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DOJ Undermines Google in Supreme Court Case Over Who’s Responsible for Social Media Posts
The Department of Justice warned the Supreme Court against an overly broad interpretation of a law shielding social media companies from liability for what users post on their platforms, a position that undermines Google’s defense in a case that could reshape the role of content moderation on digital platforms.
In a brief filed Wednesday led by DOJ Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher, the agency said the Supreme Court should vacate an appeals court ruling that found Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected Google from being liable under U.S. antiterrorism law.
Section 230 allows for online platforms to engage in good-faith content moderation while shielding them from being held responsible for their users’ posts. Tech platforms argue it’s a critical protection, especially for smaller platforms that could otherwise face costly legal battles since the nature of social media platforms makes it difficult to quickly catch every harmful post.
But the law has been a hot-button issue in Congress as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle argue the liability shield should be drastically limited. But while many Republicans believe the content moderation allowances of the law should be trimmed down to reduce what they allege is censorship of conservative voices, many Democrats instead take issue with how the law can protect platforms that host misinformation and hate speech.
Rollback of COVID Vaccine Mandate Met With Furor at Pentagon
The Biden administration fumed Wednesday at the near-certainty that Congress will strip away the Defense Department’s requirement that all military personnel be vaccinated against the coronavirus, upending a politically divisive policy that has led to the dismissal of nearly 8,500 service members and numerous lawsuits disputing its fairness.
The agreement, brokered as part of the Pentagon’s next spending bill, was celebrated by Republicans as a victory for individual choice. It comes despite opposition from President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who characterized the vaccine mandate as a way of protecting troops from COVID-19 and preventing sprawling outbreaks that sideline entire units, undermine the military’s readiness and endanger national security.
The looming reversal — spurred by Republicans who had threatened to block the passage of the $858 billion spending bill if the mandate wasn’t struck down — creates a rat’s nest for the Pentagon. Commanders whose job it was to enforce the mandate will face the onerous task of assessing whether — and how — to allow back into uniform those already separated from the military for refusing to follow orders. Managing overseas deployments, especially in countries that require visitors to be vaccinated, will create burdensome logistical headaches as well, officials said.
TikTok Is a Huge Threat to Our Democracy and Our Kids. Ban It Now
Negotiations between the Biden Administration and TikTok regarding the company’s data security have reportedly been delayed due to national security concerns. But the news begs the question: Why are we negotiating anything regarding TikTok when it presents such a clear national security threat?
Some people have gotten the message loud and clear. The U.S. armed forces prohibited the app on military devices two years ago. More recently, on Dec. 5, South Dakota banned TikTok from state-owned devices. Texas and Maryland followed suit shortly thereafter, and other states are taking similar steps.
The threat is real. Here in the U.S., TikTok has approximately 100 million active users, and a third of those are 14 years old or younger. That means TikTok is collecting deeply personal information and biometric data on 30 to 40 million young children in America. This data is fed right into the hands of the Chinese government, which controls it for life.
Indiana Sues TikTok, Claiming It Exposes Children to Harmful Content
Indiana’s attorney general sued TikTok on Wednesday, claiming the Chinese-owned company exposes minors to inappropriate content and makes user data accessible to China, in one of the strongest moves against the social media giant taken by a state.
Indiana’s lawsuit is the latest move to put TikTok and its parent company under scrutiny. As U.S. officials have sought to regulate TikTok, the platform in recent years has come under sharp questioning in Washington and has been under investigation by a bipartisan group of attorneys general for its potential effects on youth mental health, its data security and its ties to China.
Filing two lawsuits in a state superior court, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) argued that everything including people’s interests and their facial features are potentially accessible to the Chinese government. The suits claim that TikTok and its Beijing-based owner, tech giant ByteDance, have deceived consumers about their data security and suitability for young teens.
TikTok and ByteDance have also misled consumers about how safe the app is for children, Rokita’s office claims in the second lawsuit. The state’s court filings dispute the app’s 12-plus age rating and “infrequent/mild” designation for content about sex, drugs, alcohol and violence in Apple’s App Store.
CDC and Census Bureau Had Direct Access to Twitter Portal Where They Could Flag Speech for Censorship
Emails between an employee at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Twitter have revealed that at least one CDC staff member and the U.S. Census Bureau had access to Twitter’s dedicated “Partner Support Portal” which allows approved government partners to flag content to Twitter for censorship.
The emails were released by the nonprofit organization America First Legal and show Twitter enrolling a CDC employee into this portal through their personal account in May 2021.
On May 10, 2021, the CDC’s Carol Crawford sent Twitter employee Todd O’Boyle a list of example posts highlighting “two issues that we [the CDC] are seeing a great deal of misinformation about.” O’Boyle responded by saying that enrolling in Twitter’s Partner Support Portal is the best way for Crawford to get posts like this reviewed in the future.
In other emails, Crawford asked O’Boyle whether the federal government could flag “COVID misinformation on the portal using the existing census.gov accounts that have access” and questioned how to flag “misinformation” via the portal.
These emails provide more evidence of the Big Tech–Biden administration censorship collusion that’s currently facing a legal challenge over potential First Amendment violations.
Face Masks May Return Amid Holiday ‘Tripledemic’ of COVID, Flu and RSV
With three highly contagious respiratory viruses sickening adults and children around the country and holiday gatherings just weeks away, public health officials are beginning to talk about face masks again. While mask mandates are unlikely in most parts of the country, health experts are renewing recommendations to wear a high-quality medical mask on public transportation, in airports and on planes, while shopping and in other crowded public spaces.
What’s notable is that the mask recommendations this time aren’t just about avoiding the coronavirus. Masks are advised to protect against what is being called the “tripledemic” — a confluence of influenza, coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that already is straining hospitals and forcing parents to miss work in record numbers.
Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, noted earlier this week that the agency encourages everyone “to wear a high quality, well-fitting mask to help prevent the spread of respiratory illness,” particularly on public transportation and during airport travel. Masking is especially important in counties with high COVID-19 community levels, she said.
While the CDC is not a regulatory agency and does not impose mask mandates, its recommendations have been influential in shaping whether local governments, schools and institutions require masks.
Fauci Deposition: Fauci Says No One From His Office Pushed for Social Media Censorship. Documents Show They Did.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s deposition, taken as part of the lawsuit filed by Missouri and Louisiana’s Attorneys General alleging collusion between government and online platforms to censor certain viewpoints, has details about Dr. Fauci’s attitude towards COVID topics that were censored on social media platforms.
Fauci, the retiring director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was deposed under oath on November 23. During the deposition, Fauci said that he did not have the expertise to say whether or not COVID-19 originated from a laboratory or nature. However, he repeatedly dismissed the lab-leak theory.
Despite evidence to the contrary, during the deposition, Fauci said he does not advocate for social media censorship and does not have a social media presence. Emails produced as evidence in the case show that government officials contacted Big Tech over the removal of multiple accounts pretending to be Fauci.
He was later shown an email proving that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases officials attempted to contact Google to discuss “vaccine communications, specifically misinformation” and even planned a meeting. Fauci said he was not sure the meeting ever happened.
Amazon, FBI.Gov and 70,000 Other Sites Are Sending Your Data to Elon’s Twitter, New Research Says
In October, Elon Musk purchased Twitter for a cool $44 billion dollars. Among a variety of other assets and headaches, the deal came with one resource that’s gone under-explored: a vast data collection network spanning the sites of more than 70,000 Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, non-profits, universities and more. Given Twitter’s history of security lapses, how safe is all that data?
At least 70,772 websites are using a Twitter advertising tool called a pixel to send the company information about every person who visits their sites, even people who don’t have Twitter accounts, according to a bombshell new report from Adalytics, an ad tech firm.
The list includes the websites of government agencies — the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Department of Education’s student aid portal — Fortune 500 behemoths — Amazon, General Motors, Pfizer — and healthcare companies like WebMD and UnitedHealth Group. General Motors, Pfizer and other companies that claimed they pulled their ads from Twitter after Musk’s takeover continued to send Twitter data using the advertising Pixel.
Meta Employees Can Reportedly No Longer Discuss ‘Disruptive’ Topics Like Abortion, Gun Rights and Vaccines
Meta told employees on Tuesday that they would no longer be allowed to discuss topics at work that the company had deemed “very disruptive in the past,” according to a recent report from Fortune.
Meta’s head of people, Lori Goler, wrote in an internal forum that the new rules were effective immediately and that off-limit topics include abortion, the effectiveness of vaccines and gun rights, as well as political issues, including civil movements and elections, Fortune reported.
The new rules do not apply to employees that are required to address the topics as a part of their roles at Meta. The “community engagement expectations” also do not govern staff’s external communications, including posts on social media, Fortune reported.
Meta is one of several tech companies that has instituted policies to address social and political discussions at work. Google and Coinbase have also set similar expectations for workers.
AI Bot That Can Do Schoolwork Could ‘Blow up’ U.S. Education System, With Youngest at Most Risk: Former Teacher
The emergence of artificial intelligence chatbots that can complete students’ assignments will lead to a crisis in learning, forcing educators to rethink schooling entirely, a former teacher said.
“The introduction of new artificial intelligence technologies into schools that enables students to auto-generate essays has the capacity to blow up our entire writing education curriculum,” Peter Laffin, founder of Crush the College Essay and writing coach, told Fox News. “It may make us have to rethink it from the ground up, and that might ultimately be a good thing.”
Last week, tech company OpenAI unveiled an AI chatbot, ChatGPT, which has stunned users with its advanced functions. The language model can automatically generate school essays for any grade level, answer open-ended analytical questions, draft marketing pitches, write jokes, poems and even computer code.
The internet is swirling with predictions about how this sophisticated technology could impact several industries and render countless jobs obsolete. But at the forefront of Laffin’s concern is the impact it will have on education. The artificial intelligence-powered ChatGPT garnered global interest and exceeded 1 million users in less than a week. It’s also the first time a high-level AI text generator with a user-friendly interface has been made available to the public for free.
