Tag: big tech

Judges Back Meta in Vaccine “Misinformation” Battle, Free Speech Advocates Vow to Fight On

The 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled this week in favor of Meta, Facebook’s parent company. The case was brought forward by the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) over allegations that the social media giant violated free speech rights.

The lawsuit, initiated in August 2020 and later updated in December, claimed that Facebook, along with its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and two fact-checking entities, Science Feedback, and the Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact site, was complicit in an unconstitutional act of privately exercising governmental censorship. CHD alleges that Facebook, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal institutions, is censoring content and discussions that the government is barred from suppressing under the First Amendment.

We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here.

The plaintiff specifically accused these sides of working in tandem to unfairly stifle valid attempts to discuss vaccine safety on Facebook, often through indirect yet sensorial measures like the use of warning labels. According to CHD, this type of arrangement between public entities and private corporations represents a breach of the First Amendment due to its perceived status as “state action.”

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Google’s App “Quality” Crackdown Raises Censorship Concerns

AppCensorship, a project that monitors and reports about censorship on major app stores, is warning that Google’s decision to start removing what it considers low-quality apps could lead to consequences other than “improving quality and user experience.”

An article on the project’s site notes that while some users see Google’s move as a positive and justified step, others see the potential for censorship “baked in” the decision.

The second point of view is all the more important given the amount of apps that Google removes from the Play Store over a year. The giant’s newest transparency report cites the number as 2.28 million – 59% more compared to the 1.43 million in the previous period.

But AppCensorship writes that the transparency report itself – and large media outlets reporting about it – all focus on the numbers without engaging in what the project calls a complete picture that would include discussion around (removal) policy, analysis, and critical examination.

Otherwise, the article warns, we may be looking at the media “lending them (app removal statistics) a degree of credibility disconnected from substantive scrutiny.”

As far as Google is concerned, the activity around the Play Store is proof that it is improving security, but also the app review process, and incorporating “advanced machine learning.”

On the flip side are fears that, as the article put it, Google may be using “its influence and high market share to dictate the global app environment.”

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Federal Judge Declares Google a Monopolist, Setting the Stage for Major Industry Shakeup

On Monday, a pivotal ruling from a federal judge declared that Google had breached antitrust regulations in its quest to dominate the online search and advertising sectors. Judge Amit Mehta’s decision noted that Google had perpetuated its monopoly through specific strategies that violated section 2 of the Sherman Act.

We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here.

The lawsuit, which commenced in 2020, later expanded to include multiple states and territories, encapsulating the gravity and scale of the legal scrutiny Google faces. Early in the trial, government attorney Kenneth Dintzer articulated that the proceedings would significantly influence the future of internet governance.

The trial’s largely private proceedings sparked criticism from transparency advocates, who accused Google of trying to minimize public oversight and media exposure. Google had successfully argued that opening up the trial fully would risk exposing sensitive trade secrets.

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Senator Marshall Officially Launches Investigation Against Google for Alleged Election Interference — Accused of Rigging Search Results to Prioritize Left-Wing Propaganda

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) has announced an investigation into Google, accusing the woke tech giant of manipulating search results to suppress information regarding the recent assassination attempt on President Trump.

Over the weekend, users across various platforms reported that searches for terms related to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump yielded no relevant autocomplete suggestions.

Instead, the algorithm appeared to prioritize historical incidents involving other political figures, such as Presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, along with unrelated events like the shooting of musician Bob Marley.

“This raises serious questions about Google’s intentions,” Senator Marshall tweeted. “Why is Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?”

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Lawmakers Request Delay on Meta’s Shutdown of “Fact-Checker” Favorite Content Surveillance Tool

Meta’s decision to shut down a content surveillance tool called CrowdTangle, announced earlier in the year and about to take effect next month, has met with opposition from a group of US lawmakers.

CrowdTangle, which the giant bought in 2016, has over the years been “repurposed” by “fact-checkers,” researchers focusing on “disinformation” as well as media who flag it.

Meta said it is replaced by the Meta Content Library, available to some researchers but not commercial entities (such as media outlets, a number of whom are currently running “fact-checking” operations).

Now 17 lawmakers (three Republicans among them) have written to Meta asking that it reconsider this decision, referring to CrowdTangle as a “transparency tool” both for researchers and journalists.

The letter, addressed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, says CrowdTangle is being used to “view and study” content on Facebook and Instagram, but also other platforms, searching for content ranging from foreign influence, and terrorism, to mental health.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

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Here’s MORE Evidence of ELECTION INTERFERENCE from Google

As Twitchy reported earlier, a search for “assassination attempt on Tr …” led Google to helpfully autocomplete the request with … Truman? “Assassination attempt on Truman” is the first search result? There are seven suggested searches there, and not one of them mentions Donald Trump.

Google explained that its systems automatically “have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence” — no one person interfered with the results. That was debunked pretty quickly by showing searches for plenty of other searches associated with political violence, such as the Kenosha riots.

Now we have more evidence of election interferences from Google. We tried this ourselves and got the same results, so this is not a “cheap fake.”

Seriously — type “Donald Trump” into Google’s search bar and you get results for “News about Harris • Donald Trump” and search results like “Kamala Harris allies deploy new Trump attack line: he is ‘just plain weird'” and “Andrew Cuomo: Here’s How Harris Can Beat Trump and His Stream of Lies.”

Type in “Kamala Harris” and you get results about … “Kamala Harris.”

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Google says it took ‘no manual action’ to hide Trump assassination attempt from search suggestions

Google’s search engine conspicuously left out Donald Trump in autocomplete suggestions for “assassination,” “assassination attempt” and even “president donald” Sunday, drawing criticism from social media users including X owner Elon Musk that it was censoring recent history.

The curious suggestions recalled FBI Director Chris Wray questioning whether a bullet even hit the blood-streaked Republican presidential nominee in the attempted assassination, which the bureau walked back after backlash from conservative lawmakers.

Google quickly responded to a Just the News query on the assassination-specific search suggestions, which were highlighted in multiple posts by Libs of TikTok Sunday and verified by House and Senate lawmakers, at least one state attorney general and Just the News.

Musk noted that the suggested finish for “President Donald” was “Duck,” the Disney character, and “Regan,” President Reagan’s chief of staff Donald Reagan, as of late Sunday. (“Trump” had replaced “Duck” in Google suggestions Monday morning when Just the News checked.)

Even an explicit search for “assassination attempt trump” and “president donald trump” returned no suggestions over a 13-hour period from Sunday to Monday morning.

“These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Miss., posted on X, referring to Google’s suggestion to search for the assassination attempt on former President Harry Truman but not former President Trump. “I’ll be making an official inquiry” to Google this week.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, agreed that Congress should investigate Google’s search suggestions.

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Big Tech Caught Suppressing Search Results, Other Information About Trump Assassination Attempt

On Sunday, several Big Tech companies faced intense backlash after it appeared that they were suppressing search results related to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Now, they’re facing accusations of election interference, and even a Senate investigation.

Google users began noticing that the search engine’s Autocomplete function was omitting results related to the assassination attempt against Trump. Social media users began to spread similar images online, and soon, members of government, as well as Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, had picked up examples of their own. 

Trump’s assassination attempt was nowhere to be seen, even when users searched “the assassination attempt of” in the Google search bar.

The New York Post tested the theory themselves, using the last names of U.S. presidents who were assassinated or faced attempted assassination, followed by the letters “assassi” to see what autocomplete suggested. While each of these were given helpful, related results, Trump’s assassination attempt was nowhere to be found when typed in. 

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Google Jigsaw, GIFCT, and Tech Against Terrorism Develop Altitude: A Controversial Tool to Monitor “Potential” Extremist Content, Raising Censorship Concerns

There are suspected, and investigated instances of Big Government-Big Tech collusion.

And then there’s Google.

And within Google, there’s something now called Jigsaw. But that’s a rebranding of something Eric Schmidt thought of more than a decade ago, and was originally called Google Ideas.

Before the rebranding, way back when, Google Ideas was in the news for alleged ties with the US State Department (of the time).

So – what’s Jigsaw up to now?

Misinformation. Disinformation. Toxicity. Terrorism even. Against, obviously. “Climate change” – not cited but probably pending – is what this particular portion of Google is now involved with, working with the likes of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

Google Jigsaw was always about geopolitics, alarming as that information may be, bearing in mind the way Google reaches those billions of people around the world in the first place. Search. Videos. Fun.

GIFCT, meanwhile, brings together Big Tech and the UN-backed Tech Against Terrorism initiative. And GIFCT is seen as one of those large, tech-industry-spanning entities, that use their great power for the evil – namely, censorship.

But it does get worse. The Tech Against Terrorism is known for making alarming statements about matters like undefined “conspiracies,” but also content featuring “tradwives.” Well, that surely falls way clear of anything related to – terrorism. Or anything.

Other than the overall question – where’s our tax money going when it’s given to the UN, the same question arises specifically in the US and the EU – when Jigsaw announces its (Project) Altitude?

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GOOGLE PLANNED TO SPONSOR IDF CONFERENCE THAT NOW DENIES GOOGLE WAS SPONSOR

THE “IT FOR IDF” conference in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, brought together tech firms from across the world to support the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and beyond.

Many of the assembled companies are not household names in the United States, but several multinational firms — like Nokia, Dell, and Canon — were present at July 10 event.

The mission they had gathered to support was clear. Onstage, a brigadier general with the Israeli military gave a presentation that connected the Nakba, the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, the current war on Gaza, and more wars in the decades to come. His call to action splashed across the big screen: “Each generation and its own turn — this is our watch!”

One company, however, was conspicuously absent: Google.

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