Social media giant has lifted usual ban on posts inciting violence – including against Russian civilians
Social media giant Facebook has lifted its usual ban on its platforms against incitement to violence to allow users to call for the killing and injuring of Russian soldiers – but also against Russians generally, including civilians.
The new rule put in place by Facebook’s owner Meta is now seeing explicit calls for the murder of Vladimir Putin, the Russian head of state – including calls for billionaires in his own country to fund his assassination, such as this post circulating on both Facebook and Instagram:
Putin is a despot, but the UK and US support many despots around the world and until recently were more than happy to be cosy with Putin and people close to him. And imagine the horror and handwringing if such a call was put out against the life of the UK or US leader, let alone the impact that the rule changes may have on any hopes of peace in the near future. The need to prevent incitement is frequently used as cover for government plans to restrict inconvenient free speech on social media platforms, but now it seems that at least some Western governments are either condoning or actively encouraging it when it suits them.
Russia has responded by designating Meta an ‘extremist’ organisation and opening a criminal case against it.
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You never know, perhaps dignified hate broker Imran Ahmed of the Campaign to Counter Digital Hate will step in and rap the knuckles of Mark Zuckerberg, reminding him that such behaviour would only succeed in being inflammatory and making his difficult online function even harder?
Then again, perhaps he’ll fall silent and do fuck all? 🤔
I’ll plump for the latter.
Disgustingly opportunist hypocrisy by Meta.
Heh being defenestrated is to good for all of them but I suppose we have to use fancy words to get around the digital gate keepers for the likes of the good despots still OK with them?
It’s a sick joke when any of them are acceptable they are either all wrong you can play this is OK because he says he is on our side this day games! Or we end up with another Sandam Hussain situation again. Our friend one minuet then the next were invading his country, with a doggy dossier…
Maybe we should ask Stammer if he wants to try this BS for a second time as it worked for his Hero new Labour V1 mates…
db – Keir Starmer was against the Iraq war
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/17/foreignpolicy.iraq1
No wonder the world is in such a terrible political state when an internet company dehumanises itself.
‘My name it is Ares.
I live amongst unthinking tribes.
And politicians they roar my name.
Whilst ignoring academic scribes.
And I have many followers.
Men and women, doing the macho walk.
Blind to my Achilles Heel.
That when humans talk.’
The world needs Mandelas.
Yours in Peace.
No Steve, Putin is not a despot.
If he was Russia would not be taking action in the Ukraine. Putin is the elected President of a country whose constitution, giving the President great power, was imposed on it by the United States after the coup in which the Duma (Parliament) was prevented from impeaching the US puppet Yeltsin by an attack by tanks and artillery which left many legislators dead.
In fact Putin is part of a collective leadership in which several factions including a neo-liberal Fifth Column struggle for power. It was not Putin who decided on his own to go to war but a larger number of ministers and advisors, under intense pressure from public opinion which was worried by indications (as in shelling of Donbas towns) of an impending attack by 130,000 Ukrainian troops, including Nazi militias, on the Russian speaking inhabitants, regarded by the nationalists as inferior beings, of the Donbas.
The Russians had no alternative but to act. The Ukrainians had agreed to the Minsk Accords, providing for reunification on the basis of regional autonomy, but refused to honour them. More than 13000 Russian speaking civilians, mant of them children, have been killed by attacks on the Donbas since 2014.
Those supporting Ukraine in this conflict are supporting a Nazi tribute act bent on assisting NATO in the surrounding of Russia in order to preserve the United States’ power to dictate to Europe and the rest of the world.
As to the demonisation of Putin as Henry Kissinger said “It is not a policy but the absence of one. ”
The fact is that, if you tear away the bs from the Ministry of Truth sensible observers from around the world are agreed that Russia needs our support. The sooner this limited operation is over and Ukraine rescued from the fascists- who never get more than 3% in an election- who are in control, the better.
Trade Unionists in particular should be anxious to see justice in the case of the Odessa Massacre in which dozens of Trade Unionists petitioning for reforms were trapped in a building which was set on fire, while the police watched, and surrounded by militiamen shooting at anyone trying to escape.
‘calls for billionaires in his own country to fund his (Putin’s) assassination..’
The author of this featured “call” on the life of Vladimir Putin, Maxim Mironov, is a former Moscow investment banker and a supporter of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Mironov’s has a strong hostility to the person of Vladimir Putin, which has caused him to write venomously vindictive articles against the Russian Federation in its conflict with the hard-right government of Ukraine. Moreover, Mironov’s broad Chicago-School credentials win him CIA (and MI6) endorsement, explaining how over 45 ‘free press’ publications (including this one carried his ‘expertise’ on one day alone, and, of course, why the BBC give his vehemently anti-Russian ramblings so much airspace.
As with 9/11/ the ‘banking crisis’, vicious Labour Anti-Semitism under Czech spy, Jeremy Bernard Corbyn, the global covid “emergency” and now this, the Ukraine/Russia War, a person has to ’scratch the surface’ of the narratives and information they are given by the synchronised-MSM and apply some fact-checking of their own.
I thought I’d posted this but it hasn’t shown up. I’ll have another go.
https://thehaguetimes.com/2020/10/15/ukraine-the-defenders-day-under-the-sign-of-unabashed-neo-nazism/
The Development of neo-Nazism in Ukraine and the letter to the chief rabbi sends shivers down my spine. Thanks for the link goldbach.
If anyone needs it, this is a useful fact-centred timeline of the lead-up to the long-expected war between Ukraine and its neighbour (a valuable antidote to increasing establishment propaganda, you decide?) .
Goldbach
I am surprised the Chief Rabbi Ibrahim Marvis has not registered his dismay or objection to Britain supporting a neo nazi regime. Does he not think they pose an existential threat to Jews – or is that just Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong anti-racist who has supported Jews throughout his career and never uttered an antisemitic word in his life.
The Chief Rabbi’s failure to speak out against neo Nazism in a country unconditionally supported by Britain exposes both his hypocrisy and hatred for Jeremy Corbyn. Shame on him.
You must ask him. I don’t speak for him, just as he doesn’t speak for me.
Reply to Goldbach
Mine was a purely rhetorical question . I didn’t expect an answer from you. Neither do I expect you to speak for the Chief Rabbi or anyone else. Sorry I did not make this clear in my post.
I hope I didn’t cause you to think I was having a go at you. It was a comment in jest, and the only target was the aforementioned rabbi.
Thanks Goldbach – no problem
The thing most ridiculed by the BBC is the anti Nazi issue in Putin’s war aims. Presenters almost giggle when they say it, often adding ‘false claim’ as if this was a proven fact. The Azov Battalions still wear the SS flashes on their lapels. In Syria there were two alleged chemical attacks said to have been made by Assad (and now his ‘associate’, Russia. Both were riddled with doubt. The CIA Director asked by Obama whether it was true Syria had used a chemical bomb famously replied that it wasn’t a ‘slam dunk Mr President’ and the H of Commons declined Cameron’s offer of a good bombing. On the second occasion at Douma Robert Fisk the British Journalist blew the whole phoney account by walking into the Exclusion Zone and interviewing people who weren’t aware they were at the centre of a World storm. The West had declined to overtly support the Assad opposition and turned a blind eye to Turkey sending arms (and Sarin gas) to the Jihadi groups. The hope was to encourage or intimidate the West to enter the war. In Ukraine the position is similar; Ukraine needs support such as no fly zone which so far has been ruled out. So it was ominous to hear a Govt Minister yesterday say NATO might well be obliged to step in if Russia used a chemical weapon. In Syria just the allegation was enough, alongside a few grams, to set the wheels in motion; a Western Ultimatum comes next?
Well said Paul. It is well established now that the Douma attack was a false flag. And it was none other than the BBC who made the blatantly false film called ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ by Ian Pannell. Fisk’s reporting on the ground from Douma, not from an office in London, comprehensively showed the BBC up for what it was then, and still is now. The Establishment’s propaganda channel.
In fact it was the showing of that film on the BBC news the night before the Commons vote that resulted in the UK bombing Syria and causing many innocent civilian deaths. Corbyn voted against the bombing too.
23 million Russians were killed in WW2, at the hands of European Nazis, which included many Ukrainian Nazis as well. So it’s not surprising that Putin’s Russia gets a bit twitchy when Ukraine wants to join NATO after having signed the second Minsk Protocol that strictly forbids any foreign troops being stationed on their soil. Also consider over 14,000 Ukrainian Russians have been killed in the Donbass over the last eight years by the US/UK sponsored Nazi Azov Battalion.
Putin warned them but they didn’t listen so he sadly did what he did. You can only poke the bear in the eye so many times before it bites you back. All this blood is on the US and UK’s hands, they provoked Russia and once again innocent people get caught up in their disgusting imperial games. #StopAllWars.
Yes indeed Stop All Wars! The details of both Syrian allegations are interesting. I remember reading a paragraph somewhere about the seizure of Sarin gas (a kilo?) by Turkish Customs on the Syrian border just a few weeks before the first allegation. The next day there were several paragraphs saying the Turks were satisfied it was battery acid in specialist flasks and to deny it was ‘in the custody of Turkish Intelligence’ as had at first been claimed. I often wonder what happened to that zealous Customs Officer! It was never explained why anybody would want to snuggle battery acid. Again it was Fisk who unveiled the ‘rat run’ of arms and other weapons out of Libya and into Jihadi hands via the Turks. The biggest oddity of such allegations is that as a strategic weapon of war is hopeless unless you are attempting genocide. And it’s expensive! The most ridiculous part of it is that Russia doesn’t need to use chemical weapons just as Assad had no reason to use it.
I was also struck by similarities with Syria.
In that, a cartoon monster (Assad) was alleged to have shelled hospitals. Later it emerged that it was FORMER hospitals, but they had been emptied of staff and patients by ISIS, who fancied using them as a base. Hiding amongst the civilian population – using them as human shields. This was handy for propaganda purposes. When this change of use of the hospital was discovered by the Syrian army, it became a legitimate military target and was treated as such, but the Western MSM could leave out the change of use claim and cry shock horror, evil Assad proves his inhumanity again!
The shelling of the hospital in Mariupol was exploited in the same way. The fact that the hospital had been requisitioned as a base by the neo-nazi Azov Battalion was omitted. We were just presented with the appearance of “proof” of an evil cartoon monster (Putin this time) doing stereotypically evil cartoon monster things.
Wooo, he’s behind you!
What does NATO plan to do? Don’t expect any help from, Poland, Belgium, Germany etc RAF will bomb if asked by the press.
West issues an Ultimatum; withdraw from Ukraine or else. It will be a tense moment.
Interesting how Poland, after finding that they had no space to accommodate refugees from Afghanistan, other parts of Asia and Africa, suddenly find that capacity has miraculously increased so that they can take 1.2M Ukrainians.
How must it feel to be a refugee from Afghanistan or the Middle East denied the right to work and facing Prosecution and deportation just for being here. Many live in terrible conditions more like a prison than a place of safety. The offer of living with Brits has never been mentioned but there are many Muslim families who would be delighted to help. I imagine Patel would ban it on security grounds? We complain about one rule for him and another for the rest of us and many refugees must feel the same confined to poverty and hostility.
The speed at which the warmongers of the west moved to Rob private ciizens money and assets including the coordinated media narrative on murder of Putin must never be forgotten.After the collapse of the Soviet union there was not a strategic reason for Nato to even exist being as Russia became once again a Capitilist country.and wanted alignment with the west rather than the East were China lurked on the Russian borders.and licked its lips.The naked greed of the USA has brought all of this situation upon the world stage and the Balkans once again a powder keg taking us back to the days of war ..war war
..IN every respect Britain and its long history as a Empire should know better especially if they had the intelligence to work out that Russia should not be the natural friend of Communist China who have always considered the Russian East has naturally Chinese.and oil a strategic asset they badly need if they want to be the worlds no 1 Superpower.economic and militarily..Oil and Gold appear to be the assets most needed by the West and the East oil
.Were does this leave unaligned Russia?…Another lesson might be that you never force your enemy into a corner from which they can’t escape and can only fight back with the ultimate weapons of mutual destruction.The Americans have no historical context to lead the world into oblivion being that its less than one hundred and fifty years since they were chasing indians around the Dakotas playing Cowboys and indians.and having gunfights in the streets of Tucson Arizona.and the OK corall..
@Joseph, by me your 1.13 am post is worth 100 likes 😃
Thanks quertboi….I love 💘the Americans really,but I do wish they would stick with movies and theatre and remember that the world is not the same as fiction and in real life sending in the seventh cavalry doesnt mean that the goodys always win and not everyone has a Stetson and the indians dont always get slaughtered like Wounded knee S.Dakota .They need along with europe to step back and remember that not all of us want a New World order.or fall for the propoganda thats deafening at times….
It should be of note that the robbing of private citizens in this case does not represent the most recent case of this approach.
Only a few weeks ago the Canadian Government set a worrying legal precedent by permanently freezing the bank accounts of citizens who had made small donations to a protest the Official narrative had declared to be ‘Far right” and ‘Racist.’ Despite the involvement of Sikhs, Indigenous peoples, Black, and Asian’s alongside White Caucasian protestors.
If you cannot access a bank account you cannot get paid- either as an employee or self employed. You cannot pay you bills. Buy food. Clothes. Shoes for your kids. You are in the traditional sense effectively and in all practical senses an Outlaw. Which means you have no rights in law, not even due process rights (as LP members have found out when challenging the Official Narratives, whether on AS or Gender).
Those so designated have a target painted on their back and become fair game. Right now that is ‘limited’ in the case of those whose banking rights have been removed by the neo-liberal/neo-conservative/neo-feudal Corporate State to having their details disseminated across the information sphere by hackers enabling the Corporate media hacks to doorstep and harass them with the ‘when did you stop beating your wife’ question.
‘Limited’ in the sense that the original and traditional designation of ‘outlaw’ meant that anyone who encountered you was free to legally terminate your life with no legal repercussions for them.
The scale, in terms of Russian billionaires, in this instance is just that, a difference in scale. The principle is the same.
The question now becomes, in the context of ever increasing purity spirals of Cancel Culture (where we have seen people lose their livelihoods/jobs, party membership, attacked in the street etc) for openly contradicting the Official Narratives (whether its AS, Gender, whatever):
How long will it be before anyone not agreeing with THIS fantasy narrative is deprived of their ability to live and function economically in the same way as those citizens in Canada?
All at the behest of a mob mentality whipped up by paid stooges – whether politicians or fifth column Corporate media prestitutes and the unthinking rabble they are manipulating with their propaganda Narrative(s). At least one of whom can be found on this site.
And whilst we are contamplating murder by posting,lets not forget the massive part the lib dems have played in murdering the NHS and the welfare state and the part the snake Nick Clegg (made up name) plays in incitement to murder mr putin.and the Russian state.
This poem was published before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but I thought it was apt
https://youtu.be/sN0CLyBX9qE
I do enjoy poetry, but this is more Pam Ayres.
How kind of you Steve H,but I hope that a more honest understanding arises from the situation with your neo liberal policies that are basically anti humanity and only for the “few” so maybe you should consider this if you meditate.Pokala Lakshami.. “..the essence of Buddhism.. ”
“There are things shine before the world and cannot be hidden.”
“..They are the moon..Sun 🌞and the Truth” ..
Joseph – Even if I had a clue what you are prattling on about (do you?) I doubt it would be of much interest.
And therein lies the problem steveH. YOUR problem.
You have demonstrated time and again that you are not interested in anything which does match the manufactured reality in your head. Real life facts and evidence which do not coincide with your fantasy reality are treated as ‘of no account.’
You are dogmatic and unwilling to learn. Preferring to wrap yourself in the comfort blanket of that dogma rather than engage with reality.
Even powerful and influential people on the right disagree with you on this issue:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1498491107902062592.html
Jospeh O’keefe is casting pearls before swine to such an arrogant ignoramus as you have proven yourself to be.
When the manufactured Official Narrative you have committed to falls apart – and it will – you will be left with the discomforting and psychologically damaging reality of just how wrong you are and be left to stew in the bile of your own creation.
Lakshmi, isn’t she that model who took, the Oxford fatwa writer, Rushdie, to the cleaners?
Steve H are you saying that such a educated “professional person” as you claim to be cannot understand the concept of honesty and humanity which should be part of any political ideology on this God given earth .
ITs little wonder that the message you preach falls on stoney ground.,or cast amongst Swine….No wonder your language leaves little to be desired nowadays….?c
I would think Steve H you have more in common with the Grand master of the grand Orange lodge of Scotland whos now a labour party candidate for N Lanarkshire than any old members of the labour party.The SNP have issued a condemnation of the labour party for having a Known sectarian bigot whos unionist policys and hate against Catholics in Scotland is well known
.Irish republican news have featured the knights labour party on a collision course with Sinn Fein and Irish Catholics reporting that the labour party are now a unionist party in line with keeping the partition of Ireland
.Knowing many Catholics in England and Ireland I would think that the knights sectarian endeavors for the labour party will go down like a lead balloon in Scotland,Ireland,England and Wales.
Oops Sky News blows it.
Fight to the death, resistance fighter Lesia Vasylenko MEP who has been regailng us for the last two weeks and has been facilitating people to come and join her in the struggle.
Is actually living high on the hog in Strasbourg.
I was banned by Facebook (just over a year ago) after posting articles that had appeared on ‘Russia Today’. No explanation, but I thank them for removing such a time wasting platform from my life. The idea that an American Social Media Organisation is advocating murder & killing without mainstream criticism is also frightening & will not be without consequences. Any form of Russian culture is being denigrated as the mass hysteria of hate is being hyped by Western Media, another dangerous game, but the most dangerous game is the attempt to destroy the Russian economy.which will hurt the Russian civilian population.
The high profile sanctions of oligarchs, so often quoted by MSM aren’t sanctions at all, but a process of clearing ‘in-house’ corruption in the City of London that was requested 3 years ago by Jeremy Corbyn. Dirty money has been slushing around London in the guise of encouraging foreign investment for many years, with contributions being made to British Political parties, but no investigation, no questions asked.
Sanctions usually hurt ordinary people. So many tens of thousands of innocents died in Iran & Iraq courtesy of American sanctions, but the most frightening lesson must be learned from the strangle-hold sanctioning of Japan, late 1930s – 1941 which in turn led to Pearl Harbour & then Hiroshima. History has a habit of repeating itself.
A powerful message from Chris Hedges, and it resonates today in relation to Ukraine just as it did for him in relation to Iraq, and just as it did for his father.
The situation in Ukraine is worse than that of Syria a few years ago when the West was denying they were arming the Jihadis. Now it’s very open as they send massive amounts of arms to the Ukrainians. It suggests a long war is being planned. The only losers will be the Ukrainians the West says it’s helping. The avalanche of propaganda (take a look at the Guardian!) that has swamped us for the last 6 months suggests this war is welcomed by the West and increasingly it seems that was the plan all along.
Yes. It seems likely that the US had a strategy where they thought that Russia lost whatever happened.
Expand NATO into Ukraine and Russia is even more hemmed in and threatened.
Entice Russia into taking action and it is drawn into a European Afghanistan.
So the US/NATO wins, and the people of Ukraine and the young soldiers on both sides lose.
They call it collateral damage.
An enemy that can hit back, hard, is a red line for NATO, EU, Cowboys etc. A line that they won’t cross. Go Ukraine, we are right behind you. Have a gun. Look here comes a Brazilian mercenary. Oops, there he goes again. Wait there’s more coming from Idlib. These are our allies now. Feeling warm and safe, Fleet Street?
It must be strange to be a refugee from Afghanistan or Syria to see how the UK goes overboard to welcome white Christians when they face Patel trying to sink their boats in the Chanel.
tearjerk
US secretary of state Anthony Blinken gives the green light to Poland to transfer of all its mig 29’s to Ukraine
Blinken says Poland sending fighter jets to Ukraine
Then the Polish Government offered to fly their fleet of Mig 29’s to Ramstein air base in Germany [free of charge] for the US to deliver them to Ukraine.
Here is the US reply delivered by Pentagon
“The prospect of fighter jets “at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America” departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance. It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it. We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one”.
The ballad of brave brave Sir Robin i.e. the United States of America or ‘the Masters of the Universe’
The US Secretary of State Blinken is trying to sucker Poland, they did not take the bait.
NATO is led by the US and must always have a US General at its head. It exists purely to further US hegemony and to supply its military Industrial Complex, having its members contribute 2% minimum to NATO [as an example Germany’s GDP is $ 4 Trillion dollars] that is a lot of money, here is what 1 Trillion dollars looks like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4-4bvuX7qA the Germans have agreed to put into their defence bill an extra $100 billion dollars because of Ukraine, presumably into the US MIC, interoperability don’t you know, and at the same time stopping NS2 which will cripple German industrial competitiveness and cause German families to freeze. The US might say why should we pay to keep NATO solvent? Good question, they might reply cut down on your far too generous welfare state and do wear extra clothing. As for your industry, don’t worry we will replace it. Trump was right first time Nato is obsolete, until it was explained to him the true purposes of NATO.
PS In my previous comment I condemned Russia
for bombing children – and it should be obvious
that this does NOT let the West off the hook apropos
their current activities in the Yemen and previous
activities in Iraq, Vietnam ..
This is not a zero sum game – whatever atrocity
is done by one side does not condone anyone else.
Corbyn realised that when he condemned Putin in
2000 – 2001 on account of the bombing of Chechnya.
Headlines on the BBC website today –
“Ukraine war: UK households offered £350 a month for hosting refugees”
“Why I want to share my home with a Ukrainian refugee”
“M&S and Asos among firms trying to hire Ukraine refugees”
I assume that we have seen a massive volte face. The government is now acknowledging that refugees don’t have to claim asylum in the first country they reach. They now want refugees to be able to live in decent accommodation. The public have decided that refugees should be made welcome. And the media have given up their idea that our island has enough residents already.
That is a welcome development. I am sure that the Afghans, Syrians etc. stuck in tents in France and the Africans in slave markets in Libya will be dancing with joy.
…….. and a quote from the Beeb today – “In the space of a fortnight, Poland has gone from rejecting migrants from the Middle East to opening its arms to those from Ukraine.”
Does anyone actually edit this stuff?
“Migrants”? They were/are refugees.
Meanwhile, it looks like Greeks might well be the next group of people to be Cancelled by what passes for Western culture given they seem to be straying from The Official and Sacred not to be contradicted Narrative:
https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/03/12/greeks-in-mariupol/
………..Whilst this morning in the independent Russian speaking city of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine another day dawns in the eight years they have been putting up with this kind of atrocity:
https://southfront.org/kyivs-forces-launch-ballistic-missile-at-center-of-donetsk-city-dozens-civilians-killed-or-injured/
Something you are unlikely to see reported in what passes for Western media.
Clearly some Ukrainians are more equal than others and somehow I can’t see me receiving any email appeals for money or petition signatures for these civilians as they speak the ‘wrong’ language’ and belong to the ‘wrong’ ethnic grouping as far as the Official Narrative of Western politicians and its media are concerned..
Interesting link, thanks! The truth about the Azov Battalions is well known by all governments and most journalists and certainly has been since 2013-4 when they defended Mariupol in SS style. It’s quite chilling to hear those same officials and journalists flatly deny what they know to be true.