Pointing a finger at evil wherever I see it.
Source: TheFederalist.com
The billionaire founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark, is using his fortune to further shape journalism into partisan activism to help Democrats win elections. He is the nation’s leading financier of the “mis”- and “disinformation” industries and is now the largest private stakeholder in America’s legacy journalism schools.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The United States (US) federal government helped to launch a project where six Big Tech companies and a coalition of research agencies partnered to mass monitor Covid-related content and flag millions of posts for censorship each day, according to new internal Twitter documents.
The documents were published by journalist Matt Taibbi as part of a new batch of “Twitter Files” — internal documents that have exposed many examples of Big Tech-federal government censorship collusion.
Source: RonPaulInstitute.org
I often joke that I survived Washington because I had low expectations, but last week’s hearing of the House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee would have tested the lowest of my low expectations. The purpose of the subcommittee is to look into the politicization of US government agencies and its effect on our civil liberties. But last week’s inaugural hearing of the committee was not at all a good look for the Democrats, who brought nothing but insults for the witnesses.
Source: Unz.com
Israel uses high-technology to influence results.
A week ago an interesting story surfaced briefly in the news about how the developing Republican presidential candidate bids by Nikki Haley and others had been attacked over the past eleven months by possibly as many as hundreds of thousands of false automated personas, referred to in the trade as “bots,” on Twitter and other internet based social media. Interestingly, the activity was discovered and shared with Associated Press by an Israeli internet security company called Cyabra, which also claimed that the “bots” generation seem to have originated in three separate networks of false Twitter accounts. The accounts appear to have been created in the United States and it is believed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications are increasingly being used to create completely lifelike fake personas, extremely difficult for security filters and censors to detect.
Continue reading “Interfering in Elections? – Philip Giraldi 3/14/23”
Source: MiddleEasy.com
Dana White’s Power Slap League may be guilty of manufacturing its social media engagement.
Source: Mises.org
Incredulity. Astonishment. Disgust. Anger.
It is these feelings—amongst others—that describe the general reaction to the revelations of the Twitter Files and other egregious episodes of Big Tech censorship of the electronic public square.
The implicit deal with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. is very simple: we will look at your ads if you give us a service for free. The deal did not include censorship.
Continue reading “The Censored Generation – Thomas Buckley 3/9/23”
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
New information published by journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger ahead of their testimony to the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government today has revealed that government entities flagged “anti-Ukraine narratives” to Twitter for censorship. Additionally, it revealed that a project which has partnered with several state entities and urged tech platforms to take action against “stories of true vaccine side effects” was onboarded to Twitter’s Jira ticketing system.
Source: public.substack.com
Friends —
Over the last three months, a small group of independent journalists, including Leighton and I, have, thanks to the Twitter Files, exposed the ways in which social media platforms have, under pressure from U.S. government agencies, censored ordinary Americans and spread disinformation.
Today, at 10 am ET, journalist Matt Taibbi and I will testify before Congress and reveal the existence of a secret censorship-industrial complex in the United States.
Source: schneier.com
The ban would hurt Americans—and there are better ways to protect their data.
Congress is currently debating bills that would ban TikTok in the United States. We are here as technologists to tell you that this is a terrible idea and the side effects would be intolerable. Details matter. There are several ways Congress might ban TikTok, each with different efficacies and side effects. In the end, all the effective ones would destroy the free internet as we know it.
Continue reading “Banning TikTok – Bruce Schneier and Barath Raghavan 2/23/23”
Source: DailyMail.co.uk
The BBC has banned The Archers fans from putting messages on the show’s official Facebook page after they criticised its ‘woke’ storylines.
The Corporation, which launched the rural radio soap in 1951, told the 92,000 Facebook users ‘regular posting to this page is being paused’.
Diehard fans say the move is an attempt to silence critics who believe the Radio 4 show, set in the fictitious village of Ambridge, is focusing too much on politically correct issues such as climate change.
Prior to the ban, several fans had used the official page to vent their fury about recent plotlines.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The recent release of Twitter Files, posted by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, showed that left-leaning independent Sen. Angus King reported over 300 Twitter accounts, including news outlet Zero Hedge, as suspicious.
Continue reading “Senator Leaned on Twitter by Flagging Over 300 Accounts – ReclaimTheNet 2/20/23”
Source: Unz.com
In an unprecedented step, Youtube has severely restricted as “inappropriate or offensive” Seymour Hersh’s blockbuster Nord Stream Pipelines interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!
Continue reading “Banning Seymour Hersh’s “Offensive” Ideas – Ron Unz 2/17/23”
Source: MintPressNews.com
The Israel lobby is working directly with the Canadian government and with Silicon Valley corporations to quash the voices of those critical of its expansionist policies and systematic oppression of its indigenous population.
One clear example of this came last September when an international parliamentary committee met in Congress in Washington, DC, to demand that Twitter remove the account of Palestinian-Canadian Laith Marouf. Marouf is a multimedia producer who currently serves as a senior consultant at the Community Media Advocacy Centre and the coordinator of ICTV, a project to secure a national multi-ethnic news television station in Canada. He also has a long record of active support for Palestinian rights.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Anonymity online, long considered by civil rights groups as a fundamental feature of the internet, is coming under fire from different directions, and through a range of methods: from criticism by political elites, to actual legislation.
One kind of new law that can undermine or do away with online anonymity are those mandating age verification before users are allowed on a website. Another effect these rules have is increasing the uptake of digital IDs.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene set up a “Misinformation Response Unit” to monitor what it would determine to be “dangerous misinformation” posted on social media, non-US sites, and non-English media in the US.
This “misinformation” mostly had to do with Covid vaccination – the Department was determined to drive vaccination rates up by spreading its word, and in this gathered over 100 partners whose job was to craft positive messaging around the controversial subject.
Source: MoonOfAlabama.org
On January 6 I wrote about the Twitter files:
Twitter Files Show How The Deep State Conquered Social Media
Part of the quoted reporting by Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and others was about Twitter censorship:
Source: FAIR.org
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on January 19 that the company no longer considers Ukraine’s Azov Regiment to be a “dangerous organization.” The far-right paramilitary group grew out of the street gangs that helped topple Ukraine’s president in the US-backed 2014 coup. Originally funded by the same Ukrainian oligarch that backed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rise to power, Azov was on the front lines of civil war in Eastern Ukraine, and was later fully integrated into the Ukrainian national guard.
Continue reading “Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War – FAIR 2/3/23”
Source: TechCrunch.com
Damus, one of the fastest-growing Twitter alternatives, has been pulled from China’s App Store just two days after the app was approved by Apple.
The app, which runs atop the Jack Dorsey-backed decentralized social networking protocol Nostr, was removed from the China App Store per request by the country’s top internet watchdog because it “includes content that is illegal in China,” according to an app review notice Damus received and shared on Twitter.
Continue reading “Damus Pulled from Apple’s App Store in China After Two Days – TechCrunch 2/2/23”
Source: DailyMail.co.uk
A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government’s Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Military operatives in the UK’s ‘information warfare’ brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response.
They compiled dossiers on public figures such as ex-Minister David Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll predictions, as well as journalists such as Peter Hitchens and Toby Young. Their dissenting views were then reported back to No 10.
Source: DiscourseMagazine.com
ACT ONE: The Conversion of the Institutions
By the year 2020, every major institution of American culture had converted to the cult of identity. The virus of performative dogmatism, long incubated at the universities, suddenly spread with alarming rapidity, infecting news media in every format, social media like Facebook and Twitter, search engines like Google, the entertainment world including Hollywood and Broadway, professional sports, the scientific bureaucracy and the finance and investment sector. Even stodgy billion-dollar corporations like Coca-Cola and the supposedly disruptive innovators of Silicon Valley fell in line. Churches and synagogues mutilated their traditional doctrines to make room for the new faith. As with every religious revolution, names were changed and old idols toppled from their pedestals. Nothing like it had transpired since the days of emperor Constantine.
Continue reading “The Fifth Wave: Twittermania – MartinGurri 1/18/23”
Source: TheGuardian.com
The media regulator will gain new powers to impose a compulsory code of conduct against misinformation on digital platforms, Michelle Rowland has announced.
The communications minister revealed on Friday that the Australian Communications and Media Authority will also be given new information-gathering powers to assess how platforms, including social media companies, respond to misinformation and disinformation.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The mask is slipping (pun fully intended), all over the place – regarding the Big Tech/Big Government collusion. Now it’s time to pay close attention to the role played by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
We’ve already been awed – just by the magnitude of the whole thing – if not exactly “shocked” by the Twitter Files.
After all, while it was happening, a whole lot of observers surmised that something of the sort had to be behind the unprecedented and, seemingly inexplicable levels of censorship on the platform.
But – what in the world was happening at Facebook, around the same time? After all, Facebook is an almost orders of magnitude bigger and more influential social network than Twitter.
Source: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, lobbied Twitter and other social media platforms to set moderation rules that would flag purported COVID-19-related “misinformation,” according to Lee Fang, who reported on the latest “Twitter files.”
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna, lobbied Twitter and other social media platforms to set moderation rules that would flag purported COVID-19-related “misinformation,” according to the latest installment of the “Twitter files.”
Source: tlavagabond.substack.com
Unjected.com has been on a quite a journey over the last couple of years. Unjected was founded by Shelby Thomson and Heather Pyle back in the spring of 2021 as a dating app providing a space for unjabbed people looking to find romance (or community in general), along with other incredibly useful resources such as blood donation listings and fertility services. As you might expect, it didn’t take long for the beast to lash out with a vengeance….
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The censorship power lies with a single judge, Alexandre de Moraes.
Brazil is facing a wave of censorship, targeted towards politicians and commentators that have shown support for President Jair Bolsonaro.
Several targets have had their social media accounts censored in Brazil following a censorship court order from Alexandre de Moraes, president of the Superior Electoral Court and justice of the Supreme Federal Court. De Moraes is known for a string of such censorship orders and for pressuring social media platforms to block politicians and commentators.
Source: Children’sHealthDefense.org
A series of Jan. 6 tweets by newly sworn-in Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey detailed how Biden officials sought to censor tweets by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman and chief litigation counsel of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and others.
Citing documents and emails between social media employees and White House officials, Bailey exposed how the White House sought to censor Kennedy for a tweet questioning “suspicious” deaths of elderly individuals after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and seeking a good faith investigation into the true causes of the deaths.
The White House specifically targeted Kennedy’s Jan. 22, 2021, tweet about the then-recent death of baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, 18 days after he publicly received the Moderna vaccine.
#HankAaron‘s tragic death is part of a wave of suspicious deaths among elderly closely following administration of #COVID #vaccines. He received the #Moderna vaccine on Jan. 5 to inspire other Black Americans to get the vaccine. #TheDefenderhttps://t.co/vbuHt22bJz
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) January 22, 2021
Source: FAIR.org
Twitter’s “state-affiliated media” policy has an unwritten exemption for US government-funded and -controlled news media accounts. Twitter even boosts these accounts as “authoritative” sources for news during the Russian/Ukrainian war.
Elon Musk’s controlled release of the documents known as the “Twitter Files” has given us some insight into the inner workings of the social media platform. The batch of docs released on December 20 is arguably the most explosive, detailing Twitter’s deliberate shielding of US propaganda operations. After getting limited access to Twitter‘s internal systems, Lee Fang of the Intercept (12/20/22) detailed how Twitter staff “whitelisted” accounts run by US Central Command (CENTCOM), the unit of the US military that oversees the Middle East, as part of covert propaganda campaigns. In other words, Twitter protected accounts engaged in US psychological warfare operations, even though they clearly violated the platform’s terms of service.
Continue reading “Under Musk, Twitter Continues to Promote US Propaganda Networks – FAIR 1/6/23”
Source: ChildrensHealthDefense.org
Two new “Twitter files” document dumps, released Tuesday, reveal details about how the relationship between Twitter, the U.S. intelligence apparatus, and federal and state agencies was “formalized.”
Journalist Matt Taibbi, in a long series of tweets, released the two latest “Twitter files” installments, which he titled, “How Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In” and “Twitter and the FBI ‘Belly Button.’”
The latest documents demonstrate how Twitter, despite some initial resistance, capitulated to stifling pressure from the government and from complicit media outlets and academic actors to crack down on supposed Russian and Chinese influence on the platform and to ban specific accounts.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
An internal Twitter document published by journalist Matt Taibbi has revealed that the United States (US) intelligence community warned the tech company about the publicity surrounding a book from a former Ukrainian prosecutor that claimed President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were involved in corruption in Ukraine.
Source: LewRockwell.com
If you’re still under the naively mistaken belief that there is no Deep State, the Twitter file dumps1 from Elon Musk detailing how Twitter, before his acquisition of the company, was coerced into doing the FBI’s bidding, with actual FBI agents on its staff to control the online narrative, ought to set the record straight.
In fact, the lawlessness of our intelligence agencies and the psychological warfare against the American public is far worse than most people ever expected.
FBI paid Twitter huge sums of money — your tax dollars, might I add — to censor certain views and stories, such as the damning Hunter Biden laptop story, which likely would have sunk Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency had it received the attention it legitimately deserved.
Continue reading “The Twitter Files – Dr.JosephMercola 1/3/23”
Source: TheFederalist.com
The release of internal communications in the ongoing series of “Twitter Files” reveals a government bent on propaganda and censorship—and a Big Tech industry willing to play along. With each new thread detailing the internal workings and cozy relationship between the Twitter team and our government, the political right screams louder of First Amendment violations.
The First Amendment cannot be the whole answer to the problem, however, and, in fact, may not have even been transgressed. Americans are right to be outraged, but the solution doesn’t rest in constitutional claims. The deepest solution is in a resurgence in the values of free speech and a free press.
Continue reading “Courts Won’t Stop The Feds From Deputizing Big Tech – MargotCleveland 12/29/22”
Source: AltNewsAg.org
Well, I reopened the @RearNakedSmoke Twitter feed last month in the hopes that some of my old followers would still be around, but alas, they are not. Most have moved on. Of those that are left, Twitter algorithms have assured that only around 5% are actually seeing my Tweets, and of those few, societal declines have assured that <1% are interested in reading them. Therefore, as of now, @RearNakedSmoke is dead again. I’m moving on to @AltNewsAg. Anyone who has an interest in my socio-political commentary and unique brand of Alt-News Aggregation can follow me there (or on Telegram and/or Truth Social). To all of the rest, I wish you nothing but the best, and suggest one last time that you explore Emmanuel Swedenborg’s interpretation of the Bible. Finally, just to underscore the severity of our times, I will close with a Bible verse: “Amen, I say to you, that no prophet is accepted in his own country.” Luke 4:24
God Bless,
AltNewsAg
Source: InformationLiberation.com
Twitter whitelisted secret CENTCOM accounts with “deep-fake” avatars and helped boost their covert psychological operations overseas, according to the latest “Twitter Files” release.
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
The latest batch of Twitter Files, released by independent journalist Michael Shellenberger on December 19, revealed that the FBI paid Twitter millions of dollars to process the bureau’s requests.
“I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!” wrote an employee at Twitter’s Safety, Content, & Law Enforcement (SCALE) team, in an email sent in February 2021.
Continue reading “Why was the FBI Paying Twitter Millions of Dollars? – ReclaimTheNet 12/20/22”
Source: ReclaimTheNet.org
Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger released a new batch of Twitter Files that showed how the FBI convinced Twitter that the Hunter Biden laptop story was misinformation.
At the center of Twitter’s decision to suppress the story was Jim Baker, the former deputy legal counsel at Twitter, who held a similar role at the FBI before joining Twitter. Baker and the FBI worked together to convince Twitter that the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop story were hacked from another source by Russian agents and put on the laptop that the New York Post reported on.