Google, YouTube ban election trolls ahead of US midterms Google and its YouTube subsidiary have joined other social media networks pledging to keep the 2022 US midterm elections safe and free from Russian trolls — and anyone else spewing democracy-damaging disinformation – by taking down such content. The election strategies follow Google's move to ban MAGA message-board Truth …
Yeah? That's a tweet from 2017 about the 2016 election in which Russia spammed Facebook and other places with thousands of messages to divide Americans and undermine confidence in the elections.
Tho the 2016 election was nothing like the 2020 one. The 2016 one was mostly all about the media milking the outrage over Trump and that Clinton's campaign was so-so. 2020 was on steroids.
C.
Social media misinformation spamming is done for a lot of things that may have political influences but are not specifically political (e.g. Brexit vote) with the aim to disrupt our world now that the "Cold War" is over. Certainly it hasn't been a "win" for the foreign spamming fighters but we're definitely being affected. Spamming is not as bad for us as Bombing but it's not tremendously less effective.
The only reason 2020 elections could be shown to be real, was by counting the PAPER ballots that the machines spit out. Proof that Trump was lying. If US was still paperless voting, enough people would have believed his "Chavez rigged our election" lies and potentially his coup attack on the Capitol would have had enough people to succeed.
USA is currently ~95% paper receipt, there is still 5% paperless voting machines (Texas and Louisiana). Two Republican states that keep using paperless voting machines that are trivial to rig.
Texas AG is Ken Paxton, indicted for securities fraud, but got elected, defunded the prosecutors office, and so escaped prosecution. Do you imagine that Ken Paxton would rig his own prosecution, but wouldn't rig an election? Who would investigate criminals rigging elections in Texas? Ken Paxton?
Republican's project. Their lies are confessions. If they claim elections are from rigged voting machines, yet they run the machines that can be rigged, they are confessing to rigging the voting.
/So you're triggered, Republicans? Great! If you don't like what I'm saying Texas and Louisiana need to move to voting machines with paper trails, so the election can be hand counted. "Cyber Ninja" psychops, will always fail if people can count the ballots by hand, witnesses watching the counting.
Stop using paperless voting machines, 100% paper trail audit on every vote.
Now Comrade.... That is a lovely window you have there. It would be such a shame if you were to... you know... take a dive head first out of it...
So shut the 'H' up and do not rock the boat. We will make sure that comrade Trump wins every race in November. After all, the name Trump will be the only name on each and every ballot.
That is how we do things in MY Russia.
Yours... Voldemort Putin
"Google and its YouTube subsidiary have joined other social media networks pledging to keep the 2022 US midterm elections safe and free from Russian trolls" Which means they know Russian trolls have been active and yet did nothing about it. Muller concluded that too, as have all non GOP investigations in the USA and coincidentally in the UK.
Well, apart from the fact that they hate each other of course.
Very like the raving marxists and barking fascists, ideologically opposed but otherwise identical.
At least the russian trolls are getting paid to do a job, which makes them probably the most normal and sensible of all the above.
"Well, apart from the fact that they hate each other of course."
[citation needed]
Evidence so far indicates that the Russians have been pouring money into far-right extremist groups in the West, which in the US amounts to supporting the Republican party. The Republicans, conversely, have a rich history of collaborating with hostile powers going back at least as far as Nixon, but most famously illustrated in the Iran-Contra affair. Include the fact that the Russians have a strong, manly leader who rides horses shirtless and isn't afraid to dispose of political rivals the old-fashioned way, and you absolutely have a recipe for foreign collusion.
May 2018: How Putin's oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns
Sep 2021: Longtime GOP operatives charged with funneling Russian national’s money to Trump, RNC
Thanks! 3/8 El Reg readers disagree with you :)
The Maria Butina story seems so tenuous, though. If I were to think of the simplest explanation for the BBC story: Russian gun lover links up with the NRA, wants to make the Russian NRA and introduces them to some Russians.
The only sentence I could find that might imply more is "apparently armed with a plan called The Diplomacy Project, aimed at setting up unofficial channels aimed at influencing US policy" but that's hardly conclusive, and even if it's true, it doesn't say what they wanted to influence.
"Evidence so far indicates that the Russians have been pouring money into far-right extremist groups in the West"
Indeed they have, they have also poured money into others such as BLM and far-left groups.
One might almost think they are trying to sow division in the West, however a quick glance down this thread's comments shows that they have failed miserably - nobody on either side of the political debate has taken the bait.
Your issue here is one of trust. Do you trust Youtube/Google "and other social media networks" to be fair and unbiased in their removal policies?
Considering the whole Hunter Biden laptop issue and how it was handled by twitter, one has some doubts.
BTW I have no horse in this race. Both sides have their fringe maniacs and who think the other side are more evil than Hitler/Stalin and should be de-personed and are absolutely Russian spies..
I think a good benchmark for the quality of a misinformation control system is 'can the end user determine what the system is doing?'. Fact checking does this fairly well, since it's not removing anything and while the checking may suffer from bias, it's clear what's going on. Even censorship can be managed to some extent by still retaining access to censored content through a portal that offers up what has been censored and the reason why.
Fairly easily handled by hashing content, especially if they're just using basic scripts. Eventually, when they reach a certain level of sophistication, it's a matter of no amount of censorship being effective, so it seems like a better option to be transparent.
Still waiting for even the slightest bit of proof there is anything at all incriminating on Hunter Biden's laptop. All you MAGA idiots keep shouting "Hunter Biden! Hunter Biden!" while ignoring that the biggest political criminal in history is your orange faced mob boss. Every day more evidence of not only his unsuitably to ever hold any office again, but his unsuitability to remain a free man, continue to mount.
Wake me when Hunter Biden has stolen thousands of government documents with some obviously ill intentions and is leaving them stuffed in boxes in closets and desk drawers in a resort that multiple foreign agents have been caught trying to penetrate (and who knows how many succeeded and weren't caught)
I kind of hope Hunter Biden is indicted alongside Trump, so we can compare the crimes committed by the two when it all comes out in their trials.
Let me just look at my previous post. Hmm, here we go: "BTW I have no horse in this race."
I am not MAGA. I don't support Trump (although I don't suffer from TDS as you clearly do). I'm not even from the U.S..
The issue is down to how twitter handled things when they thought that the laptop did contain material.
[edit]
I've toned this last part down as it wasn't helpful and just to say that some of you guys in the U.S. just make me despair and think that your country is doomed. You do not at all seem to be able to talk to the otherside, your hate them, scream at them and are utterly unwilling to see that there might be some valid points on both sides.
I'm surprised that you haven't started using guns on each other en-mass or the states haven't just split up.
This is not something that I want to see happen.
Mr Isaac says a man delivered a water damaged laptop for repair. Noddy's guide to dealing with something like this:
1) Do not under any circumstances touch the laptop until
2) Get the user to demonstrate the fault
3) Document the extent of the faults and what actions you are offering towards repair. Get this signed because without it the customer WILL say you broke it.
4) GET PAID - even if this is just a deposit. Do not waste any of your time unless there is money.
5) Make damn sure that you can identify the customer. The laptop could be stolen and you WILL need to prove to the police that you are not trading in stolen goods. When you return the laptop you must be certain that you are giving it to the right person so you will not get sued for giving it to someone else. This goes double if you are legally blind (like Mr Isaac).
6) Image the hard drive. The data on that drive could easily be worth more than your shop. Take every opportunity to not get sued for loss of any of that data.
Now for the first list of smells:
*) Mr Isaac says he did (3) - where is Hunter's signature?
*) Mr Isaac said he did not get paid.
*) Mr Isaac says he cannot identify the man who left the laptop.
*) Mr Isaac says found evidence of a crime. He is not clear on what the crime was, how he knew it was evidence of a crime and how he found it among 128,755 emails.
*) Several hard disks with Hunter's emails have turned up with modifications made after Mr Isaac received the laptop.
Everything about this story stinks. Every journalist capable of minimal fact checking did not run with this story. The lack of covfefe indicates something going right.
Everything about this story stinks. Every journalist capable of minimal fact checking did not run with this story. The lack of covfefe indicates something going right.
I think you mean going left. But don't forget the 50 intelligence experts who confidently signed a letter stating this was obviously 'Russian disinformation'. Or Zuck appearing on Joe Rogan and saying the FBI warned FaceMelta about Russian disinformation.
Or people mentioned in the emails confirming the emails were legit. Or the videos. Or the FBI whistleblowers who've come forward. Obviously there are no First Amendment issues when the State, deep or otherwise tells media not to run, or how to spin a story.
Then of course there's Darth Biden's recent speech against a blood red backdrop warning Americans that the greates threat to Democratcy is the 70m Americans who didn't vote for him. He authoritatively stated that they're all anti-American, anti-Democratcy, and facists.
But this is the guy who spoke about healing divides, and being tough on crime.. Or he's the guy who's demonstrating the power of control of media messaging, censorship, and using 'fake news' to spread their own disinformation.
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"Then of course there's Darth Biden's recent speech against a blood red backdrop warning Americans that the greates threat to Democratcy is the 70m Americans who didn't vote for him. He authoritatively stated that they're all anti-American, anti-Democratcy, and facists."
Actually the threat is someone who puts a man above party, and that party above the country.
If you follow trump blindly and uncritically, you are the danger to democracy.
I've no truck with labour here, especially when corbyn was leading it, but I voted for him as I already knew what a liar, cheat and all round tosspot bozo the clown is... and I'd rather have a leader with some integrity than a bumbling chancer who stabbed his own party leader in the back just so he could be leader
PS I worked for the government once in the naughty dept if the cop raided my house and found I had top secret materials here I'd be spending the next 3 months remanded to jail and the following 5 years after conviction in another jail........................
Actually the threat is someone who puts a man above party, and that party above the country.
Very true. So when a woman said that Trump stole the election, antifa started burning federal buildings. Perhaps this is the new plan? Make Americans the enemy again, just in time for the mid-terms and winter to kick in. Use the civil unrest that's been engineered to declare martial law.
If you follow trump blindly and uncritically, you are the danger to democracy.
Sure, some MAGA fans might do that. There were around 70m Americans who didn't vote for Biden. They are the danger to democracy. Not a party that wants to give votes to illegal aliens. Or refuses to remove dead people from electoral rolls.
PS I worked for the government once in the naughty dept if the cop raided my house and found I had top secret materials here I'd be spending the next 3 months remanded to jail and the following 5 years after conviction in another jail
It's fine. Hilary wasn't even President when she kept classified (including TS) materials on her home mail server. But the US is strange like that. The President can apparently declassify whatever they want. Not entirely sure the process was sensible, ie a blanket 'declassify this!' for anything dumped into a file box. Or even if a President should be able to use executive privilege to declassify something like 'How to launch a nuclear strike'.
But such is politics. We still don't know exactly what was removed/declassified/offended the librarians. TS/SCI sounds dramatic, but could cover a multitude of sins. I suspect that if a President added a comment/personal note to a Grauniad news clipping, it could end up being TS/SCI simply because it's the personal/private opinion of the President. But when Democrats are allowed to mishandle classified information and go unpunished, the optics don't look good.
But such is America. Trump still seems to scare the hell out of the Democrats, hence all the attention they give him. I'm sure most Americans would prefer them to not Make America Depressed Again, and sort our their inflation, recession, crime, drugs and multitude of other problems that affect both left & right. At least those not fortunate enough to be able to use their family connections to make millions for themselves.
Hilary had her private email account on a private server, something that it’s regulated, allowed, subject to supervision and common among previous state secretaries.
She had state secrets on a public mail server under her personal control. Which got hacked, and some leaked. I'd suggest having uncontrolled access to controlled documents is actually quite uncommon. But no prosecutions for mishandling classified data.
Let's not forget that Trump's most-repeated single campaign pledge in 2016 was, very specifically, to prosecute and punish her for that crime.
And yet, when he actually took office, it was the very first promise he calmly announced that of course he'd never meant.
Probably because he didn't want the whole evidence coming out in a public trial, where even his supporters would be left saying "wait, was that it?"
"She had state secrets on a public mail server under her personal control. Which got hacked, and some leaked. I'd suggest having uncontrolled access to controlled documents is actually quite uncommon. But no prosecutions for mishandling classified data."
Well, if she had taken a large van-load of highly sensitive documents with her when she left office.
Refused to return them when asked
Only returned a small quantity when faced with a subpoena - but claimed, in a written submission, that everything had been returned.
Then had her place raided, with a further large number of highly sensitive documents being found - despite the previous claims....
etc. etc. etc.
Well yes. I suppose she would have been facing some serious charges.
Odd that you didn't mention those aspects.
Quote
"But Hillary"!!!!!
Bollocks (to coin a good old british phrase)
Thats nothing to do with it.
The questions are
Did trump have classified material he was not suppossed to have as a private citizen?
Did trump return all classified material back to the national archive as he's supposed to do when leaving the white house
Did trump return all classified material when the archive requested it 3 months later
Did trump swear that he had
Was classified material found by the FBI on a legal warrented search of trump's property
When those questions have been answered properly in a court of law, then we'll see what the truth of the matter is (not that I believe it will come to that as trump will string out the case for as long as he can afford the lawyers to argue the issue)
PS retaining classified docs was made a felony in 2018 by one president trump.......
When those questions have been answered properly in a court of law, then we'll see what the truth of the matter is (not that I believe it will come to that as trump will string out the case for as long as he can afford the lawyers to argue the issue)
I'm sure the Constitution says something about a right to a fair trial. Which I'm sure there'll be, once the Judge who signed off on the fishing warrant has been picked. But until that happens, plenty of classified leaks will occur because Trump must never be allowed to challenge the Democratcy again!
Kinda strange the way the media is breathlessly reporting every aspect of the !raid, but still pretty silent about Paul Pelosi's curious trial, Biden's laptop etc.. Which is kinda the point of this story. If you have control of a tame media, who'll uncritically publish 'fake news', you can get away with pretty much anything. No recession in the US because nobody believes 2 consecutive quarter of GDP decline is not, and never has been the definition of a recession.
" the Constitution says something about a right to a fair trial. Which I'm sure there'll be, once the Judge who signed off on the fishing warrant has been picked"
Sure! And as any sports fan knows, the referees are always biased/corrupted against their team
PS retaining classified docs was made a felony in 2018 by one president trump.......
Did he change the rules on declassifying documents that allow a president to declassify them on a whim with no records needing kept?
This smells like a media game, Trump gets himself raided for documents he already declassified in order to push the narrative that law enforcement is interfering with elections.
Did he change the rules on declassifying documents that allow a president to declassify them on a whim with no records needing kept?
I do not think he did that, if he did the public should see the evidence.
Himself claiming he did after he was caught breaking the rules is not sufficient evidence.
When were Trump's alleged new declassification rules communicated to those dealing with the documents?
"I make the rules (for others to follow). As i can change the rules i do not have to follow them"
seems to be a popular opinion for politicians - less popular with other people that believe in a rule of law.
Sorry, maybe I worded that a little confusingly.
Presidents can seemingly declassify documents without following any procedure at all. If a president wants a document to stop being classified then it just stops being. I agree with you that this is stupid but so are a lot of rules that apply to politicians.
Unless Trump changed these rules (which I doubt because why give up power) then the rules about presidents keeping classified material have no teeth. "But I declassified it!" becomes a perfect defence because you can never prove he didn't.
Which, of course, makes this all nonsense political theater, of the type you see in the run up to any election.
Which, of course, makes this all nonsense political theater, of the type you see in the run up to any election.
I think it goes beyond that. Partly due to the very broad search warrant terms, which allowed seizure of classified documents, plus any documents in proximity. So one of the locations searched was Trump's office, and apparently his safe. So chances are that safe contained personal documents, hence Trump's request for a special master to review the seized files. Which will no doubt be copied and leaked.
But one good thing to perhaps come out of this fiasco is to clarify the process around classifying, declassifying and what happens when a President leaves office. One document mentioned is apparently a personal letter from Obama to Trump on the change of control. As a 'private' letter between two Presidents, that's almost certainly TS/SCI. But as a 'private' letter, I'd suggest declassifying that would require agreement from both Presidents. And I guess also extends to archival, ie who's officiall library that ends up in, or do both get a copy, and who could then request access to it. Or should Trump be allowed to keep it, because it's 'personal'.
(There's other oddities in the seizure list, like newspaper clippings, clothing, and 'personal' gifts. On that point, I guess there's also tax implications.)
"Presidents can seemingly declassify documents without following any procedure at all. If a president wants a document to stop being classified then it just stops being. I agree with you that this is stupid but so are a lot of rules that apply to politicians."
Well no they can't.
They do indeed have the power to have something declassified, but it must still go through the laid down procedures - and that does not include waving a fairy-wand.
Indeed, for some highly sensitive material it has to go back to the originating department for them to sign off on the change.
In much the same way, Presidents can give pardons to anyone they like - no matter how venal or self-serving that might be - but they still have to go through the procedure.
Trump could not now say:
"Bye the way, I pardoned everyone involved in Jan 6th - including myself."
(Or rather he could, since that sounds just like some of his other claims.)
Politifact has a good breakdown of the relevant laws from 2017 and includes legal and constitutional experts arguing that the procedures don't and shouldn't apply to the president.
Stupid if true, so probably true since in politics stupid is the default.
Fortunately self-pardon is unconstitutional. Nobody can take an official role in their own trial.
No, Presidents cannot.
Declassification has a deliberately longwinded process, including redaction and similar.
The President is not able to wave their magic wand over a box and declare it unclassified.
There are also several types of classified information that the President cannot declassify under any circumstances whatsoever.
It also only affects the sentence, not the crime. Trump took government documents (confirmed by Trump) and refused to return them (also confirmed by Trump)
Nobody is permitted to do that. Those documents are the property if the USA, not any individual. The archivists will find you and they will get them back.
The point here is how Twitter reacted, not if the infromation from the laptop was real or not. I.e. they acted as (in my opinion) a censer, and arguably a publisher against the NY Post to surpress a story.
If you haven't picked up on it already, I don't trusted twitter, facebook et al to be unbiased.
Yes I 100% agree that is the point. Twitter along with a bunch of reputable journals did not publish some blatantly fake news. Even the author of the NY Post article refused to put his name to it. I do not trust Twitface to be unbiased either, but Hunter Biden's Laptop is conclusive evidence that Twitter can get something right occasionally even if it is by only accident. On the other hand you are doing a thorough job of trashing your own credibility.
Twitter along with a bunch of reputable journals did not publish some blatantly fake news.
I think you mean allegedly reputable. So at the time Twitter & Co determined this was 'fake news', did they have forensic images of the laptop(s) drives that allowed them to determine they were 'fake'? Or did they rely on official denials from 'experts'? Those experts being utterly unbiased?
But that's the problem with 'fake news'. Same thing happened with management of the Covid narrative. Possibility of a Chinese lab link was swiftly declared 'fake'. Effectiveness of drug treatments were declared 'fake', even though there'd been no medical trials to determine whether 'horse pills' were effective or not. Or the reverse, so blind acceptance that Trump was a 'Russian Puppet' based on the dodgy Steele dossier. Or more recently, attacks on Ukraine's nuclear power plant. Where we're lead to believe that Russia placed troops, weapons and ammunition inside a NPP it controls, then shelled it. For reasons. Or the strange events immediately prior to the IAEA's inspection, where 60+ Ukrainian commandos launched an assault, supported by an unknown number of additional troops on barges. Who appear to have walked straight into a trap, and were eliminated. The MSM is strangely quiet about that one.
But such is politics. Orange man bad! People who want to Make America Great Again are America's greatest threat. Not inflation, recession, energy, crime. Non-Democrats are the enemy of the state! Which is all rather impressive from a President who can't put a jacket on, and has presided over the biggest decline in US life expectancy.
I gave clear reasons in my post why anyone who did minimal fact checking would find clear evidence that this "Hunter Biden's Laptop" is nonsense. I am sure you will continue to ignore them.
I tried looking for COVID trials of ivermectin. There have been many small scale trials with varying statistical rigour. You can ignore a meta analysis here. In short: not statistically significant especially in trials controlled for publication bias.
Please remember before you try ivermectin yourself that you are depriving horses.
Please remember before you try ivermectin yourself that you are depriving horses.
Alternatively, you're depriving humans of a very successful anti-parasite medication. A minor detail glossed over when the horse meme was created. But thank you for also confirming the 'small trials'. So in a scientific sense, it's effectiveness (though doubtful) is still really unproven. So in the absence of any decent clinical data, just rely on some self-appointed 'fact checkers' to deny it for you.
There have been larger trials and meta-studies since.
Ivermectin has no detectable effect on covid.
This is a very good example of journalists (term used loosely) causing panic by not understanding how science works.
They didn't understand what they were reporting, and never bothered to follow up the story later when it was shown that it didn't work.
Really, any place that reports "compound X cures Y" should be forced to report all followup studies with equal prominence.
I do believe Youtube would censor your post, for the claim that Biden's laptop was fake news.
Multiple media sources have validated it - including, for instance, the Washington Post.
Me, I think censoring you would be wrong. I'd rather be able to provide you with additional information, so that you're better informed and able to continue contributing.
As far as I can make out, some of the files from Isaac's laptop are genuinely from Hunter's laptop. Some of the files certainly aren't. Do you have a link to evidence that Mr Isaac's laptop once genuinely belonged to Hunter? The closest I have evidence for is that Isaac's may have been Hunter's but could also be a copy.
Youtube cannot censor me as I do not have an account and do not want one. If I did get an account youtube have every right to not publish what I send them for any reason or no reason at all. There are other places for me to publish and I am perfectly capable of buying a domain name, pointing it at a web server and getting my content out there. I could even get it to show different things to people and Google's robot if I thought Google would not put my server in search results.
As far as I can make out, some of the files from Isaac's laptop are genuinely from Hunter's laptop. Some of the files certainly aren't.
Ah, so which files aren't? Bearing in mind there were multiple laptops. I agree there are risks of the well being poisoned by the way data are being released. But your tune seems to be slowly changing to some being real, some being 'fake'. How do you know which is which? CNN? Twitter?
(also amusing that CNN decided to fake Darth Biden's speech and change the 'live' video feed from blood red to pink. Wonder why they did that?)
For a start the files with modification dates after Mr Isaac got his laptop.
My story has been consistent. I have relied on statements attributed to Mr Isaac from multiple sources. By themselves, they made everything about this story suspicious from the start and things only got worse from there with several different 'copies' of the hard disk.
I have never committed to Isaac's laptop being the same or different from Hunter's. I have never committed to Mr Isaac getting his laptop from Hunter or from someone else. I have repeated Mr Isaac's statement that he cannot identify the person who gave him a laptop with Hunter's data. If the laptop was genuinely Hunter's then Mr Isaac has left himself open to charges of handling stolen goods. Anyone vaguely competent would not have left that door open.
Would you like to continue ignoring what I posted and come up with some more straw men?
If the laptop was genuinely Hunter's then Mr Isaac has left himself open to charges of handling stolen goods. Anyone vaguely competent would not have left that door open.
Actually I think you'll find he had a signature when the laptops were dropped off for repair. If the laptops were never collected, and the work performed wasn't paid for, they can be sold by the repair company. So they're not stolen goods.
Again you're being a little coy about what you think are your 'reliable' sources, and seem very confused about how this all started. But no matter, you seem convinced it's all 'Russian misinformation' and a conspiracy theory, because that's what Wiki tells you. So it must be true. Especially as the alternative would include knowledge of federal crimes, influence peddling, corruption etc etc..
The laptop is not my major concern with Hunter Biden. Mine is why isn't he in jail for the alleged falsifying on his Form 4473 when he purchased a handgun. He reportedly lied on two of the questions asked. He claimed he was not dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, Question 11 g, and he claimed he had not been addicted to drugs, Question 11 e.
A yes answer to any of the qualifying questions on the Form 4473 results in results in a "No Sale" of a firearm. Lying on a Form 4473 is considered a felony. Thus, he allegedly committed two felonies.
At the top of the page is this warning.
"Certain violations of the Gun Control Act , 18 U.S.C. para 921 et. seq., are punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and/or $250,000 fine"
Where has the investigation on this matter gone, and why not reported in the media?
what are you waiting for? there are plenty of released info from the laptop. Plenty of photos of him with minors, doing drugs, chat logs with drug dealers, using (former suspected mob connections) to pressure drug dealers. Then there is the public info pre laptop with him having charges for abusing his daughter in law. Get out from under your rock (or Hunters rock) That boy is bad news in every way and there are no secrets about it. Out of his own mouth he admits to most things he's been accused of. Saying its fake is like saying there is no water in a lake. Seriously.
This looks like an awful justification for allowing social media companies to grab a stronger hold on american politics. Doesn't anyone see the massive issue with Google, Facebook, Twitter, whoever else saying that they will remove all material that they deem 'misinformation'? All these companies have repeatedly lied about what they've done and they've crushed our right to privacy, but for some reason it's viewed as a positive thing for them to control information surrounding the election? Reg readers should know better. This just means that these companies can and will greatly affect the outcome of the next election.
"The election strategies follow Google's move to ban MAGA message-board Truth Social from its Play store until the app removes content that incites violence."
Interestingly, after following a link from a BBC article to the Truth Social Ts&Cs, "inciting violence" is specifically against their rules. Doesn't seem to stop it happening or lead to any consequences though. I wonder how a post inciting violence against Trump would go down on Truth Social? That's probably the "incitement" that is banned, not "all" incitement..
Interestingly, after following a link from a BBC article to the Truth Social Ts&Cs, "inciting violence" is specifically against their rules.
Define 'inciting violence'. A relevant question given the time passed since Jan 6th, when a bunch of trespassers were thrown in jail awaiting trial. Or there were the 'fiery, but mostly peaceful protests', where antifa and BLM supporters rioted, assaulted police officers, set fire to police stations and courthouses.. And the current VP created a bail fund to get them back on the streets.
Or given much of that violence was because Trump 'stole the election' from the Blessed Hilary, would/could Darth Biden's call to arms against Republican 'facism' be considered inciting violence? Will antifa respond to that dog whistle, if November doesn't go the Left way? Or will antifa be too busy doing the Lord's work, like this bizarre story-
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2022/08/29/antifa-armed-with-ar-15s-guard-kid-friendly-drag-show-in-texas/
Masked Antifa members armed with AR-15 rifles and handguns showed up to guard what was billed as a “kid-friendly” drag show at a North Texas distillery. Reports indicate the show contained partial nudity and sexualized minors.
Perhaps restricting 'assault weapons' is a good idea after all. Then again, the Southern Democrats have a long tradition of inciting mobs to do their dirty work. Those that ignore history etc..
getting your news from them simply shouts "I like nazi's" to sane poeple.
No, I think it's insane people that would draw that conclusion. Especially in an article about controlling the narrative, and media manipulation. I suppose you only believe stories that are reported on CNN's 'Reliable Sources'.. Oh, wait..
But such is politics. I picked Breitbart because a) I knew the reaction I'd get and b) it was one of the first sites that came up when I searched for the story that looked vaguely reputable. Suprised more of the MSM didn't cover it given the President's recent speeches on the dangers of 'assault rifles', and disorganised militias.
What is the difference between Russian propagandists, American politicians and American citizens venting lies and prejudice on social media?
Answer: None at all. Same mixture of lies and prejudice. Apparently American lies and prejudice are OK, but Russian lies and prejudice aren't. Go figure.
The difference is that you don't need a reason to take down information that benefits the candidate you dislike any more, you just pretend it came from Russia and that's good enough.
After all, if this shit was real it would mean Ukraine has a more secure democratic process than the USA.
Apparently American lies and prejudice are OK, but Russian lies and prejudice aren't. Go figure.
Therein lies the problem. So there's First Amendment stuff, like the State telling the media what lies to promote, and which to censor. There's also a credibility issue, so 'trusted' media outlets lose credibility when the public find out they're spouting bollocks. Example of that here-
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/what-the-bbc-did-not-tell-you-about-hornsea-2/#more-58281
With the Bbc being a bit 'special' because it's duty bound by it's Charter to mostly tell the truth, and not simply shill for the 'renewables' lobby.
Then there's the 'fact checking' industry, and their credibility. So whether those 'fact checkers' can really determine the truth, or if they're simply confirming their own biases. So back to the Biden laptop, the 'truth' in that story probably depends on the FBI, who seized the physical drives. The rest are trying to determine 'facts' 2nd hand using a variety of disk images and databases that may or may not be reliable. So the 'facts' really can't be determined by outsiders, especially 'facts' like file creation/modification dates that might be artefacts of how their version of the evidence came into being.
Here's a fun video of Democrats denying the 2016 elections results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX2Ejqjz6TA
Good thing there were lots of improvements in how elections were handled in the four years after this. Let's see, there were ballots mailed to everyone, including dead people, unmonitored drop boxes, etc. All these improvements were 100% safe and secure and to question the election process is a threat to democracy!
Oh, BTW, the past Russian election memes had zero impact on the election.
I'm still shocked at how divided the US (and to a degree the UK) has become. We now have politicians on all sides who are no longer adults willing to cooperate on important issues, it's all hatred, finger pointing and avoiding blame, it's always "othering" the opposing view.
This will end badly, but in mean time those pointing this out will be blamed too because we don't have a solution to the bile being spewed around us. No we don't, other than to wait for the inevitable external factor which wakes people up and re-focuses attention onto something which actually matters to real peoples lives.
No we don't, other than to wait for the inevitable external factor which wakes people up and re-focuses attention onto something which actually matters to real peoples lives.
Sadly, I think we're already at that stage. So we're in a combination crisis due to inflation, recession, energy crisis, increasing violence and impending de-industrialisation of major economies. All of this is a result of a couple of decades of lousy policies, ie printing money in the assumption that wouldn't lead to inflation, not using that money to build reliable power and the overreaction to Covid.
Now, we've got a convenient external factor that's accelerated these problems, and provided a convenient scapegoat, ie Russia. Our political elite decided tilting at windmills was a modern, forward thinking industrial strategy, even though our ancestors abandoned them as soon as something better came along. We've relied on reliable, affordable energy to power our economies and improve our standard of living ever since. Politicians ignored those history lessons, wasted around £14bn a year subsidising 'renewables' and didn't seem to care about the increased dependency on gas for when the weather didn't co-operate.
Of course they probably assumed continued access to cheap Russian gas... But then they decided to sanction Russia. Now, they'll tell anyone that listens that it's Russia who's 'weaponised' energy, even though it was the West that did that by sanctions and assuming the Russian economy would implode. Strangely enough, that's backfired rather spectacularly.
So now we're rapidly (ok, normal rate) approaching winter, when the energy crisis will really kick in. There's already been some large protests across Europe, and it hasn't really got cold, yet. Meanwhile, the German foreign minister has told her electorate that their views, lives and votes don't matter because German politicians represent Ukraine's interests, not Germany. And apparently there are plans for Germany to put troops on the streets to suppress civil disobedience, and in the UK, our bureaucrats are thinking of dusting off old type writers and using carbon paper.
People may freeze to death, but the documents must flow!
According to *all* 13 US Intelligence Agencies Russia did interfere with the 2016 US election and, given that Hilary won the popular vote (but lost the Electoral College vote), one could conclude that Russia misinformation was just enough for Trump to win.
According to the EUI Index the US is a Flawed Democracy and is currently number 26 on the list of countries, and sliding down:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
Maybe it is the way the GOP / Red States are making it harder for poor people to vote, or, because democracy literally means 'one man one vote' and the Electoral College thing means it is not a true democracy.
The USA cannot teach anyone how to be a democracy until they first become one.
I do not vote by party lines, I vote for individuals. Both (private entities, not part of government) Rep and Dem have corrupt people and practices. But now calling them that will get you officially silenced. There is no stopping corruption now because they made it impossible to do so. So now the corruption is so powerful they have silenced ALL OPOSITION. So much for elections. I'm done with all of it.
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