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13-Year-Old Ohio Boy Dies After Attempting the TikTok ‘Benadryl Challenge,’ His Parents Say
The parents of a 13-year-old boy who died doing the TikTok “Benadryl Challenge” are warning other parents about the dangerous social media trend.
Jacob Stevens died after nearly a week on a ventilator after consuming 12 to 14 pills of the over-the-counter antihistamine in an attempt to induce hallucinations, his family told ABC6.com.
Jacob’s father, Justin Stevens, told ABC6 that Jacob and his friends were filming him as he attempted the social media challenge when his body began seizing.
The tragedy has inspired Jacob’s family to warn other parents to monitor their children’s online activity to avoid anyone else attempting the challenge. His father has also contacted local lawmakers about enacting an age restriction on buying medicine like Benadryl.
Alaska Airlines Kills the Check-in Kiosk, Brings in Face Scanners
Alaska Airlines is flying forward into the future. Or, trying to do something like that at least. The company announced a suite of changes, soon to be coming to airport lobbies, in a Tuesday press release.
For one, Alaska Airlines has proclaimed there will be no more check-in kiosks. Instead, customers will have to check in prior to arriving at the airport on their phones, personal computers, or with a gate agent in person. iPads that print bag tags will supplant kiosks. This transition will be complete at most Alaska Airlines airport locations by the end of 2023. The change will probably result in a significant user surge of the company’s smartphone app, which is probably bad for customer privacy. But don’t worry — it gets much worse.
In a single line buried towards the bottom of the news statement, the airline noted that the bag-check process will eventually involve having your full face scanned.
Facial scanning and biometric tech aren’t at all new to airports. Alaska Airlines is just the latest company to get in on the trend. But still, it’s a worrying continuation of the march towards eliminating all privacy in the name of “convenience,” which airports have been at the front lines of. There are few rules that limit where the biometric data collected at airports ends up. The facial scan data market is a largely unregulated wild west. Then, there are issues of cybersecurity, inaccuracy, and baked-in biases.
The RESTRICT Act Will Usher in a New Era of Censorship Under the Guise of ‘National Security’
Forty-five days after 9/11, the United States government passed the PATRIOT Act — a chilling law that used the guise of “national security” to greatly expand the federal government’s secret surveillance powers.
Almost 23 years later, another far-reaching bill, the “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act,” better known by its acronym, the RESTRICT Act, is using the same national security talking point to justify further federal government encroachment on Americans’ rights.
Although the bill doesn’t mention TikTok, its authors, Democratic Senator Mark Warner and Republican Senator John Thune, have framed it as “the best way to counter the TikTok threat.” However, the impact of the bill extends far beyond TikTok and gives the U.S. government sweeping powers to ban a wide range of apps and services.
The bill also has the full support of the Biden White House which has already demonstrated that it’s no fan of free speech and is currently being sued for alleged First Amendment violations.
If the RESTRICT Act passes, the Biden admin and any future pro-censorship administrations will be handed new powers to continue their crackdowns on online speech.
Elon Musk Confirms Development of Non-Woke AI Bot ‘TruthGPT’ to Rival Microsoft and Google
In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Monday evening, Elon Musk discussed the potential threats artificial intelligence poses to humanity. He expressed concerns over AI chatbots being developed with liberal bias and shared plans to create a non-woke chatbot.
Musk was an early donor of OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT and expressed concerns over the direction of AI development. He told Carlson that large-language models were being trained to be “politically correct.”
“I’m going to start something which I call TruthGPT,” Musk said, “or a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.”
Last month, Musk created a new AI company called X.AI Corp, according to the state of Nevada filings. In the same month, he signed an open letter, along with hundreds of other tech experts, urging for an immediate pause of any new chatbots from OpenAI.
Musk has rolled Twitter into X as his plans to create a so-called “everything app” could soon be a reality. This latest revelation comes after reports of Musk purchasing 1000s of GPUs (critical infrastructure for AI development).
Texas Bill Could Hand Vaccine Decisions in Schools Over to Lawmakers
A bill described as “anti-vaccine” is moving through the Texas legislature and could give lawmakers the power to make decisions about vaccines in schools rather than doctors or administrators.
SB 1024, which was recently passed by a Senate committee — and will soon be voted on by the Texas Senate and the House — could limit schools and local health departments from being able to require or recommend immunizations.
While the proposed legislation mainly focuses on ending COVID-19 restrictions and barring COVID-19 vaccine requirements, public health experts say it could have implications for any kind of vaccine.
Bills to Make ‘Vaccine Passport’ Ban Permanent, Access Vaccine Data Go to Burgum
The Bismarck Tribune reported:
Two bills on their way to Gov. Doug Burgum would make permanent the state’s “vaccine passport” ban and ease access to certain federal vaccination data.
The North Dakota Senate on Tuesday concurred with House amendments to Senate Bill 2274 by Sen. David Clemens, R-West Fargo, and passed the bill in a 29-17 vote. The state House of Representatives last week passed it, 87-3.
The bill would make permanent the 2021 ban on so-called “vaccine passports,” which is set to expire on Aug. 1. The ban prohibits state and local governments and businesses from requiring vaccination documents for access, funds or services. The bill would add vaccination status for a vaccine under federal emergency use authorization to the state’s ban.
The 2021 Legislature passed the law amid opposition to potential, government-mandated COVID-19 vaccinations. The ban applies to state and local government entities and private businesses but has many exceptions to its provisions, such as for healthcare and long-term care providers, correctional facilities, colleges and universities.
‘Shut It off Immediately’: The Health Industry Responds to Data Privacy Crackdown
A series of federal data privacy crackdowns is complicating how healthcare companies market their services online. The Federal Trade Commission has led the way in the new enforcement push, fining telehealth companies for violating their customers’ privacy and barring them from doing so in the future. The director of HHS’ Office for Civil Rights said her staff has launched its own investigation, calling online health data collection “problematic” and “widespread.”
The agency also recently sought to update health data privacy protections to bar providers and insurers from releasing information about a patient seeking or obtaining a legal abortion.
That’s upending longstanding business practices and sending the healthcare industry scrambling. Firms are in some cases cutting ties with tech giants like Google and Facebook as they try to understand the regulatory landscape and measure the fallout to their bottom lines.
For consumers, healthcare industry experts said, the shift offers more privacy, but could also make it more difficult to find primary care, mental health and other medical services online.
The backdrop for this new concern is a rising trend of Americans receiving information or services from mental health apps, telehealth services and hospital websites. People may not know these services are capturing detailed personal information that is then used for marketing and advertising.
Social Media Is Fueling Enthusiasm for New Weight Loss Drugs. Are Regulators Watching?
Suzette Zuena is her own best advertisement for weight loss. But she’s not just spreading her message in person. She’s also doing it on Instagram. And she’s not alone. A chorus of voices is singing these drugs’ praises. Last summer, investment bank Morgan Stanley found mentions of one of these drugs on TikTok had tripled. People are streaming into doctors’ offices to inquire about what they’ve heard are miracle drugs.
What these patients have heard, doctors said, is nonstop hype, even misinformation, from social media influencers. “I’ll catch people asking for the skinny pen, the weight loss shot, or Ozempic,” said Priya Jaisinghani, an endocrinologist and clinical assistant professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.
Competition to claim a market that could be worth $100 billion a year for drugmakers alone has triggered a wave of advertising that has provoked the concern of regulators and doctors worldwide. But their tools for curbing the ads that go too far are limited — especially when it comes to social media. Regulatory systems are most interested in pharma’s claims, not necessarily those of doctors or their enthused patients.
Social media users and influencers — whether with white coats or ordinary patients — are hopping on every platform to spread the news of positive weight loss outcomes. There are those, for instance, who had gastric bypass surgery that didn’t work and are now turning to TikTok for guidance, support and hope as they begin taking a GLP-1. There’s even a poop-centric Facebook group in which people discuss the sometimes fraught topic of the drugs’ effect on their bowel movements.
WhatsApp and Signal Unite Against Online Safety Bill Amid Privacy Concerns
The rival chat apps WhatsApp and Signal have joined forces in a rare show of unity to protest against the online safety bill, which they say could undermine the U.K.’s privacy and safety.
In an open letter signed by the heads of both organizations as well as five other encrypted chat apps, the executives say the bill could be used to in effect outlaw end-to-end encryption, which prevents anyone but the intended recipient of a message from seeing its contents.
“In short, the bill poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy, safety and security of every U.K. citizen and the people with whom they communicate around the world while emboldening hostile governments who may seek to draft copycat laws.”
Last month, WhatsApp’s chief, Will Cathcart, said the app would leave the U.K. rather than submit to a requirement to weaken encryption.
