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- [00:15]
Amy Goodman
From New York. This is Democracy Now.
- [00:20]
Juan Gonzalez
We believe that for the movement to
- [00:21]
Divya Arya
continue,
- [00:27]
Juan Gonzalez
It can't be made as Graham
- [00:29]
Amy Goodman
Platner suspends his campaign for Senate amidst rape allegations which he denies. We look today not at the individual candidate, but at the issues and priorities fueling Democrats across the country to support progressive primary challengers. We'll speak to Alexandra Rojas of the Justice Democrats and Ashik Sadiq of the Democratic Socialists of America's national political Committee. Neither group endorse Platner. They've scored significant wins across the country this election cycle. Then a new BBCI investigation from the BBC World Service. It's called the Careless Machine Exposing Instagram's darkest secret.
- [01:20]
Divya Arya
This story pulled me into such darkness, I almost wish I never followed it. Oh my God. Whatever you are witness to, obviously very, very disturbing.
- [01:35]
Amy Goodman
We'll speak to BBC senior correspondent Divya Arya in New Delhi. And finally, July 4th was the 60th anniversary of one of the most crucial pieces of transparency legislation in history. We'll speak to Ian, head of the center for Constitutional Rights. His recent piece for the New Republic headlined My Front Row Seat, the Slow Death of the Freedom of Information Act. All that and more coming. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The United States is denied it's behind a series of explosions that rock parts of southern Iran overnight. Late Thursday, blasts were reported around the Bushehr nuclear power plant and in cities including Sidi Konarek and Bandar Abbas. The explosions came during what was otherwise a lull in fighting between the US And Iran following two days of tit for tat. Drone and missile attacks followed warnings by Israeli leaders that Israel's war against Iran is not over, though no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts. On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Ministry said top diplomat Abbas Arakchi had made phone calls to Omani and Turkish officials aimed at restarting diplomacy to end the conflict. Meanwhile, Israel's continuing attacks across southern Lebanon with air raids, gunfire and home demolitions reported despite a U S Brokered cease fire deal and despite the US Memorandum of understanding to end the war in Iran which requires Israel withdrawal from Lebanon. In Texas, more details have emerged in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo salgado araujo, the 52 year old Mexican father killed Tuesday by ICE in Houston during his early morning commute to work in construction. Home surveillance video shared by Araujo's oldest son, Ronaldo Segado captured the final moments of his father leaving their family home and getting into his white vana Separate newly released surveillance video appears to show Araujo's white van being followed by two unmarked black SUVs. At one point during the pursuit, a black SUV is seen driving on the wrong side of the road in a construction zone before cutting Araujo's van off. ICE agents then approach the passenger side of the vehicle. The footage, however, does not show Araujo's van ramming into any ICE vehicles or attempting to run over an agent, as the Department of Homeland Security alleged after Araujo was killed. Statements by three immigrants who were aboard Araujo's van and witnessed the shooting have also refuted the claims. The three men, one of whom is Araujo's younger brother, were rounded up after the shooting, are now in ICE detention, facing deportations. In accounts obtained by the Washington Post. Their lawyer reports the men said ICE agents fired at them almost immediately, without warning from the side of Araujo's vehicle and that Araujo never could have attempted to run over an agent because there were never any ICE officers in front of his van. Meanwhile, a DHS spokesperson has admitted federal immigration agents targeted Araujo by mistake and were in fact searching for a different person. Several Democratic congressmembers are demanding the release of all video footage and to preserve evidence in the case, but DHS has said the ICE agents involved in the fatal shooting were not wearing body cameras. This comes as the Harris county medical examiner has reported reportedly ruled Araujo's manner of death a homicide. Harris county prosecutors say they plan to investigate but cautioned the federal government ultimately controls access to the evidence. As the family of Araujo mourns, they say they've been unable to claim his body because immigration agents reportedly removed all of Araujo's personal identifications after he was shot in the abdomen and transferred to the hospital, which led to his being classified as John Doe. In the days after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo's death, hundreds of people gathered for vigils at the site of his killing, placing candles, balloons, flowers to honor his life and continue demanding justice. Mexico's government says it will file criminal complaints in the United States to protect the human rights of Mexican citizens caught up in the Trump administration's mass deportation sweeps. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the plans during her daily news conference Thursday. Que no podemos, Jesse. What we cannot ignore is the plight
- [06:26]
Alexandra Rojas
of the Mexicans who have died in
- [06:27]
Amy Goodman
ICE operations or who are being held
- [06:30]
Alexandra Rojas
in these detention centers operated by private
- [06:33]
Divya Arya
companies contracted by ice.
- [06:35]
Amy Goodman
That is why we are taking further action. Mexico's Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco said 17 Mexican nationals have died while in the custody of ICE or at the hands of its agents. He's seeking criminal probes into the deaths and will also send cease and desist letters to the private prison companies that manage ICE jails.
- [07:01]
Juan Gonzalez
The idea is to move from diplomacy to the prosecutor's offices to demand investigations
- [07:07]
Ashik Sadiq
not only from the State Department or the Department of Homeland Security, but directly through the criminal justice system.
- [07:15]
Amy Goodman
In South Africa, human rights advocates are on alert over after vigilantes in Johannesburg intensified attacks on immigrants going door to door and snatching people from their homes to hand over to authorities. Thursday's attacks followed similar violence in Soweto, Durban and other parts of South Africa. Anti immigrant vigilantes had set an informal deadline of June 30 for all undocumented immigrants to leave South Africa, threatening to continue their harassment and intimidation campaign until their demands are met. Doctors Without Borders warns tens of thousands have been displaced by the violence, including asylum seekers, refugees and documented immigrants. In Venezuela, the official death toll from last month's devastating twin earthquakes has topped 3,800 and expected still to soar as tens of thousands of people remain unaccounted for. Public health officials warn survivors of the earthquakes now face outbreaks of disease along with difficulty accessing clean water, sanitation and medical care. Some 16,000 people were left without shelter after the earthquakes flattened their homes. They've since been forced to live in overcrowded tent encampments. This is Pan American Health Organization Director Charbas Barbosa. In the coming weeks, the greatest health risks may stem not only from injuries caused by the earthquakes, but also from disruptions to health services, overcrowded conditions, deficiencies
- [08:52]
Ashik Sadiq
in water and sanitation and reduced access
- [08:55]
Divya Arya
to vaccination and routine care.
- [08:57]
Amy Goodman
Russia's military says it shot down hundreds of Ukrainian drones overnight as Kyiv continues to target Russian energy sites. The latest attacks targeted ships and a port on the Sea of Azov and sparked a fire at a major oil refinery in southern Russia. This follows a Russian drone strike on a gas station in Zaporizhzha that killed one person and injured three others, one of dozens of attacks across civilian areas of Ukraine. On Thursday at the United nations, the Security Council heard testimony Thursday that Russian attacks in June killed at least a 265 Ukrainian civilians while leaving more than 1,800 injured. That's the highest combined casualty count since the first months of Russia's full scale invasion four years ago. Meanwhile, Russian authorities report Ukrainian attacks have killed 250 Russian civilians in the first six months of this year. This is UN political affairs chief Rosemary Decarlon. Any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure,
- [10:04]
Alexandra Rojas
wherever they occur, are a clear violation of international humanitarian law and must stop immediately.
- [10:12]
Amy Goodman
The Palestinian Authority has announced plans to hold its first legislative elections in more than 20 years, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday. Votes will be held in Gaza, the occupied west bank and east Jerusalem on November 28. Abbas is now 90 years old. He won a four year mandate in a 2005 presidential election and remained in power following a violent split between Hamas and Fatah the following year. Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip, where airstrikes on Thursday killed at least six people. The attacks came, as Haaretz reports, Israel continues to hold the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians who've died in Israeli custody. That's despite the fact that no Israelis are currently being held hostage by Palestinian armed groups. Israel previously withheld the bodies of Palestinians as bargaining chips. In Washington, D.C. a bipartisan bill aimed at lowering the cost of housing is set to become law today, barring a last minute veto by President Trump. Last month, Congress voted overwhelmingly to approve the 21st century road to Housing act, which would cap the number of single family homes major investors can purchase while loosening federal regulations to allow for new home construction. Trump has refused to sign the legislation so far unless lawmakers first approved the Save America act to rewrite the US Election laws while imposing new voter ID requirements. If Trump takes no action, the housing bill will become law even without his signature. On Thursday, the National association of Realtors reported the median home sales price of existing U.S. homes soared to over $440,000, a record high. President Trump's forced out the last remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan independent agency tasked with certifying voting systems and helping local election officials. On Thursday, the White House fired Democratic Commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hojlund. A third commissioner, Republican Christy McCormick, resigned. The committee's remaining member, Republican Donald Palmer, stepped down in April to join the Heritage Foundation. Trump's dismantling of the Election Assistance Commission comes less than four months before midterm elections. It follows last month's Supreme Court ruling granting the president more power to fire members of independent agencies. The Trump administrations threaten election administrators across the United States with criminal prosecution if they knowingly leave noncitizens on their voter rolls or allow them to receive or cast ballots. In a letter sent to all 50 states in the District of Columbia, the Justice Department warns state and local election officials could face fines and imprisonment. The letter concludes, quote, we encourage you to contact us to discuss what steps your state should take to maintain clean voter lists as required by law, unquote. The letter was sent on Tuesday by Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. That same day, she announced plans to send election monitor voters to 15 jurisdictions in six states during upcoming primary elections.
- [13:36]
Alexandra Rojas
So this is an important goal that increases voter confidence and it's also important to make sure that our voting is accurate so that every citizen who votes has their vote counted equally without being canceled out by somebody who shouldn't be voting.
- [13:50]
Amy Goodman
Meanwhile, FEMA's announced it'll withhold homeland security funding from states and cities until they provide proof of compliance with the Trump administration's election requirements. In response, Washington Congressmember Pramila Jayapal wrote, the Trump administration's using fear and funding to control who gets to vote and who counts it. Elections belong to the people, not whoever is afraid of losing one, unquote. In China, at least 28 people are dead after a fire tore through a shoe factory in the southeastern city of Xinjiang. Authorities say the factory's stairwells were packed with materials, hampering firefighters rescue efforts. More than 200 workers were evacuated. It's the latest of several deadly industrial disasters in China this year year and follows last November's fire at a residential complex in Hong Kong that left more than 160 people dead. And in southern China, the death toll from severe flooding triggered by Typhoon Maesak has climbed to 39 following days of torrential rain. This comes as authorities in Taiwan and southwestern Japan have issued warnings as the second major storm, Typhoon Bavi, approaches. At roughly the size of France, it's the largest typhoon to approach Taiwan. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan.
- [15:13]
Juan Gonzalez
Hi, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.
- [15:18]
Amy Goodman
While much of the media conversation about the future of the Democratic Party in recent days has centered around Graham Platner, we turn now to what is fueling the progressive insurgency in primaries across the country. Not necessarily the candidates themselves, but the platforms and issues they're championing without apology. These include opposition to military, support for Israel, support for universal health care, and more. The political action committee Justice Democrats has endorsed 15 candidates this cycle in congressional races. Six of them have won their races so far. Dozens of candidates Backed by the Democrat, Democratic Socialists of America or dsa have won or advanced in their races. Progressive winds have sent shockwaves through the Democratic establishment. Over the past decade, the DSA has grown from about 5,000 members to over 120,000 members in 200 chapters across the United States. And whereas two years ago the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or APEC, spent millions of dollars to defeat two outspoken critics of Israel, Missouri's con, Congressmember Cori Bush and Congressmember Jamaal Momin of New York, the Justice Democrats have quickly emerged as a powerful force backing progressive candidates across races nationwide ahead of the midterms. Their victories this cycle come in spite of $35 million in outside spending being spent against all of their candidates. DSA and Justice Democrats back candidates have prevailed in key local and Congressional racesin Oregon in California, Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maine, Washington D.C. and New York. In Colorado, 29 year old attorney Melat Quiros unseated 15 term Congressmember Diana DeGette. Here in New York, Afro Latina organizer Darielisa Villa Chevalier beat five term Congressmember Adriano Espaillat. And New York Assemblymember Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to fill the seat long held by Congressmember Nydia Velazquez. In Pennsylvania, progressive legislator Chris Robb beat out machine candidates to win a Congressional primary in Pennsylvania. And in New Jersey, the Justice Democrat backed surgeon and army veteran Adam Hammawi won the primary to replace the seat held by Congressmember Bonnie Coleman. For more on the insurgency and the Democratic Party, we're joined now by two guests. Ashik Siddiq is co Chair of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America dsa and Alexandra Rojas is Executive Director of Justice Democrats. Welcome you both to Democracy Now. Before we get into any particular race, Ashik Siddiq, I wanted you to define the platforms of the Democratic Socialists of Americahow it came to be and this string of victories across the country and what this means for the DSA and for the country.
- [18:43]
Ashik Sadiq
Thank you so much for having me. So DSA's platform starts with the idea that workers deserve more in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We stand for universal health care, free college, affordable childcare and higher taxes on the wealthiest people on the billionaire class. And these things are very popular with working people. We want to redirect massive resources from militarism and things like ice, expanding militarized immigration enforcement. These are things that people don't want in this country when so Many people are struggling to get by. So we now have over 120,000 members across the country. And we're united by a commitment to organizing around the values of politics and policies that resonate with working class people in the United States.
- [19:26]
Juan Gonzalez
And Ashik, how do you respond to those who say that DSA stands for the greater power and development among the working class, but it's largely a youth movement and also more middle class and educated youth.
- [19:44]
Ashik Sadiq
The results we're showing in elections across the country show that we're not just young, white, college educated people. It's not just in New York and Los Angeles where we've had a base for years, but in communities across the country where we're winning support nationwide, including in the south and the Midwest and in states like Georgia, Kentucky and Michigan. We're electing people. And it's more than just about electing people. Our members include workers, health care workers, electricians, teachers, postal workers, UPS drivers, Amazon warehouse workers who are organizing in their workplaces to expand democracy in our workplace along with in elections. And our candidates in office are more and more reflecting that. And the results in places like Washington D.C. are totally upending that kind of logic. Janice Lewis George, who just won the Democratic primary for mayor in Washington D.C. won pretty much every district except the wealthy white districts of homeowners. So more and more we're uniting people across differences of race, of identity, around shared economic goals, around class politics. Our goal is to reframe politics around class lines in the United States, which is what the ruling class has been doing forever. We want to transfer power from the 1% to the working class and to replace capitalism with socialism, which means expanding democracy in every part of our lives. And that's how we're organizing people together.
- [21:05]
Juan Gonzalez
Can you describe how DSA works as an organization, how it operates, and how it is distinct from the Democratic Party or other traditional parties?
- [21:17]
Ashik Sadiq
Yes. So we're a member funded organization and the member democracy is really important. It's a core function of how we operate. We're not just about electing people on good platforms, although the values and principles of our platform are critical to what we expect of people in office. But we're run by and for members. So all the people who are joining DSA mostly don't have backgrounds in informal politics. They got politicized through our lives, through our experiences at work, through our life experience. And that's what we're based on. So most of the work happening in the organization is happening at the local chapter level where ordinary people are getting Together to make decisions about how to organize. And the electoral work is really an outcome of that. It's an outcome of the work people are already doing in the workplaces, to organize unions, to organize tenant unions for power against their landlords, for community issues, for protest movements on the streets. So people make decisions together about what to spend their time on and what to spend the resources from member dues on. And that's where we were able to punch way above our weight versus organizations that might depend on private funding or just wealthy donors from nonprofits or very consultant driven. Politics, like the Democratic Party itself is more than anything a massive funding network. Kamala Harris's campaign for president in 2024 had $1 billion that was mostly coming from major donors from corporate and very wealthy individuals. So DSA's due space coming from just whatever people can afford, basically, month by month or year to year, that allows us to make decisions together about how we organize.
- [22:58]
Amy Goodman
I wanted to ask you about President Trump's talking a lot about communism lately. According to Mother Jones magazine, he's brought up communism at least 80 times in the last two weeks. And he's made it clear he's talking about democratic socialists. This is Trump in the last few weeks.
- [23:19]
Juan Gonzalez
We're Social Democrats. They say they're not socialists, they're communists. They want to destroy our country. We're not going to let that happen. Communism is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil. They haven't got a chance, not even a chance. We don't want communists in our country.
- [23:43]
Amy Goodman
So, Ashik Sadiq, you're co chair of the National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of America, your response?
- [23:51]
Ashik Sadiq
Well, at this point in the United States, socialism is losing its scare factor. We had so many decades of red scares and Cold War propaganda that set in before most people who are politically active today were even born. I'm in my 30s now, and I fully came of age after the fall of the Soviet Union and all of that. And for us today, socialism is about expanding democracy over all parts of our lives, in elections and in our workplaces, and eventually over how our economy works. So we really want to revive the history of socialism in the United States, where all the major social and economic gains for ordinary people the past century, things like civil rights, environmental gains, the gains of the New Deal, all these things were attacked as communist at the time, but they also were one with organized workers, with socialists in the past. Somebody like Martin Luther King Jr. Who's now revered as a religious and civil rights leader, was a Democratic Socialist himself. He was very concerned about economic rights for everybody. We want to revive the history of the sewer Socialists in Milwaukee who were elected to govern municipally for decades because they expanded the quality of life for so many people and created things like Social Security, which are now taken for granted. So these are all things that were possible because of the history of socialism in the United States. And that's a history we're proud of. And that's why we're now very proud to have just passed the historic peak membership of the Socialist Party in 1912, which we actually just hit on the Fourth of July a few weeks ago on America's 250th anniversary. So there's a reason, I think Trump is scared by this. But so much fear mongering against socialism and communism for decades is really falling flat at this point when we're in such an unequal society and people want a better vision of the world.
- [25:48]
Juan Gonzalez
I'd like to bring in Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, into the conversation. Alexandra, welcome to Democracy Now. Could you talk to us about Justice Democrats? How you differ, let's say, from DSA in your political organizing and your election work?
- [26:12]
Alexandra Rojas
Yeah, of course. Well, where I'll start is where we align, which is we are ruthlessly focused on building power for working people. At Justice Democrats, we are a federal political action committee. We're a small but mighty team of 10 folks that punch above our weight that have been doing this for almost 10 years, particularly leveraging congressional federal primaries, challenging specifically Democratic incumbents or establishment candidates in these open seats where the core base of our party, our black, our brown, our white, our working class, union households, the bedrock of our party are, we believe that. But, you know, especially with the mandate that our victories have shown that the Democratic Party establishment has broken absolute trust, we went into this cycle viewing it as an existential one. For decades, we have seen the corporate takeover of our country. We see fascism here at our doorstep. And this is a now or never moment for our party. We can either choose to be a party that fights like hell for working people, or we can surrender our country to white supremacists and fascists. And so for us, it is not only about, you know, the platform that we fight for alongside our comrades at the Democratic Socialists of America. It is also about how we do politics differently. And so what we do at Justice Democrats is we find and recruit working class people to ascend to our highest levels of power, specifically the House of Representatives. Where combined with the power and expertise of the local Democratic Socialists of America chapters, combined with our expertise now of running up against tens of millions of dollars in these specific type of federal congressional primary races, recruiting, you know, these types of local community candidates, working out to run, you know, underdog campaigns with smart budgets, good communication field programs, all of that. We've been able to see the power of when our movements mature and come together. And we believe the Democratic voters have answered this is the primaries, right? We still have to wait to get to the general and we know and already are seeing what Democratic consultants in the establishment are doing. And the reality is is these districts are the core of our volunteers. They're the core of our voting base. And we have to take what they say seriously, which is they want to abolish ice, they want Medicare for, they want Medicare for all, they want a Green New Deal, they want to root out the corruption of corporate money in our politics and they want people to articulate a vision on how we're going to leave nobody behind.
- [28:55]
Amy Goodman
The Democratic National Committee in May released a post election autopsy criticizing the failed 2024 presidential campaign. The release of the long awaited almost 200 page document followed a months long pressure campaign by party activists who protested DNC Chair Ken Martin's decision to keep the report secret. Martin had said he hoped to prevent a distraction ahead of the midterms after it was finally released quickly. Critics slam the report as woefully incomplete and unsubstantiated. It makes no mention of President Biden's decision to seek reelection or how Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee without having to compete in primaries. Also makes no reference to the Biden administration's support for Israel. Alexandra Rojas I wanted to ask you about the this the latest facts and figures around Israel. It is really quite astounding. AP just did a poll of I think it was over a thousand Jewish Americans and Zora Mamdani trumped if you will, Benjamin Netanyahu. Among the more than a thousand Jewish American voters, Zora Mamdani and had a favorable rating of 44% Josh Shapiro right in Pennsylvania 41% Donald Trump 29% Benjamin Netanyahu 32%. Mamdani was by far the most popular who proudly ran on a DSA platform. If you can talk about the significance of this you also have Rahm Emanuel top aid to President Obama may mayor of Chicago, big supporter known in the past of Israel now giving a speech at the University of Tel Aviv talking about Israel as a pariah state and about the genocide in Gaza. Talk about how the landscape is changing.
- [31:01]
Alexandra Rojas
Yes. I mean, we're in the middle and we have seen it, a generational shift on Israel and Palestine, not just within the electorate that has has overshadowed this primary scene. And we've seen it with the tens of millions of dollars being spent through shell packs by AIPAC because they know they can't win on their issue. We have seen, you know, to Zoharan has said this, what is the Democratic Party if not its voters? And we can see that there has just been an absolute mandate from coast to coast at this point amongst our core base of electorate that they want to see us hold Israel accountable. They want to see more and more politicians like Zohran Mamdani, not just in New York, but in every part of our country and refuse to accept a politics of division and hate and want, one of hope and of love and one where we preach what we say, we root out the corruption of our politics, we get corporate money out of politics, we refuse to work with the genociders of Israel or any country that is committing and violating human rights, international human rights law. And we want to see instead of tens of millions of dollars being sent overseas, we want to see that invested in our working people here at home and have a politics abroad that is responsible for the death and destruction that we've seen the United States cause for decades throughout the entire world. So this is an absolute watershed moment, you know. You know, it's not surprising to folks like Justice Democrats and Democratic Socialists of America who see politicians like Zohran Mamdani that are moving the demands of the movement into actual governing and showing what's possible. And you know, we predict that favorability amongst democratic socialism and ending the corruption here in the United States and obviously abroad will increasingly become popular as the contradictions are heightened within the Democratic Party and especially against the other side.
- [33:06]
Juan Gonzalez
Yeah, I'd like to go back to Ashik Siddiq for a moment. You mentioned earlier this socialist getting elected throughout the country and eventually moving to a transition from capitalism to socialism. I have a hard time trying to understand how the elite of the most powerful capitalist country in the world, world are going to accept a transition from capitalism to socialism. Can you talk a little bit more about that? If you were successful, what example in the world do you have of capitalists relinquishing their power?
- [33:48]
Ashik Sadiq
It can't happen without a lot of struggle and without having millions of people, eventually a majority of the population, who wants these changes, who wants to make choices democratically about how we run our society and how we, we control our own lives together and make decisions together instead of the most powerful people in the world making these choices right now for their own profits. So it's not just about electing people on a good platform and then hoping for the best. It's about organizing our collective power together. And elected office is an important part of that. But even more important for us is organizing people in our workplaces, is to rebuild the labor movement in the United States, which is the backbone of all major movement gains over the past century. All of the major expansions of people's rights, things like Social Security and Medicare that were won almost a century ago, but in other countries that got more expansive, things like universal health care, it happened with class struggle, and that's with organized workers with majorities of the population.
- [34:52]
Juan Gonzalez
Yeah.
- [34:57]
Ashik Sadiq
So power is not conceded without struggle. And that means people have to organize in our own interest to win these things.
- [35:07]
Juan Gonzalez
And Alexandra, could you talk about your focus on providing infrastructure for Democratic, for progressive Democratic candidates, how important that is?
- [35:22]
Alexandra Rojas
Absolutely. It's critical. And I think one thing that is important to remember, although these victories have been hard fought over the past year to get here, it's also been a project, you know, for over 10 years in the making. You know, we specifically work with working class people to run for Congress, the federal level, which is very different from local and state and from emotional labor, to helping them build out their initial email list, to recruiting them in concert with local organizations on the ground, to making sure that they have a team of local expertise and folks like ourselves that have experience going up against the tens of millions of dollars that aipac crypto, the AI industry, have funneled into our elections, people power beats organized money every single time. And also we have as a movement alongside the Democratic Socialists of America and so many others that I could list at the national and local level, have built infrastructure to be able to support from a field, from a staffing level, but also on the independent expenditure level, where even though we can't compete, beat compete with tens of millions of dollars, we can put together, you know, our own set of volunteers, donors and organizers who are willing to throw a punch back and not let our candidates be totally left out to dry like we saw unfortunately last cycle. So the infrastructure that we're building to compete against over 35 million in opposition spending, ending this cycle, and obviously even more than that over the history of the organization, really, really matters. It matters in moments like these where elections are tools for our ability to build class consciousness, public consciousness, and organize our communities, win or lose. But they're critical to laying the groundwork if we want to see more and more victories like this at every level, local and federal. So supporting the organizations and the organizers that are deep in this work is critical.
- [37:39]
Amy Goodman
I want to thank you both for being with us. Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, and Ashik Sadiq, co chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, speaking to us from North Carolina. Alexandra speaking to us from Connecticut. Coming up, a new BBC investigation into how Instagram is running paid ads promoting child sex abuse in in India. It's called the Careless Machine Exposing Instagram's Darkest Secret. Stay with us. The great Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso performing in New York years ago. This is democracy now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. As countries around the world are trying to create greater protections for young users of social media, we turn now to a new, disturbing new story out of India, where the governments demanded the popular social media company Instagram immediately remove all illegal ads and content exploiting children. This follows a new BBC investigation accusing Instagram of running paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India. The BBC investigation found 30 unique Instagram ads using terms like rape video and child video that link users to content available for purchase for just over a dollar on the separate and unrelated messaging app Telegram. After a stern notice from India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology last weekend, Mehta issued a blog post Tuesday saying, quote, it's categorically inaccurate to suggest we knowingly and deliberately target ads featuring children to people based on an inappropriate interest in children, unquote. This is a clip from the new BBCI investigation. It's called the Careless Exposing Instagram's Darkest Secret. The clip features multiple voices, including a retired Indian Supreme Court judge, officials from Meta, including Mark Zuckerberg, former vice president of Facebook Brian Boland, and BBC senior correspondent Divya Arya. And listeners might find disturbing a warning again that the climate clip deals with child sexual abuse and contains scenes our viewers and listeners might find disturbing.
- [41:04]
Divya Arya
That is an ad. This story pulled me into such dark. I almost wish I never followed it. Oh, my God. Whatever you have witnessed is obviously very, very disturbing.
- [41:27]
Ashik Sadiq
Namaste. Three and a half billion people use
- [41:31]
Amy Goodman
at least one of our apps every day. That blows my mind. It's more than half a billion people in India alone.
- [41:39]
Divya Arya
Because you are buying and looking at it is a reason why a child in the physical world is getting exploited.
- [41:45]
Ashik Sadiq
How do you sustain a business model
- [41:47]
Juan Gonzalez
in which users don't pay for your
- [41:48]
Ashik Sadiq
Service Senator, we run ads.
- [41:52]
Juan Gonzalez
I see.
- [41:53]
Divya Arya
And there's a text on the ad which says she has been unboxed and reduced to tears with a big weapon.
- [42:05]
Ashik Sadiq
My opinion is I don't care about the users anywhere, which is why I quit the company.
- [42:08]
Juan Gonzalez
This is a serious enough issue for
- [42:11]
Divya Arya
the Supreme Court of India to take suomoto cognizance.
- [42:16]
Ashik Sadiq
No, If Mark Zuckerberg's in charge, it's not doable.
- [42:19]
Divya Arya
Sir, you headed the ads business, sir, you were the director before you became head of Meta India. Sir. Sir, will you please give us an answer? Sir, I think I'm done.
- [42:33]
Amy Goodman
That from BBC Eye investigation, the Careless Machine exposing Instagram's dark, darkest secret. Following the report, the Indian government's given Metta until Saturday to submit a detailed explanation on how such advertisements are allowed on the platform. For more go to New Delhi, India, where we're joined by the award winning journalist, Divya Arya, senior BBC correspondent. Thank you so much for being with us. This is so disturbing. Such an explosive documentary. Divya, talk about how you came upon the explosive, the abusive, explosive exploit of content on Instagram owned by Metta. And the response, well, thank you so
- [43:17]
Divya Arya
much for having me on the program. What we, what I found in this project, in this investigation is not something I had set out to look for actively. I was only using Instagram like any other user scrolling on the reels, and Instagram started serving me reels of lifestyle bloggers who would use sexual innuendo when they made their reels, which made me pause and wonder what these reels really mean. And it seems from what we learned during the investigation, that the algorithm observes whether you stop on a reel, whether you engage with it, and then pushes more content of the same nature to you. And that's really how this journey started. But the content became more explicit within days. And that made me pause and think about how should I go ahead in investigating this sexualized content on Instagram? And we set up a new account. I got a new phone to separate this from my personal feed. And as I followed these reels, Instagram now started serving me advertisements. And it's important to note the difference between what users upload like you and me, where they know checks and balances. And if there's something illegal, legal, only when it is reported, the platform takes it down. But in the case of advertisements, the platform is basically providing a service to the advertiser, saying, if you put an ad, we will get it to the consumer. Whatever product you're advertising will get it to the Right consumer. So here these were paid ads for which the platform was earning money. And these paid ads found my Alias account looked at me as a consumer of illegal content which initially was pornography. It was women and men fully nude engaging in sexual acts which is also illegal in India. Selling and sharing pornography is illegal in India. Initially it was that, but soon enough it the ads started featuring child sexual abuse material, children with adults in in sexually suggestive scenarios with links to an external social media platform, Telegram, where one could go and buy this content is what the advertisement was saying. And what we confirmed later in the investigation was the truth. When we put all these allegations to Meta, which owns Instagram, which is a parent company, they said they fight child exploitation on their platforms and have removed illegal content in ads before we reached out to them and in response to what we flagged to them, they've taken down more ads stats. They also said that no process is is perfect. Their review process which we found is largely led by AI, more than 90% with only a few human reviewers actually looking at the content before it is approved and pushed on their platform, published on their platform. So they said they're continuously improving it and it's not perfect. And now I think they will probably give a more detailed explanation to the Indian government.
- [46:25]
Juan Gonzalez
And Divya, you mentioned Telegram, which of course is a separate company unrelated to Meta, but talk about their response when the BBC reached out to them about the Telegram channels selling child sexual abuse videos.
- [46:40]
Divya Arya
So Telegram said that they make all attempts to eradicate bad players from their platform and they said that with their work, which they also work with the Internet Watch foundation which is a UK based organization working on removing child sexual abuse material from the Internet, they said that with all those efforts and with their reviewers help, they have been able to almost eradicate and I'm quoting them on that child sexual abuse material from their platform. Clearly not all of it because we did find a plenty but we've reported all these ads, all these Telegram channels, all the Instagram ads, their advertisers to Indian authorities and we hope that hopeful that further investigation leads to more action in weaning out this content from the Internet.
- [47:28]
Amy Goodman
Earlier this year we interviewed Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen who talked about how she personally witnessed Facebook under investing in child safety. So the closest I saw firsthand to how Facebook under invested in the safety of children was that the team that was responsible for finding people who are distributing child abuse material or looking for adults that preyed on children or finding marketplaces where adults solicit nude photos of children from the children directly.
- [47:59]
Alexandra Rojas
That team was so strapped for resources
- [48:02]
Amy Goodman
that if you'd given them a single engineer more, they probably would have accomplished ten times as much. Right. That's the attitude that I saw repeated at Facebook firsthand. So that's Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. Of course, Facebook owned by Meta, Meta owns Instagram. And in your piece, Divya, you also interview former Meta Vice president Brian Boland who says as long as Zuckerberg is the head of it, it's not going to change. But in these last few minutes, can you talk about the deadline set for tomorrow by the Indian government and what you're hoping will come out of your report?
- [48:38]
Divya Arya
Well, yes, it was very difficult to get access to anybody who's worked inside Matter to talk about how its algorithm works, how the ad business targets people, the lack of transparency in it. And Brian Bolan was told many things to us in a lot of detail. Of course. Meta responded saying that it's absolutely unfair to say that they prioritize revenue over user safety and that they underinvest in safety mechanisms. What we are hoping now we've heard from the Indian government even yesterday that they haven't yet decided how they will proceed. In Indian law, sharing, distributing, selling child sexual abuse material is a criminal offense offense under child protection laws. But social media platforms often take cites the protection that the information technology laws provide them by saying that they cannot monitor user generated content and they're just a platform. But in this case, as the justice I interviewed for the documentary said that in this case, because the platform is making money, it becomes a different case and they may not actually have those protection protections. So it's really up to the Indian government now as to how they interpret the law and look at the the evidence that we have shared with them and also how Meta responds to them in the deadline of the one week and explains how much content they've taken down. They've told us they've taken down millions of accounts over the last year and what new measures they've put in place. Only once those details are out, we'll know how far our investigation has been able to go in achieving the impact that we set out with, which is that this illegal content should not be on the Internet and somebody needs to be held accountable for it.
- [50:28]
Amy Goodman
Divya Arya, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Senior correspondent for the BBC, reporting from New Delhi, India. Her latest BBCI investigation, the Careless Machine Exposing Instagram's darkest secret. We'll Link to to it this is Democracy now. It's the 60th anniversary of the Freedom of the Information Act. Stay with us.
- [51:07]
Divya Arya
RA
- [51:10]
Amy Goodman
and each arm the heart of a lady each charm the heart of a lady each charm the heart of a lady Charm the heart of a lady. Folk musician Nora Brown singing Jack Black Davie this is Democracy Now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. 60 years ago on July 4, 1966, President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information act, or FOIA, into law. The law was a critical step towards government transparency, even though Johnson decided not to hold a public event for the signing and instead issued a signing statement focused on exemptions for national security. FOIA only got stronger after the Watergate scandal in 1974, when Congress amended the law to make it one of the most powerful tools available for journalists, researchers, advocates and everyday people to hold the government accountable and reveal severe wrongdoing by the US Government both at home and overseas. Well, now FOIA seems to be in serious trouble. A Washington Post investigation from earlier this year found the massive purge at federal agencies last year year has had a significant impact on the number of workers responding to FOIA requests. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FOIA in April of last year, Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin described the reduction in numbers of FOIA officers and his attempt to foil foia. Our next guest has a new piece in the New Republic. It's headlined My Front Row Seat to the Slow Death of the Freedom of Information Act. In it, he writes, I file for your request for a living and the landmark law, which turns 60 this week, is near a breaking point. Ian Head is open Records manager at the center for Constitutional Rights, joining us from Los Angeles. Ian, thanks so much for being there. Why don't you hold forth on what's happened to foia, why it began and what kind of access people have to documents today to using the Freedom of of Information Act.
- [53:33]
Ian Head
Thanks so much for having me. That's a big question. I'll try to address it as best as possible. I think, you know, FOIA has been a really, as you said, amazing tool to let and I really want to key in on the different groups of people that you mentioned, especially ordinary people to access government information and records, not just lawyers or journalists. Anyone can file a foia. And so I think it's been a really powerful tool. And in my 15 plus years at the center for Constitutional Rights, I've kind of watched it work in amazing ways and especially with the different social justice organizations and organizers and lawyers that we work with. All that being said, I think it's, I've also witnessed this kind of increased level of delay and kind of tactics to kind of block and dissuade people from filing or following through on their FOIA requests. And that's been really troubling and has really, I think, as you said, increased east under this administration.
- [54:50]
Juan Gonzalez
Yeah, and I'd like to stress that point because as a journalist, I've been filing for her request for more than 50 years now. And I've been stunned at, as you mentioned, the longer delays now in responding by government agencies. Even though they're usually required either at the federal or state level to respond within five days or seven work business days, they now drag stuff out for months, sometimes years, years. Also, the number of exceptions have grown dramatically, especially when it comes to government contracts with private companies. And unless you word your request precisely, the agencies often claim that it's too broad for them to answer. So this is not just under Trump. This has been constantly happening now for decades, hasn't it?
- [55:39]
Ian Head
Yeah, I mean, I think that's really a key point I'm trying to make here is it's gotten extremely bad in this last year and a half under Trump, but this has been going on for decades. And when I talk to folks such as yourself or others who have been filing FOIA requests, you know, I know people who filed FOIA requests in the, say in the 1970s and 80s, didn't have to go to court, were able to get pretty important material from the FBI, even the CIA without, without having to litigate those requests. And now it is literally, especially with the large law enforcement agencies, so hard, they barely, they might not even respond ever. And like you said, months, months down the road, it's really, you know, I talked to a journalist the other day who said she doesn't even file federal FOIA requests at this point because there just is, because it's kind of a waste of time. She'd rather file state level requests. But I mean, we need to be able to file federal FOIA requests so we can see what this government is doing.
- [56:48]
Juan Gonzalez
And the Trump administration is trying to reclassify finished documents to avoid release. How could that affect the entire FOIA framework?
- [56:59]
Ian Head
When you say finished documents,
- [57:03]
Juan Gonzalez
in other words, the documents that were already completed, but then they're reclassifying them afterwards.
- [57:11]
Ian Head
Oh, yeah. I mean, they're trying, in my experience, to kind of reclassify all kinds of material. And also just, you know, when we do get these documents, they're so heavily redacted that it becomes a kind of ongoing back and forth conversation, whether it's with the agency or the government lawyers. If we're in court, just trying to squeeze a little bit of material out of the redactions. I mean, it's, I think they have a lot of new strategies to kind of drag these things on to the point where it's been, say, a year and a half, two years since you filed your FOIA request. And the, the reason for doing so may have come and gone. You know, the policies that you were originally asking for may no longer be in effect or in effect the same way. And so by kind of creating these different administrative rules and kind of dragging things out, it really makes FOIA a less efficient and less helpful tool when it comes to actually getting records.
- [58:22]
Amy Goodman
And Ed, we want to thank you for being with us. Open Records manager at the center for Constitutional Rights. His most recent piece for the New Republic, we'll link to@DemocracyNow.org, my front row seat to the slow death of the Freedom of Information Act. That does it for our show. Our condolences to our audio engineer, to Miguel Nogueira and his sister Ana and the whole family on the death of their mom. What a wonderful woman. That does it for the show. We'll be in Kansas City for the screening of Steal the story, please, July 17th and 18th in Martha's Vineyard on July 31st. Check our website. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.