Facebook in the grip of trolls

Dozens of Russian and Ukrainian blogs, in which the Kremlin’s policy is criticized, are blocked without serious grounds

The 17-year-old Vlad Kolesnikov was expelled from the Podolsk technical school after he came to classes in a T-shirt with the Ukrainian flag and the inscription "Return Crimea!" Grandfather, a former KGB officer and a passionate fan of Putin, kicked him out of the house due to political disagreements. Now the special services became interested in Vlad: the police came and asked where he got the same T -shirt from.

Vlad says that he has only two like -minded people in Podolsk, but thousands of friends from different countries who write, offer help and tell on their pages about his protest on the Internet. After Vlad Kolesnikov gave an interview with Radio Liberty and other media, on Facebook he had more than 5,000 frands and subscribers. Surely there would be more of them, but in the evening of June 11, Vlad account was closed. Those who corresponded with him in the Facebook chat lost all his remarks, the phrase appeared instead of them: "This message is no longer available, because it was defined as insulting or marked as spam."

There is no doubt that Vlad Kolesnikov became another victim of the Prochrevsky trolls team, who send thousands of false complaints about Russian and Ukrainian Facebook users writing about politics. Oddly enough, their requirements willingly satisfy the administration of the social network. “We can say that Facebook has turned into an effective tool of the Kremlin,” the authors of the appeal , which have been signed by more than 10,000 people today, including Alexei Navalny, Boris Akunin, Lev Rubinstein, Andrey Piontkovsky, Anton Nosik, Alexei Tsvetkov and Sergey Zhadan, say.

The trolls carefully monitor their enemies and look for the slightest reason to direct the complaint. One of the most loud ones was the lock at the end of May of the Top-blogger account Rustem Adagamov . The reason was the publication of photographs of Christmas toys from the Norwegian Museum of the Second World War in Sorma. This is how Adagamov commented on the situation for Radio Liberty:

Two accounts of Rustem Adagamov on Facebook are blocked due to the publication of photographs of Christmas toys

“I am not surprised when they start a business in Voronezh and fined a journalist who posted a photograph of his yard on his VKontakte page during the German occupation-there the flag with the swastika is visible in the muddy black and white photography. The degree of madness of Russian law enforcement officers has long crossed all reasonable limits, and it remains only to observe their actions, no surprise, but when the social network created. The Americans who are so proud of their freedom of speech for photographs of the New Year's Christmas toys from the Second World War only because some of them are depicting a swastika - this is immensely to the toys. Nazism or Himmler's portraits on harmless Christmas balls. Absurd, “can work out”, which receive financing with dissent in Runet, look for ways to influence the objectionables. things are automatically arranged, of course, because Facebook thus shows its true attitude to the users of the world's largest social network.

When Rustem Adagamov opened a new page, she was immediately blocked again. And he is far from the only victim of the trolls. The authors of appeal to the leadership of the social network note:

Trolls are looking for reasons for blocking in posts for the past, before last and even postponed years

"Users have repeatedly wrote to the Facebook administration that locks are carried out without proper proceedings and completely far -fetched reasons. Unfortunately, this does not lead to anything. In its recent response, the Ukrainians recognized only individual errors and promised to fix them, but the problem only exacerbated. Not a week after the response of Zuckerberg, as Facebook, once again He blocked the accounts of the Ukrainian artist and public figure Alexander Roitburd-for the words that the ancient Jews did not come from the town of Zhydachiv, Ukrainian journalist Andrei Kapustin-for allegedly “naked” photographs, which actually were completely dressed, Ukrainian politician Borislav Bereza, Russian journalist and gay gay Anton Krasovsky, gay. Russian financier and blogger of Glory Rabinovich, Ukrainian volunteer Leonid Krasnopolsky, Russian singer Alexei Lebedinsky. before, only in recent weeks, accounts of people known in Russia and Ukraine as Ukrainian journalists of Vakhtang Kipiani and Yuri Butusov, Russian poet Andriy Bondar were blocked. Blogger Anton Nosik, and dozens, if not hundreds of others - we ask for forgiveness from those who were not called here, but otherwise the list would turn out to be too long. "

Here is just one of the eloquent examples: a photograph of the demonstration in support of Ukraine is blocked as if due to the fact that it depicts something obscene.

Exactly the same incident occurred with the account of journalist Alexander Kapustin. He posted a selfie with Mikhail Saakashvili and with the signature of "We will see if they will ban me for this picture." Soon his account was blocked with the explanation that this picture is pornography,

It got to the point that the Olgino's open group appeared on Facebook, boasting its daily victories in the war with "FB Yuzers infected with the Maidanism."

The Facebook administration answered the authors of the petition . Having recognized some mistakes and excesses, she still insists that there is no evil intent, and the scale of the problem is not so great. The initiator of the petition, the journalist and blogger Ostap Karmodi told Radio Liberty that this answer did not satisfy him.

- Ostap, which of the famous bloggers writing on political topics was banned on Facebook lately?

- If we are talking about Russian, then Babchenko, Adagamov, Glory to Rabinovich, a little earlier - Anton Nosik and Sergey Parkhomenko. If about Ukrainian, then Butusov, Kapustin, Roitburd, Birch, Birch, Stokoz - it is easier, in short, to list who was not.

- When did this wave of locks begin?

-We can say that mass blocks in the Russian and Ukrainian Facebook segments began in the fall of 2014. But in April-May 2015, their number increased sharply.

- In all cases, the accounts were ultimately restored?

- Adagamov, Rabinovich and many others are still blocked. Some Ukrainians are again blocked a few hours after their previous ban ends. If there are no materials for this in their new posts, trolls are looking for reasons for blocking in posts for the last, before last and even postponed years.

- Is it possible to say with confidence that all banned became victims of the Kremlin trolls?

-With one hundred percent confidence we can say only when we see some documents or hear a few confirmed facts of confessions-such as employees from Savushkin Street , who were engaged in comments. But firstly, how massively complaints are filed, and the fact that they are filed precisely on those who say things that are unpleasant to the Kremlin, suggests that there are about the same people behind this as for already completely exposed comments. And secondly, in Facebook there is a group of “Bota from Olgino”, which completely does not hide the fact that it is engaged in blocking Ukrainian bloggers, and even proudly reports on successes.

- Why is the Facebook administration so malleable and freezing accounts, although it is clear that we are talking about very famous and popular people with thousands of frands? Do you suspect that someone works for the Kremlin there too?

- Assumptions can be made different. Some people think that they scored in the Russian -speaking moderation team of Kremlin sympathizers. Others - that the lock is carried out automatically if a certain number of complaints come. Another version - personally it seems to me the most likely - in the moderation team there are not enough people who understand Russian and Ukrainian, and she simply does not cope with a huge stream of complaints. But we don't care why. It is important for us that this stops, whatever the reasons there. And why this happens and how to stop it - let the Facebook understand. Although, of course, we will be happy to help him if he has such a desire.

- Are you satisfied with the reaction of the Facebook administration to appeal? What are you going to do next?

- We are satisfied that Facebook found it necessary to answer. The contents of the answer, alas, are not satisfied. In fact, this is an unsubscription. But we did not expect to reach the goal so quickly. This is a marathon, not a hundred -meter, in order to move such a colossus as Facebook, it may take months. We already have an approximate action plan for the coming days and weeks, but I will not open it yet, so as in a movie, not to spoil the audience pleasure. Expect new episodes. And join the petition, it is more interesting to participate than observe from the outside, ” says Ostap Karmodi .

A new appeal to the Facebook administration was prepared on June 12. It says that some of the banned bloggers have tens of thousands of subscribers, which is comparable to the circulation of the periodic publication. Closing such an account is like destroying the newspaper. But the problem is not only this. "Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian bloggers no longer feel safe on Facebook. They know that they are potential targets for trolls and their accounts can be blocked at any time."

In the virtual war, the Kremlin team is still winning, on the side of which - by thought or consciously, the Facebook administration plays.