Social Media

Woman Asked to Kill Her Baby by Social Media Users over Birthmark

Published

6 years ago

December 21, 2019

Maria Khvostantseva, a 22-year old Russian, has revealed how social media users urged her to kill her one-month-old baby, Vika because she had birthmarks that covered 80 per cent of her body.

Khvostantseva said the abuse came on the heels of her speaking out against a local priest, who had refused to baptise her baby, once he saw a picture of her, thinking she was infectious.

Khvostantseva said she took a picture of Vika to a priest in the city of Kurgan in west-central Russia’s Kurgan Oblast, but he turned her away.

Speaking on a TV programme, she said, “I got tons of messages and phone calls from strangers. They were insulting me and urging to kill my baby. A woman said to me by phone ‘kill your child. Throw it under a train.’”

One of the vile messages Maria received read, “It’s better to die than to be like that.”

Another said, ‘You should put it under acid rain.’

Russian police have since opened an investigation into the alleged abuse following Khvostantseva’s interview.

Social Media

Facebook: Account Removals from UAE, Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria

Published

7 years ago

October 4, 2019

georgiefrio

In an attempt to discourage world violence, Facebook has removed over 300 accounts, pages and groups from its platforms.

The list of total accounts, pages, and groups removed from their platform includes 443 Facebook and 125 Instagram accounts, 200 pages and 76 groups originating in UAE, Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

In a blog post-Thursday, Facebook said that one of the operations was sharing local news in targeted countries and promoting content about UAE as well as criticism of Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.

A smaller operation was involved in “domestic-focused coordinated inauthentic behavior in Indonesia,” with fake accounts sharing content in support of the independence movement in West Papua province, while others posted criticism of it.

A third operation, originating in Egypt, focused on Somalia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Qatar, the social media company said.

The fake accounts “typically posted about domestic news and political topics including content in support of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

The fake account also made criticism of Qatar, Iran, and Turkey; and Yemen’s southern separatist movement.”

Around 193,000 people followed one or more of the Instagram accounts.