My right in the board of directors How did Facebook direct public opinion in the United States?

Since the global tech giant has come under accusation, facts have not ceased to emerge, condemning it to bias and bias. The latest episode of this series was the involvement of his officials in promoting right-wing and populist campaigns in the United States, most notably former President Trump.

In recent years, technology has become an influential pole and an important player in domestic and international politics. And if we are talking about technology, it is obvious that the social networking giant (Meta/Facebook), which has more than 3 billion users around the world, is the subject of discussion.

Since its inception, this platform has played a major role in guiding opinions and influencing users' choices at important milestones they go through. It was also, at the same time, a platform for promoting personalities and ideas without others, based on what was revealed by leaks and investigative investigations, despite its officials claiming that it provides opportunities for all users to express themselves on an equal footing.

After the XCheck secret list scandal and biased privacy policies, the roles played by some of the company's most important officials, in what media and politicians called "pushing the United States to the right" by providing support to the right-wing camp in the United States, have also recently been put in the spotlight.

Facebook investors and advisors.. Huge funding for right-wing campaigns

After Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the Facebook network, the American press recently highlighted one of the most important members of the Facebook board of directors, and its first outside investor, the 54-year-old American billionaire, Peter Thiel, who announced this week that he is stepping down from the Facebook board after more For 15 years, he played major roles in the company.

Thiel is considered one of the most controversial figures in Silicon Valley, due to his right-wing and contradictory political views, and has long been known for his support of right-wing candidates and supporters of former US President Donald Trump.

According to a previous report by the New York Times, the tech billionaire backed Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign with at least $1.25 million, and later served on his transition team, as a link between Trump and Silicon Valley. In addition, to this day, he is considered one of the most prominent funders of right-wing campaigns in the Senate, and one of the most important supporters of right-leaning political action committees.

Thiel did not stop pumping a lot of money to support right-wing policies and push candidates to power in the United States, and in the meantime, he became one of the most important investors and financiers, in the technology giant "Facebook", which he relied on to promote these ideas and personalities in an indirect way.

A previous report by the American Wall Street Journal stated, "Thil, the advisor on the board, had a great influence on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for years, prompting the latter to adopt a non-interference approach in managing content and ads on network applications." .

This allowed the rise of right-wingers and populists in the United States of America. Thiel is only one of the many investors and officials in the Facebook network who have ideas aligned with the right-wing and push towards it, and the lights have not yet turned to them, to reveal more of them, and their roles in guiding the United States to the right, as described by observers and analysts. .

Promotion and identification with the rhetoric of the right

Despite Zuckerberg's assertion that Facebook allows all users to communicate and address the public on an equal basis, and that the standards apply to everyone regardless of their fame or stature, several recently leaked documents to the US Congress and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the regulator of the stock market Finance, revealed that the company has developed an invisible system that exempts some prominent users from some or all of the rules. By including some users in a secret whitelist called "XCheck" that grants those included in it immunity from enforcement procedures, and enables them to post material that often violates the general rules, without any reviews, verification, or quick withdrawal of content.

Which thus explains, Facebook allowed the posts and speeches of former US President Donald Trump to spread despite their violation of standards, before deleting his account later.

And according to a report by the Washington Post, Facebook has constantly changed its algorithms, in a biased way that allows right-wingers to publish their political claims and ideas without accountability. This identification actually began in 2015, when Trump began to emerge as a presidential candidate, and then enlisted his backers from executives within the network to support him and launch exceptions for political speech on the platform.

As Trump's power has grown, fear of his wrath has prompted Facebook to engage in more conciliatory behavior toward the growing number of right-leaning users, transforming the form of content that network administrators deal with.

In the end, the network succumbed somewhat to the pressures imposed on it, as a result of investigations that convicted it of bias and manipulation of users' ideas. However, this does not negate, according to experts, specialists and former employees of the network, that it provided financial support through its investors and officials, and also promoted campaigns and speeches for the right-wing camp in the United States.

Zelensky invited Biden to visit Kiev "in the coming days"

US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky

Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday invited his US counterpart Joe Biden to visit Kiev to show Washington's support for his country in the face of the threat of a Russian invasion.

"I am confident that your visit to Kiev in the coming days will be a strong signal and will contribute to stabilizing the situation," the Ukrainian presidency quoted Zelensky as saying to Biden during a phone call between them earlier on Sunday.

Ukraine calls for a 48-hour meeting with Russia to discuss the current crisis

For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, on Sunday, called on Russia and all concerned countries to hold a meeting within the next 48 hours to discuss Moscow's military reinforcement along its borders.

"Russia failed to respond to our request under the Vienna Document," Kuleba wrote on Twitter in English.

"Kiev is now taking the next step, which is to request a meeting," he added.

“We are requesting a meeting with Russia and all concerned countries within 48 hours to discuss their strengthening and redeployment along our borders and in occupied Crimea,” the Ukrainian minister continued, referring to the conflict-torn eastern Donbas region, partly occupied by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. .

On Friday, Kuleba made a similar request but received no response from Russia.

Kuleba also called on Moscow to "fulfill its commitment to military transparency in order to de-escalate tensions and enhance security for all."

Relations between Kiev and Moscow have been experiencing escalating tension for nearly 7 years, due to Russia's illegal annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea and its support for separatists loyal to it in the "Donbass".

Western countries, led by the United States, accuse Russia of amassing forces near the Ukrainian border, and Washington has threatened to impose sanctions on Moscow if it launches an attack on Ukraine.

Russia rejects the accusations about the movements of its forces inside its territory, and denies the existence of any aggressive plans it has towards Ukraine.(agencies)

US temporarily bans avocado imports from Mexico

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's Agriculture Ministry announced Sunday evening that the United States has temporarily banned imports of avocados from Mexico after a US agricultural inspector in Michoacan received phone threats.

The ministry said in a statement that the import ban coincided with the Super Bowl final, an event in which a large number of people in the United States usually prepare the guacamole salad.

Michoacan, the only Mexican state with full licenses from the US authorities to export avocados, suffers from widespread violence at the hands of gangs involved in drug smuggling and kidnapping.

The Mexican government has sent about 1,000 soldiers to the state of Michoacan over the past week to address the violence there.

In the past six weeks, producers in the state of Michoacan have exported 135,000 tons of avocados to the United States, according to statistics from the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture.

About 1.5 million tons of avocados are harvested annually in Mexico.(dpa)