Professional-European voices in Bulgaria will protest on the headquarters of TELUS Worldwide Bulgaria, a third-party contractor offering moderation providers to the nation’s hottest social media platform Fb, which they are saying promotes anti-European and pro-Kremlin voices however silences anti-Putin content material that favours Ukraine.
The protest towards Fb can be organised by the civil affiliation BOEC, one of many organisers of the anti-government demonstrations that occurred all through the summer time of 2020, opposing the rule of GERB and its chief and former prime minister Boyko Borissov.
“Within the final 5 years, my account has been banned precisely 50 occasions. In whole, I’ve spent greater than three years banned due to my actions with BOEC and our battles towards the mafia and the Kremlin’s ‘fifth column’,” BOEC chief Georgi Georgiev mentioned.
In the meantime, the pro-European get together Democratic Bulgaria demanded that the corporate be heard in parliament. The explanations are the identical – frequent complaints from numerous customers that their accounts are illegally banned.
In line with Democratic Bulgaria MP Ivaylo Mirchev, it should be made clear how Fb – the communication with the best affect in Bulgaria – applies its content material administration insurance policies.
“it’s good for the parliament and the general public to pay attention to the rules and guidelines of their work, as this channel has a robust affect on all spheres of public life”, he added.
Christo Komarnitski, the well-known cartoonist with over 52,000 Fb followers who attracts for EURACTIV’s companion Sega has as soon as once more been banned for 30 days for sharing a submit by a Bulgarian who says he’s in Ukraine and can be there till victory. The submit has not been deleted, however persons are being banned for sharing it.
One other satirist from Sega, Ivo Balev, who additionally works for Prass Press, acquired a six-day ban for a remark by which he censored vulgar phrases utilizing an ellipsis.
Advertiser Radoslav Bimbalov has additionally been blocked, whereas the poet Manol Glishev is threatened with profile deletion.
Different journalists have been additionally blocked, together with Atanas Chobanov from the investigative website Chicken.bg. Nonetheless, his ban was short-lived, as his attraction resulted in Fb deciding that its guidelines weren’t violated.
Already in December, when discontent towards TELUS began to rise, Kristina Ivanova, vice chairman of Operations at TELUS Worldwide Bulgaria, denied that her firm makes selections about implementing Meta guidelines.
“We’re neither tied to the Russian authorities nor some other authorities on the planet. We’re a totally unbiased, publicly traded firm,” she added.
(Krassen Nikolov | EURACTIV.bg)
