Free Republic

Big Tech’s censorship teams appear to be losing steam amidst legal scrutiny, layoffs, and waning popularity, the New York Times reported Tuesday. YouTube, for example, cut two of five “hate speech and harassments” policy experts, removed two of five misinformation experts, and reduced its policy enforcement and response teams, according to the NYT. This comes after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, cut around 12,0000 employees in January. Twitter’s reductions have been the most pronounced since Elon Musk’s takeover and promise to restore free speech, reinstating most previously banned accounts. In November, Twitter CEO Elon Musk laid off half of the company’s...

The Supreme Court returns next week to hear oral arguments on issues ranging from the regulation of Big Tech to President Biden's student loan handout to the Jack Daniel's trademark. The case involving the famous whiskey brand, which will be heard on March 22, involves a battle that pits First Amendment rights against trademark protections. The case arises from a lawsuit brought by Jack Daniel's against VIP Products LLC for marketing and selling spoof dog toys that look like the famous whiskey bottle

Former President Donald Trump says Democrats and Big Tech colluded to deplatform and "illegally censor" him to hide statements he made on social media stressing peace and lawful behavior on Jan. 6, 2021. "It was shockingly revealed that Twitter colluded with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to Rig and Steal the 2020 Presidential Election in favor of Joe Biden, and to deplatform and illegally censor me," Trump said in a statement provided to Just The News. "As a key example of the corruption within the FBI, Special Agent Charles McGonigal, the head of the now fully 'debunked' Russia,...

Google says it has been working around the clock alongside other Big Tech companies to fight Russian cyberattackers waging a digital war against Ukraine, guarding against some of the same ransomware attackers who previously hit the U.S. The tech Titan published a “Fog of War” report Thursday saying the Ukrainian government is under “near-constant digital attack” from Russia, including via its military intelligence service, the GRU. Google said it disrupted government-backed attackers to protect people from exploitation and notified users of products such as Gmail that they had been targeted, when the company deemed it appropriate. The U.S. government is...

The Department of State has funded a deep-pocketed "disinformation" tracking group that is secretly blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media, likely costing the news organizations vital advertising dollars, the Washington Examiner can confirm. The Global Disinformation Index, a British organization with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups, is feeding blacklists to ad companies with the intent of defunding and shutting down websites peddling alleged "disinformation," the Washington Examiner reported . This same "disinformation" group has received $330,000 from two State Department-backed entities linked to the highest levels of government, raising concerns from First Amendment lawyers and members of Congress. "Any...

Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates said AI should be considered as a tool to combat “digital misinformation” and “political polarization” in an interview published on Thursday with Handelsblatt, a German news media outlet. In response to a question about the spreading of “misinformation” via AI, Gates referred to the events of January 6, 2021, as an “attack on the Capitol. He said: I’m certainly concerned about political polarization, and I know the U.S. situation best of all. I wouldn’t have expected people to attack the Capitol, or people to deny the validity of election results. I‘m in a state...

The Washington Examiner revealed on Thursday that it is on GDI's list and spoke to an ad-buying source who said Breitbart News is also. Separately, GDI has said that the 10 "riskiest" news outlets for purported disinformation are the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News Network, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post.

As Twitchy readers know, a Lefty ad group supported by Microsoft was (is) actively targeting right-leaning media sites in an effort to defund and de-platform them. THE CONSPIRACY THEORISTS WERE RIGHT AGAIN. *adjusts tinfoil hat, ties bow on top* Welp, sounds like Microsoft has ‘suspended’ its relationship with GDI and is launching an internal reveiw. Because you know, they TOTALLY had no idea and stuff. Totally. BREAKING NEWS: Microsoft, which subscribes to the State Department-backed Global Disinformation Index's blacklist of conservative news, has suspended its relationship with GDI and is launching an internal review, @dcexaminer confirmshttps://t.co/kRvZqxptpY — Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky)...

If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t find common factual ground with liberal friends, the reason may be that not only have private outfits worked successfully to censor news, but government agencies as well. If you’ve ever wondered why you can’t find common factual ground with liberal friends, the reason may be that not only have private outfits worked successfully to censor news, but that government agencies as well, from the CDC to the CIA, have successfully censored it by proxy. It’s not just the major media that have been corrupted by the government (acting as megaphones for government agencies...

The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a foreign think tank headquartered in the United Kingdom, released an assessment of American online media designed to blacklist conservative media outlets and choke off their advertising revenue. The information is kept on what GDI calls its “Dynamic Exclusion List.” Ad networks — including most prominently Xandr — which is owned by Microsoft — are now using this list to refuse to allow advertising on conservative media websites.

Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech unit, executives told Axios. The cuts will impact more than 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees — more than 1,600 people. Why it matters: The changes will end Yahoo’s years-long effort to compete directly with Google and Meta for digital advertising dominance. Driving the news: In an interview, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone stressed that the layoffs are not attributable to financial challenges, but rather, strategic changes to the company's Yahoo for Business advertising unit, which is not profitable....

The FBI paid Twitter millions of dollars to cover the costs of processing the agency's requests. "I am happy to report we have collected $3,415,323 since October 2019!" wrote someone with Twitter's Safety, Content, & Law Enforcement (SCALE) team in a February 2021 email, according to internal messages reported by journalist Michael Shellenberger today.

Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce, affecting nearly half of its ad tech employees by the end of the year CEO Jim Lanzone said the layoffs are not due to financial challenges, but rather changes to the Yahoo for Business advertising unit With the announcement, Yahoo is just the latest in a string of technology companies to announce layoffs The move comes as many advertisers have pared back their marketing budgets in response to record-high inflation rates and continued uncertainty about a recession. With the announcement Thursday, Yahoo is just the latest in a...

Twitter executives being beholden to so-called experts’ tweets is hardly better than doing the FBI’s bidding. When the New York Post dropped its bombshell reporting on documents recovered from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop in October of 2020, Twitter did not reach out to the FBI to ask whether the reporting was Russian disinformation — despite extensive coordination with the FBI to prepare to combat foreign election interference. Instead, according to testimony at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, Twitter relied on the tweets of supposed experts, making the tech giant’s decision to censor the Post’s story even more outrageous. The House...

GoFundMe has removed multiple fundraising pages set up by strangers to help the elderly rancher charged with murder for shooting dead a Mexican migrant on his Arizona ranch.

At today's House Oversight Committee, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) assailed ex-Twitter executives over her shadowban. 5 Mins of worth while watching as Boebert laces into the Twitter Nazi's

WASHINGTON — House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered opening remarks at a hearing titled “Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias, Part 1: Twitter’s Role in Suppressing the Biden Laptop Story.” In his opening statement, Chairman Comer pointed out that many social media platforms are under the control of people who are hostile to the fundamental American principles of free speech and expression protected in the U.S. Constitution. Prior to Elon Musk’s takeover of the Twitter, Chairman Comer highlighted how the federal government used Twitter to suppress free speech and pointed out how...

Vijaya Gadde, who received a $12.5 million severance package when she was fired as policy director in October by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk, testified before the House Oversight Committee that The Post’s reporting was censored in large part because photos from Hunter’s laptop “looked like they may have been obtained through hacking.” Gadde also admitted that Hunter Biden never claimed to the company that the laptop was hacked — as opposed to legally provided to The Post. The committee’s Republican majority said it planned to press hard for evidence of “collusion” between the FBI and Twitter to censor The...

… He still hasn’t identified the source code, the proverbial ghost in the machine, buried deep in the algorithmic code; however, Twitter owner Elon Musk has finally identified the agency within the U.S. government who spearheaded the creation. The “Global Engagement Center” (GEC) of the State Dept. The GEC mission is described as, “To direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations,” (link). However, when...

A Google employee said he and his wife were both laid off by the tech giant in Friday's mass cull. Ashish Kalsi wrote on LinkedIn that they stared at each other in "disbelief" that morning as their daughter slept.Kalsi said he's on an H-1B visa and has a 60-day "countdown" to find a new role or leave the US. A Google engineer said he and his wife stared at each other in "disbelief" upon learning on Friday they'd both been laid off by the company. Ashish Kalsi, an associate principal of global engagement on Google's trust and safety team, wrote...