- 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
Truth/Lies
All posts tagged Truth/Lies
‘Last year, the VSRF produced the first explanation of the consortium behind the unprecedented Corporate Media and Big Tech censorship surrounding COVID, elections, and any topic that the countered the government narrative.
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The VSRF’s mission is to advance COVID-19 vaccine safety through scientific research, public education, and advocacy, and to support the vaccine injured. https://www.vacsafety.org/‘
Dying suddenly at a relative young age should bring on some questions!
‘Brisbane fashion designer Daniel Lightfoot has died unexpectedly on Christmas Day aged 58.
The news was announced by his ex-wife of eight years, Suzie, who posted a touching tribute to Instagram on Tuesday.
“With great sadness, I share the terrible news that Daniel Lightfoot passed away on Christmas Day,” she wrote.
“He is so loved by his beautiful daughter Paris (the light of his life) and his close family, Allison, Kenny, Elizabeth, Ben and Amy.”‘https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/famed-brisbane-fashion-designer-daniel-lightfoot-dies-suddenly-on-christmas-day-aged-58/news-story/96040bf211f8e7b2286570f9dad86185?net_sub_id=282058248&type=curated&position=1&overallPos=2
‘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?
‘Former federal MP Dr Kerryn Phelps has revealed she and her wife both suffered serious and ongoing injures from Covid vaccines, while suggesting the true rate of adverse events is far higher than acknowledged due to underreporting and “threats” from medical regulators.
In an explosive submission to Parliament’s Long Covid inquiry, the former Australian Medical Association (AMA) president has broken her silence about the “devastating” experience — emerging as the most prominent public health figure in the country to speak up about the taboo subject.
“This is an issue that I have witnessed first-hand with my wife who suffered a severe neurological reaction to her first Pfizer vaccine within minutes, including burning face and gums, paraesethesiae, and numb hands and feet, while under observation by myself, another doctor and a registered nurse at the time of immunisation,” the 65-year-old said.
“I continue to observe the devastating effects a year-and-a-half later with the addition of fatigue and additional neurological symptoms including nerve pains, altered sense of smell, visual disturbance and musculoskeletal inflammation. The diagnosis and causation has been confirmed by several specialists who have told me that they have seen ‘a lot’ of patients in a similar situation.”’https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/dr-kerryn-phelps-reveals-devastating-covid-vaccine-injury-says-doctors-have-been-censored/news-story/0c1fa02818c99a5ff65f5bf852a382cf
‘A Norwegian woman is under investigation by authorities in Norway and is facing criminal charges and possible prison time for saying that men cannot be lesbians.
If charged and convicted, artist Tonje Gjevjon, who is herself a lesbian, could face up to three years in prison.
On November 17, Gjevjon was told that she was being investigated by the police over allegations of “hate speech.”
She came under investigation over a Facebook post that criticized men who said they were lesbians.
Gjevjon has faced intense pushback for publicly standing up for women’s rights.
In her post, she also criticized transgender activists who try to prosecute women for refusing to comply with “woke” gender ideology.
“It’s just as impossible for men to become lesbian as it is for men to become pregnant,” Gjevjon wrote.
“Men are men regardless of their sexual fetishes.”
In the post, translated to English by Facebook, Gjevjon wrote, “men with fetishes have been protected as a vulnerable minority through the foolish and constructed concept of gender identity is koko. [sic]”
Gjevjon said she posted her Facebook message on purpose to bring attention to Norway’s hate speech law.
The law was changed in 2020 when the country’s parliament voted to outlaw speech against people who identify as transgender.
Gjevjon is also not the first to be confronted with charges over saying men cannot be lesbians or mothers.
Last year, Gjevjon asked Anette Trettebergstuen, a politician in the Labour Party, what she was going to do to safeguard the rights of women and girls.
She also asked if she thought that men could be lesbians.
“I believe it is absolutely necessary to place biological sex as the basis in all contexts where sex has legal, cultural, or practical relevance, and that equating sex with gender identity has harmful, discriminatory consequences for women and girls – especially lesbians,” Gjevjon said in her question.
“Will the Equality Minister take action to ensure that lesbian women’s human rights are safeguarded, by making it clear that there are no lesbians with penises, that males cannot be lesbians regardless of their gender identity, and by tidying up the mess of the harmful gender policies left behind by the previous government?” She asked.
Trettebergstuen replied, “I do not share an understanding of reality where the only two biological sexes are to be understood as sex.
“Gender identity is also important.”
Gjevjon has also described being pushed out of the art community over her views, even though she was a prominent member of the music and art establishment for over 15 years.
“I have stated that women are female, that lesbians do not have penises, that children should not be responsible for decisions they do not have the capacity to understand the scope of, and that no-platforming is harmful to democracy,” Gjevjon wrote in Klassekampen, a Norwegian outlet.
“For these opinions, I have been canceled several times.
“I was not prepared for the extent of how queer organizations, politicians, and activists would demonize a lesbian artist who was not in step.
“Trans activists contact people I work with, portraying me as hateful and warning against being associated with me,” she said.’
‘The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just granted Fast Track designation for Pfizer and BioNTech’s messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based combination vaccine candidate against COVID-19 and influenza. This product, which is currently experimental, is supposed to prevent the two respiratory conditions via a single injection. Fast Track is a process designed to facilitate development and expedite the review of new drugs and vaccines intended to treat or prevent serious conditions and address unmet medical need. Importantly, there are only so many resources in the FDA to go around. With Pfizer and BioNTech securing access to such a program it’s to the detriment of some other biotech or pharma companies which may or may not be warranted based on the underlying details of what might be excluded. The current combined influenzas and SARS-coV-2 experimental vaccine is based on their existing Omicron bivalent vaccine that includes mRNA strands encoding the wild-type spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and the spike protein of the Omicron sublineages BA.4/BA.5. But those sublineages represent now under 15% of all U.S-based infections! BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have surged now, representing about 70% of cases. A few studies that TrialSite have tracked thus far suggest subpar performance of the current bivalent booster vaccine against these now predominant subvariants. The underlying strategy seems to benefit Pfizer’s convenience but not the safety of the public. It’s a simple game. Reuse and bundle the same technology—regardless of how good it really is—and make a lot of money.‘ for more of this article go to https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/the-game-exploit-fda-expedited-programs-the-public-in-bid-to-repurpose-bundle-increasingly-ineffective-covid-19-vaccine-with-flu-vaccine-to-monet-3e4d3501
How many lies were told in the past two years concerning the China virus vaccines? According to many in high places the vaccines were supposed to keep the vaccinated from getting the China virus. Whoops, they were wrong! What lies will be told by these same people in 2023?
