The founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. Photo:
Reuters
Photo: Facebook
February 24, 2012
In a recently leaked document
outlining Facebook's "Abuse Standards
Violations" one section of this bizarre document
mentions that violations include " All attacks
on Ataturk (visual and text), maps of Kurdistan
(Turkey), Burning Turkish Flags, PKK support and
depiction, Abdullah 'APO' related material".
This document also prohibits the use of the word
'Kurdistan' as page titles and names of
individuals.
Dear Mark,
As I am sure you are aware, recently a copy of
your abuse standards violations were leaked to a
national newspaper in the UK. This in itself
should not have caused any concern and in fact I
welcome your efforts to monitor abuses on your
site.
In an age of free media where people can connect
with others around the world we need systems in
place to stop discrimination, abuse,
exploitation, bullying and we also need the
people to police this. So I would like to
congratulate you on your effort to stop this
from happening.
The reason I am writing however is to get an
explanation regarding the section titled “IP
blocks and International Compliance”.
This section seems almost too bizarre to be true
and stands out amongst the whole document as the
strangest policy clearly targeted against an
ethnic minority and for the promotion of one
individual and nationalist identity. I am not
going to make this correspondence and issue of
politics even though as you may be aware the
Kurds in Turkey (as well as Iraq, Iran and
Syria) have been denied basic human rights as
basic as the right to speak their language. I am
not going to make this an issue of personality
even though Ataturk is responsible for the
genocide of many Armenians and Kurds, or
Abdullah Ocallan who uses any means at his
disposal to progress the rights and freedoms of
his people (much in the same way as Nelson
Mandela in his early years who was branded a
terrorist by the world). I am not going to make
this a humanitarian issue even though you may or
may not be aware of the Kurdish struggle against
oppression where hundreds of thousands of Kurds
in Iraq are stillmissing from Saddams era, the
gassing of Halabja, the tens of thousands killed
by the Turkish government, the imprisonment of
children as young as 10 by Turkey for speaking
Kurdish and a whole list of other oppressive
policies. If you are not aware of these
struggles please research the subject or I will
be happy to explain in greater detail.
Instead I am going to make this an issue of
logic, common sense and rationality and if there
is a logical reason why the Kurdish ethnicity
has been singled out by your policy as some sort
of insulting and abusive swear word then please
explain as I and many others are finding it hard
to come up with one. The Tibetan people have
been fighting against the Chinese government to
gain basic human rights for decades but there is
no mention of banning the word “Tibet” in your
policy or abusive pictures of Chairman Mao or
the current government. Hitler,www.ekurd.net
Saddam, Stalin and a whole array of other
murderous dictators are not mentioned. Countless
people around the world are abused, victimized
and oppressed by their governments but you have
not mentioned them. It seems that the Kurdish
(and only Kurdish) people now have to add
Facebook to the list of oppressors.
As a Kurd I may be biased but I am not asking
you to support an independent Kurdish state or
for you to allow racist abusive behavior towards
Turkey or it’s people but your policy has
clearly been written or heavily influenced by a
Turkish individual or group that specifically
promotes Turkish nationalism and the oppression
of the Kurdish ethnic minority. In Iraq the
Kurdistan Regional Government is an
internationally recognized region within Iraq.
Dozens of consulates are spread around the
region and many more countries recognize
Kurdistan as a region within Iraq and yet not by
Facebook. If the Kurdistan Regional Government
wanted to open a page in its own name it would
not be able to because of your block. You have
denied an identity to a group of people that the
free thinking world has accepted. And what’s
more, the most personal impact of your policy
denies individuals the right to call themselves
by their own name on Facebook. Kurdistan is a
popular name amongst Kurdish Boys and Girls and
now thousands of them are learning why they
can’t call themselves by their own name, why
they are not allowed to use their own identity
because you have deemed it a dirty swear word.
That Facebook denies people the right to an
identity is ironic to say the least. I urge you,
on a matter of principle, logic, sensibility and
common sense to rethink this policy and remove
the block on my and millions of other people’s
identity.
Once again I commend your work in trying to
safeguard people from abuse on Facebook.
Yours Sincerely,
Hawar Jamal Ameen
Copyright ©, respective
author or news agency,
Hawar Jamal Ameen | kurdishaspect.com
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