Login
Big Brother News Watch
Social Media Has Done ‘Extraordinary Damage’ to Democracy, Public Health, Safety + More
Social Media Has Done ‘Extraordinary Damage’ to Democracy, Public Health, Safety: Expert
Social media companies have increasingly played major roles in political discourse around the world and according to one expert, the fallout has been significant.
“We’ve had extraordinary damage done to democracy, public health, public safety and people’s ability to make their own choices,” Roger McNamee, managing director at Elevation Partners and an early Facebook investor, told Yahoo Finance Live. “Yet policymakers have done nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Companies like Facebook-parent Meta (META) and Twitter (TWTR) have garnered criticism over the past decade, largely due to their dissemination of misinformation/disinformation as it relates to elections.
McNamee — who authored “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe” — laid out three key factors to the ongoing problems with social media: the scale of the platforms, the latency and the incentives.
TikTok’s Search Engine Pumps Misinformation to Its Young Users
A NewsGuard investigation found that TikTok’s users, who are predominantly teens and young adults, are consistently fed false and misleading claims when they search on TikTok for information about prominent news topics.
The investigation found that for a sampling of searches on prominent news topics, almost 20% of the videos presented as search results contain misinformation. This means that for searches on topics ranging from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to COVID vaccines, TikTok’s users are consistently fed false and misleading claims.
The toxicity of TikTok has become a significant threat because new research from Google suggests that TikTok is increasingly being used by young people as a search engine, as they turn to the video-sharing platform, instead of Google, to find information.
In 2021, TikTok surpassed Google as the most popular website worldwide, according to the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. The Wall Street Journal in August referred to TikTok as the “new Google.” NewsGuard’s findings come as TikTok faces increased scrutiny over its moderation and data collection practices, as well as its ties to China.
Tennis Australia Keeps out of Djokovic’s Visa Application
Novak Djokovic won’t get official support with lobbying from Tennis Australia should he seek to enter the country for the first major of 2023, a year after he was deported because he was not vaccinated for COVID-19. The 21-time Grand Slam champion wasn’t allowed to defend his Australian Open title last January after a tumultuous 10-day legal saga that culminated with his visa being revoked on the eve of the tournament eventually won by Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic originally was granted an exemption to strict vaccination rules by two medical panels and Tennis Australia in order to play in the Australian Open but, after traveling to Melbourne believing he had all his paperwork in order, the exemption was rejected by the Australian Border Force.
Being deported made Djokovic subject to a possible three-year exclusion period that prevents the granting of a further temporary visa, although the Australian Border Force in January said any exclusion period “will be considered as part of any new visa application and can be waived in certain circumstances.”
Australia has changed its border rules and, since July 6, incoming travelers no longer have to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Seattle to End COVID Emergency Proclamation
The City of Seattle will end its COVID-19 emergency proclamation at the end of October.
Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement Tuesday that Seattle will lift its remaining COVID emergency order to align with Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision to end the statewide state of emergency on Oct. 31.
Policies linked to the emergency order including premium pay for food delivery and network gig workers will end on Nov. 1. Harrell lifted mask and other COVID-19 precautions in city buildings earlier this year. The City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees and others will remain in effect.
Alberta’s New Premier Says Unvaccinated Are the ‘Most Discriminated-Against Group’ She Has Seen
Alberta’s new premier Danielle Smith says those who chose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine are the “most discriminated-against group” she has seen in her lifetime.
“The community that faced the most restrictions on their freedoms in the last year were those who made a choice not to be vaccinated,” Smith said at her first press conference as premier on Oct. 11.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job, or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey, or not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or hospital or not allowed to go get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border. They have been the most-discriminated group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
Smith made the remarks shortly after being sworn in as premier in Edmonton. During the leadership race, Smith had promised to bring fundamental changes to Alberta Health Services and to strengthen laws to avoid “discrimination” based on medical decisions.
Shanghai Shuts Down Schools, Gyms, Bars as COVID Returns
Shanghai is quietly shutting down schools and a raft of other venues as officials try to rein in a COVID-19 flare-up that has hit the financial hub just days before one of China’s most important political events.
Several schools dotted throughout the city have suspended in-person classes as the fear of infection spread grows, according to parents and social media posts.
At least five districts have closed entertainment venues, including cinemas, bars and gyms, in an effort to stamp out transmission, according to statements issued by COVID-19 prevention offices.
The authorities said on Sunday there is no citywide school shutdown after speculation rippled through social media that the measure would be rolled out. But the creeping suspensions, as well as a ramp-up in other restrictions such as the lockdown of neighborhoods and individual residential compounds, have left Shanghai’s 25 million residents on edge.
COVID Officers to Receive Powers to ‘Break and Enter’ in Western Australia
The Western Australian Labor government looks set to pass an impending law for the “ongoing management” of COVID-19 that grants law enforcement extensive powers, including the authority to “break into and enter any place or vehicle.”
A debate has been ongoing since the end of September 2022, with opposition MPs refusing to back the Emergency Management Amendment (Temporary COVID-19 Provisions) Bill 2022.
Under a COVID-19 declaration, the Bill authorizes “COVID-19 officers” to “break into and enter” any place or vehicle and exercise these powers without a warrant or consent from the owner. Officers can also take control or make use of any place or vehicle to enforce a health order.
Section 77N also gives officers the power to force individuals to undergo quarantine and “submit to infection prevention and control procedures.” While Section 77O can be used to compel owners of businesses, places of worship and entertainment venues to close for a specified period.
As Victoria’s COVID Pandemic Declaration Lifts, Vaccine Mandates and Policies Being Scrutinized
As Victoria’s COVID-19 pandemic declaration comes to an end, a behavioral scientist says the continuing use of vaccine mandates may be “ethically problematic” and should be carefully scrutinized. On Wednesday, the state government’s mandate will only apply in healthcare, in many other sectors vaccination requirements will remain in place.
Professor Julie Leask — whose work focuses on vaccination — said although mandates did have an important role to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing them was “ethically problematic.”
Companies such as Woolworths, Coles, ALDI, Virgin and Telstra are among those who told the ABC they would retain policies requiring staff to be vaccinated.
“You’ve got to ask whether it’s reasonable to exclude the completely unvaccinated from certain workplaces,” said Leask. “I think it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify that, given the limited ability for the vaccine to stop you getting COVID, [which would therefore mean] you’re a vastly reduced transmission risk.”
Facebook Whistleblower, Former Defense and Intel Officials Form Group to Fix Social Media
A Facebook whistleblower, two former U.S. defense secretaries, several past lawmakers and intelligence chiefs are forming a new group to address the harmful impacts social media can have on kids, communities and national security.
The Council for Responsible Social Media, publicly launched on Wednesday, is a project of the cross-partisan political reform nonprofit Issue One, which focuses on strengthening U.S. democracy and works with many former members of Congress on solutions.
Some well-known names joining the council include former Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen and former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris.
Elon Musk Claims Twitter Forced Whistleblower to Burn Evidence
The Twitter v. Musk lawsuit may be on hold for now, but information about the stayed case continues to emerge. In the latest revelation, the billionaire’s legal team accused the social media company of making its former executive (and current whistleblower) Peiter “Mudge” Zatko destroy documentation of his time at Twitter, including evidence of the company’s security faults.
Getting rid of the documents was allegedly a condition of the $7.8 million severance package that Zatko received in June. He spent about a year as the company’s security chief before being fired.
“Twitter negotiated a unique ‘severance package’ with Mr. Zatko in June 2022 that was plainly intended to procure Mr. Zatko’s silence and prevent him from coming forward with his whistleblower disclosures,” wrote Edward B. Micheletti, one of Musk’s lawyers, in an October 3 court filing, which was unsealed on Monday.
Specifically, Zatko said that he burned 10 handwritten notebooks containing information from meetings with Twitter execs and deleted more than 100 electronic documents, according to the legal filing.
Twitter Reviewing Policies Around Permanent User Bans
Twitter is reviewing its controversial policies around permanently banning users, potentially bringing its content moderation more in line with Elon Musk’s vision for the social media platform regardless of whether the Tesla chief becomes its owner.
The Silicon Valley company has been assessing whether there are other content moderation tools that could replace its harshest penalty for the violation of certain rules, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
Amazon ‘Suicide Kits’ Led to Teen Deaths, According to New Lawsuit + More
Amazon ‘Suicide Kits’ Have Led to Teen Deaths, According to New Lawsuit
Lawyers, who are representing parents suing Amazon for selling “suicide kits” to teenagers who died by suicide, say they have reached a “breaking point.”
Amazon lawyers have allegedly told parents that the online retailer had a right to sell these so-called “suicide kits.” The kits are described in the lawsuit as bundled items that Amazon suggests buyers purchase together, including a potentially lethal chemical called sodium nitrite, a scale to measure a lethal dose, a drug to prevent vomiting, and a book with instructions on how to use the chemical to attempt suicide. The online retailer’s lawyers also allegedly said that it would be “unfair and inhumane” to hold Amazon liable for the teens’ deaths.
One of the parents’ lawyers, Carrie Goldberg, took to Twitter yesterday, alleging that Amazon’s corporate ties with news outlets like CBS are effectively working to silence media attention for their lawsuit, while more lives likely remain at risk.
“For months, we avoided press attention to this case,” Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, told Ars in a statement. “But we have reached a breaking point of too many people dying, of medical providers not knowing what is happening or that a treatment protocol exists, and of press spiking stories about it — presumably because of corporate ties to Amazon.”
I Tried to Keep My Pregnancy Secret
When I became pregnant, my partner and I, like many expectant individuals, opted not to tell our friends until after the first trimester. But I had an additional goal: for my friends to learn of my pregnancy before advertisers did. I’m a health-privacy scholar, so I know that pregnant individuals are of particular interest to retailers because their purchasing habits change during pregnancy and after birth.
Companies are eager to send targeted ads and capture a new customer base. In an attempt to avoid this spamming and, frankly, to see if it was possible, I endeavored to hide my private health status from the advertising ecosystem.
Yet, because of the lack of data privacy in the U.S., the day finally came when I lost my battle to keep my reproductive information private. I was sitting on my couch scrolling through social media when I saw it: an advertisement for diapers. It appeared the same week that we lost the pregnancy.
Who knows how it happened. Did I forget the VPN one time when searching online? Did that time I used my credit card to buy ginger chews and tea tip them off? I’ll never know. What I do know is that our country’s abysmal privacy framework is failing to protect private reproductive-health information. Instead, the choice to protect one’s privacy in the U.S. is, theoretically, up to the individual.
However, given the complexities of user agreements, many individuals are unaware of how their data are being shared. For others, a loss of privacy doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Their data are the price they are willing to pay for free services, cool apps or lower-cost goods. Individuals who don’t want to make that trade are told to just not use the product.
Twitter Blocks — and Then Restores — COVID Vaccination Post From Florida’s Surgeon General
Twitter blocked — and then restored — a post from Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo that was promoting an analysis claiming a high incidence of cardiac-related deaths among men who take the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
Ladapo, who posted the tweet Friday, had also recommended men aged 18-39 should not receive the mRNA vaccine. Ladapo is an outspoken skeptic of COVID-19 vaccines who has questioned both the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine despite consensus within the medical community that the vaccines help protect against the virus and can lessen severe symptoms.
Twitter restored the post on Sunday morning.
“This is an unacceptable and Orwellian move for narrative over fact,” said Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, in a tweet. In a follow-up tweet later Sunday after Twitter restored the post, he thanked people for bringing attention to it.
Enforcement of District’s Routine Vaccination Mandate Begins Tuesday
School leaders in DC have been told to start enforcing a rule today that requires children to have all their routine vaccinations, a long-held but historically neglected mandate that could keep children out of school.
Tuesday marks the deadline for prekindergarten through fifth-grade students to have all their routine shots for illnesses including measles, polio and whooping cough.
Children who remain out of compliance could be excluded from school — though the Office of the State Superintendent of Education has instructed schools to grant a two-week grace period to students with upcoming doctor’s appointments and for families who are waiting to have their documentation processed.
Sixth through 12th grade students will need to be vaccinated by Nov. 4 before facing the same consequences. The order applies to students in public, charter, private and parochial schools.
DC students age 12 and older will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 3.
St. Paul Drops COVID Vaccine Requirement for City Employees
After a monthslong legal battle with three unions, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said there will no longer be a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for city employees.
The policy, which was considered especially strict, has not been enforced. Unlike other public employers in Minnesota, St. Paul did not want to give city workers the option to test regularly if they chose not to get the vaccine.
Unions challenged the mayor’s mandate in Ramsey County District Court, and a judge sided with them in June, saying state labor laws require the city to negotiate the matter with the unions or seek interest arbitration.
In July, the city appealed that ruling. On Monday, the city dropped its appeal.
INL Announces It’s Dropping Its COVID Vaccination Requirement
After roughly a year since the Idaho National Laboratory set in place a COVID-19 vaccine requirement as a condition of employment, the mandate has been lifted. The announcement was sent in an emailed message dated Oct. 6, 2022. It was addressed to all INL employees by INL Director John Wagner.
Wagner believes the vaccine requirement was the correct decision to enforce but notes “today, our circumstances are much different.” He points out that at the INL, in local communities, across Idaho and around the nation, COVID-19 is “far less of a threat than it was a year ago.”
John Bess is a former distinguished researcher in nuclear science and technology at the INL who also represented the United States as chairman for international benchmark projects with an organization in France. Last fall, he told EastIdahoNews.com he was being terminated from the INL after the INL twice denied his religious exemption from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Bess told EastIdahoNews.com this week that even though the INL dropped its vaccine requirement, it “doesn’t change the fact they discriminated against their employee’s beliefs. It doesn’t change the truth of the matter, which is that they mistreated, persecuted and terminated so many employees, coerced others to forego their freedoms and beliefs and strong-armed many into early retirement.”
First Lady Jill Biden to Promote COVID Vaccines in Nashville
First Lady Jill Biden will be visiting Nashville this week to encourage the community to get their updated COVID-19 vaccine.
The White House announced the First Lady is scheduled to arrive at the Nashville International Airport at 10:30 a.m. this Wednesday. Upon arrival, she will visit a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at St. James Missionary Baptist Church.
School Closures Return to China as COVID Cases Rise in Shanghai
China is looking back toward school closures and other lockdown measures as new COVID-19 outbreaks emerge in Shanghai and other megacities.
Chinese citizens have chaffed under strict lockdown measures throughout the pandemic, with tens of millions still under stringent measures in early September. Shanghai, Shenzen and other major cities are increasing mandatory testing in addition to closing entertainment venues and schools, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Shanghai is requiring all 16 of its districts to undergo mandatory testing twice a week until Nov. 10. The city has 25 million residents.
PayPal Backtracks on Fining Users for ‘Misinformation,’ Calls It an ‘Error’
PayPal has walked back a policy it published that would have fined users of its financial services $2,500 for spreading “misinformation.” After much backlash against the platform for attempts to police speech and after the company trended on Twitter from all of the people deleting their accounts, PayPal claims that the policy was published in “error.”
PayPal’s backtrack followed statements from PayPal’s founding COO David Sacks, telling people to get their money out of PayPal “right now.” Former PayPal president David Marcus also spoke out against PayPal. “It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in,” Marcus tweeted. “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.”
The Acceptable Use policy that PayPal published, expected to come into effect on Nov. 3, 2022, said that a violation of the “Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement and may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation.”
While PayPal has walked back its policy of fining people for sharing “misinformation,” it’s not yet clear whether PayPal will still consider closing accounts for the same.
BlackRock Invests in Censorship + More
BlackRock Invests in Censorship
Why is BlackRock, the largest investment firm in the world, promoting censorship? That is a question clients might want to ask after BlackRock cast its shareholder votes against a proposal designed to ensure transparency in how Big Tech platforms respond to government demands for censorship.
The proposal was sponsored by the National Legal and Policy Center, which I chair. As a shareholder in Alphabet, the parent of Google, we asked the company to provide a report, updated semi-annually and published on its website, that would disclose requests from “the Executive Office of the President, Centers for Disease Control or any other agency or entity of the United States Government” to remove or take down material from its platforms.
The resolution was a response to widespread concerns that the Biden administration is suborning censorship by major social media platforms. This would be a clear violation of a 1963 Supreme Court ruling, in Bantam Books, Inc. vs. Sullivan, prohibiting private entities from engaging in suppression of speech at the behest of government — which, the Court held, has the same effect as direct government censorship.
The proposal lost badly after the unsurprising opposition of Alphabet‘s management, but also because big investment firms — most prominently BlackRock — voted against it. Events since the June 1 shareholders’ meeting, however, make BlackRock’s “no” vote look much worse.
A Wave of Anti-Vaccine Legislation Is Sweeping the United States
As the weather starts to turn cold and as officials push for more people to get their new booster shot before an expected winter coronavirus surge, public health leaders are battling skepticism and apathy toward the vaccines.
Worse, experts fear the politicized backlash to the COVID-19 vaccines is already fostering skepticism about routine vaccinations generally, from childhood immunizations to flu shots.
Across the country, Republican lawmakers have drafted a pile of anti-vaccine mandate bills this year, chipping away at a foundational health practice for the last half-century. More than 80 anti-vaccine bills have been introduced in state legislatures, according to academics tracking the phenomenon, dwarfing the number of countervailing pro-vaccine bills.
Public health experts are preparing for an all-out war on school mandates and other vaccine measures in states like Texas.
Pfizer, BioNTech Enlist Marvel’s Avengers in Latest COVID Vaccine Booster Push
Just like how the Avengers have repeatedly kept the world safe from Ultron, people need to protect themselves by updating their COVID-19 vaccination with the latest booster.
That’s the message Pfizer and BioNTech are trying to get across in a new custom comic book partnered with Marvel. The companies unveiled the project Tuesday.
The new comic, titled “Everyday Heroes,” represents Pfizer flexing its marketing muscle. COVID vaccines are slated to switch to the private commercial market after the U.S. government failed to secure additional funding from Congress. As Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., has said, Pfizer can be “even more competitive” and its commercial skills are “even better suited” in an open market than in a a government-contracting model.
The project also comes amid a reportedly slow start to the Omicron booster rollout in both the U.S. and Europe.
Fordham Vaccine Mandate, New York’s Toughest, Sparks Parents’ Revolt
A new COVID-19 vaccine booster mandate by Fordham University has sparked outrage among some parents who are currently planning to express their opposition to the campus protocol, which was announced amid loosening pandemic restrictions in New York City, where some degree of life normalcy has been restored.
Over 400 people from the Fordham community, including students, parents and alumni, signed a letter, obtained by Newsweek, that they plan to soon send to the university in an effort to express their opposition to the new mandate.
“In the beginning, everybody was hopeful that they [COVID vaccines] would work and unfortunately they haven’t. And now with newer studies, and with time, we’ve seen that there are risks associated with them and especially for young adults, and that’s really what we’re most concerned about, is our kids,” David Betten, one of the parents who signed the letter, told Newsweek on the phone on Thursday, adding that the bivalent booster should be a recommendation and not mandated.
Parents argued in the letter that Fordham’s new COVID-19 second-booster mandate is one of the toughest pandemic policies in a city where restrictions such as masking up while using the transit system have already been loosened.
Dr. McCullough, Who Raised Questions Over Safety of COVID Vaccines, Suspended From Twitter
Dr. Peter McCullough, a renowned Texas-based internist and cardiologist who has raised questions about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, has been suspended from Twitter.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) took to the social media platform on Oct. 7 to condemn the suspension of McCullough’s account. “To say private companies have this right is to ignore their coordination with government censors, and the undisclosed influence they have on elections,” Massie wrote alongside a screenshot that shows McCullough’s account has been suspended.
A number of other medical experts and individuals also condemned Twitter on Thursday for suspending McCullough’s account.
McCullough, the chief medical adviser for the Truth for Health Foundation, had over 512,000 followers on Twitter and has been vocal in questioning just how safe and effective COVID-19 shots, which have been pushed by the Biden administration, are.
Doctors Fear California Law Aimed at COVID Misinformation Could Do More Harm Than Good
California doctors will soon be subject to disciplinary action if they give their patients information about COVID-19 that they know to be false or misleading.
On its face, the new state law sounds like a clear blow to the forces that have fueled skepticism about life-saving vaccines, encouraged anxious people to trust discredited and dangerous drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and reduced face masks to symbols of political partisanship. The measure was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and goes into effect on Jan. 1.
But critics of the law, including many mainstream doctors who have advocated passionately for masks and vaccines, say it could end up curbing well-intentioned conversations between patients and physicians about a disease that’s still changing from one month to the next.
“There’s clear misinformation that’s happening that’s as black and white as you can get. But there’s a lot of gray out there too,” said Dr. Eric Widera, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco who specializes in geriatrics.
Appeals Court Backs Florida’s ‘Vaccine Passport’ Ban for Cruise Lines
In a victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a sharply divided federal appeals court Thursday rejected arguments by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings that Florida’s ban on so-called “vaccine passports” is unconstitutional.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, overturned a preliminary injunction that prevented the state from enforcing the ban on the cruise-ship company.
Thursday’s decision came three days after Norwegian announced that it would no longer require passengers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 before boarding ships. It also came two days after the Miami-based company said in court filings that the case was moot.
Judge Agrees to Postpone the Coming Trial Between Twitter and Elon Musk so They Can Work out a Deal
A Delaware judge has agreed to stay the coming trial between Elon Musk and Twitter so the two sides can work out a deal for Musk to acquire the social media company.
In a two-page ruling issued Thursday evening, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick said she would give the two parties until Oct. 28 to come to an agreement over the disputed transaction. The trial had originally been set to start Oct. 17.
Should the two sides fail to finalize a deal, the trial would start in November, she said.
The motion represents a victory for Musk, who in recent days had signaled he was seeking to avoid the trial by re-offering $54.20 a share for the company, or about $44 billion. Twitter opposed the offer as it sought to force Musk to close the deal on the exact terms he agreed to in April.
Biden Admin Issues Over 300,000 Smartphones With Tracking Devices to Illegal Immigrants
More than 300,000 smartphones used to monitor illegal immigrants were given to noncitizens by the Biden administration last month, according to data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Issuing such cellular devices to illegal immigrants is part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement program called the Alternatives to Detention, which essentially gives the individuals access to U.S. soil before their court dates.
The smartphones, which cost taxpayers $361,218.08 per day, use facial recognition, GPS monitoring and voice identification, according to ICE.
Now We Know for Sure That Big Tech Peddles Despair, We Must Protect Ourselves
Now that the inquest into the awful death of Molly Russell in 2017 has delivered its findings, we have a new reality to adjust to. The teenager died from an act of self-harm, “while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content.”
Her father described how she had entered “the bleakest of worlds”: online content on self-harm and suicide was delivered in waves by Instagram and Pinterest, just leaving it to the algorithm. “Looks like you’ve previously shown an interest in despair: try this infinitely replenishing stream of fresh despair.”
Social media platforms deliberately target users with content, seeking attention and therefore advertising revenue: we knew that. This content can be extremely damaging: we knew that, too. But surely now that we’ve struggled, falteringly, towards the conclusion that it can be deadly, there can be no more complacency.
These are corporations like any other, and it’s time to build on the consensus that they cause harm by regulating, as we would if they were producing toxic waste and pumping it into paddling pools.
Biden Signs Executive Order on EU-U.S. Data Privacy Agreement
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday that would limit the ability of American national security agencies to access people’s personal information as part of a transatlantic data sharing agreement with the European Union.
The decree follows lengthy negotiations between the United States and the EU after the bloc’s highest court ruled in 2020 that Washington did not sufficiently protect Europe’s data when it was transferred across the Atlantic.
The judges’ concerns focused on how U.S. surveillance programs did not have proper measures for European citizens to address how the government collected their data.
Malware Apps May Have Stolen the Passwords of 1 Million Facebook Users, Meta Says
As many as 1 million Facebook users were targeted with Android and iPhone malware apps that tried to steal their passwords, according to a report released by Meta on Thursday.
The malware, detected across the last year, masqueraded as various kinds of app, including fake photo editors, virtual private networks that claimed to boost browsing speeds and get access to blocked websites, mobile games and health and lifestyle trackers. Some promised to turn the user’s face into a cartoon, while others provided horoscopes. All of the apps made it through Apple and Google security and onto the tech giants’ official app stores.
Anti-Social Media Lawsuits Are Coming for Roblox and Discord + More
Anti-Social Media Lawsuits Are Coming for Roblox and Discord
Roblox and Discord are among the platforms sued for allegedly harming children and teens in a new lawsuit. The suit, which also targets Meta’s Facebook platform and Snap’s Snapchat, alleges that the companies’ services “contain unique product features which are intended to and do encourage addiction, and unlawful content and use of said products, to the detriment of their minor users.”
Filed in California state court, the suit is one of many brought against large social media companies. But comparatively few of these have covered Discord and Roblox, both of which are popular with young users. (Over half of U.S. children were on Roblox as of 2020.)
It comes shortly after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring sites to change how they treat users under 18 and follows a U.K. coroner directly blaming social media for a teenager’s suicide, albeit not in a way that carries clear legal consequences.
The Social Media Victims Law Center filed the suit on behalf of a 13-year-old girl identified as S.U., who began using Roblox around age 9. S.U. was allegedly contacted on Roblox by an 18-year-old user who encouraged her to join him on Discord, Instagram, and Snapchat.
The suit claims the communication led to a “harmful and problematic dependence” on electronic devices that damaged her mental health, while the 18-year-old encouraged S.U. to drink, send explicit photos, and engage in other harmful behavior. In 2020, S.U. allegedly attempted suicide.
More Former Bristol Myers Employees Sue Over COVID Vaccination Brouhaha
Four former Bristol Myers Squibb employees who were fired by the company for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 have filed a lawsuit against the drug giant.
The employees allege that BMS violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which requires companies to engage employees in a dialogue to resolve issues when religious beliefs conflict with company policies.
“This case is not about whether private companies, like defendant BMS, can impose vaccine mandates. They can,” says the complaint, which the plaintiffs filed in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey. “Any private or government vaccine mandate must still comply with state and federal law regarding exemptions.”
The employees join four others who sued BMS last December in federal court in Manhattan. Those plaintiffs also claimed the company wrongfully denied their requests for religious exemptions.
Biden Hands Pandemic Policy Opponents Leg up in Legal Disputes
President Joe Biden’s litigation opponents are seizing on his remark that the pandemic is “over” as they challenge policies adopted in response to the public health crisis.
Litigants say Biden’s remark bolsters their argument that the administration is using the pandemic purely to service his political agenda.
“It is a huge game changer for all of us,” said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center. The group represented parties in cases challenging the vaccine mandate for private sector workers, which the Supreme Court blocked in January, and the vaccine mandate for Head Start teachers, which a federal judge in Louisiana permanently blocked in 24 states on Sept. 21.
The government has been arguing judges need to defer to its public health judgment in these and other cases and Suhr said “that’s just no longer true if the president is saying the pandemic is over.”
Three Reasons Washington Is Freaking out About Elon Musk Right Now
Elon Musk’s expected takeover of Twitter has Washington holding its breath.
If the world’s richest man reinstates Donald Trump — along with other controversial politicians banned for rules violations — Republican campaign managers could again find their days wrecked by Tweet-driven headaches.
Or Musk, who says he’s a “free speech absolutist,” could end up scaring off users — and invite a wave of litigation — if he does away with the platform’s efforts to weed out disinformation, racism and other vitriol.
“If they say something that is illegal or otherwise just destructive to the world — then there should be perhaps a timeout, a temporary suspension. … But I think permabans just fundamentally undermine trust in Twitter,” Musk has said in the past.
Sen. Bill Cassidy Says Soldiers Should Not Be Kicked out of Military for Refusing COVID Vaccine
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Wednesday on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” the military is “ignoring the best science” by kicking out service members for refusing the coronavirus vaccine.
“No, we should not [discharge them] and the reason I base that as a physician is that we know the previous exposure works like a vaccine. Eighty percent of those folks statistically have been previously exposed to COVID. Eighty percent of those people are now immune not because they’ve been vaccinated, but because they’ve been exposed,” he said.
“And probably in that age group, it may be close to 100%. If you want to follow the science, you would say the question here is immunity, not vaccination. And if they’re immune, they should be allowed to stay no matter what else you think. They’re kind of ignoring the best science.”
World Cup 2022: No Vaccine Requirement, but Regular COVID Testing Recommended for Players
Men’s World Cup organizers have requested that players undergo COVID-19 tests every two days while in Qatar for the 2022 tournament, sources familiar with recent guidance distributed to teams told Yahoo Sports.
Players will not have to be vaccinated, nor will they have to quarantine upon arrival, according to the guidance and a Qatari document. And they will not be subject to draconian restrictions on movement like athletes were at the Tokyo or Beijing Olympics in 2021 and earlier this year. But they will be “encouraged” by organizers to wear masks while in crowded areas, and perhaps subject to measures implemented by individual teams to prevent outbreaks.
The every-other-day testing cadence is a recommendation, not a requirement, sources said. It is also subject to change, depending on the state of the pandemic at the time of the World Cup, which begins Nov. 20. But a Qatar Ministry of Public Health document leaves room for the possibility of a testing requirement, and speaks about the arranging of rapid antigen tests at team hotels “when required.”
The document also states that a confirmed COVID case will require five days of isolation, with players released on Day 6 if they are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.
Zero-COVID Measures Cause Chaos as China Prepares for Beijing Summit
Lockdowns and travel restrictions are continuing to cause chaos across China in the run-up to a crucial political meeting next week as the government holds fast to hardline zero-COVID policies.
As thousands of Communist party delegates prepare to descend on Beijing for the twice-a-decade congress meeting, where Xi Jinping is expected to start his third term as leader, local authorities are under pressure to control and contain outbreaks. This week 2,883 cases were reported across more than 25 provinces, including 227 on Wednesday. The number is small compared with global cases but relatively high for China’s zero-tolerance approach.
China’s government has remained committed to its zero-COVID policy, despite major damage to the economy and growing opposition from the general public to frequent sudden lockdowns that trap people inside their homes, shops and workplaces, and other overzealous reactions to handfuls of cases.
‘Big Tech Never Loses a Legislative Fight — and They Just Did’ as Package of New Bills Passes
Policy advocates who have been pushing for new legislation reining in Big Tech’s power have seen their hopes lifted and shattered several times throughout the past few months.
Last week marked one of the brighter notes for those supporting the push for new antitrust laws, when the House passed a package of bills giving enforcers more resources to go after anti-competitive mergers and giving state attorneys general more power over in which courts they can bring antitrust lawsuits.
While the legislation that passed 242-184 is less ambitious in scope than some of the more sweeping proposals making their way through both chambers of Congress, it is cause for hope, according to a new memo from the Tech Oversight Project, a nonprofit that advocates for antitrust reform.
Government Efforts to Censor Social Media Should Be Transparent
Last week, the conservative news site Just the News reported that government agencies were outsourcing their attempts to censor social media to a private consortium. While this story feeds into conservative paranoia about bias against conservative groups, it also raises important issues of improper attempts by government agencies to circumvent free speech constraints. It suggests, at a minimum, the need for a regime of transparency and disclosure to prevent mission creep and political manipulation.
The private sector group involved, a consortium called the Election Integrity Partnership, included the Stanford Internet Observatory, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and social media analytics firm Graphika.
This consortium of serious and responsible organizations worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to pass on to social media companies certain posts they considered election misinformation during the 2020 election.
Social media platforms could take action or not when they received these referrals. But the platforms apparently took action about a third of the time, according to the group’s report on the 2020 effort. The group is getting the band back together for the 2022 election. Just the News alleged that this public-private partnership is a thinly veiled attempt to evade First Amendment restrictions on government censorship and compared it to the now discredited and discontinued Disinformation Governance Board.
Disinformation in Spanish Is Prolific on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Despite Vows to Act
Last year, U.S. lawmakers urged the CEOs of major tech companies including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to do more to combat disinformation spreading in Spanish, warning that inaccurate information on key issues such as vaccines and the presidential election was proliferating on their platforms.
“There is significant evidence that your Spanish-language moderation efforts are not keeping pace, with widespread accounts of viral content promoting human smuggling, vaccine hoaxes and election misinformation,” the lawmakers wrote in a July 2021 letter.
“Congress has a moral duty to ensure that all social media users have the same access to truthful and trustworthy content regardless of the language they speak at home or use to communicate online.”
More than a year later, and with the midterm elections fast approaching, advocates say these social media platforms are still falling short on policing such content — particularly when it comes to non-English languages.