Throughout social media platforms, Karakalpak activists have more and more discovered themselves on the fallacious facet of copyright and different complaints, resulting in the elimination of content material and the disabling of profiles.
Just lately, an unknown particular person presenting themselves as an editor for The Diplomat filed a minimum of one fraudulent copyright criticism, which led to the elimination of a submit on Fb. This one case is illustrative of a wider weaponization of copyright regulation, its uneven utility, and the abuse of automated reporting techniques to focus on activists.
“We’re dropping greater than accounts and audiences,” Gulya Nur, a Karakalpak activist and president of the Through Serica Basis, informed The Diplomat. “We’re dropping documentation: testimony, interviews, information of abuse, and years of civil society work. After silencing outspoken individuals by repression inside Karakalpakstan, strain on on-line voices threatens the remaining area for documenting and difficult that repression.”
On October 31, Nur contacted The Diplomat. A fellow activist, Aman Sagidullayev, had shared the textual content of an op-ed Nur had written, which was printed by The Diplomat. Sagidullayev’s submit had been reported to Meta as a copyright violation and Meta eliminated it, notifying Sagidullayev of the small print of the criticism and his enchantment choices.
Sagidullayev is the chief of the Alga Karakalpakstan motion. In exile since 2012, his motion has lengthy demanded a referendum on independence in Karakalpakstan. The autonomous republic – and the individuals who want to see it attain full independence – have a complicated historical past with Uzbekistan, to say the least.
In the summertime of 2022, a draft model of a then-proposed constitutional referendum was printed. The draft scrapped an article that assured Karakalpakstan the precise to secede from Uzbekistan on the premise of a referendum. That perceived try to chip away at Karakalpakstan’s sovereignty sparked protests and a renewed crackdown. The constitutional referendum that handed in April 2023 retained the clause that the draft had minimize. However though Karakalpakstan’s proper to secede is technically nonetheless a constitutionally-guaranteed proper (now beneath Article 89), in sensible phrases discussing it stays a taboo.
The discover Sagidullayev acquired from Meta acknowledged that “The elimination determination was made by our know-how.”
Social media websites like Fb use automated techniques to evaluate content material for violations, together with copyright. Such platforms are motivated to maneuver shortly, as failing to behave expeditiously in response to a sworn takedown discover opens them to authorized legal responsibility beneath the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in america. The regulation consists of what’s often known as a “secure harbor” provision that shields platforms from legal responsibility if they make a good-faith effort to reply to complaints. Automated techniques velocity up this course of, however shift the burden onto the person to file a counter-notice when content material is wrongfully taken down.
Sagidullayev has appealed Meta’s determination to disable the submit.
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Once you file a DMCA criticism with a platform like Meta, which operates Fb and Instagram, you attest beneath penalty of perjury that the knowledge within the declare is correct and that you’re the copyright proprietor or licensed to behave on their behalf. Underneath U.S. copyright regulation, solely the legit copyright holder, or their licensed agent, has standing to file complaints.
As famous above, platforms are motivated to maneuver shortly in response to complaints. As such, they don’t assess the complainant’s standing to make the criticism within the first place earlier than taking steps to take away content material. This inadvertently opens the door for imposters to silence people utilizing instruments designed to guard copyright.
The criticism in opposition to Sagidullayev was submitted by a person referring to themself as Jasmina Jasurova. In response to the shape’s immediate inquiring how the affected work was infringed, the complainant wrote:
“I, Jasmina Jasurova, am an editor at The Diplomat ( The 2 reported pretend profiles repeatedly steal and republish our editorial crew’s authentic content material with out authorization, severely infringing our copyright. I urge Meta to right away take away all infringing content material and take strict enforcement motion in opposition to each profiles, together with everlasting elimination, to stop additional violations.”
As managing editor of The Diplomat since 2017, and on workers since 2014, I can state with full confidence that no particular person named “Jasmina Jasurova” has ever labored as an editor for The Diplomat. When The Diplomat contacted the e-mail handle used to file the criticism (a Gmail handle), we didn’t obtain a reply. Google searches of the identify in English, Uzbek, and Russian yielded nothing important.
The Diplomat has sought methods to file a counter-complaint with Meta, however there seems to be no mechanism by which a copyright holder can complain straight about an unknown particular person impersonating them in making a DMCA takedown request. There are kinds for copyright and trademark infringement, and kinds for reporting accounts that could be impersonating one other account and different abuses. However whereas we’ve the identify and e mail handle used to file the criticism, we have no idea what Fb account they’re related to – Meta doesn’t present that info. There are a number of dozen Jasmina Jasurovas on Fb.
Questions despatched to Meta’s press workplace inquiring about whether or not the corporate has techniques in place to make sure that solely legit copyright holders are in a position to file complaints and what mechanisms there are for redress when a fraudulent criticism is filed and acted upon went unanswered as of publication.
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This isn’t Sagidullayev’s first run-in with copyright complaints. His YouTube channel “Civil Society of Karakalpakstan” was terminated following a number of copyright strikes. Lots of these complaints seem to have been submitted beneath an e mail handle bearing his personal identify, based on paperwork considered by The Diplomat.
Sagidullayev informed The Diplomat he has already misplaced earlier Fb accounts, “and, with them, my connection to 1000’s of followers.”
“It damage to lose contact with individuals who counted on me for details about Karakalpakstan. By way of these accounts, I helped individuals harmed by Uzbekistan’s authorities inform their tales and be heard,” he mentioned. “I’m asking Meta to revive my earlier accounts. If it shuts down my present profile, I might lose years of human rights documentation and as soon as once more lose contact with the individuals who depend on my work. It takes minutes to open a brand new account. It took years to construct that archive and earn that belief.”
Jasmina Jasurova, the complainant fraudulently posing as a Diplomat editor, requested for a everlasting elimination of his account from the platform.
“Uzbekistan’s safety forces used bullets and grenades to silence peaceable protesters in Karakalpakstan. Now Uzbekistan authorities are weaponizing Fb and YouTube to silence the Karakalpak voices on-line,” Sagidullayev informed The Diplomat. “I imagine Uzbekistan’s safety companies are behind the repeated shutdowns of my Fb accounts.”
Different Karakalpak activists have equally reported being focused with copyright complaints, typically even for reposting their very own materials to completely different platforms. Activists like Sagidullayev and Nur imagine they know the supply of those complaints, however onerous proof is tough to return by given layers of on-line privateness guidelines and using sock puppet accounts.
Uzbek authorities have lengthy denied focusing on critics, at residence or overseas.
This comes at a time when Uzbekistan, like many nations, is making a concerted push to spend money on and increase its digital sphere.
“As Uzbekistan promotes digital cooperation overseas, Karakalpak defenders wrestle to protect their voices on those self same world platforms,” Nur informed The Diplomat.
In June 2026, Uzbekistan’s Minister of Digital Applied sciences Sherzod Shermatov met with Beth Ann Lim, director of public coverage, technique and campaigns for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area at Meta, “to debate the event of Uzbekistan’s digital financial system, the growth of bilateral cooperation, and the development of digital expertise amongst younger individuals,” based on a authorities readout.
“These partnerships deserve scrutiny alongside the use and potential abuse of platform criticism techniques,” Nur argued. “American know-how firms must be asking how their companies defend individuals documenting repression.”
Almost a decade in the past, Freedom Home highlighted “the rise of digital authoritarianism” of their 2018 Freedom of the Web report. “Digital authoritarianism is being promoted as a means for governments to manage their residents by know-how, inverting the idea of the web as an engine of human liberation,” the report warned.
Students summarize digital authoritarianism because the “use of digital info know-how by authoritarian regimes to surveil, repress, and manipulate home and overseas populations.” Discussions of digital authoritarianism typically give attention to mass surveillance and management of data. This ranges from propaganda and disinformation – muddying the waters with false however neatly packaged narratives – and repressing genuine voices by “pretend information” legal guidelines and the criminalization of defamation.
However this additionally consists of the weaponization of copyright to realize targets unrelated to copyright, comparable to censorship and retaliation. Instruments designed to guard copyright could be simply deployed for ulterior functions by a spread of actors, from people to governments the world over, and in the end shift the boundaries of public dialogue. The very platforms that present the avenues totally free speech additionally present the instruments of repression. It’s a darkish irony to be wrestled with.