thank you and that's of the show will be back on wednesday just be joint member the government social mobility commission working the goal of reaching the top means nothing in class a battle but until they give you talk about social media. facebook suspends the pages of several highly successful 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 reigning in political advertising and leaving people open to online data breaches. senior french military officer could be set to face punishment after he pens a 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. now our top story this hour berlin based media company has hit out at facebook accusing the platform of unprecedented censorship now softer they suspended a number of mass media's pages which produces online shows which c.n.n. is accusing of deliberate attempts to hide ties to russia one of the shows is in the now viewed over two and a half billion times on the social networking platform a producer and presenter at moffitt films this message for facebook. what i would say to you is i understand that you're under. 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 outlets

regardless of what government they're funded by to censor let your users decide what's good and what's bad early in my colleague's heated only trying to discuss why nothing 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 soap box wasted there are three new facebook pages and all part of a growing brand of russian backed influence campaigns groans for pages there 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 notice

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 is 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 in 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 it was the question is here how does my fake at any point attempted to hide information about its links about its shareholders even well let's just make it clear moffitt 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 company 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 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 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 another couple thousand people through pay pal so we have a lot of people that fund our show do i 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 when it comes to facebook the math fix team hasn't heard from them yet even though they sent out numerous appeals the president of the international federation of journalists has described facebook's move as an act of censorship closing a facebook account to any internet link from the media without prior warning could be considered as an act of censorship opposed by the eye of j. well it is contacted a number of news freedom organizations and we'll let you know when they get back to

earth while journalist martin summers believes facebook has overstepped its boundaries. censorship by any other name does been never really secret about these online videos source all or who's put iraq there or why you either do you have the same rules for everybody or you you basically pick and choose what you want people to see and hear and i think there is a question whether facebook should have the power to decide what people see and hear i mean the theory beyond the incident was if more people wanted to see something than they should be allowed to see it and the of the when you do internet searches the things that come up when you put a question in you supposed to find the thing that most people are looking at but of course they've no started talking about changing the algorithms by which they did this to try and pick and choose what people should and shouldn't see which is of course a break with the way the internet supposed to operate and it's largely because what happens in that circumstance is that governments like the u.s. government in this case simply can't control the narrative in the way they used to

before the internet came along and they're getting worried about that and they're trying to to try to stop it. facebook is also facing pressure from the british parliament a 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 disinfo mation reporting from westminster his an association. 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 the 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 trying 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. 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 won at least on the ground but by refusing ground in gage 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. 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 junes 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. and commentator and elizabeth mutate believes the article was deleted because military chiefs didn't like it. if you are in the army you are actually screws not to write anything but you know words that leave this magazine and other magazines and websites in which will this is to discuss this defaulters journal is written by muesli serving officers on the give a sort of considered opinion it was deleted because there was a feeling that this office. of revealing tactics. was not mended 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 on it but 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. police investigating a suspected homophobic attack on an american t.v. actor say the case has shifted and want to know if he states the assault himself just the small it is best known for his role in a long running show empire he claims to measure attacked him and said marco country in reference that all trans make america great again campaign slogan without that claim triggered a wave of anti trump outrage online because dollars reports fury a torrent of anger an outpouring of rage that was the initial reaction to jesse's small its most unsettling story as so many people blamed trump and

his cronies for nurturing the climate over hate in america we have a media that's saying it's a debate whether or not what has happened in just the small it is a hate crime it's absurd. isn't it. this is how you have to be five reels and are seven and i feel this way right now with yeah the president and the vice president like cancer like wish i could be married let's just be clear heartburn. and in furious reading about the attack on juicy smollett i want trump and all my good lunatics to burn in hell the horrific attack on just a small it has no place in a decent human loving society homophobia existed before trump but there's no question that since he's injected his hatred into the american bloodstream we are less decent less human and less loving no intolerance no d.t. there were many who directly tied the us government to what they unequivocal labeled a hate crime and there were more who publicly stood by smaller condemning the

attack as an established fact donald trump included actor from him who was allegedly attacked with racist and homophobic. so that i can tell you is. that. i think that's horrible. it doesn't get worse as far as i'm concerned those who stayed away from this bandwagon were made to feel like outcasts and the police intrinsically you fell in this category two by their nature they had to investigate interrogate snoop around and as they did it appears even the fundamentals of this case are not as obvious to them as they are to the angry twitter army we can confirm but the information received from the individuals questioned by police early in the case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation detectives arrested two suspects who smaller himself positively identified from of

c.c.t.v. tapes as his attackers only to release them later without charge the trajectory of the case shifted said the police cryptically according to a source the police think their tack could have been staged by small it himself said c.n.n. that's an outrageous claim said small its lawyer as a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation just a small it is angered and. devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he's familiar with some of his one stern supporters though may have been caught off guard by a fresh flurry of mixed signals house speaker nancy pelosi discreetly deleted her first tweet hoping no one would notice but it's the internet of course they did others tried to distance themselves from this case to the vicious attack on earth to just a small it was an attempted to modern day lynching i'm glad he's safe is it time to

revisit what you said about his remarks what is your feeling on potential faulty times in general all the information still coming out of withholding toward information that comes out on the record sources it goes without saying that any victim of a hate crime deserves every bit of sympathy and more including small it if his story passes the test of a police investigation but progressive america seems to be living out the concept of presumptuous guilt trigger happy and hell bent on bashing arguably the single most hated person in america donald trump. one of the world's greatest tennis legends has reignited a route where the transgender athletes taking part in women's competitions just a few months after being called out over an incendiary tweet all 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 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 unseen and it's cheating never to have a specifically stressed that in order to achieve fairness in a competition by reducing hormone levels and 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 nine hundred one even so never to have a slam toward twitter rival transgender world cycling champion rachel mckinnon and pulled no punches keenan 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. 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 them all as trans faults that ideal of a perhaps preempted the fresh wave of criticism aimed at her with mackinnon and several broad transgender activist groups immediately branding her strands 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. and you 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 own self to saudi arabia documents says that britain should be

prepared to suspend some of its weapons exports as they may be violating international humanitarian law the government to search 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 war erupted in yemen and saudi arabia launched its devastating air campaign against the impoverished countries whose the 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 is that despite the concern expressed in the lords report on cells to riyadh are just too lucrative for london to suspend the u.k. . only is not interested in how most is actually being of

either by the british were 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 data provided to them by the growth saudi arabian government the british government most real. of the united states go along that bombing been songs war in the middle is not going to stop both governments or weapons to this group. 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 dimitri wouldn't have anything to feed her. pallid skin and 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 to. manage it and a fellow can do is keep trying to care for her and that she will be starving again in the air because in horrible conditions live and. the u.s. is stepping up its efforts to get humanitarian aid into venezuela sending tons of food or medicine to the crisis stricken country's border with colombia an american delegation which included florida senator marco rubio accompanied the latest wave of supplies heading south and mr rubio took the opportunity to hit out at the embattled venezuelan president nicolas maduro everyman the euro's regime is not a government it is a mafia it is an organized crime syndicate similar to the mafia's that existed in the forty's and fifty's in all parts of the world and the united states it's

a mafia it is nothing like a government. well that comes days after the country's washington banked opposition leader called for an army of volunteers to head to the border to receive the aid supplies but president maduro has consistently stated he considers the u.s.'s sets to be interference in the country's domestic affairs he ordered the military to prepare for permanent deployment of forces on the border with colombia to avoid provocations but europe is not alone in having doubts about the u.s. shipments the international red cross in colombia says it has no plan to participate in the delivery of assistance to venezuela which it claims are politically motivated but will continue its own work the executive director of the wrong paul institute daniel mcadams believe it's all part of a concerted u.s. assets to topple the migiro government well the international aid organizations have explicitly refused to participate in the u.s.

scored unquote humanitarian aid convoy aid relief to venezuela because it's not essential what it is is a regime change operation disguised as a in fact that would be illegal according to international law the politicization the use of the day going the food in front of people if they overthrow their government is an absolutely cynical move which is not allowed according to international law michael really at the border is designed to escalate he says he's forming a lie you know that using gaging in a psychological operation in a covert operation and he knows that he's standing in front of the last year to toss a bridge saying the door stop closing this bridge that bridge as your viewers know has never been open. meanwhile back in the u.s. the state department has restricted the travel of venezuela's u.n. ambassador days earlier samuel monk carter had denounced the u.s. for blatantly attempting to orchestrate regime change in his country he's now banned from leaving new york mr monk accused the u.s.

of lying and manipulating the facts to mislead people about the true situation in his country the venezuelan foreign minister branded the movement restrictions as as an attack on freedom of speech done in mcadam's again told us his view while they do this to countries that they want to talk to target for regime change or target reform issue and i think that is good for russian diplomats washington d.c. you will remember right and they do this work for other countries around the u.s. it's just another attempt to marginalize the good government representatives of them as well which is the most this is the most you've got to hand it and this is the most transparent in overtly explained regime change in history. israeli police have detained five palestinians for allegedly causing a disturbance at a religious site in east jerusalem it's been reported the men were taking part in a prayer protested temple mount an area there's been a flashpoint in relations her city and worshippers clashed outside the holy side

with the author it ees after allegedly damaging the perimeter fence in response to reported vandalism of a cemetery near the al aqsa mosque last week is believed israeli security forces responded to protests by putting new locks on the gates to the area temple mount has been closed off for a decade to locals after an israeli court order. when he would r.t. we love to hear your thoughts on all of our stories so do get in touch by following us on social media we're back in thirty minutes with the latest headlines join us then if we can.

where were the say something quite remarkable in that night twenty nineteen we're watching a country that's bad in a nineteenth century bubble brayley for. most 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. good politicians to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. more so more want to be rich. to go on to be pros this is what the before three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters in the. question.