Tag: NETHERLANDS

(NO, IT’S NOT AN APRIL FOOL’S JOKE.) – Facebook plans to curate ‘high quality’ news for its users from ‘trusted outlets’

Screen Shot 2019-04-02 at 10.40.40 AM

Mark Zuckerberg is considering hiring human “editors” to hand-pick “high-quality news” to show Facebook users in an effort to combat fake news — and no, it’s not an April Fool’s joke.

In his ongoing quest to satisfy the political censorship demands of Western governments, Zuckerberg told German publishing house Axel Springer that he is considering the introduction of a dedicated news section for the social media platform, which would potentially use humans to curate the news from “broadly trusted” outlets. Zuckerberg said Facebook might also start paying news publishers to include their articles in this dedicated news section in an effort to reward “high-quality, trustworthy content.”

With social media censorship already at worryingly high levels, who will decide which outlets are “broadly trusted” and which are untrustworthy? What qualifies one outlet as more “trusted” than another? Will Zuckerberg make the criteria public?

Collective punishment? Zuckerberg’s call for internet regulation is aimed at competitors – analyst

Fresh from the anti-climactic Russiagate saga and long-awaited Mueller report, will Facebook penalize all the outlets that incessantly pushed the Trump/Russia “collusion” narrative and hyped fake “bombshells” for more than two years sans evidence, or will the likes of MSNBC and Rachel Maddow automatically earn “trusted” status? The answer to that question is blindingly obvious.

Facebook’s efforts to combat fake news are reminiscent of other recent efforts from apps like NewsGuard, the US government-linked app which “rates” news websites according to their “trustworthiness” and, unsurprisingly, targets alternative media sites which do not strictly adhere to establishment narratives. If recent history is any indicator, Facebook’s own efforts to rate news will also fall directly in line with US government objectives.

The social media giant has been rightly accused of blatant censorship on multiple occasions in recent memory — and there doesn’t seem a way that a group of Facebook-hired editors could be trusted to curate the news for anyone, unless it took some serious steps to address its various biases. In fact, even if it did that, isn’t hiring human editors with their own political biases and preferences to sift through all the available news and select the stories deemed fit for public consumption just an Orwellian idea in the first place?

Facebook should probably already be aware of the pitfalls when it comes to hiring human editors for such purposes. During the 2016 US presidential election, the company’s solution to political bias in its trending news section was to fire the human editors responsible for it. Maybe Zuckerberg thinks this time it will be different? Or maybe, and more likely, this is just another PR effort to placate the pro-censorship crowd on Capitol Hill.

There is no shortage of examples of Facebook censorship at this point. Last year, the platform inexplicably took down the English-language page belonging to left-leaning, Venezuela-based news network Telesur — and deleted the page belonging to Venezuela Analysis, another left-leaning outlet offering commentary critical of Washington’s foreign policy in Latin America. The pages were later restored, but Facebook was not forthcoming with an explanation.

Changes made to Facebook algorithms to combat “fake news” in 2017, saw traffic to multiple socialist and government accountability websites plummeting — including Police the Police (a page exposing US police brutality) and the Free Thought Project (which promotes government transparency). Alternative news websites like Truth-out.org, Democracy Now and Alternet also suffered as a result of those algorithm changes.

More recently, Facebook suspended popular pages run by Maffick Media, which is 51 percent owned by RT’s video agency Ruptly. Coincidentally, the content on those pages is also highly critical of the US government. Funnily enough, Facebook isn’t often caught censoring popular pages whose content is Washington-friendly. The Maffick pages were later restored, but Facebook forced them to include more explicit information about their funding, which in itself is no big deal, but it is a requirement curiously not demanded of US government-funded or linked pages.

ALSO ON RT.COMZuckerberg asks governments for more internet regulation in self-flagellation exercise

Not only has Facebook been accused of censorship, however, it has also been found to be working at the behest of certain governments — but again, only Washington-friendly ones, of course.

The Intercept reported last year that Facebook met with Israeli government officials and complied with orders to delete the accounts belonging to certain Palestinian activists. Facebook quickly bowed to Israel’s demands after threats that it would be forced into complying with the deletion orders by law if it failed to do so voluntarily.

But things don’t look to be getting any better on the Facebook censorship front since then. A journalist for Israeli news outlet +972 Magazine tweeted on Monday that Facebook was now punishing news sites (in the form of lower views) for publishing content that “could be a negative experience” for users — whatever that means. The content in question was an article by the magazine about Gaza’s Great Return march and the casualties inflicted on protesters by the Israeli army.

Screen Shot 2019-04-02 at 10.42.59 AM

With such a terrible track record when it comes to political bias and willingness to censor news and information, don’t be surprised if Facebook’s planned “dedicated news section” of “high-quality” information turns out to be a failure.

Danielle Ryan

0

Big League Politics Editor Patrick Howley: Obama and Brennan’s Crime of the Century Included Coercing A Supreme Court Justice

By

Big League Politics Editor-in-Chief Patrick Howley joined host Matt Locke on the syndicated Conservative Cartel radio show (12-3 PM on Mojo 5-0 Radio) to discuss his landmark piece on the “Crime of the Century” carried out by Barack Obama and Deep State conspirators against President Donald Trump.

It turns out the Russia Collusion Hoax even included the attempted coercion of a Supreme Court justice by two Obama administration intel officials.

READ THE FULL REPORT: HOW OBAMA, HILLARY, AND BRENNAN CARRIED OUT THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY

 

0

Democrats Agree: One Sexual Harassment Allegation Against Joe Biden Isn’t Disqualifying

By EMILY ZANOTTI

CAP

Democrats have a solid party line on the sexual harassment allegations being leveled at former Vice President Joe Biden: you get the first one free.

Both Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and progressive presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) rushed to Biden’s defense over the weekend, claiming that a single sexual harassment allegation — even if credible — shouldn’t immediately and irreparably derail a blossoming presidential campaign.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that Durbin told NBC that a single, unproven sexual harassment allegation — like the one leveled at Biden by a former Nevada gubernatorial candidate last week — shouldn’t mean Biden should pack up his campaign offices before his bid for the presidency even gets off the ground.

“I can tell you that Joe Biden is a friend and a seasoned veteran when it comes to political campaigns. I know nothing about the allegations that I also read this morning, as well. I think all of us should take such allegations seriously and with respect,” Durbin said. “I took Joe Biden’s statement to say just that, exactly.”

“Yes, I think he’s ready if that’s his decision to move forward in this presidential campaign,” he added.

When asked whether the claim “disqualified” Biden, Durbin replied enthusiastically.

“Certainly one allegation is not disqualifying, but it should be taken seriously,” he said.

See the source image

Bernie Sanders, who is Biden’s major threat in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was also oddly deferential to Obama’s former Vice President, telling CBS’s Face the Nation that, while he believes Lucy Flores, the woman who accused Biden of touching her inappropriately at a campaign stop in 2014, he also believes Joe Biden should get a second chance.

“I think that’s a decision for the vice president to make,” said Sanders, when asked whether Biden should continue to seek the nation’s highest office. “I’m not sure that one incident alone disqualifies anybody.”

Instead Sanders, who has faced sexual harassment problems of his own recently when several female former staffers revealed that they were treated poorly on Sanders’ campaign, and that Sanders and his top aides did nothing to address their concerns, said Biden’s issues are simply the result of a world that continues to embrace patriarchy and oppress women.

“I think what this speaks to is the need to fundamentally change the culture of this country and to create environments where women feel comfortable and feel safe,” Sanders said.

See the source image

Of course neither lawmaker was as deferential during, say, now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh‘s confirmation hearings when the judge was accused of a single incident of sexual assault which took place several decades before when he and his alleged victim were both in high school, even though no evidence was presented to verify Kavanaugh’s accuser’s claim.

Biden, for his part, says he does not view his encounter with Ms. Flores as problematic.

“In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort,” Biden said in a statement over the weekend. “And not once – never – did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”

Unfortunately, it appears more women may come forward with stories. A breaking news alert late Monday indicates that at least one other woman, a female campaign staffer, believes she was treated inappropriately by the former vice president. There may also be others; the sudden wave of concern over Biden’s past behavior — which went ignored while Biden and President Barack Obama were in office — seems to be conveniently timed to derail an early April announcement, and could be the work of another campaign.

0

CAUGHT ON TAPE: DNC Chair Says ‘Cowards’ Who Support Trump ‘Will Be Judged Harshly’

By

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said that Republican supporters of President Donald Trump are “cowards” for backing up President Trump’s America First agenda, which aims to fight back against the corruption of the Washington establishment.

BLP reported:

Speaking at a function for left wing group Demand Action, the DNC’s chairman complained that Christianity was hurting Democrats because people who go to church tend to be instilled with Republican values.

“And I had someone in northwest Wisconsin tell me: ‘You know what? For most of the people I know, their principle sources of information are Fox News, the NRA newsletter and the pulpit on Sunday.’ And it should come as a surprise to no-one that our message doesn’t penetrate,” Tom Perez said.

How dare those conservative Republicans believe in God! It’s bad for leftist messaging, after all.

“It should come as a surprise to no-one that that person has elevated the issue of courts to the top because that person on the pulpit is saying ‘ignore everything else that this person has done and is doing, we have to focus on one issue of Roe vs. Wade.’ And people buy it. Because that’s their only source,” he continued.

Perez obviously has not stepped into a church in a while. As noted by the few outspokenly pro-life pastors, getting most Christian pastors to discuss, much less denounce abortion is a difficult task. They fear alienating their major donors, board members and their church membership by being too politically controversial, regardless of the Bible’s teachings. In fact, it is one of the toughest issues plaguing Evangelical Christianity today.

“If you haven’t noticed, there’s a blood-filled gap between what the church believes and what the church does,” said a recent Relearn Church article. “Unfortunately, this inconsistency isn’t exclusive to abortion. Because of the church’s lethargy in effecting culture, it has lost much of its moral high ground in just about every politically charged topic of our time.”

Perez’s speech highlights how out of touch Democrats truly are with ordinary Americans. His idea of Christianity is exactly what one would expect of a non-Christian – that everyone who goes to church is brainwashed by conservative talking points. In reality, the Christianity has sadly become much more progressive in America.

Perhaps the reason the Democrats “message doesn’t penetrate” is not because of the church, but because they are out touch with ordinary Americans.

0

MSNBC’s Maddow keeps spinning Russian collusion hysteria, even as her OWN NETWORK corrects her

CAP

The post-Mueller comedown has been hard for many MSM journalists, but none more so than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. The prime-time host continued to spin collusion hysteria, even as her own network corrected her live on air.

With Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report clearing President Trump of colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 election, the focus among anti-Trump types in the media and in Washington has now shifted to pushing for access to the full contents of the report, including its underlying evidence. Surely, they argue, there must be a speck of collusion in there somewhere.

Attorney General William Barr, who released a summary of its findings last Monday, has promised to turn over as much of the report as possible, “consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies.”

According to Maddow, “it’s hard to believe” that Mueller would allow Barr – a Trump appointee – to pick through the report himself, deciding what passages need redaction. “They wouldn’t leave that to Barr,” she said on Sunday night. But Barr, she continued, is doing that “all by himself.”

Except he’s not. In a letter sent to Congress on Friday, Barr explicitly stated that Mueller is “assisting us” in making these redactions. Even Maddow’s own producers flashed this newsline across TV screens, as Maddow argued the opposite.

CAP

CAP

In the two years Mueller has been investigating Trump, Maddow has stood out as one of the mainstream media’s most fervent Russiagate conspiracy theorists, starring in her very own detective thriller every night on live TV. Trump, she said, was “curiously well versed” in “specific Russian talking points.” The Kremlin, meanwhile, was running a “continuing operation” to steer the US government from within, and could “flip the switch” at any time if discovered, shutting down the entire US power grid.

As Maddow saw ‘Reds under the bed,’ MSNBC covered Mueller more than any other cable network, mentioning the investigator-turned-savior of democracy almost every day last year.

Could it be that the network’s producers are finally tiring of Maddow’s tinfoil-hat proclamations? If so, it’s about time.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

 

0

WATCH: ANGRY SOCIALISTS SCREAM AT THE SKY

Watch: Angry Socialists Scream At The Sky

Anti-Trump protesters prove their intolerance once again

Kaitlin Bennett | Infowars.com – APRIL 1, 2019

A number of angry socialists attended the Trump rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan to scream at the sky.

Kaitlin Bennett went into hostile territory to interview screaming liberal protesters.

0

CONFIRMED: Ilhan Omar Facing Campaign Finance Violation Probe. Here Are The Complaints Filed Against Her.

By AMANDA PRESTIGIACOMO

Sinclair reporter James Rosen confirmed Monday morning that authorities recently completed investigations into two complaints concerning campaign finance violations against Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar.

The two complaints against the controversial figure were filed last year by Minnesota state lawmaker Rep. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican. Drazkowski claims Omar spent thousands of dollars on a divorce attorney and personal travel expenses.

“In referring Omar to the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board, Drazkowski alleged that Omar improperly spent close to $6,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including payments to her divorce attorney and for travel to Boston and Estonia,” says the report.

Rosen notes that Drazkowski’s filings follow “an earlier episode in which Omar repaid $2,500 for honoraria she received for speeches at colleges that receive state funding, a violation of ethics rules for Minnesota lawmakers.”

“I had observed a long pattern,” said Drazkowski. “Representative Omar hasn’t followed the law. She’s repeatedly trampled on the laws of the state in a variety of areas, and gotten by with it.”

The Republican lawmaker maintained that Omar has been allowed to skate in the face of her controversial actions by strategically using her identity as a shield.

“There’s a political fear that people have of being called a name, being called a bigot, being called racist, being called Islamophobic,” he said.

When Omar was questioned about the probe into the alleged finance violations on Thursday, she refused to respond. Earlier this year, the Democrat denied the alleged indiscretions, though the complaints were still unconfirmed to the public at the time.

“The Omar Committee’s 2017 year-end report shows several noncampaign disbursements for out-of-state travel for Rep. Omar to attend various events,” reads a notification allegedly from the finance board posted on Drazkowski’s website.

“The information on the committee’s 2017 year-end report does not indicate how attendance at these events would have helped Rep. Omar in the performance of her legislative duties,” another notification says.

The results of the investigations are expected to soon be released, Sinclair reports.

Despite her many controversies, Omar has become a key figure for the Democrat Party.

The Democrat has found herself under fire on more than one occasion for past and present comments she’s made about Jews and Israel. In March, for example, Omar suggested Jewish Americans have “dual loyalty” after she was criticized for past comments perceived as anti-Semitic.

“Lawmakers must be able to debate w/o prejudice or bigotry. I am saddened that Rep. Omar continues to mischaracterize support for Israel. I urge her to retract this statement and engage in further dialogue with the Jewish community on why these comments are so hurtful,” said Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), who is Jewish.

“Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman!” Omar responded on Twitter. “I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!”

0

CNN didn’t get ‘anything’ wrong in Russiagate reporting, host claims. It didn’t?

CAP

The host of CNN’s State of the Union, Jake Tapper, tried to defend the network’s coverage of Russiagate, claiming it actually got nothing wrong. The bold claim, however, was challenged by other journalists.

Tapper made the controversial remark while talking to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday.

“I’m not sure what you’re saying the media got wrong. The media reported the investigation was going on. Other than the people in the media on the left, not on this network, I don’t know anybody that got anything wrong,” Tapper stated.

CAP

Mulvaney shot back at what he called Tapper’s personal “recollection of history.”

“Face it, the media got this wrong. It’s okay. People get stuff wrong all the time, just not at this level,” he said.

Tapper’s defense of the ‘balanced’ CNN coverage raised a few eyebrows among the journalist community, as some took to Twitter to challenge the claim and bring up embarrassing retractions of the stories on ‘collusion’ the network had to make.

CAP

Others pointed out previous statements by Tapper himself.

CAP

CAP

And even accused him of reporting fake news.

CAP

CAP

Many users took issue with the overall tone of the coverage, as well as opinions expressed by CNN guests who pushed the conspiracy theory really hard.

CAP

CAP

Some joked that Tapper’s remark was proof that he was among those viewers who stopped watching CNN as it obsessed over the disproven ‘Trump-Russia collusion’.

CAP

0

Twitter reinstates anti-abortion movie account after sparking outrage with unexplained suspension

CAP

An anti-abortion box office movie has had its Twitter account restored after a temporary and unexplained suspension, which sparked outrage and fresh cries of ‘censorship’ online.

The movie titled ‘Unplanned’ follows the true story of a Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life activist, and was produced by Christian production company Pure Flix. It bills itself as “exposing the truth” about the family-planning organization, which it claims is only interested in money.

CAP

Twitter suspended the movie’s account seemingly without explanation last week, one day after its official premiere, but the backlash on the social media platform was swift, with pro-life and conservative commentators publicizing the suspension and demanding answers on the blackout. After the outcry, Twitter lifted the suspension, having decided that “after further review,” the account did not actually violate any rules.

It appears the suspension could have been the result of pro-choice users repeatedly “maliciously and falsely” reporting Unplanned’s account to Twitter — but the entire thing seems to have backfired, as the movie’s follower count shot up dramatically to over 100,000 soon after its account was restored.

CAP

But the saga continued, as Twitter users then suddenly began reporting that they had mysteriously been unfollowed from the movie’s account — and some claimed that they were not able to follow it at all. However, the account now has more than 200,000 followers.

CAP

The movie has been lauded by conservative media and panned by liberal media as pro-life “propaganda.” Twitter’s action against the movie didn’t seem to bother mainstream media though, with few major outlets reporting on the weekend-long Twitter drama.

READ MORE: Censorship crackdown? Top 10 alt-media pages newly banned by Facebook & Twitter

Major television networks in the US, including the Hallmark Channel and the USA Network, also refused to run the movie’s ads — and it was given an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) due to some graphic abortion scenes. The movie producers called the decision “deeply flawed” given that films featuring “graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem” have been given PG-13 ratings.

Despite the pushback, the movie had a surprisingly strong opening weekend, pulling in $6.1 million and landing in fifth place.

CAP

The movie has enjoyed support from conservative politicians, with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee encouraging his Twitter followers to see it and calling Planned Parenthood a “money-making baby killing machine,” while former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called Unplanned a “great movie full of shocking truth” about the “anti-child movement.”

CAP

0

ACCUSATION: Biden Kissed, Sniffed Latina Democrat

By

Former vice president and possible Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden stands accused of physical misconduct against a female Latina Democrat politician.

The accusation against Biden marks one of the first major direct accusations against Biden during this campaign cycle, but insiders believe many more are coming. Big League Politics learned about the impending accusation Wednesday night and monitored the situation as Lucy Flores came forward with her bold first-person essay in New York magazine. BLP has not spoken to Flores directly but now we have her own words describing the disturbing encounter at a campaign event with Eva Longoria, via New York mag’s “The Cut”:

“In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada…As I was taking deep breaths and preparing myself to make my case to the crowd, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I froze. “Why is the vice-president of the United States touching me?”

I felt him get closer to me from behind. He leaned further in and inhaled my hair. I was mortified. I thought to myself, “I didn’t wash my hair today and the vice-president of the United States is smelling it. And also, what in the actual fuck? Why is the vice-president of the United States smelling my hair?” He proceeded to plant a big slow kiss on the back of my head. My brain couldn’t process what was happening. I was embarrassed. I was shocked. I was confused. There is a Spanish saying, “tragame tierra,” it means, “earth, swallow me whole.” I couldn’t move and I couldn’t say anything. I wanted nothing more than to get Biden away from me. My name was called and I was never happier to get on stage in front of an audience.

By then, as a young Latina in politics, I had gotten used to feeling like an outsider in rooms dominated by white men. But I had never experienced anything so blatantly inappropriate and unnerving before. Biden was the second-most powerful man in the country and, arguably, one of the most powerful men in the world. He was there to promote me as the right person for the lieutenant governor job. Instead, he made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused. The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it.”

Flores passage ends

Vox follows up on Flores’ story with the headline “Lucy Flores Isn’t Alone. Joe Biden’s Got a Long History of Touching.”

Flores’s experience isn’t unique. It is no secret in Washington that Biden has touched numerous women inappropriately in public. It’s just never been treated as a serious issue by the mainstream press.

Biden’s been caught on camera embracing a female reporter from behind and gripping her above her waist, just below her bust. At a swearing-in ceremony for Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Biden put his hands on the shoulders of Stephanie Carter, Carter’s wife, and then leaned in and whispered into her ear. (He’s whispered into many women’s ears.) He’s also touched women’s faces and necks during other photo ops. Once at a swearing-in ceremony for a US senator, he held the upper arm of the senator’s preteen daughter, leaned down and whispered into her ear, as she became visibly uncomfortable. Then he kissed the side of her forehead, a gesture that made the girl flinch.

It’s all out in the open. News outlets wrote about these incidents. But the stories ran under light-hearted headlines like, “Photo of famously friendly Joe Biden goes viral” or “Here’s Joe Biden being Joe Biden with Ash Carter’s wife” or “Joe Biden: Sex symbol?,” a piece that I edited and now regret.”

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑