was. i. facebook suspends the pages of several highly successful t.v. 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 life the ties it and leaving people open to online data breaches. a senior french military officer could be set to face punishment and 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 care and our top story this hour a burlington base to be 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 that is in the now viewed over two and a half billion times on the social networking platform a producer and presenter filmed 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 well earlier my colleagues. are trying 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 had links to russia but what people watching these videos may not realize is that the russian government is paying for this soap box wasted back 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 math it steamed

notice that their pages were being blocked even though there is no such rule that makes revealing the funding must i've spoken to the math exceeded all 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 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. 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 where the owners the founders are the funding where it comes from it said true 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 patriot and we have probably another 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 in the journalists 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. the president of the international federation of journalists has described facebook's move as an act of censorship. cruising of facebook accounts and the internet link from the media without warning could be considered does not give censorship posed by the ire of jay. well arty's contact is a number of news freedom organizations we'll let you know when they get back to us

but for now let's go live to martin doul of the hamburg column and for germany's the left party mr towser thank you for joining us on the program it's good to see you how would you explain is rescission by facebook is it censorship or as some people are suggesting. yes of course to my mind there is says our ship and to my mind freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights and the democrats see and in democratic societies and the more freedom of speech a sense of the less a society is democratic i think in a moment we are confronted with the kind of. campaign because let's see for example in germany or in europe we are we have a multiple lies. media scene so every opposite to that every difference too that can be will kind of our tect by by them or the police sort of in the moment we see that as

a campaign against russian media for example the chancellor merkel she was accusing russian media to have money pleated students and pupil who are who protested against the climate change to my mind of this is. this is not analytic but this is just a kind of creating enemy pictures and as well facebook of course is a capitalist company and often they are to repression against freedom of speech doesn't matter if it's human rights rights activists in different countries of the world from turkey from from some aviation are frequent countries sometimes the pages are blocked and now will those pages are blocked which seem to have or we have a russian background but there are like that this is that and europe how to political pressure do you think facebook is under

a vice that you know mainstream media content. oh i don't know if it's really the political pressure of it's a kind of self. censorship of facebook as an active actor in the political scene as so but in a moment re we are in a situation where the u.s. government for example tries to do a coup in venice of the lovers of force. where there's are a lot of farms transcending all of the military households in us and in the need to a states and where more and more enemy pictures are created and. it's not only. the risk of real war and it's not only that international law was used more and more it's a kind of economical warfare as well and facebook of course is part of this and this is about having the media. in every on

a list everything take notice as one of the main. issues longer one of the main aspects of he want to win in a geostrategic of fight and so i think censorship is the current kind of effect which is used in that frame but it's not good we should stand democratic we should democrats say we should strengthen freedom of speech and as long as we do there it there can be peace and in the moment i'm a bit afraid that there is too much and i mean it just was really picky really high is that this whole scandal last cycle scandal is pretty that might be made out of nothing nothing media hasn't been hiding information about who he's back of the hour but c.n.n. has made it out to be some kind of dark secret why would they do that. you know that sort of like i explained before in the moment there is a campaign against russia and the russian media as well because. i'm afraid we're

kind in pre-war phases when we look at minnesota as really. a harsh school just to overcome the leftist government and who has ties to china or to russia we have the. band of well why as well against china also in the moment the u.s. tries to keep his monocle leonid you such a tickle of balance of the world but at last a long time and in the moment the politics of mr trump the president of the usa get more and more aggressive so i think we are confronted with the of of the very. bihar. situation which come make us concerned and when we see it and then when it's a lot of course it's a fight in the media as well as someone who who claims himself to be a president. who has an ability to mation and some governments or german

governments as well except this yeah have meanwhile the scientific. scientific department of the german parliament sess this is against international law and if you want to bring forward to politics like that censorship is one on one part of it and i think you can certainly have anybody that c.n.n. that's part of a campaign campaigning against a different. reports and different media us yeah how much concerted effort do you think governments really are putting into trying to get networks to file until muffle the russian voices on line. no i think the governments know that social media has a very very. important in the movement and of course then they try to bring forward. their own ideas and in their

frame facebook as well censors ages or the governments we can say some governments tell facebook to do so there is an interaction between the different actors in the tween the media and there's links and networks. which have been described very good we have a we have a t.v. show in germany it's called the underdog and they leave they they distributed the reality and shown the reality that there's only some people in a network whose two year of the moment lies media it's not the kind of theory without low foundation or this is this is reality and i think. some some actors in society don't want real discourse discussion with different opinions but they want to steer the population doesn't matter and social media and

t.v. stations or have all my thoughts are your thoughts are theirs martin doul the hamburg parliament m.p. for the left party thank you very much as face the cloth are facing pressure from the british parliament the 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 my samantha hayes an associate check into. 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 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 solid defense. 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 peace. will have died as 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 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 at what cost at what cost for the people of syria. french political journalist and commentator and elizabeth new table leave 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 words that leave this magazine and other magazines and websites in which officers do discuss this defaulters journal 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 mended to do so and also i think basically because some people got hangry

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 complicity to 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 a small it is best known for his role in a long running show empire he claims two men attacked him and said maggot country in reference to donald trump to make america great again campaign slogan that claim triggered a wave of anti terror anti trumped outrage on line it cost on our reports. fury a torrent of anger and 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 claimant over hate in america we have a media that's saying it's a debate whether or not what just happened in just this moment is a hate crime it's absurd. isn't it hired to take this is that you have to be fired else impossible and i feel this way right now the president and the vice president might cancel the question is i couldn't be married let's just be clear heartbroken and 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 the 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 an employer 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 that 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 is 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 because they did others try to distance themselves from this case to the vicious attack on act

a 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 talking from him that he 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 around our transgender athletes taking part in women's competitions just a few months after being called out over it in 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 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 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. 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 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. 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 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 has 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 supplier of arms the british government continues to defend the sales and saudi arabia claims it takes all possible put cautions to avoid civilian casualties a political science professor we spoke to told is that despite the concern

expressed in the law to report arms sales to riyadh are just too lucrative for london to suspend the u.k. government apparently is not interested in how most destruction is actually being of either by british were given to saudi arabia from the british point of view or not even condone the 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 for a long. 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 understand eighty percent of the population are in need of aid here's the hovering story of one yemeni girl a warning you may find it upsetting. and it will even retrieve would it have anything to feed her. palate that she has in the balance and that's the worst case of severe malnutrition .