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Journalist fires banned artillery in war zone
28 Nov, 2021 19:45
A controversial Ukrainian journalist has released a video purporting to show him firing banned large-caliber artillery at “Russian occupiers.” The stunt, which he claims commemorated the 1930s Soviet famine, immediately backfired.
Yuriy Butusov, editor-in-chief of Kiev's Censor.net, posted the images on Saturday as Ukraine marked the so-called Holodomor Memorial Day. The clip shows Butusov wearing full military garb, including a ballistic helmet and a bulletproof vest, standing by a D-20 152mm howitzer at an undisclosed location.
On his Facebook page, the journalist then vows revenge for “every victim of Soviet repressions” and fires the weapon at unseen “Russian occupiers,” seemingly implying the video was filmed somewhere in Ukraine’s eastern breakaway region of Donbass.
I must admit I may have been involved in the killing of some people in Donbass – but exclusively to the death of Russian occupiers.
The Holodomor Memorial Day commemorates the victims of the devastating famine that ravaged the Soviet Union between 1932 and 1933. The hunger killed millions of Kazakhs, Russians and Ukrainians when the countries were part of a union state.
In modern Ukraine it is perceived as a deliberate “genocide” staged by the Soviet authorities, then led by Georgian-born dictator Josef Stalin, that specifically targeted ethnic Ukrainians.
The bizarre way of ‘commemorating’ the date received a mixed reaction, with Butusov receiving numerous responses online that firing howitzers was not in line with journalistic work, and that such behavior puts real frontline reporters at risk.
Others said the video was proof Ukraine was violating the Minsk ceasefire agreement, which bans weaponry of over 100mm caliber from the frontline in Donbass.
In light of the backlash, the journalist issued an update to his post, partly backtracking on the original. Butusov claimed the video had been shot “long ago,” during the “training of one of the territorial defense units.”
“There’s nothing heroic in this video. It’s simply words for Holodomor Day, undertaken in strict compliance with existing conventions and restrictions,” Butusov wrote.
The subject of many controversies in the past, Butusov has embroiled himself in several new scandals recently. Earlier this week, the journalist got into a bitter spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During a major press conference, Butusov attacked Zelensky over the appointment of Ruslan Demchenko as his senior adviser on national security, claiming Demchenko was a “Russian agent” and that his being selected for the role had contributed to what he described as the multiple failures of the Ukrainian secret services.
Zelensky did not mince his words in response, blasting Butusov for having published a video of a strike the Ukrainian military purportedly carried out in Donbass in late October using a Turkish-made Bayraktar attack drone. The video had prompted retaliatory strikes and made Kiev’s foreign relations difficult, the president claimed.
“The deaths of people are on your conscience. Since then, there have been many attacks on us and bombs dropped by drones,” Zelensky said. “Over the past week, I have had two or three international calls every day, including with the leadership of the EU, the USA, the UK, France, Germany – all because of you.”
The exchange angered the controversial journalist so much, he later claimed he had barely resisted “punching” Zelensky.
Sounds like Butusov was loosing that argument.
Someone should tell Butusov that the Soviets have been gone for 30 years.
Guardian accused of sitting on bombshell story about Assange
Apparently, to benefit the CIA
28 Nov, 2021 14:08
The Guardian newspaper reportedly knew about alleged spying on Julian Assange by a CIA-connected security firm long before it became public knowledge – and pumped the company for information instead of reporting the espionage.
The allegations against the leading UK publication, which has a record of covering the WikiLeaks whistleblower, were raised by the left-wing news website Mintpress. It cited communications between the security firm UC Global and The Guardian. The company is currently being tried in Spain for its alleged role in conducting clandestine surveillance of Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which it reportedly did on behalf of the CIA.
One particular exchange happened between the firm and Guardian correspondent Stephanie Kirchgaessner, who co-authored a September 2018 story claiming Russian and Ecuadorian officials had been planning an operation to “smuggle” Assange to Russia.
According to Mintpress, in November 2018, the Guardian journalist queried a source in UC Global, asking for a transcript of a conversation involving Assange and Rommy Vallejo, then-head of Ecuador’s National Intelligence Secretariat, also known as Senain.
Vallejo visited the embassy in December 2017 to discuss with Assange the logistics of his possible transfer to a third country. The nature of the conversation was confirmed to Mintpress by Aitor Martinez, a lawyer who oversaw Ecuador’s attempt to move Assange out of the embassy under diplomatic protection.
The suggested diplomatic posting would be in China, Serbia, Greece, Bolivia, Venezuela or Cuba, the lawyer said. He said that Russia was not considered a suitable destination by the Assange team due to obvious Russiagate ramifications. When the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry attempted to appoint Assange as a diplomat in Russia, his lawyers refused. “We said, ‘That’s crazy, what are you talking about?’” Martinez was quoted as saying.
The request for a transcript shows that Kirchgaessner was well aware that UC Global was spying on Assange and recording his most sensitive conversations, Mintpress argued. Instead of reporting this fact to the public, the newspaper “promoted a narrative that Assange’s team was conspiring with Russia to illicitly flee the embassy,” the report said.
This is how Deep State works! In case you were wondering.
Mintpress posed a number of questions to The Guardian about its coverage of Assange, asking if it used flawed sources to peddle the Russiagate narrative while covering up evidence to the contrary. It said the newspaper refrained from commenting on the article prior to its publication.
Australia declares war on ‘trolls’
28 Nov, 2021 02:10
The Australian government will introduce new legislation forcing social media companies to “unmask” anonymous users who post offensive comments, or make them pay defamation fines if they are unable or refuse to do so.
The new initiative seeks to define social media giants as publishers, making them responsible for the user-generated content on their platforms, as well as to introduce special mechanisms through which anyone can file a complaint and demand a post takedown if they think they are being defamed, bullied or harassed, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced during a televised press briefing on Sunday.
The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls
and others are anonymously going around and can harm people.
If a platform refuses to delete offensive content, a court may order it to reveal the identity of the anonymous commenter. In case the company again refuses or is unable to identify the troll – then it will be held ultimately liable and will have to pay any resulting fines.
“Free speech is not being allowed to cowardly hide in your basement and sledge and slur and harass people anonymously and seek to destroy their lives,” Morrison stated. “In a free society such as Australia where we value our free speech, it is only free when that is balanced with the responsibility for what you say.”
Morrison offered little insight into details of the proposed legislation, or if it will be up for public debate, but said he expects strong support from parliament. He previously hinted at an imminent crackdown on online anonymity during a G20 summit last month, where he said “the rules that apply in the real world should apply in the digital world.” However, it remains unclear how exactly the Australian government expects social media companies to verify the identities of their users.
The new measures, according to Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, are also supposed to bring more “clarity” to Australia’s High Court’s decision back in September, which ruled that media are liable for user comments even if the stories themselves are not defamatory. The ruling forced several media including CNN to shut their Facebook pages for Australian users over uncertainty and the risk of defamation claims.
Facebook sued for $150B, accused of causing genocide
December 7, 2021
The lawsuits say Facebook’s algorithms amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people.
By Associated Press
Rohingya refugees sued Facebook parent Meta Platforms for more than $150 billion over what they say was the company’s failure to stop hateful posts that incited violence against the Muslim ethnic group by Myanmar’s military rulers and their supporters.
Lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in California saying Facebook’s arrival in Myanmar helped spread hate speech, misinformation and incitement to violence that “amounted to a substantial cause, and eventual perpetuation of, the Rohingya genocide.”
Lawyers in the United Kingdom have issued notice of their intention to file a similar legal action. Facebook, which was recently renamed Meta, did not immediately, reply to a request for comment.
It’s the latest in a series of accusations that the social media giant fueled misinformation and political violence, outlined in redacted internal documents obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.
The combined legal claims from Rohingya refugees are being filed on behalf of anyone worldwide who survived the violence or had a relative who died from it.
The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group forced to flee persecution and violence in Myanmar starting in 2017, with an estimated 1 million living in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. Some 10,000 have ended up in the United States.
In 2018, United Nations human rights experts investigating attacks against the Rohingya said Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech.
More than 10,000 Rohingya have been killed and more than 150,000 were subject to physical violence, according to the law firms organizing the cases.
The lawsuits say Facebook’s algorithms amplified hate speech against the Rohingya people and that it didn’t spend enough money to hire moderators and fact checkers who spoke the local languages or understood the political situation.
They also say Facebook failed to shut accounts and pages or take down posts inciting violence or using hate speech directed at the ethnic group.
Facebook arrived in Myanmar in 2011, arranging for millions of residents to access the internet for the first time, according to the lawsuit filed in California Superior Court for San Mateo County. But the lawsuit says the company did little to warn people about the dangers of online misinformation and fake accounts — tactics employed by the military in its campaign against the Rohingya.
The lawsuit says Facebook knew that rewarding users for posting dangerous content and allowing fake accounts created by autocrats to flourish would radicalize users.
“The resulting Facebook-fueled anti-Rohingya sentiment motivated and enabled the military government of Myanmar to engage in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” the lawsuit says.
Facebook is fully aware of the power they have to influence people, and yet it seems to carry on as though it doesn't have a clue. It's time someone held them accountable!
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