There are some things you’re just not allowed to do on Facebook, no matter what your intentions. Posting images of certain German leaders from the 1930s, for instance, will immediately bring down the Hammer of the Bots. Even if your intention was purely editorial.
Using certain words is strictly verboten, too. We’ve learned the hard way to tailor our headlines and ledes, so as to be strictly politically correct. (Who said that political correctness chills free speech?)
Praising violent extremists is right out, too. Especially neo-Nazis.
Actually, scratch that one.
Because it turns out that there are some neo-Nazis you’re allowed to praise on Facebook. Just so long as they’re the “right” neo-Nazis.
Facebook will temporarily allow its billions of users to praise the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit previously banned from being freely discussed under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, The Intercept has learned.
You probably don’t know who the Azov Battalion are — because the media-political class certainly don’t want you to know. After all, it might spoil their narrative of brave, freedom-loving, democratic Ukraine, it they had to admit that there are literal Nazis goose-stepping in its ranks.
The Azov Battalion, which functions as an armed wing of the broader Ukrainian white nationalist Azov movement, began as a volunteer anti-Russia militia before formally joining the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014; the regiment is known for its hardcore right-wing ultranationalism and the neo-Nazi ideology pervasive among its members.
Though it has in recent years downplayed its neo-Nazi sympathies, the group’s affinities are not subtle: Azov soldiers march and train wearing uniforms bearing icons of the Third Reich; its leadership has reportedly courted American alt-right and neo-Nazi elements; and in 2010, the battalion’s first commander and a former Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andriy Biletsky, stated that Ukraine’s national purpose was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].”
Who wants to “stand with” assholes like that?
Well, Facebook apparently.
According to internal policy materials reviewed by The Intercept, Facebook will “allow praise of the Azov Battalion when explicitly and exclusively praising their role in defending Ukraine OR their role as part of the Ukraine’s National Guard.” Internally published examples of speech that Facebook now deems acceptable include “Azov movement volunteers are real heroes, they are a much needed support to our national guard”; “We are under attack. Azov has been courageously defending our town for the last 6 hours”; and “I think Azov is playing a patriotic role during this crisis.”
Remember, this is a group that Facebook has lumped in with the KKK and ISIS. And not without reason.
A 2016 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found that Azov soldiers had raped and tortured civilians during Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
The Azov Battalion has also allegedly trained thousands of neo-Nazi foreign fighters. Its alleged alumni include Christchurch terrorist, Brenton Tarrant. It’s also alleged that, toward the end of the Obama administration, the CIA began funding and training the Battalion, as part of a program of fostering extremist groups opposed to Russia.
It was the very mention of the Azov Battalion and its appalling record of brutality that triggered Stan Grant and the Q+A panel so badly, last week. The same people who are damning Putin for civilian deaths are happy to turn a blind eye when it’s their “side” doing the killing.
In fact, what Facebook has done is show, once and for all, just how arbitrary and politically biased its enforcement of “community guidelines” really is.
Dia Kayyali, a researcher specializing in the real-world effects of content moderation at the nonprofit Mnemonic […said] “It’s typical Facebook” […]
Last summer, for instance, Motherboard reported that Facebook similarly carved out an exception to its censorship policies in Iran, temporarily allowing users to post “Death to Khamenei” for a two-week period. “I do think it is a direct response to U.S. foreign policy,” Kayyali said of the Azov exemption. “That has always been how the … list works.”
The Intercept
We all knew already that Facebook is the censorship wing of the Globalist establishment. They’re just not even bothering to pretend otherwise, now.
