Stop Political Blocking on Facebook!
In December 2014, newspapers across the world reported Facebook blocking the page of a Russian opposition rally. Back then, Facebook quickly admitted to the mistake and corrected it.
Unfortunately, this was neither the only nor the last mistake. For a long time we have seen the same scenario play over and over again. An army of shills on state payroll have been daily submitting thousands of policy violation reports, targeting popular bloggers who dare to criticize the Russian government. Facebook indiscriminately reacts to these reports by blocking the accounts of prominent Ukrainian public figures and Russian dissenters. Lately, the bans have become so frequent that we can now claim that Facebook has become an efficient tool of the Kremlin.
Many users have complained to the Facebook administration, explaining that accounts are being blocked without due investigation and for insufficient reasons. Regrettably, the administration hasn’t taken the issue seriously enough. In his recent response to Ukrainians’ complaints, Mr. Zuckerberg admitted “one mistake”, promising to try not to make it again.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. The problem is spreading. Only a week after Mr. Zuckerberg’s response, Facebook once again banned the account of the popular Russian blogger Rustem Adagamov — for posting the photographs of a museum display in Norway that featured Christmas tree decorations from Nazi Germany. The Ukrainian contemporary artist and public figure Alexander Roytburd has been blocked for a harmless joke about ancient Jews. The Ukrainian journalist Andrei Kapustin has been blocked for “nude” photographs that in fact pictured fully clothed mannequins. Other popular users blocked this week include Boryslav Beryoza, a Ukrainian political activist; Anton Krasovsky, a Russian journalist and gay rights activist; Slava Rabinovich, a Russian financial analyst and blogger; Leonid Krasnopolsky, a Ukrainian activist; Alexey Lebedinsky, a popular Russian singer and political emigrant. The list of prominent Russian and Ukrainian figures blocked in the weeks before that includes the Ukrainian journalists Vakhtang Kipiani and Yuri Butusov, the Russian activist Sergei Parkhomenko, the Ukrainian poet Andriy Bondar, the Russian blogger Anton Nossik and dozens, if not hundreds, of others — we apologize for those whose names we didn’t mention, the list would have been too long.
We don’t know why Facebook seems so eager to block people protesting against the Russian government policies. Perhaps its moderator team is not savvy enough, not large enough, or politically biased. The reasons could be different — we don’t have enough information to answer this question. But whatever the reason, the Russian government has learned to subvert the current moderation system and abuse it for its own political gains.
In the last several months, Facebook has regrettably become a tool used by those who want to throttle free speech. We call upon Facebook management and Mr. Zuckerberg personally to stop downplaying the scale of content moderation problems and take necessary measures to resolve them as soon as possible.
Also, considering the scale on which the system has been misused, we call for a complete unblocking of all Russian and Ukrainian user accounts which were blocked during the last several weeks. The blockings should be stopped until a new moderation system, designed to withstand paid troll attacks and prevent misuse to achieve political aims, is put in place.
Cyber-attacks against opposition that come from Russia and target mainly Russians and Ukrainians may seem like a small problem that only concerns a fraction of Facebook users. However, if this problem is not addressed today, tomorrow the same tactic might be used by governments and political movements across the world to silence their opponents. During the Arab Spring, Facebook became synonymous with the freedom of speech. It will be sad indeed if it turns into a symbol of its suppression.