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Facebook Hits $1 Trillion Value After Judge Rejects Antitrust Complaints

Reuters reported:

A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed federal and state antitrust complaints against Facebook Inc (FB.O) that sought to force the social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, saying the federal complaint was “legally insufficient.”

Facebook shares rose more than 4% after the ruling. The share price rise put Facebook’s market capitalization over $1 trillion for the first time.

Public Citizen and Daily Kos Pinch-Hitting for Big Pharma in RFK Lawsuit

The Defender reported:

On Friday, June 11, resourceful process servers working for Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chairman Robert F. Kennedy Jr. served a subpoena in San Francisco on Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, a liberal progressive news and activist forum. The subpoena, from a Westchester County New York Supreme Court Judge, orders Moulitsas to disclose the true name of “Downeast Dem” — a blogger who libeled Kennedy on the Daily Kos platform on Aug. 29, 2020.

Moulitsas had been fighting the order in court since December 2020, when Kennedy filed, and dodging the subpoena for a fortnight. Earlier this month, Daily Kos security guards at the company’s San Francisco headquarters twice blocked Kennedy’s process servers from entering the building.

The Daily Kos’ malicious article claimed that Kennedy spoke at a Nazi rally in Berlin “organized by right-wing extremist organizations, including the AFD party and various anti-Semitic conspiracy groups as well as the neo-Nazi NPD party.”

Why Google Can’t Bring Itself to Make the Internet Respect Your Privacy

Inc. reported:

Google is in an interesting position when it comes to making the internet respect your privacy. It controls the world’s largest advertising platform, the most used search engine, and the most popular web browser. Together, that means Google has more influence over how your data is gathered and tracked online than any other company.

It’s significant then, that, over the past few years, Google has joined the effort to eliminate the worst offender when it comes to tracking, third-party cookies. Those are the little pieces of code websites use to track your activity across other sites and apps.

VIDEO: Airlines Fear Chaos Over Digital COVID Passports

Reuters reported:

Airlines have warned of chaos over the EU’s digital COVID certificates plan, due to start on July 1, unless countries work together better.

SSM Health to Require COVID Vaccination by September

Wisconsin State Journal reported:

SSM Health will require COVID-19 vaccination by the end of September for its nearly 40,000 employees, providers and volunteers, the organization said Monday, becoming the first hospital group in Wisconsin known to announce a mandate.

SSM Health said employees can request an exemption for medical or religious reasons, which is consistent with the organization’s practice for other required vaccines.

Henry Ford Health System to Mandate COVID Vaccines for Workers

Michigan Live reported:

Henry Ford Health System will become the first Michigan health system to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its workforce, the hospital system announced this morning.

The mandate will take effect Sept. 10, and applies to “all team members, students, volunteers and contractors,” a press release said.

“We acknowledge the magnitude of this decision and we did not make it lightly,” President and CEO Wright Lassiter III said in the press release.

N.J. to Lift COVID Mask Mandate in Schools This Fall

PhillyVoice reported:

When New Jersey students, teachers and staff return to the classroom for full-time, in-person learning this fall, face masks will no longer be required.

Barring any “dramatic change in our situation before the beginning of the school year,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that the state will drop its COVID-19 mask mandate in schools when the 2021-22 academic year begins.

Rep. Kevin Mccarthy Reveals GOP Framework for Big Tech Legislation

The New York Post reported:

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is offering a framework for what appears to be a counterproposal to the set of bipartisan bills to rein in Big Tech circulating in the House — saying House Republicans are ready to make tech behemoths “face the music.”

The California Republican explained that their framework would be based on three principles: accountability, transparency and strengthening antitrust review.

COVID Vaccine for Latinos: CDC Steps up Efforts With WhatsApp to Increase Vaccinations

International Business Times reported:

The Delta variant has presented a new challenge for the Department of Health and Human Services to close the vaccine gap among the disproportionately unvaccinated Latino population.

In efforts to reduce this vaccine disparity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnered Monday with WhatsApp, a texting platform used widely among the Latino community, to deliver vaccine information to Spanish speakers. The chat is called “Mi Chat Sobre Vacunas COVID.”

U.S. Senate Republicans Press CDC to End Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Transit

Reuters reported:

A group of Senate Republicans urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday to stop requiring fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks on public transportation, including airplanes, trains and buses but also in airports and train stations.

“Over 150 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated and mask mandates have been lifted across the country. But the CDC inexplicably still hasn’t lifted the mask mandate for public transportation,” Cruz said. “It’s long past time for President Biden and the CDC to follow the science.”

Why Some Biologists and Ecologists Think Social Media Is a Risk to Humanity

Vox reported:

Social media has drastically restructured the way we communicate in an incredibly short period of time. We can discover, “Like,” click on, and share information faster than ever before, guided by algorithms most of us don’t quite understand.

And while some social scientists, journalists, and activists have been raising concerns about how this is affecting our democracy, mental health, and relationships, we haven’t seen biologists and ecologists weighing in as much.

That’s changed with a new paper published in the prestigious science journal PNAS earlier this month, titled “Stewardship of global collective behavior.”

Consumers Satisfied With Smart Home Devices, but Data Privacy Concerns Linger

PR Newswire reported:

A new report from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) found that current owners of smart home devices, such as smart thermostats, appliances and speakers, are overwhelmingly satisfied with these technologies; however, upfront costs and data privacy concerns remain key barriers for those who do not yet own any smart home devices.

Hospitals Want Mandatory COVID Vaccinations for All Maine Healthcare Workers

Portland Press Herald reported:

The association representing Maine hospitals is advocating for the state to mandate vaccinations for all healthcare employees in Maine once federal regulators grant the vaccines full approval.

“We would prefer if there is a mandate, that we want the mandate to cover all health care providers,” said Steven Michaud, president of the Maine Hospital Association. “Job No. 1 for us, however we can get it done, is to get them vaccinated.”