Censorship in America

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram Threads, which some say could rival Elon Musk’s Twitter, has seen a drop-off in users and engagements in recent days after a relatively strong showing in early July, according to analytics companies. “The Threads launch really did ‘break the internet,’ or at least the Sensor Tower models,” Anthony Bartolacci, the managing director at Sensor Tower,...

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta (formerly Facebook) will provide a “one-off funding boost” to third-party fact-checkers in the lead-up to a national referendum on whether to change the Australian Constitution. The tech giant will work with RMIT CrossCheck to monitor “misinformation trends” leading up to the contentious Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal, and will share guidance on “combating false information” with journalists....

A preliminary injunction sought by Republicans shows the appetite of the fascist wolf in a libertarian sheep’s clothing. A U.S. federal judge issued an exceptionally broad injunction that prohibits Joe Biden’s administration from communicating with social networking companies to dispute content in the United States. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by attorneys general from the Republican...

John Whitehead There is now the capacity to make tyranny total in America.― James Bamford, journalist We’re all being targeted now. We’re all guilty until proven innocent now. And thanks to the 24/7 surveillance being carried out by the government’s spy network of fusion centers, we are all now sitting ducks, just waiting to be tagged, flagged, targeted, monitored, manipulated,...

WeChat is facing a potential ban in Australia after the company refused to appear before a federal government inquiry into foreign interference. The chair of the Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media, Sen. James Paterson, said at a press conference on July 11 that the refusal showed how little regard WeChat and its parent company Tencent, which is tied to...

kemalbas/iStock/Getty Images Plus On Monday a federal judge denied the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to stay last week’s injunction that restricts the Biden administration from certain communications with social-media firms that clearly violates the First Amendment.   U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued a 155-page preliminary injunction last week on a May 2022 lawsuit that alleged the Biden administration ”colluded with and/or...

The attorneys general for Missouri and Louisiana have submitted a petition to oppose the Biden administration’s motion to stay an injunction against its efforts allowing it to contact social media firms about a range of online content, including its efforts to flag so-called misinformation. Over the weekend, the two states filed (pdf) a memorandum of opposition to the administration’s motion,...

AP Images The gloves are coming off — in more ways than one. Only a day after launching its Threads app, tech giant Meta (the conglomerate that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms) was slapped with a cease-and-desist letter from Twitter owner Elon Musk, who claims Threads is a copy of Twitter that was made by former Twitter employees...

On July 4, 11 federal agencies and dozens of their officials were legally blocked from further interaction with more than 20 social media companies about the censoring of information deemed by the government as misinformation. Communication about criminal activity, national security threats, attempted foreign influence, cyberattacks, illegal campaign contributions, and voter suppression are exempt from the ban. The preliminary injunction...

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning the corporation that its recent “Pride” campaign merchandise and donation efforts ran the risk of violating state child-protection laws. It also cited concerns about parental rights and neglect of fiduciary duties. “State child-protection laws penalize the ‘sale or distribution … of obscene matter,'” the letter states (pdf),...

The tragic incident in France, where a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan heritage was killed by the police, has exposed the underlying and intense tensions between the security forces and the Black and Arab communities residing in the country’s most economically disadvantaged urban regions. This event has brought renewed attention to allegations of systemic violence and racism within the French...

Meta’s newly launched Twitter rival, “Threads,” is facing criticism from users due to the app’s restrictions on deleting accounts. “You may deactivate your Threads profile at any time, but your Threads profile can only be deleted by deleting your Instagram account,” says the app’s supplemental privacy policy. To create a Threads account, users have to sign in with their Instagram...

delihayat/iStock/Getty Images Plus A federal judge on Tuesday prohibited numerous federal agencies and high-ranking officials of the Biden administration from working with social media companies by ruling that the government “used its power to silence the opposition” during the Covid-19 pandemic.   U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty issued the preliminary injunction stating that the administration violated the First Amendment...

YouTube Proof that the Great American Revival is here — and has been for some time — continues to pour in. Over the Independence Day weekend, nearly 7,000 souls accepted Jesus Christ as their savior at Pastor Greg Laurie’s two-day Harvest Crusade at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Laurie celebrated on Twitter: The 2023 Harvest Crusade Welcomed Over 32,000...

It is always wise to consider the views of the Russian cabinet members and financial advisors, when it comes to understanding how the Empire’s war against Russia in Ukraine is going to develop in the near future. In this article, numerous firm opinions expressed by Sergey Glazyev in various interviews given to Russian media in the past will be discussed....

Commentary The Liberal government’s recently passed Online News Act, also known as Bill C-18, requires that tech giants like Google and Meta negotiate deals with Canadian media companies like Bell, Postmedia, and Torstar for the right to link to their Canadian content. To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dismay, the tech giants are refusing to play ball. Saying they don’t value...

Hypocrisy as TikTok secretly uses U.S. courts against free speech Commentary As is well known, TikTok is a national security threat because communist China has laws that give it access to the data of its almost 1.7 billion global users. Yet naive teenagers around the world download the app on their smartphones, thirsty for the latest kid craze trend. TikTok’s...

A judge on Friday awarded Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a black church in the District of Columbia, over $1 million in damages in a lawsuit against the Proud Boys. The lawsuit was filed in response to the Proud Boys’ destruction of a Black Lives Matter banner during a protest in 2020. Superior Court Associate Judge Neal Kravitz additionally imposed...

The online media platform, YouTube, is mulling whether to prevent users from using ad blockers while watching videos on its platform. The potential policy came to light on June 25 when online commenters on Reddit posted screenshots of a popup notice, warning viewers that they would be blocked after three videos if they refused to allow ads. The warning said that users...

Gan Jing World, a high-tech startup, has become a growing force in upstate New York, in a community looking to transition to a technology hub. Gan Jing means clean, and the platform is committed to providing content “free from violent, erotic, criminal or harmful material,” according to its website. Joseph DeStefano, mayor of Middletown, the city where Gan Jing World...