Yazidis in Iraq Want Major Social Networks to be Held Accountable for ISIS Crimes

2022/02/5210-1645601015.jpg
Read: 1653     12:30     23 Февраль 2022    

Yazidi activists in Iraq claim that the sale of Yazidi women and children continues to this day on various social platforms, thus activists accuse major social networks of facilitating the trade of ISIS, calling on governments to investigate the moderation of WhatsApp, Facebook, Meta and YouTube content.
One such example: The family of Wahab Hasso had to pay $80,000 for the release of his niece from ISIS militants who kidnapped her in 2014 and then offered her "for sale" in a WhatsApp group.
Now the Hasso family and dozens of other members of the Yazidi minority in Iraq are demanding that social networks be brought to justice, accusing them of helping jihadists smuggle Yazidi women, girls and children.
Hasso and other Yazidi activists worked for free with lawyers to produce a report calling on the United States and other countries to investigate the role of social media, including Facebook and YouTube, in crimes against Yazidis.
Hasso, a 26-year-old student who was resettled in the Netherlands in 2012 after his father received threats in connection with his work with American soldiers in the conflict-torn country.
The 120-page document states that major technology companies did not act aggressively enough against ISIS members using their platforms to trade women and children abducted by terrorists in Sinjar eight years ago.
Also, moderators of major social networks do not eradicate hate speech against Yezidis on their platforms, pointing out shortcomings in content moderation and calling for stricter government regulation.
During the campaign of violence, which the UN investigation team called genocide, ISIS terrorists killed Yazidi men, recruited boys as child soldiers, and women and girls were bought and sold as "sex slaves." "We are asking the government to investigate because we believe that these platforms contributed to the genocide," Wahab Hasso said.
The report, detailing dozens of examples of online traffic, includes screenshots of Facebook users haggling over the price of a young Yazidi woman and YouTube videos.
YouTube declined to comment on the allegations in the report, but their spokesman said that from July to September 2021, the site removed "only 250,000 videos violating their policy on violent extremism."
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, which also owns the WhatsApp messaging platform, declined to comment at all.
A Twitter representative said that threats to terrorism or its propaganda contradict their rules, but declined to comment on the situation specifically of the Yezidis.
Some of the abducted Yezidi women and girls managed to escape. Others, such as Hasso's niece, were brought home by families after they paid the kidnappers. Hundreds more are still missing.
"This is literally a David and Goliath case," said Katherine van Kampen, a securities fraud lawyer who volunteered with the Dutch Yazidi rights organization (NL Helpt Yezidis) for four years in preparing the report. According to her, officials in the United States, where many of the accused social networks are based, have already received copies of the report.
U.S. websites are protected from most lawsuits if their users post material that is illegal under section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act of 1996, but subsequent legislation means this will not apply to human trafficking, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. This means that US authorities can investigate and possibly prosecute companies, the report says.
Foreign governments are forcing social networks to admit their shortcomings and eventually compensate the victims.
"There are precedents that inspire, for example, the decision taken by the national railway company of the Netherlands in 2019 to pay compensation to survivors and families of Holocaust victims who were transported by Dutch railways to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
If the investigation leads to a criminal trial and an indictment, so be it. If it leads to a civil lawsuit, so be it. We want the truth to come out," Van Kampen said.
A Yazidi woman, whose sister has not yet been found, says that she took part in the campaign because she wanted justice and answers, not money. Every day she looked through Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups to find a picture of her sister:
The Islamic State buys and sells Yazidi women like cigarette packs."

yazidinews.com





Tags: #yazidisinfo   #newsyazidis   #aboutyazidis   #genocideyazidis   #humanrights   #iraqyazidis  



Yazidis in Iraq Want Major Social Networks to be Held Accountable for ISIS Crimes

2022/02/5210-1645601015.jpg
Read: 1654     12:30     23 Февраль 2022    

Yazidi activists in Iraq claim that the sale of Yazidi women and children continues to this day on various social platforms, thus activists accuse major social networks of facilitating the trade of ISIS, calling on governments to investigate the moderation of WhatsApp, Facebook, Meta and YouTube content.
One such example: The family of Wahab Hasso had to pay $80,000 for the release of his niece from ISIS militants who kidnapped her in 2014 and then offered her "for sale" in a WhatsApp group.
Now the Hasso family and dozens of other members of the Yazidi minority in Iraq are demanding that social networks be brought to justice, accusing them of helping jihadists smuggle Yazidi women, girls and children.
Hasso and other Yazidi activists worked for free with lawyers to produce a report calling on the United States and other countries to investigate the role of social media, including Facebook and YouTube, in crimes against Yazidis.
Hasso, a 26-year-old student who was resettled in the Netherlands in 2012 after his father received threats in connection with his work with American soldiers in the conflict-torn country.
The 120-page document states that major technology companies did not act aggressively enough against ISIS members using their platforms to trade women and children abducted by terrorists in Sinjar eight years ago.
Also, moderators of major social networks do not eradicate hate speech against Yezidis on their platforms, pointing out shortcomings in content moderation and calling for stricter government regulation.
During the campaign of violence, which the UN investigation team called genocide, ISIS terrorists killed Yazidi men, recruited boys as child soldiers, and women and girls were bought and sold as "sex slaves." "We are asking the government to investigate because we believe that these platforms contributed to the genocide," Wahab Hasso said.
The report, detailing dozens of examples of online traffic, includes screenshots of Facebook users haggling over the price of a young Yazidi woman and YouTube videos.
YouTube declined to comment on the allegations in the report, but their spokesman said that from July to September 2021, the site removed "only 250,000 videos violating their policy on violent extremism."
Meta, formerly known as Facebook, which also owns the WhatsApp messaging platform, declined to comment at all.
A Twitter representative said that threats to terrorism or its propaganda contradict their rules, but declined to comment on the situation specifically of the Yezidis.
Some of the abducted Yezidi women and girls managed to escape. Others, such as Hasso's niece, were brought home by families after they paid the kidnappers. Hundreds more are still missing.
"This is literally a David and Goliath case," said Katherine van Kampen, a securities fraud lawyer who volunteered with the Dutch Yazidi rights organization (NL Helpt Yezidis) for four years in preparing the report. According to her, officials in the United States, where many of the accused social networks are based, have already received copies of the report.
U.S. websites are protected from most lawsuits if their users post material that is illegal under section 230 of the U.S. Communications Decency Act of 1996, but subsequent legislation means this will not apply to human trafficking, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. This means that US authorities can investigate and possibly prosecute companies, the report says.
Foreign governments are forcing social networks to admit their shortcomings and eventually compensate the victims.
"There are precedents that inspire, for example, the decision taken by the national railway company of the Netherlands in 2019 to pay compensation to survivors and families of Holocaust victims who were transported by Dutch railways to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
If the investigation leads to a criminal trial and an indictment, so be it. If it leads to a civil lawsuit, so be it. We want the truth to come out," Van Kampen said.
A Yazidi woman, whose sister has not yet been found, says that she took part in the campaign because she wanted justice and answers, not money. Every day she looked through Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups to find a picture of her sister:
The Islamic State buys and sells Yazidi women like cigarette packs."

yazidinews.com





Tags: #yazidisinfo   #newsyazidis   #aboutyazidis   #genocideyazidis   #humanrights   #iraqyazidis