British Member of Parliament Ian Paisley criticizes the appointment of Tawakkol Karman on Facebook

Ian Paisley, Member of Parliament for the UK House of Commons, has strongly opposed Facebook's decision to appoint activist and writer Tawakkol Karman as a member of the social network's Supervisory Board, in view of the Yemeni woman's strong links to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that has been designated as terrorist by several countries in the international scene, including the United States.

The British politician described Facebook's position as "incredible" because it does not match the spirit that the American company now wants to adopt with regard to content moderation and the exclusion of radicalism not permitted on the Internet, an issue that is being examined by this new Supervisory Board.

In an online chat, Ian Paisley expressed his disbelief about the appointment: "I think this decision by Facebook is so contrary to the logic that it's unbelievable". "We have an organization that is set up to have a process of transparency, and then they appoint Tawakkol Karman, who, frankly, is not, and cannot be, considered qualified to be in the position to which she has been appointed," he said.

He urged the social network to remove the Yemeni woman from the new body created before even carrying out any procedure to check her record: "They don't need to wait for an investigation. Facebook needs to take immediate action. They need to do the right thing".

Paisley himself announced that he had written on Facebook about Karman's appointment, and has asked the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to investigate her conduct in this regard, indicating that the department has agreed in principle that an investigation should be carried out and could begin in early July. "If we are of Christian, Muslim or Jewish origin, we should speak out and say we are for freedom of expression, but not for the abuse of that freedom of expression," Paisley said, referring to those who advocate the option of any free expression in the media or social networks. The Supervisory Board was created by Facebook to review certain content for moderation and to keep it away from radicalism. The US company had set up this body to "exercise independent judgment on some of the most difficult and significant content decisions" regarding what is published on the social network. 

In his speech, Paisley was clear: "I think this decision taken by Facebook was unexpected, which is incredible. We have an organization that has been prepared to carry out a process related to transparency, and then they appoint Karman, who cannot be considered suitable for the job".

Tawakkol Karman made a public name for herself in Yemen as part of the Al-Islah political party, which is closely linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and especially after winning the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize in the context of the Arab Spring Revolutions (an award that was surrounded by controversy because of Qatar's alleged intervention in favour of the decision). The Yemeni activist has always been known for her support of violent drift, on several occasions sustaining demonstrations that ended in heavy unrest and with a significant number of victims, as some media have reported. Her appointment to the Supervisory Board of Facebook, the body set up to arbitrate on content allowed on the platform, has provoked global anger and many complaints, including in the Arab sphere, particularly in countries such as Egypt, where there have been mass calls to boycott Facebook. 

Karman, who has lived in Turkey for years and has had a strong presence in various media, opposes freedom of expression and democracy, and takes this freedom as a means to reach power and then turn against it, according to various analysts, who highlight the links with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Salafist type association (a very rigid version of Islam) whose terrorist links are being investigated in several Western nations; even more so when a significant number of leaders of the jihadist group Al-Qaeda have been involved in past affairs with the Muslim Brotherhood.