Even though Facebook censors for Israel, India, & other repressive regimes, we’re supposed to be impressed that it suspended the account of General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Burmese military who orchestrated the Rohingya genocide, along with 18 Facebook accounts including five other Burmese generals, one Instagram account & 52 Facebook pages supporting the Burmese genocide of the Rohingya people. They did leave standing several accounts by & for Aung San Suu Kyi, the chief non-military genocidaire, including her official accounts. Allowing her accounts to remain means that she can continue to justify the Rohingya genocide, the role she has always played for the military.

This censorship is of a piece with that of censoring Alex Jones: Facebook & Twitter don’t give a rat’s ass about free speech or the denial of free speech for such creeps. It is done solely as window dressing to legitimize the censorship of Rohingya activists in both venues. It is done to gain our support for censorship of free speech on social media. But it’s a fool’s game to go along with it when the real intended targets are Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingyas, Uyghurs, & others fighting against war, occupation, genocide.

We need to raise a collective hue & cry demanding the end of censorship on social media. This is a useful, though not comprehensive, article on the dangers of sanctioning any form of censorship with Facebook & Twitter acting as judge, jury, & executioner:

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/facebook-censor-alex-jones-705766/

Within Facebook’s new rubrics we are not supposed to speak ill of Israel or its criminal prime minister. So let Israeli authorities speak for us with their litany of criminal charges against Netanyahu: Israeli police recommend bribery charges against him for accepting bribes & for pushing legislation to get favorable coverage from a newspaper; several of his aides have already been arrested. Prosecutors have also indicted his wife, who is a frequent media target for abusive treatment of domestic staff, on fraud charges. Thus spake the Israeli judicial system on his petty & venal criminality whilst ignoring apartheid & genocide against Palestinians.

Facebook deleted Maude O’Toole’s account this morning after a Zionist named Tereza Eliasz-Solomon threatened to report me & Maude for anti-Semitism. Maude O’Toole was my nom de guerre which I used to continue posting despite the series of Facebook suspensions of my account. If this kind of censorship does not require litigation for civil liberties violations, what is the meaning of free speech today vis a vis social media?

Media is awash in eulogies for Senator John McCain as a great American hero. No one would be so foolish as to claim him as a champion of the people. His claim to fame was rooted in militarism, specifically his support for the Vietnam War which millions of people on every continent opposed for its supreme barbarity. But his support for militarism extended to every other US military intervention of the past 50 years & for US support to Israel against the Palestinians. It is not overdramatic to say that the testimony to his life is written in the blood of all who suffered & died from the predations of US militarism which he supported all of his rotten life. Amen.

Today (August 27th) is the end of my second 30-day suspension from Facebook. Over the course of the 60 days, I lost almost fifty Facebook friends. Maybe some thought I had split from social media; maybe others thought getting suspended for defending Palestinians & Kashmiris was bad karma. Anyway, that is entirely the purpose of suspending activists like me: to turn others away from reading us & it is part of the relentless social media campaigns to silence the voices of Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingyas, Uyghurs, antiwar activists, & others fighting for social justice. That’s why India snaps the internet in Kashmir so regularly, why social media suspends so many Palestinian & Kashmiri activists & censors news from Rohingya activists.

Since Facebook has no customer service for its members & there is no possible way to challenge a suspension, I lodged a complaint against FB with the Better Business Bureau for unfair business practices. I’ve not yet heard a response. It doesn’t address the issue of censorship on social media which is one of the most important civil liberties problems of our times. Let it be said that in this political environment, it is rightwing stupidity to call on FB to censor those voices we do not agree with because it sanctions their authority to censor those fighting uphill battles against war, occupation, genocide.

(Photo shows the relationship of Facebook to Modi & explains its censorship of Kashmiri activists & their supporters)

“Relatives and neighbours of slain Mudasir Ahmad Bhat, suspected militant, being beaten ruthlessly by the police for demanding the exhumation of his remains, in Srinagar on Monday.” (via Shafkat Raina)

CBS news reports that the number of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border has increased despite court orders to end the policy. They say the process of reunification is “chaos” because no records were kept of who the children belonged to, what detention centers the parents were incarcerated in or in what state, & many parents were deported back to their home country without accounting for their children. Many of the children are pre-verbal & unable to help relocate their families.

When immigration authorities should allocate all available personnel to reunification & hire more child welfare specialists to expedite the process, they are instead accelerating ICE raids to arrest & deport undocumented immigrants around the US. The violence & viciousness of this policy must be held to legal criminal account. Every one of these children must be returned to their families safely. That will not happen without massive public demands for action.

“It’s wonderful to see Israelis supporting Palestinians. Here, as Palestinians in Gaza gathered once again for the Great March of Return on Friday, a group of Israelis approached the other side of the fence in solidarity, raising the Palestinian flag and holding a large banner calling for the liberation of Gaza. The flag and banner were visible to the Palestinians on the other side. Respect.”

–Carol Sughrue

https://www.facebook.com/schwarczenberg/videos/1641173596002328/?hc_ref=ARTnv26DZIQX-

Last Friday (July 20th),  a 28-year-old Indian Muslim man named Akbar Khan & a friend were returning to their home village leading two cows they had purchased. In the town of Alwar (about 150 kilometers from New Delhi in the state of Rajasthan), they were attacked by a group of vigilantes who accused them of cattle smuggling. The friend managed to escape but Khan was brutally beaten & lynched. The issue, of course, was not the protection of cows or smuggling but the escalating, unbridled aggression against Muslims & Dalits in India under the pretext of cattle smuggling or child abduction.

Although Khan was in serious condition, police kept him in custody for at least three hours before taking him to hospital. They arranged for vehicles to transport the two cows to shelter, stopped in at the police station where some reports claim Khan was again beaten, stopped at a nearby stall for tea, & were witnessed assaulting Mr. Khan in the police vehicle–all before taking him for emergency medical care. When he arrived at the hospital profusely bleeding, he was declared dead. Although some reports claim there were 8 to 10 vigilantes involved, police have arrested only three men & will not likely charge their own personnel with assault or criminal negligence in getting Mr. Khan care. The officers involved were later given a slap on the wrist (one was suspended & three put on traffic duty) after their superiors found “The delay to take him (Khan) to a hospital was not intentional but a miscalculation. The cops could not prioritize their line of action, which lead to this prima facie lapse.” The doctor examining Mr. Khan’s body at the hospital reported that, based on photographs, his condition after rescue was far less critical & less bruised than the dead body delivered to him by the police.

This complicity between anti-Muslim vigilantes & authorities is what leads activist Bobby Kunhu to say: “Why do I have a bad gut feeling the 2002 Gujarat model may be unleashed across as many parts of India as possible before 2019?” The Gujarat model he refers to is the 2002 pogroms against Muslims in the state of Gujarat presided over by then Chief Minister Narendra Modi in collusion with state government & law enforcement. In the course of a few weeks (although the violence went on for over a year), over 2,000–the majority Muslims–were killed, thousands were injured, hundreds were disappeared, property was vandalized. Several scholarly investigations accused the authorities of premeditation & complicity in the vigilante violence.

Although the Indian government is not properly reporting incidents of cow vigilantism & media reports are confused, they do report they are increasing dramatically in several Indian states & most of the victims are Muslims. Mob incidents are also increasing against oppressed castes & after rumors of child abduction. As one member of the Indian parliament said, at many places in India,’it’s safer to be a cow than a Muslim’

Photo is body of Akbar Khan. May he Rest In Peace while his family & supporters demand justice for his death.

(Photo from NDTV)

July 23rd

Before lynching #TalkToAMuslim”

–the grim irony of Sheikh Imran