Shut Down Quiboloy and SMNI Permanently!
META and Twitter
To META & Twitter: Follow Youtube & Google, Shut Down Quiboloy and SMNI Permanently!
Malaya Movement USA, GABRIELA USA, concerned individuals, and organizations call on META and Twitter to follow the example of YouTube and Google and shut down known labor and sex trafficker Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy’s pages from its platforms, including the pages of his broadcasting company, Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI).
Wanted for Sex Trafficking
Quiboloy is on the FBI’s wanted list and has been indicted by a federal grand jury for a labor and sex trafficking scheme, wherein he and others from his megachurch, Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), fraudulently obtained visas for church members to move to the United States, then forced them to marry or do unpaid work to solicit donations for the church to finance church leaders’ “lavish lifestyles.”¹ On November 10, 2021, a federal warrant was issued for Quiboloy’s arrest.
In December 2022, Quiboloy also became one of 40 individuals sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act by the United States Department of Treasury, sanctioning him due to serious human rights violations for using “his leadership role within the KOJC to engage in a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape and other physical abuse involving minors as young as 11 years old from 2006 to at least 2020.”²
Broadcaster of disinformation
While Quiboloy’s personal page was removed from YouTube, his broadcasting company SMNI remains. In addition to using it as a platform to falsely discredit his crimes and charges to a captive audience of millions, Quiboloy uses SMNI to red-tag, malign, and spread disinformation about Filipino journalists, human rights lawyers, and activists in the Philippines and in the U.S., which often triggers human rights violations highly common in the Philippines, like political assassinations, enforced disappearances, torture, and unjust imprisonment. Just last May during World Press Freedom Day, SMNI deliberately falsely red-tagged several journalists in a single segment, even as politically motivated violence against journalists reached 75 under the current administration.³
De-platform Quiboloy and SMNI!
In June 2023, Google removed Quiboloy’s YouTube account, stating that the decision to block Quiboloy is merely in compliance with US sanctions laws, which block Quiboloy’s properties and interests and prohibit “provision of funds, goods, and services by, to, or for Quiboloy’s benefit.”
These are more than enough reasons for META and Twitter to take down Quiboloy and SMNI permanently from its platform. Quiboloy and SMNI violate META’s and Twitter’s community guidelines and stated commitments to human rights. By allowing Quiboloy the use of their platforms, META and Twitter are aiding and abetting the trafficking of women and children and endangering members of the press and civil society.
We are calling on the public to join us in demanding that META and Twitter de-platform SMNI and Quiboloy permanently.
Sign the petition today: tinyurl.com/shutdown-quiboloy
References:
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/human-trafficking/apollo-carreon-quiboloy¹
https://www.state.gov/combating-global-corruption-and-human-rights-abuses/²
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2023/5/5/HRW-on-SMNI-red-tagging.html³
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META and Twitter
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Follow Youtube & Google, Shut Down Quiboloy and SMNI Permanently!
Malaya Movement USA, GABRIELA USA, concerned individuals, and organizations call on META and Twitter to follow the example of YouTube and Google and shut down known labor and sex trafficker Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy’s pages from its platforms, including the pages of his broadcasting company, Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI).
Wanted for Sex Trafficking
Quiboloy is on the FBI’s wanted list and has been indicted by a federal grand jury for a labor and sex trafficking scheme, wherein he and others from his megachurch, Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), fraudulently obtained visas for church members to move to the United States, then forced them to marry or do unpaid work to solicit donations for the church to finance church leaders’ “lavish lifestyles.”¹ On November 10, 2021, a federal warrant was issued for Quiboloy’s arrest.
In December 2022, Quiboloy also became one of 40 individuals sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act by the United States Department of Treasury, sanctioning him due to serious human rights violations for using “his leadership role within the KOJC to engage in a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape and other physical abuse involving minors as young as 11 years old from 2006 to at least 2020.”²
Broadcaster of disinformation
While Quiboloy’s personal page was removed from YouTube, his broadcasting company SMNI remains. In addition to using it as a platform to falsely discredit his crimes and charges to a captive audience of millions, Quiboloy uses SMNI to red-tag, malign, and spread disinformation about Filipino journalists, human rights lawyers, and activists in the Philippines and in the U.S., which often triggers human rights violations highly common in the Philippines, like political assassinations, enforced disappearances, torture, and unjust imprisonment. Just last May during World Press Freedom Day, SMNI deliberately falsely red-tagged several journalists in a single segment, even as politically motivated violence against journalists reached 75 under the current administration.³
De-platform Quiboloy and SMNI!
In June 2023, Google removed Quiboloy’s YouTube account, stating that the decision to block Quiboloy is merely in compliance with US sanctions laws, which block Quiboloy’s properties and interests and prohibit “provision of funds, goods, and services by, to, or for Quiboloy’s benefit.”
These are more than enough reasons for META and Twitter to take down Quiboloy and SMNI permanently from its platform. Quiboloy and SMNI violate META’s and Twitter’s community guidelines and stated commitments to human rights. By allowing Quiboloy the use of their platforms, META and Twitter are aiding and abetting the trafficking of women and children and endangering members of the press and civil society.
META and Twitter, we demand you to de-platform Quiboloy and SMNI permanently!