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Newly Released Emails Show Biden White House Officials Met With and Communicated With Pro-Censorship Group
America First Legal (AFL) has published emails revealing more ties between the Biden White House and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — a controversial group originally based in the U.K. that’s believed to be involved in censorship pressure around the world.
The emails originate in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of State and refer to using U.S. assets designed to counter domestic terrorism to work with CCDH, the non-profit has announced.
AFL — which positions itself as a counterpoint to ACLU — has filed several lawsuits concerning various government bodies’ involvement in collusion with private tech companies, aimed at promoting censorship.
AFL now notes that the Biden administration from the very beginning of the current president’s mandate “embraced” various initiatives leading to curtailing speech, and to censorship, and was not shy to enlist the national security apparatus, either.
Some of the Most Popular Websites Share Your Data With Over 1,500 Companies
Everywhere you go online, you’re being tracked. Almost every time you visit a website, trackers gather data about your browsing and funnel it back into targeted advertising systems, which build up detailed profiles about your interests and make big profits in the process. In some places, you’re tracked more than others.
In a little-noticed change at the end of last year, thousands of websites started being more transparent about how many companies your data is being shared with. In November, those infuriating cookie pop-ups — which ask your permission to collect and share data — began sharing how many advertising “partners” each website is working with, giving a further glimpse of the sprawling advertising ecosystem. For many sites, it’s not pretty.
A WIRED analysis of the top 10,000 most popular websites shows dozens of sites say they are sharing data with more than 1,000 companies, while thousands of other websites are sharing data with hundreds of firms. Quiz and puzzle website JetPunk tops the pile, listing 1,809 “partners” that may collect personal information, including “browsing behavior or unique IDs.”
Louisiana House Rejects Anti-Vax Bill After Business Lobby Opposes It
Louisiana Illuminator reported:
Louisiana lawmakers rejected a bill to open businesses and schools that require certain vaccines to civil liability after a powerful lobbying group came out against it.
House Bill 87, by Rep. Mike Echols, R-Monroe, would have allowed employees and students required to receive COVID-19 or other vaccines with emergency use authorization to sue if they are injured as a result of the vaccination. Echols’ bill failed on a narrow 51-50 vote, just two votes short of approval. Echols said he intends to bring the bill back for another vote this session.
His proposal was opposed by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), a powerful lobbying organization that represents business interests.
Echols, who consistently voted with LABI in the previous term, said he didn’t believe the bill was anti-business. He is not opposed to vaccinations but said he didn’t believe people should be forced to get them.
House Passes Privacy Bill Banning Data Brokers From Selling Your Info to Russia and China
The U.S. House passed a bill that would ban third-party data brokers from selling the user data of Americans to geopolitical adversaries like China and Russia. And while it still needs to pass the Senate to become law, it’s a step in the right direction as recent headlines mostly focus on a potential ban on TikTok in the U.S.
The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, H.R. 7520, passed unanimously on Wednesday, 414-0, and would ban data brokers from selling or disclosing the private information of Americans to any foreign adversary or “any entity of a foreign adversary.”
However, the bill is narrowly targeted and only applies to third-party data brokers. The legislation doesn’t ban American tech companies like Meta, Apple, or X from doing almost anything they want with the data they collect on users. The ban is also on data brokers sharing “sensitive information,” which includes stuff like genetics info, precise geolocation data, and private communications like emails and texts.
As Politico notes, the fate of this new data privacy legislation is uncertain in the Senate, which also has to decide whether it will take up the bill to force ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok. The bill would force TikTok to shut down if the Chinese parent company couldn’t or wasn’t willing to sell. Notably, the new unanimous House bill passed on Wednesday with a much more united front than the so-called TikTok ban bill, which passed the House last week 352-65.
Majority Supports Banning Kids From Social Media and Using Smartphones in School: Poll
A clear majority of Americans support banning children from using social media until they are over 16 years old, according to a new poll.
The Wednesday poll from Grinnell College found that 55% of U.S. adults favor such a ban. Support for the move spiked to 65% among Americans who have children under 18 years old in the home.
Another 57% say they would support fully banning smartphones in schools, and 52% say parents should be allowed to sue social media companies for content that harmed their children.
Grinnell College conducted the poll alongside Selzer & Company, surveying 1,005 U.S. adults from March 11-17.
FBI Resumes Outreach to Social Media Companies Over Foreign Propaganda
The FBI has resumed some of its efforts to share information with some American tech companies about foreign propagandists using their platforms after it ceased contact for more than half a year, multiple people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The program, established during the Trump administration, briefed tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta when the U.S. intelligence community found evidence of covert influence operations using their products to mislead Americans.
It was put on hold this summer in the wake of a lawsuit that accused the U.S. government of improperly pressuring tech companies about how to moderate their sites and an aggressive inquisition from the House Judiciary Committee and its chair, Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
The lawsuit, filed by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court. A majority of justices appeared skeptical of the suit when they heard its claims, and the court is scheduled to rule on the suit at the end of June.
The Supreme Court Can Dismantle the Censorship-Industrial Complex
As the modern marketplace of ideas, Big Tech platforms are ground zero for government-coerced suppression of political speech. This is why fair and free elections will be in danger if the Supreme Court does not immediately put a stop to self-interested government bureaucrats pressuring social media platforms to censor Americans’ speech online.
President Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the far left justify government participation in censorship by scaring people with nebulous and indefinite bogeymen. They cite “misinformation,” the supposed influence of foreign actors, conspiracy theories, a never-ending pandemic and the like.
They claim to be protecting democracy. But if the last few years have taught us anything, it is that they themselves are the primary threat from which we need protection, not ordinary people’s free expression of ideas.
Two cases — one that was argued before the Supreme Court on Mar. 18, and one that the court could choose to take up — could dictate just how far the government may go in “protecting” us at the expense of our fundamental right to decide for ourselves what information is worth believing. The court has a chance to make it clear that our freedoms cannot be so easily crushed by those in power.
Senate Probe Examines High-Risk Biotech Research
Senators are launching an investigation of national security threats posed by high-risk biological research amid intensifying concern over U.S.-China biotech competition and lingering questions about COVID‘s origins.
Why it matters: The probe by the top lawmakers on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee could help fuel a push for new restrictions on Chinese contract research firms like WuXi AppTec that critics say are tied to Beijing and pose a security risk.
But it’s also certain to reveal partisan divisions, with ranking Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky likely to highlight what he contends are Biden administration efforts to conceal information on the coronavirus.
Driving the news: Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Paul on Wednesday said they’d focus hearings and oversight on high-risk life science research, biodefense, synthetic biology, biosafety and biosecurity lapses.
Between the lines: Peters is emphasizing the need to minimize the risk that developments in the life sciences like CRISPR gene editing can be manipulated by bad actors.
The UN Adopts a Resolution Backing Efforts to Ensure Artificial Intelligence Is Safe
The General Assembly approved the first United Nations resolution on artificial intelligence Thursday, giving global support to an international effort to ensure the powerful new technology benefits all nations, respects human rights and is “safe, secure and trustworthy.”
The resolution, sponsored by the United States, was adopted by consensus with a bang of the gavel and without a vote, meaning it has the support of all 193 U.N. member nations.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said earlier this month that adoption of the resolution would be a “historic step forward” in fostering the safe use of AI.
The resolution recognizes the rapid acceleration of AI development and use and stresses “the urgency of achieving global consensus on safe, secure and trustworthy artificial intelligence systems.” It also recognizes that “the governance of artificial intelligence systems is an evolving area” that needs further discussions on possible governance approaches.
California Lawmakers Push Online ID Verification Bill That Would Require Platforms to ID ‘Users With Large Audiences’
The presidential election fever in the U.S. is rising, and from pretty much every corner its participants are trying to “stack the chips” in their (candidate’s) favor.
With that in mind, never discount California Democrats, and now Alejandro (Alex) Padilla is attempting to charge ahead with “election misinformation” legislation.
Despite what was implied (and by and large refuted) regarding Big Tech platforms’ role and influence in 2016, now the accent is on the suspected negative role of AI, presented as fact — and now Padilla and “partners” apparently want that to be written in law.
In particular, “users with large audiences or spreading large amounts of AI-generated content” would have to operate with user IDs, according to the line ID verification bill (SB 1228).
Overwhelming Majority of Americans Support Legislation That Would Force Chinese Divestment From TikTok, New Survey Finds
A new poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans, a whopping 68%, agree with legislation forcing ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist government, to sell its stake in TikTok. That legislation has been passed by the GOP-controlled House and is waiting for Senate passage.
The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and released by America 2100, also found that 73% of Republicans agreed with the legislation as well as 64% of Democrats and 65% of independents. Seventy-five percent of Trump voters and 67% of Biden voters also agree, and in a telling statistic, 56% of TikTok users echo the sentiment.
On March 13, the House passed a bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok unless ByteDance divested in the popular social media app.
Apple, Google to Be Hit by First Probes Under EU Digital Law
Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are set to face full-blown European Union investigations into their compliance with a new law reining in the power of Big Tech, paving the way for potentially hefty fines.
The European Commission is gearing up to announce probes into the firms under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.
