And? It's what we do. Build walls, then fight over them. When you win you steal their treasures. Ask your kids what their games' strategy is.
"Similar arguments have been made as social media sites, including YouTube, have deleted videos that show atrocities committed during the Syrian war that could be used to prosecute war crimes."
When Facebook or YouTube deletes a page of content, it is not the same as deleting the evidence. It just is not visible or accessible to anyone outside of the company, and probably even then only by certain employees within the company. And even if it were deleted, backing-up and archiving data is a normal activity for any business, especially an Internet business, and they would pull out the archive for the day before it was deleted to recover a copy of the content.
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These so-called antiquities are all fake. People in the Middle East have been making fake antiques for gullible tourists since ancient times. Buying this kind of merchandise is like buying a Rolex on Canal Street.
Yet another reason why Facebook is terrible (as if we needed many more).
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Instead of the FTC’s pending $5 billion fine, I’d suggest $15 billion in stock in addition to the $5 billion and 2 seats on the board.
Facebook gives the impression that its policy is to allow anything that it thinks will make money for it, and to provide a minimalist "solution" only when it gets caught. Governments who ought to be overseeing Facebook give the impression that they don't care very much.
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While Facebook is not to be excused for complicity in the sale of looted Middle Eastern Antiquities, it should be remembered that many of the world's outstanding museums still possess looted items.
Here is one example: The British Museum still has the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles and 4,000 bronze sculptures from Benin.
https://www.history.com/news/british-museum-stolen-artifacts-nigeria
This is a drop in the bucket.
What is their excuse? (Yes, I know, they and others have excuses and explanations; they do not work).
So while everyone is busy attacking FB, try paying attention to some earlier crimes.
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This is the other side of the 'repatriating' works of art and archeology debate.
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@elle. spoken like a true colonizer. but no. this is the other side of 'regime change' policies, bombing countries that did nothing to us, instigating coups and empowering (yes, arming) insane groups like alqaed and isis.
What is Sheryl Sandberg's oversight involvement in this? How is she covering her tracks? Because that seems to be what she does. She could redeem herself by doing the right thing to cut down on funding for terrorism through all of Facebook's owned companies.
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Another great hypocrisy at play. While ISIS appears rooted into the most rudimentary and primitive perception of the world, its members nonetheless resort to using smartphones along with prospecting the riches of Facebook and the internet for that matter as a mean to ramp up their shady business in today's world.
Past the arbitrary killing of innocents, the defacing of famed monuments that leaves behind a smoldering trail of cities razed to the ground, still, they have the nerve to make an extra buck out of reselling leftover pieces to help fuel the so-called war effort waged against the western world.
Caveat emptor to western customers, don't buy into this or sure enough, the money will end up in the wrong pockets.
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@jeanfrancois Exactly. Whoever buys is funding terrorism and death wherever ISIS pops up next. The connections made with wealthy people who can afford this build relationships to benefit terrorism. The entire supply & buy chain should be prosecuted better by international justice. WITH Facebook, YouTube & WhatsApp help. I mean, surely when they delete, the data is not really deleted from their systems. Right?
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The destruction of cultural artifacts is a form of genocide.
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Reading this alongside Chris Hughes' Opinion piece today certainly adds to the argument. It truly is well-past time to break up Facebook.
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The U.S. is hardly innocent in regards to the looting & destruction of antiquities in the Middle East.
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/world/a-nation-at-war-looting-pillagers-strip-iraqi-museum-of-its-treasure.html
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Thanks Facebook
You are the platform for civilizations demise.
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I commend the Times for turning to scholars and authorities on this issue who come from the Middle East.
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Facebook’s full if largely unspoken motto has always been, “Move fast, break things, make as much $$$ as possible, and let everyone else pick up the pieces.”
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It's devastating to see the provenance of so many artifacts destroyed, in addition to the artifacts simply being destroyed themselves.
Another part of me thinks that the people of the region have lost the right to act as stewards to humanity's shared heritage, and I hope at least what remains finds sanctuary with owners that appreciate and protect it, however unscrupulous they were in its acquisition.
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@Alexander So much was destroyed and looted as a direct result of the US invasion of Iraq and ISIS which was also a direct result of the US invasion. Blame the US for their role in the destruction and destabilization of this region. When the US invaded Iraq there were no provisions in place to protect the museums.
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Move fast and break things. Not only did Facebook break American democracy, they’ve also broken world history.
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I worked with ancient art for many years and can without a doubt say that the bust from Palmyra featured in the article is a modern copy - also known as a forgery. It is wrong from a stylistic point of view.
It would be interesting if a scholar would analyze the percentage of objects offered for sale on Facebook and the like that are indeed authentic and not modern copies.
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@Andrew
Forgeries feed the market and demand for antiquities as well so, ultimately, is doesn't matter how many are fakes.
Doesn't look like a forgery to me. Compare to materials from the current MMA exhibit, The World Between Empires
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/world-between-empires-art-and-identity-ancient-middle-east
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@Andrew
The point is, you don't know what it is. When an object is ripped from the ground, its archaeological context is lost forever. It's going to be all that much harder to figure out what is fake and what's real.
Disgusting and criminal.
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