Home » Posts tagged 'twitter' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: twitter

Update (1228ET): Glenn Greenwald has written yet another blistering indictment of big tech censorship in response to Twitter’s permanent suspension of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

* * *

Just days after Twitter banned Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA technology and a strident skeptic of the vaccines produced using his the mRNA framework, for allegedly spread COVID “misinformation” (their words, not ours), Twitter and its new leadership have struck again. This time, they’re “permanently” banning Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account for allegedly spreading misinformation as well.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws

September 7, 2021

Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws

A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and security.

The bill updates the Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. In essence, it allows law-enforcement agencies or authorities (such as the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) to modify, add, copy or delete data when investigating serious online crimes.

The Human Rights Law Centre says the bill has insufficient safeguards for free speech and press freedom. Digital Rights Watch calls it a “warrantless surveillance regime” and notes the government ignored the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee to limit the powers granted by the new law.

What’s more, legal hacking by law enforcement may make it easier for criminal hackers to illegally access computer systems via the same vulnerabilities used by the government.

What’s in the law?

The bill introduces three new powers for law-enforcement agencies:

“data disruption warrants” allow authorities to “disrupt data” by copying, deleting or modifying data as they see fit
“network activity warrants” permit the collection of intelligence from devices or networks that are used, or likely to be used, by subject of the warrant
“account takeover warrants” let agencies take control of an online account (such as a social media account) to gather information for an investigation.

There is also an “emergency authorisation” procedure that allows these activities without a warrant under certain circumstances.

How is this different to previous laws?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Shadow State: Twitter Suspends Commentator for Criticizing Vaccine Policies

July 30, 2021

The Shadow State: Twitter Suspends Commentator for Criticizing Vaccine Policies

I recently discussed how the Biden Administration was actively encouraging corporations to limit speech and impose vaccine mandates as a type of shadow state. Rather than take such actions directly ( and face both legal and political challenges), the Administration is relying on its close alliance with Big Tech and other companies to carry out such tasks. That surrogate relationship is particularly clear in the expanding censorship program carried out by Twitter, Facebook and other companies. Twitter’s action against political commentator Dave Rubin is an example of how these companies are now dispensing with any pretense in actively barring criticism of government policies and viewpoints.

Rubin was locked out under the common “misinformation” claim by Twitter. However, his tweet was an opinion based on demonstrably true facts. One can certainly disagree with the conclusion but this is an example of core political speech being curtailed by a company with a long history of biased censorship, including the barring of discussions involving Hunter Biden’s laptop before the election. With a new election looming, these companies appear to be ramping up their censorship efforts.

In his tweet, Rubin stated:

“They want a federal vaccine mandate for vaccines which are clearly not working as promised just weeks ago. People are getting and transmitting Covid despite vax. Plus now they’re prepping us for booster shots. A sane society would take a pause. We do not live in a sane society.”

Even President Biden admitted yesterday that he was wrong weeks ago when he assured people that if they took the vaccine, they would not be at risk for the variants and could dispense with their masks. There are breakthrough cases that have taken many officials by surprise. It is also true that there is now talk of likely booster shots.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Free Speech Inc.: How Democrats Have Found A New But Shaky Faith In Corporate Speech

May 10, 2021

Free Speech Inc.: How Democrats Have Found A New But Shaky Faith In Corporate Speech

Below is an updated version of my column in The Hill on Facebook’s decision to uphold the ban on former president Donald Trump. Notably, this weekend, Twitter took it upon itself to add a gratuitous response to an observation made by Donald Trump Jr. after he tweeted “Biden isn’t the next FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] he’s the next Jimmy Carter.” Twitter took it upon itself to say that many are “confused” by the remark since Carter was a great humanitarian and noble prize winner. It was a telling moment. These companies now act as either censors as officious intermeddlers when it comes to comments made on the platforms. They view themselves as a party to any postings and that viewpoints must be corrected or clarified to advance the corporate position.

Here is the column:

After Facebook’s oversight board this week upheld the social media giant’s continuing ban of former President Trump, the response of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) captured the visceral joy of many on the left: She posted a series of laughing emojis.

Welcome to Free Speech, Inc.: the Democratic incorporation of free speech built around the a presumption of corporate censorship (for some).

Of course, Democrats insist they are not attacking free speech, just combating “disinformation.” After all, they say, private companies have every right to control speech — unless you are, say, a bakery opposed to preparing a cake for a same-sex wedding, or a company contributing to political causes. The current mantra defending Facebook’s corporate speech rights seems strikingly out of sync with years of Democrats and political activists demanding the curtailment of such rights.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Twitter Admits To Censoring Criticism of The Indian Government

April 27, 2021

Twitter Admits To Censoring Criticism of The Indian Government

On Saturday, Twitter admitted that it is actively working with the Indian government to censor criticism of its handling of the pandemic as the number of cases and deaths continues to skyrocket. There are widespread reports that the Indian government has misrepresented the number of deaths and the true rate of cases could be as much as 30 times higher than reported. The country has a shortage of beds, oxygen, and other essentials due to a failure to adequately prepare for a new surge. Not surprisingly, the Indian government has moved to crackdown on criticism. This included a call to Twitter to censor such information and Twitter has, of course, complied. With the support of many Democratic leaders in the United States, Twitter now regularly censors viewpoints in the United States and India had no trouble in enlisting it to crackdown on those raising the alarm over false government reporting.

Buried in an Associated Press story on the raging pandemic and failures of the Indian government are these two lines:

“On Saturday, Twitter complied with the government’s request and prevented people in India from viewing more than 50 tweets that appeared to criticize the administration’s handling of the pandemic. The targeted posts include tweets from opposition ministers critical of Modi, journalists and ordinary Indians.”

The article quotes Twitter as saying that it had powers to “withhold access to the content in India only” if the company determined the content to be “illegal in a particular jurisdiction.” Thus, criticism of the government in this context is illegal so Twitter has agreed to become an arm of the government in censoring information.

Keep in mind that this information could protect lives. It is not “fake news” but efforts by journalists and others to disclose failures by the government that could cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment

February 21, 2021

Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment

In their zeal for control over online speech, House Democrats are getting closer and closer to the constitutional line, if they have not already crossed it.

CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey (R) and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (L) are sworn in to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on September 5, 2018. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms. On March 25, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will interrogate Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebooks’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai at a hearing which the Committee announced will focus “on misinformation and disinformation plaguing online platforms.”

The Committee’s Chair, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), and the two Chairs of the Subcommittees holding the hearings, Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), said in a joint statement that the impetus was “falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine” and “debunked claims of election fraud.” They argued that “these online platforms have allowed misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim consequences for public health and safety,” adding: “This hearing will continue the Committee’s work of holding online platforms accountable for the growing rise of misinformation and disinformation.”

House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert control over the content on these online platforms…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Twitter Rolls Out New Wikipedia-Like Program To Narrative Manage Tweets

January 26, 2021

Twitter Rolls Out New Wikipedia-Like Program To Narrative Manage Tweets

Twitter has announced that it will be employing “a new community-driven approach to help address misleading information” called Birdwatch which news media are comparing to the model of content moderation used by Wikipedia.

“Twitter unveiled a feature Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets,” reports NBC. “The new system allows users to discuss and provide context to tweets they believe are misleading or false. The project, titled Birdwatch, is a standalone section of Twitter that will at first only be available to a small set of users, largely on a first-come, first-served basis.”

“We know there are a number of challenges toward building a community-driven system like this — from making it resistant to manipulation attempts to ensuring it isn’t dominated by a simple majority or biased based on its distribution of contributors,” Twitter’s official statement says. “We’ll be focused on these things throughout the pilot.”

Such claims provide little reassurance for anyone who’s familiar with the establishment narrative control operations which take place on Wikipedia in exactly that way. The Grayzone‘s Ben Norton did a great two-part report last year on the way concerted, aggressive efforts by a small group of shady-looking Wikipedia editors has succeeded in dominating the site’s articles which relate to western imperialist agendas and the reporters who support and oppose those agendas, including getting outlets like WikiLeaks and The Grayzone banned from use as sources despite their having no history of false reports.

“The internet encyclopedia has become a deeply undemocratic platform, dominated by Western state-backed actors and corporate public relations flacks, easily manipulated by powerful forces,” wrote Norton. “And it is run by figures who often represent these same elite interests, or align with their regime-change politics.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Angela Merkel attacks Twitter over Trump ban

January 20, 2021

Angela Merkel attacks Twitter over Trump ban

Russian dissident Alexei Navalny echoes criticisms levelled by German chancellor’s spokesman

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has sharply criticised Twitter’s decision to ban US president Donald Trump, calling it a “problematic” breach of the “fundamental right to free speech”.

Twitter suspended Mr Trump’s account last week in the aftermath of the riots at the Capitol Building, citing “repeated and severe” violations of its civic integrity policies. Facebook has taken similar action.

But Ms Merkel said through her spokesman that the US government should follow Germany’s lead in adopting laws that restrict online incitement, rather than leaving it up to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to make up their own rules.

The intervention highlights a key area of disagreement between the US and Europe on how to regulate social media platforms. The EU wants to give regulators more powers to force internet platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to remove illegal content.

In the US, technology companies have traditionally been left to themselves to police their own sites, though momentum is gathering behind political moves to curtail their regulatory freedoms. Several members of Congress are working on bills which would limit the legal protections social media companies have from being sued for third-party content posted on their sites. Others are pushing for a new federal data privacy bill that could mirror the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Twitter’s share price fell more than 7 per cent on Monday to about $48, as investors were spooked by the renewed debate into the prospect of tighter social media regulation.

Ms Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said free speech was a “fundamental right of vital importance” that could be restricted, “but only in accordance with the laws and within a framework defined by the legislator — not by the decision of the management of social media platforms”.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Censorship is Now the Norm – Free Speech is Officially Gone

January 9, 2021

Censorship is Now the Norm – Free Speech is Officially Gone

Google has just banned Parlar App and Apple has declared it will do the same giving them 24 hours. Twitter’s permanent ban on Trump shows that it is by no means a mere platform but is a political agenda in and of itself. Facebook has also banned Trump. For all the community guidelines are just a smokescreen. They are determined to try to prevent him from ever running for anything again or to use the internet to organize even a 3rd party. Meanwhile, the House will move to impeach Trump on Monday in a move to discredit him and all those who voted for him.

There are reports that thousands of conservatives have their accounts being deleted in a wholesale purge even if they had nothing to do with the siege of Congress. As I have warned, to me, this is the fault of the Supreme Court. It was their duty to rule was there evidence or not – plain and simple. Had they only ruled, this NEVER would have happened and that is assuming it was only Trump supporters while others are saying Antifa led the charge. If there was no evidence – just say so! But no. The courts are there to PREVENT violence. Refusing to rule, I have warned, leaves the only solution is violence. Just look at history! This is the very purpose of courts to ensure that civilization is maintained – i.e. remaining “civil” rather than violent.

Under all socialist/Marxism revolutions, the very first thing that goes is free speech. Next comes the loss of the freedom of movement – papers, please! The final stage is simply total oppression/surveillance and turning everyone against each other to prevent uprisings – see something say something…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump said Twitter Has Become a National Security Threat

November 28, 2020

Trump said Twitter Has Become a National Security Threat

Others have been writing in that they have now censored Pat Buchanan as well. It seems that anyone who they dislike is being censored. President Trump has come out against Twitter saying their censoring of Republican lawmakers is now creating a matter of national security. He has ample grounds to arrest Dorsey – NOW! Section 230 cannot overrule the Constitution. It is unconstitutional and he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

This is absolute TREASON and it is entirely to further the take over of the United States by this foreign agenda headed by Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum which has openly stated that one of their predictions is that the United States will no longer be a superpower and it will be “shared” among nations being the United Nations.

This is an outright coup to try to take over the United States to create this one-world government of George Soros. These people have crossed the line. This is a deliberate attempt to overthrow the government and destroy all our lives and they have been using this virus and the pretense for this invasion. I did an interview in Canada and the death toll from COVID-19 outside of nursing homes was 165 in the entire nation. This is by no means justification to lockdown everyone which is really to destroy the economy for their “Build Back Better” agenda coming from the World Economic Forum.

Twitter Block’s Website

November 27, 2020

Twitter Block’s Website

The very same day they decided to censor our website I believe at the direction of Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, who is using corporate funds to further his personal agenda of social activism in line with Klaus Schwab’s Stakeholder Economics, Twitter has blocked Sidney Powell’s Website. This is becoming an all-out war. If this has been a clean election, none of this would be taking place.

Shutting down all commentary on Powell and her filings is demonstrating that indeed these people have something serious to hide and it is far more than Dorsey’s imitation of Rasputin. He should pay attention to history. Rasputin was assassinated.

These people have the audacity to obstruct free speech or even judicial cases that may expose their corruption and perhaps treason against the United States furthering a foreign agenda from the World Economic Forum?I removed “Powell” from the headline to see if this makes it out.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Vermont has instructed teachers to interrogate children and find out if their families got together for Thanksgiving. This is EXACTLY what East Germany was all about. Children were told to inform the government about anything their parents said or did. Welcome to absolutely the Bonfire of our Liberties. This violates the 5th Amendment of the children for if they say yes, they are then thrown in quarantine for 2 weeks and their liberty is restrained. That is a constitutional violation and lawyers should file a civil rights suit forthwith.

“A Truly Orwellian Culture” – Amazon Removes COVID Skeptic’s Book For Violating Content Guidelines

October 18, 2020

“A Truly Orwellian Culture” – Amazon Removes COVID Skeptic’s Book For Violating Content Guidelines

Around the time Twitter purged New York Post’s bombshell stories about Hunter Biden from its platform, late last week, Amazon was busy censoring any criticism against the “official” COVID-19 narrative, with the banning of at least one book from its Amazon Books store.

Political writer James Perloff’s latest book, “Covid-19 and the Agendas to Come: Red-Pilled,” was removed from Amazon on Thursday, he tweeted.

“BAD NEWS. After selling over 3,500 copies for Amazon since publication on August 20, Amazon has banned my book “COVID-19 and the Agendas to Come, Red-Pilled.” Individual orders can still be placed at…” Perloff tweeted.

Book: “Covid-19 and the Agendas to Come: Red-Pilled”

Perloff spoke with RT News about the incident, which he outlined how Amazon’s act of censorship validates his book’s findings, expressing concern that “the censorship on Covid has been getting progressively stronger, even as the death rate from Covid has been getting progressively lower.”

“We are in a truly Orwellian culture,” he warned.

Perloff said Amazon contacted him on Thursday, asking him to “clarify [his] rights to the book” – something he said was already completed in August when the book went up for sale on the e-commerce platform. As RT explains:

“But before he could finish gathering the material required to prove once again that he owned the global rights to his own work, he received another email from Amazon, this time claiming they had removed his book “during a quality assurance review of [his] catalog” because it “violated content guidelines.””

Amazon’s Response To Perloff

He then “asked them [Amazon] to specify what guidelines [he] had violated,” they responded that the book violated “our content guidelines.”

Imagine If MSM Consistently Applied The Evidentiary Standards It’s Applying To Hunter Biden’s Emails

October 15, 2020

Imagine If MSM Consistently Applied The Evidentiary Standards It’s Applying To Hunter Biden’s Emails

Mainstream media and social media platforms are actively blacking out an October surprise published by The New York Post which purports to show “smoking gun” emails from the laptop of Hunter Biden, son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Both Twitter and Facebook have censored the story on their platforms, the first time we’ve seen the powerful social media giants deplatform a mainstream news media article, both citing concerns about the origins of the emails and an uncertainty about the veracity of the claims.

“Facebook was limiting distribution of the story while its outside fact-checkers reviewed the story’s claims, spokesman Andy Stone said,” reports NPR, adding that “Twitter said it decided to block the story because it couldn’t be sure about the origins of the emails.”

Twitter claims it found the emails to be in violation of its policies banning content which contained private information and its rules against “hacked materials”, both of which would have forbidden all articles sharing the contents of the 2016 WikiLeaks drops if those rules had existed back then. As I warned could happen back in August, these rules have set the stage for the cross-platform censorship of a 2020 October surprise.

There’s a good thread going around Twitter compiling posts that mainstream media reporters have been making in objection to the circulation of Hunter Biden’s emails alongside posts made by those same reporters promoting far more ridiculous and insubstantial allegations, like MSNBC’s virulent Russia conspiracy theorist Kyle Griffin saying nobody should link to the New York Post report because if they do they’ll be “amplifying disinformation”.

A new Reason article discusses how the mass media are not just avoiding the story but actively discouraging it:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How Did People Have Conversations Back Before Tech Oligarchs Were There To Police Them?

October 11, 2020

How Did People Have Conversations Back Before Tech Oligarchs Were There To Police Them?

Twitter has announced the rollout of even more censorship policies in the lead-up to the November US presidential election.

“Starting next week, when people attempt to Retweet a Tweet with a misleading information label, they will see a prompt directing them to credible information about the topic before they can amplify it,” Twitter informs us, with “credible information” of course meaning information from the same mass media outlets who’ve lied to us about every American war throughout their entire existence.

“We’re taking more steps to encourage thoughtful amplification by preventing Tweets that have been ‘followed by’ and ‘liked by’ accounts you don’t follow from showing up in your timeline,” adds Twitter, as though the social media echo chamber that is turning us all into idiots wasn’t bad enough.

This is just the latest in the stack of additional censorship measures that Silicon Valley tech corporations have been rolling out in open coordination with the US government under the banner of protecting American democracy. We may be certain that none of these measures will be rolled back when the election is over.

As my regular readers are no doubt tired of hearing me repeat by now, when you have monopolistic tech corporations which attract the bulk of online communication coordinating with governments to censor speech, what you have is government censorship. As Matt Taibbi recently wrote after the irrational Facebook purge of QAnon cultists, this censorship regime is continually expanding and this expansion is likely to continue, especially in the direction of those who oppose these same establishment power structures that are promoting this censorship.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tag Archives: twitter

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

Post navigation

Latest Posts