Tag: Algorithms

Yes, The US Government Threatening To Block TikTok Violates The 1st Amendment

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

You may have heard that the Biden administration has told TikTok that it must be divested from ByteDance or it will be banned in the US. At least that’s what TikTok said the administration has said. The end result of this might well be that ByteDance divests of TikTok, but we should be clear: the threat, and any potential block, would be a clear, blatant, dangerous violation of the 1st Amendment.

Yes, The US Government Threatening To Block TikTok Violates The 1st Amendment

Previously:

The US government is trying to force ByteDance to sell TikTok

The Supreme Court Could Destroy Everything Good About The Internet

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

Next Week, The Supreme Court Could Destroy Everything Good About The Internet

This is the thing that so many haters of Section 230 don’t understand. They seem to think that getting rid of it will somehow benefit speech. But, it will not. It will benefit government officials attempting to control speech.

Related:

SCOTUS Blog: Gonzalez v. Google

Communications Decency Act – Section 230

Google to expand misinformation ‘prebunking’ in Europe

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Google to expand misinformation ‘prebunking’ in Europe

The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.

…

Google will announce its new German campaign Monday ahead of next week’s Munich Security Conference. The timing of the announcement, coming before that annual gathering of international security officials, reflects heightened concerns about the impact of misinformation among both tech companies and government officials.

Perfect timing!

China accuses U.S. of flying spy balloons into Chinese airspace more than 10 times + NSC Lies

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China accuses U.S. of flying spy balloons into Chinese airspace more than 10 times

John Kirby, spokesperson for the U.S. National Security Council, said in a MSNBC interview on Monday that this claim was not true.


“Any claim that the US government operates surveillance balloons over the PRC is false. It is China that has a high-altitude surveillance balloon program for intelligence collection, that it has used to violate the sovereignty of the US and over 40 countries across 5 continents,” wrote Adrienne Watson, another NSC spokesperson, on Twitter.

Previously:

U.S. military’s newest weapon against China and Russia: Hot air

The Pentagon is working on a new plan to rise above competition from China and Russia: balloons.

The high-altitude inflatables, flying at between 60,000 and 90,000 feet, would be added to the Pentagon’s extensive surveillance network and could eventually be used to track hypersonic weapons.

Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we’ve obtained official records that prove they were right all along

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised the Government’s Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Military operatives in the UK’s ‘information warfare’ brigade were part of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response.

Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we’ve obtained official records that prove they were right all along (archived)

H/T: Der Friedensstifter

Related:

The 77th Brigade Spied on Lockdown Sceptics, Including me

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

U.S. Press Starts To Figure Out College TikTok Bans Are A Dumb Performance

One, the bans are generally designed to agitate a xenophobic base and give the impression the GOP is “doing something about China.” But the party that couldn’t care less about rampant corruption or privacy violations isn’t doing much of anything meaningful to thwart China. In fact, letting adtech, telecom, and app companies run rampant with little oversight runs contrary to any such goal.

Two, the bans distract the public and press from our ongoing failure on consumer privacy and security issues. Banning TikTok, but doing nothing about the accountability optional free for all that is the adtech and data-hoovering space, doesn’t actually fix anything. China can just obtain the same data from a universe of other international companies facing little real oversight on data collection.

Three, the ban is really just about money. Trump gave the game away with his proposal that TikTok be chopped up and sold to Oracle and Walmart. That cronyistic deal fell through, but it’s pretty clear that this moral panic is designed to either help TikTok’s competitors (Facebook lobbyists are very active on this front), or force the sale of the most popular app in modern history to GOP-allies. At which point they’ll engage in all the surveillance and influence efforts they pretend to be mad about.

Related:

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