facebook 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 the q. space book of not reigning in political advertising and leaving people open to online data breaches. a senior french military officer could be set to face punishment after he penned the damning critique of the u.s. led coalition's campaign against islamic state in syria.

a very warm welcome to you you're watching r.t. international with me the carry on our top story this hour a burden based media company has his house at facebook accusing the platform of unprecedented censorship that's after they suspended a number of mass media's pages which produces online shows which c.n.n. is accusing of a deliberate attempt to hide ties to russia one of those shows is in the now feud over two and a half billion times on the social networking platform a producer and presenter. films this message for facebook. what i would say to you is i understand that you're under in men's 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 early my colleagues you know neal could 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 had links to russia but what people watching these videos may not realize is that the russian government is paying for this soapbox wasted that then 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 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 there's a video that goes against that and that videos 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 it was the question is here how does my effect 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.a. 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 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. we're 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 but

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 patriot and we have probably no other couple thousand people through pay pal so we have a lot of people that fund our show to have to name every one of them every time i put up a video so quite a few people in the online community and the journalist community have something to say about this however what it comes to facebook the math fix team hasn't heard from them yet even though they sent out numerous appeals. he's contacted a number of news freedom organizations you know when they get back to us we've also spoken to a senior researcher from london metropolitan university is a global policy institute he believes facebook is clearly guilty of double standards. anything that the russians have must be looked upon suspiciously but the

concept of this explicitly and so they come up with these phony pretext such as oh they haven't disclosed. funded by russia what about torture villa what about the b.b.c. what about al-jazeera what about france one i mean all of these are getting funded by governments but it's the same thing applies when facebook every few weeks announces where they've closed seven hundred thousand accounts that they can say fake accounts because they are really russians or rain ians no no one knows these thing though one knows who these accounts are but it keeps the story going that the russians or the iranians to. officially designated enemies are up to no good facebook is also facing pressure from the british parliament a hard hitting report from the house of commons a case this facebook of failing to protect its users from data breaches as well as

from alleged russian distance and then this information reporting from westminster his ass to see a check. 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 three 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 electoral laws in the u.k. and these platforms such as facebook being forced to take down dissent from asian and harmful content as well as having to take 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. let's go live now to technology expert on privacy activism bill meir mr meir thank you for joining us on the program this evening now as we've just heard facebook is under pressure to get its house in order over fake news but the focus seems to be on anything russia related to think is possible this line is bowing to pressure from western governments. i think there will always be

a level of pressure or if there is a perception of the sort of interference the has dominated the headlines i think one of the things that we need to aim for is a level of transparency and certainly some foreigners ability to identify who is putting forward our votes and also word of the source of funds or especially for some of the advertising we've been seeing that transparency is there at the regulators have been calling for and indeed the facebook and others have been seeking to address but as quickly as you do people will start game playing the system they were also seek to mask their identity so i think it's going to be ongoing challenge do you think this is facebook's way of trying to placate lawmakers since the specter of regulation is looming increasingly large. well facebook of sorts of gone from a ethical. crisis to a full blown crisis management situation where an initially there were problems

with what they've been doing with the data and if they had. taken out a quick measures then i think that they would be on the front foot at this moment in time the problem is that they have put forward what's of been later proved to be misleading statements and that they have dealt with what is a crisis management in a fairly inept manner i think you need to question whether it is wise to refuse to appear before a parliamentary committee on three occasions and then to expect that parliamentary committee to come forward with the proposals that would be in any way favorable i think. facebook and others want to be seen as. taking the right steps and to receive sort of a favorable hearing they need to do a far better job of engaging and actually coming clean on

a lot of what has happened and this is important not just for facebook it is important for all of us because we've had the tech revolution we're now seeing a massive take backlash what we need to find is an equilibrium somewhere in between where we are able to find policies and regulations and legislation that strikes the right balance and that actually promotes not only the sort of economic benefit the big tech and large business a calling for but also the social value that a lot of the activists are calling for and rather than the legislation very towards one side of the other we need to find a middle ground that actually maximizes both the economic and the social value. what are the ramifications for facebook users are if the fan does it what the government wants. pieces to demands from the government. again i think if it is a balanced regulation that actually tries to strike the correct balance between

economic and social good i think the the legislation or whatever restrictions are put in place will ensure that there is rigorous privacy protection while not being overly onerous or not preventing the sorts of benefits that users and the economy as a whole should be able to reap from these technologies the ability to have better targeting to actually provide you with what you want it should be applauded but that has to come with adequate protections again this story seems to be a lot of scaremongering about third voices coming out of russia how much concerted effort do you think governments are putting in to try and get social networks to muffle the russian voices on line. i think russia is part of the equation there are all sorts of other actors and the far right of been shown to be

doing their own thing i'm not about to defend any of these bad actors but again it comes to transparency. to what extent we need improved a.r.e because there is so much content that we can't manually sift through it all that it has to be done intelligently by some form of automation and at the moment i don't think that the is quite up to it and that needs to be improved but also there needs to be transparency such that there's a better identification when people are placing ads especially ones that are potentially political to ensure that we know and to t. of the person putting it forward and the source of the funds and again that they could be game playing in that sort of area but it doesn't mean that we should shy away from seeking to have that level of transparency into in force whatever regulations we can put in place privacy activist and technology experts bill me thank you for joining us on this a. prominent french military officer who helped

coordinate the fight against islamic state in syria could be set to face punishment after he published a startling critique of the u.s. led coalition's anti terror tactics here's 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 one at least on the ground but by refusing ground in gauge meant we unnecessarily prolonged 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 as thousands of forms have a 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 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 is president trump is about to declare this victory over i still it's a victory many are saying including this colonel what cost at what cost for the people of syria. french political journalist and commentator and elizabeth new table leaves the article was elated because military chiefs didn't like it if you are in the army you are actually screws not to write anything but you know word of this magazine another magazines and websites in which offices judas gus this default is written by muesli serving officers and they give a sort of considered opinion it was deleted because there was a feeling that this office. of revealing tactics.

was not mandate to do so and also i think basically because some people got hungry because he was saying this is not the right tactic for the french army 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 that given to decide to do an article that would have been practically a new. one of the world's greatest tennis legends house reignited around the transgender athletes taking part in women's competitions just a few months after being called out i have an incendiary tweet our sports correspondent 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 activists 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. a small fortune and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies if he so desires it's unseen 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 that can be no excuse for such ignorance and nastiness but also deplore what seems to be a growing tendency among transgender activists to denounce anyone who argues against them and to label them all as trans faults that are still of a 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. 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. the british prime minister's office sais the european nationals who joined eisel should be tried in the region where they committed their crimes it's in response to donald trump calling on the european countries to repatch rates over eight hundred islamists the us president warns that if european countries fail to do so the extremists will be released from detention in syria as washing put washington pulls its troops out of syria artie's it goes down of

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 room 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 tweet others mean europe of course europeans in turn say a they're not janet has 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 the 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. washington tosses the potato right back and ups the stakes to not

only the you 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 missile or a 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'll yeah it matters he was serious it's not some dark joke senator lindsey graham spent a whole minutes meticulously going through a list of all the horrendous terrorist attacks that have left europe scarred the thought that this could have the absolute opposite of never crossed his mind apparently these attacks you have every people do we do way that we handle

the situation there i'm not saying that this justifies the reason they're in the country i'm just saying that to put these attacks as an angle to really engage militarily this is just putting more pressure on the flames and is not going to solve the problem the only thing that you're going to 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. and a report from the u.k.'s house of lords suggests the country is responsible for a significant number of civilian deaths in yemen as a result of its arms sales to saudi arabia the document says that britain should be

prepared to suspend some of its weapons exports as they may be violating international humanitarian law the government asserts that in its licensing of arms sales to saudi arabia it is narrowly on the right side of international humanitarian law we assess that it is narrowly on the wrong side. it's almost four years since the war erupted in yemen and saudi arabia launched its devastating at campaign against the impoverished countries who see rebels since then the u.k. has sold four point seven billion dollars worth of weapons to riyadh making it the country's second biggest supply of alms the british government continues to defend the sales and saudi arabia claims it takes all possible precautions to avoid civilian casualties a political science professor we spoke to told us that despite the concern expressed in the long term reports arms sales to riyadh are just too lucrative for them for london to suspend the u.k.

government apparently is not interested in how much is actually being. either by the british weaponry given to saudi arabia from the british want to. be independent on whether their weaponry is responsible for the bombings for the killing in yemen they were lying strictly on the facts the data provided to them by the corrupt saudi arabian government the british government most real just like the united states go along that bombing been sawmills war in the middle is not going to stop until both governments pull out all weapons to this . meanwhile the un has warned in recent days that yemen's humanitarian crisis is becoming increasingly severe hundreds of thousands of people are now reportedly at risk of starving to death and a staggering eighty percent of the population are in need of aid here's the

harrowing story of one yemeni girl a warning you may find it upsetting. and it will even demetrius wouldn't have anything to feed her. to it to. pile up that she was skin in the balance that's the worst case of severe malnutrition. child malnutrition cases are increasing but only children under five but mothers

suffer from malnutrition and their babies will too. than a fellow can do is keep trying to care for her and what she will be starving again in the air because in horrible conditions live and. let us something you'd like to say about any of our stories then do get in touch by following us on social media and even oil comments there will be back in thirty minutes with the latest headlines see them.