[HN Gopher] Facebook blocked posts by a militia group opposed to...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Facebook blocked posts by a militia group opposed to the Turkish
       government
        
       Author : maltalex
       Score  : 330 points
       Date   : 2021-02-28 10:35 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.propublica.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.propublica.org)
        
       | nyerp wrote:
       | Facebook has been working on a clever solution to this kind of
       | dispute: they have been installing a global network of
       | indestructible monoliths with control panels which provide local
       | governments complete authority to take down controversial content
       | within a particular geographic location. Facebook no longer has
       | to make a judgement call regarding whether a requester has a
       | monopoly on violence within a particular region; control over the
       | monolith implies genuine authority over the relevant area.
       | 
       | (jk... I think.)
        
       | notum wrote:
       | You know what I find _really_ scary about this? The fact I no
       | longer react strongly to these kinds of news.
        
         | creddit wrote:
         | Seems like you do react to it by being scared and then posting
         | about that reaction on HN.
        
           | notum wrote:
           | You caught me in a loop.
        
       | supergirl wrote:
       | and? isn't FB doing the same everywhere, especially recently in
       | the US? pretty sure they block whatever even smells like a pro
       | Trump militia in the US.
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | Most Americans don't care if elected leaders get silenced. Why
       | would they care about this?
        
       | discobot1 wrote:
       | Facebook is following laws of countries it operates in, truly
       | shocking
        
         | hnarn wrote:
         | This is such a reductive argument. Are you saying that a
         | private corporation is never responsible for its actions if
         | they are compliant with _a_ nations laws?
         | 
         | Is there no limit to what you consider OK for a corporation to
         | do within a nations borders, as long as the action is
         | sanctioned by the government? Do all corporations have
         | literally zero responsibility to uphold any kind of moral that
         | isn't enforced in local law?
        
           | SpicyLemonZest wrote:
           | I certainly would object if Facebook, like, handed over his
           | location to a hit squad. This seems like it's very far on the
           | other side of the spectrum. If Facebook second-guessed an
           | order from a duly elected government to remove purportedly
           | terrorist content, I'd question whether there's anything
           | meaningful a government can make Facebook do if they don't
           | want to.
        
           | alienalp wrote:
           | YPG is terrorist organization according to Turkey and many
           | relevant countries and even US officials don't deny its
           | connections with PKK. They maybe freedom fighters for Biden
           | but it is not seen that way in middle east. Especially to
           | whom lost their kids in car bombs.
        
             | hnarn wrote:
             | I didn't mention YPG and neither did the comment I replied
             | to, which is why I posed a general question.
        
               | alienalp wrote:
               | Okay then we have no problem :) But he is also not saying
               | what you are asking if he is saying.
        
             | ryoshu wrote:
             | https://www.facebook.com/Proud-Boys-Canada-102480378379388/
        
         | te_chris wrote:
         | Account created 5hrs ago to post this...
        
           | damontal wrote:
           | Not an argument
        
         | bitcharmer wrote:
         | Not very uplifting if you account for who's ruling Turkey and
         | establishing these laws, is it?
        
           | carmen_sandiego wrote:
           | So... Zuckerberg should fund a coup in Turkey?
           | 
           | There's an easy common argument for these things: restricted
           | mass information/communication is better than none, or better
           | than the lower amount you'd get with a home-grown platform.
           | Seems a pretty good argument to me.
        
             | mhh__ wrote:
             | There is no simple solution here, and we also really
             | shouldn't just throw our arms when faced with moral
             | questions - this is probably what these decades will be
             | known for in the future.
        
             | aranelsurion wrote:
             | One could look for good arguments to frame this in a better
             | way, though I believe there might be a simpler way to
             | explain: follow the money.
             | 
             | Companies and people in the West don't care what happens
             | elsewhere, they're just in for the money. There's money to
             | be made in Turkey as well, and Facebook doesn't care about
             | specifics of how.
             | 
             | For the common people this all sounds fair and strategic on
             | the surface level, though I'm skeptical of its
             | sustainability. Just like how it's hard to be rich in a
             | poor and sketchy neighbourhood, it could be hard to remain
             | a free state in a planet where many of your neighbours
             | aren't.
        
               | notsureaboutpg wrote:
               | Do you realize that Facebook started off blocking and
               | removing "terrorist" content in the US first and
               | foremost? There are many groups and parties that only the
               | US considers terrorists (maybe along with it's weaker
               | allies only), especially various groups affiliated with
               | Iran. And Facebook needs to block the speech of those
               | groups in the US as well to comply with US law.
        
               | carmen_sandiego wrote:
               | It's possible that the choice that enriches Facebook is
               | also good for other parties. Whether they even care about
               | the latter or not.
        
             | postingawayonhn wrote:
             | As a product of the United States you would hope that they
             | would stand up for freedom of speech/expression as much as
             | possible and take a principled stand occasionally.
        
               | nindalf wrote:
               | There's a thin line between taking a principled stand and
               | forcefully exporting your values to some other culture.
               | For example, Germany outlaws Holocaust denial. It's not a
               | crime in the US. Should Facebook follow German laws by
               | taking down posts denying the Holocaust? Obviously they
               | should follow local laws, most of us would agree.
               | 
               | Here's the thing - there's only two principled stands
               | here. Either tech giants always follow US law
               | exclusively, forcing it on every country in the world OR
               | they follow local laws as applicable, even if they don't
               | agree with the laws.
               | 
               | If a person says that following Turkish law outlawing the
               | YPG isn't ok but following the German Holocaust law is,
               | that's inconsistent.
        
               | true_religion wrote:
               | Tech giants can't force anything on anyone without being
               | enabled by the local government. If Facebook does not
               | follow German law, Germany will ban it and seize its
               | German assets to pay the fines it owes.
        
               | nindalf wrote:
               | That's fine. So the same thing applies to Turkish law?
        
               | carmen_sandiego wrote:
               | Given they can't change the government of Turkey, I would
               | think maximizing the speech given to Turks within those
               | constraints _is_ standing up for freedom of
               | speech/expression.
               | 
               | In theory, Facebook and others are subject to the same
               | laws as a local company would be. In my experience (in
               | China) though, what actually happens is the local
               | companies will be much stricter, pre-emptively crushing
               | speech they consider just 'risky' rather than actually
               | illegal. Western companies, whose execs are somewhat
               | insulated from local pressures, tend to do better. But
               | only if they're allowed in the country in the first
               | place, which means they have to commit to a certain
               | minimum level of adherence.
        
           | bayindirh wrote:
           | Considering YPG is considered a terrorist organization and is
           | an extension of another terrorist organization recognized by
           | many countries, including US, I'm not sure this is about the
           | ruler of the country.
           | 
           | YPG/PKK terrorism is something Turkey is trying to deal with
           | for ~30 years now.
           | 
           | Calling people killing Turkish citizens as _Kurdish
           | minorities_ is also overly romantic if it 's unintentional.
        
           | tinco wrote:
           | As much as I loathe Erdogan for being a fascist prick, he was
           | democratically elected, and I don't think it's much disputed
           | he holds popular support. Though I haven't been to Turkey
           | recently so I can't say that with certainty.
           | 
           | I'd love for Facebook to have some sort of ethical standard
           | to adhere to, but we can't even get our own governments that
           | we elect democratically to behave ethically, how could we
           | expect it from corporations?
        
         | dalbasal wrote:
         | Before you dismiss it, follow that wormhole a little.
         | 
         | Should amazon and wikipedia restrict armenian genocide content
         | in Turkey? I believe this is illegal too. How about random
         | blogger or small publication... should they geoblock content by
         | country?
         | 
         | How about speaking disparagingly about a King? That's illegal
         | in Saudi Arabia, Thailand & other monarchies. Should facebook
         | do something about this?
         | 
         | Layer on to this the fact that FB has a near monopoly on all
         | internet use in many developing countries through facebook
         | zero.
         | 
         | At some point "just following the laws" acquires a pretty
         | sinister smell. Content distribution isn't peripheral to what
         | FB does. It's what FB is.
        
       | mountainb wrote:
       | Hey man, but what if the CIA needs YPG to recruit more so it can
       | put terrorist pressure on Turkey to, uh, defend NATO or
       | something? Someone should check on the spooks to make sure that
       | they're all OK and not suffering from some kind of collective
       | degenerative brain disease.
        
         | the_why_of_y wrote:
         | Good to remind us that YPG has defended NATO quite valiantly
         | from Daesh advancing on its borders in the past. And what
         | happened next? NATO threw them to the wolves. The Afrin
         | district that used to be the most peaceful place in Syria is
         | now occupied by mercenaries and ethnically cleansed.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrin_District
        
       | cblconfederate wrote:
       | Topic being overrun by expat turks who are Erdogan apologizers.
       | Not the first, not the last, but thankfully the truth is not
       | subject to upvotes
        
         | alienalp wrote:
         | Actually being exposed to western media and attitude what makes
         | Turkish immigrant pro-gov. Simply you are taking sides of
         | terrorists from the point of a Turk. Thankfully truth is not
         | subject to you.
        
         | mclightning wrote:
         | This shallow understanding of Turkish politics, is gonna come
         | to impact western influence in middle east adversely very soon.
         | More so European interests in short term, and US influence
         | globally on the long run.
         | 
         | I have been reading comments similar to yours. Your view is
         | nothing but naive / pure romanticism. There is a large amount
         | of us (Turks of all opinions), just reading silently. Yet you
         | are confident enough to straw-man whole Turkish side of the
         | story into your shallow view.
         | 
         | This is very common. Turkey has a bad PR, and it's been useful
         | to a certain extent for the West. But there is a point where
         | unrealistic bad PR, causes ignorance like seen above. This is a
         | divide between West and Turkey.
         | 
         | If this is an orchestrated divide. I don't mind West being so
         | ignorant of Turkey.
         | 
         | "Never Interrupt Your Enemy When He Is Making A Mistake" Sun
         | Tzu
        
           | LegitShady wrote:
           | >If this is an orchestrated divide. I don't mind West being
           | so ignorant of Turkey.
           | 
           | The west is so deep in turkey they know what color underwear
           | edrogan wears each morning. You're mistaking PR with reality.
           | The west misunderstanding turkey is much more likely to hurt
           | turkey in the long run, than hurt the west.
        
             | mclightning wrote:
             | Erdogan is not Turkey... A bigger power loses more from any
             | conflict threatening the status quo. Turkey is a key player
             | in protection of status quo surrounding the region shaped
             | heavily by western influence.
             | 
             | Turkey siding with Russia/China, leaving NATO would be end
             | of any US influence in mideast + eastern mediterranean.
             | Guess why Putin is giving so many nice toys to Erdogan. He
             | wants to make Turkey confident and stand up for itself by
             | conflict instead of diplomacy. Meanwhile West is doing the
             | opposite game. I think we all know where this goes.
             | 
             | Remind you, Turkey is 80M in population. Any all out war or
             | a civilian war, will be 4 times worse than Syria, 2 times
             | worse than Iraq. Europe/West had to redefine itself in face
             | of refugee crisis from Syria. We will be talking about a
             | whole different "Western values" if such a crisis happens.
             | And if that happens, CCP won't look so bad to most of the
             | world.
        
           | toiletfuneral wrote:
           | So how's that whole ethnic purging of the Kurds going these
           | days?
        
         | egeozcan wrote:
         | As a Turkish immigrant in Germany, I really find the word
         | "expat" irritating. Why should I make it explicitly clear that
         | my immigration happened on my own terms?
         | 
         | Apart from that, the sheer amount of Turkish immigrants who
         | left the country in the last decade (including me) are not
         | Erdogan supporters. However, many of us refrain from heavy
         | criticism as we occasionally go to Turkey to visit our
         | relatives and we don't want some specific person having a bad
         | day destroying our lives.
         | 
         | So you usually hear the other side and may mistakenly think
         | that "expat Turks" support Erdogan big time. The majority of
         | votes he gets from Turkish immigrants are the Turks who left
         | the country more than a couple of decades ago and partly, their
         | children. The "why" has a complicated answer that touches
         | religion, demographic dynamics and acceptance in society.
        
           | cblconfederate wrote:
           | > many of us refrain from heavy criticism
           | 
           | If the people who can speak up don't speak up then how is
           | change ever to be expected? This is btw not what usually
           | happens in such situations (immigrants fleeing
           | authoritarianism are generally vocal against it)
        
             | Ozzie_osman wrote:
             | I definitely know Turks who are vocal against their regime,
             | but I understand that many cannot afford to be. This isn't
             | like the old days, before social media. Now, anything you
             | say on social media can get you or your relatives back home
             | on trouble.
             | 
             | PS Not Turkish but from another country with a regime that
             | retaliates against critics.
        
               | cblconfederate wrote:
               | I agree with that, and this is a huge regression we
               | didn't even have 3 decades ago. It should be talked more
        
             | waheoo wrote:
             | An American making statements about standing up and
             | speaking out against oppression and free speech is fucking
             | laughable these days.
             | 
             | You're all stuck in a bubble and can't even see that your
             | entire tech industry is pulling a fast one over liberty and
             | democracy.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | The greatest threat to liberty and democracy today are
               | the big tech companies, agreed.
        
             | treszkai wrote:
             | > immigrants fleeing authoritarianism are generally vocal
             | against it
             | 
             | There's a huge selection bias here (the immigrants most
             | visible are those who speak up), so I wouldn't be so
             | certain about this. My prior is that people don't give a
             | shit about what's happening elsewhere, and their life is
             | certainly easier if they don't _publish_ their
             | controversial views. (Even if that controversial view is
             | shared knowledge among immigrants, it's usually not common
             | knowledge.)
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | _fat_santa wrote:
             | I can give some background on this, I immigrated from
             | Russia to the US when I was 5 and I still have a ton of
             | extended family that lives there.
             | 
             | Do I like Putin or what Russia is doing? Hell no. But at
             | the same time I'm not going to saying anything negative in
             | public about Russia. If I got on the Russian governments
             | radar forget what they will do to me, I live in America,
             | what will they do to my Grandmother, my uncles, my nieces,
             | my cousins?
             | 
             | I don't know what they will do, and for that reason I
             | cannot risk saying anything.
             | 
             | The same applies in places like Turkey, China, etc. Yeah
             | you might not like what the govt there is doing, but at the
             | same time you can't risk speaking up and having the
             | blowback taken out on your family that still lives there.
        
               | cblconfederate wrote:
               | On the other hand public pressure from abroad does work ,
               | and since politics tends to run in families, their
               | families are at risk anyway. I can tell from the
               | experience of my country (greece) during the dictatorial
               | regime 50 years ago. The greeks who were persecuted /
               | emigrated to europe (France mostly) were very vocal about
               | the (US-backed) regime and drew international
               | condemnation, especially the high-profile ones. It
               | certainly contributed to its eventual downfall a few
               | years later, but importantly it helped the swift return
               | of democracy, because there was already a group of people
               | who were politically organized abroad.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | monadic6 wrote:
             | Judging by the US, speaking up doesn't matter at all and
             | can only hurt you and your family.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | egeozcan wrote:
             | Why should I put the security of my family in jeopardy
             | hopelessly trying to improve a country that I already gave
             | up on?
             | 
             | I love Germany, I'd rather work improving where I'm living,
             | which is something I'm already trying to do, instead of
             | getting stuck in the past.
        
               | ArkanExplorer wrote:
               | Germans, and Europeans generally, have put the security
               | of themselves and their families in jeopardy over
               | thousands of years to live in the free and open societies
               | that you are now taking for granted.
        
               | Ozzie_osman wrote:
               | You really shouldn't judge people (positively or
               | negatively) by what their ancestors fought for or didn't
               | fight for, especially under oppressive regimes.
               | 
               | Because it's ironic that you'd mention Germany, a country
               | where the majority either supported or was silent as one
               | of the most brutal regimes rose to power. It took armies
               | of foreign powers to come in and change that.
               | 
               | Sometimes people speak up and sometimes they don't. The
               | math is complicated. Do they think it will actually have
               | an impact? What do they stand to lose? How desperate are
               | they? The Arab Spring showed that sometimes all it takes
               | is one or two events to switch people from being silent
               | and passive to being vocal and active. Unfortunately,
               | that didn't turn out too well and the repercussions will
               | favor more passivity.
        
               | ruined wrote:
               | gentle reminder: germany's current civil system was
               | imposed by military occupation.
        
               | true_religion wrote:
               | That may be true. But now he's German (perhaps) and
               | really ought to be treated as such.
               | 
               | Or I may be talking from a hopelessly American
               | perspective where immigrants ideally integrate and cut
               | ties with their old counties.
        
               | Cyph0n wrote:
               | Expecting immigrants to cut ties with their countries is
               | completely wrong. It may be hard for some people to
               | understand, but a person can belong to more than one
               | nation.
               | 
               | In my case, I am proud to be American, but I am also
               | proud to be Tunisian. My extended family is in Tunisia
               | and I love the country, so I make sure to visit
               | regularly. And I will be sure to teach my children about
               | Tunisia, its culture, its language, and its cuisine.
               | 
               | Over a few generations, this dual identity usually
               | declines, simply because successive generations feel less
               | of a kinship to their original country.
        
               | rchaud wrote:
               | That perspective may benefit from re-evaluation. People
               | that immigrated to America before the advent of air
               | travel, satellite TV and internet had no choice when it
               | came to cutting ties with their home country.
               | 
               | People integrate at their own pace. First-generation
               | immigrants' kids tend to integrate fast or develop a
               | dual-culture identity, because that is what they're
               | around from the time they're born. The parents may never
               | fully integrate if they came here as adults and spent a
               | significant portion of their lifetime in another culture.
        
               | notsureaboutpg wrote:
               | He's not taking Germany for granted by not being a vocal
               | Erdogan opponent.
               | 
               | Also, many Turks have done the same sacrifice for open
               | societies, but just because you sacrifice doesn't mean
               | you get what you sacrificed for.
        
               | mclightning wrote:
               | FTFY : Germans, and Europeans generally, have put the
               | security of _people of color in Africa, India, Americas_
               | and their families in jeopardy over _half a thousand year
               | to democratise systems across their population to_ live
               | in free and open societies that we are now able to
               | migrate to.
        
               | sgift wrote:
               | So, the revolutions in Europe (which lead to
               | democratization) happened because of whatever happened in
               | Africa, India and the Americas? Or what do you mean?
        
               | mclightning wrote:
               | ... _whatever happened in Africa_...(tumbleweed rolls by)
        
               | sudosysgen wrote:
               | They were a big factor in making such models sustainable
               | and widespread, yes.
        
               | egeozcan wrote:
               | What a horrible thing to say. I don't know where to
               | begin, but it's best to leave it here as I don't want
               | this turning into a flame-war.
        
           | Bakary wrote:
           | Ironically people sometimes intentionally use the word expat
           | to avoid the "western people are expats, non-westerners are
           | immigrants" terminology trap
        
       | atomicson wrote:
       | Facebook is like a frog in a well. Facebook doesn't have enough
       | deep knowledge about customs and political situations in a
       | country. They just want to make revenue. They don't care who is
       | right or wrong. They create chaos in the name of free speech.
       | Facebook is the dumbest company. They have to find out what's
       | happening and make a deep investigation about a report from a
       | user. Mark should take a deep study of information paradox. Free
       | speech is not a simple thing. It needs regulation so the bad guys
       | out there not abuse it's power.
        
       | l8again wrote:
       | I think it is demonstrably proven that Facebook has no qualms
       | about aiding and abetting government campaigns of crushing
       | dissent across the world, despite its claims of "cherishing free
       | speech". Facebook (and Twitter) has been doing the same in India
       | [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://theintercept.com/2021/02/27/india-climate-
       | activists-...
        
         | timinghero wrote:
         | Facebook, like any other entity, is not above the law. Now, you
         | can criticize the law, but not Facebook for simply following
         | it.
         | 
         | Disclaimer: Turkish living abroad since few years. Throwaway
         | account. Upset with some having respect for their _superior_
         | rule of law _only_.
        
       | umvi wrote:
       | So basically all world governments are locked in to their current
       | state forever from the perspective of big tech, even if they are
       | tyrannical regimes? Basically any group trying to invoke change
       | will be labeled terrorists and will be censored and suppressed.
        
         | botverse wrote:
         | This is IMO the most valuable reflection of the whole thread.
         | It can be seen as morals are conditional for big tech companies
         | and depend of arbitrary circumstances like location
        
       | Barrin92 wrote:
       | It's the correct decision (although Facebook likely only cares
       | about its bottom line). the YPG is designated as a terrorist
       | organisation by the Turkish state and it's quite obvious that
       | Turkey will want to exercise sovereignty over its communication
       | channels rather than letting an opposing military force broadcast
       | freely to its citizens.
       | 
       | It's not really the job of a private company to undermine nations
       | in this way for simple reasons of sovereignty, and because even
       | if Facebook were to somehow win in the short term, the five to
       | ten year consequence would probably be that nations like Turkey
       | decouple entirely and take control over communications back a la
       | Russia or China.
        
         | Shivetya wrote:
         | I had a nice long reply but had some time to simply fit.
         | 
         | The issue here isn't that Facebook is complying with a
         | government's wishes it is that we don't hold our own
         | governments liable first. As in, you should first blame your
         | own government for turning a blind eye to events you find
         | objectionable. People cheer on facebook and others here for
         | locking out opinions they don't want, they just find a clean
         | term to justify it (no fake news, hate, etc)
         | 
         | However to be blunt. No government is without issues and it
         | would be a better use of your angst to clean up your own
         | government before asking your government or a private firm to
         | interfere in the actions of others. As in, police yourself
         | first.
        
         | toomanybeersies wrote:
         | > It's not really the job of a private company to undermine
         | nations in this way for simple reasons of sovereignty
         | 
         | That may be the case (or not), except this isn't a principled
         | stance that Facebook is taking, but a business decision.
         | Facebook have absolutely no issue with undermining a nation's
         | sovereignty when it suits them.
         | 
         | For example, in protest against Australia's new News Media
         | Bargaining Code, they went and blocked Australians from being
         | able to share news articles.
        
           | nradov wrote:
           | I fail to see how blocking sharing of news links undermined
           | Australia's sovereignty. The Australian government gave
           | Facebook a choice to either pay up or exit the news business
           | and they chose the latter. So they are in compliance with
           | local law.
        
         | geoduck14 wrote:
         | I actually agree with you, and FB. The YPG are considered
         | terrorists by Turkey. Their content is no longer available - in
         | Turkey.
         | 
         | Do I wish FB allowed the content? Yeah, kind of, but I don't
         | actually understand if the YPG is a dangerous organization.
        
         | monadic6 wrote:
         | It's not really the job of facebook to do anything or care
         | about anyone. It's on _you and me_ to force them to do
         | anything.
         | 
         | Don't get me wrong, I will absolutely blame the corporate
         | apologists when shit goes bad. It's assholes like you that
         | create an abusive environment for the rest of us. Your hands
         | are soaked with blood.
        
         | throwaway316943 wrote:
         | It's the wrong decision but no private company should be in a
         | position to make it. The power that we have granted to
         | centralized extralegal entities is obscene and we're going to
         | pay for it in blood if we don't walk this back quickly by
         | breaking up these orgs and building technologies that
         | decentralize that power.
        
           | bcherny wrote:
           | I agree that decentralized moderation is right, in theory.
           | What does that look like in practice -- Reddit-style
           | downvoting?
           | 
           | And do you really think the really bad stuff -- child porn,
           | terrorist recruitment, and so on, that FB/Twitter/Google
           | already detect with ML 99% of the time -- should be
           | decentralized too?
        
           | missedthecue wrote:
           | What would breaking up Facebook.com look like in a way that
           | successfully prevents what you're describing?
           | 
           | It's not an oil conglomerate. It's a social network. That's
           | irreducible by definition. Most people seem to throw out
           | suggestions like forcing them to spin off Instagram and
           | WhatsApp. That clearly wouldn't fix what youre saying is the
           | issue. IG and WhatsApp would still be run by the same people,
           | still owned in part by Zuckerberg, and still have the same
           | incentives and goals. Essentially the only difference is that
           | the employer name on the W-2s would change.
        
             | throwaway316943 wrote:
             | A death knell legislation would be better. Like making
             | social networks entirely responsible for the content posted
             | by their users so that it's impossible to grow beyond a
             | certain scale and still be functional. Or maybe enforcing
             | interoperability so that users can take their data and
             | friends elsewhere.
        
       | andred14 wrote:
       | This censorship is wrong and alarming. Time to move from this
       | platform with haste.
        
       | icare_1er wrote:
       | Well, isn't it ironic that many people here appaled by this kind
       | of censorship were backing the same GAFAs when they kicked Trump
       | of their platforms ? Oh yes i know, "it's not comparable
       | because...", well, yes, it IS perfectly comparable and it is in
       | fact the same.
        
         | guerrilla wrote:
         | > Well, isn't it ironic that many people here appaled by this
         | kind of censorship were backing the same GAFAs when they kicked
         | Trump of their platforms
         | 
         | People need to stop saying stuff like this. It's not like you
         | looked through people's account histories or remember how
         | specific accounts speaking today came down on that issue in the
         | past.
        
           | ttt0 wrote:
           | From one of the flagged comments in this thread:
           | 
           | > Good.
           | 
           | > Nice to see they don't have double standards, since they
           | also silenced for example an enemy of US - Donald Trump.
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | It seems to me like proponents of censorship want to enforce
         | their world view in some way or another. It doesn't matter
         | which pole they're on, if they think censorship is a good
         | policy, then they're arguing from a perspective where their
         | views aren't the ones that are censored.
        
       | TLightful wrote:
       | Obligatory: do people still use Facebook?
        
         | hmate9 wrote:
         | Only 1.5 billion people.
        
           | mamon wrote:
           | So down from the 2 billion peak?
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | An enemy of Erdogan, not necessarily an enemy of Turkey.
        
         | m00dy wrote:
         | it is a state policy not erdogan's
        
           | KDJohnBrown wrote:
           | Tayipp is the state. Turkiye is very much a single man ruled
           | nation.
        
         | Mediterraneo10 wrote:
         | The old-school Ataturkists who are the opposite flank of
         | Turkish politics from Erdogan's party, were the very people who
         | started this denial of Kurdish identity and territorial
         | autonomy or independence. It isn't just Erdogan who has a
         | problem with those Kurdish groups, it is Turkish society
         | overall.
        
           | KDJohnBrown wrote:
           | ("Kemalists" is the correct term here)
           | 
           | I have an _incredible_ amount of respect and admiration for
           | Ataturk but he also had his flaws when it came to freedom of
           | speech, expression and religion.
           | 
           | What's interesting is _all_ of the liberal turks I know (I
           | live in Istanbul) voted for the HDP in 2015 but are also
           | highly critical of their association with PKK and have since
           | switched to CHP.
        
         | kingofpandora wrote:
         | I'd argue that Turkey is much more an enemy of YPG than the YPG
         | is an enemy of Turkey.
        
         | jmacjmac wrote:
         | Around %90 of the population in Turkey would call that group an
         | enemy. So, it is not another "Erdogan wants to silence his
         | enemy" case.
        
           | kalia35 wrote:
           | source?
        
             | jmacjmac wrote:
             | It's not easy to find an English poll result but :
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Turkish_general_election
             | 
             | Here, HDP is (in purple) PKK affiliated legal party in
             | Turkey. You can see their support among people in Turkey.
             | All other parties call PKK as terrorist and they are
             | strongly against it.
        
       | alienalp wrote:
       | YPG is Terrorist organization according to Turkey and 90% of its
       | citizens. So nothing anormal here. It is not up to US or you to
       | decide who is terrorist or not. Actually US, even though actively
       | supporting YPG, does not deny that YPG is terrorist organization.
       | This kind of attitude simply disgust any Turk who see this topic.
       | Especially like platform like this it is frustrating.
        
       | komahirrimbuke wrote:
       | I'll leave this here in case anyone wants to argue YPG is not
       | PKK. YPG is a literal terrorist organization. Imagine ISIS had a
       | Facebook page.
       | 
       | "Senior US general explains rebranding YPG away from terror group
       | PKK" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHpaIO-Pj10
        
         | DyslexicAtheist wrote:
         | depends on the pov. What's a terrorist to one side is a freedom
         | fighter to the other.
         | 
         | from this month:
         | 
         | > ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on
         | Monday his ruling AK Party and its nationalist allies may start
         | work on drafting a new constitution, less than four years after
         | overhauling the previous constitution to grant his office
         | sweeping powers.
         | 
         | the coup was justified and it's a tragedy Erdogan hasn't been
         | removed from power. The AKP/Erdogan is no longer serving its
         | people. Erdogan/AKP are the real "terrorists".
        
           | aranelsurion wrote:
           | While I agree with the view that Erdogan/AKP might be the
           | worst thing that happened to Turkey, the people behind the
           | coup in 2016 wouldn't make things any better.
           | 
           | The group behind the coup had a perfectly happy marriage with
           | AKP until around 2013, and both of them being islamic groups
           | together they destroyed whatever they could from the
           | previously mostly-secular state. [1] Whatever you see as a
           | problem in Turkey today (say, non-existent separation of
           | powers, human rights abuses, journalists in jail, collapsed
           | legal system, government censorship, economic troubles... and
           | a long list of other things) had their beginnings in this
           | period.
           | 
           | Most of the power they amassed in Turkey was the direct
           | result of this alliance with AKP, and their people filled the
           | government posts while AKP replaced the old guard. After
           | 2013, as a result of internal power struggles this alliance
           | broke up, and in 2016 this organization attempted the coup
           | you mentioned. If they had their way, power would be shifted
           | from one islamic political organization (AKP) to another
           | ("Cemaat"/The Service/FETO or whatever people call them
           | nowadays) who has even less legitimacy.
           | 
           | Anyways, sorry for the wall of text on this comparatively
           | trivial matter, it's just that I find it unfortunate that
           | those guys are now being seen/depicted as some kind of failed
           | saviours in the western media, while in reality they are
           | anything but.
           | 
           | [1] which was maintained under the shadow of the army and
           | wasn't nowhere near perfect either. Though I'd personally
           | take that one over this one any day.
        
         | torb-xyz wrote:
         | Funny that you compare YPG to ISIS. YPG/YPJ (alongside others
         | in SDF) where some of the most successful militia in fighting
         | back against ISIS (so much that there where some strategic co-
         | operation with US forces in fighting ISIS).
         | 
         | They also generally fight for Kurdish rights and, ethnic
         | pluralism in general (saved several Yazidi towns from ISIS for
         | example), women's rights and democracy (including forms of
         | local direct democracy seen few other places).
         | 
         | The reason PKK and/or YPG/YPJ is on some terrorist lists is
         | mainly because Turkish government is against Kurdish rights in
         | general. Turkey tend to claim any group fighting for Kurdish
         | independence and/or rights to be terrorists.
         | 
         | So if they're "terrorists" in the same way apartheid South-
         | Africa saw Nelson Mandela, ANC and others fighting apartheid as
         | "terrorists".
        
           | kobasa wrote:
           | >The reason PKK and/or YPG/YPJ is on some terrorist lists is
           | mainly because Turkish government is against Kurdish rights
           | in general.
           | 
           | So you're just gonna omit the fact that they have a decades
           | long history of bombing and killing innocent civilians
           | including kids?
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | esperent wrote:
             | I've tried to find information about this, and all I can
             | find is that Turkey claimed they committed war crimes, but
             | when the US and UN investigated they couldn't find any
             | supporting evidence.
        
             | _bohm wrote:
             | The PKK was formed in reaction to intense oppression of the
             | Kurdish people by the Turkish State. The Kurdish language
             | and traditional garb were banned, and Kurdish history was
             | not allowed to be taught. The Turkish State also burned
             | Kurdish villages and slaughtered many Kurds.
             | 
             | None of this is to say that the PKK has not committed acts
             | which would surely offend western sensibilities, but simply
             | slapping the "terrorist" label on them and calling it a day
             | is not a nuanced way to approach the discussion.
        
               | jmacjmac wrote:
               | > The Kurdish language and traditional garb were banned
               | 
               | How about nowadays? Nothing is banned yet we still see
               | PKK bombing public buses in our cities. Seriously, when
               | can we call these guys "terrorist"?
               | 
               | These problems were real, yes, Kurdish language was
               | banned, people couldn't say they were Kurdish without any
               | pressure back then but these days are no more. Does
               | "cultural ban happened in the past" justify what PKK is
               | doing now?
        
               | _bohm wrote:
               | Given that I'm very far removed from these events, I
               | don't think it's my place to make strong judgements about
               | what is and isn't justified in what has obviously been a
               | very long and bitter conflict.
               | 
               | That being said, I don't think the PKK explicitly uses
               | these past offenses to justify their continued activity
               | in the conflict. My understanding is that they continue
               | fighting because the Turkish Kurds still lack any
               | meaningful political representation, they oppose
               | Erdogan's push towards Islamic national identity, and
               | because the Turkish State continues to carry out military
               | strikes against Kurdish targets outside Turkey's borders.
               | 
               | I'm by no means an authority on this topic so feel free
               | to correct me if I've made any incorrect statements. It
               | sounds like you're much close to this conflict than I am,
               | in which case my heart goes out to you in wishing for a
               | peaceful resolution to all of this.
        
               | jmacjmac wrote:
               | Just to clarify, %20-25 of the population is Kurdish in
               | Turkey. In elections, PKK affiliated legal party gets
               | half of the Kurdish votes and other half goes to Erdogan
               | roughly. So, there is no single Kurdish identity in
               | Turkey, more like split between these two. Ofcourse,
               | there is a few percent which is not among these two. So,
               | if you ask is there any Kurdish people in the government,
               | yes there are a lot. Erdogan gets half of the Kurdish
               | votes, so we can say Kurdish Erdogan supporters have
               | enough representation. PKK affiliated party is not in
               | government, because they didn't get enough votes but they
               | are in parliament ofcourse representing their %10 votes.
               | 
               | I don't think PKK cares about Erdogan's Islamic Turkey
               | dream. You don't see PKK or it's legal party saying
               | anything about it in Turkey, I think they mention it only
               | when they are talking to western media :)
               | 
               | In Turkey, there is secular opposition which is rougly
               | %40-50, they stand against Erdogan's Islamic push but
               | they still lack of %50 + 1 votes to dethrone Erdogan
               | unfortunately.
               | 
               | PKK says they want federalism for Kurdish cities, you can
               | advocate for that, it's okay, their legal party is doing
               | that, that's fine. But when you're holding guns and
               | saying my way or high way, that's a big no. So, if they
               | really care about democratic, secular Turkey, they can
               | put guns aside, get together with opposition in Turkey.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | > So, if they really care about democratic, secular
               | Turkey, they can put guns aside, get together with
               | opposition in Turkey.
               | 
               | On the flip side, learn the lesson from the iranian
               | revolution. When religious extremists control the
               | government and want to impose their religion on anyone,
               | who holds the guns is the most important questions.
               | 
               | giving them up might be the surrender and death of
               | democratic secular turkey, over time.
        
               | m0rti wrote:
               | Terrorist is an ideological word, therefore it doesn't
               | always represent everyone's views of a certain group.
               | 
               | Terrorist groups born as a reaction to heavy injustice.
               | Hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians motivate a
               | lot of members of the most popular terrorist groups
               | today.
               | 
               | This has always been like this, we don't live in a
               | cartoon where the bad guy is 2 dimensional.
               | 
               | To try to understand these groups' motivations is easy
               | when you are immune to their actions. However, this
               | behaviour is pretty off putting for the other side of the
               | discussion, in this case Turkish people.
               | 
               | I think we need to draw a line somewhere. I don't know
               | where but this doesn't feel right for me.
               | 
               | When you start the justification game, you need to do it
               | for other groups too. Otherwise it would come off as
               | hypocritical and dishonest. I don't know you personally,
               | maybe you do say this for all the "terrorist" groups. But
               | I witness this behaviour online a lot when it comes to
               | the groups that hurt Turkish civilians and I wanted to
               | point it out, maybe this comment can give a bit of
               | perspective to some people.
               | 
               | Also a separate note for the audience, not related with
               | your comment, this is not an Erdogan specific issue as
               | the people from the anglo-sphere tend to claim in this
               | thread. It started before Erdogan, it will continue after
               | Erdogan. If Obama could be the next Turkish president,
               | the situation would still be the same.
        
               | _bohm wrote:
               | > Terrorist is an ideological word, therefore it doesn't
               | always represent everyone's views of a certain group.
               | 
               | > This has always been like this, we don't live in a
               | cartoon where the bad guy is 2 dimensional.
               | 
               | I completely agree and this was more or less the point of
               | my comment. I'm not attempting to justify the actions of
               | any group in particular, and I certainly don't endorse
               | the use of indiscriminate violence against civilians for
               | any reason.
               | 
               | I'm often bothered by the use of the word "terrorist"
               | because I think it is often used as a means of putting us
               | into this 2 dimensional world and creating a shortcut out
               | of meaningful discussions. I will be the first to admit
               | that my own government is guilty of terrorism under most
               | definitions that people in my part of the world use.
               | 
               | I appreciate your comment, and apologize if mine came off
               | as callous towards people who are suffering as a result
               | of this conflict.
        
               | roadbeats wrote:
               | I always felt surprised how people are when they throw
               | such "facts" very confidently. What's your source ? Have
               | you been there yourself? How did you end up convincing
               | yourself to know the truth so well that you can transmit
               | to others without leaving any room for discussion? This
               | reminds me something I quite dislike: the tone of
               | fascism. It's widespread like a virus these days.
        
         | nojokes wrote:
         | The YPG and affiliated groups are designated as terrorist
         | organizations by only Turkey and Qatar.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Protection_Units
         | 
         | 20 million Kurds not having a state despite their will to have
         | it is a major injustice in this world.
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | If ISIS had a facebook page, I would be angry at facebook if
         | they censored it.
         | 
         | Related: People claimed Cloudflare used to protect ISIS sites.
         | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/19/cloudflar...
        
           | marshmallow_12 wrote:
           | if someone set up a facebook page to promote killing you and
           | everyone you love, and making your life hell, i think you
           | would think differently.
        
             | sneak wrote:
             | That's not accurate.
        
               | marshmallow_12 wrote:
               | why not? The only difference is that ISIS makes life hell
               | for a larger group of people. Does that lessen its impact
               | on an individual?
        
         | kingofpandora wrote:
         | Remember that the invasion of Afrin was done by Turkey in
         | conjunction with jihadist terrorist groups. Turkey has no
         | problem with terrorism, only Kurds.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | dannyr wrote:
       | Facebook is indeed a tool for authoritarians.
       | 
       | Facebook becomes the major, if not the only, online channel for
       | citizens of a country.
       | 
       | Facebook adheres to orders of an authoritarian leader.
       | Authoritarian leaders easily shuts out opposition to his/her
       | regime.
       | 
       | Authoritarian leaders didn't have to spend much money and
       | resources to do this. Facebook did it for them!
        
       | dalbasal wrote:
       | There are no good solutions here.
       | 
       | Should Facebook ignore Turkish law? Should they go by the US'
       | terror organisation list instead? Should they maintain their own
       | "terrorist list" alongside Turkey & the US'? Separate
       | classifications of illegal or immoral content for in every
       | jurisdiction?
       | 
       | You think there are political biases in American FB or Twitter?
       | ... Try FB in a language or political context that no FB
       | executive even speaks.
       | 
       | Meanwhile, there's chance (grumblings in europe, atm) that
       | FB/Twitter will be subject to positive pressures as well. IE,
       | making it illegal to exclude (eg) a political party from a
       | platform. It doesn't take long before the same content is illegal
       | in one jurisdiction and illegal to restrict in another. The
       | Armenian Genocide comes to mind as a likely example.
       | 
       | Zuck is like a case study in "no morals" corporate culture.
       | 
       | OOH, saying yes to revenue streams worked out really well. FB
       | "retargeting" and creepy personalized advertising won. The
       | effectiveness of the ads, and revenue soared. Being "cutting
       | edge" really, really paid off. It was creepy, but people got used
       | to it. Scandals like Cambridge Analytica also passed. Other
       | platforms (adwords) did it too, and FB doesn't stand out too
       | much.
       | 
       | On the other hand, having no morals makes it very hard to
       | navigate issues like censorship & moderation in multiple
       | jurisdictions. This is exactly the kind of work morals were
       | invented for.
        
         | cblconfederate wrote:
         | > no good solutions
         | 
         | Yeah there are no good ones, facebook is clearly morally wrong,
         | but they are not in the business of morals anyway.
         | 
         | Let's see if their ever-socially-conscious advertisers will
         | "pull out" their ads in protest again
        
         | throwaway316943 wrote:
         | The only good solution is for social media to be a neutral
         | service provider open to all. It would destroy Facebook's
         | business model but that's a good thing.
        
           | dalbasal wrote:
           | Or put another way, the problem isn't what facebook (or
           | twitter) chooses to do... it's what they are.
           | 
           | The problem is "neutral service provider" means something
           | very different to nerds than it does to policy wonks that can
           | actually do something about it.
           | 
           | To us, FB should be a protocol like email, rss or www. That
           | means there is no FB, no $1trn market cap, no $90bn revenue
           | stream. To them, it means something like "common carrier."
           | That means keeping fb, but regulating it so they can't
           | exclude anyone. The whole thing will be written with an eye
           | to keeping revenue streams intact.
           | 
           | FB are already making the argument that such things will make
           | it impossible for them to "compete with China." That already
           | smells of too big to fail.
           | 
           | The absurd thing here is that FB's service is not scarce at
           | all. No matter what happens with fb, there will be no
           | shortages of social media. FB can exist. It can be a $5trn
           | company. It can cease to exist. It can shrink 1000X. The
           | quantity and quality of online social media is not more or
           | less because of those things.
           | 
           | All those books about "abundance" 10-15 years ago were (in
           | typical internet fashion) 10-15 years too early. FB is the
           | real life example of abundance economics at work.
        
       | caseysoftware wrote:
       | _" Private company, can do what they want"_ loses meaning when
       | they're acting on behalf of and in the interests of a given
       | government.
       | 
       | Is there a point where we call that the boundary between
       | government and "private industry" is mostly paperwork and not
       | reality?
        
       | jokoon wrote:
       | This change of president will pull out a lot of stuff from under
       | the rug. This is going to be epic.
        
       | thih9 wrote:
       | To elaborate on the title, "silenced" means:
       | 
       | > [YPG's page] can't be viewed by Facebook users inside Turkey
       | 
       | > The page is still available on Facebook to people who view the
       | site through U.S. internet providers.
       | 
       | And "enemy of Turkey":
       | 
       | > Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization, although
       | neither the U.S. nor Facebook do.
        
         | vbezhenar wrote:
         | This is a good approach. Country must be able to control
         | content served to their citizens. And that ruling should not be
         | extended to other countries. Citizens can either elect
         | different president or use VPN.
        
           | postingawayonhn wrote:
           | Freedom of speech/expression is a right of every individual
           | on this planet. Any regime that does not support that should
           | face pushback from its citizens, businesses, and other
           | countries.
        
             | jankassens wrote:
             | Even with free speech as a right, there's still the
             | conflict with other rights.
             | 
             | E.g in the USA, slander or sexual content is limiting what
             | you can express.
             | 
             | In Germany, Holocaust denial and nazi symbols are illegal.
             | 
             | The vast majority of people in these countries seem to
             | agree with these limitations. (I don't know about the
             | Turkish situation)
             | 
             | The ranking of rights when they're in conflict with each
             | other is fascinating to me as it can be pretty different by
             | country.
        
             | KDJohnBrown wrote:
             | Who exactly bestows these rights upon people?
             | 
             | Governments? Turkiye outlaws free speech through arbitary
             | terror laws (see: HDP politicians imprisoned, members of
             | Grupo Yorum who died of hunger protests for not being
             | allowed to sing). Turkiye also has libel laws which
             | basically outlaw free speech. tayipp has successfully sued
             | _many_ thousands of people for speaking afainst him.
             | 
             | Religion? Turks are mostly muslim. Blasphemy, apostacy,
             | mocking the prophet or drawing pictures or him are all
             | punishable by death in Islam.
             | 
             | The concept of universal or inalienable rights is noble and
             | righteous in theory, but imaginary in practice.
             | 
             | Turks have allowed Tayipp to stomp all over the
             | constitution (illegally acting as prime minister when he
             | was president, rewriting the constitution under a state of
             | emergency, violating libel laws by regularly insulting
             | kurds, chp, hdp, christians, jews and zoroastrians,
             | violating the secularity laws and arresting hundreds of
             | thousands of people under allged ties to feto), and Turks
             | keep allowing it.
             | 
             | Even Ataturk banned turbanli women from working in
             | government.
             | 
             | Turks have willingly rejected western-style free speech for
             | a relatively improved economy and a sense of national
             | pride.
        
             | sdeframond wrote:
             | Respectful nitpick: maybe you mean "Freedom of
             | speech/expression _should be_ a right of every individual
             | on this planet "
             | 
             | Also, one thing is to wish for _universal_ freedom of
             | speech, another one is for a given community, or country,
             | to impose its views on free speech (and limitations
             | thereof) to another community.
             | 
             | Edit: typo
        
               | boomboomsubban wrote:
               | >should be
               | 
               | No, "is" is correct. Everybody has the same intrinsic
               | right to free speech at birth. You think that given
               | communities should choose for themselves whether that
               | right can be infringed.
               | 
               | This is basically the US' answer to the "divine right of
               | monarchy." If you say that speech "should be" the right l
               | of every individual, you are giving the government an
               | automatic place of authority over the citizen,claiming
               | they get to choose what rights people have.
        
               | sdeframond wrote:
               | Yes it is correct, in theory at least ;)
        
               | cblconfederate wrote:
               | It is a Human Right according to the UN declaration.
               | 
               | https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
               | 
               | both Turkey and facebooks home, the US , have signed it
        
               | sdeframond wrote:
               | That's correct.
               | 
               | As an anecdote, I was pretty shocked when some foreigner
               | friend told me "universal" human rights can actually be
               | perceived as more of a "western imperialism" thing. While
               | I still think human rights are a thing, I can understand
               | that they have been used hypocritically many times
               | through history.
               | 
               | Regarding TFA, I am unsure whether I'd rather FB to
               | impose US's views on freespeech to Turkey or to respect
               | whatever the local government is telling it to do.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | >Regarding TFA, I am unsure whether I'd rather FB to
               | impose US's views on freespeech to Turkey or to respect
               | whatever the local government is telling it to do.
               | 
               | You have it backwards, facebook et al will slowly kill
               | free speech in the US while claiming to be pro free
               | speech.
               | 
               | We have before us the greatest setup for fascism in
               | history, and these tech companies should allow themselves
               | to be banned from countries before cooperating with
               | governments to silence speech.
               | 
               | Instead expect them to help authoritarians silence
               | dissent.
        
               | sdeframond wrote:
               | I am very wary of FB. In fact I deleted my account about
               | 10 years ago (God knows I had to jump through hoops for
               | this). Still using Whatsapp but mainly Signal.
               | 
               | Truth is one does not need Facebook at all. Don't rely on
               | it for getting news, don't rely on it for giving news.
               | 
               | > these tech companies should allow themselves to be
               | banned
               | 
               | So you expect Big Corp to have a conscience? How cute :P
        
             | anovikov wrote:
             | Why? If we are certain that values of free speech are
             | important for national success, then if others suppress
             | them, fine! It only provides us competitive advantage, let
             | them suffer from their mistakes.
        
               | throwaway316943 wrote:
               | Yeah, fuck em. Who cares what other countries do, let
               | them exterminate their minorities too it just means less
               | competition for resources. /s
        
               | anovikov wrote:
               | I'd say, only option for caring about that is if we
               | actually suspect that values of free speech and personal
               | freedoms in general are NOT important for development:
               | rather, those are the luxuries which we simply can afford
               | because we're rich. And it's wise to press values onto
               | poor countries to prevent them from becoming richer and
               | thus a threat to us. The experiment of helping countries
               | to become rich so they become friendly, failed on China
               | and Russia examples: becoming rich they got only more
               | hostile just because they could, so assumption that it's
               | good to separate countries into friendly or hostile
               | regardless of how is their economy going, and simply
               | suppress growth of the latter, seems a wise one.
        
             | vbezhenar wrote:
             | > Freedom of speech/expression is a right of every
             | individual on this planet
             | 
             | I'm not aware of any country with unlimited speech.
             | Definitely not US or EU countries. I'm not observing huge
             | pushback from US citizens, business and other countries
             | when Facebook and Twitter tried to silence Trump and some
             | other conservative leaders. There are topics that are
             | forbidden by law to discuss in EU, for example to deny
             | Holocaust. Those are examples of lack of freedom in so-
             | called "free" countries. So obviously freedom of speech is
             | not universal approach and some limitation of that freedom
             | is an accepted norm.
        
               | kristianc wrote:
               | This is simply tu quoque - clearly there are limits to
               | free speech in every country but where possible the right
               | to free expression should outweigh the the state's desire
               | to silence political opposition.
               | 
               | Twitter was a pretty good example of this actually -
               | protecting people's right to hear from the President
               | (despite him saying and doing many things that would have
               | got regular users banned) right up until the point where
               | he led an insurrection on the Capitol. I don't think you
               | can argue anything other than Twitter taking their
               | responsibility to free speech incredibly seriously - to
               | the point where they were often accused of being
               | complicit to juice user metrics. And perhaps do some
               | research into Joel Kaplan before you claim the same of
               | Facebook.
               | 
               | Clearly this is not in the same realm as Holocaust denial
               | (which is incidentally also legal in roughly half of the
               | EU countries).
        
               | wyattpeak wrote:
               | > This is simply tu quoque
               | 
               | Not the original poster, but I don't think it is.
               | 
               | The problem is that, since all countries acknowledge that
               | there should be limits on speech, it's inappropriate for
               | one country (or company, for that matter) to decide what
               | should be the limit in another country.
               | 
               | If it were black and white, there'd be a much stronger
               | case. But this is a company saying "our shade of grey is
               | preferable to yours".
               | 
               | I obviously don't agree with what the Turkish government
               | demanded, but I'm unconvinced that this in particular is
               | a strong argument for a foreign company to decide to
               | overrule local law. And I really think that should be a
               | very high bar.
        
               | kristianc wrote:
               | The issue is that once you go down that road, you
               | preclude discussion of any issues by one country /
               | company if that country also imposes limitations.
               | 
               | You need to pick a principle somewhere - and I'm not sure
               | 'we'll simply block access to any material the host
               | government finds objectionable' is going to be one that's
               | going to lead us toward a better world.
        
               | marshmallow_12 wrote:
               | > Freedom of speech/expression is a right of every
               | individual on this planet
               | 
               | I do think that it's slightly more nuanced. On certain
               | issues there is no freedom of speech. This is when it is
               | determined that the opinions expressed are detrimental to
               | the human race and largely false. Nazi beliefs are in
               | this category. They are so harmful to the public that
               | individual freedom is quashed. incitement to murder is
               | another. You certainly don't have freedom to say
               | everything you like. That would lead to anarchy.
               | 
               | Edit: the only true freedom is freedom of belief. You are
               | free to believe anything you like. However you may not
               | always be allowed to pass on those beliefs. The press are
               | given gag orders all the time, it's not the most
               | fundemental human right.
        
               | LegitShady wrote:
               | >This is when it is determined that the opinions
               | expressed are detrimental to the human race and largely
               | false.
               | 
               | Then any speech that threatens power structures will be
               | determined to be detrimental, and banned.
               | 
               | The only way to protect speech is to protect speech, even
               | if you dislike it. That's why the ACLU, before they were
               | coopted as they are today, defended nazis in illinois.
               | 
               | Don't be short sighted, be long sighted. Today its nazis,
               | 60 years ago its was activists. Same rules.
        
               | marshmallow_12 wrote:
               | I'm not saying that it's a clear cut issue. I think there
               | are definite cases when freedom of speech causes more
               | harm then good. If someone will preach that we must kill
               | every single person with 8 fingers, for example, we will
               | curtail his freedom with very little consideration.
        
             | statstutor wrote:
             | I don't agree with Turkey's law in this case, but you're
             | saying that we should impose our laws and values on all
             | other countries, and also that online services should not
             | have to abide by any laws, with the internet as essentially
             | a lawless state.
             | 
             | I view those both as bigger problems.
        
             | imgabe wrote:
             | I agree, but in practice what would happen is Turkey would
             | just block Facebook if they refused to comply. Facebook
             | can't grant freedom of speech to people. They have to take
             | control of their government and demand it for themselves if
             | they want it.
             | 
             | Facebook has made it clear they don't care about free
             | speech anyway, as they'll happily ban anyone who
             | jeopardizes their ad revenue.
        
               | cblconfederate wrote:
               | The moral thing to do is let the government ban them. The
               | problem lies in the fact that totalitarian governments
               | use social media to manipulate their own citizens and
               | often run campaigns against them. By siding with the
               | government in serious issues they make it even more
               | difficult for citizens to "demand their freedoms", siding
               | with the devil
        
           | sneak wrote:
           | Why should any person, elected or otherwise, be permitted to
           | decide what another adult human being is allowed to read?
        
             | amanaplanacanal wrote:
             | Because "rights" aren't real, but power is. Rights are
             | whatever you can take by force or negotiation from the
             | strongmen who want to run your life.
        
         | pjc50 wrote:
         | Yeah, "terrorist" is kind of a floating designator. The YPG
         | should be distinguished from the PKK in this instance. The UK
         | takes occasional erratic action against the YPG:
         | https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/terroris...
        
           | fishnchips wrote:
           | "Floating signifier" I believe is the exact scientific term.
           | That is, if you consider semiotics a science.
        
           | arlk wrote:
           | YPG is actually run by the same PKK elements, Mazloum Abdi as
           | an example. And both are under the same KCK umbrella of far
           | leftist Kurdish organizations; Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
           | in Turkey, Democratic Union Party (PYD under which YPG
           | operates) in Syria, Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) in Iran,
           | and Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) in Iraq.
           | 
           | I'm not saying it is terrorist organization or not, but it's
           | inconsistent to have one of these organizations on the
           | terrorists list and others not, since they all share the same
           | ideology, goals, and tactics.
        
       | gurtyui wrote:
       | Good.
       | 
       | Nice to see they don't have double standards, since they also
       | silenced for example an enemy of US - Donald Trump.
        
         | spacemanmatt wrote:
         | Counterpoint: They let him use FB and Twitter for his perpetual
         | disinformation campaigns and continue to let seditionist groups
         | organize on their platforms. The recent bans amount to nothing
         | after giving him platform pretty much the entire duration of
         | his term.
        
       | Ahmed90 wrote:
       | It's an obvious "following the local law" thingy, Facebook
       | doesn't give a s*t, I personally reported 3 posts on different FB
       | pages
       | 
       | 1st was a religion extremist guy who says to Iraqi people that
       | they should protest and fight the "other side" of the religion
       | (aka start a new civil war) instead of protesting against the
       | corrupted government.
       | 
       | 2nd was a post that was praising the guy who murdered the Danish
       | (Or was he Norwegian?) teacher who mocked Islam, and calling him
       | a hero.
       | 
       | and the 3rd was a post that says "Women education is satanic,
       | women's purpose is marriage".
       | 
       | all of these 3 reports was "The post was reviewed, and though it
       | doesn't go against one of our specific Community Standards" and
       | then it explains how to block blablabla... I don't report things
       | anymore lol
        
         | coffeefirst wrote:
         | Yeah, I've reported a bunch of stuff, all of it egregious. I
         | have an inbox full of "thank you but this does not violate our
         | community standards" to show for it.
        
         | JIBitator wrote:
         | I don't see anything wrong with these posts. Perhaps you should
         | stay on grindr instead.
        
         | laurent92 wrote:
         | Facebook has so much power with censoring only one side of the
         | extremists. A good experiment would be if you could find a
         | Christian priest to report, and check whether their response is
         | weighted differently.
        
           | tonyedgecombe wrote:
           | _A good experiment would be ..._
           | 
           | That would be an anecdote just as Ahmed's findings were
           | anecdotal. It you want to check for bias you need data.
        
             | ttt0 wrote:
             | Well, Facebook won't ever release their data, so I guess
             | there cannot be any wrongdoing whatsoever.
        
             | ethanwillis wrote:
             | Data that Facebook is fighting hard to make sure people
             | can't collect. Just like how they were poisoning the well
             | while suing academic teams just trying to get information
             | on ads data.
        
               | throwaway1777 wrote:
               | Cambridge analytica killed any kind of large scale data
               | access to FB.
        
         | toxik wrote:
         | Paty was French, where did you get Danish or Norwegian from?
        
           | Ahmed90 wrote:
           | Idk, a brain fart I guess.
        
           | wreath wrote:
           | Probably confused with the Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
        
         | colejohnson66 wrote:
         | Interestingly, I've had more success reporting on Instagram
         | than Facebook...
        
         | input_sh wrote:
         | I've given up during the time when ISIS regularly posted videos
         | on social media. I've reported a video with a literal beheading
         | about two thirds of the video in, and it didn't go against
         | Facebook's community standards.
         | 
         | I guess whichever moderator saw it didn't bother to skip ahead
         | during those like 5-10 seconds they reach their decision in.
        
           | Bombthecat wrote:
           | They probably don't have the time. Next time report with
           | timestamp?
        
           | redis_mlc wrote:
           | Just to explain what's going on ...
           | 
           | > I've given up during the time when ISIS regularly posted
           | videos on social media. I've reported a video with a literal
           | beheading ...
           | 
           | I suggest you consider what the first 2 initials in "ISIS"
           | mean: "IS" means Islamic State, and that's what it is/was,
           | despite what the leftist US MSM media keeps saying.
           | 
           | > I guess whichever moderator saw it
           | 
           | The rumor (reports from ex-Muslims who report similar
           | content) is that the moderators for complaints about Muslim
           | content ... are Muslims, and capital punishment is prescribed
           | in the Koran. According to the moderators, you're the
           | problem.
        
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