Novak Djokovic Comes Back to Win U.S. Open After Biden Vax Policy Ban Last Year
Tennis great Novak Djokovic made history on Sunday when he defeated Daniil Medvedev in three sets to win the U.S. Open, scoring him his 24th major championship, tying the record for the most Grand Slam singles titles.
Djokovic, who has refused to take the COVID vaccine, was notably banned from entering the U.S. last year due to a Biden administration vaccine rule, keeping the athlete from competing in the U.S. Open last year.
Djokovic, who said he had already contracted and recovered from the virus, has chosen not to get vaccinated against COVID. This led to the dramatic detainment and deportation of the tennis star from Australia, rendering him unable to defend his Australian Open title in 2021. Later, he was banned from New York for the 2022 U.S. Open, similarly over his vaccination status.
“That is the price that I’m willing to pay,” Djokovic told the BBC. “Because the principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”
“I was never against vaccination,” he added, “but I’ve always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body.”
Biden Officials ‘Likely Violated First Amendment’ in Big Tech COVID Censorship Efforts, Appeals Court Affirms
The Biden administration likely infringed upon the First Amendment when it leaned on social media companies to remove false or misleading COVID-19 content, a federal court of appeals ruled Friday — narrowing a bombshell district court order that barred several officials and agencies from communicating with the platforms.
The White House, surgeon general, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI “likely coerced or significantly encouraged social-media platforms to moderate content” and in doing so, “likely violated the First Amendment,” the New Orleans-based Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined.
The three-judge panel, however, adjusted the scope of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s July 4 order, which had been temporarily stayed on July 14, removing officials from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the State Department from the injunction.
The appeals court called parts of Doughty’s preliminary injunction “vague and broader than necessary.”
Threads Blocks Searches Related to COVID and Vaccines as Cases Rise
Instagram’s text-based social platform Threads last week rolled out its new search function, a crucial step toward the platform’s expansion and one that would give it more parity with X, formerly known as Twitter.
Not even 24 hours later, the company was embroiled in controversy. When users went to Threads to search for content related to “COVID” and “long COVID,” they were met with a blank screen that showed no search results and a pop-up linking to the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Meta spokesperson acknowledged that Threads was intentionally blocking the search terms, and said that other terms were being blocked, but declined to provide a list of those. A search by The Post discovered that the words “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination” are also among the blocked words.
Google Chrome Just Rolled Out a New Way to Track You and Serve Ads. Here’s What You Need to Know
Late last week, Google announced something called the Privacy Sandbox has been rolled out to a “majority” of Chrome users, and will reach 100% of users in the coming months. But what is it, exactly?
The new suite of features represents a fundamental shift in how Chrome will track user data for the benefit of advertisers. Instead of third-party cookies, Chrome can now tap directly into your browsing history to gather information on advertising “topics” (more on that later).
In development since 2019, this change has attracted a great deal of controversy, as some commentators have deemed it invasive in terms of privacy. In short, instead of third-party cookies doing the spying, the features these cookies enable will be available directly within Chrome.
While Google pitches the Privacy Sandbox as something that will improve user privacy, not everyone agrees. If these features are switched on, Google — one of the world’s biggest advertising companies — is essentially able to listen to you everywhere on the web.
Newsom Shirks Blame for Closing Churches, Keeping Hollywood Open During COVID: ‘We Didn’t Know’
California Governor Gavin Newsom dodged responsibility for allowing the film industry to reopen while keeping churches closed in his state during the COVID-19 pandemic, instead blaming the collective “we” for such decisions.
Newsom was confronted Sunday by “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd about his lockdown-heavy approach to the pandemic that faced so much criticism that it sparked a recall election against him.
“You found a way to allow the motion picture industry and the movie industry to get back to work, but you didn’t allow people to grieve together at funerals or at churches,” Todd argued. “This is this anger between the populace and the elites: Here you prioritize this industry, but you were tougher on those that just wanted to go worship.”
Newsom was the first governor in the country to issue a stay-at-home order, and he was the last governor to reopen schools. He also frequently faced backlash for breaking his own rules during the lockdowns, including mingling without a mask with California Medical Association officials at the ritzy French Laundry restaurant in Napa in November 2020.
EU Chief Boasts About Vaccine Passports, Calls for More Global Digital Collaboration — Paving the Way for Digital IDs
With an ominous call for increased global collaboration and centralization, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen at a G20 Summit session, dubbed “One Future,” today appealed for an international regulatory body for Artificial Intelligence and digital ID systems similar to coronavirus vaccine passports.
Von der Leyen audaciously proclaimed our collective future to be digital, hence the implied necessity for global entities to draw boundaries and enforce regulations.
Concurrently, Von der Leyen championed the concept of digital public infrastructure similar to the coronavirus passport system — a system developed by the EU as a response to the COVID saga. The World Health Organization embraced it with open arms as a global standard for combating health threats.
Alarmingly, Von der Leyen praised the EU’s strides towards a bloc-wide digital identity app capable of storing a citizen’s personal information, including credit cards, driver’s licenses, and passport data.
These developments ring alarm bells for individuals and nations valuing free speech and privacy.
Meta Platforms Must Face Medical Privacy Class Action
A U.S. federal judge said Meta Platforms (META.O) must face a lawsuit claiming that it violated the medical privacy of patients who were treated by hospitals and other healthcare providers that used its Meta Pixel tracking tool.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said the plaintiffs could pursue claims that Meta violated a federal wiretap law and a California privacy law, and violated its own contractual promises governing user privacy on Facebook.
In a 26-page decision on Thursday, the judge said the case, based on the evidence so far, “does not negate the plausible allegations that sensitive healthcare information is intentionally captured and transmitted to Meta.”
According to the plaintiffs, Meta Pixel provided sensitive information about their health to Meta when they logged into patient portals, where the tracking tool had been installed, enabling Meta to make money from targeted advertising. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for all Facebook users whose health information was obtained by Meta.
Elon Musk’s X Corp Sues California Over Social Media Content Moderation Law
Elon Musk’s X-Corp asked a California court on Friday to overturn a first-of-its-kind online content moderation law, arguing the measure pressures social media platforms to censor discourse viewed as problematic by state officials.
X, formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California against the new law AB 587, which requires social media companies to publicly disclose moderation practices around categories the state could label as misinformation/disinformation, extremism/radicalization, and hate speech — otherwise the state could impose fines for non-compliance.
But with Musk’s pledge to restore a marketplace of ideas on his newly rebranded $44 billion social media company, X Corp. alleges California’s new law regulating certain forms of speech violates the First Amendment under the U.S. and California constitutions.
