BAN DE-PLAT 2

est 720

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see social media bias BS

see soc med 1-3 and tag

merri ok

SEE DISINFO 1-3

FAIL

shd this include taking down botnets?

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~ big tech soc media bias becomes std talk pt for 2022 election?

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9 26 parkrose perma copyrt strikes, demonitize retoractively?

gil duran

-=-=

banned from X; fascism

20:32

20 minutes, 32 seconds

Facebook banned people from posting links to my website. And when I finally asked about it, cuz I thought it was some kind of accident or I had done my website the wrong way and they needed to

fix it. Um, a customer service rep at Meta said that because I write about controversial topics and criticize tech figures that my work was being flagged as inappropriate, which was hilarious.

And I posted those screenshots. There was some media about that and they reversed the policy and said it was an accident and that it wasn't true.

And then as my book was nearing publication, uh, I came under attack, multiple reports every day reporting my YouTube channel, which only has like

tapper

🔴 LIVE: 'Peter Thiel Is Betting Against America' | Gil Duran NYT Best Selling Author

-=-=

At least Seddon didn’t have to fear going to prison. AP3 had spent weeks preparing to go to Washington, D.C., for Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, with one of his top deputies promising to “mad max this shit.” Whether through luck, foresight or miscalculation, Seddon had decided to save his forces for that event rather than deploy them at the Jan. 6 rally. Plenty of his members went anyway; some fought with police officers on the Capitol steps. But they were under orders not to wear AP3 insignia, according to two former lieutenants to Seddon, and the organization was never publicly linked to the rioters.

That did not save AP3 from the fallout. Membership plummeted. AP3ers lost friends and business. Active-duty police officers quit out of fear of losing their jobs.

What’s more, AP3’s best recruiting tool was essentially gone: Facebook had cracked down on paramilitary organizing. “Facebook has been our greatest weapon. It’s gotten us where we are today,” Seddon told his troops. He later described those months as a period of personal “misery” and self-doubt. “I had a drinking problem,” he would confide to the group. “The bottle was consuming me.”

By the middle of 2021, some AP3 leaders were ready to give up.

---

good analysis amplify

wapo

Democracy Dies in Darkness

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

By Sarah Ellison and

Clara Ence Morse

May 8, 2024

On the second day of his civil fraud trial in New York last fall, Donald Trump posted a photo of a young woman, Allison Greenfield, standing next to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Trump claimed falsely that she was “Schumer’s girlfriend” and was “running this case against me.”

Donald Trump's Truth Social profile picture

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Schumer’s girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!! https://www.instagram.com/greenfield4civilcourt/A photo of Allison Greenfield standing next to New York senator Charles E. Schumer displayed as a silhouette.The Washington Post is not displaying this image.

October 3, 2023 at 6:56 p.m.

Trump’s post about Greenfield, the principal law clerk for New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, received only around 1,400 shares, modest activity for a former president whose Twitter account once had nearly 90 million followers.

Engoron, who oversaw the trial, ordered Trump to take down the post, which he did the same day. But the message was already out. The next day, insults directed at Greenfield flooded right-wing podcasts and social media.

X/Twitter

alt text

Laura Loomer

LauraLoomer

President Trump posted this on Truth Social. Judge Arthur Engoron’s Principal Law Clerk Allison Greenfield appears to be a Democrat political operative who is collaborating with @SenSchumer who has openly proclaimed his desire to “get Trump” and see him jailed. WITCH HUNT

October 3, 2023 at 3:13 p.m.

TimCast podcast

October 4, 2023

“These people have an agenda. They have had a bias, obvious bias against Donald Trump from day one.”

— Tim Pool

The Michael Knowles Show podcast

October 4, 2023

“Trump took a swipe at one of the judge's staff members and pointed out that she's a huge lib, Alison Greenfield. She's a big lib. She's a big Democrat.”

— Michael Knowles

Over the next two months, dozens of articles focused on Greenfield’s role. Conservative media personalities such as Laura Loomer and the cable TV news channel Newsmax kept the spotlight on the clerk by frequently repeating Trump’s complaints.

Breitbart

November 3, 2023

A Breitbart headline reading: Conniption in Court: Gasps as Breitbart Exposé on Trump New York Judge’s Clerk Takes Center Stage

NewsMax

November 3, 2023

A NewsMax headline reading: Judge Blasts Trump Lawyers for Attacking Staff

NewsMax

November 3, 2023

New York Post

November 15, 2023

A New York Post headline reading: Trump seeks mistrial in 'tainted' $250M civil fraud case — citing judge's 'overwhelming' bias

The Epoch Times

December 7, 2023

A The Epoch Times headline reading: NY Judge Argues Against Trump Suit, Says Relationships Between Judge and Staff 'Sacrosanct'

With the attention from Trump’s backers came threats and abuse — a torrent that compelled Greenfield to tighten security at home and avoid public transportation.

When transcribed, the harassing voice-mail messages left for Greenfield covered more than 275 single-spaced pages.

Those concerned about the impact of Trump’s incendiary and often inaccurate messages have long sought ways to limit his reach. Cable news networks stopped airing his speeches live. Social media companies adopted new rules to slow the spread of false information. The targets of his bogus election conspiracy theories sued him and his proxies.

Perhaps the most significant move to limit Trump’s audience came after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol: bans on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, blocking him from some of the most influential social media platforms of the era.

And yet, three years later, a Washington Post analysis shows how those efforts have failed.

Now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump is as potent a political force as ever, with an army of amplifiers ensuring that his messages — true or untrue — reach a broad swath of the American public. He is set to face President Biden in November, with Trump running roughly even in national polls.

When Trump was initially suspended from the major social media platforms, he issued a statement: “We will not be SILENCED!”

He then created his own social media platform, Truth Social, where he would never be banned and which would allow him to profit financially from his own messages.

Former president Donald Trump is reflected in a mirror as he speaks to supporters in Laconia, N.H., on the day before the New Hampshire Republican primary. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Truth Social was estimated to have 5.4 million website visits in the United States in March, with another 800,000 on its app. By comparison, X, which was formerly known as Twitter, claimed more than 200 times that, with over 1 billion visits. Facebook is estimated to have had 3 billion visits in the same period, according to audience tracking firm Similarweb. Even though Trump has now been reinstated on the larger platforms, he has stuck with Truth Social, a platform that gives him greater freedom but a far more limited reach.

Yet despite its relatively small user base, Truth Social is influential because it sustains the networks of MAGA influencers, culture warriors and election deniers who power the right-wing media and guide the rhetoric and policies of many Republican elected officials. It directly connects Trump to influencers with enormous networks and audiences outside the platform, The Post’s analysis found.

Press Enter to skip to end of carousel

How Trump has become angrier and more isolated on Truth Social

Here on his company’s social network Trump is offering followers an intimate view of what his second term could look like: isolated, vitriolic and vengeful.

End of carousel]

The Post analyzed 14,101 of Trump’s posts from the day he announced his presidential campaign on Nov. 15, 2022, through March 15, 2024, including 7,716 original text posts as well as reposts and image-only posts. He posted to Truth Social, where he now has 6.96 million followers, an average of 29 times a day over that period.

Those messages were in turn shared by followers with wildly popular Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, podcasts and cable news shows, some of which reach tens of millions of people. The Post’s analysis focused on nearly 200 right-wing political influencers who have active accounts on Truth Social and other social media sites.

“The people around Trump know better than anybody how to spread a message,” Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump senior adviser and influential podcaster, said in an interview. They also benefit personally from their role.

Supporters of former president Donald Trump try to get his photo as he walks out to announce his bid for president at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15, 2022. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)

By “recirculating golden nuggets from Trump, influencers provide the bonding of this media ecosystem,” said Yochai Benkler, a Harvard Law School professor who has long studied propaganda. “The more outrageous and trolling of the libs it is,” added Benkler, “the more attractive it is for those who want to make money and get credibility inside the political community for being a true believer.”

Trump recently praised Truth Social for its effectiveness. “When I put out a statement or message, it is SPREAD all over the place, fast and furious. EVERYBODY SEEMS TO GET WHATEVER I HAVE TO SAY, AND QUICKLY,” he wrote on the platform in early April.

Shannon Devine, spokesperson for Truth Social, said in a statement that “since users can express themselves on Truth Social without censorship and without their message being filtered through biased media outlets, it’s unsurprising that Donald Trump would use the platform or that people would spread his statements elsewhere.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s biggest amplifiers include well-known political figures and media organizations, as well as those who have built their brands almost entirely based on their habitual echo of the former president’s words, The Post’s analysis found.

Influencers such as conservative radio and TV host Mark Levin, former Trump adviser and media commentator Sebastian Gorka, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, and online personalities such as Philip Buchanan, who posts using the handle Catturd, regularly share Trump’s Truth Social posts within the platform and amplify his messages to their massive followings off it. Levin, Gorka, Flynn and Catturd each boast over a million followers on X, and Levin and Gorka host popular podcasts. Levin, Flynn and Buchanan did not respond to requests for comment. Gorka responded by saying, “You are scum and a hack. Go to Hell.”

Sebastian Gorka greets supporters on the first day of CPAC on March 2, 2023, in Fort Washington, Md. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Former Trump national security adviser and retired three-star Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn greets visitors during the ReAwaken America Tour on Oct. 21, 2022, in Manheim, Pa. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Trump uses Truth Social to promote his campaign and personal brand, attack political rivals and solicit donations. He also makes false claims of election fraud, spreads far-right conspiracy theories and hurls vitriol at the judges, witnesses and prosecutors involved in his court cases. Posts that make claims of election interference, discuss his court cases or include aggressively insulting language, tend to get the most attention. Five of Trump’s 10 most reposted messages involve election denial.

Early in his campaign, almost all of Trump’s election-denial posts focused on the 2020 presidential race. But after his first indictment in April 2023, Trump began alleging that prosecutors, by charging him, were interfering in the 2024 election. Around the time of his June indictment for mishandling classified documents, his posts on alleged 2024 election interference began to outnumber claims of 2020 election fraud, a trend that continued throughout the year, the Post analysis found.

On Aug. 14, when Trump was indicted in Georgia, he posted three messages equating the indictment with election interference. “THOSE WHO RIGGED & STOLE THE ELECTION WERE THE ONES DOING THE TAMPERING, & THEY ARE THE SLIME THAT SHOULD BE PROSECUTED,” he wrote in his typical all-caps style.

His language was repeated dozens of times in the two following days on right-wing media, podcasts and television. Internet personality Catturd posted a screenshot of Trump’s post to Twitter an hour later, where it garnered 150,000 views. That afternoon, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.) wrote on Facebook and Truth Social that the justice system was rigged against Trump, ending the post with an allegation of “election interference!”

The phenomenon is a “steroidal version of political messaging,” according to Chris Stirewalt, politics editor at NewsNation and a former political editor at Fox News. “Trump says or does something egregious and the people who are currying favor with him say, ‘Well, let’s workshop this,’ and they share his message on their own account, but add their own twist.”

One of the reasons Trump has not regularly posted on X is that he wants to create and keep financial value for his Truth Social site, which he carefully tracks, according to people close to him who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

He has relentlessly tried to promote it, telling his advisers that he wants to break news on the platform to bring in more users. That focus paid off with an early, heady valuation of the company that peaked at more than $10 billion in late March, though shares in parent company Trump Media and Technology Group have fallen sharply since then.

Supporters use their phones during a rally in Erie, Pa., on July 29. (Dustin Franz for The Washington Post)

Trump has posted on X only once since leaving the Oval Office — his mug shot last year from an Atlanta jail, where he was booked on charges of trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

But “even though Trump had been kicked off Twitter, people like me can get out Trump’s message on Twitter,” said Mike Davis, a former Senate aide who helped guide the confirmation of Supreme Court justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Davis, who founded the Article III Project, a judicial advocacy organization, is a frequent podcast guest on shows hosted by influencers such as Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, Jack Posobiec and Bannon. He estimates that he’s done over 3,000 media appearances, “and that’s in addition to constant social media and writing opinion pieces defending Trump.”

Davis said that being kicked off social media is galvanizing for conservatives, and he would know. He has been suspended from Twitter five times. But each time, “it was the best thing ever, because then I would go on Fox News and talk about how I was being censored and that would build a bigger audience.”

An ideal testing ground

The day before the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Bannon hosted a “force amplifier” event for influencers to discuss the most effective ways to support Trump’s causes.

Truth Social is an ideal testing ground, Bannon said, because it provides a way to test a message among a relatively small group that can then pass along the most effective lines to a wider audience.

“This entire industry is predicated upon the Trumps of the world creating compelling content daily,” said Bannon. “From YouTube to Facebook to Twitter to Instagram, the whole thing. People are making businesses and careers out of his content.”

A radio show is live-streamed as supporters of Donald Trump gather to watch election results following the presidential primaries on March 12 in Smyrna, Ga. (Megan Varner/For The Washington Post )

On July 27, new charges against Trump in the mishandling classified documents case were filed by special counsel Jack Smith. The following day, Trump wrote three posts on Truth Social referencing the “weaponization” of the Department of Justice or FBI, including one post that garnered over 8,400 reposts and 29,000 likes. The language quickly found its way off Truth Social.

“People are not stupid,” Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said that night on Sean Hannity’s show, which typically reaches 2.3 million people. “As a whole, they are starting to understand that the weaponization of the justice system is full throttle right now.”

“This morning, I joined Fox and Friends to discuss the illegal weaponization of the DOJ against Joe Biden’s top political opponent,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) posted on her Facebook page, which has 360,000 followers, that afternoon.

Newsmax posted a video to its YouTube channel, which has 2.2 million subscribers, promoting an interview with former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who said the Biden administration had “weaponized the justice system in a shameful and disgraceful way.” (A Newsmax spokesperson said the network covers both sides of Trump’s trials. Guilfoyle said that the “censorship of President Trump is un-American, a total assault on the First Amendment.”)

Despite his frequent public complaints about how Fox treats him, Trump is also still amplified by its major prime time shows. The night he posted about the Georgia indictments, guests on the popular Hannity, “Jesse Watters Primetime” and “Fox News @ Night” shows, cited the indictments as evidence of election interference.

“For mainstream outlets, it’s the laziest kind of rage revenue because TV producers and web editors go out to find the posts that online rage merchants have already made,” said Stirewalt, who is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “And then you can bring it back to your more mainstream audience and say: ‘Aren’t you enraged by how enraged they are?’”

From anonymity to influencer

Some of the former president’s biggest boosters have built their identities almost entirely online, with no credentials beyond their instinct for amplifying his words.

Philip Buchanan, a 59-year-old living in the panhandle of Florida, is the person behind the social media personality Catturd. Buchanan began tweeting in 2018 as a so-called “Reply Guy,” someone with a small social media following who communicates primarily in the comments section of prominent users. Today, his X account boasts 2.4 million followers, including former Fox host Tucker Carlson, billionaire X owner Elon Musk, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Trump.

Buchanan, who is behind the social media personality Catturd, has 2.4 million followers of his X account. (Screenshot from social media)

Buchanan’s interactions with Trump highlight how each benefit from the other. Through much of 2020, the Catturd account had featured pandemic-era jabs at Democrats, often with a scatological twist. But after the election, Buchanan — like Trump — became fixated on false claims of a rigged vote. Trump retweeted him three times that November.

More recently, Buchanan posted a screenshot of an April 6 Trump post on Truth Social attacking New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s hush money case. “Trump just violated the gag order and dares the corrupt activist hack judge to put him in jail,” Buchanan wrote on X. He followed up with a flame emoji to express his appreciation for Trump’s stance.

Buchanan, whose identity was revealed by Rolling Stone and confirmed by The Post, has credited his social media fame with changing his financial life. In January, he told Carlson, the former Fox News personality who now hosts a show on X, that he bought a new truck, started a podcast and now sells a line of Catturd-branded merchandise.

A clerk under threat

The public scrutiny of Allison Greenfield began with a Wisconsin man named Brock Fredin, who unearthed the photo of the law clerk with Schumer. Fredin posted the photo on X, using the handle @JudicialProtest, and added a caption asking why she was “palling around with Charles E. Schumer?”

Fredin did not respond to a request for comment.

Days later, Trump took a screenshot of Fredin’s post, added a link to Greenfield’s Instagram account, and pushed the message out to his followers. His campaign sent out an email blast targeting Greenfield minutes later.

Although Trump did not directly threaten Greenfield, he clearly voiced his disapproval to his many followers. Right-wing influencers publicized Greenfield’s cellphone and social media accounts, and she scrambled to hide her personal information and that of her family. Court security directed her to stop taking the subway and instead travel by car.

Judge Arthur Engoron, right, sits on the bench with principal law clerk Allison Greenfield, center, during former president Donald Trump's civil business fraud trial in New York on Nov. 2. (John Taggart for The Washington Post)

Laura Loomer speaks during protests against the indictment of former president Donald Trump outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami on June 13. (Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post)

Greenfield, who is now running to be a Manhattan civil court judge, declined to comment for this piece. But her experience was described in court papers and by Jerry Skurnik, a consultant for her campaign.

Trump’s post resulted in roughly 20-30 calls per day to Greenfield’s personal cellphone and approximately 30-50 messages per day across social media, Linkedln and two personal email addresses, according to court papers. The threats, many of which were sexist and antisemitic in nature, included several death threats.

Loomer was among those who focused attention on Greenfield, sharing Trump’s Truth Social message about the clerk to her nearly 1 million followers on X and proclaiming the case against the former president a “WITCH HUNT.” When reached for comment, Loomer said that “it is important for me and the MAGA base to be Donald Trump’s bullhorn,” a role that she said has only become more crucial since he has been subjected to multiple gag orders.

Once an appellate judge temporarily paused the gag order on Nov. 16, Trump lashed out again at Greenfield and Engoron on Truth Social. “His Ridiculous and Unconstitutional Gag Order, not allowing me to defend myself against him and his politically biased and out of control, Trump Hating Clerk, who is sinking him and his Court to new levels of LOW, is a disgrace,” Trump wrote.

Trump continues to attack several of the judges overseeing his cases, and recently flouted a gag order in his hush money case in New York by lashing out against two potential trial witnesses and the jury.

Trump said he would be “honored” to go to jail for violating the gag order. Instead, in late April, Merchan fined Trump $9,000.

The same day, Trump posted on Truth Social that the judge was “Rigged, Crooked, and above all, and without question, CONFLICTED.”

Loomer shared Trump’s post on X, and Catturd reshared the message to his followers, adding three fire emojis.

---

mma

Google and Apple are hosting an app dedicated to TheDonald and other far-right forums that were banned from Reddit](

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald/google-and-apple-are-hosting-app-dedicated-thedonald-and-other-far-right-forums-were-banned)

06/05/24

DOES ALGO SPREad too fast to contain?

TikTok is failing to contain violent beheading content on its platform | Media Matters for America

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thugswarm overwhelm

mma 1 24

misogynistic “manosphere” influencers including Andrew Tate, Sneako, and Jon Zherka are promoting violence against women and finding virality on TikTok via fan accounts posting their content. Some of these figures, including Sneako and Zherka, have over 100 fan accounts dedicated to sharing their toxic content, making it difficult for the platform to moderate and track the hateful rhetoric that these figures push.

While manosphere influencers themselves are not posting their content to TikTok, their large fan bases are flooding the platform with these influencers’ misogynistic and toxic content. This method — using swaths of devotees to overrun a platform with a particular figure’s content — is not new and has been used by fans of white nationalist and conspiracy theorist figures on TikTok to promote fringe and extremist content. TikTok has not successfully counteracted the massive fan account uploads that violate its Community Guidelines.

These influencers are part of the manosphere, an online community of right-wing websites, bloggers, and personalities cultivating a worldview based on conservative and regressive gender politics repackaged for the internet age.

Figures in this group often push extremism and antisemitism while blaming women for myriad societal woes and treating them as an inferior sex. Rhetoric from these influencers can sometimes be overtly cruel and promote hitting, degrading, and shaming women.

Manosphere personalities use other topics that interest young men — like weightlifting, video games, and boxing — to draw in viewers before diving into extremist content and misogyny, creating a dangerous pipeline for their fans.

TikTok is a uniquely dangerous place for these influencers to infiltrate, as the platform is extremely popular with kids and teens — one survey found that phone users aged 11-17 spend a median time of one hour and 52 minutes per day on the app. Additionally, TikTok’s For You Page algorithm feeds toxic content to users even if they are not seeking it out, which could lead to accidental radicalization; an issue that already plagues men who fall prey to the extreme online communities.

Misogynistic content has previously been singled out as an “enforcement gap” on TikTok, meaning the platform has struggled to moderate content that has promoted sexism. According to TikTok’s Community Guidelines, it does “not allow sexual exploitation or gender-based violence, including non-consensual sexual acts, image-based sexual abuse, sextortion, physical abuse, and sexual harassment."

examples of manosphere influencers promoting violence on TikTok}:

Here are several examples of the kind of violent manosphere content that is currently on TikTok and violating the platform’s Community Guidelines.

In one video, right-wing streamer Sneako (real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy) is seen hitting a woman in the face. “Yeah, she’s been acting up all night,” he says in response to an onlooker asking if he hit her.

:{:{Video}:

CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @n3on_kicktv

Sneako is a manosphere influencer and associate of pro-Hitler rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) and has been described as “a cheap imitation” of misogynist, media personality, and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate. Sneako is banned on TikTok and YouTube and has promoted the abuse of women.

Additionally, Sneako has refused to condemn Adolf Hitler and attacked Jewish people online, saying that “the Nazis had drip” and that the swastika is “aesthetically pleasing.” He is also an associate of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and spoke at one of Fuentes’ antisemitic rallies.

And in various TikTok videos, self-proclaimed woman-hater and manosphere influencer Jon Zherka is seen promoting violence against women. Zherka has previously described Hitler as a “good guy,” praised Fuentes, flirted with underage girls online, and shared content promoting violent attacks and abuse against women.

During one video, Zherka claimed that it is acceptable to beat a woman if he is fighting a couple over public displays of affection.

“If you’re a straight dude doing all that fucking nasty shit, making out with your girl at the park, I try and fight both of them, at the same time,” Zherka said. “I go, you know, it’s a two verse one, so I guess I can hit a woman."

“We need some Saudi energy,” Zherka continued. “We need to start cutting tongues for this kind of shit."

Video file

:{:{Video}:

CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @jonzherkaa

In another TikTok pulled from the misogynistic Fresh & Fitpodcast, Zherka said that if he had a daughter he would “beat the shit out of her and disown her” if she made an OnlyFans account, after making bizarre comments about dating and having a child with his own daughter.
Video file

:{:{Video}:

CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @redpillvault

Zherka said, “We have to discipline children, we have to beat the shit out of children” in a different TikTok video.
Video file

:{:{Video}:

CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @ZherkaOnTop

## Tracking virality and views of manosphere influencers on TikTok
Several of these misogynistic figures have millions of views under hashtags associated with them.

For example, there are 6.4 billion views under the “sneako” hashtag on the platform, and 2 billion under the hashtag “sneakoclips.”

The “jonzherka” hashtag has 227.8 million views.
Tate, who is perhaps the most well-known influencer in the manosphere space, is banned on TikTok but has many hashtags associated with him on the platform, through which users can encounter his content. The alleged human trafficker was banned for promoting sexist and violent content.

Many of the Tate-associated hashtags have millions of views.

TikTok videos that include manosphere-aligned hashtags only represent a fraction of all the toxic content on the app that features these influencers, as these videos don’t always include manosphere hashtags or captions.

Manosphere fan accounts run amok on TikTok}:}:

When Tate was first banned from TikTok, several fan accounts began to reshare his misogynistic content across the platform. TikTok has never been successful in cracking down on fan accounts that post Tate content, and it continues to be an issue on the platform.

Now several other manosphere influencers have similar fan account networks.

These accounts regularly repost content from manosphere influencers and share links that are associated with these personalities. It is unclear if these networks of fan accounts are connected or acting independently.

According to a Media Matters analysis, there are over 175 fan accounts dedicated to Sneako on TikTok.

Similarly, there are over 100 fan accounts dedicated to Zherka and 55 accounts dedicated to Tate.

There are likely fewer accounts and hashtags dedicated to Tate despite his fame because TikTok has previously pledged to crack down on the influencer’s content on the platform.

Other manosphere programs, including the misogynistic Fresh & Fit podcast and Whatever’s Dating Talk podcast, also have multiple fan accounts on TikTok.
## Influence on young users
Tate has had a big impact on young boys and men since his rise to fame in 2022. Reporting shows how easily toxic rhetoric from manosphere influencers like Tate can infiltrate the minds of young audiences, even among users as young as 11 years old.

The videos of these manosphere influencers meeting their fans are a reminder of just how young some of these viewers and devotees are.

IFrame Content
In one clip, young Sneako fans are repeating his toxic rhetoric back to him, saying, “Fuck the women,” and, “All gays can die.” He seems to half-jokingly ask the camera, “What have I done?”
IFrame Content
Misogynistic and extremist rhetoric from these influencers does not live in a vacuum online; it can lead to real-world violence and harassment.
## What can TikTok do?
To protect its young users, TikTok must be proactive, making sure that influencers who promote violence against women are not finding success or a home on its platform.

Some bad actors are getting better at dodging moderation and are using terms that may not be picked up by the platform's “automated moderation technology,” an AI tool used by TikTok to determine if content violates the Community Guidelines. Human content moderators should take precedence when uploaded content concerns the manosphere or any influencer in this space, and should be reviewed more than once to ensure that violent and misogynistic content is not slipping through the cracks, and on to millions of young users’ screens.

---

FAIL sum

https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-and-his-allies-used-social-media-spread-election-lies-detailed-latest-federal

2nd try no lnx twt

facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms allowed Trump and his allies to amplify the election lies cited in the latest federal indictment against him

On social media, Trump and his campaign repeatedly alleged that dead people had voted in Georgia, including posting obituaries of supposed dead voters on Facebook.

According to the indictment, immediately before the January 6 attack, “The Defendant insinuated that more than ten thousand dead voters had voted in Georgia” even though Georgia’s Secretary of State had “explained to the Defendant that this was false” just four days earlier.

Trump’s January 6 claim of dead voters came after he posted on Twitter on January 3, 2021, that Georgia officials would not answer his questions about dead voters and after his campaign posted multiple obituaries of deceased Georgians on November 11, 2020, alleging that they had voted in the 2020 election. The claims reportedly earned hundreds of thousands of interactions on Facebook.

image of facebook posts and tweets

On Facebook and Twitter, Trump and ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)amplified the false claim that there were over 200,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania.

The indictment alleges, “The Defendant asserted that there had been 205,000 more votes than voters in Pennsylvania” even though state officials “had explained to him that this was false.”

This false claim from Trump followed multiple December 2020 posts on Facebook and Twitter in which he pushed the claim, calling it “Breaking News” and claiming “we WIN Pennsylvania.”

On December 29, 2020, Greene similarly posted that “202,377 more votes cast than voters voting in Pennsylvania,” claiming that “by Jan 6th, not one single member of Congress will be able to vote to certify a #StolenElection.”

image of facebook posts and tweets

image of tweet

Trump repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter that noncitizens voted in the election and alleged that there were tens of thousands of double votes in Nevada.

The indictment specifically alleges that “the Defendant said that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona” and “claimed that there had been tens of thousands of double votes and other fraud in Nevada,” even though the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and Nevada secretary of state had publicly debunked these claims.

These false claims from Trump came after he repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter in December 2020 and January 2021 that there were “illegals who voted” in states such as Georgia and Nevada, and he amplified an article from right-wing outlet the Washington Examiner and alleged that “42,248 voted ‘multiple times’” in Nevada.

image of facebook posts and tweets

Trump and his right-wing allies falsely alleged that there were suspicious vote dumps in various locations, including Detroit, Michigan, after he was leading in key states on election night.

The indictment also alleges that immediately before the January 6 attack “the Defendant said that there had been a suspicious vote dump in Detroit, Michigan,” even though then-Attorney General Bill Barr “explained to the Defendant that this was false.”

These false claims from Trump followed multiple Facebook and Twitter posts after the 2020 election in which he alleged that there were “late night” and “surprise ballot dumps” that “magically” took away his lead in key states. In one post on November 4, 2020, Trump responded to a tweet from right-wing media personality Matt Walsh about a vote update in Michigan and asked, “WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT?”

On November 29, 2020, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) similarly claimed that the “Trump margin of ‘defeat’ in 4 states occurred in 4 data dumps between 1:34-6:31 AM.”

This election lie spread across social media, including TikTok.

image of facebook posts and tweetsRand Paul_tweet_20201129

On Facebook and Twitter, Trump repeatedly amplified his right-wing media allies that pushed claims that voting machines had switched votes from him to Biden.

According to the indictment, “The Defendant asserted that voting machines in various contested states had switched votes from the Defendant to Biden,” even though Barr and another Department of Justice official “explained to him that this was false” and “numerous recounts and audits had confirmed the accuracy of voting machines.”

Trump’s January 6 claim about voting machines switching votes came after Trump had repeatedly posted on Facebook and Twitter in the months after the election that Dominion voting machines swayed the election by changing the votes in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and other states. This election lie also reportedly spread across YouTube in the week after the 2020 election.

image of facebook posts and tweets

Social media platforms have reinstated Trump and rolled back election policies ahead of the 2024 presidential election

Twitter owner Elon Musk announced he would reinstate Trump’s accountafter launching a poll on Twitter in November 2022 — less than a month after taking over the platform — asking users whether he should do so. Trump has not yet posted on Twitter since being reinstated, and Musk has continued to reinstate previously suspended accounts while also reversing content moderation policies and gutting content moderation teams.

On February 9, Meta reinstated Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. The company has also vowed not to fact-check the former president given his status as a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. On March 17, Trump posted on Facebook again for the first time since his account was reinstated, and after news broke on March 30 that a Manhattan grand jury had voted to indict him for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, he posted a full copy of his misinformation-filled statement to the newly reinstated Facebook page.

image of facebook post

Meta reportedly made cuts to its election teams that address disinformation and coordinated harassment campaigns in the last year. According to CNN, “several members of the team that countered mis- and disinformation in the 2022 US midterms were laid off last fall and this spring.”

On March 17, YouTube announced that it was immediately lifting Trump’s suspension on the platform and would allow him to upload new content. Though YouTube claimed that it “carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence,” the decision failed to account for Trump’s propensity to push extreme rhetoric and the platform’s weak misinformation policies and haphazard enforcement.

On June 2, YouTube reversed its misinformation policy to allow 2020 election lies. In its announcement, YouTube claimed, “Two years, tens of thousands of video removals, and one election cycle later, we recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today's changed landscape. … With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.”

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Pagination

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Right-wing media continue to provide cover for Trump amid new charges

07/28/23

Roughly a quarter of Trump’s posts on Facebook in 2020 contained COVID-19 misinformation, election lies, or extreme rhetoric about his critics

02/18/21

Social media platforms are backsliding, paving the way for chaos in 2024

06/22/23

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google-owned YouTube is again facing allegations of profiting from not enforcing its own ban on the monetization of climate misinformation, this time in a report published Friday amid legislative battles in Brazil over policies on the Amazon rainforest, Indigenous rights, and social media.

Google announced in October 2021 that for advertisers and publishers along with creators on its video platform YouTube, the company would "prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change."

For four weeks, researchers with Ekō—a group formerly known as SumOfUsthat works to curb the power of big corporations—reviewed 60 YouTube videos in English and Portuguese that contained disinformation and conspiracy theories about Amazon deforestation, Indigenous rights, and the climate emergency.

Over two-thirds of the videos were monetized, and Ekō identified more than 150 brands in the ads. Using a common industry tool, researchers estimated that the channels—which collectively had over 40 million subscribers and more than 5 million views—earn $636,000 to $10.1 million a year through monetization.

"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, and social media regulation."

"Well-known Brazilian and global brands likeLyft, Calvin Klein, Budweiser, Panasonic, and Samsung, as well as environmental and human rights groups like Friends of the Earth U.K., UNICEF, and the Peace Corps,are appearing next to extreme climate denial content and conspiracy theories," the report states, "effectively pouring money into the pockets of conspiracy theorists and climate deniers."

"Ekō researchers found top-name apparel, electronics, and drink brands appearing next tovideos suggesting actor Leonardo DiCaprio funded nongovernmental organizations to commit arson in the Amazon,"the publication continues. "Other false claims include that the rainforest is too humid to catch fire, and that manmade global warming is a lie."

"The proliferation of disinformation and conspiracy theories are helping to derail efforts by the Lula administration to advance policy agendas around Amazon protection, Indigenous land rights, andsocial media regulation," the document adds, pushing for policy "that prevents platforms from monetizing and profiting from disinformation and lies that are subverting the legislative process."

In a statement Friday, Ekō campaign director Vicky Wyatt also demanded action from the company.

"While global warming, deforestation, and wildfires reach their highest levels ever recorded, YouTube's shameless greenwashing is exposed—with the company giving profits to climate deniers to the tune of millions," said Wyatt. "This is a clear slap in the face to the brands whose advertisements unknowingly support climate disinformation. It's time for YouTube to step up, detox its platform, and protect the integrity of the fight against the climate crisis."

Ekō's analysis follows a May report from Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) for which researchers found 200 YouTube videos containing climate mis- and disinformation. The videos had a total of 73.8 million views and all had featured ads.

YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told Engadget in response to those findings that the company is "constantly working" to remove content that violates its rules and welcomes third-party feedback to "help improve the accuracy of our enforcement over time."

"In 2021, we launched a new, industry-leading policy that explicitly prohibits ads from running on content promoting false claims about the existence and causes of climate change, which we designed in consultation with experts and authoritative sources on climate science," Aciman also said. "We do allow policy debate or discussions of climate-related initiatives, but when content crosses the line to climate change denial, we remove ads from serving on those videos.”

Meanwhile, Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, part of the CAAD coalition, said at the time that "despite Google's green grandstanding, its ads continue to fuel the climate denial industry."

"Whether it's taking cash to target users with climate disinformation, or running ads that make climate denial content profitable, the company is selling out," Hood added. "Tech companies make big promises on hate and misinformation because they know it's hard to see if they've kept them. We need to force Google to open up the black box of its advertising business."

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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/new-data-shows-conservatives-are-still-not-being-censored-facebook-even-engagement falls

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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/youtube-strips-ad-revenue-matt-walsh-show-after-repeated-vitriol-against-dylan-mulvaney

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youTube strips ad revenue from The Matt Walsh Show after repeated vitriol against Dylan Mulvaney

Walsh has been leading an effort to boycott Bud Light for its collaboration with the TikTok star, whom he previously called “weird and artificial”

Special PROGRAMS

LGBTQ

WRITTEN BY ARI DRENNEN

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ALYSSA TIRRELL

PUBLISHED 04/20/23

In a speech at the University of Iowa, self-described “theocratic fascist” and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh complained that his YouTube channel had been stripped of advertiser revenue, which he said was bringing in more than $100,000 per month. An independent estimate suggests that Walsh’s YouTube revenue could have been as high as $1.6 million per year.

YouTube confirmed the demonetization, with a spokesperson writing, “We suspended monetization on Matt Walsh’s channel due to repeated violations of our YouTube Partner Program policies, which include our Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines. These policies apply equally to all creators, regardless of political viewpoint, and channels that repeatedly violate these policies are demonetized."

:{:{}:

The demonetization, which was announced before the speech in a Twitter thread by Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boering, reportedly comes in response to Walsh’s increasingly vitriolic campaign against Dylan Mulvaney, which escalated after the transgender TikTok star announced a collaboration with Bud Light.

Speaking before an audience of college students, Walsh announced that rather than stop his tirades against Mulvaney, he would make his show free to all viewers on the Daily Wire+ app and would upload episodes toTwitter, suggesting some kind of deal with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. “I truly see the fight against gender ideology as the last stand for Western civilization,” Walsh said. “Because if the sane side loses this, it's over. It's over after this."

Walsh has targeted Mulvaney in a series of increasingly vicious attacks over a period of several months, beginning with a rant in which Walsh told the trans influencer, “You are weird and artificial, you are manufactured and lifeless, you are unearthly and eerie.” The monologue led to backlash within right-wing media and was cited by one Daily Wire writer in her decision to leave the company. But Walsh doubled down, saying that he “would rather be dead” than have a trans child. And then, at the start of April, Bud Light sent Mulvaney a can of beer with her face on it.

Walsh, who previously made comments supportive of teenage pregnancy, has a history of spreading anti-trans vitriol. As documented by Media Matters, between mid-February and mid-March, Walsh also repeated his statement about preferring death to a trans child; misgendered and deadnamed a trans woman featured in a Hershey’s chocolate ad (in Canada); defended his colleague Michael Knowles’ call to eradicate “transgenderism … from public life entirely” by claiming to be “in a war against the most deranged ideology ever invented by the human race,” which he called a “parasite”; and called the trans community “a suicide cult.”

YouTube’s hate speech policy promises to “remove content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on ... “gender identity and expression” and/or “sexual orientation.” Social Blade indicates that two Walsh videos had already been demonetized in April when the Daily Wire host led a boycott against Bud Light for collaborating with Mulvaney. If Walsh’s contract contains provisions similar to those found in the contract offered to Louder with Crowder host Steven Crowder, which stated that being demonetized would lead to a 25% cut in his salary, the loss of YouTube revenue is a huge financial blow to Walsh.

The Daily Wire+ app continues to be available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.The Apple App Store’s content guidelines lay out a prohibition on “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary” targeting gender or sexual orientation, especially if the app or content “is likely to humiliate, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals or groups.” The Google Play terms of service similarly forbid “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”

Walsh’s move to uploading his show to Twitter comes at a convenient time for the Daily Wire host. Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022, recently updated its terms of service to remove its previous prohibition on targeted misgendering and deadnaming of trans people. Musk recently launched an effort to reassure nervous Twitter advertisers and to convince those who previously abandoned the platform to return. In one recent interview, Musk claimed that Twitter was open to advertiser feedback but that “freedom of speech is paramount.”

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10/04/22

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Conspiracy theories and misinformation did not greatly impact the 2022 midterm elections, a new analysis has determined.

According to Axios, many of the far-right election deniers that participated in critical races also lost elections, which signals that the influence of misinformation is not as detrimental as experts feared.

Speaking to the news outlet, Jared Holt, a senior research manager for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, weighed in with his perspective of misinformation. Although there is still a mass circulation of misinformation, Holt has emphasized that the impact of it is not as apparent.

"Denialism narratives are still out there circulating," Holt said. "The difference here is that they just don't seem to be exciting people like they did in 2020."

"It's hard to say how much of that is attributable to [actions from] tech platforms, and how much is just general public sentiment," Holt said.

Experts also noted that misinformation was more of a driving force in 2020 as opposed to now. The news outlet noted, "Though misinformation remains present in large quantities, this time it had less reach, was more spread out, and was harder to find."

During the Stanford Law School's "Moderated Content" podcast last week, Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory who also oversees the non-partisan coalition Election Integrity Partnership, also weighed in with similar sentiments.

:{:{"The amount of content we saw that you could call kind of election disinformation was actually larger than what we saw in 2020 — but overall, the effects were much more muted," Stamos said.}:

The news outlet also noted that five factors have also helped to diminish the impact of misinformation: De-platforming, too many new apps, an overall rejection of election deniers, defamation fears, more education.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/anti-vaccine-accounts-instagram-are-using-link-bio-loophole-monetize-their-content-and

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https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-considers-eliminating-its-covid-19-misinformation-policies-even-dangerous-content

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de-plat fail?

mma 8 22 youtube

D'SOUZA (HOST): John has also been a lawyer for Trump. And this is actually what we want to talk about is the – is the actions of the left and trying to go after John and others for their work for former President Trump. John, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me. We actually go kind of way back. As you might remember, I was a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute right after Dartmouth. And that's where I met – I met the whole gang of Clare-monsters, as we might call them, who have had such a tremendous influence on American public policy.You have gone on to a really distinguished career. I'd like you to start by just talking about those kind of tense days in the maybe even leading up to the election, but certainly in the aftermath of the election. What is it that you did that is supposedly now driving the left off a cliff and causing them to sort of summon this big kind of lynch mob against you, as if to say that you are a grave enemy of the country and the Constitution.

JOHN EASTMAN (GUEST): Well, in fact, in one of the litigations I'm currently involved with, the January 6 committee actually says not only was I wrong, but I was dangerous. I guess the danger there lies in standing up and speaking the truth to power. And I'm – and I'm catching the same kind of assault that you've been under, Dinesh, for the terrific movie you did, 2000 Mules that starts to expose some of the corruption. You focus there on some very important evidence of outright fraud.I focused mostly on the evidence of illegality.Our Constitution is very clear.

Article two of the Constitution gives to the legislatures of the states the plenary power to, quote, direct the manner of choosing presidential electors. Most people would find this odd today, but for the first half-century of our nation's history, the legislatures just chose the electors themselves. And – and even when they submit that decision to popular vote as – as all the states have done since the Civil War, the manner that they set out is the election code. And when you had non-legislative officials, secretaries of state, county clerks, what have you, simply ignoring the existing election code laws on absentee ballots, on the requirement of signature verification, all of these steps that the legislatures put in to prevent fraud from occurring because it's so difficult to discover it after the fact.

Those things were just dispensed with by non-legislative officials,[60 court cases] and that meant that the election was conducted illegally, even unconstitutionally. And that's what we focused on. And the left doesn't want anybody talking about that,at least not talking about it since 2020. Of course, they talked about it a lot in 2018 and 2016 and what have you. And so what they are now attempting to do is criminalize those that spoke up against the admitted illegality in the conduct of the election. That is, as your movie and other investigations are showing, actually led to the very fraud that those statutory restrictions were put in place to try and prevent.

D'SOUZA: John, you're making a crucial point here, and I want to slow it down because I – I want to make sure I understand it clearly. What you're saying is that even though Trump believed there was fraud and there were, of course, accusations of fraud from the very beginning, you're saying that your argument didn't really depend on that.It didn't depend upon being able to prove instance A, B, C, or D of fraud. You're saying that there is a process that needs to be in place for the Constitution to be upheld. The Constitution dictates how elections should be conducted and who should run them. And the Constitution specifies that the answer to that is state legislatures. And so in the state legislatures and what they specifically put in the code is undercut by secretaries of state, by other officials. Then, in a sense, we have a – an illegal – illegally conducted election, even if you're unable to prove any fraud at all. Am I correct in summarizing that is the argument you're making?

EASTMAN: That's right. And – and the reason that's so important is because of how difficult it is to prove fraud after the fact. And I'll give you one very good example. Wisconsin prohibits drop boxes, unmanned drop boxes, what have you. They also require extensive signature verification and witness signatures on the absentee ballots before they're counted. And the law is very clear. If it doesn't include those things, the ballots shall not be counted.

Now, once you separate the ballot from the envelope and after the fact, try and determined, well, that we didn't have a signature. How do we know that was actually the illegal voter who cast that ballot? Well, you could say, okay, there and now we've got evidence of fraud. But – but how was the vote cast? The ballot is now separated from the envelope and it can't be proved which way it went.

In 2018, in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, there was an illegal ballot harvesting scheme that was conducted on behalf of one of the [GOP?] candidates. Without his knowledge, I might point out. But – but the elections board said we cannot prove then, given the number of illegal ballots that were collected, we can't prove or certify what the actual result of the election is. And they ordered a new election. This is the reason these rules are in place ahead of time.

There was massive cheating that went on.Whether that actually produced the fraud that it was designed to make it difficult to accomplish or not is immaterial to the illegality that occurred. And that's what I tried to focus on in our Supreme Court briefs, both in – in my motion to intervene on behalf of President Trump in the Texas litigation, but in a cert petition filed from Pennsylvania on three of the illegally changed statutes, I mean, they changed the deadlines. They changed the signature verification.

They said, oh, if you're in the room in the Philadelphia Convention Center, which is about as big as a football field, standing all the way at one end, that's good enough to be able to observe what's happening a hundred yards away. I mean, it was insane.

And – and they and – they threw out the ability for people to make any election challenge. They said, even though we've been doing signature verification for a hundred years, we don't find that anywhere in the statutes and all of those statutory provisions that – that seem to acknowledge that those are just archaic relics and you can just ignore them. I mean, this is what the court actually said and the notion that we can change the rules. And by the way, some of that went on after the election up to two weeks after the election. They were still changing the rules for partisan benefit in Pennsylvania. This kind of stuff, we used to call it cheating and they're now trying to go after criminally those people who are calling them out on the illegality, the unconstitutionality, and the cheating.

D'SOUZA: John, let's take a pause.

As YouTube notes on its site:

Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come. As always, news coverage and commentary on these issues can remain on our site if there’s sufficient education, documentary, scientific or artistic context.

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6 22

odd split?

the United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Texas violated the Constitution with a bill banning social media companies from the regulation of hate speech on their platforms.

"Supreme Court halts Texas social media law that critics say would require Facebook and Twitter to require hate speech, extremism," Bloomberg News court reporter Greg Stohr reported.

The majority decision was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Jr., Elana Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

"To be clear, the headline here is *not* the dissent; it’s that Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, and Justice Barrett *all* voted to block HB20," wrote University of Texas Law Prof. Steve Vladeck.

"That’s a pretty powerful sign of where #SCOTUS is heading on this case—and issue—even if the dissent’s analysis is … alarming," he explained.

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FAIL

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/russias-best-known-and-sanctioned-propagandist-retains-unrestricted-access

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Russia’s most notorious propagandist retains unrestricted access to social media while Russia invades Ukraine

Major platforms restricted RT and Sputnik in Europe, but their hateful editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, is thriving on them

WRITTEN BY DANIL CUFFE & RHEA BHATNAGAR

PUBLISHED 03/03/22

Despite supposed Big Tech moderation efforts and recent government sanctions by the European Union against Russian state-funded broadcasters RT and Sputnik, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan still has unrestricted access to spread Russian disinformation to hundreds of thousands of followers during wartime.

In response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, major social media platforms, including Meta, Google, Twitter, and TikTok, have implemented measures in order to minimize abusive and misleading content on their platforms, including banning RT and Sputnik in the EUper EU sanctions prohibiting these networks’ broadcasts on TV or online. Yet, there are gaps, such as Simonyan – who has accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers across platforms and is verified on most mainstream platforms – retaining unbridled access to her accounts and using them to spread disinformation.

Access to Simonyan’s social media accounts is not even restricted for IP addresses and users based in EU nations and Ukraine, even though the accounts of her media entities are blocked in these nations. Additionally, despite public commitments by platforms such as Meta to implement “more transparency … around state-controlled media outlets,” Simonyan’s accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok do not have labels similar to those on RT and Sputnik indicating that she is linked to Russian state media. And while Twitter has labeled Simonyan’s account for a few years, the platform has failed to restrict access to RT’s accounts in Ukraine.

[RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan's follower count by social media platform as of March 3. In order from most to least, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram, YouTube, Yandex Zen, Facebook, VK, Odnoklassniki

Citation Molly Butler / Media Matters]

Following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the EU sanctioned key Kremlin state broadcasters — including Simonyan — blocking the use of their bank accounts and banning them from traveling within the bloc. U.S. lawmakers have also introduced several bills calling for the RT editor-in-chief, among others, to also be sanctioned.

[Page from the E.U.'s Official Journal of the European Union with a sanction listing for Margarita Simonyan. The document text describing Simonyan's reason for inclusion in the sanction states the following: "Margarita Simonyan is a central figure of the Government propaganda. She is also editor-in-chief of the English language television news network RT (Russia Today). Through her function, she promoted a positive attitude to the annexation of Crimea and the actions of separatists in Donbas."

CitationSource: Official Journal of the European Union

Simonyan has long been considered a key figure in the Kremlin’s media propaganda operations, yet her toxic behavior has been tolerated by Big Tech in the past. Under her leadership, RT and Sputnik have become key vectors of international Russian state disinformation campaigns, including spreading COVID-19 misinformation and far-right narratives. According to independent Russian outlet Znak, Simonyan is typically among the top 15 most quoted journalists in Russia.

[A graphic created by the U.S. State Department depicting the structural organization of RT and Sputnik media ecosystem, in which Simonyan is placed centrally as the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya and RT

Citation Source: U.S. Department of State]

Since the start of the war, Simonyan has notably called Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure “fake,” and linked to Russian media content accusing the Ukraine military of perpetrating the missile strike against a Kyiv residential building. On the second day of the invasion, Simonyan praised a screenshotted post from RT’s telegram channel quoting Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, who said that the Russian military would not strike civilian residences in Kyiv. Later on the same day, as anti-war protests in Russia unfolded and thousands were arrested, Simonyan posted a screenshot on Facebook that included threats against “liberals” and “traitors” who should have been “dealt with long ago.”

[Facebook post by Simonyan containing a screenshot of a Telegram post

Citation Translated from Facebook: Our liberals hate Russia and everything Russian more than the Ukrainians. This is difficult to believe, but it is so. The army is completing aspecial operation in order to secure the country, but thousands of traitors are sitting in the rear and dreaming of our quick defeat. This is unbelievable and something should have been dealt with a long time ago.

Additionally, while Meta has promised to work on “demonetizing [Russian state media] accounts” on the platform, Simonyan has made posts on both Twitter and Facebook advertising and promoting merchandise — shirts with the letter Z, a marking that has been used by many Russian military vehicles during the invasion — from RT’s online shop.

[Facebook post by Simonyan sharing a Facebook post by RT na russkom advertising a RT clothing merchandise with the letter Z

Citation Source: Facebook]

Social media platforms’ tolerance of her misinformation and controversial statements has been documented for years prior to the February invasion. Facebook had suspended Simonyan in 2019 for undisclosed reasons before reinstating her account and giving an unwarranted apology.

Simonyan has a history of toxic online behavior, from tweeting in approval of child marriages to sharing harmful and derogatory posts about Black people during the George Floyd protests in June 2020. Additionally, the Kremlin-backed figure has talked about her disapproval of Belarusian and Russian dissidents, praised violence against demonstrators and an illegal plane hijacking, and mocked a hunger striker. This follows Simonyan's long history of calling for Russia’s violent annexation of Ukraine’s eastern territory.

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what exactly caused this?

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Befuddled conservatives react to Dan Bongino being banned from YouTube

Meaghan Ellis January 27, 2022

Befuddled conservatives are not pleased with YouTube's decision to permanently ban right-wing political commentator Dan Bongino from its platform. According to Newsweek, many of Bongino's conservative fans have taken to social media to express their disapproval of the video-sharing platform's decision to remove "The Dan Bongino Show."

"@YouTube banned @dbongino for speaking the truth! The problem is they just don't want you to hear it...... The End!" tweeted Graham Allen, a conservative U.S. army veteran who is currently running for a Congressional seat in South Carolina.

Brent Bozell,President of Media Research Center News Busters, also weighed in to suggest that Bongino's ban was biased. "Now YouTube has permanently banned Dan Bongino—one of the most popular conservative stars around. Yet, the news media still pretend there's no censorship of the right. Conservatives better wake up. The press never will," Bozell tweeted.

Bongino's ban follows a week-long suspension from YouTube earlier this month after he claimed in one of his videos that masks are "useless" in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Trump enthusiasts Diamond and Silkalso chimed in with their disapproval of the ban tweeting, "YouTube bans Dan Bongino, but everyone who pushed Russia Collusion, which was a lie, still has their channels!"

Prior to his channel being banned, Bongino had nearly 900,000 subscribers. However, his Rumble account currently stands at 2 million. Now, conservative commentator Jeremy Frankel also tweeted to encourage Bongino's YouTube audience to follow him on Rumble as an alternative.

"YouTube's loss. At least now we all know it's the Communist echo chamber they always wanted to be but never could admit to being. Subscribe to @dbongino's Rumble channel: https://rumble.com/Bongino," conservative commentator Jeremy Frankel tweeted.

As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, YouTube incorporated strict policies to combat the spread of misinformation on its platform. From conspiracy theories to misinformation about COVID-19, the vaccine, and the presidential election, YouTube has removed a number of accounts belonging to right-wing influencers contributing to the spread of harmful information.

Like most right-wing figures who have been kicked off mainstream social media platforms, Bongino will likely turn his focus toward alternative avenues to spread his message.

---

ccdh tox 10

punked?

In 2017, Facebook curtailed the site’s reach after being publicly alerted to its misinformation.29 In 2018, Google News blacklisted the publication for alleged misleading business practices.30 In an effort to restore its reach, the Western Journal removed old misinformation articles, set up a corrections page and published editorial standards. The site also un-anonymized dozens of its Facebook pages in a bid to show transparency.31 The site has returned to Google News, runs Google Ads and continues to reach millions of readers on Facebook

This Western Journal article included in our sample citesfalse claims that climate science, including recent UN reports, “actually don’t support drastic changes to stop climate change”.32 This article has carried a Google ad for Chevrolet under its headline

---

...Tenpenny has been added to the Center for Countering Digital Hate's infamous"disinformation dozen**," a group described as "12 people it said were responsible for spreading a majority of anti-vaxxer falsehoods on Facebook."

---

ref report

https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_750e5af82aea4920a270b1c5a8b094c2.pdf

no lnx

KEY FINDINGS

Analysis of a sample of anti-vaxx content that was shared or posted on Facebook and

Twitter showed up to 65% of anti-vaccine content can be traced to the leading online

anti-vaxxers, who we label the Disinformation Dozen.

? Individuals were selected based upon their high social media followings and high

volume production of anti-vaccine content.

? Our sample of anti-vaccine content was shared or posted onFacebook or Twitter a

total of 812,000 times between February 1 and March 16 2021, with 65% of that

sample attributable to the Disinformation Dozen.

? In the last two months, our analysis of anti-vaxx content posted or shared to

Facebook 689,000 times shows that up to 73% of that content originates from

the leading anti-vaxxers included in this report.

? Analysis of 120,000 anti-vaccine tweets and shares during this period finds that

up to 17% feature the Disinformation Dozen.

Deplatforming repeat offenders is the most effective way of stopping the proliferation of

dangerous misinformation.

?The Disinformation Dozen -- including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola, and

Ty and Charlene Bollinger, among others -- continually violate the terms of service

agreements on Facebook and Twitter. While some anti-vaxxers identified by

CCDH have been removed from a single platform, comprehensive action has yet to

be taken, and most remain active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

? CCDH’s ongoing tracking of 425 anti-vaxx accounts finds that the total following

across platforms reached 59.2 million in December 2020, an increase of 877,000

since June

https://www.counterhate.com/disinformationdozen

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mma whackamole de-platform?

:{:{}:

Bannon was banned from Twitter and YouTube after repeatedly calling for violence and suggesting live on air that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray be beheaded. Now, Bannon listeners can turn to Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts to listen to his show and watch his broadcast on the QAnon-linked channel Real America’s Voice, which is platformed by ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV.

---

beware BS

Marc Morano

Weekly update · October 8, 2021

NEWS

Google's Climate Crackdown: A conversation with Marc Morano | Washington Examiner

Washington Examiner

In this interview, ClimateDepot.com founder Marc Morano tells Doug McKelway, the tactic is another step that big tech and its progressive allies have ...