Are Social networks censoring Russia’s war crimes ?

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Are tech companies removing evidence of war crimes?

News of the crimes in Ukraine Bucha has surfaced days after the events.

TikTok was already hugely popular around the world before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine – but the war has been a coming-of-age moment for the platform.

Videos using various Ukrainian hashtags have had billions of views.

But Ukrainians uploading videos from the ground could be generating more than “likes”.

They may well be uploading a piece in a jigsaw of evidence that will one day be used to prosecute war crimes.

But they may also be breaking TikTok’s and other social-media companies’ strict rules on graphic content.

“TikTok is a platform that celebrates creativity but not shock-value or violence,” TikTok’s rules say.

“We do not allow content that is gratuitously shocking, graphic, sadistic or gruesome.”..

Researchers are unclear how much Ukrainian user-generated content Tiktok, and other social-media companies such as Meta, Twitter and YouTube are taking down.

“TikTok is not as transparent as some of the other companies – and none of them are very transparent,” Witness programme director Sam Gregory says.

“You don’t know what was not visible and taken down because it was graphic, but potentially evidence.

“There’s a huge issue here.”

BBC News asked TikTok, Google, Meta and Twitter about their policies in this area.

TikTok forwarded its policies on protecting its users during the Ukraine war but failed to address any of the questions asked.

“We don’t have more to share beyond this information right now,” a representative said.

And neither Twitter nor Google responded.

Only Meta gave a tailored response.

“We will only remove this type of content when it glorifies the violence or celebrates the suffering of others or when the content is extremely graphic or violent – for example, video footage of dismemberment,” a representative said.

“In relation specifically to the war in Ukraine, we are exploring ways to preserve this type and other types of content when we remove it.”..

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Alex5723: this all is very serious, thanks!

Quote from www[.]bbc.com/news/technology-60911099

“Social-media companies such as Facebook and Twitter automatically strip content of a picture or video’s metadata – a kind of digital ID, revealing where and when the content was captured and crucial for investigators.
“One benefit we’ve found is that the metadata is not stripped on Telegram,” “

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They may remove it, if doing otherwise violates their rules of what they are supposed to show and what they are not, but then should keep it in a safe place and available to official investigators, because it is possible evidence of serious crimes. Otherwise they might face legal action and be found responsible for destroying such evidence, for example if those who uploaded the information, photos, etc. of war atrocities later come up with the originals of what has been removed, blaming those companies for suppressing it.

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quote from the NYPost:

“Contrast the “moderation policies” of Twitter and Facebook. These rules can’t be appealed at the ballot box. The tech giants are cloaked from public view and resistant to political scrutiny. Because they aren’t directly controlled by the American people, they are open to indirect control by foreign regimes. On this score, the new censorship is worse than the old.”

https://nypost.com/2020/10/20/big-techs-speech-squelching-more-dangerous-than-government-censorship/

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/new-filter-mandate-bill-unmitigated-disaster

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/04/latest-threat-independent-online-creators-filter-mandate-bill

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1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723