Free Republic

Search for the word “fat” on Twitter and you’ll likely find a torrent of criticisms, insults, and jokes at overweight people’s expense. Now researchers have undertaken such an experiment in a much more systematic way, across a variety of platforms — and what they’ve found may give the public health community a look at the reality of being overweight online.

Isa Infante, the liberal Green Party candidate running for governor in Tennessee, is hiring people to create profiles on social media, such as Reddit, pretend to be an average user, then push for her "progressive" agenda. Ms. Infante is a self-labelled "progressive" candidate for Tennessee. Part of her platform is "ecological wisdom, social justice, feminism, and nonviolence." But, of course, as a Green Party candidate, she has had trouble gaining traction in the race. Her campaign, therefore, is now posting ads looking for people to pose as average social media users to pretend to have "found" this wonderful, liberal candidate....

Faith is the fulfillment of the spiritual blessing of hope. It’s the difference between serving Christ, the personification of benevolence, or slavery to allah that exemplifies intolerance Social media is probably one of the most insidious misnomers in use today. It entices tech savvy young people to become reliant on the internet to fill their social needs. A belief that connecting with others through the web, via twitter, Facebook, Skype and other digital sites, can replace intimacy has developed a void in western culture. Individuals are taking solace in the safety of internet friendships to avoid the hurt that can...

Pharmaceutical companies say the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) new social media rules would have a "chilling" effect on the industry and leave consumers in the dark.The FDA in June released draft guidelines for how drug firms should use social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But pharmaceutical companies are concerned the FDA would hold them responsible for misinformation about their products posted online by third parties that the companies have little to no control over. They say the rules would discourage them from interacting on social networks, leaving consumers without useful information about their products."Given the extraordinary growth of the...

We live in an era today where practically everyone is “famous.” It’s not just reality stars anymore; anyone can have their own blog at no cost, and use social media for free, where their every word and photo is broadcast to the entire world. Activists all across the spectrum have taken to these platforms, utilizing them to influence politics. If that is where the younger generations are hanging out, it makes sense to reach out to them there. Organizations like Americans for Prosperity were ahead of the curve several years ago, encouraging and teaching activists on the right how to...

Do not dare challenge the Masters of the Universe, the Party of Davos, or the Permanent Political Class with facts. After Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), in a thunderous Wednesday speech on the Senate floor, denounced Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg for pushing amnesty on foreign soil and high-tech executives for demanding more guest-worker permits while laying off American workers, Facebook board member Marc Andreessen maligned the Alabama Senator in a series of incensed Tweets. "Outright slander from an odious hack," Andreessen Tweeted on Thursday evening. "Mark has directly&indirectly created 10s, maybe 100s, of thousands of US jobs." He implied that Sessions...

It’s not often I get to cite Peter Frampton. Hell, it’s not often anyone gets to cite Peter Frampton anymore. His massive album “Frampton Comes Alive” was before my time, yet my ears are intimately familiar with the songs on it. “Baby, I Love Your Way” was a staple of junior high dances and couples skates, until such things were replaced by dry humping. So it’s nothing personal when I write that I don’t get much occasion to write about Frampton, he’s just mostly before my time. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still things we can learn from the...

Well, this sounds interesting and probably sinister and open to manipulation: The federal government is spending nearly $1 million to create an online database that will track “misinformation” and hate speech on Twitter. The National Science Foundation is financing the creation of a web service that will monitor “suspicious memes” and what it considers “false and misleading ideas,” with a major focus on political activity online. The “Truthy” database, created by researchers at Indiana University, is designed to “detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, and other social pollution.” The university has received $919,917 so far for the project. “The project stands...

'Some of my best friends are black!' You're probably lying. Do you have friends of another race? Statistically speaking, probably not.With so much racial unrest going on in America these days, it can be hard for people to understand the "other" side. Maybe it's because white Americans never walked a mile in a black friend's shoes -- or maybe because they have no black friends to begin with. Public Religion Research Institute found that whites' social networks are 91 percent white. Even more alarming, 75 percent of whites have a totally white social network. For a nation that prides itself...

There is a lot of anger in Ferguson, Missouri, and much of it understandable. But there is also a lot of spectacle and drama. "Ferguson" has become a rallying cry for hucksters, a ratings point for the media, and a point of argument for friends on social media. What Ferguson really is, is a deeply wounded city in Missouri. Its citizens are divided; its trust in authority is collapsed; it has one less 18-year-old and an injured policeman. There are no winners in Ferguson, just a lot of tears and heartache. Most Americans tend to trust and support their police....

Race Manners: Michael Brown’s death didn’t cause a divide between you and the people in your social networks. It simply revealed one. Use the information you’re getting to decide which relationships you value. Dear Race Manners: I have been so offended and angered by what some of my friends on Facebook have said about Michael Brown and the situation in Ferguson (he was a thug, he deserved it, black people destroy their own communities, blacks are criminals, all the police officers in Ferguson should quit because blacks don’t appreciate them and more). I feel as though I don’t know some...

As a 72-hour ceasefire takes hold in Israel, New York Times Gaza-based reporters remain locked in a peculiar moral equivalency between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas bent on the nation's destruction, with reporters taking pains on social media and television to stick up for Hamas, dismissing the idea of Hamas harassment of journalists as "nonsense," and even criticizing Hillary Clinton for taking on the group.. Reporter Anne Barnard appeared on Sunday's edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, hosted by former Times colleague Brian Stelter. When Stelter asked Barnard about the "biggest misconceptions" in the coverage offered by naysayers "thousands of...

Moscow is preparing a bill to prevent Russian troops from posting selfies and other photographs on social media sites, according to July 29 reports. The proposed legislation came after soldiers published images on social media sites with captions saying they had been firing artillery into Ukraine. “We shelled Ukraine all night long,” Russian soldier Vadim Grigoryev wrote beneath a picture of weaponry he published last week on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social media network.

A 16-year-old Brooklyn Center boy clung to life for days before dying after a suspected drunken driver, without a valid license, fled one crash on a north-metro highway and ran into the teen’s car down the road moments later, authorities said. SNIP On the Saturday before McCarthy died, Vanwagner posted photos of what was left of his vehicle on his Facebook page and wrote, “That’s her front end after I got done with her lol.” He signed that message with a smiley face.

PROGRESS? Some technology represents unquestioned progress, despite causing real challenges to the employment prospects of citizens who are made redundant. For example, recent advances in science and medicine have merely scratched the surface in terms of enhancing our ability to find cures for diseases in an increasingly focused way at sharply diminished cost. Also, the technology of moving people and goods in vehicles and organizing their movement on roads contains tremendous opportunities for cost and energy efficiencies, as do the areas of resource extraction, the development of alternative energy and the efficiency of food production. These are just a few...

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Neighbors are tattling on neighbors for wasting water and some are taking their drought shaming to social media. If you’ve ever had the feeling you’re being watched while you water your lawn, there’s a good chance you are during this historic drought. In Sacramento, water wasters can face fines, and the enforcer may be someone who lives right next door. Terrance Davis with the city department of utilities says he’s seeing a trend of drought shaming. “Our water use complaint calls have gone up exponentially from the last 2 years,” he said. Karen Halbo lives in River...

Germany’s domestic intelligence service wants to increase surveillance on users of social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, but stressed it would only target terrorists and extremists. […] But the Süddeutsche Zeitung had reported that the BfV’s chief, Hans-Georg Maaßen, wanted to develop a system which collected “large amounts of online data”. …

For many people, the 2013 feature Terms And Conditions May Apply was their introduction into just how extensive and invasive data collection has become. It is all “voluntary,” of course, based on their agreement to software/app, website, and search engine terms and conditions. Even worse, is what the consumers of Big Data do with this information. Powerful computers and specialized programs allow virtually endless data dredging, whereby large volumes of information are analyzed seeking any possible relationships between data, occasionally for unethical purposes. Such practices can result in relatively benign consequences, such as seeing ads for various drugs and media...

Michelle Obama's #bringbackourgirls tweet has become the laughingstock of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the militant jihadist group terrorizing Iraq. Jihadists have allegedly doctored the original photo of the First Lady brandishing a hashtag and added "#bringbackourhumvee," a reference to stolen American military equipment. The #bringbackourhumvee hashtag is now full of variations on the original image, in which the First Lady holds up a piece of paper with the hashtag associated with the more than 200 girls abducted by jihadist terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The jihadists and supporters have doctored the photo to replace the...

Social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, were down in Iraq Friday as the country’s Communications Ministry blocked access to them. The Iraqi Ministry of Communications also notified citizens in a Facebook post Friday night local time that the Internet would be cut off on Sunday “in all parts of Iraq” to maintain optical cable along the Turkish border. It did not address reports that social media was inaccessible. Baghdad-based BBC reporter Richard Galpin said Friday that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were blocked in the Iraqi capital. A Communications Ministry source confirmed the shutdown to the Kuwait News Agency, but...