Middle East

Rep. Omar says GOP is worried that Afghan refugees ‘will outshine them’

Published

9 months ago

August 18, 2021

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By Jenny Goldsberry

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) advocated or more Afghan refugees, claiming the Republican party won’t because they’re worried the refugees “will outshine them.” The Somali refugee turned lawmaker appeared on MSNBC Tuesday.

“I know what some of these people are worried about,” Omar said of the GOP. “It’s that they’re worried that refugees like myself, when they come to this country, will outshine them. But that is just their own failure and their inability to find success in the ways in which refugees have found success in this country.”

Now is our chance to live up to these values.

To provide refuge for the huddled masses yearning to breathe free in Afghanistan and around the world.

Let’s seize it! pic.twitter.com/e2ObFc2XCO
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 18, 2021

However, Omar said she will continue to advocate for more Afghan refugees. “We are going to keep our commitment. We’re going to keep our promise, and we’re going to keep pushing the administration and other countries to do their part,” Omar told host Joy Ann Reid. “The Afghani people deserve not just our empathy, but they need our partnership and our allyship to make sure that their lives are safe and prosperous.”

Meanwhile, women and children have fallen in the hands of the Taliban. In a statement she said she respects the women who choose to stay. But, Omar said “we have an obligation to them too.”

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.

Middle East

Facebook, Instagram Employees ‘Censor or Delete’ Protests against Iran

Published

3 days ago

May 23, 2022

Sara Carter Staff

Former and current Facebook and Instagram employees are shedding light onto the “fact checkers” that are censoring vital content such as protests against Iran. “According to a report by BBC Persian, these employees admitted that at all levels of the company, the Iran regime’s influence has infiltrated, leaving biased and pro-regime content monitors to restrict, censor or delete posts about the current protests in Iran” reports The Foreign Desk.

Similar to censorship at the companies in the United States and elsewhere, the behavior is its own political movement. “The actions by these Iranian employees to remove images of the demonstrations in Iran and associated hashtags helps reinforce the Islamic Republic’s argument that the protests are not so widespread.”

According to one of the former employees who had his identity hidden for security purposes, told the BBC Persian in an interview from Germany, that the workers travel back and forth between Europe and Iran. “About 90 percent” of the decision making on censorship is done by these “fact checkers.”

“These are individuals who single-handedly take posts down. According to the source, employees are not allowed to have their personal cellular devices with them at their workstations, so these individuals go to the break room to report a post from their personal phones and then come back to their workstations and address the ‘complaint’ they just created.”

Instagram removed the below post from the @FarashgardFdn becase people chanted “down with Khamenei”.

This action gives us the impression they are censoring Iranian protesters. This is unacceptable @instagram. Restore the post! pic.twitter.com/gsc0M8UaCE

— Iranian Americans for Liberty (@LibertyIranian) May 16, 2022

The Foreign Desk adds:

In 2019 TELUS International became the third-party company contracted with Instagram and Facebook to become their fact checkers and address complaints from users reporting posts for violent, hateful, or threatening material.

A second source, a former TELUS employee, said approximately 400-500 Iranians work at the company in Germany, a country that is known to have diplomatic and bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic.

The Islamic Republic has learned from the Green Revolution of 2009 to infiltrate Western social media outlets and their parent companies to control the narrative and prevent the international community from siding with anti-regime demonstrators.