What to call this thread?

[Crafty_Dog]

I'm sensing the need for a new thread, but I confess I am not yet sure what to call it.

For example we have the 2020 Vivek piece in the Antitrust thread on the Goolag being a quasi monoply over IDEAs, a point made in many of our posts in the Goolag thread/our references to the Controligarchs, etc.

We have the FBI/Intel guidance of the Goolag.

Now we have this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=palHOI8S4-8

Perhaps I will calm down with subsequent listenings, but my initial reaction is one of dumbfounded contemplation of a way of looking at things that had never occurred to me.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1818716704740110579.html

[Crafty_Dog]

https://dailycaller.com/2024/08/26/jonathan-turley-slams-global-censors-telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrest-fox-news/

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.malone.news/p/five-psywar-videos?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=583200&post_id=148161298&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=z2120&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

[Crafty_Dog]

https://amgreatness.com/2024/08/27/mark-zuckerberg-regrets-censoring-hunter-biden-laptop-story/

Mark Zuckerberg Regrets Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story
By Eric Lendrum
August 27, 2024
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted in a letter to Congress that he regrets using his platform to censor the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, while also admitting to pressure from the government to do so.

As Breitbart reports, Zuckerberg sent a letter to Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claiming that the FBI came to him to warn him that the Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a “Russian disinformation operation,” which led to him using his website to actively censor the link to the original story by the New York Post.

Once the article came out, detailing “corruption allegations” against Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and others in the Biden family, Zuckerberg said that Facebook “sent that story to fact-checkers” and had the story “temporarily demoted.”

“The FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election,” Zuckerberg confessed. “That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family, we went that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply.”

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“It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg continued. “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again — for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.”

Zuckerberg had previously admitted to the FBI’s role in pressuring him to censor the story during an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The new letter, however, marks the first time that he has personally admitted fault and confessed to regretting the decision.

Facebook was one of several major social media platforms which censored the story, with the social networking giant altering its algorithm so that any posts featuring the story would not reach as many users as they normally would. On Twitter, any attempt to post the URL to the Post article would see the user blocked from hitting the “post” button, making them literally unable to share the direct link.

The revelation of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which included numerous photos and videos of his drug use as well as his time with prostitutes, also confirmed many of Hunter’s international business deals in order to enrich his family, confirming longstanding allegations of corruption on the part of the entire Biden family. Many voters in the 2020 election admitted in subsequent polls that, if they had known about the scandal, they would not have voted for Joe Biden.

[Crafty_Dog]

Google and California’s New People’s Dailies
Sacramento teams up with Big Tech to fund progressive newsrooms in the state.
By
The Editorial Board
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Updated Aug. 27, 2024 8:35 am ET




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Photo: josh edelson/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Talk about a danger to democracy. Google and Democrats in Sacramento last week struck a $180 million compact to fund state-backed news organizations. It’s hard to see this as anything other than progressives enlisting Big Tech to amplify their views and entrench their political dominance.

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Local newsrooms have been struggling amid a decline in advertising revenue and subscribers in the internet age. This means less news about local events and less scrutiny of local officials. But the worst response would be to have government finance what would amount to state-sanctioned newsrooms.

Enter Democrats, who this month advanced legislation modeled on laws in Australia and Canada that would require large internet platforms to pay publishers a share of their advertising revenue. Google and others threatened to sue and remove links to California news sites if the law passed.

The new agreement between Google and Democrats averts a costly legal fight for both sides. Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed it would ensure “the survival of newsrooms.” Don’t bet on that if he means independent journalism. This collusion between Big Tech and Sacramento will turn media outlets into de facto government subsidiaries.

Google will contribute $110 million, and the state will kick in $70 million, over five years to local newsrooms and journalism programs. Funds will be laundered through a nonprofit dubbed the News Transformation Fund. The fund will be administered by the University of California, Berkeley’s journalism school, and you can imagine what the dominant political views at that school are. As a bonus, Google will be able to deduct its alleged charitable contribution on its federal and state taxes.

The News Transformation Fund is supposed to insulate the media grants from political pressure, but that’s a fantasy. One sign of the nonprofit’s political tilt is that its board will include members from such identity-politics shops as the Ethnic Media Services, Latino Media Collaborative, California Black Media and the Media Guild of the West, which is the union that represents journalists. Other details are vague, though a Democratic press release says the funds will support journalism focused on “underrepresented groups.” Yes, a rainbow coalition of media shops with the same political views.

Don’t expect the nonprofit to back hard-hitting investigations into how California’s union-controlled public schools harm minority children. Will media outlets that want money risk their funding by telling the truth about their political benefactors? They will know to toe the progressive line—while claiming to be unbiased. This won’t improve local journalism.

Local publishers have beseeched Sacramento for help to get more money from the internet platforms, which are gobbling up the giant share of digital ad revenue. That’s in part because the platform ads can better target consumers based on location, demographics and interests. But local newsrooms’ problems defy pat government solutions.

A Pew Research Center survey finds a declining number of Americans are following local news. Many people now crowd-source local news from social media and apps. About 52% of U.S. adults say they get local news from online forums, such as Facebook groups or the Nextdoor app, versus 33% from daily newspapers. People want local sports and community news, more than they want another lecture on the perils of climate change.

California has joined the Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against Google for allegedly monopolizing advertising market technology. Courts may in due course limit its digital ad dominance. But the solution isn’t for Sacramento to conscript tech companies to finance favored media shops by laundering money through a liberal nonprofit.

If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tried this, liberals would be screaming about the threat to a free and independent press. The danger is all the more acute when a one-party state like California does it.

[Body-by-Guinness]

I'm sensing the need for a new thread, but I confess I am not yet sure what to call it.

For example we have the 2020 Vivek piece in the Antitrust thread on the Goolag being a quasi monoply over IDEAs, a point made in many of our posts in the Goolag thread/our references to the Controligarchs, etc.

We have the FBI/Intel guidance of the Goolag.

Now we have this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=palHOI8S4-8

Perhaps I will calm down with subsequent listenings, but my initial reaction is one of dumbfounded contemplation of a way of looking at things that had never occurred to me.

How 'bout "Federal Fascism & Associated Folly?" This piece is a textbook example of fascism, meaning state directed control of private enterprise, while the "federal" term houses this trend in the federal government, while also addressing the strange bedfellows/confederating angle, and "folly" speaks to what typically ensues, particularly when viewed through a constitutional lens.

[Crafty_Dog]

Outrageous. The UAE froze a $17 billion deal with France over the arrest of Russian-born Telegram founder Pavel Durov, according to Kim Dotcom, founder of Megaupload and Mega. Dotcom said on X that the UAE halted the purchase of 80 Rafale fighters and called Durov's arrest "outrageous," noting that Durov is a UAE citizen and a close associate of the deputy prime minister. Durov obtained UAE citizenship in February 2021. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2017, French intelligence, in cooperation with the UAE, hacked Durov's iPhone in a covert operation. French officials were concerned about the use of Durov's messaging app, Telegram, by the Islamic State for recruitment and planning attacks.