❗️TWITTER FILES: PART 9❗️
The new Twitter files show how FBI, CIA and other government agencies worked with Twitter and other big-tech corporations to censor accounts for unwanted narratives and basically destroyed the freedom of speech.
▪️The FBI has formed a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA.
▪️The government was in constant contact not only with Twitter, but also Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others.
▪️The regular meetings of the multi-agency Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), devoted to foreign matters, were attended by Twitter executives, FBI personnel, and – nearly always – one or two attendees from "OGA" (other government agencies).
▪️Just before the 2020 elections the FITF/FBI overwhelmed Twitter with requests, sending lists of hundreds of problematic accounts.
▪️Twitter execs were under constant pressure to validate theories of foreign influence and were often unable to find evidence for key assertions.
▪️"OGA" shared intelligence through the FBI and FITF with Twitter and others, blaming Russian agents and troll farms for writing about Ukraine neo-nazi, human rights abuses in Donbass region, discrediting Macron ahead of 2022 presidential election in France.
▪️Twitter routinely received long lists of accounts to be blocked because of them being pro-Maduro, pro-Cuba, pro-Russia, etc.
"Intel about the shady origin of these accounts might be true. But so might at least some of the information in them – about neo-Nazis, rights abuses in Donbas, even about our own government. Should we block such material? ... Should the government be allowed to try to prevent Americans (and others) from seeing pro-Maduro or anti-Ukrainian accounts?" - Taibbi concludes.
You can dive deeper into this twitter thread at Matt Taibbi
The new Twitter files show how FBI, CIA and other government agencies worked with Twitter and other big-tech corporations to censor accounts for unwanted narratives and basically destroyed the freedom of speech.
▪️The FBI has formed a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship, encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA.
▪️The government was in constant contact not only with Twitter, but also Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Reddit, even Pinterest, and many others.
▪️The regular meetings of the multi-agency Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), devoted to foreign matters, were attended by Twitter executives, FBI personnel, and – nearly always – one or two attendees from "OGA" (other government agencies).
▪️Just before the 2020 elections the FITF/FBI overwhelmed Twitter with requests, sending lists of hundreds of problematic accounts.
▪️Twitter execs were under constant pressure to validate theories of foreign influence and were often unable to find evidence for key assertions.
▪️"OGA" shared intelligence through the FBI and FITF with Twitter and others, blaming Russian agents and troll farms for writing about Ukraine neo-nazi, human rights abuses in Donbass region, discrediting Macron ahead of 2022 presidential election in France.
▪️Twitter routinely received long lists of accounts to be blocked because of them being pro-Maduro, pro-Cuba, pro-Russia, etc.
"Intel about the shady origin of these accounts might be true. But so might at least some of the information in them – about neo-Nazis, rights abuses in Donbas, even about our own government. Should we block such material? ... Should the government be allowed to try to prevent Americans (and others) from seeing pro-Maduro or anti-Ukrainian accounts?" - Taibbi concludes.
You can dive deeper into this twitter thread at Matt Taibbi
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❗️TWITTER FILES: PART 10❗️
The new Twitter files show how Twitter influenced the COVID-19 debate on the platform.
▪️The U.S. government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to suppress certain content about Covid-19, which conflicted with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) statements.
▪️Both Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform's pandemic content.
▪️Twitter routinely suppressed doctors and scientific experts, expressing views that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. Even when doctors were citing published and peer-reviewed studies, Twitter marked their posts as 'misleading'.
▪️Twitter suppressed ordinary users, even when they were using the CDC's own data to back up their arguments.
▪️Twitter used bots, trained on machine learning and AI to moderate content.
You can dive deeper into this twitter thread at David Zweig
The new Twitter files show how Twitter influenced the COVID-19 debate on the platform.
▪️The U.S. government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to suppress certain content about Covid-19, which conflicted with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) statements.
▪️Both Trump and Biden administrations directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform's pandemic content.
▪️Twitter routinely suppressed doctors and scientific experts, expressing views that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. Even when doctors were citing published and peer-reviewed studies, Twitter marked their posts as 'misleading'.
▪️Twitter suppressed ordinary users, even when they were using the CDC's own data to back up their arguments.
▪️Twitter used bots, trained on machine learning and AI to moderate content.
You can dive deeper into this twitter thread at David Zweig
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Migrants were dropped off at Kamala Harris’ home on Christmas Eve
Several buses carrying migrants arrived in D.C. near Kamala Harris' home. The migrants then boarded another bus taking them to a local church. The buses reportedly came from Texas.
It was later stated that the buses originally headed for NY but "shifted to DC because of the weather".
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republicans leading southern states have arranged the transport of thousands of migrants to liberal enclaves such as Chicago, New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, and Washington, D.C., in recent months to draw attention to the U.S.-Mexico border crisis.
Several buses carrying migrants arrived in D.C. near Kamala Harris' home. The migrants then boarded another bus taking them to a local church. The buses reportedly came from Texas.
It was later stated that the buses originally headed for NY but "shifted to DC because of the weather".
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republicans leading southern states have arranged the transport of thousands of migrants to liberal enclaves such as Chicago, New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, and Washington, D.C., in recent months to draw attention to the U.S.-Mexico border crisis.
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U.S. government spent over $118,000 to learn if Thanos could really snap his fingers
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor to slam wasteful big government spending, highlighting how the National Science Foundation granted $118,971 of taxpayer money to a group of Georgia Tech students so they could learn if the Marvel villain Thanos, while wearing the fictional Infinity Gauntlet, could really snap his fingers.
"They apparently hired some dude to wear metal gloves and then try to snap his fingers. You know what they found out that it's impossible to make a snapping sound with metal fingers." - Rand Paul said.
"For the past few years, I've been fascinated with how we can snap our fingers. It's really an extraordinary physics puzzle right at our fingertips that hasn't been investigated closely," - said Saad Bhamla, one of team members.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor to slam wasteful big government spending, highlighting how the National Science Foundation granted $118,971 of taxpayer money to a group of Georgia Tech students so they could learn if the Marvel villain Thanos, while wearing the fictional Infinity Gauntlet, could really snap his fingers.
"They apparently hired some dude to wear metal gloves and then try to snap his fingers. You know what they found out that it's impossible to make a snapping sound with metal fingers." - Rand Paul said.
"For the past few years, I've been fascinated with how we can snap our fingers. It's really an extraordinary physics puzzle right at our fingertips that hasn't been investigated closely," - said Saad Bhamla, one of team members.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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James Cameron cut 10 minutes of gun scenes from the new "Avatar", not willing to 'fetishize' firearms
"I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action. I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker." - Cameron said.
James Cameron keeps fighting the 'toxic' masculinity 😅
"I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action. I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker." - Cameron said.
James Cameron keeps fighting the 'toxic' masculinity 😅
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Topic du jour
🇺🇸U.S. Senate votes to ban TikTok on government devices The Senate unanimously passed a bill that would ban the use of TikTok on government devices amid growing national security concerns over the Chinese-owned social media platform. The No TikTok on Government…
TikTok has been banned from any devices issued by the US House of Representatives
The order to delete the app was issued by Catherine Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, whose office had warned in August that the app represented a "high risk to users".
All lawmakers and staffers with House-issued mobile phones have been ordered to remove TikTok by Szpindor.
The order to delete the app was issued by Catherine Szpindor, the chief administrative officer of the House, whose office had warned in August that the app represented a "high risk to users".
All lawmakers and staffers with House-issued mobile phones have been ordered to remove TikTok by Szpindor.
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🇵🇱LGBT activists praise Spice Girls singer Mel C for canceling her Poland New Year's Eve show
Followers were convinced that she decided to pull out because of Poland’s anti-LGBT stance.
"In light of some issues that have been brought to my attention, that do not align with the communities I support, I’m afraid I will no longer be able to perform in Poland as planned on New Year’s Eve," - Mel C.
The show is being staged by Polish state broadcaster TVP. They said the Spice Girls member pulled out "under the pressure of online comments."
Isn't it wonderful to live in constant fear of being cancelled by your woke fans?
Followers were convinced that she decided to pull out because of Poland’s anti-LGBT stance.
"In light of some issues that have been brought to my attention, that do not align with the communities I support, I’m afraid I will no longer be able to perform in Poland as planned on New Year’s Eve," - Mel C.
The show is being staged by Polish state broadcaster TVP. They said the Spice Girls member pulled out "under the pressure of online comments."
Isn't it wonderful to live in constant fear of being cancelled by your woke fans?
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Attacks on churches in the United States nearly tripled in the last four years
At least 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred between January 2018 and September 2022 across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., 137 of which in 2022 only.
Most of the incidents (77%) were categorized as "vandalism" with 342 occurrences. The report also found 58 "arson" incidents, 12 "gun-related" incidents, 11 "bomb-threats," and 19 "other" types of incidents in the four years.
Spikes in church attacks seem to follow rises in political tension. This happened during the protests and concurrent riots related to George Floyd's death in May 2020 and following the leak of the Dobbs decision in May 2022.
Overall, acts of hostility trended upward during the five-year reporting period. The first nine months of 2022 saw more than double the number of reported acts of hostility against churches that occurred in the entirety of 2018.
At least 420 acts of hostility against churches occurred between January 2018 and September 2022 across 45 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., 137 of which in 2022 only.
Most of the incidents (77%) were categorized as "vandalism" with 342 occurrences. The report also found 58 "arson" incidents, 12 "gun-related" incidents, 11 "bomb-threats," and 19 "other" types of incidents in the four years.
Spikes in church attacks seem to follow rises in political tension. This happened during the protests and concurrent riots related to George Floyd's death in May 2020 and following the leak of the Dobbs decision in May 2022.
Overall, acts of hostility trended upward during the five-year reporting period. The first nine months of 2022 saw more than double the number of reported acts of hostility against churches that occurred in the entirety of 2018.
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"The Witcher: Blood Origin" Netflix series is making headlines for having a shockingly low audience score on Rotten Tomatoes
The new fantasy series was released on Christmas day and since then has earned a 33% critic rating and 10% audience rating on the site. Fans are not impressed with the prequel.
While some fans blame the historically bad Rotten Tomatoes scores on review bombing, the practice of people writing multiple negative reviews to intentionally bring the score down, this is unlikely the problem with "Blood Origin." A Forbes reviewer noted how other popular titles which were supposedly review-bombed didn’t have audience scores as bad as 10%.
This is what happens when you prioritize your agenda over a good scenario.
The new fantasy series was released on Christmas day and since then has earned a 33% critic rating and 10% audience rating on the site. Fans are not impressed with the prequel.
While some fans blame the historically bad Rotten Tomatoes scores on review bombing, the practice of people writing multiple negative reviews to intentionally bring the score down, this is unlikely the problem with "Blood Origin." A Forbes reviewer noted how other popular titles which were supposedly review-bombed didn’t have audience scores as bad as 10%.
This is what happens when you prioritize your agenda over a good scenario.
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Chemours director resigns over 'woke culture'
Bradley Bell, member of the Chemours board of directors resigned and criticized the chemical company for wanting to make a "woke" cultural statement by including abortion coverage and gender transitioning procedures in its benefits plan for employees.
Bell said it was morally and ethically wrong. "I cannot reconcile my participation on the Chemours board with my beliefs and commitments to other organizations promoting the opposing viewpoint."
"Chemours management mentioned that this 'benefit' was something that employees had indicated as being important to them. Is that truly the case, or is the company simply wanting to make a statement in our increasingly 'woke' culture?"
Good question.
Bradley Bell, member of the Chemours board of directors resigned and criticized the chemical company for wanting to make a "woke" cultural statement by including abortion coverage and gender transitioning procedures in its benefits plan for employees.
Bell said it was morally and ethically wrong. "I cannot reconcile my participation on the Chemours board with my beliefs and commitments to other organizations promoting the opposing viewpoint."
"Chemours management mentioned that this 'benefit' was something that employees had indicated as being important to them. Is that truly the case, or is the company simply wanting to make a statement in our increasingly 'woke' culture?"
Good question.
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