Words by Eboni Euniece
As a New Yorker, I’m no stranger to having problems with public transportation. For once I get to talk about a problem MTA doesn’t have, biased advertisement. The question is, is it really biased though? Transport for London, aka TfL, is under fire for there #MJinnocent bus adverts. TfL has been receiving mass backlash from organizations that support victims of sexual abuse.
One of those charities, The Survivors Trust, feel that the transportation service is prioritizing making money off of their advents instead remaining neutral on a serious socio-political topic. “An advertising campaign such as this, paid for by a supporter of an alleged perpetrator, only serves to support a toxic social narrative that prevents survivors from thinking they will be believed and speaking up,” the organization told CNN. The best thing for any public service to do in this situation is to remain neutral party right? The answer was yes for Tfl as they’ve agreed to take the advertisement down.
The #MJinnocent campaign was not happy with the verdict. A lawyer of one the organizers, Anika Kotecha, feels that it’s disrespectful to the party’s freedom of speech and the right to be innocent until proven guilty. They are not defeated. According to their twitter, the side of the bus was nothing compared to what they have in store. They lost this battle but will not lose the war.
