We’ve Come Together from Different Corners of the World To Say Enough is Enough
We’ve Come Together from Different Corners of the World To Say Enough is Enough People who have been harmed by “fake news” appealed to executives at Facebook and Twitter, urging them to do more to stop the spread of disinformation during what they said were emotional, face-to-face meetings this week. Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro said […]
We’ve Come Together from Different Corners of the World To Say Enough is Enough
People who have been harmed by “fake news” appealed to executives at Facebook and Twitter, urging them to do more to stop the spread of disinformation during what they said were emotional, face-to-face meetings this week.
Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro said she has been harassed and threatened ever since she visited St. Petersburg in 2015 to investigate the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm whose members were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in February on charges of using social media to interfere with U.S. elections.
“My life has been destroyed after I started to investigate Russian information warfare,” Aro said during a news conference in San Francisco on Thursday. “I have been forced to move abroad.”
She said the harassment, which continues despite some of the perpetrators being sent to prison, is also on YouTube. Aro and the rest of the group are scheduled to meet with Google and YouTube on Thursday.
“It’s madness,” she said, her voice cracking as she appeared to hold back tears.
One member of the group is a Rohingya human rights activist from Myanmar who briefs governments around the world on human rights violations committed against Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar’s military, accused of ethnic cleansing, has driven nearly 1 million of the minority Rohingya people out of that country since 2017, according to Human Rights Watch.
“We would like to see urgency from social media companies,” said Tun Khin, who fled Myanmar but has met with people who have lost their families and homes there. “This is genocide we are talking about. We need action.” His voice got louder, and he appeared to get agitated as he talked about Myanmar soldiers posting racist content on Facebook, and how it has taken the company years to pay attention.
Avaaz, an advocacy group that’s working to fight disinformation around the world, facilitated the meetings with the tech companies. Fadi Quran, campaign director for Avaaz, said Thursday that the group agreed to honor the tech companies’ requests that any specific action being considered be kept confidential for now, but that “We’re going to give them a three-month deadline to implement steps promised at the meetings.”
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