One Thing I’m Slowly Picking Up On Is That A Lot Of The People Who Are Saying ‘ukraine Should Negotiate

Metamates For Ceasefire

Metamates For Ceasefire

Dear Mark Zuckerberg and Leadership, This letter is a follow-up to the letter that was circulated internally on Dec 19, 2023 and deleted and dismissed due to our Community Engagement Expectations (CEE) on what can be discussed internally. Hence, we are sharing our concerns externally. We, Meta employees, wish to express our disappointment and astonishment at the lack of acknowledgement and care the leaders of this company have shown toward the Palestinian community and its allies. In private conversations, we hear from our Palestinian colleagues about family members they have lost in Gaza and family they are working tirelessly to find safety for. However, any open support for our Palestinian colleagues or the millions facing a humanitarian crisis in Palestine is met with internal censorship of employee concerns, biased leadership statements showing one-sided support, and external censorship that is raising public alarm and distrust of our platforms. Internally, we have called out the months of silencing within our workplace forums. While we loudly display “Your voice is valued”, CEE is used as a guise to delete dissenting opinions and silence employees that may simply be seeking solace from their coworkers or raising awareness about building safer products. While in other companies, employees within Employee Resource Groups (ERG) are allowed to connect and speak freely with each other, ERG’s such as Muslims@ and Palestinians@ have faced so much censorship that an employee proposed just deleting the ERG altogether instead of giving the illusion that we can freely build community at Meta. CEE claims to reduce disruptions in our workplace, yet censorship from CEE has caused many of us at Meta to feel disrupted, unheard, and unsafe to the point that several of our Metamates have decided to resign. In the words of our former colleague, any mention of Palestine is taken down - Even when the post was from a colleague expressing their grief. Even when the post was to celebrate the UN International day of support to the Palestinian people. Even when the post is a link to a fundraiser to help the Gazans. Even when asking questions about product bugs that affect Palestinian voices.

One of the original core values of Facebook was to “Be Open” and our current values claim that “We create a culture where we are straightforward and willing to have hard conversations with each other.” Employees have always been first responders to surface issues raised externally to those internally with the power and knowledge to fix them. However when over 450 colleagues came together to sign a letter similar to this one in December, CEE was used to delete the letter and restrict one of the writers from their work devices for over two months while the workplace, product, and policy concerns brought forth were completely ignored. Employees have attempted to raise product concerns related to the conflict only to have their posts and comments censored or dismissed throughout internal channels. Most recently, questions about investigative reports indicating the possibility of governments, ISPs, and coordinated bad actors using Whatsapp data for military targeting have been met with dismissive and insufficient responses or outright deleted throughout internal forums. Meta leaders have posted numerous strong statements of support for our Israeli colleagues along with condemnation of the attack on Israel on October 7th that took the lives of ~1,200 civilians, both on internal and external platforms. Mark stated on his public Facebook - “The terrorist attacks by Hamas are pure evil. There is never any justification for carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent people. The widespread suffering that has resulted is devastating. My focus remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”

However, bias and inequity is painfully apparent when those same leaders do not similarly share support for our Palestinian colleagues and allies nor condemnation of the attacks on Palestine, which have now taken ~35,000 civilian lives and created a humanitarian crisis of displacement and starvation for ~2 million Palestinians. This has created a hostile and unsafe work environment for hundreds of our Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, anti-Zionist Jew, and anti-genocide colleagues at the company, who have felt consistently alienated and uncomfortable at work. Many have tried to articulate this through posts on Workplace only to be censored, rebuffed, and/or penalized. Feedback shared directly with leadership on Workplace Chat has been met with dismissiveness. Bias and inequity for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also apparent when compared to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which there was an outpouring of leadership support on all fronts, including additional resourcing and investment through various social impact initiatives. The lights in the Dublin office were even painted with the colors of the Ukraine flag. Leadership must do better to achieve true equity and inclusion. Externally, when it comes to Palestine, the dismissive tone and lack of investment by Meta is not new and the company has consistently failed to thoroughly take action on years of evidence of suppression of Palestinian voices on our platforms worldwide. In 2024 the company is still slowly addressing the findings of an independent audit influenced by Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2021 letter to Meta on the Palestinian conflict 3 years ago. In the wake of October 7th, Meta has ignored reasonable requests for transparency on our content policies from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers around the globe. Numerous civil rights organizations, some of whom are Meta partners, have been met with dismissal on the censorship concerns brought forth - leading to external petitions such as one against Meta’s proposed policy of treating “Zionist” as a proxy for "Jewish”, which collected over 52,000 signatures. While Meta denies any Palestinian censorship or bias to the public, internally groups of employee volunteers have found numerous product and policy issues with disparate impacts to Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities since October 7th. The few improvements that have been made were achieved only by appealing to isolated product teams, with minimal senior leadership support or resources. Furthermore, in the wake of global criticism of censorship and moderation, leading into the biggest year for democracy in history, Meta has updated its policy to no longer recommend ‘political content’ by default across Instagram and Threads without clear guidelines of how this would impact content originating from global conflict zones. Meta has continued to fail the Palestinian community through its policies and lack of investment.

“Meta.Metamate.Me.” We believe we are all Meta and are committed to respectfully working together to address the issues internally and externally, while holding firmly to the demands we have been echoing for months: We demand an end to censorship - stop deleting employee’s words internally in order to foster an inclusive environment where all communities feel seen, heard, and safe We demand acknowledgment - share internal acknowledgments of support for Palestinian colleagues and acknowledge the lives lost in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza to recognize our shared humanity We demand transparency and accountability - allocate dedicated resources to investigate issues of censorship and biases on our platforms and openly disclose findings to build trust among employees and the public We implore you to end the silence - issue a public statement urging for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza As tech workers, we have a tremendous privilege to work on products that serve the world, and with that comes tremendous responsibility. We have been proud to work at Meta – and want to continue believing in its mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

If you're a current or former Meta worker please sign the letter here

They don't want us to call what's happening in Gaza a genocide not because there's not been an official ruling but because these things don't get set in people's minds via official ruling. Instead it is the oral history that sets an event into place in mass consciousness.

Us calling it what it is - a genocide - means they can't wriggle out of it in years to come. They can't continue to call it a conflict or a war if we cement it in public consciousness as a genocide.

So don't tone down your language. Call it what it is. Make sure the history books know what happened and the genocides that took place in Palestine, Sudan, Congo.

it broke my heart to read this post is by journalist yousef (ph_youseeff). he’s a cancer patient and he has been trying to evacuate for a very long time now to continue his treatment. his health condition has been deteriorating in light of the lack of hospitals health care.

PLEASE DONATE TO HIS FUNDRAISER IF YOU CAN

and please share this around. he’s 68% through his goal. help him reach it.

I will never get over the fact that Hater genuinely wants kids and doesn’t mind the idea of being a dad in canon!

And heck, if his positive interactions with Olive (’The Fremergency Fronfract’) and just how much he loves and cares for Captain Tim - even calling him his ‘Special Little Guy’ - are any indication, he’d be a pretty good dad too! Or, at the very least, he’d be a very loving dad. And it’s just… SO SWEET TO THINK ABOUT!!! 

concept: human!watchdogs wear electronic masks

homogenizes them and minimizes their individuality

leans into the original concept of them being at least somewhat mechanical

looks cool

Wander Over Yonder: Trending 27th (May 2020)

If you could have any one character from outside WOY appear in a single episode, which would it be? / Which cartoon would you see Wander make a cameo in? 

Original post (with two cents from me)

Trending 27th (June 2020)

My #savewoy masterpost

_______________________________________________________ 

This is a tough question because there are a lot of great potential crossover ideas. However, I’d like to mention a few that I’ve coincidentally been thinking about recently anyway. 

First of all, I’d like to see a crossover between “Wander Over Yonder” and “Zig & Sharko” due to the many parallels I’ve been able to draw between the two. 

In case you don’t know, “Zig & Sharko” is a a French animated slapstick comedy television series created and directed by Olivier Jean-Marie and produced by Xilam Animation (known for creating other successful series such as “Space Goofs” and “Oggy and the Cockroaches”). It shares the first two genres with WOY and has many similar character archetypes. 

Both cartoons have a "bad guy” who wants to kill a “good guy”. 

Both bad guys have small sidekicks that are underappreciated by them and are also way smarter, making most of the plans and generally doing all the work. 

Both good guys wear a star as their head accessory (in Marina’s case, it’s the starfish hairpin, and in Wander’s, it’s the star is attached to his hat) and are oftentimes (at least seemingly) oblivious to the bad guys’ attempts to destroy them. 

Both of them also find the bad guy’s right hand man adorable. 

And finally, the good guy also has a strong companion who protects them and who they are very close to.

I haven’t watched all the episodes of “Zig & Sharko”, but if I did, there would most likely be even more parallels I could draw. I would also like to see this crossover because the characters from Z&S don’t talk, so watching the characters from WOY try to communicate with them non-verbally (or watching the characters from Z&S talk for once, allowing the audience to find out what their canon voices would sound like) would be very interesting to me.

_

Second of all, I’d like to include an honorary mention. 

While it’s not a cartoon, I’d really like to see a crossover between the characters from “Wander Over Yonder” and the “Patapon” franchise. 

If you don’t know, Patapon is a series of video games published originally for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld game console combining gameplay features of a rhythm game and a god game. The title is created from two Japanese onomatopoeia (the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes), pata (marching) and pon (drumming). 

The game is presented in a cartoonish, silhouetted two-dimensional environment, and features the player acting as a deity who commands an army of caricatured miniature tribal creatures by beating traditional talking drums. The game was developed by Pyramid and produced by Japan Studios. 

It has two sequels, with Patapon 3 being the conclusion to the series (just like season 3 of WOY was supposed to be - third time’s the charm!). Additionally, the first 2 games were remastered in 2017 and 2020 for the PlayStation 4 (PS 4). Despite this, the series is still fairly underrated, and I urge you to check it out! 

The “Patapon” franchise features characters that are very similar to watchdogs in that they are an army of talking eyeballs, most of whom are male. 

Additionally, they are led by a (generally) smart leader - Meden in “Patapon” and Peepers in “Wander Over Yonder” - who can be differentiated from the rest of their species by their height (Meden is taller thanks to her legs, whereas Peepers is shorter) and their head accessory (Meden has an elaborate headdress of five coloured feathers instead of a usual cap or helm, and Peepers has a differently shaped helmet with a bigger lightning bolt than normal). 

All 3 games even have characters shaped as stars (which is a reocurring symbol in Wander Over Yonder)! They’re called Hoshipon (“Hoshi” (星) means “star” in Japanese).

That’s just some of the things I could think of off the top of my head! I might go into more details about the similarities between the aforementioned franchises specifically later, as well as draw fanart and/or write fanfiction based on my observations, too. 

This is it for now, though! I hope you enjoyed. Please consider participating in the “Trending 27th” event if you haven’t already! 

@disneyxd​

Some of y'all are more upset about which fictional characters are kissing each other than about a literal genocide that's happening right now.

Instead of sending that anonymous message go do your daily clicks for Palestine. While you're there do your clicks for the other causes on Arab.org too.

Instead of being rude to someone on the internet, check out this list of evacuation fundraisers and donate if you can.

Instead of sharing some hateful comments, amplify the voices of the people in Gaza who are just trying to survive.

Day two of the week long strike for a free Palestine and I thought I’d share my recent painting with some tips for those looking for ways to get involved that can’t attend an in person event.

🍉Disrupt- Call/ email your representatives. Jam the phone lines with demands for an immediate ceasefire, aid to be allowed into Gaza, and an end to the occupation.

🍉With your money- do not spend this week. If you find yourself in dire need of something, try to buy it locally instead of from a corporation and absolutely no spending on non-necessities. Look into mutual aid programs near you. Beyond the strike, keep the boycotts going. Look for Palestinian businesses to support. Shop local over corporate as much as you can. Research your bank, see where they invest. If you find your money going to oppressors, move your money out of there and close the account. Send e-sims to Gaza. Look into Project Olive Branch.

🍉 Social Media: boost Palestinian voices and refrain from engaging with unrelated content. Share information. Engage with pro-Palestinian content to help fight the algorithms. This week, refuse to post or engage with any content that is not about Gaza.

Remember: these are just a few ways of getting involved if you can’t attend an in person event. You do not have to do all of them!!

Edit~ I’ve seen some truly disturbing reblogs to this painting and I just want to say that being anti-genocide should not be a controversial thing and if you feel it is, you’re on the wrong side of history. To all the lovely people just doing what you can to help, sending yall love!! I’m also just a person in a country whose reps are disappointing me greatly, looking for ways to be helpful.

that's it, I can't take this anymore. I'm so fucking done. I feel like a non-Christian person in fucking December. Listen, people: the Ides of March is a FINE holiday, it's fun and nerdy, I like it - but I've seen like 6 memes for it in the last 3 days and not a Single one for its sibling nerd holiday, MARCH 14, aka 3/14, aka

PI DAY

3/14, optimized at 1:59 and 26 seconds, AM or PM (3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399... that's as far as I ever memorized).

Celebrations around the world - as is ONLY appropriate for the one and only celebration of the constant ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter!

And the radius to its area, and the radius of a sphere to its volume and surface area, AND one of the key five numbers in Euler's Identity, aka e^(iπ) + 1 = 0, aka the sexiest, simplest mathematical equation in the world.

There's going to be an HOUR-LONG LUNAR ECLIPSE this year, visible throughout East Asia, Australia, North and South America, and most of Africa and Europe!

It's even Albert Einstein's birthday!

Is Pi Day underrepresented because math is continuously viewed as the subject it's culturally acceptable to hate, where even "boring" history and "pretentious" literature can be lauded? Does every holiday need a centuries-famous play in order to get attention these days? DO PEOPLE NOT WANT AN EXCUSE TO EAT SAVORY PIES FOR DINNER (PIZZA, SHEPHERD'S PIE, ETC) AND SWEET PIES OF FRUIT AND/OR CHOCOLATE FOR DESSERT??

So help me god I'm going to start making a new Pi Day meme every time I see an Ides of March meme. I'm going to blaze them. PRETENDING TO KILL A DICTATOR IS FUN, BUT IT IS A TREAT BEST PAIRED WITH THE ELEVATION OF SCIENCE!