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White House Worked With YouTube to Censor COVID & Vaccine ‘Misinformation’: House Judiciary Committee
The Biden administration worked together with employees of Google-owned YouTube in 2021 to target alleged “misinformation” relating to the COVID-19 virus and its vaccinations, according to documents obtained by FOX Business.
The documents, acquired through a source close to the House Judiciary Committee, reveal a level of correspondence previously unknown to the American public, as President Biden and his aides sought to promote coronavirus vaccinations in efforts to quell the raging pandemic.
Former White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty emailed Google team members in April 2021 to “connect […] about the work you’re doing to combat vaccine hesitancy, but also crack down on vaccine misinformation,” according to the documents. Flaherty continued, asking for trends surrounding vaccine misinformation on the website while offering government assistance in the form of COVID experts at the White House to partner in product work with YouTube.
A week later, Google acknowledged that they sent the White House the total amount of videos removed for COVID vaccine misinformation while discussing the government’s desire for even more data.
The revelations of the documents between the White House and Google come roughly a year after the original Twitter Files were released, sparking a national debate about freedom of speech online.
Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord CEOs Will Testify Before the Senate Over Online Child Safety
Social media’s negative impact on children’s and young adults’ mental health has been a growing cause of concern for parents and lawmakers. Now, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X are set to testify in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on “their failure to protect children online.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are willing participants. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino are testifying after being subpoenaed.
The senators further shared a feeling of hypocrisy at these platforms wanting a say in policy but fighting against getting involved in discussions. “When we held our first hearing on protecting children online with experts and advocates earlier this year, Big Tech griped about not getting an invitation. We promised them that their time would come,” Durbin and Graham stated.
“We’ve known from the beginning that our efforts to protect children online would be met with hesitation from Big Tech. They finally are being forced to acknowledge their failures when it comes to protecting kids. Now that all five companies are cooperating, we look forward to hearing from their CEOs. Parents and kids demand action.”
The hearing with the CEOs from the five tech giants was originally set for December but will now take place on January 31, 2024, at 10 a.m. ET.
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation Ending Involuntary Facial Recognition Screening
Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced bipartisan legislation on Wednesday to end involuntary facial recognition screening at airports.
The pair of senators are aiming to repeal the authorization of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to use facial recognition screening at airports, saying that the Travelers’ Privacy Protection Act (TPPA) would prevent the agency from “further exploiting the technology and storing traveler’s biodata.” The senators added that most Americans are unaware that they can opt out of the screening.
“Every day, TSA scans thousands of Americans’ faces without their permission and without making it clear that travelers can opt out of the invasive screening. The Traveler Privacy Protection Act would protect every American from Big Brother’s intrusion by ending the facial recognition program,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The proposed legislation would ban the TSA from expanding its program and require the agency to receive congressional authorization to use the technology in the future. It would also require the TSA to dispose of the facial biometrics.
Indiana Judge Dismisses State’s Lawsuit Against TikTok That Alleged Child Safety, Privacy Concerns
An Indiana county judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state accusing TikTok of deceiving its users about the level of inappropriate content for children on its platform and the security of its consumers’ personal information.
A pair of lawsuits filed in December 2022 accused the app of misleading its viewers — particularly children. They alleged the app contains “salacious and inappropriate content” despite the company claiming it is safe for children 13 years and under. In the second complaint, the state argued that the app deceives consumers into believing their sensitive and personal information is secure. The lawsuits have since been consolidated. The latest hearing on the motion to dismiss was held in October.
The dismissal is an apparent national first with similar lawsuits pending in Arkansas and Utah.
In her ruling, Judge Jennifer L. DeGroote of the Allen County Superior Court in Fort Wayne said the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the case and reaffirmed a previous court ruling that found downloading a free app does not count as a consumer transaction under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.
Meta Files Suit to Kneecap the FTC
Meta is suing the Federal Trade Commission, challenging the constitutionality of its in-house enforcement powers in a bid to stop the agency from unilaterally changing the terms of a 2020 privacy settlement.
The tech giant argued in its suit filed late Wednesday that the agency has “structurally unconstitutional authority” in how it enforces cases against companies through its in-house administrative court.
On Monday, Meta lost a bid to bar the FTC from reopening a 2020 enforcement order against the company, in which the agency accused Meta of privacy violations against children. Meta filed an appeal to that decision on Tuesday. Meta is also seeking to pause the FTC’s case while its lawsuit and appeal play out.
As part of its 2020 settlement Meta paid a $5 billion fine and agreed to make major changes to its privacy practices.
The COVID Kids Starting School Unable to Speak
When five-year-old Cali said the word “spider”, her mother, Cara, had tears in her eyes. Cali had always found it difficult to form sounds and words, but when she turned two during the COVID lockdown and her parents tried to find her help, it was nearly impossible to access NHS speech therapy services.
Data from health visitor checks in England for 2022-2023 shows nearly 15% of children aged 24 to 30 months were below the expected level in communication skills, a rise from 11% in 2018.
At the age of five, children with speech and language difficulties are six times less likely to achieve expected targets in English, and 11 times less likely to achieve maths targets by the end of primary school.
During the pandemic, Allie Biddle, director of speech and language at the University of Reading speech therapy unit, says accessing speech and language development services became increasingly challenging for parents whose children were struggling as many places closed down.
Does Social Media Raise Teens’ Odds for Drug Use, Risky Sex?
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Teens glued to Instagram, TikTok and other social media are more likely to drink, take drugs, smoke and engage in risky sexual behaviors, a new review warns.
For example, spending at least two hours a day on social media doubled the odds of alcohol consumption, compared with less than two hours daily use, researchers report in the Nov. 29 issue of BMJ.
The results show that teens are particularly susceptible to social media depictions of risky health behaviors like alcohol use or unhealthy eating, the investigators said.
Government-Education Censorship Alliance Is the Greatest Threat to Democracy
Revelations that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created “disinformation” groups at Stanford University and the University of Washington to censor political speech leading up to the 2020 election should outrage and alarm every American. Free exchange of ideas is the lifeblood of a democracy and the unholy alliance between the government and higher education institutions must be fully exposed and broken up to preserve our Constitutional Republic.
Under this partnership, higher education institutions acted as conduits between the government and Big Tech to remove speech that government officials found unacceptable to achieve their political ends. Researchers would review ‘misinformation’ reports submitted by federal officials, compile lists of offending posts, and then submit them to social media companies with specific recommendations.
These recommendations reduced the post’s discoverability and led to shadow bans and even suspension of accounts. Approximately 35% of the content they flagged was removed from social media platforms.
The effort targeted those who held opinions that went contrary to prevailing narratives, especially regarding corruption allegations against Biden, the integrity of the 2020 election, and COVID mask and vaccine policies. Countless Americans were censored, silenced, and shadow-banned during the 2020 election cycle. It was part of a concerted effort to exert control over our behavior and dictate what We the People are allowed to say, see, and hear. And it worked.
European Consumer Groups Band Together to Fight Meta’s Self-Serving Ad-Free Sub — Branding It ‘Unfair’ and ‘Illegal’
Days after a privacy complaint was lodged against Meta in the European Union over its latest controversial shift of legal basis claimed for processing people’s data for ads, consumer groups across the region are filing their complaints about what the tracking giant is up to.
A coalition of almost 20 consumer protection organizations is united in the view that Meta’s switch to railroading users into agreeing to be tracked and profiled so it can keep profiting from microtargeting them is “unfair” and “illegal” — breaching EU consumer protection law “on several counts.”
Starting this month, EU users of Meta’s social networks, Facebook and Instagram, are being offered the ‘choice’ of agreeing to be tracked and profiled by the behavioral ads business to continue/get free access to its products — or else they must pay it a monthly subscription (of at least €9.99pm) for an ad-free version of its mainstream social networks. So Meta’s updated offer to EU users is either hand over your privacy or hand over your hard-earned cash.
“This is an unfair choice for users, which runs afoul of EU consumer law on several counts and must be stopped,” said the European Consumer Organization (BEUC) in a press release announcing the complaint will be filed with the network of consumer protection authorities (CPC) today.
