Free Republic

Twitter said Wednesday it will not tackle all the misinformation on its platform but will instead focus on posts with the “highest potential for harm” as it works to curb false or misleading information from spreading. The social media giant said it is responding to a survey from last year in which respondents said that “Twitter shouldn’t determine the truthfulness of Tweets” and “Twitter should provide context to help people make up their own minds in cases where the substance of a Tweet is disputed.” “Hence, our focus is on providing context, not fact-checking,” the company said. “We are NOT...

Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly considering adding warning labels to Facebook posts penned by government leaders if they incite violence - less than a week after he criticized Twitter for doing the exact same thing. Vox obtained access to a video conference call between Zuckerberg and several of his Facebook employees Tuesday, during which he revealed he was toying with the idea. According to the publication, Zuckerberg also predicted that the United States could be entering a 'prolonged period of civil unrest', meaning that the company may 'alter its policies on what kind of announcements government leaders can make about state...

As protests stemming from the death of George Floyd wrack the nation, a number of leading tech companies have offered their support for demonstrators and funding for social-justice organizations. Twitter Inc. changed its profile bio to read simply “#BlackLivesMatter,” while Alphabet Inc.’s Google said on its main search page: “We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it.” Google’s YouTube said it would donate $1 million “in support of efforts to address social injustice.” Major streaming services — such as Netflix Inc.,, Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video, Walt Disney Co.-controlled Hulu and AT&T’s T, HBO Max,...

Twitter is allowing its users to coordinate criminal behavior on the platform, with dozens of tweets identifying looting targets still on the platform despite the fact that the site was notified by concerned citizens. The company has however changed the description of its official account to “#BlackLivesMatter.” A Twitter search for “Santana Row,” which is the name of a shopping district in San Jose, California, reveals dozens of Twitter users encouraging their followers to target and loot the district. Many of the tweets have been on the platform for days. “let’s riot and raid Santana Row lol,” said one tweet,...

A Colorado mom hospitalized for 21 days died Tuesday without seeing her husband or two children, despite the family’s repeated requests for an exception to a policy barring visitors during the coronavirus crisis ... Elizabeth, who had autoimmune issues and heart problems for years, was at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora for three weeks with severe infections in her lungs and blood. Her family was not allowed to see her because the hospital, like many during the coronavirus pandemic, has enacted a strict no-visitor policy ... No matter how many times Reiter asked to visit Elizabeth, even when...

CONGRESS MUST AMEND IMMUNITY LAW PROTECTING SOCIAL MEDIA ISSUE: Congress has to amend the statute, which of course they will not. Meanwhile we are supposed to be placated by the expectation that Trump is actually going to accomplish something. It’s the same shell game that has me pulling my hair out. BNJ would argue the case. Napolitano, Levin etc won’t agree for sure, but here goes:

Oval Office 3:47 P.M. EDTTHE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history, frankly.  And you know what’s going as well as anybody.  It’s not good.A small handful of powerful social media monopolies controls a vast portion of all public and private communications in the United States.  And we know what they are; we don’t have to name them.  We’re going to give you a complete listing.  We’re going to give you a signed copy of what I’m going to be signing in...

The White House on Friday pushed back against Twitter after the social media giant censored a tweet by President Trump threatening action against rioters in Minneapolis -- with Trump accusing the company of double standards, as his team moved to get around Twitter's restrictions. “Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies & propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States. Section 230 should be revoked by Congress. Until then, it will be regulated!” Trump tweeted. On Friday the morning, White House’s official...

YouTube removed and then reinstated an episode of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's podcast about former Vice President Joe Biden's relationship with China. A spokesperson for the platform told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that the video, which was posted on April 24 and deleted on May 12, was removed accidentally and has been reposted. "Our team is glad the mistake was rectified," Giuliani's spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. Giuliani's team was informed early in the morning on May 12 that "video has been removed from YouTube" because it "was flagged to us for review," and upon that review, they "determined...

When the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on social media censorship late last month, liberal Democratic congressman Ted Lieu transformed into a hardcore libertarian. “This is a stupid and ridiculous hearing,” he said, because “the First Amendment applies to the government, not private companies.” He added that just as the government cannot tell Fox News what content to air, “we can’t tell Facebook what content to filter,” because that would be unconstitutional. Lieu is incorrect. While the First Amendment generally does not apply to private companies, the Supreme Court has held it “does not disable the government from taking...

Even Trump supporters have wondered about Trump’s tweets implying that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough had something to do with a young intern’s death in his office when he was still a Florida congressman. It’s true that Scarborough and his co-host and wife Mika Brzezinksi have spent three years accusing Trump of treasonous collusion with the Russians, but Trump’s venom still seemed strange. I, however, don’t think it was strange at all. Trump is one of the most calculating, rational people ever to occupy the White House. He’s been faced with a serious problem, which is the fact that the immensely powerful...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is asking people to “please leave our employees out of it” after it was revealed that one of his senior employees hates President Trump and the people in the states who voted for him: Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make. — jack

It's pretty amazing how many negative activities gather around Michigan's hard-faced and ambitious Democrat governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Besides her outrageous performance on the coronavirus crisis - banning sales of garden seeds, seeding nursing homes with COVID-19 patients, forcing private dam operators to overfill their reservoir for greenie purposes, causing two of them to burst -- she's also a liar. We saw that clearly enough when her husband tried to put himself at the front of the boating queue by citing his marriage to her -- cronyism at its worst -- and she claimed it was a joke. It was a...

New York State officials who provide information about illegal alien drivers to federal immigration enforcement agencies can now face felony charges.An amendment to the highly controversial ‘Green Light Law,’ which went into effect in December and cleared illegal aliens to apply for New York State driver’s licenses, was slipped into the state’s 2020 budget bill and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in April, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.It is now a Class E felony for state officials, such as law enforcement officers, to disclose DMV records with agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).“Border Patrol for example,...

My long-time doctor friends who have treated COVID-19 patients have been disappointed recently in some of the national and regional media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. They point out the over-emphasis often given to statistical information without proper understanding. For example, emphasizing the volume of reported cases without equally emphasizing increased testing and positivity ratios is misleading. Governors, doctors and hospitals seriously consider positivity ratios, and the media should not bury the lead here. It isn’t all about case volume. Also, some in the media and Democratic leaders, like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have recently been critical of President...

The governors of all 50 states and the mayors of many large cities have assumed unto themselves the powers to restrict private personal choices and lawful public behavior in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. They have done so not by enforcing previously existing legislation but by crafting their own executive orders, styling those orders as if they were laws, using state and local police to enforce those so-called laws and – presumably when life returns to normal and the courts reopen – prosecuting the alleged offenders in court. It is hard to believe that any judge in...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will travel to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a meeting with President Trump to discuss economic revival efforts. The governor said during a news conference on Tuesday that he hoped to discuss how infrastructure projects could be leveraged to kickstart the economy, which has cratered due to the coronavirus pandemic. "You want to restart the economy, you want to reopen the economy, let’s do something creative, let’s do it fast, let’s put Americans back to work, and let’s make America better," Cuomo said. "It is common sense." "You have an infrastructure that’s crumbling, you...

Are politicians now continuing the lockdowns because admitting error — that they’re guilty of advancing one of American history’s greatest blunders — would mean political destruction? Are they continuing to destroy the careers of millions to save their own (when, perhaps, something more sinister is not at work)? Many may now draw this conclusion after yet another study, this one by establishment company JP Morgan, has found that the lockdowns have done nothing to alter the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic’s course. As the Daily Mail reports:Falling infection rates since lockdowns were lifted suggest that the virus ‘likely has its own dynamics’...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday refused again to give an end date to New York City's lockdown despite the number of new hospitalizations lowering to 230 - less than half what they were the day the city shut down. Cuomo's requirements are that the city have 30% of its hospital and ICU beds free and that there are enough contact tracers - 2,250. The city will only say that it has hired 'well over 1,000' contact tracers. As of Monday, 29 percent of hospital beds were free and 29 percent of ICU beds were free.