What would you do if your Facebook account automatically put men in one network and women in another? You’d probably assume there was a major site malfunction. But for a small number of ultra-Orthodox Jews, this “malfunction” would be quite appealing.
That’s why Israeli Yaakov Swisa designed FaceGlat, a social network that keeps men and women separate and filters out immodest ads, pictures and posts. As CNN’s Jessica Ravitz reported, the site strives to keep the ways of the secular world out of social networking. The name itself stems from the term glatt, meaning highly kosher.
While the site will only appeal to a small fraction of Facebook’s 750 million users, FaceGlat raises the question about how other conservative religious communities might find social networking troublesome. Ultra-conservative Muslim or Amish communities might share Swisa’s propriety concerns, especially about images and ads. If they could join together in a site like FaceGlat, they could assuage their similar fears and develop a unique platform for interfaith activity. Technically, FaceGlat was designed for Orthodox Jews, but anyone can sign up. For now, one problem stands in the way: the site is primarily in Hebrew, with some English. It will be translated fully and into French and Russian in the coming weeks.
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