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Jim Jordan Drops ‘Smoking Gun’ Over White House ‘Lab Leak’ Suppression at Facebook
Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) has released several new pieces of previously unseen information revealing what Elon Musk called a “smoking gun” in regards to White House pressure on Facebook to censor the lab leak theory of COVID-19.
First, Jordan shares a text message from Mark Zuckerberg to Sheryl Sandberg, Nick Clegg and Joel Kaplan — the company’s highest-ranking executives at the time, in which he asks if Facebook can tell the world that “the [Biden] WH put pressure on us to censor the lab leak theory?” — hours after Biden accused Facebook of “killing people.”
Clegg responded that the Biden White House is “highly cynical and dishonest,” while Sandberg said that they were being scapegoated because the White House wasn’t hitting its vaccination numbers. In fact, Facebook felt that they had been ‘combating misinformation,’ (aka censoring Americans) all year.
Then in late May of 2021, Facebook finally stopped removing content regarding the lab leak theory — though they did demote it. When employees told Zuckerberg about the reversal and explained why they censored the lab leak theory in the first place, Zuckerberg replied that this is what happens when Facebook “compromises [its] standards due to pressure from an administration.”
U.S. Lawmakers Grill Former Biden Admin Officials Who Pressured Social Media Companies to Censor
In a session of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Congressman Jim Jordan intensely questioned Rob Flaherty, former White House Director of Digital Strategy, on the Biden administration’s messaging on COVID-19 and its interactions with Big Tech platforms.
During the hearing, Jordan pressed Flaherty on several controversial statements made by the administration regarding the pandemic. Flaherty was specifically grilled about whether these statements constituted misinformation or disinformation, particularly in relation to claims that vaccinated individuals could not contract the virus, the effectiveness of masks, and the denial of natural immunity.
Jordan continued to press for clearer answers, challenging Flaherty to define “misinformation.” Flaherty’s response was evasive, noting, “Congressman, you know, certainly there’s different and varying definitions of misinformation … ”
The Congressman also scrutinized Flaherty’s role in influencing content moderation on social media platforms, citing specific instances where the White House appeared to have urged tech giants to censor certain viewpoints, particularly conservative ones. “You weren’t a medical expert, but you could suggest to Facebook that they needed to change their algorithms so that the American people would not see stuff from the Daily Wire, they’d only see stuff from the New York Times,” Jordan highlighted, emphasizing the selective suppression of information.
Congressman Matt Gaetz aggressively questioned Rob Flaherty on his role in influencing content moderation on social media platforms, particularly regarding COVID-19 information. Flaherty dodged most of the questions, seemingly reluctant or unwilling to provide a specific answer.
House Panel Requests FTC Investigate if TikTok Violated Child Protection Act
The leaders of a bipartisan panel focused on China have sent a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether TikTok has violated child protection laws in its efforts to stop the United States from banning the app.
The letter, obtained by The Hill and first reported by NBC News, is addressed to FTC Chair Lina Khan and asks the organization to examine if the app violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), or Section 5 of the FTC Act when it sent pop-up notifications to users that requested personal information and asked them to contact Congress.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the committee’s ranking member, said TikTok’s messaging was sent to young children in the classroom and other minors under the age of 13.
China Trying to Develop World ‘Built on Censorship and Surveillance’
China is exporting its model of digital authoritarianism abroad with the help of its far-reaching tech industry and massive infrastructure projects, offering a blueprint of “best practices” to neighbors including Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, a human rights watchdog has warned.
In 2015, two years after kicking off its massive Belt and Road initiative, China launched its “Digital Silk Road” project to expand access to digital infrastructure such as submarine cables, satellites, 5G connectivity and more.
Article 19, a United Kingdom-based human rights group, argues that the project has been about more than just expanding access to WiFi or e-commerce.
The Digital Silk Road “has been just as much about promoting China’s tech industry and developing digital infrastructure as it has about reshaping standards and internet governance norms away from a free, open, and interoperable internet in favor of a fragmented digital ecosystem, built on censorship and surveillance, where China and other networked autocracies can prosper”, the watchdog said in a report released in April.
The 80-page report describes how the Chinese state is inextricably linked to its tech industry, a key player in the Digital Silk Road project, as private companies like Huawei, ZTE, and Alibaba serve as “proxies” for the Communist Party.
OpenAI Ceo’s Eyeball-Scanning Digital ID Project, Worldcoin, Hopes to Partner With OpenAI and Has Had Conversations With PayPal
Worldcoin, a digital ID project based on biometrics, namely, eyeball scanning, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is eying (no pun) partnerships not only with OpenAI but also PayPal, reports say.
However, these movements are not accompanied by any clarity for now, an example of this being another Worldcoin co-founder and its CEO Alex Blania refusing to make a direct announcement regarding the deal with OpenAI.
Blania at the same time confirmed that the company (specifically, Tools for Humanity, the main Worldcoin developer) is talking to PayPal — but the payments transactions giant is currently not commenting on any of this.
Worldcoin’s stated effort is to have “every person in the world” in its ID service, where the transactional nature of the thing is users giving up the sensitive biometric data contained in the irises of their eyes in exchange for what some might call “cryptocurrency change.”
Japan’s Kishida Unveils a Framework for Global Regulation of Generative AI
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida unveiled an international framework for regulation and use of generative AI on Thursday, adding to global efforts on governance for the rapidly advancing technology.
“Generative AI has the potential to be a vital tool to further enrich the world,” Kishida said. But “we must also confront the dark side of AI, such as the risk of disinformation.”
Some 49 countries and regions have signed up to the voluntary framework, called the Hiroshima AI Process Friends Group, Kishida said, without naming any. They will work on implementing principles and code of conduct to address the risks of generative AI and “promote cooperation to ensure that people all over the world can benefit from the use of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI,” he said.
The European Union, the United States, China and many other nations have been racing to draw up regulations and oversight for AI, while global bodies such as the United Nations have been grappling with how to supervise it.
