In 2013, after the arrests of their deputies golden dawnthere was an attempt to collect signatures on the network with a request to block the pages of the leaders of a neo-Nazi organization from YouTube. “Not only are these users allowed to upload videos for free, but more seriously, they seem to be able to pay for even more exposure by putting these videos at the top of the ‘most viewed’ list,” the text of the initiative reads. while. .

The same text of protest stated that facebook had already expelled the golden MPs, while YouTube at the time, he showed “no signs of appropriate sensitivity, despite being inundated with pro-Nazi, racist, and hyper-nationalist posts.”

Campaign

Ten years later, YouTube has become the main platform through which he conducts his election campaign. Ilias Casidiaris, former leader of the Golden Dawn, serving his first term for leading a criminal organization in the prisons of Domokos. His channel now has 135,000 subscribers, and the last video Uploaded on April 5, it has over 150,000 views. In this new online sermon, he talks about his presidency. his party “Greeks”Honorary Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Anastasios Kanellopoulos and at the same time does not hide his ideology, saying that Greece should get rid of the threats of “illegal immigration” and “Islamization”, while referring to Viktor Orban’s Hungary as a model state.

Since January last year “TO” sent specific inquiries to YouTube regarding the status of Ilias Kasidiaris’ channel. He claimed that the platform put a “shadow block” on him to prevent new members from being notified, with notifications as soon as a new post is made, which remains to be verified. OUR K asked for clarification. how messages are distributed and why the channel remains active despite decisions made facebook And Instagram. The answer came three months later.

“YouTube has strict Community Guidelines that we adhere to. Our policy is focused on the content, not who performs. Following review, we previously removed content from the Ilias Kasidiaris channel because it violated our hate speech policy, which strictly prohibits content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on a number of protected characteristics. We also removed content from his channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy. YouTube policy applies to everyone.” This was reported to “K” by a representative of YouTube..

The platform is the main campaign tool of the former leader of the Golden Dawn, who is in Domokos prisons.

However, it is not specified how many such videos were, what their content is and when they were removed. According to the rules of the platform, the channel will be closed if it violates the Community Guidelines three times within 90 days.

Disciplinary Council

Tomorrow a meeting of the disciplinary council in Domokos prisons is expected regarding the telephone conversations of Ilias Kasidiaris. This issue will not be resolved for the first time. On October 7, 2021, the prison’s three-man board indicated that Kasidiaris has the ability to communicate with lawyers and relatives up to the fourth degree of kinship. At the same time, he noted: “If any violations are noticed (talks outside personal and family matters) and with persons for whom he has permission to visit, if it comes to the attention of the service or it turns out that he communicates with other persons than those indicated , communication will be terminated immediately, the store manager will be informed immediately, and the prescribed disciplinary review will be carried out.”

From time to time in their statements about their ways of communicating with jail Kasidiaris talks about the attempts to silence and the bans directed only against him. However, it does not appear that anything different from what applies to every prisoner applies to him. Article 22 of the internal rules of procedure for the work of pre-trial detention centers states that the communication of prisoners by payphones is carried out only with persons who have permission to visit (lawyers and relatives up to the fourth degree). Accordingly, article 53 of Law 4985/2022 states that “by decision of the prison council, more special conditions for communication with pay phones, as well as cases of communication with persons who do not have the right to visit, are determined. In any case, the prison board may restrict the communication of a prisoner when there is a serious risk of disrupting the orderly and safe operation of the prison.”

Mobile phone not found

According to the prison staff, as well as General Secretariat of Anticrime Policy, in the checks that were carried out from time to time in the cell of Casidiaris, not a single mobile phone was found. To this day, his communication is carried out through a landline phone. He also indicated how his messages were circulated when, in a video posted on October 24, 2021, he explicitly allowed his lawyer to record and share their conversation. In most of the videos that appeared on his channel at that time, there was a written or verbal mention of what is heard through communication with his lawyers. Later videos don’t seem to have the same explanation anymore.

In the ward where he is kept, according to the descriptions made in “K”, four functional payphones, divided into two common areas, on the first and second floors. The prisoner explained that it was almost impossible for anyone to be in the call area to listen in on the content of conversations or see the numbers the prisoner was calling. There is only visual observation of the area from afar. Under the law, the content of telephone conversations of prisoners is not controlled, except as “in the event that it is required by reasons of national security or for the investigation of especially serious crimes.”