if it. was. based look suspends the pages of several highly successful r t links news projects without warning we go over the rules and check what may be behind the move. and adding to the pressure on the social media platform british lawmakers accuse facebook of not trading in political advertising and leaving people open to online data breaches. a senior french military officer could be set to face punishment after the pens a damning critique of the u.s. led coalition's campaign against islamic state in syria.

very warm welcome to you watching r.t. international with me. our top story a billion based media company has hit our facebook accusing the platform of unprecedented censorship that's after they suspended a number of moffitt media's pages which produces online shows and which c.n.n. is accusing of a deliberate attempt to hide ties to russia one of those shows is in the now viewed over two and a half billion times on the social networking platform a producer and presenter think films this message for facebook. what i would say to you is i understand that you're under in pressure from various forces to suppress this or that content based on political reasoning but do not succumb to censorship

do not succumb to complying with various government funded outfits regardless of what government they're funded by to censor let your users decide what's good and what's bad only my colleagues you don't need to discuss why muffet media has been put under the microscope. it began with c.n.n. shedding light on the fact that a number of media pages with posts of snappy videos have links to russia but what people watching these videos may not realize is that the russian government is paying for this soapbox waisted that them are three new facebook pages and all part of a growing brand of russian backed influence campaigns maffet runs for pages they are indeed very popular with billions of views as their creators are saying but it wasn't indicated on the pages themselves where their money came from and so just as

the c.n.n. came out with their bombshell report as they're calling it the magic steam noticed that their pages were being blocked even though there is no such rule that makes revealing the funding a must i've spoken to the magic c.e.o. and she told me what she believes could be behind this kind of unprecedented punishment by the social network there's a very sensitive divisive. noxious policy taking place right now in terms of venezuela we don't know if this is the segment that triggered it the timing is convenient when someone calls out what's happening in venezuela as a blatant coup it ruffles the wrong feathers ruffled the feathers of think tanks that spend millions and millions if not billions of dollars to persuade. and to lobby their interests and so when someone does a video that goes against that and that video is gets hundreds of thousands of

views on a platform that has millions of views people start to notice and they get upset and i believe that's why we were targeted but in this was the question is here. at any point attempted to hide information about its links about its shareholders even well let's just make it clear. does get some of its funding from the russian government and it is partially owned by an r t subsidiary but they were never trying to hide this in fact when they employ someone they always tell them everything about the parent companies so that people know who they work for and the companies officially registered in germany so anyone can check out the company registry there and find out all the necessary information for the owners the founders are the funding where it comes from it said try well going back to what facebook did to my fake you'd expect the social network to come up with some sort of warning before taking the pages down well none of this happened and here's what

else we heard from someone else from management but they haven't even gone as far as having any kind of policy articulated about it at all so we were fully compliant with all facebook policies at all times and there is no requirement whatsoever to display any type of funder information on facebook pages and it is common practice to not do so c.n.n. weren't the first ones to start digging into fakes links to russia germany's marshall fund got involved first which drew the attention of the likes of glenn greenwald the journalist was disturbed by what he called a trio that could have been behind this kind of censorship so not bloggers and journalists were impressed by how facebook was dealing with the situation and by how c.n.n.

was spinning it the pages pushing the videos do not disclose they're backed by the russian government. ok all right i didn't know you had to put who funded you and when you put you put up a video i didn't know that because we have lots of different funders at this show we have over three thousand people who voted us through patriotic we have probably another couple thousand people through pay pal so we have a lot of people that fund our show do have to name everyone every time i put up a video so quite a few people in the online community in the journalists community have something to say about this however when it comes to facebook the math takes team hasn't heard from them yet even though they sent out numerous appeals. less discuss it further now with david coburn a scottish m.e.p. for the group europe of freedom on direct democracy mystic open thanks for joining us this evening so what do you think about this is it a new facebook well it could it be just an example of blatant censorship as

a journalist glenn greenwald put it earlier well it seems like that doesn't it i mean why pick on them and they have to tell you everything about them but other people don't. salute of course i mean the b.b.c. . they wouldn't put anything on about about bricks if they were all for me all through the campaign but they didn't tell you that you know who is funding them and who is pushing their their line you know and then tell us that the european union we're putting money into the into the b.b.c. didn't mention any of that but it would interesting to know that so of course everybody's got something somebody backing them so. why pick on one particular group it does seem a wee bit like a bit of a witch hunt doesn't it do you think this move could be politicized given that nothing media's pages were quite critical of its mainstream counterparts. well you hear oversee everything in the world is political there's nothing that is not

political when people say to me i'm not political i don't i'm not interested in politics i say you pay income tax you're interested in politics you know everything's political do you think there's a possibility that there has been pressure on facebook to block my fake pages. oh i think i think i have has been there was also recently some problems with some young committing suicide and old the sort of things so that they're under pressure and really is under pressure from over censorship pressure from governments and and such like and i must admit that you know with the european elections coming up the european union are absolutely paranoid about feet news although they put more faith use than anybody else but oh my goodness you know anybody else tears today they get a terrible state about it and the british government them you know see the b.b.c. have been pumping out nonsense. if we vote for it to leave the european union and

the economy is going to collapse they're sky is going to drop on our heads well we did it and nothing happened and now they're banging on about the irish backstop which is an absolute fraud there's no there's no problem with the irish business we've been doing business with the irish since nine hundred twenty three people back and forwards they get to vote in our elections is never been a problem yet they don't want to go by that i knew in the european union when somebody my good colleague brought up like a problem or something that we would voted on last week that they can they can check on trucks and with a growing and from the european satellite. that wasn't put in that could be used to to to solve the irish backstop problem or no no it can be used anywhere else in the world but it can't be used for that so you know but when it comes to two feet use the european union and everybody else and always sticking their own their own shade

on things and obviously people are going to have their own editorial policy is just natural is normal but it's up to people to figure out who's doing what leave the leave the the online people to figure it out they're pretty good at it. david byrne scottish i mean the group europe freedom and direct democracy thank you for joining us marty. facebook's also facing pressure from the british parliament hard hitting report from the house of commons accuses facebook of failing to protect its users from data breaches as well as from alleged russian this information reporting from westminster hasan the situation. well facebook is under fire following a damning over one hundred page report following eighteen months of work by a u.k. parliamentary committee now this is a report that looks at a handful of issues including alleged foreign and russian interference in elections but it's really facebook that gets a mouthful in this particular case from u.k. lawmakers described as

a digital gangster that's ahead of and beyond the law it's accused of misleading parliament treating it with content and quote intentionally and knowingly violating data privacy and competition laws and more facebook continues to choose profit over data security taking risks in order to prioritize their aim of making money from user data it seems clear to us that facebook acts only when serious breaches become public and making it even more personal here is what the committee chair had to say on mark zuckerberg specifically mark zuckerberg continually fails to show the levels of leadership and personal responsibility that should be expected from someone who sits at the top of one of the world's biggest companies well zuckerberg despite refusing to appear in front of this committee as many as three times really infuriating them for refusing to show up. basically respond via facebook

statement saying that they believe they have contributed enough to the work that the committee was carrying out. we share the committee's concerns about fox news and election integrity and our police have made a significant contribution to their investigation over the past eighteen months on string more than seven hundred questions and with four of our most senior executives giving evidence well accusations are very well but in terms of what specifically this committee now wants is a code of ethics to be introduced as well as a possible legal action in case of breach of that code they want a reform of elec torah laws in the u.k. and these platforms such as facebook being forced to take down dissent for mission and harmful content as well as having to teach to pay taxes in the u.k. and well now it has to be said that this committee before has previously been unhappy with not enough reaction and action from the u.k.

government following their suggestions we'll have to wait and see if this time will be any different. a prominent french military officer who helped coordinate the fight against islamic state in syria could be set to face perfect punishment punishment after he published a startling critique of the u.s. led coalition's anti terror tactics his our paris correspondent. damning criticism from a senior french military official this is the guy in charge of french artillery aiding could issue forces on the syrian a rocky border he's criticized the u.s. coalition tactics saying that it's actually putting civilians at risk the battle of hygiene was won at least on the ground but by refusing ground in gage meant we unnecessarily prolong the conflict and thus contributed to increasing the number of civilian casualties we have massively destroyed the infrastructure and given the population a disgusting image of what may be a western style liberation leaving behind the seeds of an imminent resurgence of

a new adversary hundreds of people have died just. thousands of forms however rained down in those attacks alleged by the u.s. coalition and it comes this criticism as president trump is about to declare an outright victory against eisel in syria but the colonel doesn't think that's the case we have a no way won the war because we lack a realistic and lasting policy and an adequate strategy how many how jews will it take to understand that we are on the wrong track colonel made those criticisms in the national defense review which has since taken down his article and it seems that the colonel is about to face sanctions for not getting permission to publish that article before his military forces it had a chance to look at it but his testimony adds weight to what we've already heard from groups such as amnesty international and for action against armed violence

who's talked about the high cost of civilian casualties in syria as a result of the u.s. led coalition's actions and the way that it operates in that country now that's despite the fact that the u.s. says it doesn't target norm coleman battens the question is now as president trump is about to declare this victory over eisel it's a victory many are saying including this colonel at what cost at what cost for the people of syria. french political journalist and commentator on elizabeth new tape believes the article was deleted because military chiefs didn't like it. if you are in the army you are actually supposed not to write anything but you know where does that leave this magazine and other magazines and websites in which officers do discuss this defaulters general is written by muesli serving officers and they give a sort of considered opinion it was deleted because there was

a feeling that this officer was revealing tactics. and was not mandate to do so and also i think basically because some people got angry because he was saying this is not the right tactic for the french on it and i think somebody was annoyed because it looked like it was not the exact line of. the chief of staff and as a result they've given publicity to an article that would have been practically a new. start ups told europe's leaders they should repatch made militants wanting to return from syria we'll tell you how that's going down across the atlantic among our stories after the break. we're witnessing something quite remarkable in that one twenty nineteen we're watching a country that span in the nineteenth century bubble really for. almost two hundred

years they're going to crash into the twenty first century as if they're just being teleported into the twenty first century. you know world of big part of the lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to get the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

welcome back with i saw militants in syria facing imminent defeat the us president has called on european countries to repatch reate over eight hundred of their nationals who joined the so-called caliphate so they could be put on trial otherwise donald trump says the extremists will be released from detention in syria the comments come as washington looks to dramatically scaled back is involvement in the conflict and host on the reports. for a while it seemed the british had the whole leave or remain clash monopolised in the news which didn't last long though the americans are now somewhat piggybacking on this leave remain rao in their own way however over troops in syria it is time to give our brave warriors in syria. a warm welcome home bring our troops home u.s. troops will be withdrawn from syria we have won against isis isis has been defeated

the fight against isis and violent extremists is not over our goals are the same and we will maintain forces yet the generals who are openly grumbling about their commander in chief's order seem to be missing the point syria has become a whole potato in a game being played out in the highest echelons of power in the us and the new united states will begin to hand off the fight to our partners in the region no glory and no media friendly war victory potential just a burden so why not let others do the dirty work and to eat others mean europe of course europeans in turn say a they're not janitors to clean up after washington there is no prospect of british troops go in and to replace the american troops living and therefore be this is no way the us should be leaving a possible power vacuum is a stanwood is it

a good idea of the americans to pull out of syria immediately and so swiftly doesn't it make the possibility of iran and russia increasing their influence there . how can you be very firm on iran and at the same time abandon north eastern syria like that we know very well that might end up boosting iran's presence in the area for me it's a mystery to washington tosses the potato right back and up the stakes to not only the use should fill the void the u.s. leaves behind on the ground but also take back hundreds of nationals who once left to join i sold a trump a mystery thought he was pretty convincing openly scaremongering europe into submission twenty fifty one hundred thirty people were killed in paris twenty sixteen eighty six killed a nice. twelve killed and christmas truck bombing in berlin twenty seventeen thirteen killed in spain so does it matter what happens over there.

he was serious it's not some dark joke senator lindsey graham spent a whole minutes meticulously go through a list of all the horrendous terrorist attacks that have left europe scarred the sort that this could have the absolute opposite of never crossed his mind apparently these attacks you know every do we do way that we handled the situation there i'm not saying that this justifies the reason they're in the country i'm just saying that do put these acts as an arm to really engage militarily this is just putting more pressure on the flames and is not going to sort of the only thing that you can have by more military engagement syria is more terrorist attacks it's as simple as that. this whole rao though makes

one truth glaringly obvious neither trump nor europe each for reasons of their own do not want to be serious cleanup crew on or in this case has no game so why not take credit for all that is done and run away. now one of the world's greatest tennis legends has reignited around ever transgender athletes taking part in women's competitions just a few months after being called out over an incendiary tweet our sports correspondent i like the he has the story you cannot just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women there must be some standards and having a penis and competing as a woman would not fit that standard this tweeted by one of the greatest female tennis players ever eighteen time grand slam winner martina navratilova set off an explosive backlash last december transgender act. namely transgender world cycling champion rachel mckinnon from canada lashed out forcing the tennis legend into an

apology and a promise to read up on the subject now another dealer has broken her silence in an article for the times in britain she says she has researched the issue and that her beliefs have only been strengthened a man can decide to be female take hormones when everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if she still desires it's insane and it's cheating never to have a specifically stressed that in order to achieve fairness in a competition by reducing hormone levels a method that many sport organizations have adopted to accommodate transgender athletes males would have to start that treatment before puberty something she branded as thinkable she also stressed that there should be a clear distinction between transgender and transsexual athletes with the latter having no competitive advantage due to the surgical nature of their sex change having cited several examples of both the tennis great also condemned what she

called the vilification of athletes who want to be different recounting her own experience of being one of the first high profile athletes to come out as gay back in one thousand eighty one even so never to have a slam toward twitter rival transgender world cycling champion rachel mackinnon and pulled no punches mackinnon who says she received more than one hundred thousand hate messages on twitter after winning the world championship has presented herself and other transgender athletes as the victims of prejudice there can be no excuse for such ignorance and nastiness but i also deplore what seems to be a growing tendency among transgender activists to denounce anyone who argues against them and to label from all as trans faults that are still of perhaps preempted the fresh wave of criticism aimed at her with mckinnon and. several pro transgender activist groups immediately branding her as trans phobic the renewed

spat comes amid a legal battle between south african runner caster semenya and the international association of athletics federation the athletes challenging the acceptable to start their own limits for female athletes which were introduced by the eye last year it's an increasingly complex and emotional subject and the battle which looks unlikely to subside anytime soon. r.t. reporting from moscow where you can have your say on all of our stories by following us on social media and even though you're comment that we'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest headlines we'll see you then.

manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. larry go around. the room sit. room. why is the key the slow you. use the. what. you see in the. last word more. really really really.

you know more long. more you. get a little shame when you don't let. the little. politicians do something that. they put themselves on the line and they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president injury. or something i want to be absolutely certain that it's you going to be cross it's like when the forty three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters in the. first city hall. you know world of big partisan movies a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to get the stories

that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. she says he says he shevardnadze they say a picture is worth one thousand words and that's probably twice the case for work so. war for top first as their costs are says to find in tragedy captured by a camera lens well i asked zariah miller who documented the wars in iraq

afghanistan and many other places. always in the sake of it but never in the fray always a witness never a participant wolf it's all give us don't take sides but the pictures. and photos of tragedies really help prevent them or do they only make people aware and do images of conflict really reflect reality. zariah miller award winning photographer who put himself in the line of danger to document wars in iraq afghanistan gaza welcome to the show it's great to have you with us can't wait to talk to you so zoraida you say that you always are brass to portray is a reality of what you see are you remaining an impartial observer of the vans that you are shooting. yeah i think impartial is something every journalist strives for it doesn't mean that i'm not emotionally invested in what i photograph

obviously i am a human being and i have opinions on what i see and i have opinions on what is right and what is wrong and injustice and i'll obviously try everything i can to you know bring injustice to light and you know i suppose my definition of injustice is my own personal opinion so you know i am impartial but i do have feelings and i do. follow those feelings and i hope to try to portray them in the photographs that i capture i suppose i suppose what you're saying weighing your personal opinion are the key words this personality hinder you in telling a story as truthfully as you can see dad in a way no i mean i think that's one of the common misconceptions in journalism is that having feelings and having emotions and caring about a story.