INTERSECTIONALITY

Descendants of Freedmen Enslaved by Native Americans in 1800s Seek Tribal Citizenship

Descendants of Black people enslaved by Native Americans continue to seek citizenship within their tribes. Many of the Freedmen marched with Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. Congresswoman Maxine Waters is leading the charge in pushing for federal legislation that would penalize tribes for not complying with an1866 treaty which gave full tribal rights to Black Native Americans.

Oklahoma panel recommends governor spare Julius Jones’ life

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's Pardon and Parole Board on Monday recommended Gov. Kevin Stitt spare the life of death row inmate Julius Jones, whose murder conviction for the 1999 killing of an Edmond businessman has drawn national attention

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The board recommended in 3-1 votes that Stitt grant Jones clemency and commute his sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole after hearing from Jones, 41, who testified via video link from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Several members of the panel agreed they had doubts about the evidence that led to Jones’ conviction. One board member, Scott Williams, recused himself from the vote because of an existing friendship with an attorney who has advocated for Jones.

“I continue to believe there is still doubt in this case," said board member Kelly Doyle.

The lone vote against clemency came from Richard Smothermon, a former prosecutor, who said he believed Jones was not being truthful in his testimony.

“To believe in Mr. Jones' theory of the case, you have to disbelieve every other piece of evidence in the case," including testimony from law enforcement officers, independent witnesses and physical evidence, Smothermon said.

Stitt must now decide whether to grant clemency or commute Jones’ sentence.

“Governor Stitt is aware of the Pardon and Parole Board's vote today," Stitt spokeswoman Carly Atchison said in a statement. “Our office will not offer further comment until the governor has made a final decision."

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has set a Nov. 18 execution date for Jones. The state resumed lethal injections last week after a six-year hiatus, putting a man to death for the 1998 stabbing death of a prison cafeteria worker.

Jones was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in the 1999 shooting death of Paul Howell during a carjacking in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond.

He admitted to the board on Monday that he began shoplifting clothes, jewelry and electronics, but denied that he ever committed any violent acts. He also denied committing a separate carjacking to which he pleaded guilty, saying he made the plea on the advice of his attorney.

“Yes, I made mistakes in my youth, but I did not kill Mr. Paul Howell," Jones told the panel.

Jones also testified that he was at home with his parents and siblings on the evening when Howell was killed, but prosecutors said Jones himself previously told his trial lawyers that wasn't true.

“Jones repeatedly and unequivocally told his attorneys that his parents were mistaken and that he was not at home the night of the murder," said Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Crabb.

Crabb said Jones is a recognized member of the Bloods gang and that he has continued to commit criminal acts while inside prison, including possessing contraband and using other inmate's pin numbers to make telephone calls. She also said Jones has had so much money deposited into his inmate account in the last couple of years that he has sent $18,000 to family and friends.

Jones’ case drew widespread attention after it was profiled in “The Last Defense,” a three-episode documentary produced by actress Viola Davis that aired on ABC in 2018. Since then, reality television star Kim Kardashian West and athletes with Oklahoma ties, including NBA stars Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin and Trae Young, have urged Stitt to commute Jones’ death sentence and spare his life.

Jones alleges he was framed by the actual killer, a high-school friend and former co-defendant who was a key prosecution witness. But Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and the state’s former attorney general, Mike Hunter, have said the evidence against Jones is overwhelming.

Trial transcripts show that witnesses identified Jones as the shooter and placed him with Howell’s stolen vehicle. Investigators also found the murder weapon and a bandanna with Jones’ DNA in an attic space above his bedroom. Jones said in his commutation filing that the gun and bandanna were planted there by the actual killer.

But Jones' attorney, Amanda Bass, said his criminal trial was corrupted by the use of junk forensic science, jailhouse informants and a plea deal for the co-defendant who testified against him.

“In these ways and more, the criminal justice system failed Mr. Howell," Bass said. “It also failed Julius by condemning him to death for something he did not do."

Paul Howell's sister, Megan Tobey, testified before the board on Monday that she distinctly remembers seeing Jones shoot her brother in front of his two young daughters.

“He is the same person today as he was 22 years ago. He’s still getting into trouble. He’s still in a gang. He’s still lying. And he still feels no shame, guilt or remorse for his action," Tobey said. “We need Julius Jones to be held responsible."

Sean Murphy, The Associated Press

It's not just humans: Some spiders also suffer from arachnophobia, study suggests

Sorry arachnophobes, it looks like you have more in common with your worst nightmare than you might think.

© Provided by National Post A jumping spider is seen lounging on a tree. Researchers used baby jumping spiders to test their predator-recognition instinct with other spiders.

A new study has found that some species of spiders may also suffer from ‘arachno-arachnophobia’, otherwise known as a fear of other, larger members of their kind.

The study, published by the British Ecological Society in their journal, Functional Ecology, examined the behavioural responses of baby jumping spiders to predator and non-predator objects to determine their predator-recognition instincts.

“Jumping spiders are absolutely amazing because they have this incredible eyesight. And they can see almost as good as we do, so they pay attention to detail,” Daniella Roessler, the study’s lead researcher, told NPR on Wednesday.

As part of the study, Roessler and her team presented the baby spiders with a number of objects: first, a spheroid 3D printed model as the experiment control, followed by a 3D printed spider and an actual larger, dead spider, all matched in size.


They then observed the jumping spider to see whether it would be able to detect which of the objects are potential predators, without relying on the objects to move.

A video recording the spiders’ reactions first shows a baby spider appearing to assess the black 3D spheroid model. With almost no hesitation, the spider scuttles to and jumps over on the platform on which the model stands and climbs over the model, indicating no fear of the object.

However when confronted with a 3D printed black spider, fitted with frontal eye features, the baby spider appeared to freeze, slowly move to the side and then decisively turn away and jump off in the opposite direction.

The same sphere, without the frontal eye features, provoked a slightly bolder reaction in the baby spider — it moved forward on its platform, as if to assess the large object standing in front of it, but within seconds turned in the opposite direction away from the object.

The baby spider was then presented with multiple species of dead jumping spiders — the marpissa muscosa and the phidippus audax .

Researchers noted that the baby was much more fearful of the species that looked like itself — the brown marpissa muscosa — and refused to come any closer to the dead specimen, instead freezing and slowly backing away.

“There’s a lot of assessment of the risk in this moment, so they assess how big is that thing? How quick could it get to me?” Roessler explained to NPR. “And then also knowing that motion really triggers what jumping spiders perceive, like, moving away in this choppy fashion and really slowly maybe is also a strategy of not getting the attention from the predator.”

Researchers determined that the jumping spiders can “indeed, identify predator objects in the absence of motion.”

“Spiders ran away after looking at predator objects, while they showed no escape behaviour towards the control,” they wrote in the study.

The presence of eyes, they said, acted as an important cue, but the spiders appeared to look at multiple features rather than one, to assess predator risk.

Using baby spiders in the study, researchers added, also enabled them to ascertain that the predator-recognition instinct is not a honed response, but rather, an innate behaviour from birth.

Which means, you could use your favourite spider decorations for Halloween to keep the some of the real ones away — just use the ones without the round eyes, Roessler advised.

Hundreds of endangered sea turtles wash up dead on Mexican beach

At least 300 sea turtles have washed up dead on a Pacific coast beach in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico

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© Provided by National Post 

An Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) arriving ton a Mexico. beach to spawn during a nesting. HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP/Getty Images

Deborah Stokes 

The turtles were olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), which are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) .

Named for the olive hue of their shell, the turtles have been declining in numbers and only nest in a small number of places.

One of those places is the Morro Ayuta beach in Oaxaca, where the dead turtles washed up. During nesting season, which starts in June and runs through to the end of October, hundreds of the olive ridley turtles will congregate to lay their eggs on the beach in a mass nesting.

Hundreds of Olive Ridley sea turtles, known as Golfinas in Spanish, make nests to lay their eggs at Ixtapilla Beach, in Mexico.

 Enrique CASTROAFP/Getty Images

The beach is protected by Mexico’s environmental authorities. Turtle expert Ernesto Albavera Padilla told local media that all the dead animals were females.

Mexican authorities said they were likely drowned in illegal fishing nets or abandoned nets left in the ocean. The Mexican navy will be joining environmental authorities to investigate their death.

In 2018, a similar incident occurred when fishermen found 300 dead turtles tangled in fishing nets.

A 2011 study by IUCN found the most significant threat to sea turtles is accidental fishing or being caught in fisheries nets.

Sea turtles are protected in Mexico, with stiff fines for anyone catching or killing them.

There are also sea turtle nesting beaches along the Baja Pacific coast, with local groups protecting them and patrolling the beaches.

Report: Fine particles in air cause 4M premature deaths a year

Smoke from fires in Northern California lowers visibility of the Bay Bridge and San Francisco as viewed from Yerba Buena Island in October 2020. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 2 (UPI) -- An institute based in Japan says that more than 4 million people worldwide die prematurely each year due to tiny particles known as PM 2.5 particulates that get into the lungs and cardiovascular system.

In recent years, scientists have become increasingly concerned about the impact that PM2.5 particulates have on air pollution and health.

A paper released Tuesday on the issue by a team from the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan, coincides with the United Nations Climate Change summit that's being held in Scotland.

The Institute team, led by researcher Keisuke Nansai, mapped the microscopic particles from data gathered in 2010 and then projected their health impacts in 199 countries.

Among its findings, the report said the consumption of consumer goods from 19 of the Group of 20 nations were responsible for 78 000 premature deaths of infants worldwide. The report also asserted that global trade plays a role in the spread of PM2.5, in that "consumption in one country can lead to PM2.5 pollution in another."

And while most countries acknowledge they contribute to PM2.5 levels, there is little agreement on how much and how to assess each nation's financial responsibility, the report said.

The Institute warned about the dangers if world leaders do not take action to combat the pollution.

RELATED Study links air pollution to 6M premature births in 2019


An aerial view shows buildings engulfed in smog, in New Delhi, India, in 2017. File Photo by Harish Tyagi/EPA-EFE

"No studies have quantified the consumer responsibility of G20 nations for the substantial health impacts caused by atmospheric PM2.5.," the report said. "This lack of scientific knowledge risks delaying international collaborative efforts to safeguard the victims of the PM2.5 pollution.''

More broadly, the World Health Organization, too, blames air pollution for "millions of deaths and the loss of healthy years of life."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these particles come in many sizes and shapes and can be made up of hundreds of different chemicals. Some are emitted directly from a source, such as construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, smokestacks or fires.

Most particles form in the atmosphere as a result of complex reactions of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are pollutants emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles.

The New York State Department of Health says that fine particles also form from the reaction of gases or droplets in the atmosphere from sources such as power plants. These chemical reactions can occur miles from the original source of the emissions.


Heavy pollution, like this in Beijing in 2017, is the largest environmental cause of disease and premature death in the world, according to a study. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Because fine particles can be carried long distances from their source, events such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions can raise fine particle concentrations hundreds of miles from the event.

A report by The Lancet Journal released in September studied the connection between wildfires and PM2.5. The study included data from 749 cities in 43 countries and regions during 2000-16.

"Short-term exposure to wildfire-related PM2·5 was associated with increased risk of mortality," the report said. "Urgent action is needed to reduce health risks from the increasing wildfires."

OOP'S

Escalating Saudi dispute weakens Lebanon, may help Hezbollah

A Yemeni man looks at a billboard depicting Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi amid a Houthi campaign supporting Kordahi against the policies of Gulf states at a street in Sana'a, Yemen, on Sunday.

Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE

By Dalal Saoud

NOV. 2, 2021 

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Lebanon, facing one of the worst economic crises in the world, received a painful blow when Saudi Arabia, angered by critical comments concerning its military intervention in Yemen, decided to expel its ambassador and ban its imports.

The Saudi move on Friday further strained tense relations with Lebanon, whose new government led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati has been counting on improving ties with the Gulf countries to secure crucial financial assistance to prevent the country's total collapse.

Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates quickly backed Saudi measures, recalling their own ambassadors from Beirut and asking Lebanon's envoys to leave.

The diplomatic row was sparked by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi, who described Yemen's seven-year war as "futile" and said Iran-backed Houthi rebels were defending themselves against "external aggression."

RELATED U.S. sanctions 2 Lebanese businessmen, a lawmaker for corruption

Kordahi's remarks, recorded in August -- one month before he was named minister in Mikati's government -- and broadcast last week, were the straw that broke the camel's back after a series of events over years that have soured relations between the two countries.

"The relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia were not good even before Kordahi's comments. Ties were already bad," Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut, told UPI.

5 / 6Harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia and insulting remarks were repeatedly voiced by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah over the years. Screenshot via Manar TV/EPA-EFE

Hezbollah influence

Saudi Arabia, once Lebanon's main financial and political backer, has been increasingly concerned about the rising influence and dominance of Iran's proxy in Lebanon, the heavily armed Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia started to distance itself from Lebanon after a "presidential settlement," backed by then-ally former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who supported the election of Michel Aoun, Hezbollah's main Christian ally, as Lebanon's president in 2016.

A year later, Hariri, then prime minister, was reportedly "forced" to submit his resignation during a trip to Riyadh. He resumed his function after French President Emmanuel Macron intervened to allow his return to Beirut a few days later.

Harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia and insulting remarks were repeatedly voiced by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah over the years. Moreover, former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, a Hezbollah ally and son-in-law of Aoun, repeatedly adopted Hezbollah's positions, especially when he voted against a semi-Arab consensus on Syria at an Arab League meeting. Last May, former Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe had to quit after provoking the anger of Gulf states whom he blamed for the rise of the Islamic State.

The peak was the continuous smuggling of drugs from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. Riyadh said it had confiscated millions of white amphetamine pills, known as Captagon, hidden in fruit and vegetable shipments from Lebanon. In response, it decided to ban all Lebanese fruit and vegetables.

"It is an accumulation, with Lebanon adapting Hezbollah's positions ... and this has basically escalated the situation to where we are now," Mohanad Hage Ali, an analyst and fellow at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, told UPI. "The Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia are basically saying, 'Enough.'"

The new Saudi-Gulf escalation, Hage Ali said, will rather benefit Hezbollah.

"These measures are impacting the population, further weakening the state and ironically could be benefiting Hezbollah: bringing Lebanon closer to the Iranian and Syrian regimes/axis," he said.

Punitive to population

By imposing a ban on Lebanese imports, that reached $1.04 billion to Gulf Cooperation Council countries in 2020, many see the new Saudi measures as "punitive" and harmful to the Lebanese population rather than to Hezbollah.

However, Saudis could no longer sustain such an approach against them. They want to put a red line.

While the United States has been imposing sanctions on Hezbollah for the past two years, targeting its source of funding and punishing individuals and institutions behind it while trying not to harm Lebanon's economy, what the Saudis are doing "is very different," said Riad Tabbarah, Lebanon's former ambassador in Washington.

"They are punishing Lebanon, by expelling its ambassadors and stopping its exports," Tabbarah told UPI. He explained that Riyadh's new measures were not in line with the U.S. and French approach toward Lebanon.

"France is talking to Hezbollah day and night and the U.S. has an open channel to bring gas from Egypt via Syria" to help ease Lebanon's acute power crisis, Tabbarah said. "The new Saudi measures are a defensive reaction. Saudis could no longer sustain such an approach [from Lebanon] against them and they want to put a red line."

With Kordahi not willing to submit his resignation to help defuse the growing tension with Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners, Mikati received a boost from the United States and France to maintain his government in order to secure some stability in the country.

"The Americans are not really taking the Saudi anger seriously. They are committed to the maintenance of the Mikati government for a reason," Khashan said.

In September, Mikati succeeded in forming a new government, ending more than a year of stalemate that accelerated the collapse of the crisis-ridden country and further plunged the population into poverty. If he resigns, forming a new cabinet will be difficult and could lead to the cancellation of general elections, scheduled for March 27.

"Hezbollah does not care and does not lose anything if Saudis impose draconian measures on Lebanon," Khashan said. "The Saudis are frustrated and venting their anger at the weakest link, which is Lebanon."

He, however, noted that Saudi-Gulf-Lebanon relations "will not get worse but will not get any better."

At the end, it all depends on the Vienna nuclear talks that are set to resume at the end of this month.

"The main issue in Vienna is not .. whether Iran is to produce a nuclear bomb. There are other issues: Iran's missiles and proxies, like Hezbollah," Kashan said.

He said the United States wants to neutralize Iran's proxies in the region. To Iran, its proxies in the region are more important than the nuclear program... and Hezbollah is more important than its nuclear bomb," he said.

Ruining countries like Lebanon and making them "an easy bite" is what Iran needs "to take over completely," Khashan said.

CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS: "9 OUT OF 10 CASES REMAIN UNRESOLVED"

Issued on: 02/11/2021 -

"Mafias, criminal organizations use contract killers: they come, they shoot, they execute and they go. No trace, no witness", explains Jean-François Thony, President of the Siracusa International Institute at the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.

Lebanon's oldest English-language daily goes under

Issued on: 02/11/2021 - 

Lebanese newspaper, The Daily Star, which has become the latest media casualty of the country's financial meltdown, had warned of the impending crisis in an August 8, 2019 protest edition published without news JOSEPH EID AFP/File

Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon's oldest English-language daily newspaper laid off its entire staff and became the latest casualty in the collapse of the country's once-flourishing press, employees said Tuesday.

The Daily Star's employees were notified a few days earlier that they were all being made redundant from October 31, according to an email which was sent to the staff and seen by AFP.

The newspaper, which is co-owned by the family of former prime minister Saad Hariri, had halted its print edition early last year and stopped updating its website two weeks ago.

There was no statement from the newspaper but the layoffs put an end to years of financial difficulties during which staff were routinely paid late.

Hariri's once prosperous media empire has unravelled in recent years, with his Future TV channel and Arabic-language Al Mustaqbal daily downsizing to bare bones.

Lebanon's prominent As-Safir daily shut down five years ago and An-Nahar, another of the country's historical newspapers, is clinging on for dear life.

The Daily Star was founded in 1952 by Kamel Mroue, then owner and editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.

It closed for more than a decade during the 1975-1990 civil war, returning to news stands in 1996.

© 2021 AFP

USA FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE

Uninsured woman billed $700 for waiting in an Atlanta emergency room without care 

WHETHER YOU GET IT OR NOT
A Georgian woman was billed almost US$700 after waiting seven hours in an Atlanta emergency room, and leaving the hospital untreated

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© Provided by National Post

Taylor Davis had initially gone to the Emory Decatur hospital earlier this year to get a head injury treated, but after receiving little to no care, she decided to return home.

“I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name. I wasn’t seen at all,” Davis told Fox 5 Atlanta. “I sat there for seven hours. There’s no way I should be sitting in an emergency room.. an emergency room for seven hours.”

Weeks later, she received a bill in the mail and thought it was a mistake.

“So I called them and she said it’s hospital protocol even if you’re just walking in and you’re not seen. When you type in your social (insurance number), that’s it. You’re going to get charged regardless,” she said.

She was informed by the hospital that she was sent a bill for what is called an emergency room visit fee, an invoice that is often overshadowed by other more costly hospital bills.

After her complaint, an email was sent to Davis by the hospital’s patient financial services department stating, “You get charged before you are seen. Not for being seen.”

Said Davis: “I’m very reluctant to go to the hospital now. That’s kind of like the last resort now. Seeing that they’re able to bill you for random things, it doesn’t make me want to go. So that’s not good.”

Elections Canada probed how many Canadians have a 'conspiracy mindset'


OTTAWA — Elections Canada was curious to know how many Canadians believed in conspiracy theories in the lead up to the recent federal vote.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had two years left in his minority mandate in August when he plunged the country into an election while a fourth wave of COVID-19 raged.

Protesters opposed to public health measures like masking and mandatory vaccinations staged demonstrations, some of them following Trudeau as he crisscrossed the country, hurling obscenities at him and, at one point, even gravel.

Months before triggering the vote, the federal agency in charge of running elections commissioned its first stand-alone survey into the level of trust Canadians had in the electoral process. That included finding out how many held a "conspiracy mindset."

"Questions about conspiracies allow for a better understanding of what can trigger distrust toward electoral administration," Elections Canada spokeswoman Natasha Gauthier said in a statement, adding the "COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant social and economic changes, including in the realm of election administration."

"Looking at mistrust in general also helps us better understand what sorts of information and communication approaches can be effective in instilling trust in elections."

Conducted by the firm Leger over 10 days in April, the poll surveyed 2,500 Canadians online and through computer assisted interviewing technology.

It found a majority of respondents trusted Elections Canada and believed the voting system was "safe and reliable."

When it came to conspiracy beliefs, the study, recently posted to a government website, reported 17 per cent believed the government was trying to cover up the link between vaccines and autism, and 30 per cent thought new drugs or technologies were being tested on people without their knowledge.

The research also found 40 per cent of respondents subscribed to thinking that certain big events have been the product of a "small group who secretly manipulate world events."

Aengus Bridgman, a lead researcher on a project which tracked the spread of false and misleading information during the campaign, said putting an exact number on how many Canadians believe in conspiracies is tough because it comes down to how that's measured.

The McGill University PhD student in political science says the project, co-organized with the University of Toronto, has done its own surveys that suggest between 10 to 20 per cent of people held strong conspiracy beliefs.

Bridgman says false information about the novel coronavirus played a big role during the election. Social media also saw a "relentless group of individuals" making untrue claims about how mail-in votes would be counted, reflective of what unfolded during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, where former president Donald Trump pushed unsubstantiated concerns about fraudulent mail-in ballots.

As the Sept. 20 election day neared, Elections Canada countered with messages explaining the process for counting these ballots but Bridgman says that needs to happen faster.

"As soon as it starts circulating on a Telegram channel, you can be pretty sure within 24 hours, 36 hours, it's going to be on some of the more mainstream platforms, and people are going to be being exposed to it."

One of pandemic's effects, he says, is that vaccinations have become a "flashpoint" where groups who hold different conspiracy-based beliefs, from the Earth being flat to the allegedly sinister agenda of large pharmaceutical companies, finding a home together.

Mainstream political parties are often referred to as "big tent parties," Bridgman notes. "Well, now we have this big tent conspiracy party."

He says one conspiracy theory that appeared during the campaign and also online was around so-called "climate lockdowns."

That was spread by, among others, long-time Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant from Ontario. Leading up to the election, she circulated mailers to constituents warning that the Liberals wanted to impose a "climate lockdown" and made similar comments in a video posted to social media.

The video was removed after Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole received questions about it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 2, 2021

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

America 'on fire': Facebook watched as Trump ignited hate


By AMANDA SEITZ

October 28, 2021

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The reports of hateful and violent posts on Facebook started pouring in on the night of May 28 last year, soon after then-President Donald Trump sent a warning on social media that looters in Minneapolis would be shot.

It had been three days since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd for more than eight minutes until the 46-year-old Black man lost consciousness, showing no signs of life. A video taken by a bystander had been viewed millions of times online. Protests had taken over Minnesota’s largest city and would soon spread throughout cities across America.

But it wasn’t until after Trump posted about Floyd’s death that the reports of violence and hate speech increased “rapidly” on Facebook across the country, an internal company analysis of the ex-president’s social media post reveals.

“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd and I won’t let that happen,” Trump wrote at 9:53 a.m. on May 28 from his Twitter and Facebook accounts. “Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts the shooting starts!”

The former president has since been suspended from both Twitter and Facebook.

Leaked Facebook documents provide a first-hand look at how Trump’s social media posts ignited more anger in an already deeply divided country that was eventually lit “on fire” with reports of hate speech and violence across the platform. Facebook’s own internal, automated controls, meant to catch posts that violate rules, predicted with almost 90% certainty that Trump’s message broke the tech company’s rules against inciting violence.

Yet, the tech giant didn’t take any action on Trump’s message.

Offline, the next day, protests — some of which turned violent — engulfed nearly every U.S. city, big and small.

“When people look back at the role Facebook played, they won’t say Facebook caused it, but Facebook was certainly the megaphone,” said Lanier Holt, a communications professor at Ohio State University. “I don’t think there’s any way they can get out of saying that they exacerbated the situation.”

Social media rival Twitter, meanwhile, responded quickly at the time by covering Trump’s tweet with a warning and prohibiting users from sharing it any further.

Facebook’s internal discussions were revealed in disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. The redacted versions received by Congress were obtained by a consortium of news organizations, including The Associated Press.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Trump was one of many high-profile users, including politicians and celebrities, exempted from some or all of the company’s normal enforcement policies.

Hate speech and violence reports had been mostly limited to the Minneapolis region after Floyd’s death, the documents reveal.

In this June 3, 2020, file photo, a demonstrator stares at a National Guard soldier as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, near the White House in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“However, after Trump’s post on May 28, situations really escalated across the country,” according to the memo, published on June 5 of last year.

The internal analysis shows a five-fold increase in violence reports on Facebook, while complaints of hate speech tripled in the days following Trump’s post. Reports of false news on the platform doubled. Reshares of Trump’s message generated a “substantial amount of hateful and violent comments,” many of which Facebook worked to remove. Some of those comments included calls to “start shooting these thugs” and “f—- the white.”

By June 2, “we can see clearly that the entire country was basically ‘on fire,’” a Facebook employee wrote of the increase in hate speech and violence reports in the June 5 memo.

Facebook says it’s impossible to separate how many of the hate speech reports were driven by Trump’s post itself or the controversy over Floyd’s death.

In this May 30, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks with members of the press on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

“This spike in user reports resulted from a critical moment in history for the racial justice movement — not from a single Donald Trump post about it,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “Facebook often reflects what’s happening in society and the only way to prevent spikes in user reports during these moments is to not allow them to be discussed on our platform at all, which is something we would never do.”

But the internal findings also raise questions about public statements Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made last year as he defended his decision to leave Trump’s post untouched.

On May 29, for example, Zuckerberg said the company looked closely to see if Trump’s words broke any of its policies and concluded that they did not. Zuckerberg also said he left the post up because it warned people of Trump’s plan to deploy troops.

In this May 28, 2020, file photo, protesters and residents watch as police in riot gear walk down a residential street, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

“I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook account the night of May 29, as protests erupted around the country.

Yet, Facebook’s own automated enforcement controls determined the post likely did break the rules.

“Our violence and incitement classifier was almost 90% certain that this (Trump) post violated Facebook’s ... policy,” the June 5 analysis reads.

That contradicts conversations Zuckerberg had with civil rights leaders last year to quell concerns that Trump’s post was a specific threat to Black people protesting Floyd’s death, said Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, a civil rights advocacy group. The group also spearheaded a boycott of Facebook in the weeks following Trump’s post.

“To be clear, I had a direct argument with Zuckerberg days after that post where he gaslit me and he specifically pushed back on any notion that this violated their rules,” Robinson said in an interview with the AP last week.

In this April 11, 2018, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes a drink of water as he testifies before a House Energy and Commerce hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

A Facebook spokesperson said that its internal controls do not always correctly predict when a post has violated rules and that human review, which was done in the case of Trump’s post, is more accurate.

To curb the ex-president’s ability to stoke hateful reactions on its platform, Facebook employees suggested last year that the company limit reshares on similar posts that may violate Facebook’s rules in the future.

But Trump continued to use his Facebook account, which more than 32 million follow, to fire up his supporters throughout much of the remainder of his presidency. In the days leading up to a deadly siege in Washington on Jan. 6, Trump regularly promoted false claims that widespread voter fraud caused him to lose the White House, spurring hundreds of his fans to storm the U.S. Capitol and demand the results of a fair election be overturned.

It wasn’t until after the Capitol riot, and as Trump was on his way out of the White House, that Facebook pulled him off the platform in January, announcing his account would be suspended until at least 2023.

There’s a reason Facebook waited so long to take any action, said Jennifer Mercieca, a professor at Texas A&M University who closely studied the former president’s rhetoric.

“Facebook really benefited from Trump and Trump’s ability to draw attention and engagement through outrage,” Mercieca said. “They wanted Trump to keep going on.”

In this June 20, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump arrives on stage to speak at a campaign rally at the BOK Center, in Tulsa, Okla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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See full coverage of the “The Facebook Papers” here: https://apnews.com/hub/the-facebook-papers