Russian Court Sentences Meta Spokesperson To Six Years in Absentia, Calls Meta '...

Russian Court Sentences Meta Spokesperson To Six Years in Absentia, Calls Meta 'Extremist Organisation'

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A military court in Moscow on Monday sentenced Meta spokesperson Andy Stone to six years in prison for "publicly defending terrorism," a verdict handed down in absentia, RIA news agency reported. Reuters: Meta itself is designated an extremist organisation in Russia and its Facebook and Instagram social media platforms have been banned in the country since 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.

[...] Russia's interior ministry opened a criminal investigation into Stone late last year, without disclosing specific charges. RIA cited state investigators as saying Stone had published online comments that defended "aggressive, hostile and violent actions" towards Russian soldiers involved in what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.

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- 1 hidden comment
- - Re:
    
    Georgia has applied to join the European Union, just saying.
    - 1 hidden comment
he lied about not wanting to annex Crimea, he lied about the "polite people" aka the "Little Green Men" & the purpose of his bullshit "special military operation"
- 1 hidden comment
Putin being tried for war crimes at The Hague
- 2 hidden comments
- by sinij ( 911942 ) on Monday April 22, 2024 @11:52AM (#64414384)
  
  There is almost zero chance of that happening, as attempting to arrest sitting head of state of Russia would likely trigger nuclear exchange. So Hauge for Putin would require a regime change in Russia, and not the violent kind where the losing side gets all killed. As such, Putin will likely end up like Stalin - poisoned and dying on a carpet in his own piss than tried in the international courts.
  - Re:
    
    Oh, I thought Stalin died from a stroke. But I like your version better.
    - Re:
      
      Yes
      *looks left*
      *looks right*
      A stroke. Right.
  - Re: What about
    
    It doesn't seem like a regime change is going to happen too soon, considering how much votes he got in last election. Even if you take fraud in consideration, it seems that most of population support him, is afraid of him, or just don't care.
    - Re:
      
      Most of the population just doesn't have a fucking clue what's going on. Imagine all you get is Fox News. No other news sources allowed.
      It's like being trapped in a right-wing filter bubble, the main difference to the average Fox News enthusiast is that it's not self-inflicted.
    - Re:
      
      That election was the most fraudulent in the history of russia.
  - Re:
    
    There's still a high likelihood of there being a trial in absentia for Putin. Can't say for sure whether OP was trying to draw a parallel but this Meta trial looks like whataboutism.
  - Re:
    
    Bigger chance for them to nuke themself with nuclear bombs that have no maintenance due to no money and corruption
Every action you don't like is violent.

Every group you want to ostracize is terrorist.
- 2 hidden comments
- - People who don't like MAGA see the similarities between you and the Nazi Party in Germany. That isn't saying that MAGA is the same, it's just really really really similar, including your desire to have a fascist dictator in charge of the country.
    - 2 hidden comments
    - - Re: Exactly, brother.
        
        While the reductio ad hitlerum is more than hackneyed, these arguments are enabled by the fact they are both far-right movements. Events such as the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org] showed MAGA alongside actual serious neo Nazis. There is some crossover between the groups both ideologically and in terms of supporters. Trump's delay in denouncing neo Nazis, as well as an apparent hesitance later to denounce white supremacists and neo Nazis, gave fuel to a notion that the right was OK with the neo Nazi
      - Re:
        
        If MAGAs look like Nazis, and quack like Nazis, why wouldn't we compare them to Nazis? But, here, go "do your own research."
        
        https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
      - Re:
        
        Well maybe the MAGA group should stop having such a large amount of overlap with what Nazis want then.
  - Re:
    
    Russia invaded Ukraine. This forced many citizens of both countries into a years-long exercise in mass murder - which encountered even once causes grief that can't be adequately described or measured.
    Putin regularly expresses willingness to engage in nuclear war. He has critics assassinated. He uses the Russian courts to kidnap foreigners and ransom them in exchange for arms-dealers and other operatives. He's just demonstrated his intent to do more of that, but to skip the part where he waits for people to
  - Antifa not real
    
    Please STFU with this Antifa nonsense. It's not real. It's a bogeyman fabricated by the right to prop up as an enemy of the people. Who is the leader of Antifa? Who is a member?
    
    Conversely, Donald Trump leads "MAGA" and Marjorie Taylor Greene is a member. Donald Trump has raised millions by selling hats, shirts, etc. emblazoned with "MAGA" and I see people wearing that all the time. I've never seen an Antifa shirt.
- Re:
  
  NYTimes is paywalled.
  The fire alarm accusation is pure mind-reading speculation. People make mistakes with alarms near other levers when in a hurry, and mistake cannot be ruled out. Felonies require "beyond reasonable doubt" and I've seen nothing that strong against Bowman. If you have a BRD argument, bringItOn!...
  - 3 hidden comments
  - - "Reasonable doubt"
      
      > Are you saying he's so fucking stupid he "got confused" as an intelligent adult raised in a modern society and didn't know he was pulling a fire alarm at a key moment during a legislative session?
      No! I'm only saying one cannot rule out an accident "beyond a reasonable doubt". I 100% agree it looks suspicious, but not "beyond a reasonable doubt" of an accident. I've made really dumb mistakes myself when in a hurry. You didn't answer my request for BRD justification. Why is that? Are you in a hurry?
      - Clarifications Re:"Reasonable doubt"
        
        Re: Turn off Fox and read legal book
        Minor correction: read a legal book. [or more]
        Re: " This is because civil charges have a lower threshold of evidence."
        as compared to a felony, which often involves jail time. Civil charges generally only require monetary compensation.
        Also, the (paywalled) NYT article appears to be an opinion piece. Different legal analysts say different things. Do you have a reason to trust ONLY legal analysts who say the DOJ is doing fishy things? Otherwise it looks like you are cherry-p
      - Re: "Reasonable doubt"
        
        I think he knew exactly what he was doing but "not guilty" doesn't mean innocent, it just means you can't prove mens rea.
        
        Re:
        
        > "not guilty" doesn't mean innocent, it just means you can't prove mens rea.
        Didn't claim it did. And what's this have to do with sinij's original point?
        It implied there was a legal double-standard and/or something nefarious going on in the courts. So far nobody has demonstrated such with regard to AlarmGate.
- Re:
  
  Yes, pulling the fire alarm is exactly the same thing as violently attacking police officers, vandalizing a government building and attempting to hang the vice president.
  - Re:
    
    Try again, but with less straw...
    For example, Biden's justice department manufacturing novel legal theories [nytimes.com] to imprison non-violent political protesters...
    - Re:
      
      Unlike Farty Don, who merely wants to shoot them.
    - Re:
      
      Those terrorists went to the Capitol to deliberately and knowingly disrupt the official proceeding of Congress. They weren't there on a field trip to look at the sights.
      If you're claiming those people shouldn't be jailed because they were non-violent, then the same applies to all the people at Columbia who did nothing more than exercise their First Amendment right to criticize Israel's deliberate targetting of civilians, medical personnel, and journalists, such as the almost 300 bodies found buried in a ma
  - Re:
    
    Not in MAGA land. Pulling a fire alarm if you are a D is much worse.
- Re:
  
  Ignoring that prosecutors have broad authority to decide what to charge someone with based on the actions of the person, if the conservative textualist, such as Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, stick to their "the text is what counts and not inferring intent" championed by Scalia they should uphold the use of the law in these cases.
by nealric ( 3647765 ) on Monday April 22, 2024 @11:46AM (#64414366)

I hope that someday I will have the honor of being convicted in absentia by a Russian court. It means you are doing something very right.
- 1 hidden comment
You'd think that if you're making propaganda, you'd try something a little more impressive than an in-absentia criminal conviction you can never enforce against a guy who might not even care enough to even be aware of it.
Russia can give me consecutive life sentences if it wants, there's no way I'd ever visit it while it still has a government that would care about enforcing that.
- Re: Silly stuff
  
  You had me at "there's no way I'd visit Russia."
  - Re:
    
    Not all Russians are awful people, I've known some nice immigrants. We are mostly hearing about people who are trying to get by in an authoritarian state where they are both heavily propagandized and when that doesn't work, aware that speaking up gets them a long prison sentence or a short trip to Ukraine.
    I've always wanted to visit, but it's always been a generation or two behind where I'd feel comfortable, even when the government seemed a bit more relaxed than today's.
I noticed that you have to reverse everything the Russian government says to get the truth. In this case: Russia is an extremist organisation. It works suprisingly well.
- Re:
  
  Many Republicans outwardly support Russia. Many others secretly support Russia. What does that mean for Republicans?
  - Re: Reverse
    
    They could make things great again by moving to Moscow. Pretty sure we can crowdfund the expenses.
They push Agile and DevOps many kilometers past beyond.
Go ahead, argue with me. On my side, I suggest you try to use faceplant.
A military court in a foreign country has tried, found guilty, and sentenced a person who has not been there for committing a crime there, and that crime is that they are the public-facing person of a multinational corporation that allows people to post their thoughts and opinions.
Imagine how many things are wrong with that... and then say "Oh but it couldn't happen in the US" except our elected representatives are working hard to make as many holes in CDA's Section 230 (FOSTA, SEXTA, etc.) so that it reall
Meta IS an extremist organisation. Their primary objective is advertising. They achieve it by amplifying the most loud and controversial content because that's what sells and attracts attention the most. They use extreme, heated topics for personal gain. They are extremists.
- Re:
  
  Both yes and no. Meta doesn't have one specific ideology other than enriching themselves. They don't care if that means America beats up Russia or Russia beats up America; they don't care if Israel beats up Gaza or Gaza beats up Israel. They just want money.
  As such I would say that they are not extremists; they are mercenaries.

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