STERLING, Virginia: President Donald Trump criticized social media companies after Facebook banned a number of extremist figures, declaring that he was “monitoring and watching, closely!!“
Trump, who tweeted and re-tweeted complaints Friday and Saturday, said he would “monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms.” He has previously asserted that social media companies exhibit bias against conservatives, something the companies have rejected as untrue.
The president’s comments came after Facebook this week banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones and other extremists, saying they violated its ban on “dangerous individuals.” The company also removed right-wing personalities Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson and Laura Loomer, along with Jones’ site, Infowars, which often posts conspiracy theories. The latest bans apply both to Facebook’s main service and to Instagram and extend to fan pages and other related accounts.
Facebook’s move signaled renewed effort by the social media giant to remove people and groups promoting objectionable material such as hate, racism and anti-Semitism. The company said it has “always banned” people or groups that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of political ideology.
On Twitter, Trump cited a number of individuals he said were being unfairly treated by social media companies, including Watson and actor James Woods. He insisted it was “getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!“
Woods, one of Hollywood’s most outspoken conservatives, has had his Twitter account locked. Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough said Woods will need to delete a tweet that violated Twitter rules before he can be reinstated.
Trump tweeted: “How can it be possible that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible Conservative Voice, is banned from Twitter? Social Media & Fake News Media, together with their partner, the Democrat Party, have no idea the problems they are causing for themselves. VERY UNFAIR!“
Rosborough said Twitter enforces its rules “impartially for all users, regardless of their background or political affiliation.”
Trump, who uses Twitter extensively to push his message, recently met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the White House after attacking the company and complaining that it was not treating him well because he was a Republican. He later described it as a “great meeting.”
The president had more than social media on his mind Saturday. Trump also tweeted that he was holding out hopes for a deal with North Korea on its nuclear program, as well as improved relations with Russia, now that he feels the special counsel investigation is behind him.
Trump attacks social media companies after Facebook bans
Trump attacks social media companies after Facebook bans
Russia fines Google $20 decillion, a record-breaking penalty
- The amount — 20 followed by 33 zeros — exceeds the estimated total global GDP of $110 trillion, a figure with a mere 13 zeros
- Unpaid fine dates back to 2020 when Google began banning Russian YouTube channels, and has grown exponentially due to compound penalties
LONDON: A Russian court has fined Google a staggering $20 decillion, the largest financial penalty ever issued.
In fact, $20 decillion (20 followed by 33 zeros), which in Russia’s own currency is equivalent to 2 undecillion rubles (a 37-digit figure), far exceeds the combined gross domestic product of every country in the world, which is estimated to be about $110 trillion (a figure with a mere 13 zeros).
The amount dwarfs the $206 billion paid by tobacco companies to the US government in 1998, which remains the largest civil lawsuit settlement.
Google said: “We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia. For example, civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties. We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”
The fine, which a judge said contained “many, many zeros,” relates to a dispute that began in 2020 when Google-owned YouTube banned Tsargrad, a Russian ultra-nationalist, pro-Kremlin channel, from the platform in compliance with US sanctions.
Since then, Google has blocked more than 1,000 YouTube channels and more than 5.5 million videos from Russia, halted advertising services in the country in March 2022, and paused monetization of content that supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In response, a number of relatively small fines were imposed by Russian courts but they went unpaid and Russian business newspaper RBC reported that the amounts owed have grown immensely as result of compound penalties initially set at $1,025 a day and doubling each week.
Details of the current total of the fine emerged on Tuesday, as Google reported quarterly earnings of $88.3 billion for the three months to September. Based on that amount, it would take the company more than 56 septillion (a figure with 24 zeros) years to pay off the fine, which is more than 4 trillion times the age of the universe.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, urged Google parent company Alphabet to stop blocking Russian YouTube channels. However, he conceded that the massive fine, which he said he cannot even pronounce, is purely symbolic.
“These demands, they simply demonstrate the essence of our channels’ claims against Google,” Peskov said. “Google should not restrict the activities of our broadcasters, but Google is doing this.
“Probably, this (growing fine) should be a reason for Google’s management to take notice and rectify the situation. It’s the best thing the company can do.”
Palestinian student wins appeal after UK Home Office revoked visa over Gaza remarks
- Tribunal found Dana Abu Qamar’a comments did not constitute extremism, align with views of human rights organizations
- Qamar had her visa revoked in December after a speech at Palestinian rally that prompted intervention of the then-immigration minister, Robert Jenrick
LONDON: A Palestinian student has won an appeal against the UK government after her student visa was revoked in 2023 due to statements on the Gaza situation that the Home Office deemed “not conducive to the public good.”
The Home Office had stripped Dana Abu Qamar, a dual Jordanian-Canadian citizen of Palestinian origin and University of Manchester student, of her visa after concluding that her remarks on Gaza’s resistance to Israel posed a risk to public safety.
However, a tribunal overturned the ruling on Wednesday, declaring that her comments did not constitute extremism.
Court documents show that her visa was revoked after the then-immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, intervened in the case. Qamar, who leads the Friends of Palestine society at the university, stated that his involvement “sends a chilling message to activists,” calling it part of a “brutal crackdown.”
The tribunal’s judgment also concluded that Abu Qamar’s reference to Israel as an “apartheid” state aligned with views held by multiple human rights organizations and found her language around “actively resisting” and “breaking free” to be consistent with lawful expressions of Palestinian resistance. The court also determined she was “not an extremist.”
Commenting on her legal victory, Qamar said “justice has prevailed” and that she was happy with the result.
“This ruling validates the right to voice support for human rights for the plight of Palestinians and the right to resist occupation,” she said on Wednesday.
Her statements, which initially attracted government scrutiny, came during a speech at a pro-Palestine rally in Manchester, in which she remarked, “We are full of pride, we are really, full of joy at what has happened,” referencing the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
Later, in a BBC interview, she clarified her stance, saying: “The death of any innocent civilian should not be condoned ever, and we don’t condone it at all.”
Abu Qamar, who has lost 22 relatives in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing campaign and whose paternal grandparents were displaced by the 1948 Nakba, reiterated her opposition to harm against civilians, adding: “I’ve always been of the position that I never have or never will condone harm to innocent civilians. It doesn’t align with who I am as a person, with my character and with my views. I’ve made that explicitly clear throughout and I’m glad that the court has seen that.”
Report says crowd-sourced fact checks on X fail to address flood of US election misinformation
SAN FRANCISCO, California: X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program, called Community Notes, isn’t addressing the flood of US election misinformation on Elon Musk’s social media platform, according to a report published Wednesday by a group that tracks online speech.
The nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate analyzed the Community Notes feature and found that accurate notes correcting false and misleading claims about the US elections were not displayed on 209 out of a sample of 283 posts deemed misleading — or 74 percent.
Misleading posts that did not display Community Notes even when they were available included false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that voting systems are unreliable, CCDH said.
In the cases where Community Notes were displayed, the original misleading posts received 13 times more views than their accompanying notes, the group added.
Community Notes lets X users write fact checks on posts after the users are accepted as contributors to the program. The checks are then rated by other users based on their accuracy, sources, how easily they are to understand, and whether they use neutral language. The program was launched in 2021 by the previous leadership of the site — then known as Twitter — and was called Birdwatch. Musk renamed it Community Notes after he took over the site in 2022.
Last year, X sued CCDH, blaming the group for the loss of “tens of millions of dollars” in advertising revenue after it documented an increase in hate speech on the site. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in March.
Keith Coleman, a vice president of product at X who oversees Community Notes, said in a statement that the program “maintains a high bar to make notes effective and maintain trust across perspectives, and thousands of election and politics related notes have cleared that bar in 2024. In the last month alone, hundreds of such notes have been shown on thousands of posts and have been seen tens of millions of times. It is because of their quality that notes are so effective.”
San Francisco-based X also pointed to external academic research that has shown Community Notes to be trustworthy and effective.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, however, said the group’s research “suggests that X’s Community Notes are little more than a Band Aid on a torrent of hate and disinformation that undermines our democracy and further polarizes our communities.”
Meta says Malaysia’s social media licencing plan lacks clarity, threatens innovation
- Malaysia to require social media licenses by Jan. 1, says platforms must step up monitoring
- Meta says undecided if it will apply for licencing by deadline due to “exceptionally accelerated” iter and unclear obligations
KUALA LUMPUR: A Meta Platforms official on Wednesday criticized Malaysia’s plan to require social media platforms to apply for a regulatory license by January, saying the proposal lacked clear guidelines and gave social companies little time to comply, risking digital innovation and growth in the country.
Malaysia said in July it will require social media platforms and messaging services with more than eight million users to obtain a license, as part of efforts to curb financial scams, cyberbullying and sexual crimes online.
The companies could face legal action if they failed to do so by Jan. 1, 2025.
The plan has faced a backlash, with an Asian industry group that includes Meta urging the government in August to pause the move. Malaysia however has said it will not delay the proposed regulations, with Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil saying tech companies must comply with local laws to continue operating the country.
Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia Rafael Frankel said the firm has not yet decided if it plans to apply for the license ahead of the January deadline, due to a lack of clarity over the new regulations.
The timeline to apply for a license was “exceptionally accelerated” and the obligations for social media firms under the plan remained unclear, Frankel said in an interview with Reuters.
“These regulations tend to take a couple years to go through multiple iterations... to properly structure them and to balance the need for safety and ensure that you don’t inadvertently cap innovation and digital economic growth,” he said.
Malaysia’s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interview.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday following a meeting with Meta representatives a day earlier, communications minister Fahmi thanked the company for its willingness to cooperate with the government but urged it to take more proactive measures against sexual content involving minors on its platforms.
Frankel said Meta shared the Malaysian government’s goal for a safe online environment and was working closely with the communications regulator to remove or restrict harmful content from its platforms.
“We don’t need a licencing regime in order to take online safety seriously. We already take it seriously,” he said.
Meta has shared its concerns with the government and hopes to “bridge the differences” over the proposed regulations before they are implemented, Frankel added, without providing details.
Malaysian authorities deem online gambling, scams, child pornography and grooming, cyberbullying and content related to race, religion and royalty as harmful.
Malaysia reported a sharp increase in harmful social media content earlier this year and urged social media firms, including Facebook parent Meta and short video platform TikTok (8645.HK), to step up monitoring on their platforms.
Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico
- Mauricio Cruz Solis was a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet
- Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say
MORELIA, Mexico: A journalist was shot dead Tuesday night in western Mexico, a local prosecutor’s office said, in a part of the country hit hard by organized crime.
Mauricio Cruz Solis, a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet, was killed in the city of Uruapan.
One other person was wounded in the attack, the prosecutor’s office said.
The radio station where Cruz Solis worked mourned his killing in a statement published on social media.
“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.
Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994.
Cruz Solis’s murder is the first killing of a journalist under the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, although there have been other attacks on media this month.
On October 18, gunmen shot at the front of the El Debate newspaper’s office in Culiacan, the state capital of cartel stronghold Sinaloa, which has been shaken by weeks of gang infighting.
A day later, a delivery worker with the outlet was abducted by presumed criminal groups and there has been no news about his whereabouts.
