Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Noon Time-Check on Techdirt Today: READERS STAY ALERT
Now Josh Hawley Is Threatening Google Over 1st Amendment Protected Expression
from the not-how-it-works-josh dept
As the Daily Beast recently detailed, this "treatment" is extremely sketchy, totally unproven, and extraordinarily dangerous. From a Washington Post article about these treatments:
But when researchers attempted to carry out a legitimate study of whether these “abortion reversal” treatments were effective and safe, they had to stop almost immediately — because some of the women who participated in the study experienced dangerous hemorrhaging that sent them to the hospital.
On top of that, remember that a decade ago the DOJ hit Google with a $500 forfeiture for advertising foreign online pharmacies, so it's not at all difficult to see how Google is going to be extra careful regarding advertisements regarding sketchy "medical" interventions.
Hawley's letter ignores all of this and insists this is proof of Google's ideological biases in moderating its ads:
Recently, while attempting to run ads for a client in the Washington, D.C. metro area, Choose Life Marketing realized that these ads were not running, even though Google designated them as eligible to run. Worse, Choose Life Marketing was unable to obtain an explanation from your company. Notably, even a cursory investigation reveals numerous examples of Planned Parenthood advertising directly to internet users that it offers abortions, contrary to Google’s stated policies.
All of this is alarming enough on its own, and the situation has only continued to escalate. Notably, Lila Rose—president of the pro-life organization Live Action—reported on September 14 that your company had pulled the plug on Live Action’s advertising campaigns, citing “Google Ads policy.”
Hawley also claims (without any evidence) that, "This would not be the first time that political considerations have influenced your company’s ad eligibility decisions" misleadingly citing Google's warning to the Federalist regarding ads on its site. As we explained then, Google sends those warnings to tons of sites, including ours (which is why we no longer have any ads on our site). I'm still waiting for Hawley to speak up in defense of Google threatening to demonetize ads on Techdirt, but I get the feeling I'll be waiting a very long time. If Hawley can't grandstand and lie about the reasons why these decisions are made, what good is it to him?
Either way, even if Google were making these decisions for ideological reasons (again, there is no proof to support this), that is its 1st Amendment protected right.
> The 1st Amendment's right of association means that if you don't want to be associated with ads promoting a sketchy, potentially dangerous medical procedure, you don't need to be. For Hawley to imply otherwise is just yet another attack on the 1st Amendment, and makes him just as bad as Elizabeth Warren on the other side of the Senate chamber.
It sure would be nice if Senators from both parties actually understood what it means to protect and defend the Constitution, and how that includes the 1st Amendment.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, advertising, content moderation, elizabeth warren, josh hawley, medical information
Companies: google, live action
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Chinese Government Decides It's Done Fucking Around, Forces Hong Kong To Engage In 'Patriot-Only' Elections
from the flag-humping-now-mandatory dept
It's been a steady erosion since China took possession of the region from the British government back in 1997.
Despite an agreement to steer clear of direct control of Hong Kong's government until 2047, the Chinese government immediately began meddling, amping things up when Hong Kong residents engaged in sustained pro-democracy protests.
> Over the past couple of years, the Chinese government has turned protesting into a crime with life sentences attached and restyled the Hong Kong government in its own image.
> It has also used the greatest excuse ever invented for governmental power grabs -- "national security" -- to make it easier to jail opponents, eject problematic government officials, and control the flow of information, along with the information itself.
Control of the internet has been handed over to Hong Kong police, an entity which is entirely subservient to its new masters. As if that wasn't enough, the Chinese government, with the assistance of the complicit remnants of Hong Kong's government, converted the burgeoning police state into a literal police state by making a police commissioner the region's Secretary of Security (the same police commissioner who presided over numerous acts of violence against pro-democracy activists) and elevating the former Secretary of Security to fully-compromised Chief Executive Carrie Lam's second-in-command.
The latest move -- enabled by a law passed earlier this year -- cuts Hong Kong residents out of the election loop. Only certain people are allowed to vote for their new representatives and officials, and they've been preapproved by the Chinese government. . .Carrie Lam, the current head of Hong Kong, made it clear she agrees with the new system inflicted on her region with a statement that sounds like it was crafted by a North Korean government official/Donald Trump speechwriter:
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters Sunday: "The Election Committee elections are very meaningful as it is the first elections held after we have improved the electoral system to ensure that only patriots can take office."
A caricature in a political satire couldn't have said it better. And that's all Lam is at this point. Unfortunately, she presides over a region that has to pay for this buffoonish kowtowing with their lives and liberties. To be sure, self-preservation is a powerful motivating force for most politicians, but Lam's abdication of her role as a servant of Hong Kong residents means people are going to end up dead at the hands of her new overseers.
And, to be sure, Lam herself wants to live an unencumbered life, but she's going to have to step over the bodies of the "non-patriots" she used to serve to do it. The same can be said for everyone in the Hong Kong government who has decided it's better to serve oppressors than fight to live free.
This bogus, jingoistic election is the end of Hong Kong as we know it. China will be more than happy to profit from the region's immense wealth, but it's never going to restore rights to the people who made Hong Kong what it is."
Filed Under: china, civil rights, elections, hong kong, patriots
ISPs Already Fighting FCC Plan To End Anti-Competitive Landlord Broadband Deals
from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept
It's all a very stupid affair, and highlights not only the lengths ISPs are willing to go to to hamstring competition, but the perpetual failure of U.S. telecom regulators to maintain baseline levels of competency. Not only were the original rules terribly written and constructed, ISPs have been exploiting that initial failure for more than a decade with absolutely no meaningful penalty. And while FCC does occasionally admit there's a problem here, the net result is usually little more than a few meetings.
This time the FCC is opening up the public commenting system for input from the public and ISPs that are harmed by these practices.
But again, there's no guarantee the process actually survives ISP lobbying and ends with meaningful improvements to the rules. And because the Biden camp still hasn't appointed a permanent boss, the agency still lacks the voting majority necessary to implement actual reform anytime soon anyway. "
Filed Under: apartment buildings, broadband, competition, fcc, isps, landlords
Companies: charter, comcast, cox, ncta
Queen Creek Arizona Troll Farms Taken Down by Facebook and Twitter
Facebook Bans Marketing Firm Behind Alleged Troll-Like Social Media Campaign
MENLO PARK, Calif. — Facebook has permanently banned the Arizona-based marketing firm behind a troll farm-like operation that allegedly paid teenagers to pump out scripted disinformation and other conservative talking points on social media, according to a report Thursday.
The Washington Post reported that Facebook made the decision following an investigation prompted by reporting in the Post last month. The social media company found the firm, Rally Forge, was working on behalf of the conservative youth group Turning Point USA.
According to the Post, Turning Point Action — an affiliate of Turning Point USA – hired teens, some of them minors, to generate thousands of messages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in recent months using both accounts that included their real names as well as fake accounts.
The messages – some false and others simply partisan – were mainly replies to posts by Democratic politicians and news organizations. The people behind the posts were directed about what to say and did not disclose they were being paid by Turning Point Action.
The operation resembled a lower-tech version of the Russian bots and trolls that interfered with the 2016 presidential election.
Facebook has removed 200 accounts and 55 pages, as well as 76 Instagram accounts, related to the operation. All together, they had more than 400,000 followers across the two platforms.
Facebook, however, did not penalize Turning Point USA or its president, Charlie Kirk, saying it could not determine the extent to which they were aware of the violations by Rally Forge, which was hired to handle the campaign’s day-to-day activity.
After already suspending several hundred accounts allegedly related to the operation last month, Twitter booted another 262 Thursday but also took no action against Turning Point USA.
Experts in disinformation criticized the decision to go easy on Turning Point USA, saying it would send a signal to similar organizations that they can get away with social media manipulation as long as they outsource their activity, the Post reported.
Rally Forge President and CEO Jake Hoffman has not yet responded to the Post’s request for comment.
Austin Smith, Turning Point Action’s national field director, last month called comparisons of the operation to a troll farm a “gross mischaracterization.”
“This is sincere political activism conducted by real people who passionately hold the beliefs they describe online, not an anonymous troll farm in Russia,” Smith said in a statement to the Post.
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RELATED CONTENT
Turning Point Action (USA) Creates Its Own Russian Troll Farm In Phoenix
". . .The Washington Post reported, Pro-Trump youth group enlists teens in secretive campaign likened to a ‘troll farm,’ prompting rebuke by Facebook and Twitter:
[M]essages have been emanating in recent months from the accounts of young people in Arizona seemingly expressing their own views — standing up for President Trump in a battleground state and echoing talking points from his reelection campaign.
Far from representing a genuine social media groundswell, however, the posts are the product of a sprawling yet secretive campaign that experts say evades the guardrails put in place by social media companies to limit online disinformation of the sort used by Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Teenagers, some of them minors, are being paid to pump out the messages at the direction of Turning Point Action, an affiliate of Turning Point USA, the prominent conservative youth organization based in Phoenix, according to four people with independent knowledge of the effort. Their descriptions were confirmed by detailed notes from relatives of one of the teenagers who recorded conversations with him about the efforts.
The campaign draws on the spam-like behavior of bots and trolls, with the same or similar language posted repeatedly across social media. But it is carried out, at least in part, by humans paid to use their own accounts, though nowhere disclosing their relationship with Turning Point Action or the digital firm brought in to oversee the day-to-day activity. One user included a link to Turning Point USA’s website in his Twitter profile until The Washington Post began asking questions about the activity.
In response to questions from The Post, Twitter on Tuesday suspended at least 20 accounts involved in the activity for “platform manipulation and spam.” Facebook also removed a number of accounts as part of what the company said is an ongoing investigation.
The effort generated thousands of posts this summer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, according to an examination by The Post and an assessment by an independent specialist in data science. Nearly 4,500 tweets containing identical content that were identified in the analysis probably represent a fraction of the overall output.
The months-long effort by the tax-exempt nonprofit is among the most ambitious domestic influence campaigns uncovered this election cycle, said experts tracking the evolution of deceptive online tactics.
“In this election, the troll farm is in Phoenix,” Graham Brookie, director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told the Post.
. . .Turning Point Action, whose 26-year-old leader, Charlie Kirk, delivered the opening speech at this year’s Republican National Convention, issued a statement from the group’s field director defending the social media campaign and saying any comparison to a troll farm was a “gross mischaracterization.”
“This is sincere political activism conducted by real people who passionately hold the beliefs they describe online, not an anonymous troll farm in Russia,” the field director, Austin Smith, said in the statement.
Dude, disinformation campaigns are not “passionately held beliefs.” They are malignant efforts to misinform the public. Here are some samples reported by The Post:
One tweet claimed coronavirus numbers were intentionally inflated, adding, “It’s hard to know what to believe.” Another warned, “Don’t trust Dr. Fauci.”
A Facebook comment argued that mail-in ballots “will lead to fraud for this election,” while an Instagram comment amplified the erroneous claim that 28 million ballots went missing in the past four elections.
The online salvo targeted prominent Democratic politicians and news organizations on social media. It mainly took the form of replies to their posts, part of a bid to reorient political conversation.
This may explain the recent spate of trolling at the blog.
The messages — some of them false and some simply partisan — were parceled out in precise increments as directed by the effort’s leaders, according to the people with knowledge of the highly coordinated activity, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the privacy of minors carrying out the work.
One parent of two teenagers involved in the effort, Robert Jason Noonan, said his 16- and 17-year-old daughters were being paid by Turning Point to push “conservative points of view and values” on social media. He said they have been working with the group since about June, adding in an interview, “The job is theirs until they want to quit or until the election.”
> . . .The posts also play down the threat from covid-19, which claimed the life of Turning Point’s co-founder Bill Montgomery in July.
> One post, which was spread across social media dozens of times, suggested baselessly that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is inflating the death toll from the disease. (Most experts say deaths are probably undercounted.) Another pushed for schools to reopen, reasoning, “President Trump is not worried because younger people do very well while dealing with covid.”
> . . .The Phoenix New Times has more on this troll. Future Arizona Legislator Ran Teen Disinformation Cell, WaPo Reports:
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Rally Forge, a local digital marketing company headed by Jake Hoffman, a Queen Creek council member and Republican House candidate for Legislative District 12, ran a program over the summer in which teenagers were paid to spam Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook with identical messages that asserted COVID-19 is overhyped and generally attempted to undermine confidence in the validity of American elections — all in support of President Donald Trump.
As one of only two general-election candidates running for the two open state House seats in District 12, Hoffman is all but assured to become a state legislator by default after the November election.
Some of the users at points listed their location as Gilbert, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, according to screen shots reviewed by The Post. Some followed each other on Twitter, while most were following only a list of prominent politicians and media outlets.
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