Free Republic

The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on Feb. 26 in two big social media cases that could have wide-reaching implications for how companies like Facebook can moderate or censor content. Two cases—Moody v. Netchoice and Netchoice v. Paxton—are coming before the court in disputes over Texas’ and Florida’s social media laws. The states’ attempts to rein in big tech laid out many parameters for how companies could remove content they found objectionable. Netchoice, an organization representing multiple social media companies, has sued alleging that both laws violate the companies’ First Amendment rights. The group has likened their activities to...

The FBI’s takedown of the LockBit ransomware group last week came as LockBit was preparing to release sensitive data stolen from government computer systems in Fulton County, Ga. But LockBit is now regrouping, and the gang says it will publish the stolen Fulton County data on March 2 unless paid a ransom. LockBit claims the cache includes documents tied to the county’s ongoing criminal prosecution of former President Trump, but court watchers say teaser documents published by the crime gang suggest a total leak of the Fulton County data could put lives at risk and jeopardize a number of other...

* The tech entrepreneur has revealed a product called 'XMail' is 'coming' * Elon Musk launches his answer to ChatGPT called 'Grok' Elon Musk has already released his own version of ChatGPT. Now it seems the tech entrepreneur is about to take on Google's Gmail by creating an email service of his own. In an exchange on his social media platform X, Musk has revealed that a product called 'XMail' is 'coming'. He's offered no more details about the service, so it's unclear when it may be available, although it's expected to be integrated within the X app. MailOnline has...

The leaked documents supposedly discuss spyware developed by I-Soon, a Chinese infosec company, that’s targeting social media platforms, telecommunications companies, and other organizations worldwide. Researchers suspect the operations are orchestrated by the Chinese government. Unknown individuals allegedly leaked a trove of Chinese government documents on GitHub. The documents reveal how China conducts offensive cyber operations with spyware developed by I-Soon, Taiwanese threat intelligence researcher Azaka Sekai claims. While several researchers have analyzed the supposedly leaked documents, no official confirmation of their veracity exists as of the writing of this article. We have reached out to I-Soon but did not receive...

A group of 20 leading tech companies on Friday announced a joint commitment to combat AI misinformation in this year’s elections. The industry is specifically targeting deepfakes, which can use deceptive audio, video and images to mimic key stakeholders in democratic elections or to provide false voting information. Microsoft , Meta , Google , Amazon , IBM , Adobe and chip designer Arm all signed the accord. Artificial intelligence startups OpenAI, Anthropic and Stability AI also joined the group, alongside social media companies such as Snap , TikTok and X. Tech platforms are preparing for a huge year of elections...

The Minnesota-based Internet provider U.S. Internet Corp. has a business unit called Securence, which specializes in providing filtered, secure email services to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies worldwide. But until it was notified last week, U.S. Internet was publishing more than a decade’s worth of its internal email — and that of thousands of Securence clients — in plain text out on the Internet and just a click away for anyone with a Web browser. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn., U.S. Internet is a regional ISP that provides fiber and wireless Internet service. The ISP’s Securence division bills itself “a...

China need not try to interfere with the 2024 election. Joe Biden has partnered with the Communist China owned TikTok. TikTok is a data mining operation masquerading as social media. Consumer Reports: A Consumer Reports investigation finds that TikTok, one of the country’s most popular apps, is partnering with a growing number of other companies to hoover up data about people as they travel across the internet. That includes people who don’t have TikTok accounts.ABC NewsA ban on TikTok in the United States or a sale of the app by its Chinese owner, ByteDance, will not resolve national security concerns...

President Joe Biden has officially joined the Chinese app TikTok in an effort to reach younger voters. The president uploaded his first TikTok video on Sunday, alongside the caption, “lol hey guys.” In the first video uploaded to the Biden-Harris campaign TikTok account, @bidenhq, President Biden can be seen answering softball questions during the Super Bowl LVIII game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. @bidenhq lol hey guys ♬ Fox nfl theme – Notrandompostsguy After being asked by an aide, “Chiefs or Niners?” Biden replies, “Two great quarterbacks. It’s hard to decide, but if...

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Ok maybe it is just me and I am imagining things. Anyone who has been running searches on the internet for the last 20 years or so has probably noticed how difficult it has gotten to get concise and accurate results. Even boolean operators are no help. Lately I have noticed another thing. Every time I search for a news article almost all the returns I get are for links to a mainstream media article. Little or nothing from alternative sources. The other thing is that if you search for something even slightly untoward about almost any progressive or out...

Raised as a Muslim in Iran—one of the most dangerous places to be a Christian—Dilara* is well-acquainted with the harsh reality of persecution. She has spent the past eight years in Lebanon, where some Christian friends in this largely Muslim country invited her to church. Dilara took them up on their offer... she discovered free, online discipleship courses through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s internet evangelism ministry, Search for Jesus. Eager to continue exploring Christianity, she decided to enroll and was paired with a trained online discipleship volunteer to lead her through it. As she poured through the course material,...

Detectives in Iowa are blaming me for b*mb threats. NBC is trying to get law enforcement to say I’m connected so that I can be investigated. That’s their goal. They want me in prison for exposing the grooming and sexualization of your kids. https://t.co/lCWVFgbvMx pic.twitter.com/TFxGwuq0a5— Chaya Raichik (@ChayaRaichik10) February 7, 2024

‘I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line with the acceptable narrative of the time.’Nearly three years after the Star Wars franchise owners fired her from the hit TV series “The Mandalorian” over a repost on social media, producer and actress Gina Carano plans to sue Disney’s Lucasfilm for caving to a “bullying smear campaign aimed at silencing, destroying & making an example out of me.”“The truth is I was being hunted down from everything I posted to every post I liked because I was not in line...

Telecom firms linked to the UN-recognised Yemen government have said they fear Houthi rebels are planning to sabotage a network of submarine cables in the Red Sea critical to the functioning of the western internet and the transmission of financial data. The warning came after a Houthi-linked Telegram channel published a map of the cables running along the bed of the Red Sea. The image was accompanied by a message: “There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire...

One of the great triumphs of the internet and smart phone revolution has been how rapidly access to these communication technologies have spread to nearly every office building, home, and school in America. It’s a miracle of private sector innovation and the magic of the free enterprise system that technologies that were only the play things of the super-rich a generation ago are now so ubiquitous that almost all of the poorest Americans have access — and even many of the poorest people in the most remote villages in Africa have smart phones. Consider the lightning speed of deployment: home...

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other social media executives were grilled over the issue of child sexual exploitation on their platforms. Instagram, the popular social-media site owned by Meta Platforms, helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts openly devoted to the commission and purchase of underage sex content, according to investigations by The Wall Street Journal and researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Wall Street Journal. reported. Pedophiles have long used the internet, but unlike the forums and file-transfer services that cater to people who have an interest in illicit content, Instagram connects...

Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo Songs Vanish from TikTok as Licensing Battle With Universal Music Heats Up UMG, the biggest music company on the planet, failed to renew a licensing deal with TikTok amid a dispute over artist compensation, security, and the use of AI BY NANCY DILLON, ETHAN MILLMAN FEBRUARY 1, 2024 Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey Songs Disappear On TikTok Amid Universal Music's Licensing Battle A DAY AFTER Universal Music Group threatened to stop licensing its music to TikTok amid a breakdown in deal negotiations, songs from UMG‘s unparalleled stable of artists began vanishing from the social media platform...

Social Media Company CEOs Testify on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined the CEOs from Discord, Snap, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) to testify on their efforts to stop online child sexual exploitation before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida children under the age of 16 would be banned from popular social media platforms regardless of parent approval under a bill passed by the House on Wednesday, a measure that is the top priority for the chamber’s speaker. The bill doesn’t list which platforms would be affected, but it targets any social media site that tracks user activity, allows children to upload material and interact with others and uses addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use. The bill would not affect apps used for private messages between individuals. “They’re taking advantage of kids...

During an appearance on this week’s “Fox News Sunday broadcast,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) pushed back against critics of his efforts to secure a deal on a border security package. The Oklahoma Senator said the language of the bill had not been finalized and attributed speculation to “Internet rumors.” “The challenge that Senator Cruz has and a bunch of other folks is they’re so waiting to be able to read the bill on this and this has been our great challenge of being able to fight through the final words to be able to get the bill text out so...