Free Republic

This week, The New York Times ran a massive piece detailing the supposed radicalization of one Caleb Cain. Cain moved from political liberalism toward self-ascribed "tradcon" status from watching YouTube videos. The New York Times charted this nefarious move by following those videos. The suggestion by The Times was simple: If you watch typical conservative content hosted by people like me, you will eventually end up watching material hosted by alt-right figures. The only solution, presumably, would be for YouTube to downgrade material The Times dislikes. This attitude isn't only springing from The Times. Axios chief technology correspondent Ina Fried...

It’s good to know that our public debate on abortion and human life is being regulated by the experts at a social media network known best for meme-posting. The pro-life group Live Action found itself blocked from Pinterest this morning, supposedly for purveying “misinformation” about abortion. The group and its executive director, Lila Rose, announced that the platform had confirmed its decision to bar Live Action:

SalesForce, a customer relationship management (CRM) technology company designed to help with commerce, recently updated their acceptable-use policy. The policy change essentially tells firearms manufacturers and gun store retailers that they're no longer allowed to utilize the service to collect payments because of products and goods that they sell. Specifically, they don't want their product being used for transactions involving "high capacity" magazines, unfinished lowers and firearms with a thumbhole or folding stock.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was one of the earlier 2020 candidates to propose breaking up the largest tech companies and potentially having the government regulate them like utilities. It’s a mantra she’s repeated on the campaign trail on a regular basis. But now she’s doubling down on the message with a campaign tactic that may not make the most sense. Her team has put up a massive billboard on the subject, which isn’t all that unusual for a political campaign. It’s the location that makes it peculiar. She put it up right in Silicon Valley near many of the Big...

The “conservative” response to Big Tech censorship has largely been relegated to two thought-terminating lanes: “President Trump, just FIX IT already!” or “That’s capitalism, baby!” Both real legal constraints and political considerations — imposed on President Trump by allies who are understandably reluctant to embrace the most aggressive executive branch solutions — limit his maneuverability. Meanwhile, “free market” absolutists refuse to acknowledge the powerful forces at work that deny free speech-focused social media competitors access to a level playing field, as can be seen with even a cursory look at Gab.com’s struggle: The biggest danger we face is that we yet again retreat to...

Eleven Americans explain how Big Tech’s cheap foreign labor cost them their livelihoods.

The US Census Bureau has asked tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter to help it fend off “fake news” campaigns it fears could disrupt the upcoming 2020 count, according to Census officials and multiple sources briefed on the matter. The push, the details of which have not been previously reported, follows warnings from data and cybersecurity experts dating back to 2016 that right-wing groups and foreign actors may borrow the “fake news” playbook from the last presidential election to dissuade immigrants from participating in the decennial count, the officials and sources told Reuters.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry told Breitbart News that attorneys general across America — both Democrat and Republican — are considering “all actions,” including the use of existing antitrust law, to curb the growing power held by technology firms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Landry offered his remarks in a Tuesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow. “We have seen a tremendous amount of consolidation in regard to social platforms and the tech industry over the last decade, and the result of that has become a handful of companies that have amassed a tremendous amount...

Sen. Ted Cruz offered support for Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday after her ads were taken off Facebook. The 2020 Democratic presidential contender had called for the breakup of big tech companies, including Facebook, in the ads.

Technology companies must take a moral stand against hate speech, said Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday during a speech at the Anti-Defamation League. “I sometimes say that I worry less about computers that think like people and more about people that think like computers, without values or compassion, without concern for consequences,” Cook said, as he accepted the Anti-Defamation League’s first-ever “Courage Against Hate” awardon Monday night, an honor that will be given each year to a business leader who champions equality. The Apple CEO had a message for anyone trying to push hate, division or violence: “You have no...

*BIG SNIP* Which brings us to the common share-price-depressant: the fear of regulation, a sense that the party is over for Facebook, Google, and Amazon, just as it was for John D. Rockefeller’s oil monopoly in 1911. (Netflix is not a target, since it lacks market power; its stock, down 37 percent from its June high, remains 29 percent above its price at the start of the year; and Apple is of less concern to politicians.) Gone are the days when then-chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, is said, whether in jest or seriously is uncertain, to have never needed Washington...

Facebook is on track to post its longest losing streak ever, and some say there’s more pain ahead Facebook is on track to post its longest losing streak ever, and some say there’s more pain ahead 4:52 PM ET Fri, 16 Nov 2018 | 04:19 Facebook is facing a mountain of problems. The social media giant's stock fell nearly 5 percent on Monday, hitting its lowest level since February 2017, as the social media company came under fire after a damaging report about its top management in The New York Times. Facebook is poised to close its third straight month...

The FAANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet — all fell in Tuesday trading. The five "FAANG" stocks have collectively lost more than $1 trillion in market value from recent highs through Tuesday's early trading. The FAANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet — all fell again on Tuesday. Amazon, Apple and Netflix led the group's losses, each falling more than 3 percent. Combined market capitalization losses since their 52-week highs hit $1.02 trillion on Tuesday: Facebook: $253 billion Amazon: $280 billion Apple: $253 billion Netflix: $67 billion Alphabet: $164 billion The five tech...

New York (CNN Business)Stocks fell sharply Monday, dragged down by reports that Apple's newest line of phones may not be selling as well as Apple or its investors had hoped. The Dow fell more than 500 points and the Nasdaq tumbled 2.8%. Apple's stock fell once more after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has cut orders for its iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The new iPhones, which Apple unveiled in September, cost more than previous versions. The $749 iPhone XR is the least expensive new iPhone, but it costs $50 more than last year's cheapest...

Stocks around the world tumbled Tuesday, putting major U.S. indexes at risk of closing below their October lows and wiping out yearly gains. What started as a technology company selloff bled into other corners of the market, as investors dumped shares of everything from retailers to oil-and-gas companies in favor of relatively safe assets such as bonds and reliable dividend payers like utility companies. The result: Some traders who stepped in to scoop up shares in late October, hoping for a quick rebound, are now in danger of losing those potential profits and more. That puts the stock market in...

President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the controversial H-1B visa is wreaking havoc on U.S. employers, says a group whose members include many of Silicon Valley’s largest technology firms.

LifeSite, a Christian pro-life news outlet, was allegedly blacklisted by its web host and given just 12 hours to find another host the website, or risk being offline. “LifeSite just received an email at 8:30 p.m. EST from our web-hosting company alerting us that they will be taking our website down within 12 hours, if not sooner,” claimed LifeSite in a statement, Saturday. “We received absolutely no forewarning whatsoever about this decision.” “Our web developer is scrambling right now to set up a possibly-needed temporary solution to keep the website live. However, we’re going to have to go through the...

So that's Big Tech, advancing little minds and big lies--and inviting big destruction With perhaps the most significant midterm election in decades nigh, big tech’s censorship of conservatives has kicked into high gear. And while Facebook’s recent purge of right-leaning pages is obvious and has made news, perhaps just as destructive is the stealth censorship. A good example may be the report of WordPress’ “statistics shadowbanning” of Whatfinger News. Whatfinger is an increasingly popular news aggregator that is run by military veterans; it’s like a non-establishment version of Drudge, only more comprehensive, more conservative, and more interesting.

U.S. stock index futures tanked ahead of Thursday's open, as the global market rout continued to thrash stocks. Around 7 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures sank 205 points, indicating a loss of about 300 points at the open. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to sharp drops at the open. Tech shares were also headed for a steep decline after posting their worst day in seven years in the previous session. Facebook and Apple were both down more than 1 percent in the premarket, while Amazon and Netflix dropped at least 2 percent each. Twitter and...

Does big tech have a political bias problem? Companies like Facebook and Google have sworn up and down that they’re apolitical … but a growing amount of evidence is raising hard questions about the corporate culture within these brands. On Saturday, one of Google’s top people single-handedly brought those questions to the surface again. After Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, the tech company’s design lead went on a hateful rant on Twitter. “You are finished, @GOP,” posted Dave Hogue, whose bio states that he holds a design lead position at Google. “You polished the final...