Archive for the ‘Censorship’ Category
Trump Declares Return of the Silent Majority; New Censorship Attempt …
Former President Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that The silent majority is back. The question of a silent majority was raised in both the 2016 and 2020 elections as being essential to a potential Trump victory, under the allegation that censorship and social pressure are keeping his supporters silent.
Meanwhile, theres a large-scale movement underway of propaganda disguised as local news, big tech censorship tools that fine people for misinformation, and programs that allow for communal fact-checking. Yet many of these are facing a troubled launch, amid controversy and social pushback.
In this live Q&A with Crossroads host Joshua Philipp, well discuss these stories and others, and answer questions from the audience.
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The Real Story of Jan. 6, a documentary by The Epoch Times, reveals the truth that has been hidden from the American people. While a narrative has been set that what took place that day was an insurrection, key events and witnesses have been ignored, until now.
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Trump Declares Return of the Silent Majority; New Censorship Attempt ...
Elon Musk’s Free Speech Twitter Still Censoring DDoSecrets – The Intercept
- Elon Musk's Free Speech Twitter Still Censoring DDoSecrets The Intercept
- Schiff--Russia collusion disinformation specialist--wants more censorship. KABC
- Jordan Peterson Returns To Twitter, Immediately Demands The Site Censor Anonymous Trolls Forbes
- Donald Trump and the blue-tick pricks Spiked
- View Full Coverage on Google News
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Elon Musk's Free Speech Twitter Still Censoring DDoSecrets - The Intercept
Tom Cotton: Democrats and Liberal Media Support JCPA Because It …
The Ted-Cruz-backedJournalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) promotes censorship a prime reason Democrats and the liberal media support it Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) suggested on Thursday.
Theres a reason that Dems and the liberal media universally support the Journalism Competition and Protection Act. And its not because they want to protect free speech for conservatives, Cotton said on Thursday. His remarks coincide with a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on the bill, in which Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) attempted to explain why he caved to Sen. Amy Klobuchars (D-MN) measure:
The bill allows media organizations to create cartels to negotiate with Big Tech companies. While Klobuchar insisted on Thursday that the bill is not about content but simply about negotiating prices, that is not the case.
The Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) lets the media form a cartel to negotiate w/ big tech, Cotton warned Wednesday. Conservatives should oppose special treatment for favored industries, and a cartel will lead to more censorship. Republicans should vote NO on the JCPA.
Breitbart Newss Allum Bokharireported:
Specifically, the new JCPA contains a provision that allows eligible media companies forming a cartel to create admission criteria for membership unrelated to the size of an eligible digital journalism provider or the views expressed by its content, including criteria to limit membership to only eligible publishers or only eligible broadcasters.
That provision is significant especially for its specificity. These mainstream and left-wing media cartels may not exclude based on size or views expressed by its content. But that is not how the exclusion happens or will happen.
These self-appointed mainstream and left-wing media cartels ARE allowed to exclude based on the usual, totally subjective factors they always do, such as: trustworthiness, fake news, extremism, misinformation, hate speech, conspiracy, correction policy, expertise, authoritativeness, etc.
This essentially opens the door for further abuse from arbitrary fact-checkers, who have attempted to discredit real news, frequently smearing conservative outlets as untrustworthy over the years, Bokhari explains:
Despite misleading the American public for years even winning a Pulitzer for their efforts most of the news companies that pushed the discredited Russiagate conspiracy theory, like theNew York Timesand theWashington Post, continue to receive a green approval rating from NewsGuard, while news outlets that debunked the conspiracy theory, like Breitbart News and Fox News,are smeared as untrustworthy and unreliable.
It is easy to imagine a news cartel pointing to NewsGuard criteria or the criteria of any organization presenting itself as an independent watchdog as an allegedly viewpoint-neutral excuse to exclude conservative and independent media.
Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), during a September 8 Judiciary Committee meeting,saidthe quiet part out loud, essentially exposing his colleaguestrueagenda, which they hide under the guise of preserving local news.
How will this bill help or hurt our efforts to combat hate speech and disinformation online that have poisoned our discourse in recent years as Senator Kennedy has lamented? he asked, adding, And I agree.
Similarly,during that same meeting, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) read a letter from theLos Angeles Timesand theSan Diego Union Tribune,which argued that the failure to take action will erode the ability to combat disinformation.
In this June 9, 2021, file photo Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) attends a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times via AP, Pool, File)
The addition of the Cruz-Klobuchar amendment does nothing to address these concerns. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), speaking before the committee Thursday, made it clear that it is still a bad bill.
This is still a bill that undermines competition. This is still a bill that actually exacerbates the dependence of news publishers on Big Tech. It certainly doesnt solve it and I think it makes it a lot worse, he warned.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) also stand in opposition to the measure.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) speaks during a news conference in the Capitol on Tuesday, July 20, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Tom Cotton: Democrats and Liberal Media Support JCPA Because It ...
Hacktivists seek to aid Iran protests with cyberattacks and tips on how to bypass internet censorship – CNBC
An internet user purporting to be affiliated with Anonymous said the Iranian assembly had been hacked.
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto via Getty Images
Anonymous and other global hacking groups are engaged in a multipronged cyber assault on Iran, joining the fight with protesters on the ground in resistance to the country's strict hijab laws.
Thousands of amateur hackers have organized online to orchestrate cyberattacks on Iranian officials and institutions, as well as share tips on how to get around curbs on internet access by using privacy-enhancing tools.
Internet access in Iran has been extremely limited in recent weeks after protests erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman.
Amini died in hospital in Tehran under suspicious circumstances on Sept. 16 after being detained by Iran's so-called "morality police" for allegedly violating the country's strict Islamic dress code by wearing her hijab too loosely.
Eyewitnesses say Amini was beaten by the police. Iranian authorities denied any wrongdoing and claim Amini died of a heart attack.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry did not reply to a CNBC request for comment. On Monday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered his first public remarks on the protests, backing the police and blaming the unrest on "foreign interference" from the U.S. and Israel.
On Sept. 25, Anonymous, the international hacktivist collective, claimed to have broken into the database of the Iranian Parliament, obtaining the personal information of lawmakers.
A YouTube account purporting to be affiliated with the group said the Iranian assembly had been hacked.
"The Iranian parliament supports the dictator when it should support the people, so we are releasing the personal information of all of them," they said, their voice altered in a way typical of the cyber gang.
On the messaging app Telegram, Atlas Intelligence Group, another hacking group, says it leaked phone numbers and email addresses of Iranian officials and celebrities, a tactic known as "doxing."
It also offered to sell apparent location data on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran's armed forces, according to Check Point, which has been documenting hacktivists' efforts in Iran.
Anonymous-affiliated groups say they also released data purported to have come from various government services, ministries and agencies as well as a university and claimed responsibility for hacks on the Iranian presidency, central bank and state media.
While it is difficult to verify the hackers' claims, cybersecurity experts said they have seen numerous signs of disruption to Iran from vigilante hackers.
"We have observed a few indications of government websites being taken offline by hackers," Liad Mizrachi, security expert at Check Point Research, told CNBC. "Predominantly we have seen this being done through Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks."
In a DDoS attack, hackers overload a website with large amounts of traffic to make it inaccessible.
"Mandiant can confirm that several of the services claimed to have been disrupted have been offline at various points in time, and in some cases, remain unavailable," Emiel Haeghebaert, threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity company, told CNBC.
"Overall, these DDoS and doxing operations may add to the pressure on the Iranian government to pursue policy changes," he said.
On Anonymous' involvement, Haeghebaert noted it was "consistent with activity" previously credited to affiliates of the organization. Earlier this year, Anonymous launched a slew of cyberattacks on Russian entities in response to Moscow's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Hacking groups are encouraging Iranian citizens to bypass Tehran's internet blockade by using VPNs (virtual private network), proxy servers and the dark web techniques that allow users to mask their online identity so they can't be tracked by internet service providers (ISPs).
On the messaging app Telegram, a group with 5,000 members shares details about open VPN servers to help citizens to bypass Tehran's internet blockade, according to cybersecurity firm Check Point, which has been documenting hacktivists' efforts in Iran.
A separate group, with 4,000 members, distributes links to educational resources on the use of proxy servers, which tunnel traffic through a constantly changing community of computers run by volunteers to make it difficult for regimes to restrict access.
As dissent grew in the Islamic republic, the government quickly moved to throttle internet connectivity and block access to social media services like WhatsApp and Instagram, in an apparent effort to stop footage of police brutality being shared online.
At least 154 people have been killed in the Iranian government's crackdowns as of Sunday, according to the independent and nongovernmental Iran Human Rights Group. The government has reported 41 deaths.
Web security firm Cloudflare and internet monitoring group NetBlocks have documented multiple examples of disruptions to telecommunications networks in Iran.
"It's been really hard to be in touch with friends and family outside Iran. The internet is messed up here so sometimes we can't communicate for days," one young professional in Tehran told CNBC via Instagram message, requesting anonymity due to fear for his safety.
"I have limited access to Instagram so I use that for the time being," to contact people, he said, adding that he and his friends rely on VPNs to access social media platforms.
It is believed to be one of the worst internet blackouts in Iran since November 2019, when the government restricted citizens' access to the web amid widespread protests over fuel price hikes.
"THEY ARE SHUTTING THE INTERNET TO HIDE THE KILLING. BE OUR VOICE," several videos and posts widely shared by Iranian activists on social media read, along with footage of street protests and police violence.
Digital freedom activists are also trying to teach Iranians how to access the Tor browser, which lets users connect to normal websites anonymously so that their ISPs can't tell what they're browsing. Tor is often used to access the "dark web," a hidden portion of the internet that can only be accessed using special software.
"It is not the first time we see actors involved in Iranian affairs," Amin Hasbini, director of global research and analysis at cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, told CNBC.
Lab Dookhtegan, an anti-Iran hacking group, has been known to leak data claimed to belong to Iranian cyber-espionage operations on Telegram, for example. A report from Check Point last year detailed how Iranian hacking groups were targeting dissidents with malware to conduct surveillance on them.
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Hacktivists seek to aid Iran protests with cyberattacks and tips on how to bypass internet censorship - CNBC