.
“The American ruling establishment is directing Facebook to proceed with an international censorship regime under the cover of spreading “democracy,” “freedom” and “human rights.””
7/2/19, “Human rights imperialism, social media censorship and the fraud of Facebook’s “Oversight Board”,” Kevin Reed
“On June 27, Facebook published a report entitled “Global Feedback and Input on the Facebook Oversight Board for Content Decisions” on the progress of its plan to create an international review committee to oversee its censorship regime.
A careful examination of this report shows that the real purpose of the planned Oversight Board—contrary
to Facebook’s pretensions of creating an “external appeals process” and
safeguarding “free expression and safety for all users of our
platforms”—is to expand and systematize social media censorship in defense of world capitalism.
In publishing the report, Brent Harris, Facebook’s Director of Governance and Global Affairs, explained that the company was closing a six-month “global consultation” period
and turning to the selection of the 40 members of its Oversight Board.
Harris writes that the selection process will include “engaging
consultants and executive search firms” to begin nominations. Indicating
just how “open” and “diverse” the board will be, Harris adds, “Facebook will select the first few people and those members will then help select the remaining people.”…
Facebook’s primary platforms are Facebook (2.4 billion
users), Instagram (1 billion users) and WhatsApp (600 million users). It
is by far the most popular social media company in the world with more
than 80 percent of its users outside the United States. For
masses of people in countries around the world—especially those that are
less developed—Facebook is more than a social media platform; it is the
internet.
Herein lies the contradiction facing Facebook, the big technology sector of the economy including Google, Amazon and Apple and the entire ruling elite that has reaped billions since the financial crisis of 2008. On one hand, the world capitalist system depends upon the enormous financial performance of the tech sector, including the growing adoption of wireless broadband internet service, smartphones and social media by the world’s population.
Additionally, the ongoing production
and management of these technologies are based upon ever greater forms
of exploitation of the international working class from the high-tech
assembly factories in Asia to Amazon’s sweatshop warehouses
in Europe and North America. This is the basis upon which the enormous
profits of these companies have been generated and is expected into the
future.
However, on the other hand—as the international class struggle is reemerging and masses of people are gravitating toward socialism—the ruling elite is terrified that these technologies will also become the instruments of social and political struggle in the hands of the masses against the capitalist system itself.
These objective factors form the backdrop of the discussions taking place about Facebook’s “content decisions.”
Knowing that they cannot overtly censor left-wing and oppositional
views on their platforms, the social and political forces behind
Facebook are seeking to erect an infrastructure based upon the same language used for decades by US imperialism to cover its criminal war aims, regime change operations and occupational conquests. The American ruling establishment is directing Facebook to proceed with an international censorship regime
under the cover of spreading “democracy,” “freedom” and “human rights.”
That the Facebook Oversight Board project corresponds to the global interests of US imperialism
is proven by the participants involved directly in the initiative.
Although none of the private and public sector “experts” who were
interviewed for the project are mentioned by name, several key individuals and organizations are credited in the document for their contributions. The following biographies are significant:
· Zoe Mentel Darmé is Facebook’s Manager of Global Affairs and Governance;
she is credited with writing the Oversight Board report. Darmé has been
with Facebook since December 2018 and was clearly brought on for the
purposes of this project.
Prior to her employment at Facebook, she worked for six years at the United Nations as a Policy and Planning Officer, specializing in the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). This department, which traces its roots back to the US-dominated arrangements after World War II, has been involved in
every operation of American imperialism since the dissolution of the
Soviet Union and integration of the countries of the former-USSR and the
Eastern Bloc into the world capitalist system.
On her LinkedIn page, Darmé boasts of her work in various UN departments
and functions, including drafting “a wide variety of strategy papers,
reports, funding proposals and other documents necessary for the smooth
conduct of divisional business” as Communications/Programme Officer for the Police Advisor to the UN DPKO [Peacekeeping Operations].
· Kevin Steeves is, according to Facebook, an independent researcher credited with helping Darmé
write the Oversight Board report. Steeves promotes himself on LinkedIn
as an Independent Advisor and Consultant on Global Affairs, Peace and
Security from Alsace, France.
Prior to working as Director of the imperialist think tanks European Implementation Network in Strasbourg and Chatham House in London, Steeves also worked in New York City for nine years as a Policy Officer and Special Assistant for the UN’s DPKO. In the late 1990s and early 2000s he worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), a major post-war institution of American and European imperialism dedicated to “arms control” and “human rights.”
In 1999, Steeves was a professional consultant for the OSCE in Croatia with an office in Zagreb involved in securing Western imperialist interests in the former Yugoslavian territory under the cover of protecting “national minorities” and promoting “democratic institutions” and defending “human rights.
· Noah Feldman is currently a professor of Law at Harvard University.
According to the Facebook report, Prof. Feldman is the author of two
white papers that have been the basis of the Oversight Board concept and
he has worked with Zuckerberg directly on the project since the
original announcement of November 2018. The Facebook report says, “Core
features of Feldman’s white paper remain, and he has been advising
Facebook on the Board throughout its development.”
After graduating from Yale Law school in 1997, Feldman worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice David Souter. He is currently an adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank of US imperialism going back to World War I and a fellow at New America Foundation, a more recent organization established to support US imperialist interests that includes Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
After the invasion of Iraq by the Bush Administration in
2003, Feldman distinguished himself by working on the Iraqi Constitution which was drafted and approved in 2005. Feldman provided liberal justifications—including the publication of documents such as “The new Iraq: An Experiment in Islamic Democracy”—for
the overthrow and brutal execution of Saddam Hussein and the transfer
of the Iraqi oil fields to the imperialist petrochemical monopolies such
as British Petroleum and Exxon-Mobile.
These are among the most significant and known individual contributors to Facebook’s plans for a censorship Oversight Board.
There are undoubtedly more “experts” whose names have yet to come to
light. It is also worth mentioning the participation of the corporate law firm Baker McKenzie and the marketing agency George P. Johnson (GPJ).
Baker McKenzie, which has specialized in human rights law and boasts its progressive credentials by having elected a female chair of its global executive committee, represents “venture capital funds, investment banks, tech powerhouses, household names, multinational technology companies, famous consumer brands, world-leading automotive companies and private equity houses.”
GPJ is multinational corporation that specializes in
corporate branding and “event marketing.” With deep roots in corporate
America that go back to the early twentieth century, GPJ counts
among its clients the big three American auto companies as well as
Toyota and Nissan and the tech companies IBM, Cisco Systems, Siebel and Intel.
Behind all the talk by Zuckerberg and Facebook executives about aligning social media content decisions with “democratic ideals and enlightenment philosophy of free thought and free expression” is a strategy to safeguard the interests of corporate America and the global agenda of US imperialism in every corner of the globe.
The creation of an Oversight Board for Facebook—like so many local
police department oversight committees that have supervised a steady
increase in police violence and murder of working class and poor people
across the US—is so much window dressing behind which the censorship of social media content will be intensified.”…
………………………….
Among comments to above: Censorship didn’t seem so bad when it only meant silencing the right:
………………………
“Ivanus Gracchus-2 days ago
It’s quite appalling how many within the left (myself once included) cheer on megacorps dictating what we can or can’t say that doesn’t involve actual incitement of criminal activities, just for the comfort of false security when some right wing shitlords get booted
off a major social media platform. Remember when corporate monopolies
openly celebrate something, chances are it’s not the most progressive
let alone revolutionary thing in the world.”
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