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Democrats Outraged a Terrorist Can’t Vote

April 24, 2019

But if that is really true, why are they working so hard to sabotage their own chances of replacing him? Why are Democrats suddenly saying things that would guarantee Trump’s re-election as president?

In just the past few months, Democrats have said things that are so out of the mainstream that it is very hard to imagine voters will back them. On Monday night on CNN, Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner, endorsed allowing felons who are currently behind bars to vote.

“If somebody commits a serious crime — sexual assault, murder — they are going to be punished. They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. That is what happens when you commit a serious crime,” he said. “But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people.”

“Terrible people.” So how terrible is Sanders talking about? Cannibals? Convicted spies? How about terrorists who kill children? Oh, yes, said Bernie Sanders, they should get to vote, too. Unlike the First or Second amendments, that is in the Constitution.

Sen. Kamala Harris seemed to initially agree with that in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, saying, “I think we should have that conversation” about allowing prisoners to vote.

Okay, let’s have a conversation. Best to do it right now, actually, because whenever the left tells you they want a conversation about something, you can be certain that any dissent on that subject will be banned a year from now. In 2020, questioning whether imprisoned terrorists should vote could earn you a trip to the HR department and a lifetime ban from PayPal and Twitter.

So while we still can, consider the story of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev first came to the United States, you’ll remember, on a tourist visa with the rest of his family from Kyrgyzstan. All of them promptly claimed asylum here, and they were given it. Over time, the Tsarnaevs collected more than $100,000 in taxpayer-financed government benefits.

In 2012, Tsarnaev received U.S. citizenship. And less than a year later, he murdered three people and maimed hundreds with a pressure cooker bomb at the Boston Marathon. Now, he is on death row.

So Democrats hear that story, and they feel outraged. It’s not that immigrants repaid our generosity with a terror attack — that might bother you, but it doesn’t bother them. The injustice they are enraged by is that a convicted terrorist might not be allowed to help pick our next president. That is outrageous, in their view.

It’s just the kind of institutionalized bigotry that Kyrgyzstani refugees like the Tsarnaevs have faced historically in this country. Maybe they need reparations, too. They definitely need a voice.

So do the convicts of West Feliciana Parish, La.. Of the 15,000 people who live in that parish, fully one-third of them are inmates at the maximum-security Angola State Prison Farm. They are the single largest bloc of voters in the area.

According to Bernie Sanders, this is bad because they are being denied democracy. That is racist and once Bernie Sanders is president, they will be able to elect the city council and the sheriff, maybe the warden, too. That is the kind of “progress” we are talking about here.

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Romanian lawmakers approve bill that could close graft cases

April 24, 2019

FILE PHOTO: Romanian Prime Minister Dancila attends a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg
FILE PHOTO: Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila attends a debate on the priorities of the Romanian presidency of the E.U. for the next six months, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo

April 24, 2019

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Romania’s lower house of parliament approved changes to the criminal codes on Wednesday that could shut down several ongoing high-level graft cases, but opposition politicians plan to challenge the bills at the Constitutional Court.

The bills are the latest in a series of legal and personnel changes made by the ruling Social Democrats since they came to power in 2017 that are seen as threats to judicial independence and have raised concerns in the European Union, the U.S. State Department and among thousands of Romanian magistrates.

One of the changes approved on Wednesday shortens the statute of limitations covering some offences, a move that would automatically shut down a number of ongoing cases. Other amendments include lower sentences for some offences and decriminalizing negligence in the workplace.

“Romania today becomes a state in which criminals are basically in a legal haven, encouraged … by changes that overall ease and simplify the impact of the law on criminals,” opposition Save Romania Union leader Dan Barna told reporters.

Barna’s party and the main opposition Liberals both said they would challenge the changes at the Constitutional Court.

Social Democrat lawmakers initially overhauled Romania’s criminal codes last year. The European Commission said the proposed changes were a reversal of a decade of democratic and market reforms in the former communist country.

The Constitutional Court struck down many of the changes following challenges by opposition lawmakers. On Wednesday, the ruling coalition approved the codes after removing the articles already struck down by the Court.

Prosecutors have secured a spate of convictions in recent years against lawmakers, ministers and mayors, including Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea. Their investigations have exposed conflicts of interest, abuse of power, fraud and awarding of state contracts in exchange for bribes.

Dragnea, who has a suspended jail term in a vote-rigging case and an ongoing appeal against a second conviction for inciting others to commit abuse of office, could be among the politicians to benefit from the changes.

The Social Democrats have said their legal initiatives are aimed at aligning legislation with EU norms and address abuses allegedly committed by magistrates.

Transparency International ranks Romania, which currently holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, among the bloc’s most corrupt states.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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Bernie Sanders Plan Would Allow 183K Murderers, 164K Rapists to Vote from Prison

April 24, 2019

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) recent endorsement of giving voting rights to all American citizens who are currently in prison for local, state, and federal crimes would allow some 183,000 convicted murderers and 164,000 convicted rapists to vote from their jail cells.

In a CNN town hall this week, Sanders endorsed allowing all convicted U.S. citizens — regardless of their crime — to vote from prison.

“So, I believe people who commit crimes, they pay the price and they get out of jail, they certainly should have the right to vote,” Sanders said. “But, I believe even if they are in jail, they’re paying the price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.”

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), also running for the Democrat nomination for president, hinted that she would be open to such a plan, saying “I think we should have that conversation” when asked about allowing convicted criminals to vote from their cells.

The latest data compiled by the Prison Policy Initiative concludes that there are more than 1.6 million convicted criminals in local, state, and federal prisons across the country. This includes about 183,000 convicted murderers and 164,000 convicted rapists.

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Owen Shroyer presents video footage from Chris Wallace’s Fox program where the award Winning Journalist Bob Woodward calls for an investigation into the FBI & CIA for using phony / manufactured evidence.

Source: InfoWars

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Four Hong Kong ‘Occupy’ leaders jailed for 2014 democracy protests

April 24, 2019

Pro-democracy activists arrive at the court for sentencing on their involvement in the Occupy Central, in Hong Kong
(L-R) Pro-democracy activists Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai and Chu Yiu-ming arrive at the court for sentencing on their involvement in the Occupy Central, also known as “Umbrella Movement”, in Hong Kong, China April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

April 24, 2019

By James Pomfret and Jessie Pang

HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Hong Kong court jailed four leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy “Occupy” movement on Wednesday amid heightened concerns over the decline of freedoms in the China-ruled city nearly five years after activists took to the streets in mass protests.

The sentencing followed a near month-long trial that was closely watched as China’s Communist Party leaders have put Hong Kong’s autonomy under increasing strain, stoking concern among foreign governments, rights groups and business people.

Law professor Benny Tai, 54, and retired sociologist Chan Kin-man, 60, were each jailed for 16 months for conspiracy to commit public nuisance tied to the protests that paralyzed parts of the Asia financial center for 79 days in late 2014 and became known as the Umbrella Movement.

All three remained calm during the sentencing.

“Whatever will be the decision of the court I will just face it peacefully,” Tai told supporters ahead of his sentencing. 

Retired pastor Chu Yiu-ming, 75, received a suspended sentence, as the judge took into account his age and public service.   

Several hundred supporters, many wearing yellow bands and holding bright yellow umbrellas, had gathered outside the West Kowloon Law Courts. Once the sentences were announced, some sobbed, while others chanted: “I wasn’t incited by the Occupy leaders.”

The public nuisance trial is considered the most significant legal maneuver by authorities to punish those involved in the 2014 Occupy demonstrations, which pushed for genuine, full democracy in Hong Kong.

The demonstrations were the largest and most protracted mass movement in recent decades in the global financial hub, and one of the boldest populist challenges to China’s leaders since the pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Organizers estimated that a million people had participated in the protests over nearly three months.

Since the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997, critics say Beijing has reneged on its commitment to maintain Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and freedoms under a co-called “one country, two systems” arrangement.

EXTRADITION LAWS

Authorities have clamped down on opposition forces, disqualifying democratic lawmakers from the legislature, jailing activists and banning a pro-independence political party.

Prior to the sentencing, rival political groups outside the court had taunted each other, with pro-democracy activists calling for Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam to step down, while Beijing loyalists chanting: “Go away. Go occupy London.”

Ahead of the court’s ruling, the Occupy leaders urged supporters to take to the streets on Sunday to protest against proposed extradition laws that would allow people to be sent from Hong Kong to mainland China for trial.

Critics fear the laws, which are expected to be passed later this year, could further erode the city’s legal protections.

Tai, Chan and Chu were each found guilty of at least one public nuisance charge earlier this month over their roles in planning and mobilizing supporters during the protest.

Each charge carried a possible jail term of 7 years.

Six other defendants – pro-democracy legislators Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun, two former student leaders Eason Chung and Tommy Cheung, activist Raphael Wong, and veteran democrat Lee Wing-tat – were each found guilty of at least one public nuisance charge earlier this month.

Shiu was also jailed on a public nuisance charge, but Chung, Cheung and Lee avoided jail time and walked free from the dock, where they were embraced by supporters, some of whom shouted. “I want universal suffrage”.

Chan’s sentence was adjourned until June 10 due to a health condition.

All nine had pleaded not guilty and argued the “umbrella” movement was intended as peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience, serving no motive other than to benefit society and make positive democratic progress.

A court found them guilty of public nuisance charges on April 9, with the judge ruling that, while civil disobedience is allowed in Hong Kong, it couldn’t excuse an illegal act.

(Reporting by James Pomfret and Jessie Pang; Editing by Paul Tait & Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: OANN

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Brazil court trims Lula sentence, opening door to partial detention

April 23, 2019

FILE PHOTO: A supporters of Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a sign reading
FILE PHOTO: A supporter of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a sign reading “Free Lula” outside the Brazil’s Superior Court Justice build during a session to try Lula’s appeal in the court in Brasilia, Brazil April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Adriano Machado/File Photo

April 23, 2019

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s jailed former leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, could gain partial freedom within five months following a court decision on Tuesday to reduce his sentence in one of two corruption convictions.

The popular politician began serving a 12-year prison sentence a year ago on a corruption and money-laundering conviction for accepting a luxury beachside apartment as a bribe from an engineering company in the “Carwash” graft scandal.

The Superior Court of Justice, the country’s second-highest court, reduced Lula’s sentence to eight years and 10 months, arguing that it was increased excessively by an appeals court last year.

With his time already served, Lula, who denies any wrongdoing, could gain the right by September to finish his term with his days free from jail, although he would still have to spend his nights in a prison cell.

That partial release would depend on an appeals court decision on his second conviction for corruption and money laundering for receiving bribes by two construction and engineering firms by way of funding improvements in a country house he and his family used.

If the appeals court upholds that conviction and a second 12-year, 11-month sentence without considering Tuesday’s decision, the 73-year-old Lula would find his hopes for a partial release dashed.

Brazil’s first working-class president has been indicted in six other corruption cases.

Lula governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010, introducing social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians from poverty at a time when Latin America’s largest economy was enjoying expansion driven by a global commodities boom.

He left office with record popularity, but his reputation and that of his Workers Party were damaged by corruption scandals and the impeachment of his handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff.

Popular revulsion over those scandals helped fuel support for President Jair Bolsonaro’s election campaign last year.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Life Under Communism: Cuban Couple Gets 2 Years in Jail For Homeschooling

April 23, 2019

Evangelical Pastor Ramón Rigal and his wife Ayda Expósito were both sentenced to prison after engaging in and promoting homeschooling in the communist country of Cuba.

Breitbart reports:

“Homeschooling is illegal in Cuba, as it is considered a “capitalist” practice and prevents the state from indoctrinating children in Marxist atheism in public schools. Rigal has been homeschooling his children for years, forcing him into consistent confrontations with the Castro regime, and began helping other Christian families homeschool following his arrest in 2017.”

Rigal and Expósito, who are from Guatemala, were detained last week over their refusal to send their children to government-run schools.

In two previous cases against the couple, journalist Yoe Suarez reported, “the prosecutor indicated that education at home is ‘not permitted in Cuba because it has a capitalist foundation’ and that only [the government] teachers are prepared ‘to instill socialist values’.”

On Monday, the judge presiding over their cases found them guilty of “illicit assembly and incitement to delinquency” for helping other families interested in homeschooling.

Cuban state security wouldn’t let friends or family attend the sentencing and they got violent with attorney and journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces.

“They punched me in the mouth, my shirt is bloody, and I am detained here now, I don’t know why,” Quiñones told a Cuban reporter.

Before the couple was arrested, they were planning on leaving the country for a nation that respects their right to freely educate their children.

Watch Rigal explain his situation in the video below that was released days before his arrest.

The case took place amid rising tension in Cuba after the country adopted a new constitution earlier this year that was met with opposition from religious leaders who say it weakens protections for freedom of religion.

Source: InfoWars

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RNC Rips Dems in Right to Vote Controversy

April 23, 2019

The Republican National Committee blasted Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. for being open to Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., suggestion that everyone should have the right to vote – even the Boston Marathon bomber.

At a CNN Town Hall, Sanders, who is running for president, argued democracy demands that right for every American.

Asked if he believed that should include sex offenders, the Boston Marathon bomber, terrorists and murderers, Sanders replied, “Yes, even for terrible people…”

A short time later, Harris, who also is  making a White House run, was asked at her CNN town hall session, if she agreed with Sanders.

“I think we should have that conversation,” she said. CNN posted a video of her remarks on its Twitter account.

But in an email blast, the RNC took issue with the Democrats.

“2020 Democrats continue to show that there is no radical policy supported by Bernie Sanders that they will not endorse,” said Steve Guest of the RNC. “Minutes after Bernie said that he would let terrorists vote from jail, Kamala Harris said “we should have that conversation” about allowing the Boston Marathon bomber to vote from prison. Instead of endorsing Bernie’s extreme policies, Democrats should be condemning them.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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@DNC blink on immediate #impeachment of @realDonaldTrump & Sanders thinks the #BostonBomber should #Vote #MagaFirstNews w/@PeterBoykin

April 23, 2019

@DNC blink on immediate #impeachment of @realDonaldTrump & Sanders thinks the #BostonBomber should #Vote #MagaFirstNews w/@PeterBoykin DEMS BLINK ON PURSUING TRUMP IMPEACHMENT — FOR NOW: Leaders of the House Democrats backed off the idea of immediately launching impeachment proceedings against President Trump in an urgent conference call Monday evening amid a growing rift among the party’s rank-and-file members, presidential contenders and committee chairs … Fox News is told by two … See More senior sources on the private conference call that even House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, an anti-Trump firebrand, told fellow Democrats that while she personally favored going forward with impeachment proceedings, she was not pushing for other members to join her. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her leadership team were clear there were no immediate plans to move forward with impeachment, Fox News is also told. Pelosi told fellow Democrats she favors more investigations of Trump to “save our democracy.” POST-MUELLER INVESTIGATIONS: If Nancy Pelosi favors more investigations of Trump, she will not be disappointed … House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify publicly on May 21, following last week’s release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation.Nadler described McGahn, who stepped down as White House counsel in October 2018, as “a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Special Counsel’s report.” He has set a May 7 deadline for him to provide documents related to the Mueller investigation. Meanwhile, lawyers for President Trump have sued to block a subpoena issued by members of Congress that sought the business magnate’s financial records. OFFICIALS REPEATEDLY WARNED ABOUT GROUP BEHIND SRI LANKA ATTACKS – The purported leader of an Islamic extremist group blamed for an Easter attack in Sri Lanka that killed over 300 people began posting videos online three years ago calling for non-Muslims to be “eliminated,” faith leaders said Tuesday … Much remained unclear about how a little-known group called National Thowfeek Jamaath carried out six large near-simultaneous suicide bombings striking churches and hotels. However, warnings about growing radicalism in this island nation off the coast of India date to at least 2007, while Muslim leaders say their repeated warnings about the group and its leader drew no visible reaction from officials responsible for public security. – Associated Press BERNIE SAYS BOSTON MARATHON BOMBER SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO VOTE: 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday defended his stance for granting voting rights to criminals in prison, including the Boston Marathon bomber and convicted sexual assaulters … During a CNN town hall on Monday night, a student asked Sanders if his position would support “enfranchising people” like Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who she noted is a “convicted terrorist and murderer,” as well as those “convicted of sexual assault,” whose votes could have a “direct impact on women’s rights.” Sanders first responded by saying he wanted a “vibrant democracy” with “higher voter turnout” and blasted “cowardly Republican governors” who he said were “trying to suppress the vote.” The Vermont senator then argued that the Constitution says “everybody can vote” and that “some people in jail can vote.” NORTH KOREA’S KIM, PUTIN TO MEET: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will soon visit Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency confirmed Tuesday without releasing a set date or location for the meeting … The meeting may give Kim more leeway in future negotiations with President Trump after their February summit in Vietnam broke down due to disagreement over ridding North Korea of its nuclear arsenal. The Kremlin announced last week that North Korea’s supreme leader will visit Russia “in the second half of April,” but did not elaborate further. OLD TWEET HAUNTS ILHAN OMAR: A resurfaced tweet from Rep. Ilhan Omar saw the Minnesota Democrat claim U.S. forces killed “thousands” of Somalis during the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” mission — despite multiple analysts concluding the number was much smaller … In the October 2017 tweet discovered by journalist John Rossomando, Omar was responding to a Twitter user who’d highlighted that more than a dozen U.S. soldiers were killed and another 73 were wounded in the Battle of Mogadishu, saying it was the “worst terrorist attack in Somalia history.” Omar, a Somali refugee who was then a Minnesota state representative, refuted the tweet, insisting that “thousands” of Somalis were killed by American forces. The number of Somali casualties in the Battle of Mogadishu is widely disputed.

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Facebook’s flood of languages leave it struggling to monitor content

April 23, 2019

An illustration photo shows the Facebook page displayed on a mobile phone internet browser held in front of a computer screen at a cyber-cafe in downtown Nairobi
An illustration photo shows the Facebook page displayed on a mobile phone internet browser held in front of a computer screen at a cyber-cafe in downtown Nairobi, Kenya April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

April 23, 2019

By Maggie Fick and Paresh Dave

NAIROBI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s struggles with hate speech and other types of problematic content are being hampered by the company’s inability to keep up with a flood of new languages as mobile phones bring social media to every corner of the globe.

The company offers its 2.3 billion users features such as menus and prompts in 111 different languages, deemed to be officially supported. Reuters has found another 31 widely spoken languages on Facebook that do not have official support.

Detailed rules known as “community standards,” which bar users from posting offensive material including hate speech and celebrations of violence, were translated in only 41 languages out of the 111 supported as of early March, Reuters found.

Facebook’s 15,000-strong content moderation workforce speaks about 50 tongues, though the company said it hires professional translators when needed. Automated tools for identifying hate speech work in about 30.

The language deficit complicates Facebook’s battle to rein in harmful content and the damage it can cause, including to the company itself. Countries including Australia, Singapore and the UK are now threatening harsh new regulations, punishable by steep fines or jail time for executives, if it fails to promptly remove objectionable posts.

The community standards are updated monthly and run to about 9,400 words in English.

Monika Bickert, the Facebook vice president in charge of the standards, has previously told Reuters that they were “a heavy lift to translate into all those different languages.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said this week the rules are translated case by case depending on whether a language has a critical mass of usage and whether Facebook is a primary information source for speakers. The spokeswoman said there was no specific number for critical mass.

She said among priorities for translations are Khmer, the official language in Cambodia, and Sinhala, the dominant language in Sri Lanka, where the government blocked Facebook this week to stem rumors about devastating Easter Sunday bombings.

A Reuters report found last year that hate speech on Facebook that helped foster ethnic cleansing in Myanmar went unchecked in part because the company was slow to add moderation tools and staff for the local language.

Facebook says it now offers the rules in Burmese and has more than 100 speakers of the language among its workforce.

The spokeswoman said Facebook’s efforts to protect people from harmful content had “a level of language investment that surpasses most any technology company.”

But human rights officials say Facebook is in jeopardy of a repeat of the Myanmar problems in other strife-torn nations where its language capabilities have not kept up with the impact of social media.

“These are supposed to be the rules of the road and both customers and regulators should insist social media platforms make the rules known and effectively police them,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division. “Failure to do so opens the door to serious abuses.”

ABUSE IN FIJIAN

Mohammed Saneem, the supervisor of elections in Fiji, said he felt the impact of the language gap during elections in the South Pacific nation in November last year. Racist comments proliferated on Facebook in Fijian, which the social network does not support. Saneem said he dedicated a staffer to emailing posts and translations to a Facebook employee in Singapore to seek removals.

Facebook said it did not request translations, and it gave Reuters a post-election letter from Saneem praising its “timely and effective assistance.”

Saneem told Reuters that he valued the help but had expected pro-active measures from Facebook.

“If they are allowing users to post in their language, there should be guidelines available in the same language,” he said.

Similar issues abound in African nations such as Ethiopia, where deadly ethnic clashes among a population of 107 million have been accompanied by ugly Facebook content. Much of it is in Amharic, a language supported by Facebook. But Amharic users looking up rules get them in English.

At least 652 million people worldwide speak languages supported by Facebook but where rules are not translated, according to data from language encyclopedia Ethnologue. Another 230 million or more speak one of the 31 languages that do not have official support.

Facebook uses automated software as a key defense against prohibited content. Developed using a type of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, these tools identify hate speech in about 30 languages and “terrorist propaganda” in 19, the company said.

Machine learning requires massive volumes of data to train computers, and a scarcity of text in other languages presents a challenge in rapidly growing the tools, Guy Rosen, the Facebook vice president who oversees automated policy enforcement, has told Reuters.

GROWTH REGIONS

Beyond the automation and a few official fact-checkers, Facebook relies on users to report problematic content. That creates a major issue where community standards are not understood or even known to exist.

Ebele Okobi, Facebook’s director of public policy for Africa, told Reuters in March that the continent had the world’s lowest rates of user reporting.

“A lot of people don’t even know that there are community standards,” Okobi said.

Facebook has bought radio advertisements in Nigeria and worked with local organizations to change that, she said. It also has held talks with African education officials to introduce social media etiquette into the curriculum, she said.

Simultaneously, Facebook is partnering with wireless carriers and other groups to expand internet access in countries including Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo where it has yet to officially support widely-used languages such as Luganda and Kituba. Asked this week about the expansions without language support, Facebook declined to comment.

The company announced in February it would soon have its first 100 sub-Saharan Africa-based content moderators at an outsourcing facility in Nairobi. They will join existing teams in reviewing content in Somali, Oromo and other languages.

But the community standards are not translated into Somali or Oromo. Posts in Somali from last year celebrating the al-Shabaab militant group remained on Facebook for months despite a ban on glorifying organizations or acts that Facebook designates as terrorist.

“Disbelievers and apostates, die with your anger,” read one post seen by Reuters this month that praised the killing of a Sufi cleric.

After Reuters inquired about the post, Facebook said it took down the author’s account because it violated policies.

ABILITY TO DERAIL

Posts in Amharic reviewed by Reuters this month attacked the Oromo and Tigray ethnic populations in vicious terms that clearly violated Facebook’s ban on discussing ethnic groups using “violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion.”

Facebook removed the two posts Reuters inquired about. The company added that it had erred in allowing one of them, from December 2017, to remain online following an earlier user report.

For officials such as Saneem in Fiji, Facebook’s efforts to improve content moderation and language support are painfully slow. Saneem said he warned Facebook months in advance of the election in the archipelago of 900,000 people. Most of them use Facebook, with half writing in English and half in Fijian, he estimated.

“Social media has the ability to completely derail an election,” Saneem said.

Other social media companies face the same problem to varying degrees.

(GRAPHIC: Social media and the language gap – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VHjwTu)

Facebook-owned Instagram said its 1,179-word community guidelines are in 30 out of 51 languages offered to users. WhatsApp, owned by Facebook as well, has terms in nine of 58 supported languages, Reuters found.

Alphabet Inc’s YouTube presents community guidelines in 40 of 80 available languages, Reuters found. Twitter Inc’s rules are in 37 of 47 supported languages, and Snap Inc’s in 13 out of 21.

“A lot of misinformation gets spread around and the problem with the content publishers is the reluctance to deal with it,” Saneem said. “They do owe a duty of care. “

(Reporting by Maggie Fick in Nairobi and Paresh Dave in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Fiji and Omar Mohammed in Nairobi; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: OANN

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Democratic presidential candidates divided over impeaching Trump

April 23, 2019

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Trump attends the 2019 White House Easter Egg Roll in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump attends the 2019 White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

April 23, 2019

By Tim Reid

(Reuters) – A group of Democratic presidential candidates were divided on Monday over whether Republican President Donald Trump should be impeached, reflecting a broader split in the Democratic Party over how to react to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian election meddling.

Answering audience questions at a televised CNN event in the early voting state of New Hampshire, three Democratic 2020 candidates shied away from calling for Trump’s impeachment.

Another, California U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, said Congress should “take the steps towards impeachment” but believed such an effort would likely fail.

Only one candidate at the event, Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, issued a full-throated call for Congress to try and remove Trump from office.

“If any other human being in this country had done what’s documented in the Mueller report, they would be arrested and put in jail,” Warren said. Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio and another 2020 hopeful – who was not at the CNN event – has also called for Trump’s impeachment.

In the report released on Thursday, Mueller portrayed a president bent on stopping the probe into Russian meddling. But Mueller stopped short of concluding that a crime was committed, leaving it to Congress to make its own determination as to whether Trump obstructed justice.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, and some other Democratic Party leaders have been wary of impeaching Trump before the November 2020 presidential election.

They believe there are not enough votes in the Republican-controlled Senate to remove Trump from office, and that such a move could play into his hands. They also remember Republican efforts to impeach former Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, which backfired politically.

But prominent liberals have demanded the start of proceedings to remove Trump from office since the release of a redacted version of Mueller’s report last week.

In a letter to fellow Democratic lawmakers on Monday, Pelosi did not rule out impeaching Trump, but said it is “important to know that the facts regarding holding the president accountable can be gained outside of impeachment hearings.” She added that Trump engaged in highly unethical and unscrupulous behavior “whether currently indictable or not”.

Reflecting the divide in the party over how to proceed over Mueller’s findings, the five 2020 candidates, who appeared at back-to-back events before an audience of young voters, were also split.

Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said: “If for the next year and a half all the Congress is talking about is ‘Trump, Trump, Trump,’ and ‘Mueller, Mueller, Mueller’ and we’re not talking about the issues that concern ordinary Americans, I worry that works to Trump’s advantage.”

Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said she did not want to “predispose things” over the question of whether to impeach Trump and left that question up to the U.S. House of Representatives, where impeachment proceedings are initiated.

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Trump “deserves” to be impeached, but he would leave it to the House and Senate. He said politicians have to stop talking about Trump so much, and the best thing for Democrats would be to deliver “an absolute thumping” to Trump at the ballot box next November.

(Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Michael Perry)

Source: OANN

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