{"id":131506,"date":"2019-04-15T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=131506"},"modified":"2019-04-22T09:47:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T08:47:08","slug":"facebook-removes-page-of-ecuadors-former-president-on-same-day-as-assanges-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/04\/facebook-removes-page-of-ecuadors-former-president-on-same-day-as-assanges-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Removes Page of Ecuador’s Former President on Same Day as Assange’s Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

11 Apr 2019 – <\/em>Facebook has unpublished the page of Ecuador\u2019s former president, Rafael Correa, the social media giant confirmed today, claiming that the popular leftist leader violated the company\u2019s security policies.<\/p>\n

In a statement republished by Ecuadorean newspaper\u00a0El Comercio<\/em><\/a>, a company spokesperson said:<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting the privacy and security of people is central to Facebook [and] we have clear policies that do not allow the disclosure of personal information such as phone numbers, addresses, bank account data, cards, or any record or data that could compromise the integrity physical or financial of the people in our community.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The move comes on the same day that Ecuador\u2019s government allowed British security personnel to enter their embassy in London to arrest journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sought by U.S. officials for years due to his role in releasing scandalous information implicating Washington in a range of crimes, including war crimes.<\/p>\n

#AlertaDigitalEC<\/a> P\u00e1gina en Facebook del exPresidente @MashiRafael<\/a> no puede ser accesada, se desconocen motivos – link https:\/\/t.co\/aerBqw6kcl<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/87oTEW4lAI<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/em>\ud835\udce4\ud835\udcfc\ud835\udcfe\ud835\udcea\ud835\udcfb\ud835\udcf2\ud835\udcf8\ud835\udcfc<\/em> \ud835\udcd3\ud835\udcf2\ud835\udcf0\ud835\udcf2\ud835\udcfd\ud835\udcea\ud835\udcf5\ud835\udcee\ud835\udcfc<\/em> (@usuariosdigital) April 12, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Assange, 47, had been living at the Embassy of Ecuador in London since 2012, when then-President Correa granted political asylum to the Australian amid the British government\u2019s attempts to detain him. At the time, Correa called Eduador\u2019s actions\u00a0an act of sovereign \u201cduty.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Ecuador\u2019s current leader, Lenin Moreno, was openly opposed to Assange, whom he referred to on various occasions as a \u201cmiserable hacker<\/em>,\u201d an \u201cirritant<\/em>,\u201d and a \u201cstone in the shoe<\/em>\u201d of his government. Moreno\u2019s distancing from the asylee came following a 2017\u00a0meeting with Trump campaign confidant and political \u201cfixer\u201d Paul Manafort<\/a>, where the two discussed Ecuador\u2019s handover of Assange to U.K. and U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n

In March, WikiLeaks published a tranche of documents dubbed the\u00a0INA Papers<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0linking President Lenin Moreno to the INA Investment Corporation, an offshore shell company used by Moreno to procure furniture, property, and various luxury items.<\/p>\n

The account number\u00a0for the offshore account allegedly used by the president to launder money was shared across Ecuadorean social networks by netizens of all political stripes, including by Correa \u2013 who had about 1.5 million followers and whose Facebook page enjoyed more interactions and attention than that of President Moreno himself.<\/p>\n

The account number was also shared alongside personal photos of President Moreno enjoying lavish breakfasts and dinners of lobster\u2014imagery considered especially damning for the people of Ecuador given Moreno\u2019s previous boasting of an austere poverty diet consisting of eggs and white rice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Information on the bank account allegedly used by Ecuador\u2019s president to launder money.<\/p><\/div>\n

It also came amid attempts by the\u00a0neoliberal Ecuadorean government<\/a>\u00a0to curry favor with financiers in Europe and the United States amid the continuing debt crisis. In March, the IMF finally\u00a0bailed out<\/a>\u00a0Moreno\u2019s government to the tune of $4.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Prior to the removal of the page, Correa lambasted his successor in a series of posts that still remain on Twitter at the time of this writing.<\/p>\n

Christine:
\nI do not know what to tell you. I only ask forgiveness from me and my people. A traitor and corrupt like Moreno does not represent us. I promise not to rest until I see him in jail, where he deserves to be. https:\/\/t.co\/DqH0HiaIMP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 11, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since 2015, Correa\u2014who lives with his family in Brussels, Belgium\u2014had used the social platform to great effect, using strongly-worded posts, video interviews, and live-streams as a platform amid the Ecuadorean media\u2019s de facto blackout of the former leader, who remains reviled by the center-right former opposition and sections of the country\u2019s left.<\/p>\n

Former President Correa minced no words in his assessment of Moreno, denouncing him in an English-language\u00a0tweet<\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0\u201cthe greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history \u2026 Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The greatest traitor in Ecuadorian and Latin American history, Lenin Moreno, allowed the British police to enter our embassy in London to arrest Assange.
\nMoreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that humanity will never forget. https:\/\/t.co\/XhT51MA6c6<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rafael Correa (@MashiRafael) April 11, 2019<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a separate tweet responding to Moreno\u2019s announcement of the handover, Correa further tore into what he called\u00a0\u201cone of the most atrocious acts [and the] fruit of servility, villainy and revenge.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom now on worldwide, the scoundrel and betrayal can be summarized in two words: Lenin Moreno,\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>the popular former president added.<\/p>\n

The removal of Correa\u2019s page for violating Facebook\u2019s \u201ccommunity standards<\/em>\u201d is an unprecedented move, and the former statesman is the most high-profile public political figure to ever be removed from the social platform\u2013placing the economist and icon of Latin American \u201csocialism of the 21st century\u201d in the same unlikely category as right-wing conspiracy theorist and broadcaster Alex Jones.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 themindunleashed.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 Apr 2019 – Facebook has unpublished the page of Ecuador\u2019s former president, Rafael Correa. The removal of his page for violating Facebook\u2019s \u201ccommunity standards\u201d is an unprecedented move, and the former statesman is the most high-profile public political figure to ever be removed from the social platform\u2013placing him in the same unlikely category as right-wing conspiracy theorist and broadcaster Alex Jones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":131507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,224,65,62,51,53,139,60],"tags":[229,918,910,550,276,942,378,651,541,234,291,91,444,941,985,1006,911,639,70,126,118,921,113],"class_list":["post-131506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-human-rights","category-anglo-america","category-media","category-europe","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","category-justice","category-whistleblowing-surveillance","tag-activism","tag-assange","tag-big-brother","tag-corruption","tag-democracy","tag-ecuador","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-media","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-nonviolence","tag-rafael-correa","tag-social-justice","tag-social-media","tag-surveillance","tag-uk","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-whistleblowing","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}