(John Ransom, Headline USA) The danger of picking which free speech to support and which free speech to censor was on full display as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took time out to thank Meta/Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for squashing Russian propaganda while allowing calls of violence against Russian leaders, which are normally prohibited under Facebook’s terms of service.
“War is not only a military opposition on UA land. It is also a fierce battle in the informational space,” Zelensky tweeted. “I want to thank @Meta and other platforms that have an active position that help and stand side by side with the Ukrainians.”
And with that, the statement laid bare the charge that Meta/Facebook and other social media platforms are just extensions of the liberal Western governments, which can barely get worked up over genocide happening in China, but have sparred nothing to use social media and the press as an intelligence asset in the war in Ukraine.
War is not only a military opposition on UA land. It is also a fierce battle in the informational space. I want to thank @Meta and other platforms that have an active position that help and stand side by side with the Ukrainians.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 13, 2022
“Facebook has helped Zelensky himself spread endless disinformation to try and con NATO into World War III,” said Chris Menahan at Information Liberation.
“Most recently, they helped Zelenskyy spread the lie that Russians attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant with tanks and it was leaking radiation and could lead to a nuclear holocaust wiping out all of Europe,” Menahan wrote.
Earlier in the month meta/Facebook announced a change in policy that would allow people in certain countries bordering Russia to call for the violent death of Russian soldiers or Russian political figures, in contradiction to long-standing terms of service rules.
“If we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable,” said Nick Clegg, according to Yahoo News, about the new policy that allows some to call for the death of political opponents that neither the US nor the UK are at war with.
Clegg, it might be noted, is a former deputy prime minister and a member of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK and serves as the Meta worldwide pitchman.
His opposite number in the United States is Democrat Andy Stone, who is best known as press secretary for the Democrats’ House Majority PAC and as press secretary to former US Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
Just in case people were wondering how Facebook foreign policy was made.
