In Mustafapasa, Turkey I noticed this sign of Americanization, a Coke delivery truck and could not resist dong a sketch. It once had a mixed population, Greeks and Karamanlides (Turkish speaking Christians) and Muslim Turks. In 1924 after the Greco Turkish war, the population exchange agreement between Greece and Turkey, forced Greeks and Karamanlides to leave the town for Nea Sinasos a town in the northern part of the island of Euboea in Greece. Most of the exchange was based not on language or ethnicity, but upon religious identity. An estimated 384,000 Greeks were killed from 1914 to 1918, and 264,000 from 1920 to 1922. The total number reaching about 648,000.
Fast forward to 2020. Coke has pulled over 700 million dollars in advertising from Facebook because the social media platform does not limit hate speech. Trump wrote: “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” a phrase used by a Miami police chief in the 1960s and widely interpreted as a violent threat against protesters. Facebook employees have condemned CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to leave up President Trump’s post. Twitter hid the same post for glorifying violence. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took full responsibility for the decision.
After weeks of a staunch hands-off approach, Zuckerberg on Friday June 26, 2020 reversed course as a parade of brands began severing their ties with the company. Zuckerberg said Facebook will put warning labels on posts that break its rules, even if they are newsworthy, opening the door to potentially labeling posts by Trump. Facebook rules say speech that inspires or incites violence is not allowed on its platform. The company has removed over 300 Boogaloo hate groups form the platform. It is a feeble start to address a much bigger problem.
If you ignore or deny history you are bound to repeat it.