FTC Commissioner Warns New Report Could Be Used By Big Tech To Justify Censorship
A U.S. Federal Trade Commission official is concerned that a new 129-page report penned by her agency could be easily construed by Big Tech companies to justify the partisan censorship that has plagued their sites for years.
In its “A Look Behind the Scenes: Examining the Data Practices of Social Media and Video Streaming Services” report published last week, the FTC suggests Amazon, Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Twitter, Snap, ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company), Discord, Reddit, and WhatsApp are guilty of participating in a “vast surveillance” operation.
In her Sept. 19 response to the findings, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak agreed that the findings represent “a major step forward” in the fight to protect Americans’ privacy from the Big Tech companies eager to invade it. Yet, she expressed “grave” concern that the report “is unclear exactly how its analysis or recommendations will affect free speech.”
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Holyoak noted, however, that the FTC’s repeated calls for “more stringent testing and monitoring standards” without defining what that means or what content it applies to could put Americans’ First Amendment rights at further risk of infringement.
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Holyoak also noted that FTC Chair Lina Khan is aware of how Big Tech companies are “‘susceptible to coordination with — or cooptation — by the government,’ and that dominant social media companies ‘allow[] a small number of executives to determine whose views are amplified or silenced.’” Yet the report Khan signed off on “fails to account for potential effects on free speech.”
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She also warned that the social media censors euphemistically referred to as “trust and safety professionals” could easily use use the FTC’s report to rationalize shutting down dissident speech.
The FTC’s disdain for certain viewpoints posted to Big Tech social media sites is no secret. In July 2023, the agency, cheered on by corporate media, Democrats, and X employees, weaponized itself against Elon Musk’s X for “seceding from the censorship complex.”
“I am concerned that such suggestions and recommendations may further limit free speech online, even where the intent is not directly to suppress free speech,” Holyoak concluded.
More good stuff today presented in the Comments section. Thank y’all for doing this and supplying real info that likely will not show up much in the newspapers or the TV news programs unless it is way too big to be buried. Or the British media have already reported it, and they can’t be ignored. 🙂
Congrats Astros!!
I was just reading an article about these neighborhoods in Haifa last night. Now they are being carpet bombed by Hezbollah.
TEXPAT: Did you hear about this? Retired Orange County, NY judge self terminates as the FBI was coming to arrest him for bribery. The judge resigned suddenly earlier this year.
It looks like this interminable, damnable Summer is coming to an end tomorrow night.
Thank God.
Listened to the wascally wimpy wAbbott interview on Chris Salcedo’s show today. dr Phil good’s take is we’re done if the election is stolen again. he has no game plan or backup plan for Texas. he sounds like a very scared wAbbott. the pull my finger party has lost the country on purpose. I bet people would be shocked at the dirt the deep state ducks have on them. 325k kids missing and they don’t say or do a thing about it. we have zee photos comrades and vee vill vuse zem eff nveed be. does 1+1 =2 or 3?… Read more »
Did anyone else here notice the US military flew Ukraine’s Zelensky to Pennsylvania on a USAF C-17 where he disembarked and immediately started giving campaign speeches for Kamala Harris ? He criticized Trump and called JD Vance a radical.
How in the hell is this legal ? How is this not a violation of the principle of a politically neutral, agnostic US military ? This is so effing outrageous. It’s time to clean house at the Pentagon, seriously.
Super Dave better buy a boat and get ready to evacuate. That hurricane is coming straight for his house.
An insiders look at a Box family reunion.
Trump trolls the Cackler over french fries.
I guess bovine musculature kills da blog.
Everything you ever wanted to know about bovine myology and how to cut your own beef. I’ve been catching some videos over yonder of butchers and meat scientists touting the money savings involved in getting big chunks of meat such as a “ribeye roll” and cutting my own steaks. One Australian meat scientist pointed me towards this site.
Just finished 30 treadmill minutes, just shy of 1.75 miles. Breathing through my nose, not my mouth. I feel better. I could’ve pushed through to two miles, but I’m not enthusiastic about pushing right now. My thighs are better than yesterday, but still recovering my efforts on Sunday to protect my knees during my sudden downward trajectory.
Progress.
I’m looking forward to the forecasted cool front, due to blow through soon. The weekend is looking to be very nice weather. Maybe I’ll try to clean up the back porch.
The RNC is more legally active this time around: RNC Sues Over Mail-In Ballots in Red State Where Almost No One Uses Mail-In Ballots… But It COULD Be a Smart Move. But the move could trigger challenges in other states where mail-in ballots matter far more. Currently, around 20 others, including Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, California, and New York, allow the counting of mail-in ballots received days after the election if they meet arbitrary postmark deadlines. The RNC’s move is a marked change from past election legal strategies—this time, it is suing in a state with a relatively friendly appellate division and potentially setting… Read more »
i listened to an interview with Jim Jordan on Chris Salcedo’s ksev show yesterday. it was the usual uninspiring republican’t montage of we can’t do this and we can’t do that. He listed all the things the totalitariancrats are doing but forgot to mention the pull my finger party is funding all of it and doing nothing to stop it. he even mentioned them sending one of their infamous letters about an issue. I bettencourt guffawed so hard I almost blew my eardrums out. they don’t wanna win and they don’t want Trump to win. they’re the quintessential compromised sellouts.… Read more »
Where we are headed, if the left wins elections:
Because dissent is “misinformation”.
Found a comment about nanoplastics in the brain:
Good question.
Revisiting the expose video from Crowder’s undercover Mug Club citizen journalist about Dr. Varna having sex parties during the lockdown – the story has had some results: It was absurd all right. The good news is shame still exists. It turns out that shame has been badly underrated.But even better was yesterday’s New York Post headline: “Ex-NYC COVID czar fired from job after copping to drug-fueled sex parties during pandemic.” Boom!After leaving his lucrative taxpayer-funded job wrecking New York City, Dr. Varma landed another lucrative job with a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, SIGA Technologies. Yesterday, SIGA unemotionally notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that… Read more »
We have one, that’s right ONE, refueling oiler ship in the entire Middle East and it just ran aground. The ship’s sad story has all the elements that are now bedeviling the Americans it serves thanks to the malevolent, arrogant, indifferent clowns who currently rule over us.Almost a year ago, I wrote something I headlined, “US Maritime Woes: God Forbid We Go to War.” I was trying to shine a light on the utterly shameful, almost downright criminal neglect with which the Biden-HARRIS administration had treated our US Merchant Marine Fleet. It operates under the auspices of the US Maritime Administration… Read more »
Next, Mr. C. is dubious concerning the “letter” that the WBA (“wanna be assa$$in) left behind. Like – seriously? Months before his attempt, he leaves a “failure letter” behind? And why was this first page (second page not disseminated by the FBLie) so quickly made public? Could it have something to do with the $150K offer for someone to finish his work? Again, this smells, along with his other questionable life events – trips to Ukraine, his get-out-of-jail-free history, etc. Finally, from a purely legal standpoint, including the letter in yesterday’s proceeding made some sense. The DOJ’s case for pretrial… Read more »
The next story is related to Mr. C’s first story about the recycling lie. I read an article recently that nanoplastics are being found in human brains – it seems we can actually BREATHE THEM IN! It looks like we’re breathing the microplastics in, right out of the air. Then they can go straight to the brain.“The olfactory pathway is a potential major entry route for plastic into the brain, meaning that breathing within indoor environments could be a major source of plastic pollution in the brain,” explained Professor Thais Mauad, lead researcher from the University of São Paulo.The list of potential… Read more »
I know that I’ve linked to Penn & Teller’s “Bullwiss!” show before, the one that discusses the fallacy about environmentally friendly recycling. The upshot of their investigation was that the only items worth recycling were aluminum cans – a good recycling candidate – and some glass, under certain circumstances. Otherwise, the recycling process uses more resources and is more polluting than using virgin materials. I’m all for conservation, but it needs to make sense. I store food in both Mylar bags and glass jars, but I like jars because they can be reused indefinitely. Mylar bags can be reused by… Read more »
This is huge and a big smackdown of wind and solar fantasies and the Green New Deal. BREAKING IN NYC: WORLD’S BIGGEST BANKS PLEDGE SUPPORT FOR NUCLEARBanks and funds totaling $14 TRILLION in assets have just signed an unprecedented statement in support of nuclear power.They’ll be presenting the pledge to support the goal of tripling nuclear THIS MORNING at the Rockefeller Center in New York City to kick off NY Climate Week.A few of the names:Bank of AmericaBarclaysBNP ParibasBrookfieldCitiCredit AgricoleGoldman SachsMorgan StanleyRothschild & CoThe pledge comes after Microsoft signs deal to buy $16 billion in electricity from a revived Three… Read more »
Today’s C&C roundup:
Good morning, C&C, it’s Tuesday! Your roundup today includes: reporting on experts’ plastic scam over plastic recycling picks up momentum; plastic isn’t nearly as good for you as experts originally assured us; Trump shooter news as evidence tumbles out, including a bizarre handwritten confession letter; Representative Gaetz claims at least five assassination teams including one from Ukraine; the thing that isn’t happening is happening again somewhere else; and the best news of the week proves shame still exists.
Finally checking in (two rosaries this morning) and reading up on all of the evils of the world. As I was stringing beads, I listened to an “Armor of God” podcast about Halloween. AoG is one of my subscriptions on YT, and the format is usually a lot of clips from interviews with priests and exorcists. Given the upcoming day, the discussion was about the Satanic events that surround the “celebrations”. Not only are animals sacrificed, but humans as well. People disappear just before the day and are never seen again. Perusing some of the comments, one guy commented to… Read more »
Somewhere in Texas yesterday, Matt Gaetz was speaking at some event for Texas Youth Action and then this happened…you gotta watch the video.
Send the wild monkeys after all these child molesters and pornographers !! Maybe the perverts will get Monkeypox. [T]he man was seen on CCTV leading the child, who is only 6 years old, down a lane in Baghpat, near New Delhi, over the weekend. The suspect then proceeded to pull her into an abandoned house, where he undressed her and began to sexually assault her.Fortunately, a troop of local monkeys put a stop to the rape after seemingly witnessing what was happening. In what has been perceived as a heroic effort to protect the child, the pack of primates rushed… Read more »
Everything (or everyone) is spinning out of control…
As only Ace can tell it. The background on “slutbag”* Olivia Nuzzi and the sabotage of RFK Jr to ruin his endorsement of Trump. It’s a long one, but Ace left nothing out – it’s full coverage. *Nuzzi once worked for congressman Anthony Weiner in NYC and the woman who was his chief of staff called Olivia Nuzzi a “slutbag”. Olivia Nuzzi is a “star” reporter, which means she worked for the unprofessional scandal sheet The Daily Beast. Only in a sh**hole country would that Animal House of trashcan Marxists be considered a journalistic outlet which could launch a career.She then began… Read more »
Foundation for Freedom Online has a report about the indoctrination of American children in public schools. This is some serious crap. “Media Literacy,” which teaches school children which information sources to trust and which to avoid, is expanding at the state level.Ed-tech platform Newsela, which is used in over 90% of American schools, is a leading provider of media literacy educational material.Newsela makes news articles readable for children of different reading levels, but it only partners with legacy media institutions like the New York Times and Washington Post to source content.Facing public distrust and declining viewership of mainstream media, Newsela’s legacy… Read more »
The Daily Mail organized a focus group of undecided black voters in Georgia. Video at the link. NEW: Black undecided voters in Georgia say the economy was better under Donald Trump, think Kamala Harris is weak.The focus group was conducted by Daily Mail pollster J.L. Partners’ James Johnson.The voters voiced their concerns that Harris is a “weak” leader who keeps changing her positions.Some notable quotes from the focus group:1. “If you look at the statistics now, we’re far worse now than we were before. Everything is worse now with Biden and Harris.”2. “Even though Trump didn’t make all the right… Read more »
Know this: The Biden/Harris administration has brought heavy pressure on Brazilian authorities to disrupt and threaten Elon Musk’s companies. Elon Musk has been at war with the hard-core leftist thugacracy running Brazil. X (Twitter) and Starlink satellite internet service has vastly increased internet access across the huge nation and X has become the main platform delivering news and opinion there. The tyrants running the country are infuriated because they can’t control it and public opinion. Elon Musk has refused to allow censorship so now they issued warrants for Musk’s arrest and seized millions of dollars from the 2 companies’ accounts.… Read more »
Miranda Devine and Melania Trump.
I met the grooviest chick at the bar last night. I think that I will dedicate a song to her on the radio. 😀
So you think that being able to institutionally recognize mental illness is an easy thing? Watch this and re-evaluate your position.
I’d say that the coffee musta’ hit. 😉
I saw this neat old picture over yonder and what got my attention was the fine old Savage 99, with a scope no less. You don’t see 99’s much anymore but there is one, in a gun vise, on my Murphy table right now. I just got around to mounting and bore sighting my Vortex 2.5-10 40 MM scope on my beautiful old Savage 99 in .358 Winchester.
BTW; About my reply to Bone’s @ 6:58 AM, I don’t think that the IDF should have warned the savages that lived in the houses hiding the missiles. It seems to me that if you’re willing to help the terrorists you are one of them.
Mornin’ Gang
Surgically precise airstrikes in Lebanon.
FIRSTICUS!