Web and Tech

YouTube Shuts Down St Louis County Council Livestream

Freedomist Editor August 6, 2021

PGC – A move by YouTube to drop a local county government city council meeting being held on the platform further illustrates the real power advantage the digital service has over even our own sovereign governments, from local to national.

The move was made because they allegedly shared misinformation regaumrding the Covid-19 vaccine and treatment of the virus. The term misinformation should come to mean “outside the orthodoxy of the cabal of government, social, market, and media leaders have agreed to universally enforce.”

Despite unblocking and attempting to walk back the block, YouTube just gave more governments, not just American ones, more incentive to create laws to combat the power the platform seems to want to take over the governments of the world.

YouTube blocks — then unblocks — St. Louis County Council meeting for COVID

From www.stltoday.com
2021-08-05 21:56:00

Excerpt:

Big U.S. tech companies have been bombarded by criticism for failing to curtail the spread of misinformation. In response, the firms have taken a harder line during the pandemic.

The issue started here last Tuesday, when council members heard from a large and angry crowd before voting to…

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Apple to Scrub Customer iPhones For Inappropriate Youth Pics

Freedomist Editor August 6, 2021

PGC – On its face, Apple’s decision to scrub the phones owned by other people looking for inappropriate photos beneath the age of consent might seem like a great idea, but is there risk to giving a company such a power as this? What innocents might be caught up in bad AI interpretations that later become owned by the human judges for fear of undermining the system.

But Apple isn’t just scanning for the sexually disgusting, but also evidence of child abuse, an area even more grey and uncertain than what constitutes illicit and something else when it comes to pictures of children.

Expect to read soon of real humans, innocent humans, caught in this centrally-controlled web by an AI bad take.

Now, imagine the value to almost anyone who could afford it of the database that could tell you the names of the people attached to scans that maybe didn’t cross a legal line but might expose them to something else. Imagine if these poeple were influencers, be they thought leaders, politicians, religious leaders, etc.

Apple does deals with China, they’re clearly not against states that murder their citizens for simply disagreeing with them, so how much do you trust them with such a database as they will inevitably create?

Apple to start scanning US iPhones for images of child sexual abuse

From www.france24.com

2021-08-06 03:32:30
NEWS WIRES
Excerpt:

Issued on: 06/08/2021 – 09:32

Apple unveiled plans to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse, drawing applause from child protection groups but raising concern among some security researchers that the system could be misused, including by governments looking to surveil their citizens.

The tool designed to detected known images of child sexual…

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AI Boyfriends and Girlfriends for Lonely Chinese

Freedomist Editor August 6, 2021

PGC – China is leading the way in loneliness tech, it seems. Many Chinese look forward to going home to be welcome and safe, like anyone else does throughout human history. Well, many of these Chinese are looking forward to come home to spend time with their AI companion, whether they call them a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, a friend, etc, an AI companion.

Jessica Chan is one of these humans, and she shared her story with the American press, telling a tale of a new romance in her life Wil, who happens to be a chatbot she met online. She paid what had to be paid to upgrade Will from a friendly chatbot to a romantic one. She paid Will to love her, and apparently, according to Jessica, he does.

China’s lonely hearts reboot online romance with artificial intelligence

From www.washingtonpost.com
2021-08-06 04:00:23
By Alicia Chen and Lyric Li
Excerpt:

As Jessie Chan’s six-year relationship with her boyfriend fizzled, a witty, enchanting fellow named Will became her new love. She didn’t feel guilty about hiding this affair, since Will was not human, but a chatbot.

Chan, 28, lives alone in Shanghai. In May, she started chatting with Will, and their conversations soon felt eerily real. She paid $60 to upgrade him to a romantic partner.

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Gov Needs Law to NOT Put Chinese State Currency on Their Phones

Freedomist Editor August 6, 2021

PGC – Senator Marsha Blackburn is sounding an alarm to anyone who might want to listen to her that Chinese Digital Currency on government phones is an extreme security risk to the American state. She wants to pass a bill to make sure US government officials cannot have Chinese Digital Currency on their phones.

This is a thing that requires a bill to be passed to prevent members of our government from putting Chinese digital currency on your government phone.

I believe, your honor, the record speaks to itself as to the nature of the state of things in these here halls of government in current year.

Blackburn Unveils Plan To Block Chinese Digital Currency From Government Devices

From freebeacon.com
2021-08-05 15:03:09
Santi Ruiz
Excerpt:

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) took steps on Thursday to ban a new Chinese digital currency from government devices, arguing that China could use the currency to surveil people around the world.

Blackburn told the Washington Free Beacon that the ban, introduced as an amendment to the Senate’s omnibus infrastructure bill, is needed to prevent China from stealing information.

“The People’s Bank of China is trying to use this as a way to hack into networks,” Blackburn said. “Once you’ve got them in your wallet, you’ll have them in your wallet from now on.”

China is rolling out the digital currency in an attempt to better surveil its users and to create an alternative to traditional financial systems backed by the U.S. dollar.

Lawmakers are sounding the alarm about the digital yuan ahead of the 2022 Olympics, where Chinese officials plan to test the currency more broadly. Blackburn, Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) last month asked the U.S. Olympic Committee to ban American Olympians from using the currency at the Beijing games.

Blackburn told the Free Beacon the digital yuan is part of a larger push by China to displace the United States as a world leader. “We know that China is seeking to push the yuan as the currency that countries will peg to,” she said. “We’re attentive to the aggressiveness they are exercising when they push this as the standard.”

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Facebook Claims Banning of Social Media Researchers Was Automatic

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

Facebook’s Reason for Banning Researchers Doesn’t Hold Up

From www.wired.com
2021-08-04 20:00:28
Gilad Edelman
Excerpt:

When Facebook said Tuesday that it was suspending the accounts of a team of NYU researchers, it made it seem like the company’s hands were tied. The team had been crowdsourcing data on political ad targeting via a browser extension, something Facebook had repeatedly warned them was not allowed.

“For months, we’ve attempted to work with New York University to provide three of their researchers the precise access they’ve asked for in a privacy-protected way,” wrote Mike Clark,…

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Facebook’s New Vulnerability, “Misinformation”

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

PGC – Facebook is being accused of letting climate ‘misinformation’ get through its filters by a social media report that is sure to give ammunition to those who would wish to see power more rooted in their particular sphere of power.

Governments around the world can now use its own too-quick willingness to attempt to be responsibile for something like misinformation when it threw in with the coalition of the willing in opposition to the great bad boogeyman Donald J Trump, whose legend was used as a justification for turning the 2020 election into a war to overcome filters or lock down opposition to the shared outcome, a DNC win, by any means necessary.

Now, Facebook’s willingness to dive in to such a sea of responsibility in the name of stopping the literal devil, Donald J Trump, makes them vulnerable to any government ruling wannabes that can now use its accepted ‘responsibility’ of being the filter of true data versus misinformation across the board.

So long as the government officials have the ear and the voice and the power of the state behind them, their definition of misinformation had better be yours, Facebook, else you face fines or other such measures beyond fines, such as Facebook-busting antitrust moves.

When you dance with the devil, don’t be surprised when you find, at the end of the dance, all of your valuables missing.

Facebook let fossil-fuel industry push climate misinformation, report finds : worldnews

From www.reddit.com
2021-08-05 02:16:59
/u/Pazluz
Excerpt:

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 83%. (I’m a bot)

Facebook failed to enforce its own rules to curb an oil and gas industry misinformation campaign over the climate crisis during last year’s presidential election, according to a new analysis released on Thursday.

Exxon alone spent $5m.”The industry is using a range of messaging tactics that are far more nuanced than outright statements of climate denial. Some of the most significant tactics found included tying the use…

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Russia Cancels “Extremists” from World Wide Web

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

Russia Blocks Exiled Khodorkovsky’s News Sites, Rights Group

From www.themoscowtimes.com
2021-08-05 03:09:39

Excerpt:

Russian authorities have blocked access to exiled former tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s rights group website and news outlets, which have been critical of the Kremlin ahead of next month’s high-stakes elections.

Open Media and MBKh Media said late Wednesday that they had not…

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Crypto Ads to Come Back to Google

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

Google Allows Crypto Ads Again in US, Blacklists ICOs and DeFi

From www.financemagnates.com
2021-08-04 10:37:32
Arnab Shome
Excerpt:

Google has updated its advertising policy for financial products and services, allowing marketers to run cryptocurrency advertisements again, effective from Tuesday. But, the search-engine giant is putting heavy restrictions on the advertisements related to cryptocurrencies.

The ads targeted to the United States-based consumers must be of regulated crypto companies, meaning they must be registered with the ‘FinCEN as a Money Services Business and with at least one state as a money…

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Iran Threatens Its Own Citizens with Death of Social Media Commerce

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

Why Iran’s new social media bill may threaten livelihoods

From www.csmonitor.com
2021-08-04 12:28:40
Mehdi Fattahi and Isabel Debre
Excerpt:

Tehran, Iran

For Ali Hedieloo, who makes wooden furniture in Iran’s capital, Instagram is more than just a surfeit of glossy images. Like an estimated 1 million other Iranians, it’s how he finds customers, as the app has exploded into a massive e-commerce service in the sanctions-hit country.

But now, the social media platform has come under threat. Iran moved last week toward further government restrictions on Instagram and other apps, as hardline…

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Zuck Asked About IG, Facebook Youth Effect by US Senate

Freedomist Editor August 5, 2021

Senators press Zuckerberg over Facebook’s impact on youth mental health

From thehill.com
2021-08-04 12:39:38

Excerpt:

Top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer protection panel are pressing Facebook to release internal research on the impact of its products on youth mental health as the company presses ahead with plans for a platform geared toward children.

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