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Vaccine Mandates at Work Part of ‘New Normal,’ Employers Say + More
Vaccine Mandates at Work Part of ‘New Normal,’ Employers Say
About four in 10 employers have some type of COVID-19 vaccine mandate for their workers, according to a survey by Littler Mendelson P.C., marking a huge increase from the last time the management-side law firm polled companies on the issue.
The share of employers reporting they have inoculation requirements jumped eightfold from the percentage who said they had adopted such mandates in Littler’s August 2021 survey report. Less than 1% of companies reported having vaccine requirements in the firm’s survey report issued in February 2021.
The report released Wednesday shows employers increasingly have turned to vaccine mandates as the pandemic has dragged on for more than two years, killing nearly 1 million Americans and infecting more than 81 million.
U.S. CDC Says Travelers Should Still Wear Masks on Airplanes
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday recommended travelers continue to wear masks in airplanes, trains and airports despite a judge’s April 18 order declaring the 14-month-old transportation mask mandate unlawful.
The CDC said it based its recommendation on current COVID-19 conditions and spread as well as the protective value of masks.
The Justice Department last month filed notice it will appeal the ruling and it has until May 31 to do so. But the government has made no effort to seek immediate court action to reinstate the mandate.
The mask mandate had been due to expire on Tuesday just before midnight unless the CDC sought an extension of a Transportation Security Administration directive.
Even as COVID Cases Rise, Mask Mandates Stay Shelved
An increase in COVID-19 infections around the U.S. has sent more cities into new high-risk categories that are supposed to trigger indoor mask-wearing, but much of the country is stopping short of bringing back restrictions amid deep pandemic fatigue.
For weeks, much of upstate New York has been in the high-alert orange zone, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designation that reflects serious community spread. The CDC urges people to mask up in indoor public places, including schools, regardless of vaccination status. But few, if any, local jurisdictions in the region brought back a mask requirement despite rising case counts.
“I don’t anticipate many places, if any, going back to mask mandates unless we see overflowing hospitals — that’s what would drive mask mandates,” said Professor David Larsen, a public health expert at Syracuse University in upstate New York, whose own county is currently an orange zone.
Mandates Disappear, but Mask Detection Tech Has Left Its Mark
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when mask mandates became commonplace both in public and in private, tech vendors began selling products they claimed could detect whether someone was wearing a mask — or not.
With press releases and flashy demonstrations, the vendors attracted the attention of critics skeptical about the solutions’ capabilities and potential surveillance applications. Allied Market Research optimistically predicted that the market would be worth over $1 billion by 2027.
While the demand for mask detection technologies is steadily declining, the products have had far-reaching effects with implications for privacy and security, interviews with vendors suggest.
As regular readers of this site are well aware, facial recognition is a flashpoint for controversy. While companies like Trueface claim that they engage only in “responsible” deployments of the technology, recent history is filled with examples of facial recognition abuse, such as software developed by Huawei and others to recognize members of the targeted Uyghur minority group.
California Pushes Ahead With Kids’ Online Safety Proposals as Washington Stalls
A California state panel advanced a proposal that would hold tech companies responsible for features that can be addictive and harmful, a measure that, if passed, could put California at the forefront of the fight for kids’ online safety as Washington stalls.
The bill would impose a duty for tech companies not to addict users 17 and younger and would make them liable for damages and civil penalties if they knowingly or negligently addict children to their products or services.
The bill is one of two Assemblymembers Jordan Cunningham (R) and Buffy Wicks (D) have put forward to push for kids’ safety regulation online. Earlier this year, they introduced the California Age Appropriate Design Code Bill, which would add further privacy and safety regulations for children online. That bill also advanced out of a committee with broad bipartisan support.
As Broadway Drops Audience Vaccine Mandate, Job Cuts Hit COVID Safety Workers
The Hollywood Reporter reported:
Starting this May, vaccination checks for audience members on Broadway will largely be a thing of the past.
And with the policy change, some positions within the theater industry will be mostly eliminated, including that of the workers checking patrons’ vaccination cards outside many of the theaters. The change comes after many Broadway theater owners elected to drop the vaccine mandate for audience members starting May 1.
Broadway’s mask mandate for audience members remains in place through at least May 31.
The vaccine requirement was put in place at all Broadway theaters in July 2021, ahead of the industry’s fall reopening and before New York’s citywide mandate. Now, almost all Broadway theaters have done away with that requirement — it remains in place at three theaters owned by nonprofit organizations — as the industry becomes one of the last in New York to ease pandemic safety measures.
Chicago Expected to Reach ‘Medium’ COVID Risk Soon; City’s Top Doctor Says Mask Rules Could Return if ‘High’ Level Reached
Chicago’s public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday that she anticipates the city’s COVID-19 risk could jump from “low” to “medium” levels as early as Friday, following the raised risk levels in suburban Cook County last week.
But the increased risk level is not enough to trigger any new citywide mask mandates, she said. Last month, she suggested a medium-level designation could lead to a reinstated mask mandate at Chicago Public Schools, but on Tuesday, said masks would be “strongly recommended” in schools, as well as around the city.
“If we move to medium, it’s not like the sky is falling,” Arwady said during her weekly Facebook live streaming Q&A event.
‘This Board Is Unconstitutional and Un-American’: Sen. Cotton Leads GOP Lawmakers in Effort to Defund Biden’s ‘Disinformation Board’
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton introduced a bill on Tuesday that would ban federal funding from being used to launch President Joe Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board within the Department of Homeland Security.
Cotton was joined in the legislation with support from a team of 18 co-sponsors among the Senate’s Republicans.
“The Biden administration wants a government agency dedicated to cracking down on what its subjects can say, an idea popular with Orwellian governments everywhere. This board is unconstitutional and un-American — my bill puts a stop to it,” Cotton said in a statement.
Bill Gates Says Elon Musk Could Make Twitter ‘Worse’ — but That People Should Never Underestimate Him
Bill Gates said he’s unsure what Twitter‘s future will look like under Elon Musk’s guidance. “He actually could make it worse,” Gates said at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The Microsoft founder expressed concern over how Musk may address misinformation on the social media platform, especially considering his emphasis on promoting “free speech.” Last week, Musk said that he defines free speech as “that which matches the law.”
“How does he feel about something that says vaccines can kill people or that Bill Gates is tracking people?” Gates said. “Is that one of the things he thinks should be spread?”
Facebook, Google Face Regulatory Reckoning That May End Big Tech Dominance
In February, the company formerly known as Facebook lost $232 billion in value in the stock market — the biggest loss ever suffered by a U.S. company in a single day, a plunge equal to the combined market values of Netflix and FedEx. By the end of April, the stock had lost another fifth of its value.
Meta Platforms, as the company is now formally known, can only wish that a brutal stock beating is its only problem. Meta faces serious threats on several fronts, and any one of them might prove existential. For the first time in its 18-year history, the number of people who use the once-ubiquitous-seeming Facebook social network has been dropping.
Privacy protections added by Apple last year to its phone software are hobbling Facebook‘s bread-and-butter ad business, which depends on keeping tabs on what users are up to. And the all-important youth market is shunning Facebook in favor of TikTok.
Meta is also facing a daunting level of ire, which is splashing over onto the rest of Big Tech — that is, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. These tech giants and Meta are facing scrutiny from regulators and legislators both in the U.S. and Europe.
Europe’s New Law Will Force Secretive TikTok to Open Up
Social networks grow up faster these days. It took Facebook eight years to reach 1 billion users, but TikTok got there in just five. The fast-growing short-video app also got squeezed by political and regulatory concerns at a younger age over its Chinese ownership and influence on teen mental health.
The pressure on TikTok is now set to jump higher still. The European Union’s recently agreed-upon Digital Services Act (DSA) places new restrictions on the largest platforms.
To date, TikTok has been less transparent and less thoroughly studied than Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. That’s partly because it is a much younger service, and fewer researchers and journalists have scrutinized its workings.
But TikTok has also not provided tools to enable researchers to study how content circulates on its platform, as Facebook and Twitter have done. When Europe’s new rules force all large social platforms to open up their data and even algorithms to outside scrutiny, our understanding of TikTok may change most of all.
CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders + More
CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Orders
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bought access to location data harvested from tens of millions of phones in the United States to perform an analysis of compliance with curfews, track patterns of people visiting K-12 schools and specifically monitor the effectiveness of policy in the Navajo Nation, according to CDC documents obtained by Motherboard.
The documents also show that although the CDC used COVID-19 as a reason to buy access to the data more quickly, it intended to use it for more general CDC purposes.
Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated — meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people — but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns about how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.
The documents reveal the expansive plan the CDC had last year to use location data from a highly controversial data broker. SafeGraph, the company the CDC paid $420,000 for access to one year of data, includes Peter Thiel and the former head of Saudi intelligence among its investors. Google banned the company from the Play Store in June.
New ‘Big Tech Scorecard’ Shows Most Firms Threaten Free Speech
The raging debate over policing what people say in the U.S. has ramped up in recent days, with Elon Musk promising to return free speech to Twitter upon completion of his pending takeover and the Biden administration vowing to crack down on whatever the government deems to be “disinformation.”
Musk says he is “against censorship that goes far beyond the law,” but that is not the norm for Big Tech giants, according to a new study, which comes at a time when organizations and individuals are concerned about losing critical online tools over saying the “wrong” thing in the view of a service provider.
The Napa Legal Institute, an organization that educates and protects faith-based nonprofits, conducted a review of more than 50 user agreements from major platforms offering core services such as social media, email hosting and payment processing, and found that well over half of Big Tech platforms require customers to sign agreements that pose risks to religious freedom and free speech.
Napa Legal’s study slapped warning labels on dozens of major tech firms’ user agreements for services, including those of Microsoft Exchange Online, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon Pay and Facebook.
Bill Would Force Military to Reinstate Those Who Refused COVID Vaccine
A U.S. Marine from Point Pleasant who was discharged after refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine wants to go back to serving in the military.
A bill introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith would clear the path for his return, by requiring top-ranking military officials to reinstate members who were forced out over the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates.
The bill, H.R. 7570, would require the Secretary of Defense to reinstate any member of the armed forces to the rank and grade they held if their forcible discharge was solely because they refused the COVID-19 vaccine.
Trucker Convoy Members Sue DC Alleging First Amendment Rights Violated
Truckers who sought to travel to Washington, DC, to protest COVID-19 mask mandates and vaccine requirements are suing the city, claiming police violated their First Amendment rights by blocking their entry into the city.
A trucker group called the People’s Convoy set out in March to drive to the nation’s capital, clogging DC streets to protest government COVID-19 mandates they believe were unconstitutional. However, district police set up blockades to divert the convoy from downtown DC. Sixteen people who took part in the trucker protest are suing the city for stopping them from gathering downtown.
The People’s Convoy was inspired by a Canadian trucker movement, dubbed the Freedom Convoy, also protesting COVID-19 mandates. The Freedom Convoy began in January 2022 and blocked the country’s most vital trade route to the U.S.
‘I’m on the Warpath!’: Elon Musk Reveals Big Plans for Twitter
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk spoke about his plans for Twitter, making his first public statement — aside from tweets — since reaching a deal to purchase the popular social media platform.
Musk, who was joined by his mother on the red carpet at Monday night’s Met Gala, promised a more “inclusive” experience for everyone and vowed as he has in the past to rid the platform of bots.
“Well, I mean, the goal that I have, should everything come to fruition with Twitter, is to have a service that is broadly — is as broadly inclusive as possible where ideally most of America is on it and talking!” Musk told the Associated Press.
When an Entertainment Tonight correspondent asked about critics who were concerned that Musk could have done something better with his money than ink a deal to buy Twitter, he responded by explaining that his companies were always looking for ways to better humanity and prepare for the future.
Unvaccinated Teachers and Healthcare Workers Given Green Light to Return to Work Next Week as ACT Ditches Mandate
The ACT Government is ditching its COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and teachers from late next week.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith acknowledged the ACT leads the country with its COVID-19 vaccination rates as she announced the rule change on Tuesday.
More than 75% of Canberrans aged 16 and over have already received their booster, while almost 81% of ACT kids aged five to 11 have come forward for one vaccine dose.
Vaccination requirements remain in place for workers in aged care and disability.
Amid Shanghai’s COVID Surge, a Nursing Home Resident Was Sent to the Morgue While Still Alive
Shanghai nursing home resident was mistakenly taken to the morgue while still alive, state media reported, as the city’s COVID-19 outbreak and prolonged lockdown stretch aged-care and medical facilities to breaking point.
The municipal government confirmed the incident and said it has launched an investigation, local media reported. While the nursing home apologized, the error has triggered widespread anger and condemnation among Chinese people, according to discussions on social media.
The mistake comes as Shanghai’s lockdown enters its fifth week and new COVID cases remain in the thousands each day. The tough restrictions and compulsory isolation of all virus cases and close contacts have created havoc in the city of 25 million, with people unable to access essential medical care.
Most of the more than 400 deaths in the latest wave have been elderly people with underlying health conditions, with reports that some nursing homes weren’t reporting deaths.
Exclusive: ProtonMail Creator Says Attempts to Rein in Big Tech ‘Only Tackle 5% of the Problem’
The founder of Proton, the company behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN, has critiqued the latest attempts by the EU to rein in the power of Big Tech.
In an exclusive interview with TechRadar Pro, Andy Yen described the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA) as “a huge benefit to society, but also a missed opportunity.”
The DMA is a piece of legislation expected soon to be enshrined in EU law that seeks to limit the power of so-called “technology gatekeepers” — such as Apple, Meta and Google — which stand accused of using their market position and wealth of resources to squeeze out smaller competitors.
In reality, no matter the breadth of alternatives available, the vast majority of users will never switch away from the default. In effect, this means companies who compete in the same categories as the largest technology companies are unlikely to make genuine in-roads, no matter the quality of their services.
‘Extra Level of Power’: Billionaires Who Have Bought up the Media
Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter is a “chilling development” in billionaires’ desire to increase their political influence by buying up many of the world’s largest and most influential media brands, a leading British analyst has warned.
Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, said the super-rich have long sought to buy newspapers to help push their agendas and it was now possible to “count on one hand the big media brands that aren’t owned by an oligarch or other billionaire”.
“It’s another sign that the super-wealthy wish to control assets that give them an extra level of power,” she said. “Whatever they may say, that’s the reason why they buy them. The billionaires who now control vast swathes of the media landscape include:
Brands Should Force Twitter to Uphold Content Policies Under Musk, Advocacy Groups Say
Some of the nation’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola (CCEP), Disney (DIS) and Kraft (KHC) are facing calls to boycott Twitter if the company’s soon-to-be owner, billionaire Elon Musk, rolls back content moderation policies limiting hate speech and election misinformation.
In a letter sent to brands Tuesday ahead of the 2022 NewFronts digital advertising conference, more than two dozen civil society groups said marketers should secure commitments from Twitter to retain its most critical policies, including on civic integrity and hateful conduct, and threaten to withdraw funding if Twitter does not comply.
“As top advertisers on Twitter (TWTR), your brand risks association with a platform amplifying hate, extremism, health misinformation and conspiracy theorists,” the letter said, adding: “Your ad dollars can either fund Musk’s vanity project or hold him to account.”
Why TikTok Is Built to Last
Remember former President Donald Trump‘s efforts to ban TikTok in 2020? According to his executive order, apps such as TikTok “developed and owned by companies in the People’s Republic of China (China) [continue] to threaten the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.” With advanced user-safety features, cultural initiatives and monetization opportunities, TikTok still stands — and its influence is stronger than ever.
While platforms like Vine and Musical.ly have faltered, TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has proven itself a social media titan. The app has over 1 billion users, while Vine had 200 million users at its peak. Instagram and Snapchat have recently lost steam, while TikTok continues to develop new features for creators and viewers.
TikTok has also broken into mainstream culture, with actresses, publications and even politicians running accounts. Here’s why the app will continue to prosper.
Doctor Advised Her to Skip the Booster Shot Over Possible Side Effects. So Her College Expelled Her. + More
Her Doctor Advised Her to Skip the Booster Shot Over Possible Side Effects. So Her College Expelled Her.
A New York college student who became ill after receiving her second COVID-19 shot has been expelled from school after she refused to take a booster shot on the advice of her primary care physician.
Diamond Ellie Puentes, 20, always had reservations about the COVID-19 vaccine, citing her age, worries about adverse effects, and how quickly the vaccine was developed and put to market. So, she applied for a religious exemption. The school denied her, and in August, Puentes reluctantly received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. She had no reaction, and in September received her second dose.
That’s when Puentes became sick with a sore throat and other symptoms. She later suffered from extreme abdomen pain and vomiting. “These health problems culminated in her going to an emergency room, where she stayed for six hours and was diagnosed with gastritis,” reported The Chicago Thinker, which first broke the story. “Seven months later, she continues to have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.”
Puentes subsequently provided a doctor’s note and asked for a medical exemption. She received a denial on April 11, 2022.
Big Cash Payment Boosted COVID Vaccination in the Workplace — $1,000 Payment Led to More Vaccinations Among Employees of a Large Private Company
A large cash incentive in exchange for receiving a full COVID-19 vaccination series proved successful among employees of a large private company, a cross-sectional study showed.
Among more than 2,000 employees, 75.7% were fully vaccinated before the incentive announcement, which increased to 86.1% after the announcement, reported Archelle Georgiou, MD, of Starkey Hearing Technologies in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and colleagues.
Cash-based or vaccine lottery incentive programs are not always successful. While one small study found that giving cash cards to underserved communities helped boost vaccination uptake, mixed outcomes were reported in a larger study, Georgiou’s group noted.
‘We Were Terrified’: Family Believes AirTag Used to Track Them at Orlando Theme Park
A family said they were tracked using a device while at an Orlando theme park. Jennifer Gaston said while they were on the monorail on their way back to their car after visiting Walt Disney World, they got a notification saying the owner of an AirTag device was tracking them.
Her daughter said it showed that the device had been tracking them for several hours as they were walking through the theme park. When they got to their car, they quickly looked for it and when they didn’t find it, they jumped inside the car, locked the doors, drove away and called the police. Madison continued to look at the devices’ location on her phone.
AirTags are small, coin-sized Apple devices that people put on things like their keys, so if you lose them you can track them down using your phone. However, some criminals use the devices to follow people.
In fact, in response to growing concerns about how others have misused the devices, some privacy groups have called on the tech giant to permanently pull the gadgets from store shelves.
Twitter Page Mocking Biden Admin’s New Disinformation Board Reels in 150K Followers in Two Days
Orwellian allegories continue to pour in after the Biden administration announced plans to create a new “Disinformation Governance Board” aimed at stifling disinformation that allegedly poses a homeland security threat, but one Twitter account took the criticism a step further by employing clever satire.
The account, which takes a jab at the newfound power bestowed on Biden’s Homeland Security Department by referencing the culture from George Orwell’s infamous “1984” novel, reeled in 150K+ followers in just a couple of days.
The account’s bio takes another jab at the Biden administration’s allegedly dystopian move, describing itself as, “The United States Ministry of Truth, established by the Biden Administration to combat disinformation from political dissidents.”
Orange County Battalion Chief Fired for Not Enforcing Vaccine Mandate Files Whistleblower Lawsuit
The former Orange County firefighter who was fired after he refused to follow the county’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement is taking his fight to court.
Former Orange County Battalion Chief Stephen Davis filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the county and is asking a judge to get him his job back. Davis said the lawsuit is to fight what he says was retaliation for doing what he thought was right for his fellow firefighters.
Davis was fired in October for failure to follow a direct order. That order was to write up firefighters who violated the county’s vaccine mandate, but Davis said he didn’t do that because he said some of the firefighters had filed exemptions.
Officials Are Nervous About Mask Mandates — Even in COVID Hot Spots
More than two years after New York became the global epicenter for the COVID-19 pandemic, the state once again finds itself near the top of the list of U.S. hotspots.
Two-thirds of the counties in the United States flagged by the CDC as having high community levels are in upstate New York, and cases and hospitalizations are still rising, albeit at a slower pace in recent days, across the state.
But unlike in the early days of the pandemic — or even during the recent Omicron surge — Gov. Kathy Hochul and state health officials aren’t pushing mask mandates or other restrictions.
Instead, the Democratic governor, who is running for a full term this year, is taking a more hands-off approach, merely encouraging vaccinations, boosters and mask-wearing, except on public transit and in certain congregate settings where masks are still required.
ICE Spends $7.2 Million to Increase Facial Recognition and Location Tracking of Migrants
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be paying surveillance software company Trust Stamp $7.2 million annually to develop tech to track migrants processed at the southern border, new federal documents show.
Trust Stamp’s contract, which was renewed in April, has it providing ICE with 10,000 smartphones that include the company’s app with facial recognition and GPS tracking, according to the documents. ICE then gives these smartphones to migrants in order to surveil their whereabouts and behavior daily.
The renewal comes just two months after several US lawmakers, led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, demanded that the Department of Homeland Security reduce its surveillance of migrants through ICE’s Alternatives to Detention program.
COVID: India’s Supreme Court Against Restrictions on Unvaccinated in Public Places
No person can be forced to get vaccinated against COVID-19, India’s Supreme Court said on Monday, while noting that the central government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy “cannot be said to be unreasonable or manifestly arbitrary.”
The apex court has also asked the Centre to make public data on the possible adverse effects of these immunizations public. The court gave the judgment in a plea filed by Jacob Puliyel, who had sought directions for the disclosure of the data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and post-jab cases.
“Till numbers are low, we suggest that relevant orders are followed and no restriction is imposed on unvaccinated individuals on access to public areas or recall the same if already not done,” the bench added.
Mental Health Apps Have Terrible Privacy Protections, Report Finds
As a category, mental health apps have worse privacy protections for users than most other types of apps, according to a new analysis from researchers at Mozilla. Prayer apps also had poor privacy standards, the team found.
“The vast majority of mental health and prayer apps are exceptionally creepy,” Jen Caltrider, the Mozilla *Privacy Not Included guide lead, said in a statement. “They track, share, and capitalize on users’ most intimate personal thoughts and feelings, like moods, mental state and biometric data.”
The apps with the worst practices, according to Mozilla, are Better Help, Youper, Woebot, Better Stop Suicide, Pray.com, and Talkspace. The AI chatbot Woebot, for example, says it collects information about users from third parties and shares user information for advertising purposes. Therapy provider Talkspace collects user chat transcripts.
Twitter’s $17 Million Per Year Censorship Czar Could Get Axe Under Musk
Twitter‘s censorship czar Victoria Gadde — who broke down in tears last week during a conference call to discuss Elon Musk’s purchase of the company — stands to lose her job which paid $17 million last year, as Musk is reportedly planning to cut jobs and executive pay as part of the takeover.
Musk expressed “no confidence” in Twitter’s current management following the announcement of his plans to buy the company.
That said, the 48-year-old Gadde – who was behind decisions such as Zero Hedge’s February 2020 ban for speculating that COVID-19 may have emerged from a Wuhan Lab, and former President Trump’s ongoing ban, has a reported $12.5 million severance package, according to the New York Post.
Amazon Ends COVID Paid Leave for U.S. Workers
Giant online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN.O) will end its paid-time-off policy for employees with COVID-19 from May 2, the company told U.S.-based staff on Saturday.
The change follows the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and revised guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it said.
The U.S.-based staff will now get five days of excused, unpaid leave following a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, Amazon told workers in a message it provided to Reuters.
College Students Don’t Want Elon Musk Running Twitter
Nearly six in 10 college students say they don’t want Elon Musk to own and control Twitter. But compared to other billionaires and other social media platforms, Musk and Twitter get pretty favorable reviews, according to a new Generation Lab/Axios poll.
Asked which mega-billionaires they like, 35% selected Musk — well above all others, including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Still, 53% picked “none of the above.”
Compared to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, students say they have more trust in Twitter (12%) to make wise decisions about important things — although the bigger picture is still grim. 77% trust none of the companies listed. Twice as many say they have concerns about Facebook and TikTok than about Twitter.
Students don’t appear to share Elon Musk’s view that social media culture inhibits free speech. 76% say people can express themselves freely online. Overall, social media is playing a more negative role in their lives. 48% have enjoyed it less over the past few years, while 21% have enjoyed it more.
Joe Biden’s Disinformation Board Likened to Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ + More
Joe Biden’s Disinformation Board Likened to Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’
Conservative politicians and commentators are criticizing the Biden administration for creating a new bureau to fight the spread of disinformation online. Several of these critics have compared it unfavorably to the Ministry of Truth, a fictional department in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.
During a Thursday press briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged the Disinformation Governance Board‘s existence and noted that President Joe Biden supported it. Psaki said she couldn’t provide many details other than saying the bureau would monitor misinformation on topics such as COVID-19 and elections.
Critics say the bureau is another example of the government trying to police free speech on the internet. This has led to some comparisons to 1984’s Ministry of Truth.
“The Federal Government has no business creating a Ministry of Truth,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote. “The Department of Homeland Security‘s ‘Disinformation Board’ is unconstitutional and unAmerican, and I’ll be introducing a bill to defund it.”
LAUSD Superintendent Recommends Delaying Student COVID Vaccine Mandate Until July 2023
CBS News Los Angeles reported:
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is recommending that the district aligns with the state and delay requiring eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 until at least July 1, 2023.
Carvalho said the move comes after the district consulted with health experts and its medical director.
The vaccination requirement for LAUSD employees remains in place, and all employees who are assigned to schools are vaccinated.
The LAUSD Board of Education is expected to discuss and vote on this recommendation at the board meeting on May 10.
Hawaii Students Face Strict COVID Rules for Year-End Events
Hawaii public schools are enforcing pandemic restrictions that go beyond recommendations from state and federal health officials.
Hawaii is the only state in the nation that still requires universal indoor masks for all public school students and staff. Despite coronavirus rules lifting across the state and nation, some schools are going even further for end-of-year gatherings and celebrations. Principals have the flexibility to add restrictions for proms and graduations.
For example, when Oahu’s Kaiser High School holds its prom in Waikiki this weekend, students will be required to wear masks, show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, and comply with a “no physical contact while dancing” rule, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Thursday. Only a handful of students will be allowed on the dance floor at a time.
All attendees were required to sign a contract that says failure to comply with the rules could cause the event to be shut down.
Hollywood’s COVID Safety Measures Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon. Here’s Why.
Even with nearly 80% of Californians at least partially vaccinated, hospitalizations down from their highs and eased mask mandates, COVID-19 safety protocols on Hollywood film and TV sets are unlikely to go away soon.
An alliance of major studios and entertainment industry unions are once again at the bargaining table to renegotiate the so-called return-to-work agreement — the terms for working during the pandemic — that expires April 30.
Some people close to talks say they are expecting current measures that have suppressed outbreaks and shutdowns to remain. Moreover, most production insurance still excludes coverage for COVID-19-related losses and the vast majority of filming is going ahead regardless, said John Hamby, National Entertainment Practice Leader at Risk Strategies.
San Francisco Reinstates Mask Mandate for Public Transportation
Officials in San Francisco voted to approve a mask mandate on Thursday for people using its public transportation system.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors approved the mask mandate during a board of directors meeting, and it comes just over a week after a federal judge tossed out the national mask mandate for public transportation that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Fox affiliate KTVU in San Francisco.
Riders and employees are now required to wear masks in paid areas within the system and limited exceptions are in place. The mandate will not apply to people who are unable to wear a face mask due to a disability or medical condition, and to children 2 and under.
The renewed mask mandate will be in place until at least July 18.
Correspondents’ Dinner COVID Precautions Don’t Apply to All
Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ dinner will have some of the strictest COVID requirements for attendees of major DC events, but the safety plan doesn’t extend to staff working the event at the Washington Hilton, the venue for the soirée.
An estimated 2,600 attendees are expected at the dinner, which returns as COVID jitters resurface amid local case increases and an outbreak among official Washington after the recent Gridiron dinner.
The correspondents’ association bolstered the dinner’s entry requirements earlier this month. All guests must show proof of vaccination and a negative same-day test. But the communications director for Unite Here Local 25, the union representing the Washington Hilton’s hospitality workers, tells Axios that the hotel hasn’t approached the union about testing or vaccination requirements for staff working the event.
COVID-Inspired Rewrite of Public Health Laws Passes Kansas Legislature, Despite Tuberculosis Outbreak Concern
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported:
The Kansas House voted late Thursday night and the Senate earlier Friday morning to advance a major rewrite of the state’s public health laws, largely inspired by the coronavirus, despite concerns from members of both parties that its provisions went too far.
The bill was pieced together just hours earlier after weeks of efforts, led by the Kansas Senate, to advance a legislative response to government actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new legislation primarily targets mask mandates and quarantine orders. It also has a watered-down anti-vaccine provision. There is no provision on ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as off-label drugs.
Shanghai Residents ‘Caged in’ With Green Fencing to Prevent Them From Leaving Their Homes
In continuing with China’s completely rational and totally not suspect “COVID Zero” policy, reports are now coming in that Chinese authorities are building “cages” around some homes.
This week, people living in Shanghai woke up to “green fences that had been installed by authorities overnight to restrict people’s movement,” according to a new report by The Mirror.
People with fences around their homes are not permitted to leave their properties, the report says.
Shanghai has had its 25 million citizens on lockdown for weeks due to a spike in COVID cases in the country. Thirty-nine people in the city died of COVID on Sunday, April 24, when the lockdowns began in full force.
Meta Found Snooping on Student Aid Applicants
If you’re one of the millions of students applying for student aid every year, then chances are Facebook — and Facebook’s parent company Meta — know about it.
That’s the main takeaway from a new investigation by The Markup, which found a tiny, invisible piece of code called the “Meta Pixel” lurking on the website where students apply for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA.
The FAFSA folks have a pretty robust presence on both Facebook and Instagram and they run an equally robust number of ads across both. Presumably, someone at the Department of Education plopped the pixel on the page in order to better target those ads, using the Pixel to better know who was visiting, and when.
Data points like students’ first and last names, email addresses, and the fact that they applied for aid were all sent back to the company, according to code that the Markup posted for anyone to peruse.
TikTok Looms Large in Tech Earnings Reports as Digital Ad Giants Struggle to Keep Up
As the heart of tech earnings season wraps up, one persistent theme has been a weakness in the digital ad market.
The war in Ukraine, rising inflation, Apple’s privacy changes and an overall pullback in ad spending help explain why Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter all reported disappointing revenue numbers this week, and Snap last week.
But there’s another threat that’s looming larger by the day: TikTok. The app for short viral videos has soared in popularity, becoming the world’s third-largest social network last year, behind Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, according to Insider Intelligence.
If Big Tech Can Take Down Parler, It Can Handle Elon Musk
The reaction to Elon Musk “buying” Twitter has been, in a word, manic. His ability to bring more political equity to social media platforms may be overstated. At the same time, the claim that he will turn Twitter into a Trumpian cesspool is simply ignorant of both Elon Musk’s libertarian-leaning views and, candidly, how corporations work. There is one thing both views have in common: a complete misunderstanding of Big Tech‘s power over content.
There’s one undeniable reason Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover won’t bring such dramatic changes — a gaggle of Big Tech companies, not Twitter, control the flow of information at every network layer. Worse, those companies are more than willing to use their market dominance to silence those who don’t share their worldview.
Apple is by far the most prone to exercise its authority against Elon Musk’s Twitter revolution. Apple frequently positions itself as a moral arbiter. And sadly, it possesses the market power to shape the internet into its own self-righteous image.
Amazon Stock Plunges as Growth Slows
Amazon‘s stock plummeted after the company reported on Thursday slowing growth and higher costs in its latest quarter and offered a disappointing revenue outlook.
The tech giant said revenue grew 7% from the same period last year to $116.4 billion, slightly beating analyst forecasts but slower than the 9% growth in the final months of last year. The company forecast that revenue growth would slow further next quarter, anticipating a growth rate of between 3% and 7%.
Amazon reported a net loss of $3.8 billion for the quarter ended March 31, a sharp drop from the same period last year, when it made an $8.1 billion profit. It was also a big miss from the $4.4 billion profit that analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast.
Amazon (AMZN) shares sank more than 12% on Friday. “The pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have brought unusual growth and challenges,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement.
The Winners and Losers of Apple’s Anti-Tracking Feature
When Apple rolled out its long-awaited, much-hyped privacy update one year ago this week, it was accompanied by an ad that attempted to visualize what the new feature did. In it, there’s a man going about his day, and every time he interacts with a business, an employee latches on and starts following him everywhere he goes, collecting and broadcasting the man’s personal information.
A prompt shows up on the man’s iPhone, giving him the option to “Ask App Not to Track.” He taps it, and all of his unwelcome guests pop like balloons, disappearing into clouds of dust.
While evocative, the ad isn’t entirely accurate. The feature, called App Tracking Transparency, doesn’t stop all the ways companies follow you around the internet and in your mobile apps because Apple can’t stop all tracking. Nor does it want to. Your data is still being collected, but what’s being collected and how may have changed. The end result, however, is roughly the same: You’re being targeted with ads.