- Republicans’ first order of business this coming 118th Congress must be to introduce a legislative firewall between the White House — and its offshoot federal law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice and its offshoot, the FBI — and private social media companies.
- The dissemination of news and the facilitation of public discourse is central in any democracy that allows genuine participation on the part of its citizens. Open public dialogue is a “public good”, or something which, like clean air, benefits everyone equally and greatly.
- Providers of public goods are generally regulated under common carriage laws. The Communications Act of 1934, for instance, allowed AT&T to enjoy monopolistic power over the public good it provided: the interconnecting of the American people by way of a unified, national standard for telephone communication.
- In exchange for enjoying monopoly power, and to ensure that public goods truly remain beneficial to the public, special duties or restraints are generally imposed on such companies.
- With companies such as Compuserve and AOL in mind, Congress sought to hand out special liability relief with the idea of promoting two public goods: an internet characterized by a wide dissemination and diversity of ideas; and an incentive system for platforms to create family-friendly environments.
- Unfortunately, in the ensuing case law that has been built up in dealing with Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, two giant, related problems have emerged, both involving a misreading of a landmark court decision: Zeran v. AOL.
- The first problem is that what Congress intended when it comes to protecting social media companies from liability tied to defamatory messages posted on their platforms has been greatly expanded and now encompasses virtually any and all decisions regarding “content moderation”, such as removing the accounts of epidemiologists with whom Dr. Anthony Fauci, the FBI, CIA, and possibly other federal agencies, might disagree.
- The second problem is that the “good faith” condition Congress imposed on these companies to ensure against arbitrary or biased content-removal decisions has been completely erased. It is now never applied to social media companies at all.
- Both problems can be traced to a misunderstanding and incomplete reading of Zeran v. AOL.
- As a result, as Michigan State University law professor and former Commerce Department telecom official Adam Candeub writes, “social media platforms are now treated like they’re above the law.”
- Thankfully, this can be easily changed, even at the regulatory level. Non-discrimination policies need not create a “wild west” scenario. To a large extent, people really do not need moderators to curate what they see on social media. They are free to do that themselves.
- Removing the distortive “curators”, editors, “fact-checkers” and middlemen from the information process — and reaching people who previously have been sheltered from diverse opinions — will likely not tear people apart. It might even help to bridge misunderstandings and fill in a few gaps. That, perhaps, is the ultimate public good.https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19261/big-tech-censorship
Marxism/Communism
All posts tagged Marxism/Communism
‘Russian politician and businessman Pavel Antov was found lying in a pool of blood outside a hotel in eastern India on Monday, just days after his friend, Vladimir Bidenov, died at the same hotel.
Antov was a member of the legislative assembly of the Vladimir Region and founded the Vladimir Standard meat processing plant. He was ranked as the richest civil servant in Russia in 2019, with an income of 9.97 billion rubles.
“Our colleague, a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist Pavel Antov passed away. On behalf of the deputies of the United Russia faction, I express my deep condolences to relatives and friends,” said Vice Speaker of the Regional Parliament Vyacheslav Kartukhin.’https://www.jpost.com/international/article-725924
‘The Deep State is engineering a major energy crisis that may make life very difficult this winter across large parts of the Northern hemisphere, even in the United States, warns The New American magazine’s Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. The emerging crisis was brought about through relentless Deep State sabotage of Western energy systems, including energy exploration and power plants, under the guise of “fighting climate change,” though even nuclear and hydropower are under attack by Deep State forces and their useful idiots. All over Europe, in large parts of America, and even in Japan, establishment media organs are warning that blackouts, brownouts and other problems are coming soon. The European Union is already working toward continent-wide, Soviet-style energy rationing. But the ultimate goal, as the Council on Foreign Relations put it in Foreign Affairs, is a new energy order in which governments will take total control of energy, thereby placing populations at the mercy of technocratic government while enforcing scarcity and outsourcing Western industry and manufacturing to Communist China.’
- The Biden administration just cleared a Chinese company to own 370 acres of land within 12 miles of Grand Forks Air Force Base in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
- As a result, China will be able to use a proposed $700 million corn milling plant on the site to spy on military communications and even disrupt them. In Beijing, they must be shaking their heads in disbelief….
- [T]he failure to include all military installations in the implementing regulations was a clear case of regulatory malpractice.
- As a result of these enormous mistakes, Fufeng USA, a subsidiary of a Shandong province-based agribusiness giant, is, at least for the moment, free to build its wet corn milling and biofermentation plant in Grand Forks.
- “The worst-case scenario involves active sabotage of operations at the Grand Forks facility. Should the U.S. and China end up in a shooting war over, say, Taiwan, Fufeng’s property near the Air Force base could be used to send malicious signals to jam passing satellites or disrupt the operation of drones. We have made ourselves vulnerable on our own territory.” — Brandon Weichert, author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, to Gatestone; December 2022.
- President Joe Biden can use his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to block the sale of the Grand Forks land and the building of the milling facility.
- “[T]he most serious problem: The [CIFIUS] Committee is chaired by Treasury, which never saw a foreign investment it did not approve. “This means, as a practical matter, that an agency that basically doesn’t give a damn about national security is entrusted with running a process that supposedly evaluates and protects national security.” — Frank Gaffney, Vice Chair of the Committee on the Present Danger; to Gatestone, December 2022,
- The CFIUS mandate must be broadened “to include any foreign investment that threatens our national security interests or, for that matter, other vital interests, in the face of unrestricted and especially economic warfare.” — Frank Gaffney to Gatestone; December 2022
- China’s regime, which has declared a “people’s war” on the U.S., uses investments to undermine America. In wartime — the Communist Party believes it is currently in such a struggle with America — Washington needs to prohibit all investments from China, especially ones near critical Air Force installations in North Dakota.https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19260/china-sabotage-north-dakota
‘The Senate Minority Leader approved the $1.7 trillion spending bill this week along with 17 Republican Senators. Mitch was OK with the purple-haired crazy lady, Democrat Rep. de Lauro sitting at the Omnibus table but NOT GOP’s Appropriations Committee ranking member Rep. Kay Granger.
Rep. Kat Cammack told Maria Bartiromo 98% of all Democrat earmarks made it into the package.’https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/12/mitch-mcconnell-ok-purple-haired-crazy-lady-sitting-omnibus-table-no-house-republican/
The Republican Party is pretty much like the Liberal Party here in Australia which is one reason conservatives have quit voting for them.
‘Nearly a year after Judicial Watch launched an investigation into the theft of U.S. COVID relief funds by foreign hackers, the Secret Service confirms that cyber criminals connected to China’s government stole $20 million in benefits. This includes Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and unemployment insurance money in multiple states, according to a national news story that identifies the perpetrators as a APT41, a hacking group based in Chengdu. The report cites U.S. law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts who believe the multi-million-dollar theft of government pandemic funds by the Chinese faction “may just be the tip of the iceberg.”’https://www.judicialwatch.org/hackers-steal-20-mil-in-covid-relief-funds/
‘Major corporations including Telstra and Channel 10 have declared they will not celebrate January 26 as a national holiday.
Both organisations have advised staff they can choose to work on Australia Day and nominate another day of leave instead.
Network 10 created headlines earlier this week when they advised that Australia Day was “not a day to celebrate” for Indigenous Australians and staff were therefore free to celebrate the national day on a date of their own choosing.
An email sent to Network 10 editorial staff said: “We aim to create a safe place to work where cultural differences are appreciated, understood and respected. For our First Nations people, we as an organisation acknowledge that January 26 is not a day of celebration.
“We recognise that there has been a turbulent history, particularly around that date and the recognition of that date being Australia Day. We recognise that January 26 evokes different emotions for our employees across the business, and we are receptive to employees who do not feel comfortable taking this day as a public holiday.”
Meanwhile, a Telstra spokeswoman told the Daily Mail: “Our employees have the choice to work on Australia Day or take leave on another day.”
Other organisations to follow suit include Deloitte, KPMG and EY.
A KPMG spokeswoman said the company’s “cultural leave policy” meant that staff could celebrate Australia Day on a date that was “relevant to their culture” and “beliefs”.
Various local councils around Australia have boycotted Australia Day in recent years, arguing that it does not align with their values. But the move of corporations to boycott the national day is new.
January 26 is celebrated as Australia Day because it was on that day in 1788 that the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove and Governor Arthur Phillip raised a Union Jack flag on Australian soil.
Last week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ditched a rule made by the Coalition government that forced councils to conduct citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.
Councils are now free to hold citizenship ceremonies on any day in the week beginning January 23.’https://www.rebelnews.com/woke_companies_tell_staff_they_can_work_on_australia_day?
This is scary but it is the future the globalist Left want us to have.
‘The NSW government is moving ahead with anticipated plans for Digital ID, with the announcement of an official pilot program through the Service NSW app.’https://tottnews.com/2022/11/20/nsw-digital-id-pilot-program/
This is from an email I received this morning. The illustration fits with the cancel culture society we are now living in!
‘Picnic season is behind us here in Michigan. The leaves are off the trees, and the snow has already started to fly.
But just for a moment, think back to the joys of a summer cookout—hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and a table set with various side dishes, like potato chips, pasta salad, and maybe some fresh watermelon.
To top the grilled meats, you’ll always have ketchup and mustard.
Now imagine that one of the guests is a college student—one who only likes mustard.
This fictional student is adamantly opposed to ketchup! And not for reasonable reasons such as health or allergy concerns…no, he labels anyone who likes ketchup as a “mustard hater” who’s oppressing others by using ketchup. But this is just the beginning…like the BBQ grill, his cause catches fire.
He finds others to join his opposition to ketchup. Not long after, you can no longer find ketchup on certain store shelves, in college cafeterias, or at some company picnics. And he’s even secured apologies from ketchup manufacturers for their history of transgressions against mustard.
Anyone who still likes ketchup or tries to defend their right to choose how to top their burger or fries is excluded and silenced. You might say that…
…Ketchup is canceled!
Is this example far-fetched? Maybe it’s a little silly, but it illustrates how this sort of thing works in our “cancel culture” society.’ From an Email.
