Tag: nazis

Facebook Announces ‘Narrow Exception’ for Previously Censored Neo-Nazi ‘Azov Battalion’.

Facebook is reversing a ban on users praising Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, previously included in the platform’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Internal memos from the social media platform, which has routinely censored mainstream conservative content, reveal it will “allow praise of the Azov Battalion when explicitly and exclusively praising their role in defending Ukraine OR their role as part of the Ukraine’s National Guard.”

“Internally published examples of speech that Facebook now deems acceptable include “Azov movement volunteers are real heroes, they are a much needed support to our national guard”; “We are under attack. Azov has been courageously defending our town for the last 6 hours”; and “I think Azov is playing a patriotic role during this crisis,” added The Intercept, which first obtained the company memos.

“For the time being, we are making a narrow exception for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard,” clarified a spokesperson from Facebook’s parent company Meta.

“But we are continuing to ban all hate speech, hate symbolism, praise of violence, generic praise,  support, or representation of the Azov Regiment, and any other content that violates our community standards,” they added in a statement to Business Insider.

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FACEBOOK ALLOWS PRAISE OF NEO-NAZI UKRAINIAN BATTALION IF IT FIGHTS RUSSIAN INVASION

FACEBOOK WILL TEMPORARILY allow its billions of users to praise the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit previously banned from being freely discussed under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, The Intercept has learned.

The policy shift, made this week, is pegged to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and preceding military escalations. The Azov Battalion, which functions as an armed wing of the broader Ukrainian white nationalist Azov movement, began as a volunteer anti-Russia militia before formally joining the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014; the regiment is known for its hardcore right-wing ultranationalism and the neo-Nazi ideology pervasive among its members. Though it has in recent years downplayed its neo-Nazi sympathies, the group’s affinities are not subtle: Azov soldiers march and train wearing uniforms bearing icons of the Third Reich; its leadership has reportedly courted American alt-right and neo-Nazi elements; and in 2010, the battalion’s first commander and a former Ukrainian parliamentarian, Andriy Biletsky, stated that Ukraine’s national purpose was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].” With Russian forces reportedly moving rapidly against targets throughout Ukraine, Facebook’s blunt, list-based approach to moderation puts the company in a bind: What happens when a group you’ve deemed too dangerous to freely discuss is defending its country against a full-scale assault?

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Western Media is Literally Peddling Neo-Nazi Propaganda to Prompt War Between Russia and Ukraine.

Western media outlets have been peddling “military training” imagery featuring 79-year-old Valentyna Konstantynovska, aka “Granny Valentyna,” amidst the consistent pro-war coverage of Ukraine and Russia. Now, it has emerged, the images of the elderly lady in training were actually organized by the nation’s avowedly Neo-Nazi paramilitary, the ‘Azov Battalion’.

Konstantynovska featured on the front pages of a number of Western newspapers in the past week, including The Financial Times, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Independent – all UK-based papers or news sites. The sabre-rattling stories have also hit Israel’s Haaretz, America’s Fox News, and the Irish Times.

The photographs and media released over the past week show the senior citizen amongst others undergoing weapons and first aid training in the city of Mariupol in south-east Ukraine. The event appears to have been organized and promoted by the Azov Battalion, which formed in 2014 as a volunteer paramilitary organization before integrating into Ukraine’s formal military forces. In late 2021, the Biden regime proposed sending upwards of $300 million to Ukraine’s military, potentially aiding the Azov Battalion.

A spokesman for the group has attempted to dissuade American politicians from stopping funding for the entity, claiming that only one in five of the unit’s members are actual Neo-Nazis. Their efforts, especially with the Biden government, appear to have paid off.

In the middle of the coverage of the group’s training propaganda was NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel.

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Cold-case investigation names surprise suspect in Anne Frank’s betrayal

A six-year cold case investigation into the betrayal of Anne Frank has identified a surprising suspect in the mystery of how the Nazis found the hiding place of the famous diarist in 1944.

Anne and seven other Jews were discovered by the Nazis on Aug. 4 of that year, after they had hid for nearly two years in a secret annex above a canal-side warehouse in Amsterdam. All were deported and Anne died in the Bergen Belsen camp at age 15.

A team that included retired U.S. FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and around 20 historians, criminologists and data specialists identified a relatively unknown figure, Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh, as a leading suspect in revealing the hideout.

Some other experts emphasised that the evidence against him was not conclusive.

Investigating team member Pieter van Twisk said the crucial piece of new evidence was an unsigned note to Anne’s father Otto found in an old post-war investigation dossier, specifically naming Van den Bergh and alleging he passed on the information.

The note said Van den Bergh had access to addresses where Jews were hiding as a member of Amsterdam’s wartime Jewish Council and had passed lists of such addresses to the Nazis to save his own family.

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Files of the Nuremberg Trials published online

On the 75th anniversary of the Nuremberg trial of the major war criminals of World War II, Stanford University digitized the historical files of this trial and made them publicly available online. 

From November 20, 1945, to October 1, 1946, leading representatives of the National Socialist regime had to answer before an international military tribunal. The 24 main defendants included Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel and Karl Dönitz.

The documents were provided by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington has digitized the documents. Stanford University made the files searchable using text recognition and divided them into types of documents such as charges, closing arguments, pardon, and witness lists.

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COURT DOCS: Neo-Nazi Satanic Sect Leader Outed As FBI Informant Since 2003, Was Paid Over $140,000 By U.S. Government

A court filing in the case of a high-profile Neo-nazi group member has ousted Joshua Caleb Sutter as a longtime informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sutter, the publisher of Martinet Press, is allegedly an Atomwaffen member and key figure in the satanic group known as the O9A Tempel ov Blood, according to investigative reporter Ali Winston.

Investigative reporter Ali Winston has been covering the case against Kaleb Cole, an alleged Atomwaffen member who was charged with leading a conspiracy to intimidate reporters across the United States with other group members. All of them have entered guilty pleas except Cole, according to Winston.

In what Winston described as a “remarkable filing” from Cole’s case, it was revealed that Joshua Caleb Sutter, an Atomwaffen member, Satanic 09A Tempel ov Blood leader, and Satanic book publisher, is “undoubtedly” an FBI informant, and had been since 2003, according to documents. “Sutter isn’t identified by name, but its undoubtedly him. Martinet Press publishes Order of Nine Angles texts that have radicalized countless youth in Neo-Fascist, Satanist practices. He has that aforementioned ’03 conviction for trying to [sic] sell a firearm w/an obliterated serial,” Winston explained. The promotion of the satanic Tempel ov Blood ideology, according to journalist Jake Hanrahan, has connections to a series of murders in Great Britain.

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