to give an official response but told the BBC that it had been removed as the GIF went against its content policy.
Giphy, a third party website who provide GIFs to Facebook also removed it.
"At GIPHY, we do not tolerate any kind of content that promotes racism, sexism, inequality, or hate of any kind. And are looking onto it further.
"As one of very few providers that power Facebook Messenger's GIF, we take great lengths to ensure that any content found through our platform or technology is appropriate and safe for consumption."
Broadcasters Nickelodeon who own the copyright to Spongebob declined to comment on the character being used in this way.
The GIF shows the cartoon character picking up litter to his increasing frustration. The GIF then shows an image of Travyon Martin the US teenager shot dead by George Zimmerman in 2012.
In the image Travyon has a halo round his head and is surrounded by the words "coughing...snorting" and then a racist term. The final picture shows SpongeBob holding up a gun again as if preparing to shoot Travyon Martin.