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Two years after its launch and the EU's data protection rules have been used to muzzle journalists in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, according to new research.

And NGOs have been targeted in Poland, after one provided searchable access to public data contained in the Polish National Court Register.

Known as the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, the EU rules have been commended for protecting privacy rights, but also with promises of hefty penalties for violations by big techs firms and others.

But some national authorities have also used it to intimidate and censor media. Among them was the head of Slovakia's data protection authority, Soa Ptheov.

Last December, she suggested a possible 10m fine against a Czech investigative outlet called Investigace.cz unless they revealed their anonymous sources.

"Ptheov clearly abused her power and harassed journalists," said Beata Balogova, editor-in-chief of Slovakia's largest independent newspaper Sme, in an email on Monday (25 May).

Investigace.cz had obtained a video featuring Marian Koner, the suspected mastermind behind the murder of journalist Jn Kuciak. The video shows Koner installing a camera inside the office of Slovakia's former general prosecutor Dobroslav Trnka.

Ptheov was told by the Slovak parliament in April to step down over the affair.

But Balogova said Ptheov should never have been given the job in the first place, due to her previous work history with Koner.

"The case of Ptheov shows how the former government massively underestimated the issue of data protection and its potential abuse," said Balogova.

Several politicians in Slovakia have also gone after the Sme newspaper itself, claiming their own personal data protection rights have been violated.

The newspaper had reported about their connections with Koner, and published parts of conversations over the applications Threema or Viber.

Access Now, an international NGO, drew similar conclusions.

In a report out on Monday, it said some public authorities are misusing the law to stifle journalism and undermine the work of civil society.

Estelle Mass, a senior policy analyst at the Access Now, signalled out Slovakia's Ptheov as one of the most alarming cases when it comes to GDPR.

She said the European Commission needs to take action to make sure authorities do not abuse the data protection rules.

"If actions are not taken to address and eliminate such behaviour, press freedom and the right to data protection are at risks as the GDPR could ultimately be perceived as a tool for oppression despite the fact that it is precisely the opposite," said Mass, in an email.

Slovakia is not alone.

In 2018, Romania's data protection authority threatened journalists with a 20m fine unless they revealed their sources.

The reporters had uncovered links between Liviu Dragnea, the president of the ruling Social Democratic Party and a Romanian company involved in large-scale fraud.

Romania's data protection authority claimed forcing journalists to reveal their sources "is not likely to violate the professional secrecy of journalists" because the source of their leak was a suitcase.

Meanwhile in Hungary, the GDPR was used to force the local publisher of Forbes magazine to recall from newsstands an issue featuring a list of Hungary's wealthiest people.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based NGO, said the EU data law must not be used as a tool to target reporters.

"If EU legislation is being misused to support those who would wish to censor, then resolving those loopholes needs to be given high priority," said Tom Gibson, the NGO's representative in Europe, in an emailed statement.

For its part, the European Commission notes that Article 85 of the GDPR states that EU states need to "provide for exemptions or derogations" when such data is processed "for journalistic purposes".

Continue reading here:
EU data protection rules abused to censor media - EUobserver

Breitbart News reported Monday that Vice President Mike Pence informed the electrical outlet that the Trump management is not going to tolerate huge technology firms that attempt to silence conservatives on social media sites, specifically throughout the 2020 political election.

Pence stated that when it concerns Google, Facebook, Twitter as well as various other significant web systems, President Donald Trump has made it very clear this censorship of Republican- beneficial sights will not be undesirable.

Well, the president has made it very clear that we are not going to tolerate censorship on the Internet and social media against conservatives, Pence informed Breitbart News throughout a meeting on SiriusXM.

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Over the weekend break, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was thinking about developing a panel to examine prejudice versus conservatives by huge technology.

President Trump is considering establishing a panel to review complaints of anticonservative bias on social media, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would likely draw pushback from technology companies and others, the Wall Street Journal reported. The plans are still under discussion but could include the establishment of a White House-created commission that would examine allegations of online bias and censorship, these people said.

Outspoken Hollywood conventional James Woods was put on hold by Twitter previously this month.

Pence informed Breitbart News that conservatives considering in will certainly be critical to notifying the general public with exact details throughout the political election.

The great news is there arein addition to Breitbartthere are great and consistent voices bringing the facts to the American people, Pence stated. While many in the mainstream media have been after this president, after this administration, since before our inauguration, its been that chorus of voices on the Internet that have brought forth the truth and the facts to the American people.

The Vice President proceeded, Whether it be the whole Mueller investigation or the Russia hoax or whether it be the impeachment that was brought forward and rejected by the Senate, its been those voices thats made a difference for America, and we have every confidence going forward that were going to make sure the First Amendment rights of people who cherish freedom and cherish what this president has been able to do for this country are preserved, and I have every confidence that with that great army of conservative thinkers on the Internet were going to drive toward a great victory come November.

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Pence later on stated, Look, I couldnt be more proud to be vice president to President Donald Trump. In our first three years, this is a president who rebuilt our military, who appointed more principled conservatives to our courts than any president in history. This is a president who revived the American economy after the slowest post-cession recovery in history under the Obama administration. Millions of jobs created through tax cuts, regulatory relief, unleashing American energy, free and fair trade.

And this is a president who has led our nation through one of the greatest challenges in the last century that has saved lives, Pence stated, describing Trumps feedback to the coronavirus dilemma.

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Mike Pence Says 'We're Just Not Going To Tolerate' Censoring Conservatives On Social Media - The Union Journal

State officials in Florida, Arizona, and Georgia have reportedly been censoring scientists or providing questionable COVID-19 case data while pushing for early reopenings.

Posted on May 20, 2020, at 3:26 p.m. ET

BuzzFeed News has reporters across five continents bringing you trustworthy stories about the impact of the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today.

Disputes over coronavirus case counts in reopening states like Georgia, Arizona, and Florida are worrying public health experts, who fear public trust in health agencies is being destroyed by moves to silence or obscure unwelcome data.

Ultimately this is going to kill people, said biostatistics professor Ruth Etzioni of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. People are going to see low numbers from these reports with manipulated numbers, go outside when they should stay in, get ill, and die.

As those three states pushed to ease stay-at-home orders in recent weeks, they have each reportedly taken steps to obscure data that would have run counter to their plans, hiding or misapplying complete numbers of those who have died or become ill from COVID-19. The White Houses April guidelines to states called for a 14-day downturn in case counts before reopening, but the three states and others have proceeded before that happened.

Most public health projections see cases dipping nationwide from the effects of the past stay-at-home orders, but then climbing as May ends as people get sick from new exposures during reopenings. The data problems in Georgia, Arizona, and Florida come as overall US coronavirus cases counts stand at more than 1.5 million, with over 92,000 deaths. New US case reports have declined to less than 25,000 new cases a day in May, however, down from more than 35,000 a day in late April. More than 40 states have in the last month reopened businesses after widespread stay-at-home orders in March led to staggering US unemployment and financial losses.

Among the hard-hit states is tourism-heavy Florida, which reopened on May 4. The head of the states widely praised coronavirus dashboard, Rebekah Jones of the Florida Department of Public Health, reported in an email update on Friday that she had been removed from her role for "reasons beyond my divisions control." Jones, who had previously won praise from White House coronavirus task force leader Deborah Birx, later told a local TV station that the state had asked her to manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen.

The Florida Department of Public Health did not respond to a query from BuzzFeed News over whether it had manipulated data to make reopening more attractive. A statement sent from Helen Ferr of the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Rebekah Jones exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the Department, including her unilateral decisions to modify the Departments COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiological team or her supervisors. Ferr added that Jones had until Thursday to resign or would face termination.

Jones did not respond to requests for comment. An email sent to her work address bounced back on Wednesday morning.

The Sunshine State was criticized in April for pressuring medical examiners not to release their COVID-19 death counts, then 10% higher than official state figures. A Tampa Bay Times report on Wednesday concluded that COVID-19 had likely led to hundreds of unreported deaths in Florida since March.

Arizona started a limited reopening plan on May 8. Four days earlier state officials directed Arizona State University and University of Arizona researchers modeling the projections for state coronavirus cases to pause all their work. Also, we have been asked to pull back the special data sets which have been shared under this public health emergency effort, the order said, according to a copy obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The university models had suggested the only way to keep deaths from rising in the state was to delay reopening until the end of May, but the state officials had said they wanted to rely on federal models instead. After the researchers said they planned to continue releasing their projections anyway, the state backed down from the pause order.

Georgia was among the first states to reopen business, on April 27. The state was criticized last week for mistakes in its data just ahead of its reopening, showing that new cases in counties with the highest infection rates had been in a steady two-week decline when in fact theyd stayed flat. The same errors were made three times. Critics suggested that the mixed-up dates and incorrect case counts were part of misleading bids to suggest that fewer people were getting sick just ahead of reopening.

The accuracy of case count data is essential for safe state reopenings, which rely on declining case numbers, accurate testing data, and hospitalization rates to proceed in states like Virginia and California, still under regional lockdowns.

A recent Georgia Tech report suggested that people staying at home rather than readily mixing after Georgias reopening would cut the peak of June and July cases in the state by 40%. That makes strong public messages about physical distancing and staying at home crucial during any reopenings, the report concluded.

When public health agencies are not being transparent, not being complete and accurate over the long term, they are fundamentally undermining the trust of the public, said George Washington University health policy professor Jeffrey Levi. The pandemic will likely see repeated periods of calls for stronger physical distancing to blunt future outbreaks, making this particularly dangerous, he added. The next time you tell them to trust your data, they wont.

The pandemic is already a tough situation for collecting accurate data, Levi noted. Many people dont get tested because of a lack of symptoms or poor access to tests, and reports from New York, New Jersey, and Michigan have suggested large undercounts of deaths are likely. A healthcare company in Florida reported on Tuesday that as many as 33,000 people there were given unreliable diagnostic tests, not the first time that unreliable tests have muddied the waters for epidemiologists.

Most worrisome, the three-week lag between the onset of a COVID-19 outbreak and deaths in hospitals shooting upward makes maintaining public trust in public health agencies even more crucial, said Levi. He called the allegations being raised against the state public health agencies altering data and censoring scientists "unprecedented."

Anything short of full transparency does not serve the public good, American Public Health Association President Lisa Carlson told BuzzFeed News. People make mistakes; people dispute data. Whats important is to get to, and to maintain, accurate, timely, and complete data and transparency.

Zahra Hirji contributed reporting to this story.

More here:
Florida, Arizona, and Georgia Have Sidelined Their Coronavirus Data and Experts - BuzzFeed News

Social media plays an integral role in the Peoples Republic of China. WeChat, for example, is the most popular messaging app in China with over one billion active users. It has become increasingly popular among doctors, who use it to share knowledge with their peers.

Nonetheless, when doctors voiced their concerns about the spread of COVID-19 back in December 2019, information on the spread of the outbreak was censored on Chinese social media. The Chinese public was kept in the dark for three weeks until January 21, when Peoples Daily, Chinas national newspaper, mentioned the COVID-19 outbreak the same day that Chinas president, Xi Jinping, publicly acknowledged that it was a problem.

The University of Torontos Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. In the past, its reports have uncovered digital security and human rights violations, including a co-investigation with Whatsapp into spyware targeting journalists.

Researchers from the Citizen Lab investigated COVID-19 censorship on Chinese social media where some of the first reported cases of information control occurred during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Key findings: 516 WeChat keyword combinations censored

Reports of Chinese government suppression of COVID-19 information emerged early into the Wuhan outbreak. The Citizen Lab report released on March 3 investigates how this censorship occurred on two social media platforms: the messaging service application WeChat and the live-streaming platform YY.

The report found that as early as December 31, 2019, the day after Dr. Li Wenliang and colleagues reported the outbreak in WeChat groups, YY began censoring 45 keywords that referenced COVID-19. These included terms pertaining to factual description of COVID-19 as well as references to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, the location considered as the source of the novel coronavirus.

For WeChat, researchers found that the scope of censorship increased in the period from January 1 to February 15, in which 516 keyword combinations were censored. Censored WeChat content covered a wide range of topics, including references to the top leaders in China responsible for handling the outbreak, along with any mentions of government policies in regard to handling the outbreak.

The scope of the censorship also extended to blocking references to COVID-19 in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau; factual information about COVID-19; references to Dr. Li Wenliang; calls for petition; and related speculative information.

While some blocked keyword combinations included critical content regarding government policies or top leaders handling of the outbreak, the Citizen Lab reported that combinations of neutral terms, such as [+] [+] [+] [+] , which translates to Pneumonia + [Chinese Premier] Li Keqiang + Wuhan + Premier + Beijing, were also blocked from use on the site.

Methodology and consequences

The Varsity contacted the researchers about the evidence used to arrive at the conclusion of censorship.

We used reverse-engineering and sample testing to track censorship on WeChat and YY, Lotus Ruan, one of the researchers, wrote. As such, we were able to observe what keywords triggered censorship on each platform. We then performed content analysis on these keywords to contextual [sic] our findings.

Such censorship is damaging, given that WeChat is integral to many peoples lives in China. Having readily available information enables clinicians to optimize the treatment of their patients, and it allows epidemiologists to offer real-time guidance on how to contain the outbreak, including allowing for their assessments of various interventions.

The broad censorship may restrict vital communication related to disease information and prevention among users and end up harming public health, Ruan wrote.

For example, while scientific literature demonstrated human-to-human transmission, local authorities failed to promptly inform the public. As a result, more than five million people left Wuhan for Chinese New Year or other reasons, spreading the novel coronavirus both within Wuhan and internationally.

WeChat and YY did not respond to The Varsitys requests for comment.

Read more:
How the spread of COVID-19 was censored on Chinese social media - Varsity

Your support for the Center for Science & Culture has allowed us to reach an enormous audience. Now, because of our impact, the censors have turned their gaze on Evolution News.

An article in the journal BioEssays demands Internet censorship of sources sharing evidence of design in biology. The author of the article says that if Big Tech entities (Google, Facebook) shy away from prejudicial treatment of ID, then the government should step in and Make them.

ID scientists, from their personal experience, would have told you it was only a matter of time. The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is a time for reflection about sacrifice. While heroes of the U.S. Armed Forces have given their lives, the scholars who critique scientific atheism and advance the theory of ID offer of themselves in different ways. They risk destruction of careers and reputations.

Please take a moment to consider them in your prayers, and in your own giving.

Im thinking of colleagues and friends who left perches in academia, or were thrown out for heresy: Stephen Meyer, Douglas Axe, Ann Gauger, John West, Gnter Bechly, Richard Sternberg, and more. Others miraculously survive in their universities, despite the curses and arrows directed at them: David Gelernter at Yale, Michael Behe at Lehigh, Michael Egnor at Stony Brook.

They all would have been prudent to stay safe, masked and sheltering in place. Or better yet, go along with the Darwinist mob! Thats a great way to get ahead.

Think of the ominous transformation we see today: many people now consider supporting the right to free speech as controversial and divisive! Please help us by contributing to Discovery Institutes Center for Science & Culture today.

Im grateful to be part of this enterprise that brings the thought of Darwin skeptics and ID scientists to millions. We do so through websites like Evolution News, which I edit, on YouTube, in live presentations and video conferences, books, journals, and other publications.

Our culture trembles between recognizing and denying the purpose and meaning behind life. Meanwhile, electronic media pump out propaganda for nihilism. Its a sickness, and good science, widely publicized, is the cure.

Your generous gift now will help deliver that cure. Your donation of $50, $500, or $5,000 whatever you can afford at this very difficult time for us all is crucial. Thank you!

Photo: Stephen Meyer, David Gelernter, and David Berlinski, Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson, via Hoover Institution, Stanford University (screen shot).

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Thanks to the Sacrifices of Many, There's Talk of Censoring Us - Discovery Institute