Page 30 - bne_newspaper_March_9_2018

Weekly Lists
March 9, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 30
bne:TMT
Facebook backs
down on Hungarian minister’s racist video
Facebook has reversed its decision and restored a video posted by Janos Lazar, head of Viktor Orban's Prime Minister's Office, in which he allegedly made racists comments while walking around a multicultural area of Vienna. The video message had sparked outrage in Austria and in Hungary.
Facebook said on March 7 that it was making an exception to its usual ban on hate speech. "People use Facebook to challenge ideas and raise awareness about important issues, but we will remove content that violates our community standards, including hate speech,” the company said in a statement. “Exceptions are sometimes made if content is newsworthy, significant or important to the public interest,” it said.
Lazar had slammed Facebook for banning his post, which according to him hurts freedom of speech.
The Hungarian prime minister's chief of staff was shown in a video in the Tenth District of Vienna. The quarter has the fourth highest foreign population in the city, with inhabitants with mostly Serbian and Turkish backgrounds, who have lived there for decades. "Vienna has become a worse place because of the refugees. Evidently the streets are dirtier, the area is poorer and there’s lots more crime, The white Christian Austrians have moved out already from this part of the city, and the immigrants have taken control," the former caucus leader of the Fidesz party said in the video.
Czech businessman and politician Ivo Valenta, who co-owns the biggest Czech alternative news portal Parlamentnilisty.cz, has bought the biggest Slovak daily, Pravda.
The acquisition demonstrates the spread of fake news sites and the struggles of traditional journalism in the region. Parlamentni listy is listed by analysts as a conspiracy site, regularly mixing up factual stories with lies and disinformation. It has taken the lead in whip- ping up fear and hatred of refugees in the Czech Republic.
Valenta also owns who owns the Synot gambling and travel group, which has an annual turnover of around CZK10bn. He is also an independent senator.
His Our Media group, co-owned with Michal Voracek, announced that it had bought publishing house Perex, which publishes Pravda, on March 5. The price was not disclosed.
Czech fake news tycoon buys Slovak daily