YouTube, Facebook removing hundreds of pages documenting war crimes in Syria, Iraq, Myanmar
DAILY SABAH
ISTANBUL
PublishedNovember 4, 2017
Smoke
rises after shelling on an opposition-held area of Deraa, Syria, June 4, 2017
(Reuters Photo)
Social media giants YouTube and Facebook are
removing hundreds of pages documenting war crimes on their platforms, The
Intercept reported on Thursday.
Mentioning YouTube's new artificial intelligence
system designed to identify terror propaganda videos published by groups such
as Daesh, the website said that the Google-owned video sharing platform has
shut down pages of 900 groups and individuals documenting the war crimes
perpetrated by Daesh, Al Nusra and other terrorist groups, also the Assad
regime.
The AI also shut down Bellingcat, a well-known
U.K.-based watchdog devoted to analyzing images coming out of conflict zones
including Syria, Ukraine, and Libya, Asher-Schapiro said.
Civilians during a Daesh attack in Al-Bab (AFP Photo)
Civilians during a Daesh attack in Al-Bab (AFP Photo)
"YouTube also took down content from the group
AirWars, which tracks the toll of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria," he
added.
The report also touched upon the shutdown of pages
documenting the oppression Rohingya Muslims are going through. "Meanwhile,
in September, Facebook began removing photos and images documenting ethnic
cleansing and torture of the Rohingya ethnic minority at the hands of the
Myanmar government," The Intercept reporter Asher-Schapiro stated in the
piece.
"Facebook would not answer specific questions
about war crimes evidence. A spokesperson, who would not agree to sit for an
interview or be named, said Facebook tried to be flexible and allow violent
content to live on its platform when that content had some social or
documentary value," the report added.
"YouTube defended the way it deals with war
crimes evidence and its relationship with the human rights groups who collect
that evidence," Asher-Schapiro said. "We are committed to ensuring
human rights activists and citizen journalists have a voice on YouTube and are
proud of how our service has been used to expose what is happening across the
globe," Juniper Downs, YouTube's director of public policy, was quoted as
commenting on the matter.
Reminding that Sweden has already prosecuted Syrian
regime using evidence from both Facebook and YouTube, Asher-Schapiro added that
there are 30 ongoing war crimes investigations in Swedish and German courts
connected to crimes committed in Syria and Iraq.
Asher-Schapiro also stated that YouTube is more
open to collaboration than Facebook, quoting human rights activists.
The author also mentioned an "egregious"
incident, quoting Eliot Higgins, founder of Bellingcat. According to Higgins,
80 percent of the firsthand reports of Syrian regime's chemical attack on the
civilian population of Damascus were erased from Facebook. Facebook declined to
answer a question about Higgins's claim, Asher-Schapiro added.
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