Big Brother News Watch
A New Bill Would Ban Anyone Under 16 From Using Social Media + More
A New Bill Would Ban Anyone Under 16 From Using Social Media
A growing number of U.S. policymakers and federal officials are angling to keep children and young teenagers off social media entirely, citing mounting concerns that the platforms may harm their well-being and mental health. It’s a notable escalation in the rhetoric around keeping kids safe online, which has largely focused on setting new digital protections.
The push gained traction after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told CNN on Sunday that he believes 13 is “too early” for kids to be joining apps like Instagram and TikTok, which he said can create a “distorted environment” that “often does a disservice” to kids.
Now the movement is fueling legislation on Capitol Hill: A House Republican on Thursday is introducing a bill to ban kids and teens under 16 from using social media. The bill represents one of the most stringent efforts yet to keep kids off major platforms, going far beyond more narrow bipartisan proposals to set up guardrails for kids online.
The measure, led by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), would require companies to verify users’ ages and allow parents to sue them if they fail to keep those under 16 off their sites. It would also empower federal and state agencies to enforce the standards. Stewart likened the effect social media can have on children and teens to that of drugs, a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common in Washington.
Georgia Lawmakers Could Bar COVID Vaccine Rules for Good
Some Georgia senators want to permanently block schools and most state and local government agencies from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In 2022, lawmakers put a one-year ban into law, part of a broad conservative nationwide backlash against mandates meant to prevent the spread of respiratory illness. But that ban expires on June 30 in Georgia if lawmakers don’t act.
On Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 7-2 to advance Senate Bill 1, which makes the ban permanent, to the full Senate. Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming who is sponsoring the bill, said that when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine at least, the government shouldn’t be able to force anyone to get it.
The measure bars state agencies, local governments, schools and colleges from requiring proof of vaccination. But because governments and schools can’t require proof, they can’t enforce mandates.
Dolezal’s bill originally would have also made permanent the existing five-year ban on schools being able to require children to wear masks. However, Dolezal said he now plans to bring a separate bill on that issue.
California Ends Plans for Kids’ COVID Vaccine Mandate
California state leaders seem to be quietly closing the door on the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children.
The California Department of Public Health hasn’t made an announcement, but officials told EdSource that the end of the state’s COVID-19 State of Emergency on Feb. 28 effectively ends its current plan to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of ten vaccinations children are required to have to attend school in-person.
The statement went on to say that any changes to required K-12 immunizations are properly addressed through the legislative process. There are no bills mandating school vaccinations currently pending in the legislature.
Last year the state withdrew a mandate that school staff be vaccinated or tested to remain on campus and rescinded a requirement that everyone wear masks in classrooms.
Massive Peer-Reviewed Mask Study Shows ‘Little to No Difference’ in Preventing COVID, Flu Infection
A massive international research collaboration that analyzed several dozen rigorous studies focusing on “physical interventions” against COVID-19 and influenza found that they provide little to no protection against infection or illness rates.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, is the strongest science to date refuting the basis for mask mandates worldwide. According to the Cochrane study, which included the work of researchers at institutions in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy and Saudi Arabia, a total of 78 studies were analyzed. The most recent additions to the meta-analysis were 11 new randomized controlled trials.
As unlisted study author Carl Heneghan — who directs the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford noted on Twitter: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing masks.”
Bottom line, mask-wearing “probably makes little to no difference,” when it comes to influenza-like or COVID-like illnesses, regardless of the type of mask used.
As the Bee Population Declines, This Startup Secures $8 Million to Apply AI and EVs to Pollination
Given our general reliance on something called “food,” you’d think the issue of pollination — and its general decline — might be higher up the world’s agenda. Over 80% of crops require insect pollination, but growers can no longer rely on the dwindling wild bee population.
But it’s a complex problem. Pollinating crops with honey bees can pose a threat to indigenous wild bees who are forced to compete with honey bees for food and are then exposed to new diseases. AgTech startups are addressing this by working on artificial pollination innovations, or on methods to make honey bees more efficient and less impactful on wildlife.
BeeWise and BeeHero are solutions that enhance honeybees and their pollination efforts, for instance. But honeybees are ineffective pollinators for most types of crops. And some startups are trying to artificially pollinate but their solutions are limited to greenhouse plants. What is to be done?
Israel-based BloomX is a startup that has an AI-driven “bio-mimicking technology” where it puts AI alongside mechanical devices to make the whole process more likely to succeed. It’s now emerged from stealth with an $8 million Seed round led by Ahern Agribusiness, a US-based vegetable seed distribution company. Also participating was Vasuki Global Tech fund, Bio Bee, the Israeli Innovation Authority (IIA) and Dr. Gal Yarden.
Get Used to Face Recognition in Stadiums
Last week, the New York Attorney General’s office sent Madison Square Garden Entertainment a letter demanding answers. The state’s top law enforcement agency wants to know more about how the company operating Radio City Music Hall and the storied arena where the NBA’s Knicks play uses a face recognition system to deny entry to certain people, and in particular lawyers representing clients in dispute with Madison Square Garden.
The letter says that because the ban is thought to cover staff at 90 law firms, it may exclude thousands of people and deter them from taking on cases “including sexual harassment or employment discrimination claims.”
The venue’s use of face recognition underscores the recent spread of the technology at sporting events. The trend is driven by a desire to quickly authenticate ticket holders’ identities and get them into stadiums and concert venues. But civil rights groups warn that face recognition installed with seemingly benign intent can be adapted to other, more concerning uses.
Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, envisions a biometric economy springing up in stadiums, powering things like personalized advertising akin to the kind seen in Minority Report. But once an entity gains the ability to track nearly anyone, the technology can also be used to control and monitor movement, powers ripe for abuse.
Big Brother Is Watching Me
About six months ago I was contacted by Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties campaign group, and asked if I wanted to help with an investigation into the surveillance of critics of the government’s pandemic response by state agencies. Would I submit subject access requests to different Whitehall departments to see if I was among the critics of the government’s pandemic response who’d been monitored by the Counter Disinformation Unit, the Rapid Response Unit, the Intelligence and Communications Unit and the 77th Brigade?
I thought it unlikely but decided to play along and on Monday night Big Brother Watch published its report revealing that I was one of the dozens of journalists, scientists and MPs who’d been spied on in this way.
Others included Peter Hitchens, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Carl Heneghan, Tom Jefferson and David Davis. It’s pretty extraordinary that members of Boris Johnson’s government managed to convince the people working in these agencies, some of them with a background in the security services, that those of us who questioned the wisdom of the lockdown policy and vaccine passports were potentially dangerous actors whom the state needed protecting from.
They did this by branding our skepticism ‘disinformation’ or ‘misinformation’ — or by squashing the two together under the heading of ‘mis/disinformation.’ The reason for merging these categories is that some of these agencies were originally set up to protect the integrity of British democracy from hostile state actors spreading false information to influence elections.
ChatGPT May Be the Fastest-Growing Consumer App in Internet History, Reaching 100 Million Users in Just Over 2 Months, UBS Report Says
ChatGPT may have become the fastest-growing app in history after it was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users, or MAUs, by the end of January, a report by Swiss banking giant UBS said.
The OpenAI-owned chatbot has surpassed 100 million MAUs just over two months after its launch — comfortably beating the growth speeds of major apps like TikTok and Instagram, according to the UBS note, which Insider has viewed.
It took TikTok nine months to reach the same level of users; Instagram took two and half years; and Spotify only amassed 100 million MAUs after four and a half years, the report said, citing data from data analytics firm Similar Web.
Apple and Google Should Boot TikTok From Their App Stores, Democratic Senator Urges
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., urged the CEOs of Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their mobile app stores immediately in a letter Thursday, citing widespread concerns the Chinese government could access information on Americans using the app.
The request from Bennet, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, highlights both the growing concern over TikTok’s potential national security risks and the power Apple and Google have to decide the sort of apps that Americans can access.
Bennet told the CEOs of both firms that TikTok is unique from other social media platforms because of its China-based parent company, ByteDance, which under Chinese law would be required to hand over internal data to the government to assist in intelligence work.
TikTok has repeatedly sought to reassure concerned American lawmakers and officials that it does not store U.S. user data in China. It has also been negotiating with the U.S. government about how it can mitigate potential national security risks while continuing to operate here.
House Passes Bill to Block HHS From Enforcing Vaccine Mandate at Some Health Facilities + More
House Passes Bill to Block HHS From Enforcing Vaccine Mandate at Some Health Facilities
The House passed a bill on Tuesday that seeks to end the vaccine mandate for employees at some health facilities, marking the first pandemic-related bill the Republican majority has approved since taking control of the chamber.
The legislation titled the Freedom for Health Care Workers Act, passed in a 227-203 vote, with seven Democrats joining Republicans in passing the bill.
The measure, introduced by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), calls for stopping the Health and Human Services secretary from enforcing workplace regulations and standards enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic — including the vaccine mandate — at Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities.
With Democrats maintaining control of the Senate and President Biden likely to veto the bill if it were to reach his desk, the vote on Tuesday was largely a symbolic gesture to record GOP opposition to the administration’s COVID-19 policies.
FTC Slaps $1.5 Million Fine on GoodRx for Sharing Users’ Health Data With Facebook and Google
Online pharmacy GoodRx has agreed to pay $1.5 million in civil penalties for years of sharing the health information of consumers with third parties like Facebook, Google and Criteo for advertising purposes, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.
In a complaint filed in a California federal court, the FTC accused the healthcare and telemedicine giant of failing to notify consumers that their personal health information — collected while using its website and services — would be shared with third parties.
The FTC said GoodRx “deceptively promised its users that it would never share personal health information with advertisers or other third parties,” but “repeatedly violated this promise,” including by monetizing the data it collected to target its own users with targeted health and medication-specific ads. The FTC said that GoodRx has been doing this “for years.”
Social Media Companies in the U.S. Brace to Battle Onslaught of Legal Challenges
Social media companies in the United States are bracing themselves to battle an onslaught of new state and federal legislation and legal challenges with far-reaching regulatory implications this year.
The majority of U.S. state legislatures have introduced or passed bills attempting to reform how social media giants moderate their content and increase security measures for American users.
Elsewhere on the legal front, the Supreme Court will hear no fewer than four high-profile cases against tech giants, ranging from liability in terrorist attacks to alleged censorship of conservative viewpoints on their platforms.
State and federal lawsuits, two of which were announced this month, also take aim at how social media apps and their highly effective algorithms negatively affect the mental health of American teenagers.
West Point Continues to Impose COVID Vaccine Mandate, Despite Rule’s Lift by Pentagon: Report
The U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, plans to continue to impose restrictions on travel for those cadets who are not vaccinated, despite measures taken at the Pentagon to remove COVID-19 vaccine mandates, according to reports.
Online news organization Just The News reported that military attorney R. Davis Younts said West Point was reimposing a travel ban on unvaccinated cadets, even though the U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate was lifted.
“The U.S. Military Academy at West Point continues to follow Department of Defense’s guidance regarding unvaccinated service members,” the public affairs office said in an email. “U.S. Army policy states unvaccinated service members are not eligible for official travel without prior approval from the Under Secretary of the Army. Until the policy is rescinded, West Point will continue to follow it.”
Rising Star Linn Grant Likely to Miss First Major of Season Due to U.S. Vaccine Travel Restrictions
Linn Grant will begin her 2023 season in Morocco next week on the Ladies European Tour. One of the most promising young players in the game, Grant was forced to play a limited LPGA schedule last year because U.S. travel restrictions won’t let her in the country as she is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Grant, who is currently No. 28 in the Rolex Rankings, will be able to compete in the LPGA’s upcoming Asian swing, but her agent, Pelle Krüger said they’re not optimistic that she’ll be able to compete in the year’s first major, the Chevron Championship.
Tennis star Novak Djokovic was not able to compete in the U.S. Open last summer for the same reason.
In January, the U.S. government extended its existing COVID-19 restrictions, which require international visitors to be fully vaccinated against the virus, to April 10. Kruger told Golfweek that while they’re still trying to obtain a pass for special circumstances, they don’t foresee things opening up until at least early May. The Chevron is slated for April 20-23.
Children Lost About 35% of a Normal School Year’s Worth of Learning During the Pandemic, Study Suggests
A new paper adds to the mounting evidence that school-age children across the globe experienced significant setbacks in their learning progress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Students “lost out on about 35% of a normal school year’s worth of learning” when in-person learning stopped during the public health crisis, according to a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. The school closures were intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but the new paper suggests that learning deficits emerged and persisted over time. The paper included data from 15 different countries.
“Children still have not recovered the learning that they lost out on at the start of the pandemic,” he said. Also, “education inequality between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds increased during the pandemic. So the learning crisis is an equality crisis. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds were disproportionately affected by school closures.”
The researchers reviewed and analyzed data from 42 studies on learning progress during the pandemic across 15 countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the United States. The studies were published between March 2020 and August 2022. The researchers conducted an initial search for the studies in April 2021 and additional searches in February and August 2022.
U.S. Economy Loses $12 Trillion to COVID Lockdowns, Mandatory Business Closures Cited as Top Reason
U.S. GDP fell during the pandemic due to COVID-19 lockdowns and resulted in trillions of dollars in losses in these past years, a consequence mainly driven by mandatory business closure policies, according to a study by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC).
By the end of 2022, the pandemic had cut $12.2 trillion from U.S. GDP, the study published in Economic Modelling journal estimates. Researchers expect total losses to hit $14 trillion by the end of 2023. The study blamed involuntary business closures as the “leading cause” for the massive decline in America’s GDP during this period.
The study blamed three factors for America’s economic decline during the pandemic: deaths and illnesses, mandatory business closures and voluntary avoidance of activities that stimulate the economy but prevent infection.
Of these three, the study found mandatory business closures had the “greatest impact” on the U.S. economy. During the first six months of the pandemic, business closures accounted for a 26.3% decline in GDP, while work avoidance only made up 12.2% of the decline.
EXCLUSIVE: Ted Cruz Introduces 7 Pieces of Legislation to Block Current and Future Pandemic Gov Mandates
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) unveiled seven pieces of legislation on Tuesday to protect American’s freedoms by blocking current and future government COVID mandates.
The legislation takes aim at vaccine passports, vaccine mandates, mask mandates and other restrictions from the government and medical services.
“Congress must step up and outright ban these mandates. We cannot allow the unprecedented actions taken by the federal government to set a new normal in which politicians and unelected bureaucrats force mandates upon the American people at the drop of a hat — all under the justification of protecting public health,” Cruz told The Daily Wire.
A New Tracker Promises to Collect a Lot More of Your Data. Its Maker Says That’s Better For Your Privacy.
Last week on Zoom, where I spend all the best moments of my life, I spoke with the chief product officer of an ad tech company called FullThrottle. Amol Waishampayan said his company has a brand-new patented technique that will let companies collect even more of your data — ten times more data, he claims — and tie that information to your home address.
He said FullThrottle won’t collect the information without your consent, but he expects a lot of us will give it up willingly. Waishampayan said this tracking will actually be better for your privacy, and in fact, you might even like it. By the time I closed my laptop, I was almost convinced. Almost.
Maybe you heard the news: Google is planning to kill third-party cookies, the primary tool advertising and tech companies have used to track you online for 30 years. The ad business is, to say the least, freaking out. On ad tech Twitter, the land that God forgot, people throw around ideas for cookie-replacements with names like data clean rooms, Unified ID 2.0, and email hashed IDs. Microsoft is pushing a cute little tool called “Parakeet.” Google, which swears it’s killing cookies to protect your privacy and not to exert dominance over the market, will now track and harness your data with something called the Topics API.
Waishampayan said the difference is that his company’s tracker helps a company harvest data on its own customers rather than buying that data from third-party sellers, which are less reliable and less accurate — not to mention worse for your privacy.
The AI Boom Is Here, and so Are the Lawsuits
That was quick: Artificial intelligence has gone from science fiction to novelty to Thing We Are Sure Is the Future. Very, very fast.
One easy way to measure the change is via headlines — like the ones announcing Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI, the company behind the dazzling ChatGPT text generator, followed by other AI startups looking for big money. Or the ones about school districts frantically trying to cope with students using ChatGPT to write their term papers. Or the ones about digital publishers like CNET and BuzzFeed admitting or bragging that they’re using AI to make some of their content — and investors rewarding them for it.
Then there’s another leading indicator: lawsuits lodged against OpenAI and similar companies, which argue that AI engines are illegally using other people’s work to build their platforms and products. This means they are aimed directly at the current boom of generative AI — software, like ChatGPT, that uses existing text or images or code to create new work.
Gen Z Doesn’t Think Anyone Can Keep Them Safe Online, and One of Their Biggest Concerns Is Photos Getting Leaked
Gen Z doesn’t think anyone can keep them safe online. That’s according to a Dell Technologies study released in December. The company surveyed 15,105 people between the ages of 18 and 26 years from 15 countries about how investments in technology can be used to support the economy. The findings indicate that Gen Z doesn’t trust any entity, public or private, to keep their data safe online.
The survey found that: 18% of respondents said they trust government bodies, ministries, and departments to protect their data; 17% said they trust private sector companies; 25% of respondents said they trust both equally.
As for Gen Z’s top cyber security concern? Having their personal data or photos shared without permission. In addition, more than half of the surveyed individuals said they have low or neutral confidence that their personal data is being stored properly by healthcare providers.
Earlier this month, hackers leaked details of over 200 million Twitter accounts onto an online forum, including email addresses and phone numbers.
Why Do We Still Need Humans, Anyway?
The past four decades or so have seen spectacular technological advances that have vastly disrupted industries, brought unimaginable convenience and efficiencies, and scrambled our brains in ways we may come to regret. So tremendous are the changes that it is remarkable that the journey felt mostly incremental. Rare were the moments when it was clear something spectacular had been unleashed. But we are certainly experiencing such a moment with the arrival of ChatGPT, the hyper-bot cooked up by an outfit called OpenAI.
The program is not in itself a breakthrough — not exactly since the technology behind it has been developing for years. We all have encountered early versions of what artificial intelligence can do in Apple‘s Siri, or even with a Google search. Also, perhaps less impressively, in the aggravating “help” chat services run by various banks.
But ChatGPT is uncanny, and it has seized center stage in the global conversation since being suddenly made available two months ago to the general public. That happened concurrent to news that Microsoft was investing another $10 billion in OpenAI, in a deal that would leave it with a 49-percent stake.
At this very moment almost every major business, and certainly consultancy, is holding emergency meetings to calculate how to integrate ChatGPT into its activities. It’s simplifying the situation to make it all about ChatGPT, but the notion that AI is ready or nearly ready for prime time is correct. This is not a fad.
How the Supreme Court Could Soon Change Free Speech on the Internet + More
How the Supreme Court Could Soon Change Free Speech on the Internet
When Elon Musk announced his offer to buy Twitter for more than $40 billion, he told the public his vision for the social media site was to make sure it’s “an inclusive arena for free speech.”
This year, the U.S. justice system, including the Supreme Court, will take on cases that will help determine the bounds of free expression on the internet in ways that could force the hand of Musk and other platform owners who determine what messages get distributed widely.
“The question of free speech is always more complicated than it looks,” said David Brody, managing attorney of the Digital Justice Initiative at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law. “There’s a freedom to speak freely. But there’s also the freedom to be free from harassment, to be free from discrimination.”
Brody said whenever the parameters of content moderation get tweaked, people need to consider “whose speech gets silenced when that dial gets turned? Whose speech gets silenced because they are too fearful to speak out in the new environment that is created?”
Surgeon General: 13-Year-Olds Too Young to Join Social Media Platforms
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said on “CNN Newsroom” on Saturday he believes 13-year-olds are too young to join social media and that being on those platforms does a “disservice” to children.
The big picture: Scientists have warned of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children, saying that the negatives outweigh the positives.
Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter all allow users ages 13 or older on their platforms. TikTok users in the United States who are younger than 13 can use the platform, albeit with a safety setting for children that limits the information collected from them, as well as prevents them from messaging other users or allowing others to see their user profile.
Why it matters: American teenagers are in the middle of a mental health crisis.
Department of Health and Human Services Is Sued After Ignoring Freedom of Information Request Over Censorship Demands
Activist group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for all records and communications between the Surgeon General’s office and social media companies about COVID-19 vaccines.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the HHS refused to adequately respond to a FOIA request filed in March 2022.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has previously called for censorship of COVID misinformation. In 2021, he published a report titled “Confronting Health Misinformation,” which aimed to “slow the spread of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.”
The report encouraged platforms to censor vaccine misinformation and other misinformation related to the pandemic. In March 2022, Murthy ordered social media platforms to hand over information about accounts spreading COVID misinformation.
Soldier Who Says He Was Injured by COVID Vaccine Alleges Lack of Support From Army
An Army member who says he was injured by the COVID vaccine said he faced repeated pressure to take the second dose of the vaccine, despite receiving a temporary exemption from the vaccine mandate last year.
But Army Warrant Officer Douglas Rubin (a pseudonym) was ultimately assisted by the Pentagon’s recission of the vaccine mandate following the signing into law of the Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Rubin was led to believe that he would not get a permanent medical exemption and his best course of action was a temporary exemption. In January 2022, he was granted a temporary exemption “indefinitely.”
After making every attempt to rule out all potential sources of his symptoms besides the Pfizer COVID-19, Rubin said, “No other sources could be found, and I am now permanently injured from this vaccine.” Rubin is still seeking a permanent medical exemption despite the Pentagon’s recent change in policy rescinding the mandate.
WSU Removing COVID Vaccine Requirement for Most Students
Beginning with 2023 summer classes, Washington State University is removing the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for most students, according to the WSU Insider.
The decision comes after a recommendation from the university’s Infectious Disease and Public Health Advisory Committee, which includes college representatives across public health, student services, human resources and environmental health and safety.
According to WSU, mandating the continued boosting process for the COVID-19 vaccines pose significant challenges, which include maintaining students’ ages, existing health conditions, previous vaccines and past COVID-19 infections to determine which students should be boosted or not.
In Oct. 2022, WSU lifted the vaccine requirement for most employees, contractors and volunteers after Gov. Jay Inslee rescinded the state’s COVID-19 emergency orders.
Appeals Court Rejects Ann Arbor Police Lawsuit Over COVID Vaccine Mandate
A three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling that cities are allowed to create and enforce vaccine mandates as a condition of employment for police officers.
The ruling, issued last week, came after the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association sued the city over its August 2021 policy, requiring all city employees to be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or face termination.
The union’s lawsuit centered on the state Legislature’s 2021-2022 omnibus Appropriations Act, passed in September of that year, which prohibits vaccine mandates by certain government employers.
A Washtenaw Circuit Court judge sided with the city, ruling that the appropriation act’s prohibition of vaccine requirements doesn’t apply to Ann Arbor’s police officers, who are city employees, not employees of the state’s treasury department. The panel of judges Noah Hood, Thomas Cameron and Kristina Robinson Garrett agreed.
BMS Settles Lawsuit With Two Fired Employees Who Refused COVID Vaccines
Two Bristol Myers Squibb employees who were fired for refusing to be vaccinated and sued the company have agreed to settlements, court documents show. Jeremy Beer and John Lott were two of four employees who filed suit in December of 2021 in federal court in the Southern District of New York, later to be joined by four other fired employees who filed in October of last year.
The case of one of the original four who sued, Dr. Carrie Kefalas, was dismissed on Tuesday.
The former employees claimed that BMS violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by rejecting their request for religious exemptions from the company’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. Terms of the settlements were not disclosed. BMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two former employees who settled were well-paid professionals. Lott, a biotechnologist with a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins, was the associate director of strategy and submissions lead, patient safety and epidemiology, with an annual salary of $178,000. Beer was a senior manager for data integrity, with a salary of $146,000.
Oops, I Did It Again: Apple Faces Fourth iPhone Privacy Lawsuit After Gizmodo Story
Apple is famous for breaking records, and apparently, it’s just as competitive when it comes to getting sued. The company was just hit with a fourth class-action lawsuit over accusations of surreptitious iPhone data collection. Three of those lawsuits were filed in January alone. Impressive.
In November, Gizmodo exclusively reported on research demonstrating that your iPhone collects hyper-detailed data about what you do on its apps, like the App Store, Apple Stocks, Apple Music, Apple News and more — even when you turn off the iPhone Analytics privacy setting, which explicitly promises to stop the snooping.
Gizmodo contacted Apple about this problem for the seventh time this morning, which has to be another record breaker. As happened the previous six times, the company didn’t respond. Apple hasn’t said a single word to defend this privacy issue in public.
TikTok CEO to Testify Before House Panel About App’s Security and Ties to China
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before a House panel on March 23 about the app’s security and privacy practices and its ties to China through parent company ByteDance.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced the hearing on Monday, saying it would be Chew’s first appearance before a congressional panel.
“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,” E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said in a statement. “Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms.”
The hearing announcement comes as the company’s negotiations with the U.S. government over how to secure its app in the country have continued to drag on. TikTok has been engaging with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which can determine if certain risk mitigation measures are adequate to dampen national security concerns.
‘Debilitating’ Effects of Pandemic Linger on for Britain’s Young
Young people have been “disastrously” affected by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, according to two pieces of research that show happiness and confidence has plunged to an all-time low.
Both studies detail the wide-ranging ways in which young people continue to suffer. The hardships include poorer mental and physical health, as well as extensive learning loss that experts say will undoubtedly affect their futures.
The findings echo the concerns expressed in the second part of the Guardian’s COVID generation series, published on Sunday, in which young people analyze how the pandemic is still affecting their lives and their plans for the future 18 months from the end of the third national lockdown.
Jonathan Townsend, the U.K. chief executive of the Prince’s Trust, which spoke to 2,025 young people aged 16 to 25, said: “The pandemic is still having a debilitating impact on young people’s plans, confidence and hopes for a positive future. The significant disruption to their education during this period has left these young people worried about their skills and qualifications, and lacking confidence in their ability to secure a job or achieve their future career goals.”
German Government Secretly Met With U.S. Big Tech to Censor Speech
German authorities have made quite a name for themselves over the past several years by walking the fine line, and critics say sometimes crossing it, between protecting citizens’ freedom of speech, and censoring them for “online speech.”
So is it really surprising that in the wake of scandalous revelations about COVID (and elections) related collaboration, or some would say, collusion between the U.S. government and Big Tech, something of the kind was also happening in Germany?
The charge here, as reported by German media, is that German officials and representatives of U.S. tech corporations held meetings on several occasions, including secretly, to talk about censoring COVID-related information. The Bild newspaper writes that there was a secret “summit” in early June 2020, initiated by the government and attended by representatives of Facebook (and Instagram) as well as Google (and YouTube).
Germany has a provision in its Constitution that is supposed to guarantee free speech: Article 5, which states that “every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources.”
FBI Examines Snapchat’s Role in Fentanyl Poisoning Deaths + More
FBI Examines Snapchat’s Role in Fentanyl Poisoning Deaths
Federal agencies are questioning Snapchat’s role in the spread and sale of fentanyl-laced pills in the U.S. as part of a broader probe into the deadly counterfeit drugs crisis.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and attorneys with the U.S. Justice Department are zeroing in on fentanyl poisoning cases where the sales were arranged via Snapchat, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity. The agents have interviewed parents of children who died and are working to access their social media accounts to trace the suppliers of the lethal drugs, according to the people.
In many cases, subpoenaed records from Snapchat show the teenagers thought they were buying prescription painkillers, but the pill they swallowed was pure fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than morphine. An FBI spokesperson said the agency would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation. The Justice Department declined to comment.
On Wednesday, the involvement of technology companies in the ongoing fentanyl crisis will be discussed on Capitol Hill at a House Energy and Commerce Committee roundtable. One of the listed speakers, Laura Marquez-Garrett, an attorney with the Social Media Victims Law Center, said Snapchat will be the focus.
New York Attorney General Probing Madison Square Garden’s Use of Facial Recognition Technology
The Wall Street Journal reported:
New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. MSGE for information related to its alleged use of facial recognition technology to prevent certain ticket holders from entering its venues.
The state attorney general’s office said Wednesday the company, which operates Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall in New York City, has reportedly used the technology to bar lawyers from firms who are suing the company over unrelated matters from seeing sporting events or concerts.
The company’s actions appear to have affected attorneys at more than 90 law firms, and may violate New York’s civil- and human rights laws, the office said.
In the letter, the attorney general’s office said it was looking into whether the facial recognition software at issue is reliable and has safeguards to prevent bias. It asked the company to explain what efforts it is making to ensure its facial-recognition technology won’t lead to discrimination. It gave the company until Feb. 13 to respond.
Social Media Is a Defective Product, Lawsuit Contends
A California court could soon decide whether social media firms need to pay — and change their ways — for the damage they’ve allegedly done to Americans’ mental health.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers plan to file a consolidated complaint in the Northern District of California next month, accusing the tech giants of making products that can cause eating disorders, anxiety and depression.
If the case is allowed to proceed, it will test a novel legal theory, that social media algorithms are defective products that encourage addictive behavior and are governed by existing product liability law. That could have far-reaching consequences for how software is developed and regulated, and how the next generation of users experiences social media.
It also could upstage members of Congress from both parties and President Joe Biden, who have called for regulation since former Facebook Product Manager Frances Haugen released documents revealing that Meta — Facebook and Instagram’s parent company — knew users of Instagram were suffering ill health effects, but have failed to act in the 15 months since.
SKADOW: Vaccine Mandates Deserve Justification
On Oct. 27, 2022, the University administration announced that the COVID-19 bivalent booster would be required for all students, but not faculty or staff, by the spring semester. The news took me by surprise.
Unlike Yale’s previous COVID-19 vaccine mandates, the bivalent booster requirement preceded any evidence supporting its clinical benefit. Moreover, while the benefits of boosting were unknown, the potential harms, including the elevated risk of myocarditis in young men, were clear. The University should rescind their bivalent booster requirement and provide a transparent and logical explanation of how mandate decisions are made.
In the months since Yale’s bivalent booster requirement was announced, the administration has attempted to retroactively cite a rationale for their decision. A recent email directs readers to a FAQ page to support the efficacy of the new bivalent vaccine. The page references two observational case-control studies published by the CDC in December (two months after Yale’s mandate was announced).
Neither study provides sufficient evidence to support that the updated booster provides additional protection to a young student population that has received at least three previous doses and many of whom contracted COVID-19 last semester.
Nationwide Ban on TikTok Inches Closer to Reality
The White House is facing mounting pressure from Congress to ban the widely popular TikTok app nationwide after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Congressman Ken Buck (R-CO) introduced a piece of legislation on Wednesday to curb its use. A similar bill to ban TikTok in the U.S. was filed during the last Congressional session, but it was not considered in either chamber.
The No TikTok on the United States Devices Act would ban access to the app on all devices, but it may face pushback from a divided Congress in the coming weeks.
DirecTV Boots Conservative Newsmax, Which Alleges ‘Censorship’
DirecTV said it dropped conservative television network Newsmax on Tuesday night after a dispute over so-called carriage fees — a move the broadcaster characterized as “censorship.”
Newsmax described DirecTV’s decision as a “censorship move” to silence the conservative network. The media outlet also pointed to DirecTV’s decision a year earlier to drop another conservative network from its lineup, One America News Network, or OAN.
In response to the dispute, 41 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to DirecTV warning that they might open hearings on the issue, according to a copy of the letter viewed by CBS MoneyWatch.
White House Engaged in ‘Vast Censorship Enterprise’ Against Conservatives, COVID Critics: Missouri AG
One of two state attorneys general filing a civil suit against the Biden administration claimed in a Fox Business exclusive he uncovered a “vast censorship enterprise” and produced purported evidence the White House’s social media team leadership tried to censor or suppress conservative voices and critics of its COVID policy — including a member of a prominent Democratic family.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who along with Louisiana Attorney General Jeffrey Landry, first filed suit last May. However, Bailey told “The Bottom Line” Tuesday the web of purported censorship continues to grow.
“I’m proud to have partnered with the Louisiana attorney general on this case because it’s the most important First Amendment case in a generation. We’ve uncovered a vast censorship enterprise, coercion and collusion between officials at the White House and across federal bureaucratic agencies and their cronies in Big Tech/social media to target and censor free speech in America.”
He underlined that the case is preeminently a First Amendment defense rather than any type of political attack.
North Korea Locks Down Pyongyang Due to ‘Respiratory Illness’
North Korean authorities have ordered a lockdown in the nation’s capital city Pyongyang because of the spread of an unspecified respiratory illness, according to a statement released by the Russian embassy in North Korea on Facebook.
The lockdown will last for five days, and could be extended another three days, according to the post, which called for a “special anti-epidemic period” and urged foreign diplomats to remain inside.
The notice also stated that individuals should take their temperature four times a day and report the results daily to a hospital in Pyongyang. If an individual has a high temperature, they should immediately report to the hospital.
While the notice does not mention any particular illness, such as COVID-19, it does say the city has seen a rise in patients with “recurrent influenza in winter and other respiratory diseases.”
Spain to Scrap Mandatory Masks on Public Transport on Feb. 7
Spain, one of the last countries in Europe to still require people to wear masks on public transport to prevent the spread of COVID-19, will likely lift the obligation on Feb. 7, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Thursday.
She said the epidemiological situation in the country was stable and health emergency services had proposed lifting the restriction. Masks will remain mandatory in health facilities.
“I’ll bring the proposal to scrap the obligation to wear masks in public transportation to the cabinet meeting to be held on Feb. 7,” she told reporters.
Three years after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Europe, masks are only mandatory on all, or some types of public transport, in Spain, Germany, Austria and Greece.
Mexico Issues Alert Over Social Media Tranquilizer Craze
Health authorities in Mexico issued an alert Wednesday over an internet “challenge” in which groups of students at three schools in Mexico have taken tranquilizers vying to see who can stay awake longer.
The Health Department called on the public to report any store selling clonazepam, a tranquilizer, without a prescription.
The alert came one week after eight students at a Mexico City middle school were treated after taking a “controlled medication.” Some were hospitalized.
The department warned about the social media challenge “the last one to fall asleep wins,” calling it dangerous.
