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Facebook-Backed Advocacy Group Will Spread Message that Big Tech Is ‘Essential’ to Free Speech

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Facebook is helping set up a new political advocacy group in D.C., called “American Edge,” hoping to dissuade lawmakers against regulating big tech companies, according to a report in the Washington Post.

According to the report, the Facebook-backed lobbying group will attempt to convince federal lawmakers that big tech companies are “essential to the U.S. economy and the future of free speech.”

Via the Washington Post:

The organization is called American Edge, and it aims through a barrage of advertising and other political spending to convince policymakers that Silicon Valley is essential to the U.S. economy and the future of free speech, according to three people familiar with the matter as well as documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the group because it hasn’t officially been announced.

(Read more from “Facebook-Backed Advocacy Group Will Spread Message that Big Tech Is ‘Essential’ to Free Speech” HERE)

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DISGUSTING: Democrats’ Impeachment “Expert” Now Helps Determine Which Posts Facebook Decides to Publicize

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By The Hill. Pamela Karlan, the constitutional law expert at Stanford Law School who testified before the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry against president Trump last year, is one of the 20 members of Facebook’s independent oversight board.

Facebook announced the members of the board, including four co-chairs Wednesday.

The co-chairs include Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a former Danish prime minister, Michael McConnell, a constitutional law professor at Stanford University, Jamal Greene, a Columbia law professor, and Catalina Botero-Marino, dean of Universidad de los Andes faculty of law.

During impeachment proceedings, the House Judiciary Committee held hearings with four constitutional law experts, including Karlan, to determine whether the president’s actions amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Following a whistleblower complaint, the House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry to determine whether Trump leveraged military aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on his chief political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. (Read more from “DISGUSTING: Democrats’ Impeachment “Expert” Now Helps Determine Which Posts Facebook Decides to Publicize” HERE)

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Facebook content oversight member reportedly linked to Muslim Brotherhood

By The Jerusalem Post. A member of Facebook’s new oversight board, which will have control of the content moderation process for the social media platform, has in the past expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and media reports.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced the first 20 members of its oversight board, which has been handed the final say on what user-generated content the platform removes. Among the members are Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Tawakkol Karman, who was awarded the accolade for her role in the Arab Spring.

However, she also appears to have links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been proscribed as a terror organization by several countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bahrain. The Muslim Brotherhood has stated that its aim is the establishment of a state run under Sharia law. It is also the precursor to Hamas.

When Karman won the peace prize in 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood’s official website, Ihkwanweb, put out a statement congratulating her and recognizing her as a member of a Muslim Brotherhood branch. . .

Karman herself has also made public statements in support of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Read more from “Facebook content oversight member reportedly linked to Muslim Brotherhood” HERE)

[Photo Credit: www.thoughtcatalog.com]

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Facebook Bans Anti-Quarantine Event Posts; Fauci Says Protesters Could Prolong Shutdown

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By New York Post. . .The social-media company has removed events set up by protestors in states such as Nebraska, California and New Jersey, where thousands of protestors — masked and unmasked alike — have gathered in the hopes of opening up the country in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook,” a company spokesperson tells The Post. “For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook.”

Events were removed in states where protests violate stay-at-home orders. Protests are raging across the country over states’ shelter-in-place warnings, with many claiming there are enough tests available to open up businesses again. Health officials warn that we’re not quite there yet, however.

Over the weekend, rallies took place in cities such as Denver, Colorado, where protestors came head-to-head with health-care workers in a battle over social distancing. Across California, organizers carried signs that read “Open Cali Now” and “Saltwater Is Safe,” referring to beach closures in the state. (Read more from “Facebook Bans Anti-Quarantine Event Posts” HERE)

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‘It’s Going to Backfire’: Fauci Says Anti-Quarantine Protesters Could Prolong Shutdown

By MSN. Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the leading experts in the White House’s response to the coronavirus, warned demonstrations happening across the country protesting the quarantine orders will prolong the shutdown period.

Residents in at least 20 states have taken to the streets to protest their governor’s stay-at-home orders, arguing that the country should start to reopen and recover from the virus. More than 21 million people have lost their jobs in the last four weeks.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked about the dangers of these protests during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday.

“I think the message is that, clearly, this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics, from the standpoint of things that have nothing to do with the virus,” Fauci said. “But unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery, economically, is not gonna happen.” (Read more from “‘It’s Going to Backfire’: Fauci Says Anti-Quarantine Protesters Could Prolong Shutdown” HERE)

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Australia’s Bold Plan for Big Tech to Pay Media Companies May Level Playing Field

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By New York Post. Australia just took a major step toward leveling the playing field between Big Tech firms like Facebook and Google and financially hard-hit media companies, setting what could be a critical precedent for other nations.

On Monday, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced plans to force the digital behemoths to pay news and other media outlets for their content, as part of a mandatory “code of conduct” to be presented in July. The move came after “insufficient progress” on a voluntary code.

“It is only fair that the search engines and social-media giants pay for the original news content” they use, Frydenberg said. He cited data showing between 8 and 14 percent of Google search results include reports from news sites. Yet the digital platforms wind up with a huge share of online advertising bucks: Google gets 47 cents of every dollar; Facebook, 24 cents. (Read more from “Australia’s Bold Plan for Big Tech to Pay Media Companies May Level Playing Field” HERE)

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Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion for 9.99% Stake in India’s Jio Platforms

By CNN. Facebook is pumping billions of dollars into Jio Platforms, the digital technology arm of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries.

The deal, announced Wednesday, will see Facebook (FB) invest $5.7 billion for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms, giving the Silicon Valley company a key foothold in one of the world’s fastest growing internet markets.

Jio Platforms has several services under its umbrella, including Reliance Jio, the mobile network that has signed up nearly 390 million subscribers since launching three and a half years ago. Reliance also has a retail arm, and the tie-up includes a commercial partnership with Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp that potentially paves the way for Facebook to monetize WhatsApp’s 340 million users in India. (Read more from “Facebook Invests $5.7 Billion for 9.99% Stake in India’s Jio Platforms” HERE)

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Facebook Will Steer Users Who Interact With Coronavirus Misinformation to WHO

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Facebook will begin to alert users after they’ve been exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus, the company announced Thursday, the latest in a series of actions to curtail the spread of wrong or misleading claims related to the pandemic.

Users who have liked, commented on or otherwise reacted to coronavirus misinformation that Facebook has flagged and removed as “harmful” will be directed to a website debunking coronavirus myths from the World Health Organization.

The announcement came in a blog post written by Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity.

“We want to connect people who may have interacted with harmful misinformation about the virus with the truth from authoritative sources in case they see or hear these claims again off of Facebook,” Rosen wrote.

The new alert will not identify the specific post containing harmful misinformation, according to a Facebook spokesperson, who said the company was relying on research that shows that repeated exposure — even in fact checks — can sometimes reinforce misinformed beliefs. (Read more from “Facebook Will Steer Users Who Interact With Coronavirus Misinformation to WHO” HERE)

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Zuckerberg Owned Instagram ‘Fact-Checking,’ Filtering Satirical Posts and Memes

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Facebook-owned Instagram is “fact-checking” satirical posts and memes on the platform via its third-party fact-checkers, and filtering them from hashtag and “explore” results.

A spokeswoman for Facebook confirmed that satirical images of far-left climate activist Greta Thunberg had indeed been tagged with warnings that “fact-checkers” had rated the images as “false,” as originally reported by Summit.

“We work with third-party fact-checkers to help identify, review, and label false information on Instagram,” said the spokeswoman. “When content is rated as false or partly false by a third-party fact-checker, we reduce its distribution by removing it from Explore and hashtag pages. In addition, we label the content so people can better decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share.” . . .

This is not the first time that a Facebook property has confused satire with factual assertions. Facebook itself landed itself in controversy last summer when it warned the Christian conservative satirical website The Babylon Bee that its content would be suppressed on the platform if it continued to post articles that were disputed by fact-checkers. (Read more from “Zuckerberg Owned Instagram ‘Fact-Checking,’ Filtering Satirical Posts and Memes” HERE)

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Gun Owners Beware: Facebook Using Photos to Keep Track of Your Weapons

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It’s no secret that technology plays an important role in our lives. Almost every single aspect of our life is ruled by technology, from smart phones to computers and the internet. That’s why it’s not surprising to know that Google and Facebook are keeping tabs on gun owners’ firearms.

According to The Firearms Blog (TFB), the two tech giants are scanning users’ pictures to look for serial numbers. They’re then creating an index of every person’s firearms based on the image scans. If you’ve posted a picture of your firearm on a social networking site and didn’t smear out the serial number, chances are it’s indexed on Google images. Simply type in the serial number in quotes and search images. What comes up?

The guys at TFB went through their image library and found images of various firearms and silencers where the serial number is clearly visible. They then typed it into Google and viola! Every image from their website showed up in the image results.

Although it’s unlikely for a random person to have your the serial number on your firearms, it is absolutely dangerous for social media giants to have this information. Facebook and Instagram are both owned by the same company. Same with YouTube and Google. When these platforms data mine this information, this creates an extremely dangerous situation. (Read more from “Gun Owners Beware: Facebook Using Photos to Keep Track of Your Weapons” HERE)

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BIAS: Facebook CEO and His Wife Privately Recommended Staff Hires to Pete Buttigieg

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has privately made hiring recommendations to presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, the Indiana Democrat’s campaign confirmed Monday, revealing that the Big Tech executive has played a larger role in the 2020 election than was previously known.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recommended two individuals earlier this year who were ultimately hired, campaign spokesman Chris Meagher said. The recommendations came “around the launch when we were getting a ton of incoming resumes,” Meagher wrote in a text message, confirming a report by Bloomberg News.

The suggestions are notable because they come amid heightened scrutiny on the social media platform. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another Democratic contender, has threatened to break up the company and other technology giants, while conservatives have accused Zuckerberg of censoring right-wing voices.

Facebook has been accused of providing a platform for disinformation during the last presidential election, and has been criticized for refusing to remove ads for President Donald Trump’s reelection that include false information. . .

Buttigieg has criticized Facebook and the other Big Tech platforms, though he has not gone as far as Warren. In April, Buttigieg said that he would empower the FTC to take on a heightened regulatory role when it came to Facebook and the other platforms. In May, Buttigieg said that Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes “made a very convincing case” about how Zuckerberg and other tech executives had too much power. Hughes has since left the company. (Read more from “Bias: Facebook CEO and His Wife Privately Recommended Staff Hires to Pete Buttigieg” HERE)

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Facebook Reportedly Spent More Than $500 Million to Buy a Mind-Reading Technology Startup

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. . .The company, CTRL-Labs, makes a wristband that is said to decode electrical signals from your brain. By wearing the wristband, the company says, you’ll be able to control a computer using your thoughts.

“You have neurons in your spinal cord that send electrical signals to your hand muscles telling them to move in specific ways such as to click a mouse or press a button,” Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth said in a Facebook post announcing the acquisition. “The wristband will decode those signals and translate them into a digital signal your device can understand, empowering you with control over your digital life.”

Notably, Facebook isn’t really in the consumer electronics business (with the exception of its Portal smart camera device). Facebook is mostly in the ad sales business, and it uses data provided by its users to power that business. As such, the device described above is being received as yet another way for Facebook to gather user data. . .

This reaction was representative of most of the reactions to Bosworth’s tweet.

“Why would anyone want to give a company w/ FB’s business model knowing access to their spinal cord data?” another user responded. “How is that even an intuitive way to interact with a device? Given ya’ll’s privacy missteps, why shouldn’t the intuition be to instead avoid FB products as much as possible?” (Read more from “Facebook Reportedly Spent More Than $500 Million to Buy a Mind-Reading Technology Startup” HERE)

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Facebook Employee Jumps to His Death from Roof of Company’s Headquarters

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A Facebook employee has died at the company’s headquarters campus in Silicon Valley in what police call an apparent suicide.

Horrified bystanders in Menlo Park, California called 911 at about 11.30am on Thursday after an adult male jumped from the top of a four-story building on the 100 block of Jefferson Drive.

Paramedics rushed to Facebook’s sprawling campus and rendered first aid, but the victim was declared dead on the scene.

The deceased individual has not been publicly identified pending family notification, but Facebook confirmed in a statement to DailyMail.com that he was an employee. . .

‘We’re cooperating with police in their investigation and providing support to employees. While the family is being notified, we have not information to share,’ the statement continued. (Read more from “Facebook Employee Jumps to His Death from Roof of Company’s Headquarters” HERE)

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