This afternoon we made a surprise visit to Facebook Italy headquarters.
We showed up at the offices of Piazza Missori 2, occupied the lobby to deliver a public letter Facebook. The social network, last Tuesday has began to obscure hundreds of Facebook accounts “guilty” of having expressed solidarity with Rojava, that since ten days is being attacked by the Turkish army.
The letter contains 10 questions, which concern the Corporation’s policies, aimed at clarifying its role in the ongoing war: are you for or against the war? Are you willing to encourage a genocide?
They didn’t receive us: to us this is already an answer.
Yesterday Mark Zuckerberg, in a pubblic speech at the George Town University, has defended Facebook from the accuse of spreading fake news, saying: “We are at a crossroads. We can either support free expression … or we can decide that the cost is simply too great. We must continue to support free expression”.
We are now asking for consistency to this paladin of freedom: let’s stop the war, not the communication! In order to “connect people” there is no need to kill or allow them to be killed in silence.
Forcing the largest social network in the world to review its complacent position (or agreement) with the dictator Erdogan is a concrete way of helping Kobane.
Anyone can contribute by signing the petition on change.org or by answering the “Call 4 Action” on our website by organizing on and offline pressure actions.
READ THE PETITION
ENGLISH: Is Facebook complicit in war and ethnic cleansing in Rojava?
In Italy, Facebook has obscured scores of pages that support Rojava, the Democratic Confederalism, the Kurdish liberation movement, the multi-ethnic population of Northern Syria.
The war has always been accompanied by censorship, disinformation, the attempt to erase the voice of the enemy, which in this case is unequivocally the victim of a military aggression, which aims at a territorial occupation.
10 questions to Facebook ink and AgCom.
– How can supporting the expansionist war of the Turkish army and the ethnic cleansing that is generating hundreds of thousands of refugees be the mission Facebook has always declared to “connect friends and families”?
– To inform, to oppose the war, to support the right of the populations of Northern Syria to organize freely violates the standards of Facebook Inc?
– The pages that showed support to the attacked population, were obscured a few days after the bombing began. Was there coordination with the Turkish state? Which new policies have been included starting Tuesday 15th.
– Why have posts and messages published years ago have been deleted? Was it the response to an explicit request of the Turkish government, an act of preventive subjection, or an act of complicity?
– While the global public debate is characterized by sanctions against Turkey to end the massacres, does Facebook Inc. support Erdogan? What kind of “social infrastructure for the community” intends to build facebook?
– Can Facebook Inc. ignore the Italian constitution (Article 21) regarding freedom of the press and opinion? Why makes the reasons for this block unclear?
– Can Facebook Inc question the Italian constitution by equating all the positions unwelcome to the “community operations team”, as if they were comparable to those that spread racial hatred or aim to rebuild the fascist party?
– Facebook Inc. after the case of Cambridge Analytics Will it continue to act, this time in first person, to support autocratic liberticides and warmongers in every corner of the planet?
– These standards that have effects in stark contrast to the peace efforts of diplomacy, of the international community, of world public opinion, can be those of the communnity of the most used social network in the world?
– The self-defense forces of Northern Syria, which have defeated the Islamic state and are now engaged in defending villages and cities, should, according to Facebook Inc. be deprived of the legitimacy of having their say in the global public debate?