Free Republic

Alexander S. Vindman @AVindman While Durov holds French citizenship, is arrested for violating French law, this has broader implications for other social media, including Twitter. There’s a growing intolerance for platforming disinfo & malign influence & a growing appetite for accountability. Musk should be nervous.

The founder of Russia’s leading social media network—a wunderkind often described as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg—has left his post as CEO and fled the country as cronies of President Vladimir Putin have made steady inroads into the company’s ownership. The slow-motion ouster of Pavel Durov from the network known as VKontakte, or “In Contact,” is the latest sign that independent media outlets in Russia have become increasingly imperiled. Although months in the making, the loss of Durov’s leadership in VKontakte means that the space for free speech on the Russian web could shrink even further. …

Pavel Durov, the founder and owner of Telegram, is a significant figure in the tech world. As of August 24, 2024, his net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion, placing him among the world’s wealthiest individuals, ranked #120. Durov’s notable achievements began with the creation of VKontakte (VK), Russia's largest social network, which he co-founded with his brother Nikolai in 2006. VK quickly became a dominant platform in Russia, similar to Facebook. #Durov’s tenure at VK was marked by disputes with Russian authorities over data privacy and content control. In 2014, facing mounting pressure, he was compelled to sell his...

Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained on arriving in France from Azerbaijan

Advertisers that are now boycotting Facebook to protest "hate speech" have spent years running ads and marketing campaigns on a Russian social media platform that bans gay-rights groups and is known as a haven for white supremacists. Over 100 companies announced a boycott of Facebook last week in protest of divisive political speech on the website. The boycott coincides with a public pressure campaign led by Joe Biden and other top Democrats to press Facebook to enforce stricter control over President Trump’s postings. But many of these companies—including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, and Reebok—have been regular advertisers on VK, a popular...

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden downplayed on Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dramatic presentation in which he accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions. "To the best of my knowledge -- out of government, not getting the briefings -- I think this is fundamentally old news," Hayden told CNN's "New Day." On Monday, Netanyahu gave a presentation in English in which he claimed Israel has evidence that Iranian officials were "brazenly lying" when they said Iran wasn't pursuing nuclear weapons and that the Islamic Republic is keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound. Hayden told "New...

Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material. Sites that do not remove “obviously illegal” posts could face fines of up to €50 million (£44.3 million; $60 million). The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about lawbreaking material. Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law’s provisions. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus, but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and...

blah, blah, blah ... "The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages...." Looks like Nellie Ohr was looking for Russian Social Media Users in 2014:

The allocation of culpability for the violence that resulted in the tragic death of Heather Heyer at a protest/counter-protest rally in Charlottesville, VA by the media last week really should not have come as a surprise. In the case of Republicans, the news-cycle will consisted of the following phases: If the violence is perpetrated by a hate group(s) whose members are racists, anti-Semites, and white supremacists, first, implicitly tie the Republican Party and its leaders (or if it is President Trump, explicitly) to the offending hate group; secondly, insist he or she publicly renounce the group; third, if the Republican...

This week, the media freak-out over nightly “bombshell” revelations regarding evidence of President Trump’s apparent malfeasance and general abject incompetence reached, perhaps prematurely, a 9.5 out of 10. It culminated with Friday’s story that Trump told a Russian spy, in the Oval Office, that he fired the FBI Director, who is a “real nut job,” because he was investigating their involvement in our election and that he had gotten rid of the problem. Within the last two weeks, there have been several stories about Trump which, in an era where the mainstream news media wasn’t coming off of eight years...

Bernie Sanders offers a real solution that the current condidates wont have. Bernie Sanders would first of all return tax levels to the way they were in the 1950s, tax the rich 90% and use the massive massive massive surplus from that tax to create jobs for the unemployed. One trillion should be paid for rebuilding infrastructure and bridges and creating jobs. Another trillion will be used to create new healthcare opertunety for workers to earn doctors degrees and to heal the sick and poor. Bernie sanders will also create government funded industries and factories that will create paying jobs...

On the rare occasion I find myself in agreement with President Obama, I get nervous. It just feels like a setup. Like someone's going to pull the rug out from under me at any moment. But right now, I have to admit, I was very pleased to hear the news that the U.S. and Cuba are moving to normalize relations.

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

As the merry-go-round of the GOP primary continues, the present darling of fickle voters is Newt Gingrich, Like a phoenix he’s risen from the ashes to claim, with typical humility, “I’m going to be the nominee,” dismissing all other candidates as a trifling irrelevancy. Unfortunately the belated choice of Gingrich is no choice at all, for there can be little doubt how the questionably conservative and enormously polarizing Gingrich would fare against a personally popular Obama in the General Election. There is, at present only one real choice to make regarding the next president. It’s either Romney or Obama. A...

<p>I'm a whiny Romney retard who knows nothing about the First Amendment and even less about the Sixth. That's why my revised graphic got pulled by the mods, this post was inane and stupid enough without it.</p>

Wasn’t Sen. Obama against President Bush’s policies on “the war on terror” and enhanced interrogation techniques before, as President, he was for them and began to use those policies himself? By no means, I’m I condemning the decisions and actions that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. What I am is shocked. I’m shocked at the blatant hypocrisy of the Liberal Left. The Left excoriated president George W. Bush starting at the war on terror and going through to the Abu Ghraib prison photographs that showed the sophomoric antics of a few military prison guards engaged in largely...

I try to see what the dark side is doing, but I couldn't see anything there. What is going on?

"A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument." "If he is true to form, Justice Thomas will spend the arguments as he always does: leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, whispering to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, consulting papers and looking a little irritated and a little bored. He will ask no questions." "In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much...