Free Republic

The Stanford Internet Observatory, a small but prominent research group studying abuse on social media platforms, looks to be in crisis, according to a report by Platformer. Some key staff have departed recently, including founding director Alex Stamos and research director Renée DiResta, Platformer reports. A handful of staff have left recently after not having their contracts renewed, and other members have been told to look for other jobs. Platformer describes the turmoil as a “dismantling” of the research group. Stanford Internet Observatory research centers on some of the most pressing types of abuse online, including threats to democracy and...

Half a century ago, George Orwell, writing on literary censorship, wrote that “unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.” That dynamic now broadly extends to an opaque network of government agencies and self-proclaimed anti-misinformation groups that have repressed online speech. There’s no official ban on discussing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines or criticizing American involvement in the Ukraine-Russia war, but editors and journalists have realized that writing on such topics can come at a cost. News publishers have been demonetized and shadow-banned for reporting dissenting views and the bureaucratic means...

Apple CEO Tim Cook says as a hiker, he appreciates the company's new Emergency SOS, and that investing in new features like this is how to get through tough economic times. CBS Mornings has released an expanded version of its Tim Cook interview, in which he answers wide-ranging questions about about Emergency SOS, hiring freezes, Twitter, and the economy.... Cook was also asked about what it would take for Twitter to be removed from the App Store, and he said that he doesn't expect that to happen. "[Twitter says] that they're going to continue to moderate and so I think...

More evidence of how vindictive, obsessive, and downright sinister Facebook is, now it appears to be monitoring private messages and suppressing material related to the whistleblower complaint of hero FBI special agent Steve Friend. After Friend’s bombshell revelations last week in a whistleblower complaint to the Department of Justice inspector general, his cause received an avalanche of public and private support, including from former FBI agents and conservative groups. As reported in this column, Friend’s complaint alleges that the FBI has been manipulating case-file management in order to falsely inflate the threat of domestic terrorism, and has been using unconstitutional...