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Marine Vet Fatally Shot at FB Marketplace Meetup Called His Mom: ‘I’m Dying’

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A decorated Marine veteran was fatally shot at his home during a Facebook Marketplace sale — and he spent his final moments describing his attackers to police over the phone before heartbreakingly texting his family goodbye.

Michael Ryan Burke, 42, was gunned down during a sale-turned-robbery involving a cellphone at his home in Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday, according to the Columbia Police Department. . .

Burke’s college pal and fraternity brother, Jerry Reifeiss, described the veteran’s final moments in an interview with KRCG13. . .

He said Burke held on long enough to call 911 and describe his attackers. He also managed to text his mother and sister, “I’m dying and I love you,” before he was rushed to a local hospital, where he died.

“That was just Ryan. He always put people in front of him and wanted to make sure people know how he felt. He didn’t want to go on to the next life and pass away without providing some information to us that would bring justice to these people and let people know he always loves them,” Reifeiss told the outlet. (Read more from “Marine Vet Fatally Shot at FB Marketplace Meetup Called His Mom: ‘I’m Dying’” HERE)

‘No Penalties’: Facebook Calls End to ‘Fact-Checking’ That Was Used to Censor Conservatives

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Meta will shutter its fact-checking program across Facebook, Instagram and Threads on Monday, marking a major shift in the company’s content moderation strategy.

The announcement follows a January pledge by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to dial back censorship and restore “free speech” on Meta-owned platforms. Going forward, Meta will adopt a system modeled after X’s “Community Notes,” allowing users to affix context to posts with no penalties or content suppression — effectively ending the era of third-party fact-checkers rating and flagging information.

“By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over,” Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer at Meta, wrote on X. “That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers. We announced in January we’d be winding down the program & removing penalties. In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached.”

The program’s demise comes after mounting backlash from conservatives who long accused Meta’s third-party fact-checking partners — including groups like PolitiFact and Lead Stories — of ideological bias and collusion with government agencies to suppress dissenting views. While Meta maintains those fact checkers operated independently, critics pointed to repeated incidents involving censorship of stories related to COVID-19, Hunter Biden’s laptop and election integrity.

Zuckerberg’s move to replace the fact-checking framework with Community Notes signals a significant break from the previous model. Similar to X’s system, Meta’s new feature allows verified users to write “notes” adding context to posts, which are then rated for helpfulness by a broader pool of users. If deemed useful by ideologically diverse raters, the note is published. (Read more from “‘No Penalties’: Facebook Calls End to ‘Fact-Checking’ That Was Used to Censor Conservatives” HERE)

Man Killed in Shooting During Facebook Marketplace Sale

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A 66-year-old man was fatally shot in broad daylight while attempting to sell an iPhone to a woman he had arranged to meet through Facebook Marketplace. The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon at a gas station in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas, Texas.

The victim, identified as Ahmad Alkhalaf, was meeting the woman, later identified as 19-year-old Amaya Medrano, at approximately 3:00 p.m. when the shooting took place. Authorities say the encounter turned violent outside a gas station located near the intersection of I-35 and South Marsalis Avenue.

According to FOX 4, local resource officers from nearby Felix G. Botello Elementary School heard the gunfire and rushed to the scene. They found Alkhalaf lying beside a pickup truck with gunshot wounds. He was quickly transported to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

The Dallas Police Department launched an investigation, reviewing surveillance footage from the area. The video revealed key details, including distinctive tattoos on Medrano’s face and neck, which led to her identification. Police were able to track down Medrano by cross-referencing the tattoos with her social media profiles.

Medrano was arrested and now faces capital murder charges in connection with the shooting. The motive for the crime is still under investigation, but authorities are looking into the possibility of a robbery gone wrong during the transaction.

The tragic shooting has raised concerns about the risks involved in meeting strangers for online transactions. Local law enforcement continues to urge the public to take precautions when using online marketplaces to buy and sell items.

Photo credit: Flickr

Meta Ditches ‘Misinformation’ Tracking Tool, Angering Journalists and Nonprofits

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Mark Zuckerberg-owned social media giant Meta has shut down CrowdTangle, a researching tool used to monitor social media posts that include alleged misinformation.

The move has upset a series of nonprofits which sent letters in protest of Meta’s move to a new tool called Content Library. Their issue stems from Meta limiting usage of Content Library to “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research.”

This has prevented many journalists from having immediate access to the new tool, TechCrunch reported.

The letter to Meta in May 2024 asked for CrowdTangle to stay available until at least January 2025 so that it could be used through the 2024 presidential election.

“This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta’s transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile,” the letter, which was posted to the Human Rights Watch website, stated. (Read more from “Meta Ditches ‘Misinformation’ Tracking Tool, Angering Journalists and Nonprofits” HERE)

Meta Removes Restrictions From Trump’s Facebook and Instagram Accounts

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Meta announced Friday that it would remove certain restrictions that had been placed on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of former President Donald Trump.

The restrictions were placed on his social media accounts in the wake of the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by some Trump supporters who sought to overturn the official results of the presidential election.

Meta had previously allowed Trump access to his accounts in Feb. 2023 but added restrictions that meant he faced “heightened penalties for repeat offenses.” The accounts could have been “suspended for between one month and two years” if he violated their terms of service.

Those restrictions have now been removed.

“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for president on the same basis,” said Nick Clegg, the company’s president of global affairs.

“In reaching this conclusion, we also considered that these penalties were a response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances, and have not had to be deployed,” he added. (Read more from “Meta Removes Restrictions From Trump’s Facebook and Instagram Accounts” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

School Board Member Sues After She Was Censured for Facebook Post on Transgender Bathroom Policy

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A Virginia school board member is suing her fellow board members after she was censured for a Facebook post about the school district’s transgender bathroom practices.

Angela Allen, vice chairwoman of the Goochland County School Board in the Richmond area, filed a lawsuit Monday against her school board colleagues in their personal capacities, accusing them of defamation and forming a civil conspiracy against her.

The controversy started back in January when Allen posted on Facebook about what she said were the school district’s practices around trans-identifying students and bathroom use.

“As a Goochland School Board member, effectively representing your interests is my duty. This week I learned that [Goochland County Public Schools] students are allowed to use restrooms different from their biological sex. Is this our community’s expectation?” Allen posted on the social media platform on January 26. (Read more from “School Board Member Sues After She Was Censured for Facebook Post on Transgender Bathroom Policy” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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‘Facebook Files’ Show FBI’s Censorship Liaison May Have Perjured Himself

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Part four of the “Facebook Files” published by Rep. Jim Jordan on Monday shows a top FBI agent who was coordinating censorship strategy with Silicon Valley tech companies may have committed perjury in November testimony.

FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan, who serves as the bureau’s “main conduit between the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and Big Tech,” according to Jordan, was deposed last fall as a central player in the government censorship case Missouri v. Biden. Chan testified that he was only aware of one meeting between Facebook employees and the FBI about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, but internal Facebook documents show him participating in an additional “secret follow-up call.”

In his November deposition, Chan admitted to an Oct. 14, 2020 meeting with officials at Facebook related to the first Hunter Biden laptop story published by the New York Post. The Post revealed emails from the laptop that indicated then-candidate Joe Biden had been lying when he claimed to have never spoken about Hunter’s business with him “or with anyone else.”

At the Oct. 14 meeting, Laura Dehmlow, the FBI’s section chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force, offered “no comment” when Facebook asked whether the laptop was real, Jordan explained. Facebook quickly announced it was “reducing” the “distribution” of the story until the platform completed a third-party fact check.

(Read more from “‘Facebook Files’ Show FBI’s Censorship Liaison May Have Perjured Himself” HERE)

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Facebook Docs Reveal FBI Agent Made ‘Completely False’ Congressional Statements Involving Hunter Biden Laptop, Jordan Says

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An FBI agent made “completely false” statements during a congressional deposition about the agency’s role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story on social media platforms, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said on Monday in his fourth edition of the “Facebook Files.”

Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said internal Facebook communications reveal San Francisco-based FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan was “the main conduit” between the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force and big tech companies to suppress the scandalous story involving alleged foreign business deals with then-presidential candidate Joe Biden just weeks before the 2020 election.

Chan told lawmakers during testimony the FBI had not communicated with Facebook outside of a meeting that occurred the same day the New York Post published the Biden laptop article on October 14, 2020. But according to the Jordan, Chan was involved in a “secret ‘follow up’ call” with the social media giant the next day, allegedly contradicting a claim he made during a November 2022 deposition in the government censorship case Missouri v. Biden

The federal agent also spoke with a Facebook employee that same day, who said, “Chan advised that he was up to speed on the current state of the matter within the FBI.” Chan also told the social media platform that “there was no current evidence to suggest any foreign connection … of the leaks,” according to the documents released by Jordan. (Read more from “Facebook Docs Reveal FBI Agent Made ‘Completely False’ Congressional Statements Involving Hunter Biden Laptop, Jordan Says” HERE)

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Biden Admin Told Facebook That Censoring ‘Bad Content’ Was ‘Our Primary Concern’

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Former Biden Director of Digital Strategy Robert Flaherty told Facebook in a June 2021 meeting that suppressing content was the administration’s top priority regarding speech it did not agree with, according to documents reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The White House regularly met with Facebook to discuss content moderation, often having disagreements, according to the memos obtained by the House Judiciary Committee. One point of contention was that President Joe Biden’s administration preferred to censor information while Facebook wanted to combat it with more information.

“You guys are much longer on inform, we’re much longer on reduce,” Flaherty noted at the meeting, according to a transcript of the meeting reviewed by the DCNF.

“What do you mean by that?” asked a Facebook executive, whose name is redacted.

“We’re keen on what platforms are doing to reduce the spread of bad information, that platforms are not funneling people towards bad content,” Flaherty said. “That’s our primary concern.” (Read more from “Biden Admin Told Facebook That Censoring ‘Bad Content’ Was ‘Our Primary Concern'” HERE)

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Ex-Mortuary Worker Indicted for Selling Stolen Body Parts for $11K to a Man She Met on Facebook

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An Arkansas woman pleaded not guilty to charges she sold stolen body parts from medical school corpses for $11,000 to a Pennsylvania man she met on social media.

Candace Chapman Scott, 36, a former mortuary worker, is accused of selling 20 boxes of body parts to a man she met through a Facebook group about “oddities,” according to the April 5 indictment unsealed Friday in federal court in Little Rock.

Scott pleaded not guilty to 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and interstate transportation of stolen property.

She remains in jail as she awaits a hearing scheduled for Tuesday on whether she will be released on bail.

The man who allegedly purchased the remains was not named in the federal indictment. But he was identified as Jeremy Lee Pauley in separate state charges. (Read more from “Ex-Mortuary Worker Indicted for Selling Stolen Body Parts for $11K to a Man She Met on Facebook” HERE)

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