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Comment Re: No way Jose (Score 1) 190

Not afraid, cautious. Extremely. I haven't gone anywhere since beginning of last year.. Been to the gas station a few times, but I know for a fact that people are arguing, with various platforms included, on the merits of wearing gloves and a mask. In the very least, their opinions are based from fear and ignorance. I respect viruses as they have no respect for me. I will wait to see what this vaccine, which was generated 2 days after the genome was released, will really do to people long-term.

Submission + - North Dakota Bill Would Let Censored Citizens File Lawsuits Against Big Tech (theepochtimes.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A bill proposed by Republican lawmakers in North Dakota could enable lawsuits to be filed against Twitter and Facebook by users who have seen their accounts deleted or censored.

The new bill (pdf), sponsored by six legislators, is titled, “an Act to permit civil actions against social media sites for censoring speech,” and it stipulates that websites with more than 1 million users would be “liable in a civil action for damages to the person whose speech is restricted, censored, or suppressed, and to any person who reasonably otherwise would have received the writing, speech, or publication.”

For individuals who have been censored, compensation includes “treble damages for compensatory, consequential, and incidental damages," according to the bill.

Submission + - Twitter really just tweeted this in the middle of the conservative purge (twitter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Protecting the #OpenInternet is a key objective for Twitter – it’s why we exist. There are two key areas to consider:
1. Avoid entrenching the dominance of the biggest players by protecting competition
2. Focus on how content is discovered + amplified, less on removal alone

Access to information and freedom of expression, including the public conversation on Twitter, is never more important than during democratic processes, particularly elections.

Submission + - What COVID Changes are Permanent?

Submitted by Thelasko
Thelasko writes: Of all of the changes to the world during COVID-19, which ones will be permanent? Are movie theaters dead? Will working from home be more accepted? Will building codes require sterilization equipment in HVAC systems?

Submission + - Twitter suspends over 70k accounts for sharing QAnon content (nypost.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes: Twitter said on Monday night it has banned over 70,000 accounts that were sharing QAnon content.

The social media giant said purge of the accounts began Friday — one of several censorship measures the company has implemented in the wake of the Capitol riot.

Submission + - Why Everyone Should Be Concerned About Parler Being Booted From the Internet

Submitted by tippen
tippen writes: Twitter suspending President Trump's account would have been an entirely reasonable response to the riot he helped incite. All of the other social media (and shopping!) sites piling on to that for violations on Twitter was not.

What is scarier is when platform and infrastructure companies start denying services arbitrarily and without effective notice. Slate published an article explaining why this should concern everyone interested in free speech (not just 1A Free Speech) in modern society:

The real coordinated inauthentic behavior on social media made itself abundantly clear in the aftermath of the assault on Congress. The culprit isn’t a troll farm or Russian influence. This time, the coordinated inauthentic behavior is coming from California.

Late last week, Google and Apple both suspended Parler—the social media platform of choice for the alt-right—and demanded a “moderation improvement plan” from Parler. Amazon, as of midnight, also suspended Parler from its web hosting services, citing “inadequate content-moderation practices.” Okta, an identity management software company in San Francisco, was notified that Parler had a free trial of its product and subsequently rushed to terminate access.

Parler’s suspension should concern us all. I despise white supremacist content and its proliferation online, and the tweeted examples of comments posted on Parler are alarming and deeply unsettling to read. But as Kate Ruane, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement, it “should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions—especially when political realities make those decisions easier.”* There should be ways to bring accountability to platforms that host inciteful hate speech. Justice, however, is not achieved by endorsing other companies’ self-interests.

Submission + - Corporations Warn Investors of AWS 'Death Sentence' Risk in SEC Filings 3

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If you think only companies that provide an AWS-powered forum exploited by ne'er-do-wells run the risk of being canceled immediately by Amazon, think again. In the fine-print of their SEC filings, some of America's best-known corporations disclose the risks of AWS 'death sentences' and the damage it could do to both their business and investors' portfolios.

"We host our platform using AWS data centers," explains OKTA [$32.77B market cap] in the Risk Factors section of its latest 10-Q filing. "AWS may terminate the agreement by providing 30 days prior written notice and may, in some cases, terminate the agreement immediately for cause upon notice." Voicing similar concerns in its latest 10-Q, Twilio [$57.82B market cap] warns that "if any of our arrangements with AWS are terminated, we could experience interruptions on our platform and in our ability to make our products available to customers, as well as delays and additional expenses in arranging alternative cloud infrastructure services." Netflix [$225.49B market cap] chose not to spell out any Risk Factors in its latest 10-Q, but does refer investors to its 2019 10-K filing which warns, "Currently, we run the vast majority of our computing on AWS. Given this, along with the fact that we cannot easily switch our AWS operations to another cloud provider, any disruption of or interference with our use of AWS would impact our operations and our business would be adversely impacted. While the retail side of Amazon competes with us, we do not believe that Amazon will use the AWS operation in such a manner as to gain competitive advantage against our service, although if it was to do so it could harm our business."

Complying with the letter of the AWS Customer Agreement is certainly a tall order, if not an impossible one. While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told the Senate Judiciary Committee in November that content moderation is "something that feels impossible", AWS informs customers that "You are responsible for End Users’ use of Your Content and the Service Offerings. You will ensure that all End Users comply with your obligations under this Agreement and that the terms of your agreement with each End User are consistent with this Agreement." The AWS Acceptable Use Policy spells out a list of prohibited activities or content, enforcement of which some might argue is still aspirational for Amazon itself. On top of all this, it's probably worth noting that — thanks to AWS security and encryption — Amazon will not in many cases even have insight into whether its policies are being violated. So, is satisfying Amazon — and keeping your company in AWS business — somewhat a game of 'Compliance Theater'?

Submission + - Parler CEO speaks out after big tech censorship of platform (thepostmillennial.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "It's devastating is what it is. It's an assault on everybody," Matze said. "They all worked together to make sure at the same time we would lose access to not only out apps, but they are actually shutting all our servers off."

Parler, which champions itself as a pro-free speech social media platform, saw itself booted from the Apple app store and Google Play store in the aftermath of the storming of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump rioters. Shortly after, the website in its entirety had its servers shut down by Amazon, which hosted the website on its web servers, forcing the company to scramble to find new web hosts.

The move comes as social media oligarchs move to ban various conservative accounts from their platforms, beginning with President Donald Trump.

Submission + - ACLU Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook After Trump Suspension (newsweek.com) 1

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: A legislative counsel member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) warned Friday that the suspension of President Donald Trump's social media accounts wielded "unchecked power," by Twitter and Facebook.

Kate Ruane, a senior legislative counsel at the ACLU said in a statement that the decision to suspend Trump from social media could set a precedent for big tech companies to silence less privileged voices.

"For months, President Trump has been using social media platforms to seed doubt about the results of the election and to undermine the will of voters. We understand the desire to permanently suspend him now, but it should concern everyone when companies like Facebook and Twitter wield the unchecked power to remove people from platforms that have become indispensable for the speech of billions – especially when political realities make those decisions easier," the statement read.

"President Trump can turn his press team or Fox News to communicate with the public, but others – like many Black, Brown, and LGTBQ activists who have been censored by social media companies – will not have that luxury. It is our hope that these companies will apply their rules transparently to everyone.

The ACLU isn't the only voice in the legal community citing concern over the move to suspend Trump.

"I want a wide range of ideas, even those I loathe, to be heard, and I think Twitter especially holds a concerning degree of power over public discourse," Gregory P. Magarian, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis told The New York Times.

Submission + - Twitter permanently suspends Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and others (thehill.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Twitter on Friday permanently suspended accounts for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins as part of a crackdown on content linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

A spokesperson for the platform told The Hill that each of the individuals was banned in line with Twitter’s policy against harmful coordinated activity.

On a side note, the Ayatolla of Iran, who has repeatedly called for literal genocide against Jews, is currently being promoted on Twitter.

Submission + - Twitter permanently suspends Trump's account (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by AmiMoJo
AmiMoJo writes: US President Donald Trump has been permanently suspended from Twitter "due to the risk of further incitement of violence", the company says.

Twitter said the decision was made "after close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them".

Mr Trump had earlier been locked out of his account for 12 hours.

Twitter had said that it would ban Mr Trump "permanently" if he breached the platform's rules again.

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