Tag: internet

Leftists Melt Down over Trump Administration Targeting DEI Broadband Subsidies

Congressional Democrats are panicking over the Trump Administration’s reforms to the wasteful Biden-era Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill allocated a whopping $42.5 billion to distribute to states to subsidize high-speed internet for primarily rural and underpopulated areas, which the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunication and Information Authority (NTIA) distributes.

Like most of Biden’s “infrastructure” programs, BEAD was filled with DEI mandates, climate regulations, and crony favoritism, which limited most funding to fiber internet, while virtually banning low-earth-orbit satellite internet. The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress signaled early this year that such wasteful programs would be targeted by the Trump White House.

Fortunately, the Senate recently confirmed Arielle Roth to lead NTIA, which will administer the program and implement the Trump administration’s reforms. Roth served as the top telecom staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and the Senate Commerce Committee, where she helped the Senator document the BEAD program’s abuses, giving her the perfect experience and skills to implement these reforms.

As Sen. Cruz noted, BEAD’s “technology bias against non-fiber broadband will drive up costs by billions of dollars and likely deprive some communities of any broadband access at all.”  Four years after the Bill’s passage, BEAD failed to connect one household to the internet.

Fiber internet is often inefficient in sparsely populated areas. Some proposals, approved by the Biden NTIA, charge tens of thousands of dollars per home across many states. The Biden NTIA even proposed giving $547,254 for one “underserved” location in Washington, D.C. (hardly an underserved area for high-speed internet).

Trump’s FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, called BEAD a “$42 billion program for expanding Internet infrastructure into a thicket of red tape and saddled it with progressive policy goals that have nothing to do with quickly connecting Americans,” specifically calling out the “DEI requirements,” “Climate change agenda,” and “technology bias.”

Keep reading

The Payment Giant That Wants to Be Your Digital ID

As European authorities accelerate efforts to introduce centralized digital identity frameworks, Mastercard is working aggressively to insert itself into the core of this transformation.

The payments giant presents its involvement in the EU’s digital ID agenda as a natural extension of its expertise in secure transactions. Under the branding of “convenience” and “trust” is a much deeper issue: a private corporation with a history of controlling access to commerce is helping to shape how individuals will prove their identity across both public and private life.

Michele Centemero, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President for Services in Europe, has publicly endorsed the European Commission’s ambition to roll out the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet to as many as 80 percent of EU citizens by 2030. “By 2030, the European Commission expects up to 80% of EU citizens could use it for everyday tasks like renting a car, signing a lease or verifying age online,” he said. “At Mastercard, we are working to support this evolution.”

According to Centemero, identity verification should feel as seamless as tapping a card. That framing serves Mastercard well, since it also helps justify why a payment processor should be involved in identity infrastructure at all.

The company’s involvement isn’t superficial. Mastercard holds a central role in two major EU-funded pilot programs: the NOBID project and the WE BUILD Consortium.

Both are focused on testing real-world scenarios where identity verification is built directly into the act of making a payment.

Mastercard’s goal is to link verified attributes such as age, student status, or residency to its transaction systems. The result is a system where every purchase can also double as a form of ID verification.

While Mastercard calls this innovation, it also has been accused of tightening its grip on how people access services. The company has already been accused of a willingness to restrict purchases or services based on opaque internal policies. Giving it a hand in identity verification extends that influence into areas that go well beyond finance.

If your access to goods or services depends not just on having the money to pay, but also on Mastercard’s approval of your identity data, the line between public service and corporate control becomes dangerously hard to find.

Online identity verification is already a source of friction for many users. Mastercard points to the fact that over 40 percent of online fraud in Europe involves identity theft and claims that its participation in digital ID development will reduce both risk and inconvenience. But the promise of greater efficiency often masks the loss of autonomy that comes with centralized, corporate-managed identity systems.

The company is also leveraging its role in shaping international standards. Mastercard is a participant in organizations like the FIDO Alliance and EMVCo and is a founding member of the OpenWallet Foundation.

These bodies influence how identity attributes are secured, shared, and verified globally. Mastercard is not only helping define the technical framework; it is working to ensure that its own infrastructure is embedded within it.

Keep reading

Files Of A Would-Be Assassin – Thomas Crooks’ Internet Search History Revealed

Headline USA has obtained a partial internet search history of alleged would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks. Read it here for the first time.

The search history comes from a trove of data from the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), where Crooks attended from 2022 to 2024—graduating in the spring of last year with an associate degree in engineering science. The search history is only for the times Crooks was using CCAC wifi, which was about three days per week when school was in session. The vast majority of his internet footprint, including the countless hours he spent online at his house, is still a mystery.

CBS News and The New York Times also obtained the CCAC search history, and both outlets published stories about it last month. However, they didn’t publish the raw data.

When this author saw the CBS article, he asked the CCAC for the same search history information. In response, a CCAC official provided four files of “Graylog” data, which only showed jumbled-up code. The CCAC official said that CBS and New York Times both “reversed engineered” the Graylog code to make it readable.

Eventually, this reporter was able to find a computer whiz to do the same. Apparently, deciphering the data was simple—just a matter of renaming the files and running the script again.

While CBS reported many of the pertinent facts about Crooks’s search history, the raw data  does reveal previously unreported information.

For instance, Crooks visited mainstream news sites such as The Hill, Aljazeera, CNBS, The Wall Street Journal and CNN, along with more niche sites such as compositesworld.com and foodsafetynews.com. He also visited the State Department’s website, www.state.gov, once on Oct. 10 at 12:50 p.m.—a visit that wasn’t reported by CBS or the Times. That visit occurred right after Crooks was browsing winteriscoming.net, which is a Game of Thrones fan site.

Keep reading

“Chat Control” – EU Proposal To Scan All Private Messages Gains Momentum

A controversial European Union proposal dubbed “Chat Control” is regaining momentum, with 19 out of 27 EU member states reportedly backing the measure.

The plan would mandate that messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, must scan every message, photo and video sent by users starting in October, even if end-to-end encryption is in place, popular French tech blogger Korben wrote on Monday.

Denmark reintroduced the proposal on July 1, the first day of its EU Council presidency. France, once opposed, is now in favor, Korben said, citing Patrick Breyer, a former member of the European Parliament for Germany and the European Pirate Party.

Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Italy and Spain are also in favor, while Germany remains undecided. However, if Berlin joins the majority, a qualified council vote could push the plan through by mid-October, Korben said.

A qualified majority in the EU Council is achieved when two conditions are met. First, at least 55 percent of member states, meaning 15 out of 27, must vote in favor. Second, those countries must represent at least 65% of the EU’s total population.

Keep reading

Judge Strikes Down California Deepfake Censorship Law

California’s attempt to regulate political speech on major social media platforms has been blocked in federal court, with a judge ruling the state’s latest “deepfake” law clashes with protections already established by Congress.

Assembly Bill 2655 attempted to compel certain large platforms to track down and delete “materially deceptive content” about candidates, election officials, and officeholders.

Supporters described it as a safeguard against manipulated media. The companies targeted, including X and Rumble, argued it was an attempt to turn them into agents of government censorship.

Senior US District Judge John Mendez sided with the platforms and did not even need to reach the argument of constitutional free speech questions to strike down the measure.

He found the federal Communications Decency Act [CDA] already shields online services from punishment over third-party content.

“No parts of this statute are severable because the whole statute is preempted,” Mendez said in court. “No parts of A.B. 2655 can be salvaged.”

The ruling applies to the companies in the lawsuit, and his earlier order freezing enforcement of the law remains in effect statewide until he issues a formal opinion.

For Mendez, the law punished companies for doing something they are “clearly protected by [the CDA] from doing.”

The court also cast doubt on another state law, Assembly Bill 2839, which prohibits false or misleading digital communications aimed at election workers, officials, voting equipment, or candidates in the months leading up to an election. That measure is also on hold, and Mendez signaled he doubts it will survive judicial review.

“Anybody can sue,” he said. “I can sue. If I see the video, under this law, I can sue.” He warned that such a rule chills protected speech and noted the state had not shown it was using the least speech-restrictive approach possible.

Keep reading

Democrats Plan to Spend Tens of Millions of Dollars to Fund Hundreds of Content Creators

Democrats are planning to spend tens of millions of dollars to spin narratives on social media as part of a $110.5 million fundraising effort, according to images of slides from a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) donor event obtained by Breitbart News.

Under a heading “Urgent Off-Year Funding Needs” on one slide, it states the DCCC looks to raise $10 million for social media and content creation, $20 million for “Accountability work,” $15 million for “Voter Registration,” $5 million for “Recruitment” and “Primary Engagement,” and $2 million for “Research” and a “Rapid Response Infrastructure.”

One goal is to enlist at least 667 content creators, with the aim of reaching 83 million Americans and drawing 6.6 million engagements, per another slide that focuses on content creation. The program aims to engage at least 167 “Non-Political Creators” and 8 “Vetted Creators for ads in every target state.”

Keep reading

DIGITAL ID: The Shocking Plan to Kill Free Speech Forever

The U.S. is on the verge of launching a dystopian online surveillance machine—and disturbingly, Republicans are helping make it law.

The SCREEN Act and KOSA claim to protect kids, but they’re Trojan horses. If passed, every American adult would be forced to verify their ID to access the internet—just like in Australia, where “age checks” morphed into speech policing. In the UK, digital ID is already required for jobs, housing, and healthcare.

This is how they silence dissent: by tying your identity to everything you read, say, or buy online.

The trap is nearly shut. Once it locks in, online freedom vanishes forever.

Will Americans wake up before it’s too late? Watch Maria Zeee expose the full blueprint—and how little time we have left.

Keep reading

EU Revives Plan to Ban Private Messaging

The European Union is still wrestling with a controversial plan that would turn private messaging services into surveillance tools. For over three years, talks have stalled over whether providers should be forced to scan every user’s messages for possible illegal material and forward anything suspicious to law enforcement.

The European Commission is still pushing for a universal scanning requirement.

In contrast, the European Parliament insists any checks should apply only to unencrypted messages from people already under suspicion. Attempts to strike a deal have repeatedly fallen apart, with Poland the latest presidency to walk away without an agreement.

July brought a change in leadership of the Council of the EU, with Denmark stepping in and putting chat scanning back at the top of the legislative pile. Copenhagen wants this handled as a priority and wasted no time tabling a new draft on its very first day in charge.

Leaked records from a closed door July meeting show the Danish text closely tracks earlier proposals from Belgium and Hungary, with no concessions for encrypted conversations. A softer version from Poland, which would have made scanning voluntary and left encrypted chats alone, has been dropped entirely.

Out of 27 EU countries, 20 spoke during the July debate, each lodging what officials call a “comprehensive audit reservation.” Germany summed up the atmosphere by noting, “the familiar mood was clear.”

Italy, Spain, and Hungary have been in favor of mandatory chat scanning from the start. France could tip the balance since blocking the plan requires four countries representing at least 35 percent of the EU’s population. Paris has moved from tentative support to saying it could “basically support the proposal.”

Others remain cautious or opposed. Belgium, despite earlier enthusiasm, admits encrypted scanning is “a difficult topic nationally.” Estonia reports a “national conflict between security authorities and data protection officers regarding encryption and client-side scanning.” Austria is bound by a parliamentary vote against mandatory scanning or undermining encryption, a stance shared by the Netherlands. Luxembourg and Slovenia say they are still “not yet convinced.”

Keep reading

Israeli spyware firms are fueling the global surveillance state

Last week another batch of peaceful pro-Palestine protestors were arrested by British police on suspicion of terrorism offenses, including a disabled man in a wheelchair, as the UK continues its descent into authoritarianism on behalf of Israel.

If any of these protestors had their phones on them at the time of arrest, the police will most likely have scraped them for data using sophisticated spy tech software. Protestors not arrested will have been caught on mobile cameras that sit atop police vans in the UK, and their faces, perhaps even their voices, will have been captured, analyzed and cross referenced against a police database.

And in a perverse twist, this spyware technology – technology which now underpins the insidious and growing capabilities of the modern surveillance state – will most likely have been made in Israel by Israeli spies.

But it’s not just in the UK.

Spy tech developed by former Israeli spies is being used on an industrial scale by various agencies in western democracies, from police forces to national security agencies to militaries. Some has been declared illegal, some skirts legal boundaries, and much remains hidden.

The scale of usage, and the range of capabilities provided by this Israeli spy tech, is vast. From face and voice recognition software, to interception and wiretap technology, to covert location tracking, to forced data extraction from smartphones and other devices.

The tech, built by software engineers who cut their teeth writing code to enable and enforce Israeli domination over, and apartheid against Palestinians, is being sold to security services, police forces and immigration agencies across the West.

While much of the information in this article isn’t new, it hasn’t been summarized in one place before. The implications for global civil liberties of Israel’s dominance in spy tech have also not been articulated, and past media coverage has sometimes omitted the Israeli link to these companies. This article will outline the primary players, the sellers and the buyers, and also identify recent contracts, previously undocumented, between Israeli spytech and Western buyers.

Keep reading

Why Parents Are Suing Snapchat Over Fentanyl Deaths

Over and over, Amy Neville forces herself to tell people what happened to her 14-year-old son.

“I relive it. … I’m out there sharing the hardest thing that’s ever happened in my life,” she said. “It’s worth it, because I know we’re saving lives.”

Neville, 52, wiped away tears as she spoke those words during an interview with The Epoch Times on June 23. That day marked five years since her son, Alexander Neville, unknowingly ingested fentanyl and died—a tragedy that could easily befall any family, she said.

Through the nonprofit Alexander Neville Foundation, the grieving mother shares her personal pain with other parents. By her estimation, Amy Neville has given a couple hundred presentations in person and online; about 300,000 people have heard her warnings about the dangers that lurk on social media, leading to deaths such as Alex’s.

Neville also serves as the lead plaintiff in a groundbreaking court case that could affect the way Big Tech operates in the United States.

She believes that changes are needed to prevent many deaths among young people who, like Alex, flock to Snapchat and other online platforms.

Neville and her husband are among 63 fentanyl victims’ families suing Snapchat. They allege that the platform is a defective product and a public nuisance and that it should be held responsible for fentanyl overdose deaths, poisonings, and injuries.

Snap Inc., parent company of Snapchat, “vehemently denies” the allegations, a judge noted.

In the suit, the Social Media Victims Law Center represents dozens of families whose children “died of fentanyl poisoning from contaminated drugs purchased on Snapchat,” Matthew Bergman, the Seattle-based center’s founding attorney, told The Epoch Times.

Snap did not respond to a request for comment.

Keep reading