Tag: social media

House Oversight Democrat in Sexual Relationship with Leftist YouTuber Tied to Influencer Program That is Under Investigation by Her Committee: Report

A House Democrat is reportedly in a sexual relationship with a liberal YouTuber at the same time her committee is investigating one of his projects.

Sources Say News’ Juliegrace Brufke, a veteran Capitol Hill reporter previously employed by Axios and The Daily Beast, reported on Thursday that 34-year-old Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) has been seeing 24-year-old Jack Cocchiarella while the House Oversight Committee is looking into Chorus’s influencer program.

The Chorus Creator Incubator Program is a leftist nonprofit initiative that pays online influencers like Cocchiarella up to $8,000 per month to spread Democratic propaganda.

Cocchiarella sits on the creative council of Chorus and is listed as a co-founder.

According to Brufke, Ansari and Cocchiarella have been together on several occasions, including at the young leftist’s 24th birthday party last Friday.

More from Brufke:

Ansari was at Cocchiarella’s residence for his 24th birthday party on Friday, according to sources in attendance, with one source describing them as having a flirtatious dynamic with the congresswoman and helping set up ahead of the gathering kicking off.

It was not a one-off, according to other sources.

The pair appeared affectionate at the MS NOW party during White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend, according to screenshots of text messages from multiple confirmed MS NOW party attendees describing what they had witnessed. Two others confirmed they saw the pair together at the party. One source said Cocchiarella confirmed to them directly that he was involved with “a Democratic congresswoman.”

Both Ansari and Cocchiarella turned up at a MoveOn “Won’t Back Down” event in Phoenix in August. Cocchiarella has also had Ansari on his YouTube show as recently as July.

In some cases, the personal relationships of public officials are no one’s business. But when a member of Congress is DATING a person whose program is under investigation by the legislative body, this should be national news.

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TikTok To Pay Alabama At Least $100 Million, Add Teen Limits Before First State Trial

TikTok and its creator ByteDance struck a deal Friday with Alabama that will pay the state at least $100 million and force changes in how teenagers use the app, days before what would have been the first state trial over claims the platform was built to addict minors.

The money is due within 45 days. It can climb to $300 million if certain conditions are met, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said. Alabama was set to select a jury on Monday.

“This is a great day for Alabama parents,” Marshall said. “Tonight, they can rest easier knowing real protections are in place to shield their children from the dangers of social media addiction. TikTok has agreed to give parents real control over what their kids see and how much time they spend on the app.”

The complaint had accused TikTok of designing addictive features, exposing young users to serious mental harms, and misleading the public about safety.

TikTok did not admit those claims in the papers released Friday.

The company did not immediately return a request for comment.

The deal requires teen accounts in Alabama to have a two-hour daily cap, which parents can further shorten. After 15, 60, and 90 minutes of continuous use, the app must interrupt the session, a feature the office called “productive pauses,” intended to break endless scrolling.

Teen accounts will be unavailable from midnight to 6 a.m. Messaging and push alerts face extra limits overnight and during school hours. In addition, cosmetic filters are banned for teen users.

The default feed for those accounts is to remain non-personalized, and teen accounts are to be harder for adults to find. Parents get notice of suspicious contacts. Parental controls are supposed to be easier to use.

Last month, a multi-state Meta deal was set to bring Alabama $117 million on similar youth-harm allegations. Earlier, Roblox paid the state $12.2 million and agreed to tighter age checks and chat rules.

The Alabama deal arrives as other fights progress.

On Sept. 10, a Travis County, Texas, judge ruled that TikTok violated the state’s consumer protection law by misleading users about tools meant to keep minors from harmful videos. Judge Cory Liu found Restricted Mode did not work as marketed.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the case now goes to trial next month to set penalties.

“TikTok sacrificed the safety and innocence of children for engagement and numbers, and now they are being held accountable,” Paxton said then.

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Report: Social Media Platforms Block Paid Advertising for Elon Musk Documentary

Major social media companies including Meta, YouTube, X, and TikTok are reportedly refusing to accept paid advertisements for Alex Gibney’s upcoming documentary about Elon Musk, raising concerns that the Masters of the Universe are closing ranks to protect one of their own.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Bleecker Street, the distributor of Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary Musk, is facing an unprecedented challenge in promoting the film’s October 9 theatrical release. YouTube, TikTok, Meta’s platforms Instagram and Facebook, and Elon Musk’s own X platform have all declined to run paid advertisements featuring the documentary’s trailer, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The rejections have caught Bleecker Street by surprise, prompting the distributor to scramble internally to understand the reasoning behind the decisions. A person familiar with the company’s processes, who is not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the studio is working to address the situation through appeals.

Perhaps most notably, X, the social media platform owned by Musk himself since 2022, has refused to engage with Bleecker Street representatives about the film or even accept advertising for any other films on the distributor’s upcoming slate. Musk has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” since buying Twitter and renaming the platform.

All three companies that provided explanations cited concerns related to “political content” as their reason for rejection. TikTok and Meta maintain policies prohibiting campaign or other political advertisements. Meta’s policy stems largely from fallout following the Cambridge Analytica scandal during the 2016 election cycle. However, the Musk trailer, which was released on Thursday, does not appear to constitute the type of campaign advertising these policies were designed to prevent. The trailer contains only a shot of a political rally from 2024 and a reference to the 2024 election at its conclusion, elements commonly found in documentaries without constituting political advocacy.

YouTube’s rejection presents an even more puzzling case, as the platform does permit campaign advertisements, requiring only “paid for” disclosures from verified candidates.

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Try Not to Laugh as Kamala Harris Explains Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms 

During a recent podcast appearance, former Vice President Kamala Harris tried to explain artificial intelligence and algorithms. You can probably guess how well things went.

It is amazing to remember that when Joe Biden was president, he actually put her in charge of AI. She was his AI czar.

When you see this clip, you will fully realize what a disastrous decision that really was.

From Breitbart News:

Harris, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee told the “Big Boy’s Neighborhood” podcast this week it’s time to “psyche it out a bit,” contending that algorithms are basically trying to diminish social media user’s curiosity.

“They’re trying to dumb people down with the assumption that people don’t have any interest beyond what they have already seen,” she said. “Think about that.”

The host nodded: “Oh yeah, the algorithm.”

Then Harris took a deep dive into the subject, launching into a flower metaphor to make her point.

“But the algorithm suggesting I have no more interest because I’m looking at this yellow flower,” she said. “I’m only interested in yellow flowers… as though my brain can’t handle the fact that there may be a pink flower, right, right, that I might be interested in looking at, right?”

It wasn’t immediately clear what the point was, but the Washington Times interpreted the words as “algorithms are manipulating people.”

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BEYOND PARODY: Maine Democrat Troy Jackson Booted From Facebook Group Supporting His Campaign

Troy Jackson is the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Maine who was chosen by party insiders after Graham Platner was forced out of the race over credible accusations of sexual assault.

Jackson has his own issues as a candidate, as he has been accused of some bad behavior in social situations.

Now, Jackson has reportedly been kicked out of a Facebook group that was set up to support his candidacy.

You could not make this up.

Maine Wire reports:

Troy Jackson Gets the Boot From ‘Mainers for Troy Jackson’ Facebook Group

An account bearing Troy Jackson’s name got kicked out of a Facebook group devoted to supporting him after members decided its replies were so insulting they couldn’t possibly have come from their candidate.

Screenshots from “Mainers for Troy Jackson” show members arguing over whether they were dealing with the real Jackson, an impostor or someone else using his account. One member posted images identifying the profile as Jackson’s personal page, complete with a Facebook designation that made for an awkward endorsement: “Former member of Mainers for Troy Jackson.”

According to a Maine Wire investigation, the account profile picture matches the personal profile account Jackson has used for several years.

The dispute comes amid complaints about Washington’s growing influence over the Democratic Senate nominee. In a Sept. 22 New York Magazine report, Rebecca Traister described progressive organizers frustrated as Jackson deferred to national consultants. She reported that local organizers had been sidelined and town halls reworked or canceled. Jackson’s campaign denied screening questions at events and said his positions on ICE, Gaza and Medicare for All had not changed.

Inside the Facebook group, supporters were having trouble recognizing the man whose name was on the door.

“This cannot be Troy speaking. He would not speak so insultingly and patronizingly to regular people let alone supporters,” wrote Carla Poindexter White. “Whoever this is, it is horrifying.”

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SHOW ME YOUR ID: Carney doubles down on sweeping internet regulation bill

Prime Minister Carney says his government will push ahead this fall with sweeping social media regulations that would create a new federal Digital Safety Commission and impose new rules on online platforms.

“We are fighting for Canada to lead the world in building the smart, safe digital tools of the next decade,” Carney told Liberal MPs ahead of Parliament’s return.

“This fall we will press ahead with the Act to protect Canadians online,” he said.

Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, was introduced by Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller in June.

The legislation would create a Digital Safety Commission with regulatory and enforcement powers over the online platforms covered.

It would require regulated platforms to address seven categories of “harmful content,” including child sexual exploitation, any content that ‘foments hatred’, incites violence or promotes terrorism or violent extremism.

The legislation also targets content that “undermines, weakens or destroys fundamental institutions or political, economic or social stability in Canada” when it could cause a serious risk to the health or safety of the public.

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MSNOW Hosts Plead With Hasan Piker to Shut His Mouth and Stop Damaging Democrats

Hasan Piker recently appeared on MSNOW where he was sandwiched on screen between Symone Sanders and Eugene Daniels while Sanders pleaded with him to stop talking because he is hurting the Democrats’ chances in the midterms.

Take note of the fact that they’re not necessarily objecting to the things that he has said. They’re objecting to the fact that he keeps saying these things out loud and making the Democrats look bad.

It’s a very telling segment.

FOX News has details:

Far-left Twitch streamer Hasan Piker clashed with two MS NOW hosts on Wednesday on multiple issues, including his political influence and his anti-Israel stance, as Symone Sanders Townsend told the streamer point-blank she would be telling candidates she worked for to absolutely “disavow” him.

“I used to work campaigns, Hasan, and I have to tell you, if I was a strategist or a consultant or the political director on one of these campaigns, I would absolutely be telling my people to disavow you,” Sanders Townsend told Piker in an interview on her “Clock It” podcast, which she co-hosts with Eugene Daniels. “I really would, because we wanna win! We wanna win, and so, like, if you’re not gonna help people win, distance.”

Piker acknowledged the disagreement between them as Townsend continued, “I’ve elected people, though. You’ve never elected anybody.”…

Daniels pressed the Twitch streamer on whether he understood that it sounded like he was endorsing violence by making that argument.

“Do you understand that that’s how people hear it? And is that what you are endorsing?” Daniels asked.

“So this, again, goes back to the same — this goes back to the same dynamic, right?” Piker said. “Structural violence and state violence is oftentimes made to be invisible. So when Israel as a state is operating its normal state functions, and sometimes it can come across as excessive, right? It’s not seen as violent.”

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EU’s Social Media Ban Could Bring ID Checks for Adults

As expected, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced that the EU Kids Act will propose that no child under 13 should be allowed on social media, while 13 and 14-year-olds should have limited accounts.

The announcement, just in time for the EU’s planned digital ID rollout, was made in von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

According to von der Leyen, the Act would ensure that “no social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15.”

Children between the ages of 13 and 14 will be allowed a limited account, with a limited set of features, and with a time limit of one hour a day, and parents will have to set up and supervise these “mini accounts.”

Von der Leyen also said that the Act would reverse the burden of proof, so that instead of regulators having to prove that a service is unsafe, it will be up to the platforms to prove that their product is safe for minors.

The Commission President also took aim at Big Tech, saying, “I am aware that many perceive the power of big tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree.” She added, “Europe has the power to act. It is us who decide the rules, not Big Tech.”

The scope of the Act will cover social media, video sharing platforms, app stores, online games, as well as AI companions and chatbots, with a focus on “high-risk” services, although the definition of that category is not yet clear.

Other rules that have been reported as part of the Act are age checks for every new account, with existing users also subject to “proportionate” checks, taking into account the time they have been subscribed to a service. Verification will be done via an app, either the one developed by the Commission or a national equivalent. These apps will only return information about whether a user is over or under a certain age.

The draft also reportedly seeks to ban certain design features, such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications, as well as artificial notifications and rewards. The text is said to state that “technology companies bear primary responsibility for making their products safe.”

Fines for non-compliance can reach up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover, while a supervisory fee will be introduced to make sure the Commission can enforce the new rules.

The Commission’s app was presented by von der Leyen in April in Brussels, and at the time, she said it was “fully open source. Everyone can check the code.”

But security consultant Paul Moore took the Commission up on that and found that the app stores sensitive data on phones and leaves it unprotected. According to Moore, he was able to hack the app in under two minutes.

The Commission first responded to this by saying the app was ready and could always be improved. A week later, a spokesperson described the version presented as “a demo version.”

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‘I wouldn’t let my kids near that’: OpenAI chief prohibits his children from specific type of social media

Leading artificial intelligence executive Sam Altman warned that he would not let his own children use short-form content because of its effects on young minds.

The OpenAI CEO said short-form video is “dangerous” and he does not want his kids watching it during an on-stage interview at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on Tuesday. Altman made the remarks after being asked what AI companies should learn from social media’s toll on young people — the issue at the center of Meta’s roughly $17.1 billion settlement on Aug. 26 with states that accused the company of addicting teens to its apps.

“I think we’re going to stay in an extremely human- centric world no matter how good [AI] technology gets, and I think one of the things I didn’t like about social media is, I think, it pushed us a little bit more away,” Altman told Salesforce CEO and chairman Marc Benioff at the conference.

Social media has not been “only positive” for society, especially when looking at the effects on young people, the OpenAI CEO said. He argued that social media companies shouldn’t shoulder the blame for all of society’s problems, but he would have managed the companies differently.

“I happen to like short for video … but I wouldn’t let my kids near that stuff,” Altman said at the conference. “I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect kids to be able to resist that dopamine thing or know that they even should.”

“I don’t think short-form video is inherently evil, but I do think it’s dangerous,” he added.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“Some degree of accidents are unavoidable with new technology across the industry,” Altman said.

However, the industry can build AI safely if it keeps safety ahead of new capabilities and learns from incidents similarly to the aviation industry, he explained.

The CEO agreed with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to pace AI development on Monday

One plan to curb these negative social media effects was revealed on Monday.

The European Commission is preparing to introduce the EU Kids Act, which would set age-based limits on children’s social media use. Politico reported. Under this proposal, children would be restricted from creating social media accounts until age 15.

OpenAI discontinued its own Tiktok-style app, Sora, in April 2026, Axios reported. The platform allowed users to share short AI-generated videos and launched in September 2025.

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