Is Facebook 'Championing' Blasphemy Laws Across Europe?
Authored by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute
What is "harmful content" according to the new Facebook guide for Muslims? "Islamophobia, anti-Muslim hatred, far right extremism and terrorist inspired violent extremist content".
The guide does not mention Islamic incitement to violence, which is rampant on social media and -- unlike the other content mentioned -- has deadly and tragic consequences in the real world. Most of those who perpetrate terrorist attacks in the real world are Muslims -- not "Islamophobes," anti-Muslims or right wing extremists.
Lakin v. Facebook is a lawsuit, representing 20,000 Israeli plaintiffs, which aims to stop Facebook from "allowing Palestinian terrorists to incite violent attacks against Israeli citizens and Jews on its internet platform."
Khan convened a special meeting of Muslim ambassadors to discuss how effectively to "raise the voice of the entire Muslim world against the madness unleashed against Islam and holy personalities in the name of freedom of expression". — Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Facebook, in cooperation with a British Muslim group, Faith Associates, recently launched a new "guide" developed especially for Muslims: "Keeping Muslims Safe Online: Tackling Hate and Bigotry".
The launch of the guide was hosted on November 29 at the British Parliament, where Karim Palant, Facebook's UK Public Policy manager, acknowledged "the partnership of Facebook with Faith Associates and said this was a first step in a line of activities being planned to protect the Facebook family". Simon Milner, Head of Policy UK at Facebook, stated:
"We're proud to be supporting Faith Associates in the development of their online safety guide. Facebook welcomes all communities, and there is no place for hate on the platform".
It is curious that of all the groups Facebook could have chosen to "protect" -- if one is to believe that Facebook intends to "protect" other groups as well -- it chose Muslims. Are Muslims the most targeted group in the world today? In Canada, according to fresh statistics, hate crimes against Muslims have fallen while hate crimes against Jews have risen. In the United States, according to Gatestone's A. Z. Mohamed:
"Since 1992... anti-Semitic incidents have been higher than those perpetrated against other groups... To this day, the greatest number of reported religion-based hate crimes have been directed at Jews, and the second greatest against Muslims... in 2015... there was a sharp rise in religion-based hate crimes, particularly against Islam and Muslims. Yet even then, Jews were 2.38 times more likely than Muslims to become victims of a hate crime."
Facebook, in cooperation with a British Muslim group, recently launched a "guide" developed especially for Muslims: "Keeping Muslims Safe Online: Tackling Hate and Bigotry". Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, wrote about making Facebook a "safe space" for Muslims. He has made no similar supportive statements in favor of Jews or Christians. Pictured: Parts of the cover of the new guide co-produced by Facebook.
In the UK, anti-Semitic hate crimes were at the highest recorded level ever in 2016 -- 1,078 offenses registered in 2016 compared to 938 in 2015. According to the Guardian, the Metropolitan Police (MET) recorded "1,260 incidents of Islamophobic hate crime in the 12 months to March 2017" in London alone. However, the MET police's definition of "Islamophobia" -- which the MET police claims is widely accepted, including by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights -- is exceedingly wide. According to the definition, as described in the 2012 report, "Hate Crimes Against London's Muslim Communities 2005-2012", Islamophobia is present when:
Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static and unresponsive to change.
Islam is seen as separate and 'other'. It does not have values in common with other cultures, is not affected by them and does not influence them.
Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist.
Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of terrorism and engaged in a 'clash of civilisations'.
Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used for political or military advantage.
Criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand.
Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream society
Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural or normal.
Not even Orwell could have made this list up.
Even if there is no statistical basis for Facebook's new guide for Muslims, its creation should not come as a surprise. On December 10, 2015, in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, wrote a Facebook post about making Facebook a "safe space" for Muslims. His post did not contain a word of condemnation of the terrorist attack, or allude to any of the widespread Islamic terrorist incitement that his social media platform hosts. Zuckerberg wrote:
"I want to add my voice in support of Muslims in our community and around the world... After the Paris attacks and hate this week, I can only imagine the fear Muslims feel that they will be persecuted for the actions of others... If you're a Muslim in this community, as the leader of Facebook I want you to know that you are always welcome here and that we will fight to protect your rights and create a peaceful and safe environment for you."
The guide appears to be one of the ways in which Zuckerberg has kept his promise. The recently released guide was "...produced in partnership with Facebook to empower you, as a Muslim user on the platform, with the tools, resources and knowledge to identify and deal with harmful content and keep you and your friends safe".
What is "harmful content" according to the new Facebook guide for Muslims? "Islamophobia, anti-Muslim hatred, far right extremism and terrorist inspired violent extremist content", which "all manifest themselves online and can have a detrimental effect on confidence and mental wellbeing". The guide goes on to detail how "harmful content" should be reported to Facebook and in some cases even to the police.
The guide does not mention Islamic incitement to violence, which is rampant on social media and -- unlike the other content mentioned -- has deadly and tragic consequences in the real world, with thousands of people murdered in Islamic terrorist attacks. Most of those who perpetrate terrorist attacks in the real world are Muslims -- not "Islamophobes", anti-Muslims or right wing extremists. Nevertheless, the only -- obfuscating and vague -- reference to Islamic terrorism is at the very end of the guide:
"If you see someone sharing terrorist content and encouraging others to join extremist groups, report them and then make or share posts that show true Islamic messages of peace, mercy and tolerance".
Zuckerberg has made no similar supportive statements in favor of Jews or Christians. So far, no guides have been released on how to keep Jews or Christians safe on Facebook, despite the fact that Jews are overwhelmingly targeted by Muslim anti-Semites and jihadists. Considerably more is at stake in these cases than "a detrimental effect on confidence and mental wellbeing". Two ongoing legal cases against Facebook attest to this fact. One is Lakin v. Facebook, a lawsuit, representing 20,000 Israeli plaintiffs, which aims to stop Facebook from "allowing Palestinian terrorists to incite violent attacks against Israeli citizens and Jews on its internet platform."
Facebook is acting out of a political concern to show Muslim countries that Facebook is willing to respect Islamic blasphemy laws. In July, Vice President of Facebook Joel Kaplan promised Pakistan -- in a call with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan -- that Facebook will "remove fake accounts and explicit, hateful and provocative material that incites violence and terrorism". Khan told the VP of Facebook:
"the entire Muslim Ummah was greatly disturbed and has serious concerns over the misuse of social media platforms to propagate blasphemous content... Pakistan appreciates the understanding shown by the Facebook administration and the cooperation being extended on these issues".
Prior to the Pakistani government's talk with Facebook management in July, Khan convened a special meeting of Muslim ambassadors to discuss "blasphemous content" on social media, and how effectively to "raise the voice of the entire Muslim world against the madness unleashed against Islam and holy personalities in the name of freedom of expression". Khan also met with the secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on this issue specifically, before talking to Facebook management.
Enforcing Islamic blasphemy law is one of the OIC's main causes. How convenient for the OIC that Facebook has decided to champion it.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-15/facebook-championing-blasphemy-laws-across-europe
Thanks for sharing this, its right, groups that tends to violence are hiding in victimism. Hate speech and violence should be condemn no matter the group or race
If a christian kills a muslim is the same that if a muslim kills a christian, if a homophobic person kills a gay person, is the same backwards
Violence against social groups cannot be justified
From the top 10 most countries, which are victims of "Terrorist" attacks, 8 are Islamic countries.
Over 80% of wars that happened since WW2 started by the US by invading other countries in the name of spreading Peace and fighting terrorism, all were Islamic countries, why do you think they did not invade Lebanon?
Over 3,000,000 Refugees since 2011 "Arab Spring", more than 85% were Muslims who lost their homes and loved ones. 600,000 of the Refugees are in Jordan alone, where I live.
.... The list could go on... if you do the math, the answer is always one obvious answer.
Thank you for the Article, May peace be With you.
Look phuzz, this is about civilian people who don't go regularly bombing Iraq, who didn't even take part in the crusades, but who get molested by many Muslim immigrants on a regular basis, in their homelands, where these Muslims - many are from Ghana, Somalia and Nigeria - all fleeing the Syrian war - are practically allowed to get away with rape and robbery because convicting them would be "racist." No shit.
It has NOTHING to do with your above arguments. Nothing. It's not "the Muslims" fault as such, either.
But there it is, and they want to forbid us to complain.
The same people who bombed Iraq and turned Libya into a mess and tried to make Syria a graveyard and-and-and, are now actively importing psychopaths from North Africa and Afghanistan, and telling their own people to get the fuck raped and not speak up.
It's not us, who want to flame Muslims, it's us being attacked by our own governments and Elites, who are using specially selected Muslims to enforce censorship and control, shitty laws and surveillance.
Who created ISIS ? Don't tell me you have no idea - not that I know how indoctrinated you people are in Jordan, aftre all Jordan has been a faithful US ally and your media may be lying as much as our own.
I'm not a US citizen, my country neer attacked any Muslim nations. Okay ? As to the refugees" we get here, almost none are actually people who had to flee, almost all are young males - yeah I see what you mean, some may be deserters...
Good to know that you live in Jordan, believe me the situation will look different from there than from here. Are you one of the folks who believe Assad has been "gassing his own people", or that the US are fighting the "War On Terror" because it was forced on them ? Have you wondered why ISIS declared war on Hamas ?
We're being flooded with mostly young African "refugees" who'e exclusively Muslim, Christians are not invited by our governments who are obviously trying to destabilize Europe for the reasons I hinted at above. In this climate, where there's at least twenty rapes a day in most EU counrties, where Muslim youths burn thousands of cars every year because they feel discriminated against (there is NO, repeat NO ant-Muslim violence in Europe at all), the media remain silent and the people are now forbidden to even talk about these things on social media. That is what the article is about - read it maybe ?
If you do that math, it looks as if we're preparing for civil war soon.
They had the Pearl Harbor Event 911, they then had their WOT nice wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria (till the Russians stopped them), they're now reaping the benefits, because they're obviously following a plan they initiated in the 1990s and Europe will suffer from that plan.
Catch up on your information.
The people who are forbidden to speak up are not your enemies.
You wonder how indoctrinated we people are in Jordan yet most your replies have an aggressive stance, as you are always ready to type back with eleven fingers. It is important to keep a discussion within ethical terms to provide transparent and valuable information, which is a good sign of an intellectual.
Every Religion and race has its horrible people with no exception. If I pick certain underdeveloped communities from anywhere in the world, bring them to Jordan and allow them to commit the horrible crimes you mentioned above, they will become known to be a race that is keen to commit this specific crime just like ISIS, Therefore a Criminal who has a chance to get away with his actions will most probably go for it, just like the US and it's European allies, Where I am positive that all their mainstream media is politically biased, and lies about every article to support their cause, just like Jordan and the Arab world. They all eat at the same table.
"there is NO, repeat NO anti-Muslim violence in Europe at all". In fact, Anti-Muslim violence in Europe does exist, not in the volume they claim it is in the news, but you are right, the situation does look different from where I live because I hear it from real people, covered women who experienced it.
It is wonderful that you promote these articles to protect your rights.I believe you are good in research, read about the Gas Pipe originating from Qatar, that is supposed to head to Europe that should go through Syrian Territory. It will help you catch up on your information, and find one of the main causes of the European issues, you deserve to know more.
The people who are allowed to speak are your friends. May peace be with you.