Forwarding to the list...
Dear Friends,
In a case of blatant political censorship, Facebook deleted my personal account this weekend along with 12 other individuals and 6 organizational pages associated with the Kurdish Solidarity Movement. This attack on free speech is part of an ongoing escalation of attacks on the movement on behalf of the Turkish government, such as the widely-publicized physical assault on protestors by president Erdoğan's bodyguards in Washington D.C. on May 16, 2017. Now Facebook is censoring users to placate Turkey's increasingly authoritarian regime, recently updating their "Abuse Standards" protocol (version 6.1) so that any reference to the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) or its leader Abdullah Ocalan is grounds for immediate banning, put on par with hate speech. The pages and individuals have been targeted simply for sharing information on how to support the Kurdish freedom movements in both Rojava and Turkey - even a photo from a protest with a picture of Ocalan's face in the background has been cited as reason for account deletion.
For those who aren't familiar, the Kurds of the Rojava region in Northern Syria have been the United States' most reliable ally in the fight against ISIS, but they are also fighting for a more democratic, multicultural, and secular society, offering a rare beacon of hope in the Middle East. It has close ties to but is formally independent from the PKK, an organization which has been struggling for Kurdish freedom in Turkey for decades, currently facing intense political, cultural, and military repression in predominantly Kurdish Southeast part of the country.
To fight this censorship, please share the news on social media, visit www.friendsofrojava.org, and contact Facebook to demand that they stop censoring political speech.
Solidarity,
Blair Taylor
Institute for Social Ecology
Another colleague adds:
Use the hashtags #UnblockRojava, #UnblockRojavaSolidarity and direct them at @FriendsofRojava and @Facebook.
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