{"id":60336,"date":"2022-05-02T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=60336"},"modified":"2022-05-01T16:58:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T20:58:12","slug":"how-facebook-is-censoring-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/05\/how-facebook-is-censoring-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"How Facebook Is Censoring Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Information is one of the casualties of war, with newspaper publication and distribution often shut down, television and radio towers destroyed, and journalists and other witnesses in hiding or on the run.\u00a0 And yet information is more important than ever, especially to a populace being invaded.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s information technology, though, makes it possible to communicate to a large audience by means of the internet.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in Ukraine, Facebook is censoring Ukrainians and keeping them from sharing information about the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

So reports Natalia Antelava in Fleeing Russian bombs while battling Facebook: A Meta problem Ukrainian journalists did not need.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Facebook (or, rather, the company\u2019s new name \u201cMeta\u201d) has tuned up its algorithms to fight \u201cRussian disinformation.\u201d\u00a0 But the same algorithms that shut down Russian propaganda are also shutting down Ukrainians trying to talk about and share information about the war.\u00a0 This is especially hurting Ukrainian news organizations, including local journalists in cities under attack.\u00a0 Antelava<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n

Ukrainian newsrooms are being flooded by graphic images from the frontlines of the war. It\u2019s newsworthy, at times vital content that is in public interest but it is impossible for editors to know what they are allowed to publish on Facebook and Instagram. . . .<\/p>\n

And even where there are rules, they are confusing and inconsistent. Here is just one example: it is impossible to cover the war in Ukraine without mentioning Azov Battalion, a key group fighting Russians in eastern Ukraine. But a mere mention of Azov Battalion can be considered a violation of community standards. The punishment for such a violation is a \u201cstrike\u201d and several strikes could result in their accounts being blocked or suspended.<\/p>\n

Recently, Meta\u00a0made<\/a>\u00a0a temporary change to its hate speech policy, allowing calls for violence against Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion. But when Ukrayinska Pravda posted stories about Azov Battalion cheering after hitting the enemy targets in Mariupol their pages got \u201cstrikes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things are especially dire for publishers on the frontlines: dozens of small, independent newsrooms in eastern Ukraine, who have recently lost their ability to promote their posts to their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe woke up one day to the news of invasion, and the next day to the news of all of our Facebook and Google ad accounts being blocked. We contacted both. Google fixed the issue within twelve days. We are still waiting for Facebook,\u201d Garmash told me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Antelava quotes publisher Andrey Boborykin discussing the plight of local newspapers in combat zones:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t promote their pages, we can\u2019t get their voices out,\u201d Boborykin says. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy because it means that [local publishers] are cut off from their communities. And many of them are already cut off physically, because they\u2019ve had to flee. If they don\u2019t flee they work under shelling. It\u2019s crazy that they have to be dealing with technical constraints imposed by Facebook on top of it all,\u201d he says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This seems to be a problem with Facebook\u2019s automatic algorithms, as opposed to the actions of human censors.\u00a0 But, either way, it\u2019s an example of how the information medium controls and restricts the information it allows to circulate.\u00a0 In the U.S., this power limits the circulation of politically-incorrect\u00a0 ideas.\u00a0 In the Ukraine, it is a matter of life and death.<\/p>\n

HT:\u00a0 Mary Moerbe<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image by\u00a0Gerd Altmann<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook has tuned up its algorithms to fight “Russian disinformation.”\u00a0 But the same algorithms that shut down Russian propaganda are also shutting down Ukrainians trying to talk about and share information about the war.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":60345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,5684,44,49],"tags":[801,10952,11720,3023],"class_list":["post-60336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-news","category-technology","category-war-2","tag-facebook","tag-internet-censorship","tag-russias-invasion-of-ukraine","tag-ukraine"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Facebook Is Censoring Ukraine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Facebook has tuned up its algorithms to fight "Russian disinformation."\u00a0 But the same algorithms that shut down Russian propaganda are also 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