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Courts Have Made Social Media A Landmine For Defendants. Could It Change Soon?

July 26, 2018 Steve Horn, Criminallegalnews.org , ,
Social media, broadly defined as encompassing popular websites, and smartphone applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others, has been pointed to by many as a potentially revolutionary avenue through which citizens from around the world can communicate with one another to effect change and participate in democratic actions. Underneath that popular narrative sits a murkier reality for defendants in the U.S. criminal justice system. A recent history of court rulings, combined with lack of legislative action on the federal-level, has ushered in an era in which law enforcement has nearly carte blanche authority to utilize social media during criminal investigations.

Voters Shift Left—Thanks To Social Media?

July 18, 2018 Jim Naureckas, Fair.org , , ,
The Pew Research Center (3/1/18) recently released a survey on political attitudes by generation. “America is politically sorted by generations in a way it never has before,” was the takeaway of New York’s Jonathan Chait (3/1/18). Well, sort of; the generational divide is a striking feature of US politics, but it’s not exactly breaking news. What’s more striking to me in Pew’s findings is how voters of all generations have shifted to the left—mostly by becoming more consistently progressive, mostly in the last six or seven years. Ten percent of young people were “consistently liberal” (according to Pew’s survey) in 2011; in 2017, 25 percent were. Among Generation X (38- to 53-year-olds), the shift was from 9 to 16 percent, for Baby Boomers (54 to 72) it was 7 to 17 percent, and even among the Silent Generation (73 to 90) “consistent liberals” went from 7 to 12 percent.

4 Tips For Using Social Media In Your Activism

May 12, 2018 Alaina Leary, Yesmagazine.org ,
It’s easy to think that social media is a force for negativity—that it’s bad for our mental health to be constantly exposed to a stream of news and avenues for comparing ourselves to others. But social media can also be a platform for creating and sustaining positive social change, and it’s something that we can all be a part of. Hashtag movements such as #MeToo, which was started by activist Tarana Burke and later amplified online, have lasting consequences. RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) reported a 21 percent increase in calls to anti-sexual assault helplines after Harvey Weinstein allegations and #MeToo exploded, showing that online conversations can persuade people to seek help offline.

“Fake News” Is Fake News.

February 10, 2018 Staff, Williamblum.org , ,
The people who created Facebook and Google must be smart. They’re billionaires, their companies are worth multi-multi billions, their programs are used by billions around the world. But all these smart people, because of Congressional pressure, have swallowed the stories about “fake news”. Facebook hired a very large staff of people to read everything posted by users to weed out the fake stuff. That didn’t last too long at all before the company announced that it wasn’t “comfortable” deciding which news sources are the most trustworthy in a “world with so much division”. We all could have told them that, couldn’t we? Facebook’s previous efforts to ask its users to determine the accuracy of news did not turn out any better. Last year, the company launched a feature that allowed users to flag news stories they felt were inaccurate.

From Facebook To Policebook

February 10, 2018 By Andre Damon, Wsws.org , ,
On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a notice outlining extraordinary plans by the social media company to monitor all the postings and messages of its users, censor independent journalism, and use artificial intelligence (AI) to report users to the police and intelligence agencies. Zuckerberg began his post, released in conjunction with the company’s quarterly earnings report, by declaring that 2017 was a “hard year” for Facebook. “The world feels anxious and divided—and that played out on Facebook. We’ve seen abuse on our platform, including interference from nation states, the spread of news that is false, sensational and polarizing, and debate about the utility of social media.” Facebook, he writes, has the responsibility to “amplify the good and prevent harm. That is my personal challenge for 2018.”

FBI Is Setting Up Task Force To Monitor Social Media

February 3, 2018 Chip Gibbons, Thenation.com , ,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is not unaccustomed to suspecting domestic dissidents of being foreign agents. The bureau infamously thought everyone from civil-rights activists to the peace movement to opponents of South African apartheid were the tools of communists and thus the Soviet Union. Which is why the FBI’s announcement that its task force to counter foreign influence and disinformation has plans to monitor social media should be raising serious questions. The rhetoric around Russiagate is increasingly mirroring that of the Cold War FBI—and in some cases resurrecting some of its most insidious tendencies. No matter who is tasked with monitoring or regulating social media, serious concerns about free speech arise.

TeleSUR English’s Day In Facebook ‘Jail’ Raises Doubts About Silicon Valley Hospitality

January 26, 2018 By Elliott Gabriel, Mintpressnews.com , , ,
QUITO, ECUADOR — Facebook users who followed Latin American news outlet teleSUR English were confused on Tuesday when the fan page suffered a mysterious disappearance from the site that lasted nearly a full day. The page’s deletion and subsequent reemergence raised questions about potential censorship by the California-based social networking giant, which has previously acted at the behest of repressive governments and faces pressure from U.S. officials and traditional media to crack down on so-called “fake news.” The page has a modest presence on Facebook – about 400,000 followers – as well as millions of social media interactions, such as comments, likes, shares and views. The page also hosts tens if not hundreds of hours of originally-produced video content — including original programs, documentaries, and tightly-edited one-minute clips.

Thought Police for the 21st Century

January 24, 2018 Chris Hedges, Truthdig , ,
The abolition of net neutrality and the use of algorithms by Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter to divert readers and viewers from progressive, left-wing and anti-war sites, along with demonizing as foreign agents the journalists who expose the crimes of corporate capitalism and imperialism, have given the corporate state the power to destroy freedom of speech. Any state that accrues this kind of power will use it. Julian Assange described the situation "While the Internet has brought about a revolution in people’s ability to educate themselves and others, the resulting democratic phenomena has shaken existing establishments to their core. Google, Facebook and their Chinese equivalents, who are socially, logistically and financially integrated with existing elites, have moved to re-establish discourse control. "

10 Reasons Why American Trust In The Media Is At An All-Time Low

January 17, 2018 Knight Foundation, Medium.com , ,
As the debates over trust in media, misinformation and control over information rage, a new Knight-Gallup survey of more than 19,000 U.S. adults shows that Americans believe that the media have an important role to play in our democracy — yet they don’t see that role being fulfilled. As news organizations and policy makers contemplate ways to advance the role of strong journalism as essential to our democracy, it also underscores the competing views and perceptions that are affecting American trust in the media.

Facebook Announces Major Plan To Censor News Content

January 17, 2018 By Andre Damon, Wsws.org , ,
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday that the world’s largest social network is initiating major changes aimed at deprioritizing news and political content on individual users’ news feeds in favor of “personal moments.” The change is the most significant effort to date to censor online information. Facebook is currently a major source of news for hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. The number of global Facebook users has increased from 100 million in 2008 to more than 2 billion. According to a Pew Research poll last November, 45 percent of Americans use Facebook for news content, more than any other social media platform. It has become a significant mechanism for the organization of protests and the spread of information outside of the control of the major media conglomerates. It is this that Facebook, working closely with the major capitalist states, wants to end.

Twitter & FB Reward Military Violence Over Small-Time Threats

January 3, 2018 By Eleanor Goldfield, Artkillingapathy.com , , , ,
In December 2017, Twitter released new rules against violence and physical harm. Included in those rules is a focus on “Accounts that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes…This policy does not apply to military or government entities…” As an example then, when the U.S. dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in our arsenal (sickly nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs or MOAB) on Afghanistan, corporate media couldn’t get out their praise fast enough. Be it referring to Donald Trump as presidential or the Fox News show Fox & Friends playing footage of the bomb dropping to Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” the clear cut and grotesque promotion of large scale violence was blatant. And according to Twitter, totally fine.

Facebook’s Political Unit Enables Dark Art Of Digital Propaganda

December 26, 2017 By Lauren Etter, Vernon Silver, and Sarah Frier, bloomberg.com , ,
Under fire for Facebook Inc.’s role as a platform for political propaganda, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has punched back, saying his mission is above partisanship. “We hope to give all people a voice and create a platform for all ideas,” Zuckerberg wrote in September after President Donald Trump accused Facebook of bias. Zuckerberg’s social network is a politically agnostic tool for its more than 2 billion users, he has said. But Facebook, it turns out, is no bystander in global politics. What he hasn’t said is that his company actively works with political parties and leaders including those who use the platform to stifle opposition—sometimes with the aid of “troll armies” that spread misinformation and extremist ideologies.

EU Anti-“Fake News” Authority Prepares Mass Censorship

November 26, 2017 Alex Lantier, www.wsws.org , , , ,
By Alex Lantier for WSWS. An examination of the EU’s announcement shows that it is preparing mass state censorship aimed not at false information, but at news reports or political views that encourage popular opposition to the European ruling class. The term “fake news” is taken from the campaign in the United States promoting unsubstantiated accusations that Donald Trump’s victory was attributable to Russian manipulation of the 2016 US presidential elections that publicized material harmful to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. This campaign has developed into ever more aggressive demands for censorship of the Internet to prevent the expression of critical views and social protests. The EU’s anti-“fake news” censorship body serves the same basic political ends. It aims to create conditions where unelected authorities control what people can read or say online.

Newsletter: Dissent Under Attack By Government & Corporations

November 18, 2017 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. It is often hard to tell how close popular movements are to success or whether they are even a threat to the status quo power structure. Despite vigorous protests, it is common to worry whether or not movements are having an impact. One tell-tale sign is when government and big business interests take action to stop or silence a movement. These days, there is a lot of push back against resistance movements in the United States. While it may be riskier for us when they fight back, it is a positive sign and means that the movement needs to escalate, build power and increase its pressure.

Reclaim Online Privacy: Alternatives To Facebook, Twitter & Google

October 28, 2017 Kit O’Connell and Eleanor Goldfield, www.kitoconnell.com , ,
By Kit O’Connell and Eleanor Goldfield for Act Out! - Moving on to our main story today … Imagine a police state so bent on repressing dissent that people were targeted by the government just for visiting a web page or liking a page on Facebook? This dystopian scenario isn’t science fiction, and it isn’t something happening in a far off country — it’s happening in the United States. No really, let’s take a look at a recent example: On an auspicious Friday the 13th in October, the federal government dropped its demand that Facebook turn over information about anyone who had simply “liked” a page dedicated to protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration. In this case, Three warrants were served that demand Facebook provide the US government with all information from the accounts of two activists and a page affiliated with massive protests against right-wing President Donald Trump‘s inauguration on January 20. The requested information includes the entirety of photos, videos, posts, private messages, video calls, billing information and other data between November 1, 2016, and February 9. … If successful, the warrant for Disrupt J20 could result in some 6,000 visitors to that page having their names and public and private activity on and with the page passed on to the government.
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