Ex-U.N. chief Annan tells Facebook to move faster on hate speech

May 4, 2018 Article

Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan told Facebook Inc on Thursday that it should consider establishing a special team to respond more quickly to threats of sectarian violence in countries such as Myanmar that are at high risk.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network, is under pressure from authorities and rights groups in many countries for its role in spreading hate speech, false stories and government-sponsored propaganda.

Annan, appearing on stage before an audience of Facebook employees, was asked by Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox if he had a recommendation for the company to help protect elections.

He responded that Facebook should look for societies where people are likely to put out “poisonous messages,” and then monitor the language there.

Facebook could “organise sort of a rapid response force, rapid reaction group, who can be injected into a situation, when you see it developing, so that they can try to see what advice they can give the electoral commission or those involved,” Annan said, according to a live broadcast of the event.

Facebook says it has more than 7,500 workers who review posts for compliance with its rule book.

It some countries, though, it acknowledges it is short-handed. It said last month that it needed more people to work on public policy in Myanmar.

U.N. human rights experts investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said in March that Facebook had played a role in spreading hate speech in the country. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August.

Annan headed a commission that last year recommended to the government of Myanmar, a majority Buddhist country, that it avoid excessive force in the crisis.

Since then, social media may have made the crisis worse, he told Facebook employees.

“If indeed that was the case, was there a point somewhere along the line when action could have been taken to disrupt the dissemination of the messages? These are issues that you may need to think through,” Annan said.

Cox replied: “That’s something we’re taking very seriously.”

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Categories: Hate Speech, Kofi Annan, Myanmar, News, Rohingya Muslims

Germany’s far-right AfD helping make anti-Semitism ‘presentable’ – official

May 4, 2018 Article

A senior German government official accused the opposition far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of helping make anti-Semitism “presentable” again in Germany by challenging a longtime consensus about how to deal with its Nazi past.

Felix Klein, who holds a newly created government post tasked with fighting anti-Semitism, said in remarks to online news site watson.de on Thursday that the AfD tolerated party members calling for a new “culture of remembrance”.

“I don’t want to say the AfD is anti-Semitic, per se, but it tolerates representatives who are demanding a new policy of remembrance,” he said. “They initiated this discussion about drawing a line (under the Holocaust) and that is very dangerous because it helps make anti-Semitism presentable again.”

The AfD had no immediate comment on Klein’s comments. The party has denied being anti-Semitic or racist but has drawn sharp criticism for not sanctioning a key party figure after he called for a “180 degree turnaround” in the way Germany seeks to atone for Nazi crimes.

The AfD swept into the lower house of parliament for the first time after September elections, tapping into widespread frustration about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to open the borders to over 1 million mostly Muslim migrants.

Klein’s post was created by Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats as part of their coalition pact amid reports from Germany’s small Jewish community about what they see as rising levels of prejudice and hatred.

Anti-Semitism is a highly sensitive issue in Germany, whose 1933-45 Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Klein said last month anti-Semitism was still rooted largely in extreme right-wing ideology and was not only being driven by Germany’s growing Muslim population.

German schools have long taught about the Holocaust, but rights groups say the rise of the AfD and other far-right parties has frayed taboos against anti-Semitic utterances and other hate speech.

Klein has also called for a national database to record anti-Semitic incidents, including by Muslims, that are not included in crime statistics.

He told watson.de that he would raise the issue with the German Conference on Islam, and encourage Muslim groups across Germany to take on the fight against anti-Semitism.

“This would not only send an important signal, but would allow Muslim groups to ask for solidarity when a mosque or a woman wearing a head covering are attacked,” he said.

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Categories: AfD, anti-Semitism, Far Right groups, Merkel, muslim groups, Nazi, News