Beyond Platforms: Private Censorship, Parler, and the Stack
[Media] [Social]
Beyond Platforms: Private Censorship, Parler, and the Stack
By Jillian C. York, Corynne McSherry, and Danny O’Brien
Posted February 28, 2021
Whatever you think of Parler, these decisions should give you pause. Private companies have strong legal rights under U.S. law to refuse to host or support speech they don’t like. But that refusal carries different risks when a group of companies comes together to ensure that certain speech or speakers are effectively taken offline altogether.
At the top of the stack are services like Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter, platforms whose decisions about who to serve (or what to allow) are comparatively visible, though still far too opaque to most users. Their responses can be comparatively targeted to specific users and content and, most importantly, do not cut off as many alternatives. For instance, a discussion forum lies close to the top of the stack: if you are booted from such a platform, there are other venues in which you can exercise your speech.
At the other end of the stack are internet service providers (ISPs), like Comcast or AT&T. Decisions made by companies at this layer of the stack to remove content or users raise greater concerns for free expression, especially when there are few if any competitors. For example, it would be very concerning if the only broadband provider in your area cut you off because they didn’t like what you said online—or what someone else whose name is on the account said. The adage “if you don’t like the rules, go elsewhere” doesn’t work when there is nowhere else to go. More…
US Bombs Syria & Ridiculously Claims Self Defense
[Politics] [Media]
US Bombs Syria & Ridiculously Claims Self Defense
by Caitlin Johnstone
Posted February 27, 2021
On orders of President Biden, the United States has launched an airstrike on a facility in Syria. As of this writing the exact number of killed and injured is unknown, with early reports claiming “a handful” of people were killed.
Rather than doing anything remotely resembling journalism, the western mass media have opted instead to uncritically repeat what they’ve been told about the airstrike by U.S. officials, which is the same as just publishing Pentagon press releases.
So we are being told that the United States launched an airstrike on Syria, a nation it invaded and is illegally occupying, because of attacks on “U.S. locations” in Iraq, another nation the U.S. invaded and is illegally occupying. This attack is justified on the basis that the Iraqi fighters were “Iranian-linked”, a claim that is both entirely without evidence and irrelevant to the justification of deadly military force. And this is somehow being framed in mainstream news publications as a defensive operation.
This is Defense Department stenography. The U.S. military is an invading force in both Syria and Iraq; it is impossible for its actions in either of those countries to be defensive. It is always necessarily the aggressor. It’s the people trying to eject them who are acting defensively. The deaths of U.S. troops and contractors in those countries can only be blamed on the powerful people who sent them there. More…
The Florida Versus California Showdown
[Social]
The Florida Versus California Showdown
by Amelia Janaskie
Posted February 27, 2021
Florida and California are remarkably similar for their warm climates, beaches, tourist destinations, immigrant populations, and more, but both states could not be more different with respect to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Florida operates on close to zero pandemic-related restrictions whereas California maintains strict lockdown policies.
In California, virtually all public schools are closed, restaurants must follow unwavering capacity limits, travelers must quarantine for ten days, and on the list goes. Meanwhile, Florida’s schools are all open for in-person instruction, state-wide restrictions do not exist for restaurants, and there is no travel quarantine implemented by the state. All of these details point to Florida’s current stringency score being low at 33.8 compared to California’s 58.8.
While the media labels California Governor Newsom a “lockdown fanatic” for his authoritarian approach, they call Florida Governor DeSantis “DeathSantis” for being too relaxed. The two governors are polar opposites in how they handle Covid, but their outcomes are peculiarly similar. More…
Why You Should Care About The Number Of People Who Overdosed On Cannabis In 2020
[Social]
Why You Should Care About The Number Of People Who Overdosed On Cannabis In 2020
by Matt Agorist
Posted February 27, 2021
If the CDC calculated the number of deaths inflicted by police while enforcing marijuana laws, that number would certainly be shocking and could even be deemed a risk to public health. Marijuana is, indeed, dangerous, but only because of what can happen to you if the police catch you with it.
Nothing highlights the hypocrisy, immorality, and sheer idiocy of the drug war quite like marijuana prohibition. Here we have a medicine that kills cancer cells, saves the lives of countless epileptic children, heals broken bones, relieves pain, treats PTSD, is not dangerous, and exhibits a variety of other incredible benefits – yet the state will kill you over it.
So why do these tyrants keep it illegal? More…
Student Surveillance Vendor Proctorio Files SLAPP Lawsuit to Silence A Critic
[Media] [Justice]
Student Surveillance Vendor Proctorio Files SLAPP Lawsuit to Silence A Critic
By Joe Mullin
Posted February 26, 2021
During the pandemic, a dangerous business has prospered: invading students’ privacy with proctoring software and apps. In the last year, we’ve seen universities compel students to download apps that collect their face images, driver’s license data, and network information. Students who want to move forward with their education are sometimes forced to accept being recorded in their own homes and having the footage reviewed for “suspicious” behavior.
Given these invasions, it’s no surprise that students and educators are fighting back against these apps. Last fall, Ian Linkletter, a remote learning specialist at the University of British Columbia, became part of a chorus of critics concerned with this industry.
Now, he’s been sued for speaking out. The outrageous lawsuit—which relies on a bizarre legal theory that linking to publicly viewable videos is copyright infringement—will become an important test of a 2019 British Columbia law passed to defend free speech, the Protection of Public Participation Act, or PPPA. More…
Whisphers in the Wind
[Justice] [Social]
Whisphers in the Wind
by Kym Robinson
Posted February 26, 2021
For the rest of the world, we are forced to watch the melodrama of U.S. politics, again. As though the United States is the centre of the world, or universe. Perhaps the world should care less about what happens inside the U.S. with as much concern as the average American seems to care about the rest of the world. Millions of humans lead their lives despite the petty and often pathetic self importance of US partisan politics and yet some how, the American empire finds them. Whether it is a drone hovering high above, visiting with random murder or a blockade of warships enforcing an almost ancient embargo, it is the American prevalence in all of our lives that seems to be destroying not only the U.S. itself, but the wider world. And when a victor emerges, the world still gets war. Mostly American wars.
Journalist Julian Assange is held captive in legal purgatory, punished for revealing the crimes of war mongers and lifting the up the skirt of many governments. Ross Ulbrycht a prisoner because he created a website, the details of his conviction would make for an unbelievable fiction and yet it was all too real. Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning are pariah patriots, believers in the religious texts that most Americans claim to uphold and yet most of the voting public and voted for rulers disregard the details of such a constitution and Bill of Rights. More…
The ZeroCovid Movement: Cult Dressed as Science
[Social]
The ZeroCovid Movement: Cult Dressed as Science
by Jenin Younes
Posted February 25, 2021
This past year has given rise to some strange and novel methods of disease containment, including lockdowns and mask mandates. It is unsurprising that the natural next step in this progression has been the development of a movement known as “ZeroCovid.” Its growing influence is, perhaps, predictable given that for nearly a year we have been inundated by the views of so-called experts seeking to legitimize their myopic worldview that public health is determined solely by prevention of Covid-19.
Rather than acknowledge to a weary public that their approach has been a failure, they are doubling down and attempting to save their reputations by claiming that the problem is not that lockdowns do not work, but that they have not gone far enough.
ZeroCovid adherents are not qualitatively different from the epidemiologists and politicians who have advocated for and imposed lockdowns and mask mandates across the globe. They all believe that they can force billions of people to behave, for an indefinite time period, in ways that are contrary to our nature and deleterious to our well-being. They see nothing wrong with assuming control over every facet of our lives.
They are maniacally focused upon theories and models, and uninterested in what works in practice. They have no conception of human liberty or dignity. Rather than recognize that lockdowns, forced human separation, and masks are ineffective at quelling the spread of the coronavirus, while carrying enormous costs. More…
Re-inventing Work: An Interview with Matthew Fox
[Economic] [Spiritual]
Re-inventing Work: An Interview with Matthew Fox
by Leslee Goodman
Posted February 25, 2021
What is the difference between “a job” and “work”?
Work is your calling; your purpose; what you’ve come here to do in this lifetime. A job is something we do to pay our bills. The ideal job combines the two—enabling you to get paid to fulfill your calling. Sometimes, though, you have to settle for a job to pay your rent—at least temporarily—and fulfill your purpose in your off-work hours.
It’s important to know the difference because I think that a lot of people’s dissatisfaction with their jobs eats away at their real work if they don’t realize they can do both. Joy is the sign of real work: the joy that you derive from doing it and the joy that others derive from the result. If the joy is missing, it’s not your work; it’s a job. We have a right to joy in our work. In writing The Reinvention of Work I researched all of the world’s great spiritual traditions to see what they said about work. They have a lot to say about it and they agree on this and many other principles of work—that joy is integral to it. More…
After Mnuchin Demanded that Fed Chair Powell Return Hundreds of Billions from Its Emergency Lending Facilities, Fed Sends Back Just $41.3 Billion
[Economic] {Justice]
After Mnuchin Demanded that Fed Chair Powell Return Hundreds of Billions from Its Emergency Lending Facilities, Fed Sends Back Just $41.3 Billion
By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Posted February 24, 2021
We have become convinced that the allocation of $454 billion under the CARES Act stimulus legislation to cover any losses incurred in the Fed’s emergency bailout programs was a dog and pony show created by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (who has testified to Congress that he helped write the legislation) in order to provide Mnuchin with a slush fund to trade in markets. (See Trump Issued an Executive Memorandum Giving Mnuchin a $50 Billion Slush Fund; Mnuchin Gave Himself $386 Billion More.)
Our suspicions are heightened by the fact that the Fed ran very similar emergency bailout programs from 2007 to 2010 and did not require any funds from the Treasury to backstop losses. The Fed simply relied on collateral from the Wall Street firms borrowing from the Fed. If those firms don’t have the collateral today, then they’re likely insolvent and not legally allowed to borrow from the Fed. More…
Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment
[Media] [Political]
Congress Escalates Pressure on Tech Giants to Censor More, Threatening the First Amendment
by Glenn Greenwald
Posted February 23, 2021
For the third time in less than five months, the U.S. Congress has summoned the CEOs of social media companies to appear before them, with the explicit intent to pressure and coerce them to censor more content from their platforms.
House Democrats have made no secret of their ultimate goal with this hearing: to exert control over the content on these online platforms. “Industry self-regulation has failed,” they said, and therefore “we must begin the work of changing incentives driving social media companies to allow and even promote misinformation and disinformation.” In other words, they intend to use state power to influence and coerce these companies to change which content they do and do not allow to be published.
I’ve written and spoken at length over the past several years about the dangers of vesting the power in the state, or in tech monopolies, to determine what is true and false, or what constitutes permissible opinion and what does not. I will not repeat those points here. More…
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Quotable Sayings
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
______________________________
You do not become a billionaire through labor. You become a billionaire through inheritance, corruption or economic rents – or, in most cases, some mixture of all three.
Grace Blakeley
______________________________
Mainstream American liberals think they’re clear-eyed because they can see the propaganda strings being pulled by Fox and Donald Trump, and mainstream American conservatives think they’re clear-eyed because they can see the propaganda strings being pulled by MSNBC and the Democrats, but the propaganda strings on both trace back to the same puppet master. And seeing that is just the beginning.
Caitlin Johnstone
______________________________
You alone are the judge of your worth and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.
Deepak Chopra
_____________________________
It is obvious that the US government is destroying Assange to signal to journalists the consequences of publishing information. It is therefore also obvious that any journalist who fails to use whatever platform they have to speak out against Assange’s persecution has no intention of ever publishing anything that the US government doesn’t want published. Their silence on or support for what is being done to this man can and should be taken as an admission that they are nothing other than state propagandists.
Caitlin Johnstone
_____________________________
It’s quite fitting that the – imperially pre-determined – judicial fate of Julian Assange is being played out in Britain, the home of George Orwell.
Pepe Escobar
_____________________________
