Will we have to resort to signal and other encrypted direct messaging methods to have open discussion?
Or run your own mail server end hope your recipient doesn’t use one that censors?
Creepy stuff.
Another example: Messenger's been blocking links to joebiden.info (this may have changed, it's been six months since I've checked)
Joe Biden is a terrible candidate. He's just not as bad as Trump. The fact that America is in that stupid position is its own fault.
I don't vote for lesser evils. Because of that I never have to regret how I voted.
This kind of disinformation is dangerous, and we are vulnerable to it precisely because we value freedom of speech. That doesn't mean that we're morally obligated to value all speech equally. Obviously false and dangerous speech should be suppressed. Twitter (and other sites) is taking a moral stand, not an expedient stand.
The concept that any person or organization should be granted absolute authority to serve as the arbiter of whay constitutes dangerous or false speech, and the power to arbitrarily silence those who utter it offends me, and I consider it to be dangerous in and of itself. We'll not be able to agree on this.
WRT the NYP piece, probably foreign sourced is about right. Even before the media picked up its Russia Trumpet, I remember reading a rumor towards the beginning of the Trump-Ukraine phone call debacle that a Chinese billionaire had slipped Juliani a hard drive containing information that might be incriminating to Biden's some. Irrespective of the source, the computer shop narrative reeks.
But in spite of information's questionable provenance, it has been accompanied with compromising images of Hunter himself, and beyond stating that a meeting with Burisma execs wasn't on Biden's 'official' schedule, the biden campaign has yet (to my knowledge), to expressly deny the validity of the documents.
If this is disinformation, the FBI, which has ostensibly been in possession of the documents for several months, has every incentive to comment on it, as does the CIA. Beyond ambiguous citations of 'anonymous officials', I've yet to read that they've communicated anything to this effect. The Director of National Intelligence has gone so far as to claim that this wasn't a Russian disinformation project. But he's a Trump apparatchik with no history in intelligence outside his appointment, so I generally ignore him.
Probably foreign sourced? My gut says yes.
Possibly disinformation? The juries still out. Possibly's a pretty low bar for stealing someone's voice.
The tech companies took it upon themselves to censor this information. They've not claimed they were compelled or reccommended to by any official bodies any more than they were required to censor the name of the Urkaine whistleblower. But they chose to, of their own accord.
If you want to be treated like a platform, you have to live with the fact that your platform's going to be used to further the aims of anyone who wannts to use it. Bar illegal content and behaviors (things disinformation is not), the most you should do is notify your users, sit back, and take it.
I also try to do the same[1] but crocodiletears did much better.
[1]: you'll find me pointing out the "fine people on both sides" has been debunked and asking questions about the Hunter Biden disk.
Questions: why would the Chinese do that? Or do you mean a Chinese billionaire did it without the involvement of the government? Or do you think their recommendation of Biden is a calculated move to get people to vote for Trump?
Whether or not China would support the action is opaque to me. Trump's trade policies have massively reframed our relationship to the country, but whether or not that's been a positive thing for factions within the CCP is well beyond my knowledge or means to learn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guo_Wengui#GNews
It's also the only site where I've seen the "BGY Program" mentioned. https://gnews.org/51672/
This is ridiculously wrong. The FBI and CIA and every other government agency absolutely do not want to comment on something like this, because it just pulls them into this political bullshit. This is exactly the "official" reason James Comey was fired, for an almost identical issue, almost exactly 4 years ago. It is a near 100% certainty that any FBI or CIA official commenting on this issue now will be fired a few months from now.
Just like with DT this is also pulled out of context. I don't like any of them and won't (and can't) vote for any of them so I have no dog in the fight.
That website shouldn't have been blocked, whoever did it should probably been charged with election meddling but it doesn't change my view of Biden.
As for the videos I think many of them shows him (clumsily) trying to comfort people.
Again - I'm also the guy who points out that "fine people on both sides" as presented in mainstream media is a hoax.
I don't like either if them but think we should be fair to both if them.
If I lived in the US my lawn sign would be "Any Reasonable Person".
I didn't mean the site owner did election meddling, rather than Facebook when thet selectively block sites like this.
But what is the rule then? Manipulating social media in front of an election is only illegal if you are a foreigner?
For example, cohen paying off Trump's mistresses was prosecuted as an illegal campaign contribution.
In three of the videos with younger women, they all seemed to recoil from his "affection". With the young girls, I don't think it would ever be appropriate for a stranger to touch them like he did.
I pointed out it was clumsy ;-)
But I think the larger context is he knew he was on tape so he should know better than to willfully do something that would be taken as sexual harassment.
I honestly think he tried to come off as caring, just failed spectacularly.