Tag: big tech

Open letter asks Big Tech to collude to censor climate change “misinformation”

Pressure continues from varied corners on Big Tech to make the climate issue the next big target of censorship on their global social media platforms, this time with the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN) chiming in.

An open letter from this group – whose manifestos center around things like anti-ad fraud, diversity, children’s well being, and misinformation – is demanding from Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other major tech companies, as well as those gathered for the COP26 summit in Glasgow (whose own legitimacy is undermined by major countries relevant to the climate problem snubbing it) to work together.

They are urged to essentially take on what would be the self-styled role of arbiters who can produce a definition of what climate misinformation is.

Other than having CAN’s backing, the letter presents the idea as having a broad enough consensus among stakeholders around the world that would provide these entities with legitimacy to come up with such a definition, since 250 signatories have supported it – including Ben and Jerry’s, and Virgin Media.

But once they agree on a definition, and make sure it is “clear and universal,” the group says, that definition should be used as a tool to censor online ads and content that go against the climate change narrative, which is referred to in the letter as “facts.”

So far, Google is said to be a leading Big Tech supporter of CAN’s ideas since it is already banning and demonetizing content that it sees as going against “well-established scientific consensus” around climate change. In essence, Google didn’t even have to wait for CAN to spearhead the search for a “clear and universal” definition – they already have one.

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Instagram censors suggestions Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense

Musician and podcaster Jordan Sarmo has announced that Instagram deleted his post about Kyle Rittenhouse, a teen who is on trial for first degree murder of two men – that he says he committed in self-defense, as he was being chased and feared for his life.

But the case has become just the latest in a flurry of highly divisive issues plaguing US society, and mainstream social media seem to have chosen to err on the side of censorship and stifle any voices supporting Rittenhouse, even though the trial is still in progress and he is therefore presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Sarmo’s post that Instagram censored showed Rittenhouse break down in tears while he was testifying about the events in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the rioting in the summer of 2020.

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Twitter disables retweet function on Rittenhouse mother’s tweet condemning Big Tech censorship of her son

Kyle Rittenhouse, who is currently facing trial for shooting three men, killing two of them, on the night of Aug. 25, 2020, was branded as a “white supremacist” from the beginning by left-wing politicians and personalities.

His trial has done much to back the claims of self-defense that his defense attorneys are arguing, yet Twitter has disabled the retweet function on a tweet by Rittenhouse’s mother stating that media had lied about her son and condeming Big Tech’s attempts to “crush & deplatform” the young defendant.

“The media & many who know better viciously lied about my son from he start. Tech companies tried to crush & deplatform @freekyleusa over 20x, often w/o explanation,” wrote Wendy Rittenhouse.

“We are facing tremendous expenses to help Kyle win this case & could use your help,” she continued, linking to a donation page.

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Facebook Aggressively Censoring Any Searches for Kyle Rittenhouse Amid Trial

Big Tech platform Facebook is aggressively censoring any searches for information about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois youth falsely accused of homicide by Wisconsin prosecutors following a self-defense incident at an ANTIFA riot.

Reports of Facebook turning off any and all search results amid the trial began last week, with Facebook users sharing evidence of totally disabled searches for Rittenhouse.

The block of information comes as Rittenhouse defense attorneys increasingly reveal a corrupt charade of a prosecution, with Kenosha County prosecutors implicated in coercing false testimony from witnesses and hardened ANTIFA militants openly admitting to chasing Rittenhouse armed with weapons during the shootings in August 2020.

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23andMe collected people’s DNA under the guise of one purpose but will monetize it for another

Cynics will say that nothing says “trusted neighborhood doctor” quite like a company that is a cross between Big Pharma and Big Tech – but apparently Anne Wojcicki’s 23andMe wants to be perceived as having the characteristics of all three.

The company, best known for harvesting genetic data from millions of Americans via spit tests that produced questionably useful information to the customers, recently went public, and now the serious side of its business is emerging – using all that data to develop new drugs and usher in the era of a new kind of Big Pharma that relies on Big Tech strategies of collecting data and monetizing it.

It hasn’t exactly been a secret that this was the plan all along, as a report in Bloomberg now shows, citing Wojcicki’s early pitch to investors. This is not unlike what Wojcicki’s former husband, Sergey Brin, did with Google: it started out as a search engine, that once it had enough personal data harvested from users, became a massive advertising company.

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Big Tech announces climate change “misinformation” to be the next censorship target

After “tackling” – some say disastrously for online speech – the topics of US elections and Covid by promoting content that is considered “authoritative” and suppressing, to various degrees, everything else, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are further narrowing the space for their users’ free expression.

These enormous digital squares, the social platforms-turned-approved speech enforcers will now add climate change to the list of issues discussions about which are strictly controlled and censored, when information users post or share clashes with the giants’ idea of what’s true and what’s false.

Media like Axios already have something akin to a pejorative for those who happen not to be on board the current climate change narrative – their stance is described as “climate denialism.”

And as the elites are gathering in Glasgow, Scotland for the UN-sponsored COP26 summit, tech giants who operate some of the biggest social media platforms on the planet are using the opportunity to “finally” fall in line and contribute with the best (or the worst, depending on your point of view) they have to offer – censorship, and manipulation of content visibility and reach.

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Facebook employee said censorship colleagues were “drunk on power”

A Facebook data scientist accused fellow employees of being “drunk on power” for censoring posts supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who killed two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at the height of last summer’s riots.

The data scientist said some of the censored posts did not violate the platform’s policies as they were discussing whether Rittenhouse was being treated fairly and if he was acting in self-defense. Rittenhouse’s official stance at trial will be self-defense.

Facebook removed many posts supporting Rittenhouse because its policies prohibit the praising of “mass shootings” and “mass shooters.”

In Facebook internal discussions, obtained by the New York Post, most employees agreed with the censorship of pro-Rittenhouse posts. However, one employee, a data scientist, disagreed.

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Google Allows McAuliffe Campaign to Create Fake News Headlines for Search Ads

In what the Washington Post unthreateningly describes as a “new political ad strategy,” Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s campaign is manipulating Google’s ad platform to insert fake news headlines on links to news stories relevant to the election — and Google is allowing it.

Google and other tech giants have loudly trumpeted their campaigns against “misinformation” and “fake news” in recent years, but this is another reminder that the tech giants will turn a blind eye when Democrats use technological tools to spread their own variety of misinformation.

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Pope Francis calls on social media platforms to censor more “misinformation”

In a virtual meeting during the weekend, Pope Francis called on tech companies to be more responsible about the spread of “misinformation.”

The Pope made the remarks during the World Meeting of Popular Movements, which, according to Reuters, is “a grouping of grassroots organizations and social movements which bring attention to inequality in labour, land ownership, health care, and other social issues in the developing world.”

The pope noted that “the pandemic had laid bare the social inequalities that afflict our peoples.” He added that “technology can be a tool for good, and truly it is a tool for good, which permits dialogues such as this one, and many other things, but it can never replace contact between us, it can never substitute for a community in which we can be rooted and which ensures that our life may become fruitful.”

In his speech, the Pope singled out tech platforms for aiding the spread of misinformation.

He said: “In the name of God, I ask the technology giants to stop exploiting human weakness, people’s vulnerability, for the sake of profits without caring about the spread of hate speech, grooming, fake news, conspiracy theories, and political manipulation.”

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