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Facebook and YouTube Censored Victims of AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine
Those who have experienced serious health issues following their Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID vaccination are raising more concerns about censorship on social media platforms. These individuals, who consider themselves victims of the vaccine, report that their attempts to share their experiences and symptoms online are being stifled.
Among these is a father of two who suffered a life-altering blood clot, leading to permanent brain damage, after receiving the vaccine in spring 2021. He is currently pursuing legal action against AstraZeneca in the High Court in London. Similarly, a lawsuit has been filed by the husband of a woman who tragically died following her vaccination.
Others who believe they have suffered adverse reactions to the jab, yet are not involved in any legal battles, have expressed frustration over the suppression of their voices on platforms like Facebook. U.K. CV Family, a private Facebook group founded by Charlet Crichton, serves as a support network for over 1,000 members who feel they have been harmed or bereaved by the COVID vaccines.
Crichton, who experienced a severe reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine, had to abandon her 13-year-long Sports Therapy business due to prolonged bed rest. The group, which was established in November 2021, has earned the status of core participant in the COVID Inquiry, allowing members like Crichton, who claims to have suffered myocarditis post-vaccination, to testify in the inquiry.
Fauci to Face the Music
Anthony Fauci, the former chief medical adviser to the president who was regularly the face of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, will give testimony to the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into how the crisis was managed.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will be interviewed on Monday and Tuesday for seven hours each day with two personal and two government lawyers in attendance. Fauci has agreed to attend a public hearing at a later date, which has yet to be confirmed.
Representative Brad Wenstrup, the subcommittee chair, said in a statement that Fauci’s testimony will serve as a “crucial component” of its investigation. “It is time for Dr. Fauci to confront the facts and address the numerous controversies that have arisen during and after the pandemic,” the Republican from Ohio said. “Americans deserve trusted public health leaders who prioritize the well-being of our people over any personal or political goals.”
The House Oversight Committee noted previous accusations made against Fauci, including that he attempted to obfuscate indirect United States funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology — which some suspect may have been the true origin of COVID-19, rather than the virus jumping the species barrier into humans — and that America had financed research to enhance viruses in a lab.
Fauci came under fire after it emerged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — which he had been a key member of between 1984 and 2022 — gave U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance a $3.7 million grant in 2014, $600,000 of which was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study bat coronaviruses.
Lawsuit Against Snap Over Fentanyl Deaths Can Proceed, Judge Rules
A lawsuit blaming Snapchat for a series of drug overdoses among young people can proceed, a Los Angeles judge ruled this week.
A group of family members related to children and teens who overdosed on fentanyl sued Snapchat maker Snap last year, accusing the social media company of facilitating illicit drug deals involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid many times deadlier than heroin. Fentanyl, which is cheap to produce and often sold disguised as other substances, can prove lethal in even extremely small doses.
The parents and family members involved in the lawsuit are being represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a firm that specializes in civil cases against social media companies in order to make them “legally accountable for the harm they inflict on vulnerable users.”
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2022 and amended last year, alleges that executives at Snap “knew that Snapchat’s design and unique features, including disappearing messages … were creating an online safe haven for the sale of illegal narcotics.”
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects X Corp’s Surveillance Disclosure Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Elon Musk‘s X Corp to consider whether the social media company, formerly called Twitter, can publicly disclose how often federal law enforcement seeks information about users for national security investigations.
The justices declined to hear X’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling holding that the FBI’s restrictions on what the company could say publicly about the investigations did not violate its free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
X had said it was “critical” for the justices to take up the case to establish clear standards for when and how tech companies can speak about government demands for confidential information about their users for surveillance. “History demonstrates that the surveillance of electronic communications is both a fertile ground for government abuse and a lightning-rod political topic of intense concern to the public,” X’s lawyers wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court.
The long-running lawsuit was filed in 2014, long before Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked information in 2013 about the extent of U.S. spying and surveillance efforts.
The Battle for Biometric Privacy
In 2024, increased adoption of biometric surveillance systems, such as the use of AI-powered facial recognition in public places and access to government services, will spur biometric identity theft and anti-surveillance innovations. Individuals aiming to steal biometric identities to commit fraud or gain access to unauthorized data will be bolstered by generative AI tools and the abundance of face and voice data posted online.
Already, voice clones are being used for scams. Take, for example, Jennifer DeStefano, a mom in Arizona who heard the panicked voice of her daughter crying “Mom, these bad men have me!” after receiving a call from an unknown number. The scammer demanded money. DeStefano was eventually able to confirm that her daughter was safe. This hoax is a precursor for more sophisticated biometric scams that will target our deepest fears by using the images and sounds of our loved ones to coerce us to do the bidding of whoever deploys these tools.
In 2024, some governments will likely adopt biometric mimicry to support psychological torture. In the past, a person of interest might be told false information with little evidence to support the claims other than the words of the interrogator. Today, a person being questioned may have been arrested due to a false facial recognition match.
Dark-skinned men in the United States, including Robert Williams, Michael Oliver, Nijeer Parks, and Randal Reid, have been wrongfully arrested due to facial misidentification, detained and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. They are among a group of individuals, including the elderly, people of color, and gender-nonconforming individuals, who are at higher risk of facial misidentification.
Another Top U.S. Mortgage Firm Hit by Major Cyberattack
Another day, another U.S. mortgage giant cyberattack, as hackers have now disrupted loanDepot.
Other details about the attack are unknown at this time. We don’t know if this is a “simple” malware attack, or if it’s ransomware. We don’t know who the threat actors are, their motives, or whether they stole any sensitive information during the attack. Usually, companies would take their systems offline in case of a ransomware attack, and in such scenarios, hackers usually steal user data, too.
As this is a mortgage company, the data could be highly sensitive, including financial and bank account information. Customers should be particularly wary of incoming email messages, as the potentially stolen information could be used in phishing and identity theft attacks.
Mask Mandate in Missouri Reversed Within Hours
A mask mandate for city workers in St. Louis, Missouri, ended hours after it was announced. St. Louis’s Department of Health told city employees on Thursday that they would have to wear masks indoors from Friday. The department cited a spike in respiratory illnesses in the region, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
However, the department reversed course on the mandate on Friday afternoon. City spokesman Nick Dunne said it now just “strongly recommends” that employees wear masks indoors.
Dunne did not specify what prompted the change, but Missouri Governor Mike Parson’s office took credit. Newsweek contacted Dunne for comment via email on Monday.
Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesperson for the Republican governor who opposed mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic, told Newsweek that Parson had recently said on the radio that he “would step in and oppose new mask mandates.”
Steve Burton Returning to ‘General Hospital’ After Being Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine
Steve Burton will return to “General Hospital” after having been fired in November 2021 because of his refusal to get the COVID vaccine.
At the time, Burton was one of two actors on the long-running ABC soap opera who refused to be vaccinated; Ingo Rademacher was also fired. Rademacher later sued ABC and lost.
Burton announced his “General Hospital” ouster himself in November 2021. “I wanted you to hear it from me personally,” he said at the time on Instagram. “Unfortunately, ‘General Hospital’ has let me go because of the vaccine mandate. I did apply for my medical and religious exemptions, and both of those were denied. Which, you know, hurts. But this is also about personal freedom to me.”
But he also left the door open to come back. “Maybe one day if these mandates are lifted, I can return and finish my career as Jason Morgan. That would be an honor.”
U.K. Police Have Been Secretly Using Passport Database for Facial Recognition Since 2019
It has come to light that U.K. police forces have been using facial recognition technology to conduct extensive searches within the nation’s passport database, which comprises 46 million British passport holders. This clandestine operation, ongoing since at least 2019, The Telegraph and Liberty Investigates have found.
Passport photos are collected for a specific purpose — to verify the identity of individuals for international travel. When these photos are repurposed for a facial recognition database by law enforcement, it constitutes a significant invasion of privacy.
People do not expect their passport photos to be used for surveillance or policing purposes, which can lead to a feeling of constant monitoring and a loss of anonymity in public spaces. Misuse can lead to a chilling effect on free speech and assembly, as individuals might fear being unjustly targeted due to their presence in these databases.
This lack of consent is a fundamental issue, as it bypasses the individuals’ rights to control how their personal data is used. The use of these photos without explicit permission for law enforcement purposes can be seen as a violation of personal autonomy and rights.
