Zuckerberg vows FB policy review over Trump’s posts
GLOBAL SOLIDARITY Black Lives Matter protests in Asia, Europe and Australia as secy of state accuses China of using US unrest to justify its own rights violations
nWASHINGTON/SYDNEY/TORONTO : Tens of thousands marched in Australia, Canada, the UK, Japan, Seoul and elsewhere in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement as Washington, DC geared up for what’s being anticipated as the largest ever protest in the US against racism in the wake of the custodial death of George Floyd.
Over 1,000 people marched in Sydney after winning a last-minute appeal against a Friday ruling declaring their rally unauthorised. In Brisbane, about 30,000 people gathered, forcing police to shut down some major streets.
In the South Korean capital Seoul, protesters gathered for a second straight day to denounce
Floyd’s death. Wearing masks and black shirts, dozens marched through a commercial district amid a police escort, carrying signs such as “Koreans for Black Lives Matter”.
In Tokyo, dozens of people gathered in a peaceful protest. In Paris, police banned a protest planned for Saturday, citing the risk of spreading Covid-19. In Britain, tens of thousands of people ignored official advice to avoid mass gatherings and came together to protest against the killing.
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unannounced appearance at an antiracial discrimination rally in the capital Ottawa, and then proceeded to take the knee for around nine minutes, along with protesters.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo accused China of using the unrest in the US to justify denying its own people basic human rights. “As with dictatorships throughout history, no lie is too obscene, so long as it serves the party’s lust for power,” he said, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “This laughable propaganda should not fool anyone.”
China has repeatedly criticised the US over the Floyd case.
The US is now witnessing a weekend of protests described as the broadest in its history, spreading even to smaller cities and small towns, including deeply conservative ones. District of Colombia, which had another night of curfew on Friday, has seen a surging number of protesters, undeterred by the heavy presence of law enforcement. They demonstrated in front of the White House, which has been turned into a fortress with tall fences and concrete barricades and walked peacefully to the Lincoln Memorial nearby.
The protests, now into their 12th day, have spread to more locations than the previous high of 650 places during the Women’s Marches of January 2017, just days after President Donald Trump took office, according to a research published in The Washington Post. The study by professors Lara Putnam, Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman noted t “the breadth of the protests is significant” and also because they took place without advance planning and in the middle of a pandemic that has kept many Americans home.
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Friday promised to review the social network’s policies that led to its decision to not moderate controversial messages posted by US President Donald Trump.
The announcement, which came in the form of a letter to employees, appeared aimed at quelling anger inside the company that was so severe it prompted some to quit.
The outrage was sparked when Zuckerberg said Facebook would not remove or flag Trump’s recent posts that appeared to encourage violence against those protesting police racism.
Zuckerberg’s message on Friday seemed to attempt to mollify that anger. “We’re going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amendments we should adopt,” Zuckerberg wrote.
This, he said, includes “excessive use of police or state force. Given the sensitive history in the US, this deserves special consideration”.
Social media platforms have faced calls to moderate the US president’s comments, most recently because of the unrest gripping the US in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
“The decision I made last week has left many of you angry, disappointed and hurt,” Zuckerberg said in the letter, which he posted on his Facebook page.
Timothy Aveni, a software engineer who resigned from the company, wrote on his Facebook page that the platform “will keep moving the goalposts every time Trump escalates, finding excuse after excuse not to act on increasingly dangerous rhetoric”.
Zuckerberg said he is exploring possible changes on how policy decisions are made at Facebook, along with more ways to advance racial justice and voter engagement.