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‘They’re Going to Get Their Ministry of Truth One Way or the Other’: Twitter Announces ‘Crisis Misinformation Policy’ + More
‘They’re Going to Get Their Ministry of Truth One Way or the Other’: Twitter Announces ‘Crisis Misinformation Policy’
Just one day after the White House confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board had been put on hold — and that board chief Nina Jankowicz had resigned — Twitter announced plans to implement a new “crisis misinformation policy.”
The plan, according to a tweet from @TwitterSafety, would be implemented to ensure that Twitter as a platform did not amplify or contribute to the spread of misinformation.
A lengthier explanation from Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of Safety and Integrity, introduced the measure as “a global policy that will guide our efforts to elevate credible, authoritative information, and will help to ensure viral misinformation isn’t amplified or recommended by us during crises.”
Critics were immediately wary of the new policy. Nationally syndicated radio host Dana Loesch commented, “They’re gonna get their Ministry of Truth one way or the other folks.”
‘Uterus Surveillance’: The Scramble to Keep Abortion Data From Prying Eyes
Telemedicine abortion groups, fearful of digital surveillance from states curbing access in a potential post-Roe nation, are shoring up privacy defenses and urging people seeking abortions to take steps to protect their data.
“We’ve seen pregnant people being arrested and prosecuted for years using electronic surveillance. … We can only imagine how much worse it will get in the post-Roe world,” said Albert Fox Cahn, head of the nonprofit organization Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.
“We’re going to see a huge focus on surveillance of telemedicine and online abortion services because for millions of Americans, that’s going to increasingly be their only way to secure safe abortion care.”
Privacy organizations, legal groups and abortion rights advocates fear that state law enforcement could issue broad warrants for information like internet search histories or phone location data to identify people who seek abortion care or to obtain records on patients who use online abortion services.
How Breaking up Big Tech Could Save Global Democracy, According to Proton Founder Andy Yen
Andy Yen is the founder and CEO of Proton, the company behind the encrypted email service ProtonMail and a suite of other privacy-focused products that are threatening to turn the data-centric Big Tech industry on its head.
Proton’s VPN service is currently one of the most-used privacy tools in Russia, helping millions of Russians evade Kremlin censorship amid the war in Ukraine.
Here, in an extended interview excerpt from a profile published earlier this month in TIME, staff writer Billy Perrigo speaks with Yen about the rise of encrypted tech and what it means for the antitrust fight against the likes of Google and Facebook and the future of the internet.
Broadway Extends Mask Mandate As NYC COVID Cases Rise
Broadway theaters will require audiences to wear masks through June amid rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in New York City, the Broadway League announced Friday, breaking with Mayor Eric Adams, who has refused to reimpose mask mandates in the city.
The mask mandate for audiences at all Broadway theaters has been extended through “at least” June 30, the Broadway League said.
Broadway’s mask announcement came days after Adams said earlier this week he would not reimpose restrictions like mask mandates, saying the city was entering a “new norm” and could not “shut down” with “every variant that comes.”
Why Is Novak Djokovic Cleared to Play the 2022 French Open?
Novak Djokovic has said he is willing to skip any tennis tournaments due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates if it means he gets to maintain his freedom. The good news for him — he won’t have to miss out on the upcoming 2022 French Open.
The world’s No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player, who was deported from Australia in January due to his unvaccinated status, days after he arrived in the country, said in an interview with BBC that it’s “because the principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else … I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”
On March 14, France regained some normalcy for the first time since the pandemic started, lifting restrictions in the majority of public spaces besides public transport, nursing homes and hospitals.
Two days later, French Open tournament director and former WTA player Amelie Mauresmo revealed at a news conference that the Serbian was cleared to play the major due to France’s removal of most COVID-19 restrictions.
Philadelphia’s COVID Cases and Hospitalizations Are Climbing. Officials Are Not Looking to Reinstate Mask Mandates.
Philadelphia health leaders warned Thursday that in the past three weeks, reported COVID-19 infections have more than doubled and hospitalizations have nearly doubled as well.
“The entire Philadelphia region is seeing COVID-19 cases rise dangerously,” Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said in a statement but added health officials will not be reinstating a mask mandate at this time. “We strongly recommend that every Philadelphian and visitors wear a mask whenever they’re indoors in public.”
The case surge is happening nationwide: roughly a third of people in the U.S. live in areas with medium or high COVID-19 community levels, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a White House briefing Wednesday. In the Northeast, about 40% of people are in counties considered to have high community levels, CNN has reported.
This Is How China Rounds up Thousands of People for Quarantine
Thousands of people in a village near the Chinese port city of Tianjin were ordered into government quarantine, with videos circulated on social media showing residents being marched through streets and onto buses as officials continue to deploy the country’s strict COVID Zero playbook on new outbreaks.
Residents of Liuanzhuang village in northern Tianjin were ordered on Monday to pack their belongings and prepare to be transported into isolation centers, a voice can be heard saying over a loudspeaker in one of the videos after dozens of COVID-19 cases were detected in their district. Footage shared on social media networks like Weibo and Twitter showed crowds of people, luggage in tow, walking toward or waiting in line for buses.
New U.S. Bill Could Deliver a Gut-Punch to Google and Facebook
A coalition of U.S. senators has proposed new legislation that would dismantle the digital advertising businesses of Google and Facebook.
The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act would prevent companies with ad revenues exceeding $20 billion from taking part in more than one stage of the advertising chain. As recently explained in Congress, Google currently acts on behalf of both market suppliers and purchasers, as well as presiding over the auction process.
The new bill also contains conditions affecting smaller market players with ad revenues in excess of $5 billion, broadly designed to increase transparency around pricing.
Although the online advertising business is sprawling and complex, with many moving parts, the space is ultimately dominated by two players: Alphabet and Meta, the parent companies of Google and Facebook.
AI’s Role Is Poised to Change Monumentally in 2022 and Beyond
The latest developments in technology make it clear that we are on the precipice of a monumental shift in how artificial intelligence (AI) is employed in our lives and businesses.
First, let me address the misconception that AI is synonymous with algorithms and automation. This misconception exists because of marketing. Think about it: When was the last time you previewed a new SaaS or tech product that wasn’t “fueled by” AI? This term is becoming something like “all-natural” on food packaging: ever-present and practically meaningless.
Real AI, however, is foundational to supporting the future of how businesses and individuals function in the world, and a huge advance in AI frameworks is accelerating progress.
As a product manager in the deep learning space, I know that current commercial and business uses of AI don’t come close to representing its full or future potential. In fact, I contend that we’ve only scratched the surface.
Meta Defends Its Gamble on the Metaverse, Says It’ll Be Worth $3 Trillion
Meta (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting the future of his 3.64-billion-member social media empire on the metaverse. And so far, all he’s got to show for it is billions in expenses and a plummeting stock price. Shares of the company are off 38% over the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 is down 4.95%.
On Wednesday, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, published a lengthy blog post defending Meta’s heavy investments in the metaverse, outlining how he believes the technology will change the way consumers access the internet. According to Clegg, the transition will be similar to how we went from using large, clunky desktops to sleek smartphones.
The metaverse is expected to be a series of interconnected, persistent online worlds accessible via virtual reality and augmented reality headsets and apps.
Elon Musk Says He’s Wading Into Politics to Stop the ‘Woke Mind Virus’ From Destroying Civilization
Elon Musk said on Twitter on Thursday that he is becoming politically active to stop “the woke mind virus” from preventing humankind from reaching Mars.
Over the last month, Musk has mentioned the “woke mind virus” on several occasions. On Wednesday, he called Yale the “epicenter of the woke mind virus attempting to destroy civilization.”
Musk also bashed the Democratic party in a tweet on Wednesday, calling it “the party of division and hate.” In the same tweet, he doubled down on his resolution to vote Republican this election — several days after he first stated that stance during a tech conference.
Can AI Predict Whether COVID Patients Will Live or Die? This Tool Shows Doctors Who Is More at Risk + More
Can AI Predict Whether COVID Patients Will Live or Die? This Tool Shows Doctors Who Is More at Risk
A tool has been developed to help healthcare professionals identify hospitalized patients most at risk of dying from COVID-19 using artificial intelligence (AI). The algorithm could help doctors to direct critical care resources to those in most immediate need, which the developers of the AI tool say could be especially valuable to resource-limited countries.
To develop the tool, scientists used biochemical data from routine blood samples taken from nearly 30,000 patients hospitalized in over 150 hospitals in Spain, the U.S., Honduras, Bolivia and Argentina between March 2020 and February 2022.
Taking blood from so many patients meant the team was able to capture data from people with different immune statuses — vaccinated, unvaccinated and those with natural immunity — and from people infected with every variant of COVID-19.
They found the algorithm predicted with high accuracy the survival or death of hospitalized patients up to nine days before either outcome occurred. The resulting algorithm — called COVID-19 Disease Outcome Predictor (CODOP) — uses measurements of 12 blood molecules that are normally collected during hospital admissions, meaning the tool can be easily integrated into any hospital.
COVID Vaccine No Longer Required, for Louisiana Students
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has agreed to remove the COVID-19 vaccine from the list of vaccines students are required to get to enroll in school in the state, officials said Wednesday.
The state health department said in a news release that it will continue to strongly recommend the vaccine, in accordance with recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, but acknowledged that the vaccine had not yet received full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for those under age 16.
State Sen. Fred Mills, a Republican from New Iberia, announced on the Senate floor that the administration agreed to remove the requirement after meeting with legislators. Legislation that would have removed the COVID-19 vaccine from the requirement list had stalled earlier in the session.
Mills said lawmakers continued to hear from parents upset about the vaccine requirement.
Facebook Issues $397 Checks to Illinois Residents as Part of Class-Action Lawsuit
More than a million Illinois residents will receive a $397 settlement payment from Facebook this week, thanks to a legal battle over the platform’s since-retired photo-tagging system that used facial recognition.
It’s been nearly seven years since the 2015 class-action lawsuit was first filed, which accused Facebook of breaking a state privacy law that forbids companies from collecting biometric data without informing users.
The platform has since faced broad, global criticism for its use of facial recognition tech, and last year Meta halted the practice completely on Facebook and Instagram. But as Vox notes, the company has made no promises to avoid facial recognition in future products.
After Facebook initially agreed to settle the lawsuit for $550 million — which at the time was the largest payout from an online privacy class-action lawsuit — a federal judge fought back and said the amount was too small. Finally, the company last year agreed to a settlement total of $650 million.
Ukrainians Seeking Shelter in U.S. Must Have TB Screenings and Certain Vaccinations
The United States is preparing to welcome more displaced Ukrainians now that the Biden administration has approved the first group to enter through the new Uniting for Ukraine program. Ukrainians began arriving through the program this month.
Ukrainian applicants will undergo rigorous security checks, including biographic and biometric screening, and must have been residents of Ukraine as of February 11. They must also meet certain public health requirements, including receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
“They’ll require these individuals to attest that they have received at least one dose of measles, polio and COVID vaccinations prior to coming into the country. If they have not, they must receive the vaccination abroad from the country that they are in,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Judge Denies Offutt Airmen’s Request to Temporarily Block COVID Vaccine Mandate
The Lincoln Journal Star reported:
A federal judge in Nebraska on Wednesday denied a request for a preliminary injunction that would have temporarily protected U.S. Air Force members from penalties for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
The order from U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher came as part of an ongoing lawsuit from 36 airmen — including 17 based at Offutt Air Force Base and three serving Lincoln with the Nebraska Air National Guard — seeking to overturn the vaccine mandate for the military issued by the Pentagon last August. They argue the mandate violates their religious rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA.
The airmen’s lawyer, former Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, requested the preliminary injunction in March to bar the Air Force from taking any punitive action against any of the 7,835 airmen who have requested exemptions under RFRA.
At a court hearing earlier this month, Kobach claimed that 18 of the 36 airmen face discharge because their requests and appeals have been denied.
‘They Shut Us Down’: Michigan Businesses Sue Whitmer for Losses Due to COVID Lockdowns
A coalition of five bowling alleys and family entertainment centers is suing Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, for losses incurred due to her mandatory COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020.
The plaintiffs allege that the shutdowns imposed by Whitmer and Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services director Robert Gordon were a “taking” of their businesses without just compensation in violation of both the state and the U.S. Constitution.
The coalition lost the first round of the legal battle when the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled against it. Oral arguments were recently held before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.
Scott Bennett, executive director of the Independent Bowling and Entertainment Centers Association, told The Epoch Times, that the forced closures were not based on solid scientific proof that bowling alleys and family entertainment centers would spread the virus any more than the Walmart stores or the GM plants that were allowed to remain open.
Navy Nearing 1,000 COVID Vaccine Denial Separations
The Navy is inching toward 1,000 separations due to COVID-19 vaccine denial, with the sea service approving separations for another 56 sailors over the past week.
The Navy currently has 980 total separations due to continued refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the service’s weekly COVID-19 update. Of the separations, 861 are active-duty sailors, while 97 are reservists. The total also includes 22 entry-level separations for sailors within their first 180 days of service.
The current separations are sailors who have not applied for religious exemptions, as the Navy is currently suspended from separating anyone who requested a religious waiver for the vaccine due to a court ruling. However, any of the separations before the court ruling on March 28 could have included those who had requested a religious exemption and were denied.
Germany’s Top Court Approves COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers
From mid-March this year, health and care workers in Germany have had to prove they are vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently recovered. If they can’t provide this proof they face fines or even bans from working — however, it is unclear how widely it has been enforced due to concerns over staff shortages.
On Thursday the constitutional court rejected complaints against the partial vaccination mandate, saying the protection of vulnerable people outweighs any infringement of employees’ rights.
The law covers employees in hospitals as well as care homes, clinics, emergency services, doctors’ surgeries and facilities for people with disabilities.
The court acknowledged that the law meant employees who don’t want to be vaccinated would have to deal with professional consequences or change their job — or even profession.
The Private Sector Steps in to Protect Online Health Privacy, but Critics Say It Can’t Be Trusted
Most people have at least a vague sense that someone somewhere is doing mischief with the data footprints created by their online activities: Maybe their use of an app is allowing that company to build a profile of their habits, or maybe they keep getting followed by creepy ads.
It’s more than a feeling. Many companies in the health tech sector — which provides services that range from mental health counseling to shipping attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder pills through the mail — have shockingly leaky privacy practices.
A guide released this month by the Mozilla Foundation found that 26 of 32 mental health apps had lax safeguards. Analysts from the foundation documented numerous weaknesses in their privacy practices.
The stakes have become increasingly urgent in the public mind. Apps used by women, such as period trackers and other types of fertility-management technology, are now a focus of concern with the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade. Fueled by social media, users are exhorting one another to delete data stored by those apps — a right not always granted to users of health apps — for fear that the information could be used against them.
IRS Selfie-Tech Provider Stirs Senate Ire Over Face Recognition
A group of Democratic senators has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether identity verification company ID.me illegally misled consumers and government agencies over its use of controversial facial recognition software.
ID.me, which uses a mixture of selfies, document scans and other methods to verify people’s identities online, has grown rapidly during the coronavirus pandemic, largely as a result of contracts with state unemployment departments and federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service.
Key to the concerns has been questions about ID.me’s use of facial recognition technology. After long claiming that it only used “one-to-one” technology that compared selfies taken by users to scans of a driver’s license or other government-issued ID the company earlier this year said it actually maintained a database of facial scans and used a more controversial “one-to-many” technology.
New South Wales Begins Digital Birth Certificate Program as Part of Digital ID Push
As part of the big global push for digital ID systems, the Australian state of New South Wales’ government has contracted Thoughtworks, a Canadian tech company, to develop a digital birth certificate system. The plans started last year when the NSW government announced it was consulting about Digital Birth Certificates as part of its “Government Made Easy” plan.
NSW’s assistant registrar of births, deaths and marriages, Amit Padhiar, said the state will be the first in the globe to develop a digital birth certificate system that will provide a safe and secure process for identification, verification and authentication.
The system will run on browsers, Android and iOS. NSW is also set to launch a digital ID system for citizens to access government services.
The Future of 911 Is a Little Bit Creepy
Over the coming weeks, AT&T is rolling out cell phone location tracking that’s designed to route emergency calls to 911 more quickly. The company says the new feature will be nationwide by the end of June and should make it easier for, say, an ambulance to reach someone experiencing a medical emergency.
At first glance, it seems like a no-brainer. But it’s also a reminder that as phone companies promise to save lives, they’re also using a lot more data about you in the process.
At the same time, the federal government is in the midst of a nationwide push to get 911 call centers to adopt a technology called Next Generation 911, which will allow people not only to call 911 but also to send texts including images and video messages — to the emergency line.
Meanwhile, Apple and Google have created new software that can directly pass on information from someone’s device, like information stored on a health app. The hope is that more data will save crucial time during emergencies, but privacy experts are already warning that the same technology could be misused or exploited.
What Is Discord? App at the Center of Investigation for Its Role in the Deadly Buffalo Supermarket Shooting Spree
As Americans search for answers over Saturday’s shooting spree in Buffalo that left 10 black New Yorkers dead, online chat forums including Discord and Twitch have come under intense regulatory scrutiny.
Right in the middle of a highly-charged debate over Elon Musk’s $44-billion planned acquisition of Twitter to rectify perceived left-wing censorship, Payton Gendron’s racially-motivated executions further polarized the issue of policing social media.
The 18-year-old killer posted repeatedly on Discord hate-filled diatribes after being radicalized online and attempting to live stream his act on Twitch.
Both platforms boast tens of millions of users and arose mainly as means for video game players to share their virtual exploits, exchange tips and chat about their favorite lore.
Homeland Security ‘Pauses’ Disinformation Board Three Weeks After Creating It + More
Homeland Security ‘Pauses’ Disinformation Board Three Weeks After Creating It
The Biden administration may be struggling in its efforts to fight security-related misinformation. The Washington Post sources claim the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has “paused” a Disinformation Governance Board just three weeks after its April 27 announcement.
Officials reportedly decided to shut down the board on May 16, but that decision appears to be on hold after a last-minute effort to retain board leader Nina Jankowicz. She resigned from the board and the DHS today (May 18).
There is a chance the board could survive depending on a Homeland Security Advisory Council review. If the reports are true, though, the U.S. government may have to rethink its anti-disinformation efforts if they’re going to survive both criticism and internal scrutiny.
Nationals Fired Scout for Refusing COVID Vaccine. He’s Now Selling Cars — and Suing
Benny Gallo’s baseball career is dead, at least for now, because the Washington Nationals told him to get a COVID vaccine and fired him when he did not.
He could have gotten the shot, if for no other reason than to save his job as a scout. Instead, he is suing the Nationals. “I’m drawing the line on this,” Gallo said. “In the long run, I know I’m right.”
In 2021, the Nationals mandated employee vaccinations, citing the need “to safeguard the health of our employees and their families, our customers and visitors, and the community at large.” The Nationals said they would work toward “reasonable accommodation” for employees who cited religious or medical reasons for declining the vaccine.
Gallo cited both. In his lawsuit, which discusses his convictions “as a devout Christian regarding the sanctity of his physical body” and his control over what goes into it, a footnote cites three passages from the Bible, in support of what the team had said would need to be a “sincerely held religious belief.”
2 More Bills Targeting COVID Rules Head to Ducey’s Desk
Two more bills restricting responses to the coronavirus pandemic are heading to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk, including one that would impact the ability of future state leaders to respond to another airborne-spreading disease and a second blocking the state from ever requiring schoolchildren to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Tuesday’s state Senate votes were the latest moves by GOP lawmakers to limit what they have called government overreach.
The Republican-controlled Senate approved a bill that would ban any state or local government agency from requiring facemasks to be worn in their buildings. The measure already passed the House and got no support in either chamber from minority Democrats. They have argued it removes one of the most effective measures to prevent the spread of a respiratory disease like COVID-19.
Senators also approved a bill barring the state Health Services Department from adding a COVID-19 vaccine to the list of inoculations required to attend public schools. It replaces a measure passed last year that only banned mandates for vaccines given federal emergency use authorizations. That measure too is heading to the governor’s desk and got no support from minority Democrats.
We Desperately Need More Accountability From NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received more scrutiny of its activities over the past two years than perhaps ever before. Yet its leadership consistently fails or refuses to answer the call for transparency.
This time, NIH leadership is fighting to keep secret hundreds of millions of dollars in private royalty payments pocketed by the agency and its bench of scientists. Americans deserve some sunlight on what appears to be a potentially enormous conflict of interest.
The NIH distributes roughly $32 billion in research grants to 56,000 recipients in the medical community each year. Those taxpayer dollars lend quite a bit of clout. But there’s money traveling in the other direction, too, when NIH-backed work is utilized by private companies.
We know precious little about it, but over just five sample years, it amounted to a whopping $134 million, spread over 22,000 payments to nearly 1,700 scientists. Each and everyone is a potential conflict of interest.
Santa Fe County Deputies Union Wins Labor Case on Vaccine Mandate
Santa Fe New Mexican reported:
Santa Fe County erred in disciplining sheriff’s deputies who failed to comply with a vaccine mandate, an arbitrator with the New Mexico Public Employees Labor Relations Board decided in March.
Thomas Griego, a hearing officer with the board, recommended the county rescind “any and all discipline” issued against members of the Santa Fe County Deputy Sheriff’s Association over their refusal to comply with a COVID-19 vaccination policy until mediation can occur.
He found the county implemented disciplinary actions, including termination of deputies after the union had declared an impasse in negotiations.
The result could be the reinstatement of at least three deputies who were union members.
Apple Reinstates Mask Mandate for Employees at 100 Stores: Report
Apple Inc. has reinstated its mask requirement for employees at roughly 100 stores and pushed back plans for corporate employees to return to the office three days a week over COVID-19 concerns, according to a new report.
Apple’s purported delay in requiring corporate employees to return to the office comes two weeks after roughly 200 of the company’s 165,000 employees released an open letter to the tech giant‘s executive team pushing back against the plan for a hybrid work model.
Younger Children Most Affected by COVID Lockdowns, New Research Finds
The youngest children have been most affected by lockdowns and closures during the COVID pandemic, with new research finding that the educational progress and social development of four- and five-year-olds suffered severely during their first year at school.
Aggressive behavior such as biting and hitting, feelings of struggling in class or being overwhelmed around large groups of children were among the difficulties reported by teachers during interviews.
The research — published by the Education Endowment Foundation — found parents and teachers concerned that children in England were struggling with their emotional well-being as well as their ability to learn language and numeracy skills, after starting in reception classes after the earlier spring lockdown.
China’s Censors Aim to Contain Dissent During Harsh COVID Lockdowns
Top doctors have been among those silenced for urging a shift away from China’s draconian pandemic control strategy.
As Shanghai enters its seventh week of COVID-19 lockdowns, China’s censors have been hard at work trying to contain an eruption of public outrage and enforce the leadership’s prohibition of any public debate or calls to reconsider its strategy.
Medical professionals remain a key target for censors, as they have been since the inception of the pandemic. Indeed, the suppression of health experts’ speech in late 2019 and early 2020 may have denied the country and the world an opportunity to control the virus. Yet the practice continues.
China’s Protracted Lockdowns Cause Critical Shortages in West
Hospitals in the United States are on high alert, with some doctors prioritizing patients in critical condition as the prolonged lockdown in China’s Shanghai has caused a global shortage of chemicals used in medical imaging.
Some of the largest U.S. hospitals said earlier this month they were facing significant shortages of iodinated contrast media products, which are dyes given to patients so that their internal organs and vessels can be picked up by CT scans, X-rays, and radiography.
The dwindling supply was due to the temporary closure of the production facility of General Electric’s healthcare unit in Shanghai, a trade hub that has been locked down for nearly two months. Though the factory has been allowed to resume operation gradually, the Greater New York Hospital Association warned that an 80% reduction in supply might last through the end of June, according to a May 5 statement.
ESG Scores Similar to China’s Social Credit System, Designed to Transform Society, Think Tank Director Says
Major financial institutions and global organizations are using a corporate scoring system to create a type of social credit system designed to influence behavior and transform society, according to a director at a conservative think tank.
Environmental, social and governance, or ESG, scores effectively grade social responsibility for entities ranging from corporations to governments. Factors like reliance on renewable energy sources or the strength of diversity policies can influence ESG scores.
Justin Haskins, director of the Socialism Research Center and editorial director at the Heartland Institute, compared ESG scores to a social credit system being developed in China. The Chinese Communist Party announced a moral ranking system in 2014 that monitors individuals, government organizations and companies and ranks them based on their social credit, according to the South China Morning Post.
“I don’t believe that ESG scores are really being used for the reason that they say they are,” Haskins told Fox News. “I think it’s mostly about controlling society … and about pushing a left-wing agenda.”
An EU Law Could Let U.S. Prosecutors Scan Phones for Abortion Texts
Last week the EU unveiled draft regulations that would effectively ban end-to-end encryption and force internet firms to scan for abusive materials. Regulators would not only require the makers of chat apps to scan every message for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a controversial practice that firms like Meta already do with Facebook Messenger, but they would also require platforms to scan every sentence of every message to look for illegal activity.
Such rules would impact anyone using a chat app company that does business within the EU. Virtually every American user would be subject to these scans.
Regulators, companies, and even stalwart surveillance opponents on both sides of the Atlantic have framed CSAM as a unique threat. And while many of us might sign up for a future in which algorithms magically detect harm to children, even the EU admits that scanning would require “human oversight and review.”
The EU fails to address the mathematical reality of encryption: If we allow a surveillance tool to target one set of content, it can easily be aimed at another. This is how such algorithms can be trained to target religious content, political messages or information about abortion. It’s the exact same technology.
‘Make Twitter Show Their Work’: How Elon Musk Can Ensure Twitter Protects Free Speech
Last month, Elon Musk shocked the world by suddenly becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder — then announcing that he had reached a $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform in its entirety.
Musk — who also serves as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX — has promised to “make significant improvements to Twitter” and has polled his followers on whether Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principles of free speech.
In interviews with The Daily Wire, several free speech experts and leaders of free speech advocacy groups suggested how Musk can maximize the new Twitter’s ability to protect users’ First Amendment rights.
Experts agreed that Musk’s purchase of Twitter changes the dynamic around government and corporate censorship of free speech.
Twitter Board Says It Plans to Enforce Musk Merger Agreement
Twitter Inc.’s board said it plans to enforce its $44 billion agreement to be bought by Elon Musk, saying the transaction is in the best interest of all shareholders.
The proposed takeover includes a $1 billion breakup fee for each party, which Musk will have to pay if the deal falls apart due to financing issues. But Musk can’t just walk away by paying the charge.
The merger agreement includes a specific performance provision that allows Twitter to force Musk to consummate the deal, according to the filing. That could mean that should the deal end up in court, Twitter might secure an order obligating Musk to complete the merger rather than winning monetary compensation for any violations of it.
The board’s statement comes as Musk appears to be maneuvering to ditch or renegotiate his offer. Musk said last week that the deal was “on hold” until he gets more information, specifically proof from Twitter that so-called spambots make up less than 5% of its users.
Meta Donated $4 Million to a Supposedly ‘Grassroots’ Lobbying Firm to Fight Antitrust Bills on Its Behalf
Meta’s loosening its pocketbooks and digging trenches in preparation for a political war over antitrust legislation that, if lost, could rattle its struggling core business. Though Meta and even CEO Mark Zuckerberg have begrudgingly advocated for small reforms in the past, the company is increasingly relying on a little-known lobbying firm called the American Edge Project (AEP) to spearhead its opposition to widely popular policy proposals supporters say will bolster competition in the digital economy.
A new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) cites a 501(c)(4)’s 990 filing from AEP which shows the organization received a single $4 million donation between December 10, 2019, and October 31, 2020. That donation came around the same time Meta (then Facebook) told the Washington Post it contributed to AEP.
Put together, the report’s authors argue these findings imply Meta not only bankrolls AEP but may have also served as its founder.
Widely Available AI Could Have Deadly Consequences + More
Widely Available AI Could Have Deadly Consequences
In September 2021, scientists Sean Ekins and Fabio Urbina were working on an experiment they had named the “Dr. Evil project.” The Swiss government’s Spiez laboratory had asked them to find out what would happen if their artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery platform, MegaSyn, fell into the wrong hands.
Ekins planned to outline the findings at the Spiez Convergence conference — a biennial meeting that brings experts together to discuss the potential security risks of the latest advances in chemistry and biology — in a presentation on how AI for drug discovery could be misused to create biochemical weapons. “For me, it was trying to see if the technology could do it,” Ekins says. “That was the curiosity factor.”
At the conference and then later in a three-page paper, Ekins and his colleagues issued a stark warning. “Without being overly alarmist, this should serve as a wake-up call for our colleagues in the ‘AI in drug discovery’ community,” Ekins and his colleagues wrote.
Mastercard Launches Tech That Lets You Pay With Your Face or Hand in Stores
Mastercard is piloting new technology that lets shoppers make payments with just their face or hand at the checkout point.
The company on Tuesday launched a program for retailers to offer biometric payment methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. At checkout, users will be able to authenticate their payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card.
The program has already gone live in five St Marche grocery stores in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mastercard says it plans to roll it out globally later this year.
About 1.4 billion people are expected to use facial recognition technology to authenticate a payment by 2025, more than doubling from 671 million in 2020, according to a forecast from Juniper Research.
CDC to All Domestic Travelers: Test Close as Possible to Departure Time
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for people traveling within the United States.
The agency now urges all domestic travelers to “consider getting tested as close to the time of departure as possible (no more than three days) before your trip,” according to its COVID-19 website updates this month.
This advice notably includes travelers who are current with their vaccines and boosters. Previously, the recommendation to test before domestic travel applied to those who weren’t up-to-date with their COVID-19 vaccines.
There’s also testing guidance for after your trip is over, especially if you’ve been spending time in areas crowded with people. The CDC recommends taking a COVID-19 test after domestic travel “if your trip involved situations with greater risk of exposure such as being in crowded places while not wearing a well-fitting mask or respirator.”
COVID Cases Are Rising — But Cities So Far Aren’t Reimposing Mask Mandates
Rising COVID-19 cases across the country so far aren’t resulting in local mask mandates coming back, as officials in multiple Democratic-leaning cities said in recent days they have no plans to bring back COVID-19 restrictions even as they recommend people voluntarily mask up.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Monday the city is “not at the point of mandating masks” or other restrictions like requiring proof of vaccination, noting that hospitals are not overwhelmed even as the city approaches a “high” COVID-19 alert level.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu similarly said Monday the city so far wouldn’t change its protocols to require masks, but still recommends people wear them.
Some school districts have started reimposing mask mandates in recent weeks — even if their broader communities haven’t — including schools in New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Hawaii.
Biden’s New Disinformation Board Comes Under Scrutiny
The Department of Homeland Security has established a new working group aimed at combating dangerous disinformation spread by foreign adversaries and criminal networks, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced last month.
News of the board’s creation sparked an uproar among Republican lawmakers and conservative media figures, many of whom accused the Biden administration of forming a “Ministry of Truth” akin to the government propaganda operation depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”
Critics on the right say the Biden administration can’t be trusted to serve as arbiters of truth and worry that, though the board’s official mission may be narrow on paper, there’s nothing to stop it from becoming a tool to suppress conservatives’ free speech.
American Free Speech Enters Uncharted Territory
China censors police criticism of the country’s draconian COVID-19 policy. In Russia, referring to the country’s invasion of Ukraine as a war is a crime.
Those authoritarian realities seem a long way from the Wild West of American free speech, where people are protected under the law to criticize and besmirch public figures.
Just maybe not under Twitter’s content policy.
Self-described “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk‘s quest to turn Twitter into his vision of a marketplace of ideas — that would also be friendly to misinformation and whatever else people want to say — has hit an ironic snag over all the fake accounts on the platform. Musk says he’s put his bid to acquire Twitter on hold as he’s worried about fake accounts.
Children’s Activity Levels Have Not Recovered After End of COVID Restrictions — Study
Children have become more sedentary and their physical activity levels have deteriorated in the wake of the pandemic even after the lifting of restrictions, a study suggests.
Researchers said child physical activity levels fell below national guidelines during the COVID-19 crisis and did not recover when lockdowns ended. The study led by the University of Bristol found that by the end of 2021, only a third were meeting the national recommended physical activity guidelines.
The study also revealed a marked increase in sedentary time, with children spending 25 minutes longer sitting down each day during the week than previously.
Students Protest, Discontent Grows Over China’s COVID Policy
Administrators at an elite Beijing University have backed down from plans to further tighten pandemic restrictions on students as part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy after a weekend protest at the school, according to students Tuesday.
Graduate students at Peking University staged the rare, but peaceful protest Sunday over the school’s decision to erect a sheet-metal wall to keep them further sequestered on campus, while allowing faculty to come and go freely. Discontent had already been simmering over regulations prohibiting them from ordering in food or having visitors, and daily COVID-19 testing.
A citywide lockdown of Shanghai and expanded restrictions in Beijing in recent weeks have raised questions about the economic and human costs of China’s strict virus controls, which the ruling Communist Party has trumpeted as a success compared to other major nations with much higher death tolls.
Inside Wuhan’s Lockdown: This Author Is Telling Stories From China’s ‘Deadly Quiet City’ in the Early Days of COVID
It was April 2020, and the celebrated Chinese writer Murong Xuecun could enter — but not leave — the city that became synonymous with the origin of COVID-19.
The writer, once a regular New York Times opinion contributor, decided to make the trip to document what was happening in Wuhan as COVID-19 emerged. He believed, he says, that the government would try to hide the truth.
Two years later, Murong has released “Deadly Quiet City,” an in-depth and personal account of the grief and sorrow Wuhan residents endured that also paints a picture of the corruption and ruthlessness employed by government officials desperate to appear in control of the outbreak.
People “died silently,” he writes in the book’s foreword.
Snapchat’s Stricter Policies for Anonymous Apps and Friend Finders Aren’t yet Fully Enforced
A small handful of Snap Kit platform developers have not yet complied with the new guidelines around anonymous messaging and friend-finding apps announced in March. The Snapchat maker revamped its developer platform policies on March 17, 2022, to ban anonymous apps and require developers to build friend-finding apps to limit access to users 18 or older.
The policy changes were effective immediately and existing developers were given 30 days to come into compliance — a date that would have passed last month. It is now mid-May and some developers of the newly banned and restricted apps are not yet meeting Snap’s new requirements, we’ve found.
For example, one of the apps offered an extension is Sendit, the anonymous Q&A app that surged to the top of the App Store last year after Snap suspended other top anonymous Q&A apps, YOLO and LMK. Those latter two apps had been banned from Snap’s platform after the company was sued by a mother of a teen who died by suicide after being bullied via those tools.
This year, Snap was named in a second lawsuit, alongside Meta, related to an alleged lack of safeguards across social media platforms which a mother says contributed to her 11-year-old’s suicide.
Google Taps FDA’s Former Digital Health Chief for Global Strategy Role
Google has hired the former head of digital health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lead its efforts to develop and commercialize artificial intelligence products to improve the delivery of medical services around the world.
Bakul Patel, a 13-year veteran of the FDA, will serve as Google’s senior director for global digital health strategy and regulatory affairs, according to a statement posted on his LinkedIn page Monday. He left his job at the agency last month.