14 November 2018 — WSWS
On Monday, Facebook removed a post on Sri Lanka by the World Socialist Web Site’s official Tamil-language Facebook page. The alleged reason was violation of unspecified restrictions in Facebook’s “community standards,” which is no explanation at all.
26 October 2018 — WSWS
The European Union (EU) summit on October 18 resolved to further tighten the censorship of the Internet. It also threatened with sanctions and penalties any party that diverges from the prescribed political line in the 2019 European election campaign. This is the response of European governments to growing opposition to militarism, social cuts and right-wing extremism.
It was intriguing that the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 was apparently recorded in some fashion. The BBC reported that “A Turkish security source has confirmed to BBC Arabic the existence of an audio and a video recording. What is not clear is if anyone other than Turkish officials has seen or heard them. One source is cited by the Washington Post saying men can be heard beating Mr Khashoggi; it adds that the recordings show he was killed and dismembered.”
17 October 2018 — Global Research
Facebook purged more than 800 accounts last week, continuing its scorched-earth campaign of eradicating dissent as Americans prepare to go to the polls. The social media platform is nicely settling into its role as official censor, working hand in glove with the imperialist Atlantic Council to silence all popular voices to the left and right of neoliberal orthodoxy. As the boundaries of acceptable political discourse narrow online, Big Tech has been drafted to do Big Brother’s dirty work – the methodical dismantling of First Amendment protections behind the smokescreen of private enterprise.
17 October 2018 — Strategic Culture Foundation
NATO — the neoconservatives, the marketeers for firms such as Lockheed Martin and BAE — has taken over the social-media giants and much of online international ‘news’-reporting, including that of virtually all independent news-sites and blogs.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google, in recent days, delivered what might be the death-blows.
12 October 2018 — WSWS
On Thursday, Facebook removed some of the most popular oppositional pages and accounts on the world’s largest social media network, in a massive and unconstitutional assault on freedom of expression.
13 October 2018 — WSWS
Media outlets removed by Facebook on Thursday, in a massive purge of 800 accounts and pages, had previously been targeted in a blacklist of oppositional sites promoted by the Washington Post in November 2016.
12 October 2018 — Peoples Trust Toronto
On October 11, 2018, Facebook, in collusion with Twitter, removed more alternative and independent media pages from their platforms. Quality outlets like The Free Thought Project and AntiMedia have now joined the list of over 150 pages that have been removed. This has been going on since early 2018.
12 October 2018 — RT
Cardboard cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seen at a protest in Washington DC © Reuters / Aaron P. Bernstein
Alternative voices online are incensed after Facebook and Twitter closed down hundreds of political media pages ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections. Facebook says they broke its spam rules, they say it’s censorship.
I 12 October 2018
Just got this from CounterCurrents, the Indian-based progressive Blog (now you know why chucked out Facebook, Twitter etc years ago!
On Thursday, Facebook removed some of the most popular oppositional pages and accounts on the world’s largest social media network in a massive and unconstitutional assault on the freedom of expression. With no public notice or accounting, over 800 pages and accounts have been summarily removed from the Internet. The removed pages include Police the Police, with a following of over 1.9 million, Cop Block, with a following of 1.7 million, and Filming Cops, with a following of 1.5 million. Other pages targeted included the Anti-Media, with 2.1 million followers, Reverb Press, with 800,000 followers, Counter Current News, 500,000 followers, and the Resistance, 240,000 followers.
In Solidarity
Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org
