interesting listening to nicky campbell in radio 5 this morning constantly referring to Putin and his circle as a mafia and evil gangsters and thugs. the beeb dont seem to take the same approach to other authoritarian regimes.
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
- Thread starter Wednesday at Stoke
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Hopefully they work out some kind of neutrality deal allowing both sides to save face and withdraw because as we saw in Chechnya if the Russian army can’t occupy something they will completely destroy it. Zelensky has to realize by now that pursuing NATO membership has been a disaster for the Ukraine and the west doesn’t care about them.
Putin is no wizard. In the end he's just a human being and if his economy doesn't produce the ressources necessary to wage war against Ukraine, then there's nothing he can do. The logistical and economical problems of Russia and it's military are very real. Alll his weaponry doesn't mean a thing if it's a) maintained badly, b) somewhere far away from the front line or c) nobody is there to control it. Russia's military is his muscle but it's useless if the blood supply is cut off.
Of course he could still use weapons of mass destruction like nukes or chemical warfare since through long range missiles. But that's an entirely different level of escalation and in order to do that, he'd have to be truly mad since it definitely means his demise and the downfall of Russia, too. And all the eperts currently are convinced that he is not mad but rather still rational - it's just that the information he's provided with is completely flawed due to the filter bubble he created for and the yes men he surrounded himself with. A system that shall prevent people from saying what's on their mind and telling the truth might be good to sustain your power but it's also a really bad basis to make decisions.
What I'd find very interesting to know: Is the Chinese intelligence and government system as flawed as this?
Seems like they are purging all of the Meta companies.
I don't believe we should judge the innocent party's actions based on the aggressor's paranoid and illegal response.
Apart from the arms, sanctions, EU accession, intelligence sharing...
It is a long way from certain but it has become a possibility, instead of certain defeat. This is huge shift, within two weeks.
We believe it because of what we are seeing every day. A clearly over-hyped and under-funded/supplied/trained/maintained/motivated Russian military that barely seem capable of winning a single head on battle with Ukrainian forces. The Russians have already pirimarily resorted to heavy bombardment and flattening ground. He can't take a country this way... Time is not on their side as the sanctions will bite deeper and deeper every day. Russia cannot replace any hi-tech equipment, they have a limited supply. Yes they have ungodly quantities of old hardware in soviet warehouses, but unless it has been well maintained all this time (very unlikely), it just won't work. Whereas Ukraine only grows stronger.
The main question marks are in the South, Mariupol is pretty much being sacrificed right now. They appear to be easily defending Mykolaiv however which means Odessa is also safe. One thing I am fairly certain of now is that Kyiv will never fall.
They are already doing the Chechnya/Aleppo thing, as we speak, the orders have been given. Its just slower because Ukraine actually has some air defense.
Lithuania’s president from Versailles’ summit.
The important bit is that they're not just banning it. They started the process of including them (Meta) in the list of extremists organisations which, in theory, can mean even something as insane as a prison sentence for posting/having an app on your phone... We'll know more when they'll pass the resolution though.
I thought the EU had decided against this though (specifically France and Germany). Is this spin?
Facebook announced yesterday that they would make an exception and allow people to use hate speech against Russians in general (not just Russian military/invasion). This is probably Russia's response, in part.
They decided against the “fast track” outside the normal process that Zelensky asked for. They all say we have to follow the rules, but we are positive to making it as fast as possible.
We will know more later today with the common declaration they’ll put forward. Bear in mind that this is an extraordinary “informal” meeting and no big decisions can be made. They will give the commission the mandate to prepare some big plans, that will be acted in the normal summit at the end of the month.
Facebook making sound decisions as usual I see.
Unless i've missed something, it's not what i've read. Even in their internal moderation email they mentionned :
"We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it's clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion, self-defense, etc.)," it said in the email.
"We are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, 'Russian soldiers' is being used as a proxy for the Russian military. The Hate Speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians," the email stated.
It's dubious but you could argue they made a cultural distinction for the sake of Eastern European states that will be filled with anti-Russian sentiment and will spread it online.
It is a shame how that is not how it is being reported by Reuters etc. Thanks for the clarification though.
It's the "targeting Russians" part that is ambiguous and not at all clear ("Russians are scum, defend Ukraine" would be OK in that context because "Russians" can be taken as a proxy for "Russian soldiers"). Apply that logic to Israel and you see how dubious it is (outright racist).
Is this Reuters article not the reality then:
"As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as 'death to the Russian invaders.' We still won't allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
" "We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the Hate Speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, EXCEPT prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it's clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (e.g., content mentions the invasion, self-defense, etc.)," it said in the email.
What is this stuff about Putin inviting middle Eastern fighters a free passage to come fight in Europe?
Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
It is a stupid policy from Facebook because if I were Putin in the Kremlin I would bombard Facebook with bots calling for violence against Russia and use the fake calls for violence to show the Russian people this war is a matter of life and death for the country.
Turkey was given the candidate status a long time ago but they refused to solve the issues (minorities rights, full respect for the judicial system and other cornerstones of the EU:s charter) when they could, and lately had been going the other way..
To be honest I don’t think they will be accepted in the foreseeable future even if they solved these issues. Trump and Banon have managed to create a big alliance of the far right in Europe that sees “Muslims” as the existential enemy of the “Whites” and Turkey is definitely seen as a “big Muslim country”, even more so with the Erdogan regime.
Yeah, saw your reply to Francis. Didn't really think about the implications.
Ukraine have brought 450~ Syrian rebels to fight for them. Each side is now using M.E. mercenaries which makes no sense when you consider what happened in Afghanistan in the 80s.
It's a short-sighted policy. Setting precedents that will outlive this specific conflict and which are at odds with other ongoing conflicts.
India have just accidentally fired a missile at Pakistan.
It makes sense from Facebook's perspective. They probably should've just went with it, though, instead of communicating it like this.
Maybe but if the laws are required in Peacetime then they are also required in Wartime. I really don't see the upside to this decision, apart from saving FB the hassle of increasing their team to deal with all of the reported posts.
Probably Russian made
. Fortunately no casualty.oops!
It is only a precedent if you do not immediately forget about it as a company and deny it ever happened once this conflict is over.
Talk about infantilizing Ukrainians. This is great power nonsense. What is happening here is one nation is waging a war of conquest on another nation. There are obviously long-term reasons and short-term reasons and all the other things history teachers like to talk about (I know because I am one), but at the end of the day it amounts to Russia attacking Ukraine. The US is most certainly a warmongering, imperialist state, but this isn't their fight. This is Ukraine's fight. And so, please stop depriving Ukraine of agency.
True.
Don't think anyone is denying any of the above (well, except for the part about it not being the US's fight/EU's fight/NATO's fight as all three see it as such and so do the Ukrainians and Russians).
So the USA have been involved for so many years in assisting Ukraine, in whatever capacity, but now suddenly their hands are clean? This is definitely Ukraines fight, but father USA is definitely going to have a say and cannot be dismissed regardless of however compassionate anybody feels for Ukraine. Facts are facts, the USA are tied into this.
I didn't say their hands were clean, in a greater sense, but when it comes to Russia deciding to invade Ukraine, then no that's not the fault of the US. That is solely the fault of Russia.
I think Reuters report was based on a leaked email.