In this mailing:
- Judith Bergman: Facebook: More Government Censorship
- Burak Bekdil: Turkey: Out in the Cold
by Judith Bergman • July 16, 2019 at 5:00 am
As indicated by the US in its statement, the problem with these government-led drives for more censorship in the name of fighting "terrorist and violent extremist content online" is where one draws the line as to what constitutes "hate speech", and the extent to which such drives can manage to uphold the rights of citizens to free speech.
In Europe, hate-speech laws have increasingly been used to shut down the speech of citizens who disagree with government migration policies.
The claim of preventing the spread of terrorist content has also been used as an excuse in attempts to shut down political opponents....
At the same time, the different signatories to the Christchurch Call to Action appear to have different views on what constitutes terrorism in the first place, further complicating how one should define 'terrorist content'.
It is often argued that Facebook is a private enterprise and therefore free to censor whatever it wishes.
However, Facebook and the other internet giants, such as Google, YouTube (a subsidiary of Google), and Twitter, have come to control the flow of information on the internet, to such a degree – as virtual monopolies -- that they have become the 'public square' of our times. That outcome makes them far more than merely private enterprises and endows them with a special responsibility: Those who cannot publish on Facebook or Twitter, effectively no longer have full freedom of speech.
by Burak Bekdil • July 16, 2019 at 4:00 am
The fight for Tripoli has killed more than 750 people – not a stunning number when compared to 9/11, but not small enough to be ignored like a bomb blowing up in Paris, Istanbul or Berlin.
Earlier, during the first signs of the Arab Spring, Erdoğan took to the idea of bringing together Muslims of the Middle East and uniting them under a Turkish empire that was being reborn – with him as the new caliph.
Erdoğan was the rock star in Beirut or Cairo not because poor Arabs were desperately waiting for the return of Turks to lead them -- Turkey has serious friction with Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates -- but simply because they were programmed to cozy up to any anti-Zionist man, animal or plant.
Add to that picture a rising alliance of all those Arab states with Western states and corporate actors in exploring hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean, and it becomes hard to find anyone who wishes to play on the Turkish side.
It looks as if the Turkish strategy team loves to bet on the loser. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's calculations on a policy of building sectarian Islam throughout the Middle East has cost him a number of Muslim countries, yet he keeps on making the same mistake. (Photo by Amilcar Orfali/Getty Images)
It looks as if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's will and power to fight all of the world's infidels – Muslims with different rituals, secular Muslims, Christians and Jews – will never cease.
Earlier, during the first signs of the Arab Spring, Erdoğan took to the idea of bringing together Muslims of the Middle East and uniting them under a Turkish empire that was being reborn – with him as the new caliph.
His violent anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist rhetoric worked well to earn him Arab popularity. But the message he got was wrong.
Erdoğan was the rock star in Beirut or Cairo not because poor Arabs were desperately waiting for the return of Turks to lead them -- Turkey has been experiencing serious friction with Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates –- but simply because all of them are programmed to cozy up to any anti-Zionist man, animal or plant.
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