Mark Zuckerberg’s company Facebook is already used to censoring governments. After closing French Army accounts in the Central African Republic and Mali in December 2020, plus those of the incumbent President of the United States in January 2021, Facebook has also just closed those of Ugandan president Museveni’s team.
The decision came a few days before the Ugandan presidential election in which President Yoweri Museveni was running for a second term, in an attempt to favour his adversary, singer Bobi Wine.
The above is in line with the partnership signed between the transnational company and the Atlantic Council to encourage “the correct use of Facebook in elections around the world, monitoring disinformation and foreign interference, helping to educate citizens and civil society”.
In 2011, at Israel’s behest, Facebook censored accounts calling for an uprising in the Palestinian territories [1].
Also in 2011, President Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly praised Facebook’s role in the “Arab Spring” regime changes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed that Facebook allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to have access to the personal data of all of its users.
In 2015, Facebook declared Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Republic “terrorist organizations”. It closed the accounts of several television networks, including Al-Mayadeen (at the time the most viewed news channel in the Arab world), Sama and Dunia (two Syrian public television channels) as well as Ikhbariya (a private Syrian television company), while, at the same time, providing training services to jihadists [2].
In 2017, Shelley Kasli, editor-in-chief of Great Game India (India) disclosed how Facebook had managed to manipulate information in India to the point of getting Narendra Modi elected prime minister [3].
In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg dreamt of becoming Vice President of the United States had President Donald Trump been impeached during the Russiagate probe. His next goal was to become president by forcing Mike Pence to resign [4]. He had assembled a communications team around Barack Obama’s former campaign manager. When he was given a hard time during his congressional committee hearings, he chose another strategy.
In 2018, Facebook banned the intergovernmental television channel TeleSur, jointly created by Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Facebook France is headed by Laurent Solly, formerly President Sarkozy’s chief of staff, and then number two at private television channel TF1. He is married to Caroline Roux, star journalist of public television channel France2.
Internationally, Facebook’s director of public relations is Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg. He served as deputy to British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Facebook is also involved in African colonial politics, with its submarine cable project 2Africa encircling the continent. This network will connect the main ports, but will not penetrate inland [5].
Facebook began by censoring personalities it labeled as extremists without any public outcry. Today this multinational company is more powerful than the most powerful of governments.