Evening all,
It was all of six days ago that I was praising Facebook for their awareness in terms of their social responsibility by releasing tools to assist those thinking of suicide or self harm internationally. Well, six days later it seems I have a bone to pick with Mr Zuckerburg, to those who have not seen what's been happening, Facebook seems to be deleting Facebook groups dedicated to Atheism in Northern Africa and the middle east.
Now to clarify, Facebook aren't simply going around deleting these pages on a whim, the pages have had complaints laid against them by various users in the region. The basis for their complaint? Apparently the pages violate so-called "community standards". The Atheist Alliance - Middle East and North Africa (AA-MENA) have been rallying atheist worldwide to bring attention to the violence and censorship that atheists are subjected to in Muslim communities under the hashtag #FacebookVSFreeSpeech.
Obviously this is not something that Facebook is at fault for, current policy in the company says that community standards are violated when enough of a particular demographic lays the complaint against a page or person, so all that needs to happen is that Facebook needs to change it's policy and stop strangling free speech in Africa.
In local news, two reporters have laid charges against members of the SAPS for assault and intimidation following an incident earlier today where the police tried to stop the reporters from filming them using rubber bullets to disperse crowds of protestors in Pretoria. Having lived in London for five years, I remember the furor when members of the London police tried to stop people filming them and I happen to agreed, if the police are doing as they should, why would the be afraid of public scrutiny?
Last but by no means least is the tale of a very courageous woman named Nadia Murad. Nadia is a 23 year old Yazidi woman who was taken as a slave by members of ISIS when they took control of parts of northern Iraq in 2015. She was beaten and raped but in a supreme display of human courage and tenacity managed to escape and has had a few words for the rest of us. "ISIS will not give up their weapons unless we force them to".
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm by no stretch of the imagination a pacifist, my personal opinion is that if ISIS wants a war, the world as a whole should set everything else to one side and give them one. Every nation should band together to wipe this stain from the face of the earth. To those who point to freedom of speech, please remember that ISIS is not a big fan of talking, they are and always have been all about action against anything that they feel is anti-islamic and the free people of the world need to respond in kind. We will not be terrorized, we will not be cowed, we will fight you and we will win.
Anyway, that's my rant for the night over, tonights clip comes from Jimmy Carr regarding the most offensive joke in the world:
As always, I don't own any of the content, please do check out Jimmy's website here though a word of warning, the man has a very dark sense of humour.
Please remember to comment and subscribe and as usual, please like the Facebook page, there is a button at the top of the page that links to it.
Ta,
G
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Facebook FTW!
Evening all,
The first thing I want to chat about is Facebook's new Suicide prevention tool. The idea is a pretty cool one, the idea being that if you see a post from a friend or family member that you feel indicates that they may be thinking about suicide or self-harm, you can flag the post. The post then gets analyzed by a dedicated team within Facebook, (one assumes properly trained) who then assess the risk level and intervene accordingly. It has been trialed in the US since 2015 and has been fairly successful. This is a prime example of a company that takes it' social responsibility to it's clients very seriously.
Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal has said that the European Space Agency should devote it's budget to robotic space missions rather than sending astronauts into space. His thinking being that all of the tasks performed by humans can now be performed by machines, for longer and cheaper. Whilst I can see his point it doesn't address something huge. Surely the end game to space exploration has to be colonization of other planets. We know for a fact that the human population growth is unsustainable, with nothing in sight to indicate that the growth will change, we need to be looking towards sustainable solutions like colonizing other planets if we hope to survive much longer as a species.
In more positive news, following the large scale arrest of at least 3000 people suspected of being involved in recent attacks by islamic radicals in Bangladesh, one of them has been charged with the murder of Faisal Arefin Dipon because the publishing house that he headed had published books by atheist author Avijit Roy. A victory, not only in that it seems that the perpetrator will be brought to justice, but also because it seems as if police in Bangladesh are taking the matters very seriously. Let's just hope that this can bring some peace to Faisal's family.
Tonight's video comes courtesy of Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who made a music video in space. It may seem small but to me it embodies all that is good and right with this world, as well as our hope for the future.
Please remember that I don't own the content, Chris Hadfield has also done a lot in terms of Education and encouraging students to go into the sciences, please visit his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ColChrisHadfield/featured.
Well, that's it for tonight, please remember to comment, subscribe and like the Facebook page.
Ta,
G
The first thing I want to chat about is Facebook's new Suicide prevention tool. The idea is a pretty cool one, the idea being that if you see a post from a friend or family member that you feel indicates that they may be thinking about suicide or self-harm, you can flag the post. The post then gets analyzed by a dedicated team within Facebook, (one assumes properly trained) who then assess the risk level and intervene accordingly. It has been trialed in the US since 2015 and has been fairly successful. This is a prime example of a company that takes it' social responsibility to it's clients very seriously.
Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal has said that the European Space Agency should devote it's budget to robotic space missions rather than sending astronauts into space. His thinking being that all of the tasks performed by humans can now be performed by machines, for longer and cheaper. Whilst I can see his point it doesn't address something huge. Surely the end game to space exploration has to be colonization of other planets. We know for a fact that the human population growth is unsustainable, with nothing in sight to indicate that the growth will change, we need to be looking towards sustainable solutions like colonizing other planets if we hope to survive much longer as a species.
In more positive news, following the large scale arrest of at least 3000 people suspected of being involved in recent attacks by islamic radicals in Bangladesh, one of them has been charged with the murder of Faisal Arefin Dipon because the publishing house that he headed had published books by atheist author Avijit Roy. A victory, not only in that it seems that the perpetrator will be brought to justice, but also because it seems as if police in Bangladesh are taking the matters very seriously. Let's just hope that this can bring some peace to Faisal's family.
Tonight's video comes courtesy of Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who made a music video in space. It may seem small but to me it embodies all that is good and right with this world, as well as our hope for the future.
Please remember that I don't own the content, Chris Hadfield has also done a lot in terms of Education and encouraging students to go into the sciences, please visit his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ColChrisHadfield/featured.
Well, that's it for tonight, please remember to comment, subscribe and like the Facebook page.
Ta,
G
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