Mark Zuckerberg finally promises action on hate speech

Daily Mail July, 2020

Facebook shares have dropped a staggering $56 billion after major companies including Unilever and Coca-Cola pulled their advertisements from the social media giant, despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising action on hate speech and putting a warning label on a Republican National Committee (RNC) video. 

Shares in the platform went crashing 8.3 percent to $216.08 by the closing bell Friday - its lowest in three months - after more than 100 advertisers boycotted the firm for its failure to stop hate speech and misinformation being posted on its platform.

This wiped $56 billion off Facebook’s market value and dealt a hefty $7.2 billion blow to Zuckerberg's personal fortune, pushing him down from third to fourth place on Bloomberg Billionaires Index and leaving him with a new net worth of $82.3 billion.

New Zealand, France plan bid to tackle extremism on social media

Reuters. April 23, 2019

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - In the wake of the Christchurch attack, New Zealand said on Wednesday that it would work with France in an effort to stop social media from being used to promote terrorism and violent extremism. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement that she will co-chair a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on May 15 that will seek to have world leaders and CEOs of tech companies agree to a pledge, called the Christchurch Call, to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

Turkey is ready to cooperate with Russia on the fight against terrorist groups

Sputnik 17.09.2018
ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey is ready to cooperate with Russia on the fight against terrorist groups in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ahead of his upcoming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"If the situation in Idlib continues as is, the results will be heavy. We have to find a solution with Russia and the coalition forces without letting this happen. As you know, the US has a different position, however, we have previously held meetings with Germany and France. We are already in it together with Russia," Erdogan said on Sunday, as quoted by Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper.

Erdogan stated that he had noticed Putin's positive approach toward the resolution of the conflict during the trilateral summit held between the leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey in the Iranian capital of Tehran on September 7.

"I hope he [Putin] will continue the positive stance also going forward," Erdogan stressed, adding that he considered it necessary to eliminate terrorists, but not the moderate opposition, which is also operating in Idlib.

Global Islam Body Demands Europe Ban Religious Hate Speech

 

Breitbart  12 Apr 2018

Europe must increase its efforts to integrate Muslims and eradicate religious hate speech, Muslim World League (MWL) chief Mohammed al-Issa has declared.

“We believe that European countries, where there is much debate now, and other countries around the world … need to enhance national assimilation programmes and criminalise hatred and contempt for adherents of religions because this threatens the safety of the community,” he toldReuters in an interview.

Without giving specific details, the wealthy Saudi figure told the international news agency that the MWL “has programmes and curricula that enhance national assimilation and which can courageously and forcefully confront all forms of extremism, as well as special programmes to thwart efforts to infiltrate the Muslim community”.

Widely regarded a promoter of the Kingdom’s fundamentalist Wahhabi ideology which critics allege is the basis for jihadi violence across the globe, the MWL is very active in nations of Europe which have a large number of Muslim residents, such as Britain and France.

As well as encouraging followers of Islam to be more religiously observant and promoting global solidarity among Muslims, the body also seeks to propagate a conservative brand of the religion and convert nonbelievers, according to the Pew Research Center.

Emotion reading technology could soon be used by police

By Cara McGoogan, 10 May 2017

Emotion reading technology could soon be used by police after a Russian firm created a tool that can identify people in a crowd and tell if they are angry, stressed or nervous. 
The software, created by NTechLab, can monitor citizens for suspicious behaviour by tracking identity, age, gender and current emotional state. It could be used to pre-emptively stop criminals and potential terrorists.
"The recognition gives a new level of security in the street because in a couple of seconds you can identify terrorists or criminals or killers," said Alexander Kabakov, NTechLab chief executive.
The emotion recognition tool is a new part of NTechLab's facial recognition software, which made the headlines last year when it was used to power the FindFace app that can track down anyone on Russian social network VKontakte from a photo.
The identification app claims to have reconnected long-lost friends and family members, as well as helped police solve two cold cases and identify criminals.    Read More

Pope calls for unity in Europe

Ben Rosen January 9, 2017

In 1957, six European nations agreed on a single economic market that laid the groundwork for the European Union, bringing together a continent that in the previous decade had been shattered by total war.

On Monday, some sixty years after those six countries signed Treaty of Rome, Pope Francis reminded diplomats of the agreement’s importance as he called for a new European humanism.

“Europe as a whole is experiencing a decisive moment in its history, one in which it is called to rediscover its proper identity. This requires recovering its roots in order to shape its future,” said the pope in the annual papal “state of the world” address. 

“In response to currents of divisiveness, it is all the more urgent to update the idea of Europe, so as to give birth to a new humanism based on the capacity to integrate, dialogue and generate that made the Old Continent great,” he said.

Pope France’s annual foreign policy speech comes, as he noted in his address, at a time when Europe is in the midst of a migrant crisis, the threat of religious-inspired violence, and a shakeup through Brexit. The pope’s speech represents another effort on his part to urge peace and reconciliation in Europe and abroad.    

The process of European unification "continues to be a unique opportunity for stability, peace and solidarity between peoples," he said. "On this occasion, I can only reaffirm the interest and concern of the Holy See for Europe and its future, conscious that the values that were the inspiration and basis of that project, which this year celebrates its 60th anniversary, are values common to the entire continent and transcend the borders of the European Union itself."

The pope’s call for unity in Europe comes just months before Britain is expect to begin the formal process of withdrawing from the EU. Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by the end of March.

Speaking in front of diplomats from 180 countries in the Vatican on Monday, the pope also denounced “fundamentalists-inspired terrorism” in 2016, listing attacks by Islamist militants in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.

He called such violence “homicidal madness, which misuses God’s name in order to disseminate death, in a play for domination and power,” and urged religious and political leaders to play their part in stopping it. The pope said such violence is “spiritual poverty” often borne out of material poverty. He said religious leaders should preach God’s message of love and peace and political leaders should ensure economic opportunities for young people.

In addition to safety, “government leaders are also responsible for ensuring that conditions do not exist that can serve as fertile terrain for the spread of forms of fundamentalism.”

Pope Francis’s speech is in line with his past remarks on Islamic extremism, nuclear weapons, and even the proliferation of fake news. Last month, the pope said that both the creation and spread of fake news is a sin, urging the media to do its part to stop it.

"The communications media have a very great responsibility. Nowadays they have in their hands the possibility and the capacity to form opinion: they can form a good or a bad opinion," the pope said in an interview with Belgian Catholic weekly, Tertio. He added, "Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth."

This warning wasn’t directed at just the media, but also those who post or repost harmful stories through social media.      Yahoo News

Donald Trump thinks that the way to stop extremists is to shut down parts of the internet

BySophie Curtis  8 DEC 2015

United States Presidential candidate Donald Trump has called on Bill Gates to shut down parts of the internet, to prevent radical extremists from spreading their ideas online.
During a campaign rally on Monday, Mr Trump suggested that closing the internet in some unspecified places will prevent people from connecting with and joining ISIS.
"We are losing a lot of people to the internet. We have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening," he said.
"We have to talk to them [about], maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some way."
He added: "Some people will say, 'freedom of speech, freedom of speech'. These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people."
Bill Gates , the American business magnate and founder of Microsoft, is yet to reply to Mr Trump's call to action. However, since his interests lie more in philanthropy these days, he is unlikely to have an immediate solution.
As part of the same speech, Mr Trump called for a " total and complete shutdown " of all Muslims entering the United States.
The billionaire, already accused of a slew of racist comments during his campaign to be Republican candidate for President, claimed 51% of Muslims want to govern the US with Sharia law.
He also later picked a fight with Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos on twitter, accusing the company of not paying "fair taxes". Trump suggested that if Amazon did so, its "stock would crumble like a paper bag".     Mirror

Twitter Suspends 235,000 More Accounts Over Extremism

By KATIE BENNERAUG. 18, 2016

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SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism over the last six months, as part of a continuing effort to keep people from using the social network for extremist causes, the company said Thursday.

“The world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe,” Twitter said in a statement. “We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform.”

Twitter’s latest action brings the total number of accounts that the company has suspended to 360,000 since it began cracking down on terrorism and violent extremism in mid-2015. While Twitter has long championed free speech on the web and said that it was a “global town square,” its positioning has drawn bullies, racists and extremist groups to the service to spread their messages. That has drawn criticism from government agencies and the Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, among others.

While Twitter is trying to find a way to reconcile its free speech stance with how women and minorities can be targeted on the service, the company has been clearer about combating terrorism. Daily suspensions for violating Twitter’s prohibition on terrorism are up over 80 percent since last year, with spikes in suspensions immediately following terrorist attacks, the company said.

Twitter also said it has expanded its teams that review reported violations, and it now moves faster to suspend accounts and make it harder for suspended users to return to the platform. The company has also expanded the number of groups it works with to counter violent extremism online.

Twitter on Thursday separately introduced new features to give people more control over their interactions on the service, including adding a filter to improve the quality of the tweets someone sees by weeding out duplicate messages or automated posts.

Yet Anil Dash, a tech entrepreneur and activist, said Twitter’s actions did not solve the service’s underlying abuse issues. Even if extremist content and accounts are suspended, people on Twitter can still organize in ways that put others at risk, such as publishing and widely sharing someone’s personal information and home address.

“The news about banned accounts and new tools is really good, but Twitter has been doing those things for a long time,” Mr. Dash said. “This has more to do with Twitter’s ability to talk about abuse than it is a big change in policy.”                NYTimes

Fundamentalism is 'a disease of all religions': Pope says it is not just Islam that has extremist factions

Pope Francis today said fundamentalism is not just an Islamic problem and is something which exists in all religions, including the Catholic church.

The Argentine pontiff was speaking as he flew back from Central African Republic after a three-nation tour of Africa.

He said: 'It is a disease of all religions.We Catholics, we have a few, even many fundamentalists.

'They believe they know absolute truth and corrupt others. I can say this because this is my church.' 

In his last few hours in the country he visited a mosque in the Muslim PK5 area of Bangui, where he was given a rapturous reception by thousands of people. 

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics called on Christian and Muslim 'brothers and sisters' to end the sectarian conflict that has torn the country apart. 

'Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself,' he said.

Speaking later in the day as he flew back to Rome, Francis said Islam was not the only religion to suffer from violent extremists, such as the ones behind the deadly attacks in Paris which were claimed by the Islamic State.

He also visited Kenya on his trip, where he denounced the radicalisation of young people, citing 'barbarous attacks' by Islamic extremists in Nairobi, Garissa and Mandera.

Kenya has been on the rough end of a number of attacks since it sent its army into Somalia in 2011, following the kidnappings it blamed on Al-Qaeda's east Africa wing - the Shebab.

He hailed Africa as 'the continent of hope' and made a powerful impression on both Muslim rebels and Christian militias in Central African Republic.

In extraordinary scenes before he held a papal mass at the capital's Barthelemy Boganda stadium, a group of Muslim rebels from the PK5 area leapt out of two pickup trucks, all wearing T-shirts bearing the Pope's image.

As they pushed through the crowd in an area where Muslims usually do not dare to venture, people cheered and shouted: 'It's over'.

'We thought the whole world had abandoned us, but not him. He loves us Muslims too,' said Idi Bohari, an elderly man.

The landlocked Central African Republic descended into bloodshed after longtime Christian leader Francois Bozize was ousted by rebels from the mainly Muslim Seleka force in March 2013.

The coup plunged the former French colony into its worst crisis since independence in 1960, and more than 100 people have been killed in the capital since late September alone.

After flying back home to Rome today, the Pope spoke in front of his weekly audience in St Peter's Square, Vatican City.

Dailymail 

SDA leaders pledging to fight against a growing “perversion of religion” worldwide by those who use the language of faith to justify violence and terrorism.

Ganoune Diop giving a presentation at the Moscow conference. Images by ESD PARL

November 9, 2015 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Bettina Krause

Two senior Seventh-day Adventist leaders joined participants of a Russian government-organized conference on religious freedom in pledging to fight against a growing “perversion of religion” worldwide by those who use the language of faith to justify violence and terrorism.

Delegates attending the Third International Forum on Religion and Peace at Moscow’s President Hotel.

The Third International Forum on Religion and Peace, a rare gathering of leaders from across Russia’s religious and political spectrum, met Oct. 29 in the Great Hall of Moscow’s President Hotel and included scholars, public officials, and religious leaders representing the Orthodox, Protestant, Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic communities.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was represented by Ganoune Diop, director of the public affairs and religious liberty department for the world church, and Oleg Goncharov, director of the public affairs and religious liberty department in the church’s Euro-Asia Division.

In his address to the assembly, Diop focused on the foundational place of religious freedom within the pantheon of human rights. He emphasized that it is a God-given right not subject to political agendas, and he urged all those present to work together to preserve and extend this “first freedom.”

On the day before the forum, Diop and Goncharov visited the State Duma, Russia’s national parliament, to meet various public officials responsible for church-state relations in the country. They also met with Alexander Kudryavtsev, who heads one of Russia’s most active public organizations focused on religious liberty, the Russian Association for the Protection of Religious Freedoms.

Diop, left, and Goncharov, second left, listening to a delegate speak at the forum.

At the conclusion of the forum, participants adopted a resolution expressing deep concern about rising religious extremism. They also urged greater action on the part of the international community in stemming the continued destruction of Christian communities in the Middle East and Africa, and they expressed solidarity with all those suffering persecution for their faith.

The event was jointly organized by Russia’s Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organizations, and Moscow’s Department of National Policy, Inter-Regional Relations, and Tourism. It was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, along with other religious and public leaders.

Pastor Franklin Graham, son of well-known evangelist Billy Graham, attended the forum, along with Metropolitan Hilarion, director of the department for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Allahshukur Pashazade, chair of the Religious Council of the Caucasus.

Interamerica 

The Prophetic Ideology of Isis - The terror group’s apocalyptic vision

By Liz Goodwin November 23, 2015 5:02 AM Yahoo News

In a boastful press release after the Paris attacks that left 130 dead earlier in the month, ISIS celebrated its “victory” over the city it called the “lead carrier of the cross.”

“Allah granted victory upon their hands and cast terror into the hearts of the crusaders in their very own homeland,” the group wrote.

The medieval language is a glimpse into the terror group’s little-discussed apocalyptic ideology, one that draws on prophecies written after Muhammad’s death that were used to motivate Muslims to battle by caliphs who lived more than a thousand years ago. While al-Qaida occasionally hinted at these doomsday writings foretelling a grand battle with infidels at the end of the world, ISIS has made them the bedrock of its brand.

These prophecies are so entwined with ISIS’ identity that the group has pasted a line from one of them — “a Caliphate in Accordance with the Prophetic Method” — on the coins it has minted, on the badges soldiers wear and even on a billboard marking the beginning of ISIS territory. In that prophecy, Muhammad said that after a “tyrannical monarchy,” an Islamic caliphate would return. The formation of the caliphate would lead to a grand battle with the West that would bring along the end of the world.

The prophecies ISIS relies on were written dozens and sometimes hundreds of years after Muhammad’s death and are not included in the Quran, as Brookings scholar Will McCants explains in his book “The ISIS Apocalypse.” But the prophecies are widespread and believed by many — one poll in 2012 suggested half of Arabs believed the end of the world was nigh.

In ISIS’ interpretation, the figure of the Mahdi, or “the rightly guided one” will appear to lead final battles against the Western infidels, called Rome, in northern Syria before the end of days. After the day of judgment, only those who supported the Mahdi will be saved. The Mahdi will appear after the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. (Medieval caliphs, attempting to gin up support for their own battles against the Christian crusaders, claimed to be the Mahdi in the past.) In some of the prophecies, Jesus descends from the heavens to assist the Mahdi in his battle against the infidels, who are led by an Antichrist figure.

ISIS leadership has made key military decisions based upon these prophecies. It fought in the summer of 2014 to take over the small and militarily unimportant village of Dabiq close to Turkey because it is name-checked in one of the prophecies as a place where the final great battles will occur. The infidels are supposed to gather under “80 flags” in this village, before their defeat. (Dabiq is also the name of ISIS’ monthly magazine.)

ISIS’ claim that the apocalypse is nigh is a powerful recruitment tool, not unlike an “Act now! 24 hours only!” sales pitch.

“The belief that the end of the world is coming and you’re going to be fighting on the side of the good guys when the world ends is a powerful motivator,” McCants told Yahoo News. “Young people going to join [ISIS] believe they are participating in a apocalyptic prophecy.”

“The really interesting thing here from the psychological perspective is the sense of urgency,” said John Horgan, a psychologist and terrorism expert at Georgia State University. “They’re sending the message that the forces of evil are about to reach their goals so you need to act now rather than later. You don’t have the luxury of waiting for this to happen.”

It’s unknown if the leadership of ISIS really believes in these prophecies or is simply using them to establish legitimacy in the eyes of their supporters. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has a Ph.D. in Quranic studies.

McCants tracked down examples of ISIS supporters and members trying to fit current events into the murky and sometimes conflicting timeline of the prophecies. “Thirty states remain to complete the number of eighty flags that will gather in Dabiq and begin the battle,” one jihadi Tweeted, seemingly waiting for more nations to sign on to fight ISIS before the last grand battle could occur and usher in the end of the world.  

One can imagine ISIS leaders running into trouble if their apocalyptic vision takes too long and supporters begin asking questions and become impatient.

“Part of why ISIS is trying to goad the West into action is it’s a critical part of fulfilling their prophecies,” Horgan said.

The group has also refrained from explicitly calling its leader al-Baghdadi the Mahdi, which means its followers know they have to wait for him to appear before the world is ending. Sunni and Shiite beliefs about the Mahdi diverge in one key way: Sunni Islam, the branch of the religion ISIS adheres to, posits that the Mahdi, the prophet’s successor, has yet to come. According to the Shiite tradition, the Mahdi came but will remain hidden until he brings justice to the world.

That fighters believe they are fulfilling a grand destiny helps explain why thousands of them have been willing to leave more comfortable lives in nations all around the world to join the dangerous and reviled group. “It’s definitely more cultlike than al-Qaida,” said Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham’s Center on National Security. “It’s got all the accouterments of a cult.”

Yahoo News

Fundamentalists will be defeated by light and love

French man Guittard Aubin shows defiance with his Tricolor at the Eiffel tower in Paris

08:29, 17 Nov 2015

To state the obvious, the world has a problem with fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism comes in all shapes and sizes. At its heart, fundamentalism is an unmovable conviction that one world view, be it religious, philosophical, economic or cultural, has a monopoly on all truth and everything outside that view is inherently false.

There is no room for discussion, journeying, dialogue or mutual understanding, just a fixed, often aggressive and sometimes appallingly destructive entrenched position.

When fundamentalism corrupts and distorts faith and religion, it is particularly potent as the world view is ‘sanctioned by God’ and so your opponents become opponents of the Almighty.

When fundamentalism erupts into appalling violence such as we have recently seen in Beirut, Kenya, Syria, Iraq and Paris, to name but a few places, we struggle to know what the most effective response is to challenge, contain and dismantle such terrible ideologies. Fundamentalist ideologies bring nothing but chaos, fear, destruction and death.

We struggle to know how to respond because of cause fundamentalists' identity depends on opposition ("I am right, you are wrong"), so they constantly attack in order to be attacked back. They feed off escalating conflict and retaliation.

Linda Woodhead, Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, said: "So if Europeans are being humane to Muslim asylum seekers, (the Islamic fundamentalists) will try to provoke them to be horrible ('see they really DO hate all Muslims').

"We should not let them set the agenda in this way. We should continue to set our own agenda, and stick to it. The European agenda is about peace, liberty, justice and toleration of difference - not hatred, revenge and uniformity."

Over the last few days the media and social media have often been polarised and simplistic in commenting on the events in Paris and the history leading up to such devastating attacks. We do ourselves no favors with simplistic slogans, condemnations and denials because the web of issues, attitudes and histories is far too complex to be reduced down to soundbite commentary.

And so it is with the risk of over simplification that I offer comment within the constraints of the length of this column, and my comments are one: fundamentalists love people to either join them or oppose them, they thrive on both.

Most people I know and, I am sure, most readers of this article know that we want to live lives characterised by openness, tolerance, the celebration of diversity, living with differences and loving our neighbour whether near or far, like us or very different.

And two: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’" - Martin Luther King Jr

Ultimately the forces of fundamentalism won’t be defeated by military might or even economic pressure or diplomat manoeuvrings, they will be defeated by light and love. Let’s make sure we endeavour, through our words and through our living, to be part of that world changing story.

God bless. 

Hinckley Times 

 Rev JohnWhittaker is the vicar of St Mary's Church in Hinckley. This blog is his take of life from the pews of a church that dates back to the 13th century.

Pope Francis calls Paris attacks "blasphemy"

A woman holds up a placard reading "I'm French and I stand up" during Pope Francis' Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, November 15, 2015, in response to the attacks in Paris, France.

REUTERS/Tony Gentile

CBS/AP November 15, 2015, 7:43 AM

 VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has once again condemned the Paris terror attacks, calling it "blasphemy" to use the name of God to justify "violence and hatred."
The pope expressed shock at the "barbarity" of the attacks and told followers in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that "we wonder how can it come to the heart of man to conceive and carry out of such horrible events."

The pope added that "the road of violence and hatred does not resolve humanity's problems. And using the name of God to justify this road is blasphemy."

Francis expressed his deepest condolences to French President Francois Hollande and to the French people.
Pope Francis has often framed the upsurge in violence around the globe in terms of a "third World War" being waged piecemeal through crimes, massacres, religious persecution and the destruction of cultural sites.
On Saturday, he told the Italian Bishops Conference TV2000 that the attacks in Paris were "part" of that, adding "there are no justifications for these things."
At least 127 people died in Friday night's rampage in Paris. France has been in an official state of mourning since the attacks, with the Eiffel Tower going dark and President Francois Hollande vowing that France would wage "merciless" war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which claimed responsibility for the mayhem, as investigators raced to track down their accomplices and uncovered possible links to networks in Belgium and Syria.
CBS