Why has Facebook removed this photo titled ‘Victory’?

The featured image titled “Victory” is of a soldier in Raqqa, Syria holding the Polish flag billowing in the wind in his left hand, while holding a burning ISIS flag in his right hand.

This photo was removed from Facebook for violating its “community standards.”

It was one of several photos posted on Facebook by Wrath of Euphrates after the battle to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa, the last strong hold of ISIS. This was a victory for President Trump, the U.S. military and coalition forces. The battle was the demise of ISIS in Syria.

According to Wikipedia:

The 2017 Battle of Raqqa was the fifth and final phase of the Raqqa campaign (2016–2017) launched by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against the de facto Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) capital in the city of Raqqa. The battle began on 6 June 2017, and was supported by airstrikes and ground troops from the US-led coalition. The operation was named the “Great Battle” by the SDF. The battle concluded on 17 October 2017 with the SDF fully capturing the city of Raqqa. It ran concurrently with the Battle of Mosul, which started six months earlier, as part of an effort by the CJTF–OIR and its allies to strip ISIL of its regional centers of power and to dismantle it as an organization controlling territory.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has come under increasing criticism for his company’s “censorship” of certain groups and causes.

FYI published on Feb 23, 2017 a video of a discussion between Zuckerberg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Now in October 2017 social media sites are reporting that Facebook is “censoring” those who oppose the Muslim migration to Europe and targeting the nation of Poland.

The International Business Times’s Jason Murdock in a November 6th, 2016 article titled “Poland’s far-right groups protest Facebook ‘censorship’ after social accounts removed” reported:

A number of far-right groups in Poland have carried out a protest outside Facebook’s Warsaw office after the social networking giant blocked their profiles ahead of the nationalist marches scheduled for the country’s Independence Day on 11 November.

Roughly 120 people gathered in Poland’s capital city on Saturday 5 November, publicly accusing Facebook of censoring free speech. Groups at the rally included the National Radical Camp and All-Polish Youth, reported the Associated Press (AP).

The groups in attendance called on Facebook to respect freedom of expression and to abide by the Polish legal system.

According to AP, Krzysztof Bosak of the National Movement said during the rally: “What Facebook does is not in line with our constitutional rights.”

On the social network, a group that claims to “monitor for racist and xenophobic behaviour” published a statement that indicated it was behind the reporting of the far-right profiles – all of which have since been restored.

The social network group that led to Facebook censoring these Polish populist groups is the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior. On February 5th, 2017, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported:

Police raided the offices of the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior in Warsaw as part of a fraud investigation.

The search Friday came at the request of the Bialystok prosecutor’s office as part of its probe into fraud, counterfeiting of documents and other offenses, Lukasz Janyst, a spokesman for prosecutors in Bialystok, told reporters.

The anti-racism center said on Facebook that it operates legally and accused Poland of “turning into a police state.”

Janyst said the investigation involved the theater opened by the center.

[ … ]

“The Prosecutor’s Office in Bialystok is leading an investigation into the falsification of dozens of documents, making a series of scams and attempted scams that took place in connection with the activities of the Association of Trzyrzecze Theatre based in Warsaw,” and previously based in Bialystok, Janyst said in a statement.

There appear to be various groups that target conservative, populist, anti-immigration and pro-national sovereignty groups and individuals and report them to social media sites like Facebook. Facebook appears to take groups like the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior at their word, at least initially.

Nation states like Poland are in Facebook’s crosshairs.

It this wrong? The answer is yes.

Can Facebook do this? The answer is yes.

Should Facebook do this? The answer is no.

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EDITORS NOTE: This e-Magazine has been repeatedly blocked by Facebook from adding links to our columns to other Facebook pages. The reason given for this blocking is that our re-posting on other Facebook sites, that have befriended us, violates Facebook’s community standards. We have asked repeatedly what community standard(s) we have violated. Facebook has yet to give us an explanation.

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