identity crisis facebook down claims that it's a publisher and not just a prop for a legal case which could have a major impact on what's posted on the site. plus austrian m.p.'s want to pull the plug on a huge trade deal between latin america and the e.u. over fires in the amazon although european firms are working with companies linked to the destruction of the rain forest. a major international military exercise in central russia enters its final stage with china and india among the participants.

a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at r t h q in moscow thanks for joining us this hour. facebook c.e.o. mark zuckerberg has met with president double trump the social media platforms chief is looking to defend his company amid mounting criticism over privacy issues and data protection and they recently the case facebook claimed it was a publisher and is therefore allowed to ban who it wants to but potentially that would also make it liable for what goes out on its platform or sponsibility its previously tried to dodge looks at the potential ramifications. here. that's better. plaintive ultra right activist laura luma who was taken off pretty much all major online platforms defendant facebook one of the giants which kicked her out we carefully flicked

through these court papers which the defendant filed could fly and bury the lawsuit and here's what really caught the eye. to the extent miss lewis claimed targets facebook's decision to deactivate her accounts it is also deficient on the well established law made the facebook nor any of the publisher can be liable for failing to publish someone else's message 1st amendment provides absolute protection for such decisions what was it again either facebook nor any other publisher protection by the 1st amendment so in this particular case the lawyers of sucking co are happy to legally refer to their social network as up publisher digging a bit deeper will reveal facebook has done that in the past as well when last year an app startup was crossing swords with facebook in court this is what came from the network spent the thought discretion is a 3 speechwriter respective what technological means is used so is it just me or

something's wrong with how the platform we use every day identifies itself because when facebook bosses take questions in other places it seems they always try to distance themselves from the notion publisher which are you are you a tech company or are you the world's largest publisher because i think that goes to a really important question what form of regulation or government action if any we would take senator this is. a really big question i view us as a tech company because the primary thing that we do is build technology and products are you responsible for your content which make exactly on of a publisher. well i agree that we're responsible for the content but we don't produce the content and that's been the message for quite a while. we are a tech company not some media company i do think we have to be the publisher and we

definitely don't want to be the arbiter of the truth now just imagine what kind of legal trouble the tech giant may put itself in if it becomes universally recognized the company mr zuckerberg is running is a publisher not just a tech platform are they really ready to be responsible for anything disturbing more outright criminal that gets posted under the blue logo the examples have been out there in abundance. the way or what if simply someone decides to lawyer and bully me with all kinds of offensive stuff right on facebook should i then also followed a defamation suit against the network because they as a publisher alloted it's well known you can't have

a cake and eat it at the same time will probably unless your last name is sucker berg we asked facebook to comment on the story and we'll bring you any response we get legal and media analyst lionel did share his opinion though. what is facebook now when mark zuckerberg spoke before congress he said we're just to check that i just made the platform available for people to say would they run not all blue sheen i don't put out of him you know and i'm just like oh bill that's the way people get around with the idea of of perhaps allowing defamatory or libelous statements and the like now they're saying we're publishers we have the right to have anybody on there we want well if you're a publisher under defamation law libel law you can be held accountable and liable

for the longest time facebook was trying to have it both ways if i want a t.v. station and i say something defamatory about you or organisation the t.v. station the magazine they're liable to because they broadcast it they put this libelous statement out so what's it going to be facebook do you want the liability that comes with being a publisher or do you want to just merely be a tech platform and if you want to be just a tech platform here have to make up your mind because you can't limit speech you can't act like a publisher unless you are a publisher. austrian m.p.'s are urging vienna to veto a major trade deal between the e.u. and south america they're unhappy about the way brazil is handling the large scale amazon fires similar concerns have been expressed by france and germany however many e.u. businesses do work with firms that have a direct connection to the fires as are to charlotte devinsky explains. it's an environmentalist would. walt foley is raging in the amazon destroying the wolves

most biodiverse tropical rain forest. our house is burning literally the amazon rainforest the lungs which produce 20 percent of our planet's oxygen is on fire as an international crisis i couldn't agree more manual macro we need to act for the amazon and for our planet talk kids and grandkids accounting on the lines of the entire earth are factored and that's why we need to find common solutions here leaders of the globe's most advanced countries pledged to do more at the g 7 the heat may have died down but the blame game certainly hasn't with some looking closely at where the amazon woos may. europe's financial institutions the companies and the financier is housed in those countries are contributing to the forestation many of these companies are known to have

unsuitable practices in their supply chain to be clearing areas for the expansion of agriculture especially pursuing cattle so yeah and cattle ranching account for 80 percent of deforestation major companies such as a.t.m. call gail j.b.s. are being financed by some of us biggest banks including b.m.p. paragraphs don't spank and block walk they not only bankroll the debt they're also major shareholders with a voice in how these companies all run so areas of the amazon are sometimes. to provide all earned for cows to graze or to grow crops to feed life stock these european banks are directly building the forestation do it your bank and he black rock in vanguard collectively more than a 1000000000 dollars in debt in just the 3 largest saw in the 3 largest cattle

companies operating in brazil are these even banks often vocal about their sustainability policies. are also being accused of hypocrisy environmental campaign group amazon watch contacted them about their role in the amazon was fine as well deutsche bank and black hawk didn't respond b.m.p. paragraphs had to say. the parable as has been strengthening the sec to policies related to deforestation for several years and this prompted his clients to protect natural lack of systems and preserve biodiversity to the best of their abilities that experts say is just simply not good enough we can encourage that finding as your role in requiring that the companies have certain standards the dart deforestation commitments that they implement those commitments and that they were poor on their progress to address the deforestation with in their supply

chains given that even if they're not producing these materials or directly clearing the forests they have a role to play in ensuring that that clear is doesn't happen without the traceability the accountability of all actors involved including here in europe the fear is that our house will continue to. powers we have also asked archer bank to comment on their links to the deforestation of the amazon if you have to receive a response. now to central russia where a major international military exercise center 200-1000 is in full swing in addition to the host nations like china and india are also taking part the drill aims to take cooperation between the neighbors to a new level in the face of ice a like terror threats among the spectators is barbara putin as well as watching the maneuvers the president is also meeting his care these counterpart there.

this is a very loud if press of spectacle the simulated food terrorists have predictably been beaten back and just a few meters away from us we have military observers from all over the world i counted at least a dozen nato badges watching the show watching the spectacle glad to be a putin with the president in the stands as well 20 meters away from us but there's a purpose to this is isn't just a shoe for enjoyment to a spectacle this is an exercise to form a unity to form corporation between asian nations asian states that threatened

by islamic radicalism and this is their effort to sort of get to get to know each other get to work together even if india and pakistan and odds with each other open conflict working together here behind me as i reported earlier the story is radical islamist terrorists of come to power in a simulated central asian republic they've formed a quasi caliph that if you will and the mission is to stop them to prevent them from seizing any more territory they come into possession of advanced weapons and being belligerent towards participating nations and participating 8 countries representing a good heart full of the world's population china india pakistan russia as well as for central asian republics their mission is to stop the terrorists and prevent them from taking any more territory to defend themselves the military contingency

representing those 8 nations amanda 128000 troops as well as 20000 vs. tanks of all time on tiller add defense missile systems as well as $600.00 aircraft including drones the military exercises themselves are stretched over a 6 day period across a variety of different battlefields and today the grand crescendo the objective is to hold an enemy attack knock out their cruise missiles and at the end go on the offensive and crush them the point of these military exercises isn't to show off the participating nations to some degree will face the threat of radical extremism and the point of these war games is to make sure that if worst comes to worst and these people come to power the bug dissipating nations can present

a united front to stop an enemy that has demonstrated its remorseless merciless and capable of anything pakistan is also taking part and political commentator and journalist john white emphasized the importance of karate joining new delhi in the drills. it's a growing trend of cooperation between countries in central asia and it makes perfect sense given that the coleman traits stay she was a goddess to global terrorism hugely significant visible to cities and of india and pakistan of course. changes over time actually you know be very very high and get the newest article and mature that has existed she was going to say this is a testament should be to the book diplomacy of china russia countries into into disagreement was fatally bolted in this will be an instant that is what integration . between countries because you don't know what's going to unfold in afghanistan it's very important for the country sort in the region to have some sort of worked

against any and. to achieve it. several 100 people have gathered in the nevada desert in the u.s. under the rallying cry storm area 51 what started as a joke campaign to break into the secretive military base that it up attracting about 2000000 supporters on facebook but many claiming the american government hiding us both their best of all known as alien stock which was due to be held in a nearby town that was canceled last week but that hasn't stopped u.f.o. enthusiasts from descending on the area despite warnings from authorities about airspace has also been shut down on friday to take the 30 quarter fix up story. of the day we've all been waiting for a chance to discover we've been contacted by aliens over 2000000 people have already said they're going to storm area 51 a top secret u.s. military base it's notoriously connected to u.f.o. sightings and 2 teens have already gotten their feet wet transparence was caught

near area $51.00 to a man from the netherlands arrested after getting 3 miles inside the valid national security site it was just a joke at 1st a facebook event encouraging people to storm the mysterious space. we will all meet up in rural nevada and coordinate our own parties if we know who to run we can move faster than their bullets let's see them allianz even the guy who came up with the idea wasn't taking it too seriously it was all fun and games until the f.b.i. came knocking on his door thinking he could be a terrorist started out as just from a pure stroke of imagination it's just meant to be funny i want to do something cool out there now that we have a bunch of people but i don't want anybody to get hurt still that hasn't stopped people from jumping on the bandwagon maybe most will just stick to being keyboard warriors and chicken out at the last minute ok but the authorities are not treating this as a joke which may just be adding to the curiosity all joking aside we're taking it

very seriously a nation has secrets and those secrets deserve to be protected secrets well they've got to be important because extra security and barricades have already been prepared in anticipation of the horde it also doesn't help that several videos have surfaced in recent years of supposedly u.f.o. sightings all captured by u.s. navy pilots. and the navy only added fuel to the fire of speculation when it labeled those objects and identified aerial phenomena the navy does ignatz the objects contained in these videos as. a real phenomenon the unidentified aerial phenomena terminology is used because it provides the basic descriptor for the soil observations of. objects that have been observed entering operating in the is space various military

controlled training ranges government secrecy always will fuel all kinds of speculation when you have a government that is not transparent it's going to lose the confidence of the people this was. lesson of the soviet union it's the lesson of the united states today where there is a lack of transparency where people know that they're not getting the truth from their government on a large number of matters area 51 and you oppose in general have never gone away in the public imagination certainly not in the united states. there have been many sightings of apparent u.f.o.'s in the vicinity of area 51 and people know about that and there's always been the stories so. i think it just captured the imagination of a lot of people we might not know how many people are really going to this area 51 a vent but one thing's for the u.s.

government is acting like it's got something to hide order. still to come a russian actor has been released in moscow under a travel ban after a major campaign by the acting community on that after the break. israel's parliamentary elections to begin ended in deadlock feel like 3 is divided divided on the political right sitting prime minister benjamin netanyahu says it's either my right wing blog or a dangerous back government how does this kind of rhetoric bode for the palestinians and middle east ability. you know world's big partners. and conspiracy it's time to wake up

to dig deeper to hit 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 a young russian actor who was detained during an opposition protests in moscow has been released though under a travel ban this case galvanize support from activists especially among the acting community with more details here where if national. mosco court has changed

previous decision and pov a listing of has been released on the travel ban russia's general prosecutor's office as well as the country's own woodsmen all have been calling for softening the initial punishment for these young men but many believe that today's decision is not about that but rather about a victory of a civil society and 100 percent result of unified actions and afterwards and solidarity of people who simply believed that pavol o'steen of had been convicted wrongfully and that was exactly what puddle sr and his mom talked about after the decision was announced that that in the absolute and thank everyone for this the media the public originary people and actors and even the prosecutor who finally heard us today i was sitting in the hearing with a new film because everything is different now it was obvious that after so much support from the public the decision would change now he can be at home it's a victory for all of us. caused an unprecedented wave of defiance and

support from celebrities to ordinary people we saw them lining up for what is known as one man protest this is the easiest legal way of protesting demonstrating here in russia and there was also a massive online campaign with actors and other public figures publishing their video statements in support for. demanding his release but just know that when we have just finished a performance of jesus christ superstar and we actors from the most soviet theater express our support for our colleague travel stina receiving this. i'm joining the freedom to buy the listing of you know job russian yes to justice as for this tragic case involving problems do you know if we sincerely express often support for him and his family patients the whole justice will prevail. earlier monday populist. 23 year old russian actor was sentenced to 3 and

a half years in prison for violence against a police officer during his arrest at an authorised opposition rally in central most going early august but before that short of the moment of the arrest of populist you know it was published and pavol was seen there walking normally in the middle of the square your mind other people. who are a policeman in whom here riot gear with rubber sticks him to the ground and actually to be do did not give the answer to the obvious question what happened before that moment and why police officers single pavol among all the people in the square by was very strong and when the judge refused to use this video as an added a huge massive compay in protest pain started that led us here today has been released under a travel ban. a major american pharmaceutical company has started bankruptcy

proceedings after being accused of creating an opioid epidemic produced pharma has been flopped with a multi-billion dollar fine as i thought a moment for some 2 and a half 1000 lawsuits but nobody is likely to go to jail up explains purdue pharmaceuticals recently found liable for the opioid epidemic has filed for bankruptcy it's reached an agreement for a settlement with 22 different state attorney generals regarding its malfeasance and the lawsuits now some attorney generals are saying it's not enough it should not be about billionaires looking to use the bankruptcy process as a vehicle to further shield their assets and escape accountability this proposed deal isn't worth nearly what they say it is it doesn't require the sack there is to pay back a dime of the billions of dollars they sucked out of purdue through the sales. over the last many years now the opioid epidemic has claimed roughly 400000 lives so

paying a big fine does seem a bit lenient right well you'll notice that none of these prosecutors are talking about jailing big pharma execs and they can't it's a civil suit not a criminal case but that raises the question what a big corporation makes reckless decisions in pursuit of its own profits if they sold more oxycontin and made more money but yes that's not the same as. almost every other company in the industry and their actions result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people shouldn't they face some kind of very severe or real panel think that attorneys general. various states where do you begin to make its plate should be looking very seriously at the conduct of them jewels and consider criminal prosecution if those individuals if the elements of the crimes that they've committed are clear. if agreement was brought to bear on those responsible this type of conduct would be unlikely to be repeated well the us legal

system doesn't seem to work that way back in the early 2010 years that general motors put an ignition switch in a very dangerous spot where drivers could inadvertently turn it off by accident it was very dangerous and as a result 124 people died or other more the company actively tried to cover this up even works to darrelle a recall so what happened well the c.e.o. got grilled by the u.s. senate my sincere apologies to everyone who has been affected by this recall i am deeply sorry but did anyone go to jail no g.m. got fined $900000000.00 and haddocks production closely monitored by the government for 3 years but did anyone go to jail for actions that resulted in taking over $100.00 innocent lives no there are principles in. corporations that are in this country but around the world who are criminal liability because of their power and

the money they command of some of the people in these companies who contributed the . prescription to get the united states knew that they were likely to be criminally prosecuted if they were identified they would twice or 3 times or not engage in that behavior but for average americans who kill people or commit violent crimes the penalties are not so soft the united states has the biggest prison population of any country in the world it's also the only western country to still practice the death penalty and sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole are handed out in the united states all the time jurors heard 2 days of testimony about goals because difficult childhood goldsby himself asked the jury for mercy but 8 jurors still favored the death penalty might. you do that you did. deserves never see the light so the rule of american justice seems to be kill one person in

a fit of rage you're going to jail maybe even for life but kill hundreds or maybe even thousands of people in pursuit of bigger profits for your shareholders well just pay a fine and don't lose too much sleep over it cable pop and r.t. new york that's your news right but for now but i'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest thanks for tuning it. they'll see themselves as dying swans in their dreams. but only one in a 1000 will ever make it to the top. they're ready to give their lives for the chance to die on stage if only once.

nobody even broken wings to tell them. for generations that the marine skill set but they sweat and tears. seem wrong why don't we all just don't call. me. yet to stamp out this thing become active. and engaged because betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

hello and welcome to crossfire for all things considered i'm peter lavelle israel's parliamentary elections have again ended in deadlock the electorate is divided divided on the political right sitting prime minister benjamin netanyahu says it's either my right wing blogs or again chris air back government how does this kind of rhetoric bode for the palestinians and middle east the ability. crosstalk in the israeli elections i'm joined by my guest philip giraldi in percival he's a former cia counterterrorism specialist who is now executive director of the counsel for the national interest in tel aviv we have gideon levy he's a columnist for hideouts also in tel aviv we have mehlman he is a senior israeli security writer.