<<An honest synopsis>>
The author may well know what he (she) is talking about. However, generally speaking, I cannot make head nor tail of what he (she) says. Maybe it's just me, I never was much good at languages.
I did check the numbers that were pasted in an earlier post to me. It took me a while, but they are correct.
There is an updated version too. More or less says the same thing.
If you need any assistance interpreting the data, there is a fairly simple well established method of dealing with complicated sets of data and / or issues. I can post a link.
Here is some other internet news, just in. My domain name provider, who has a staff mainly located in Russia, and who provide an excellent service, has stopped providing services to Russian citizens.
It's about halfway down here. Lots of other news too.
================================================================================
The shadowy data groups wiretapping social media users (reclaimthenet.org)
Reclaim The Net accepts no advertising and is funded entirely by the community. If you support free speech, the eradication of cancel culture, and restoring privacy and civil liberties, please become a supporter here.
Thank you.
|
What about the individuals who, above all else, keep us safe from these malicious threats? Surely the likes of The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) have citizens' bests interests in mind, right? While running the risk of sounding like the plot of a terrible movie, here's what you need to know about the unsavory nature of the U.S. government and an under-the-radar technology company operating out of Nebraska.
We explore this today.
Become a supporter here.
Get the post here.
|
More evidence is emerging of Google manipulating algorithms powering its mammoth and highly influential search service to give certain results (much) more visibility than others.
And now, reports say, Google is not even trying to hide that this is the case, as America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) has been informed its reach on the internet is being artificially limited.
|
|
This organization says it is dedicated to improving doctor-patient relationships that are jeopardized by what it calls politicized science and biased information. The AFLDS would also like to provide patients with access to "independent, evidence-based information" that will inform people's decisions regarding their healthcare choices.
Well, meeting that goal might prove to be quite difficult since Google Search, on which a huge majority of US-based users rely for their internet queries, says it is deliberately deranking information coming from the AFLDS.
This transpires from alerts Google has been sending the organization, which state that an "issue" has been detected, which can be "fixed;" after that, the AFLDS can "request review."
And when an "issue" has been detected, Google spells it out that "Pages affected by manual actions can see reduced display features, lower ranking or even removal from Google Search results."
So what "issues" have been detected, you might ask next. Google's "explanation" is the usual hodgepodge of vague language and qualifiers, in line with the giant's now well-established censorship style.
The AFLDS is informed that its site "appears to violate" Google's medical content policy, which is not allowed - and neither is content that "contradicts or runs contrary to scientific or medical consensus and evidence based best practices."
That's according to Google's rules. What consensus, reached by who, and what best practices, determined by who, and at what time - none of this information is provided in the notices.
Google's rigid, authoritarian style of promoting one-sided content and eliminating different arguments and positions would in this case work by first deranking (and eventually removing) AFLDS links - unless the group agrees to self-censor.
And that means deleting content from the site, and then clicking on "'Request Review' button which is prefaced with the question, 'Done fixing?'," the AFLDS explains.
The organization also takes issue with Google's (deliberately) broad and ambiguous wording and lack of proper, or any definition of scientific and medical consensus and best practices - to ask why, "In a time when celebrities and computer programmers are allowed to express their views on virology, but actual doctors and scientists are censored, including the hundreds of doctors comprising AFLDS, such clarity is elusive."
|
Reclaim The Net accepts no advertising and is funded entirely by the community. If you support free speech, the eradication of cancel culture and restoring privacy and civil liberties, please become a supporter here.
|
On Monday, Namecheap, a company that provides domain registration services, emailed Russian citizens to inform them that it would no longer provide them with services because of the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine.
"Unfortunately, due to the Russian regime's war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine, we will no longer be providing services to users registered in Russia," the company says in the emails sent yesterday.
|
|
"While we sympathize that this war may not affect your own views or opinion on the matter, the fact is, your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses and engaging in war crimes so this is a policy decision we have made and will stand by."
Aside from domain names, the US-based tech firm, that has a large Eastern European staff, also provides web hosting, DNS, and other internet infrastructure services.
The company told Russian users that their web pages would redirect to an error message and that all top-level domains should be transferred to other providers by March 6.
"If you hold any top-level domains with us, we ask that you transfer them to another provider by March 6, 2022," Namecheap said.
"Additionally, and with immediate effect, you will no longer be able to use Namecheap Hosting, EasyWP, and Private Email with a domain provided by another registrar in zones .ru, .xn--p1ai (??), .by, .xn--90ais (???), and .su.
"All websites will resolve to 403 Forbidden, however, you can contact us to assist you with your transfer to another provider."
|
|
CEO Richard Kirkendall insisted on the HackerNews forum that what he was doing isn’t “deplatforming” because there are other options.
"We haven't blocked the domains, we are asking people to move. There are plenty of other choices out there when it comes to infrastructure services so this isn't 'deplatforming'," Kirkendall explained, when faced with pushback on the decision.
"People that are getting angry need to point that at the cause, their own government. If more grace time is necessary for some to move, we will provide it."
|
The CEO continued: “Ukrainian citizens are doing just fine at kicking your governments ass at this time, sacrificing their lives while at it. Time to do more and rise up. If they can do it, you can. Take control against your own corrupt and bloodthirsty government, at least you won't be under threat of nuclear attack and constant carpet bombing like the Ukrainians while you're doing it.”
|
State-controlled Russian media outlets such as RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik have started to be geo-blocked in European countries after the European Union (EU) announced an "unprecedented" ban on "the Kremlin's media machine."
The tech giants Facebook and TikTok are blocking RT and Sputnik accounts and posts in the EU while YouTube is blocking RT and Sputnik channels and videos across Europe, including in non-EU member states such as the UK.
|
|
|
|
Microsoft has also removed RT and Sputnik content from its Microsoft Start platform (which includes MSN.com), removed RT news apps from its Windows app store, and will de-rank RT and Sputnik in its Bing search engine so that it will "only return RT and Sputnik links when a user clearly intends to navigate to those pages." Additionally, it has banned RT and Sputnik from its ad network and pulled its ad placements from their sites.
Telegram has started blocking RT France. According to Mark Scott, Chief Technology Correspondent at POLITICO, the ban only applies within France and other RT Telegram channels are still available.
|
|
Twitter is currently reducing the reach of Russian state-affiliated media websites but isn't blocking their content or accounts. However, it is facing pressure from Cédric O, France's Secretary of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, who accused the platform of doing "almost nothing" and branded it as being "always the last to react and always the one who doesn't do enough when it comes to moderation."
The blocks follow Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Union's Commission (EC), announcing an "unprecedented" ban on state-controlled Russian media outlets on Sunday. During the announcement, von der Leyen specifically mentioned RT, Sputnik, and their subsidiaries and added that the EU is "developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe."
High-ranking officials from the EC and several European countries have also been pushing Big Tech platforms to ban Russian state media and Russian officials over the last few days.
Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, said today that these Europe-wide blocks on state-controlled Russian media outlets are "expected to cover all means of distribution or transmission, including internet video sharing platforms and applications”.
Cédric O welcomed tech platforms blocking state-controlled Russian media outlets and urged other platforms to apply similar blocking measures.
"Russian propaganda does not come under freedom of information," O said. "We ask other social networks to apply the same decisions."
Vera Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency said: "We stand for freedom of speech but it cannot be abused to spread war propaganda. Today's sanctions will target companies at the core of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine."
In addition to these Europe-wide blocks on RT and Sputnik, Google has also blocked RT app downloads in Ukrainian territory, Lithuania has banned six Russian language channels, and the UK's communications regulator the Office of Communications (Ofcom) has opened 15 investigations into RT.
Outside of Europe, the Canadian communications and media companies Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Telus have dropped RT. Canada's Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has also said RT "has no place here" and that the Canadian government is "looking at all options."
As tech platforms and government increase their blocks on Russian state-controlled media, Russia has issued its own censorship requests. It has ordered Google to restrict access to information posted in Google Ads which it says contains inaccurate information about Russian and Ukrainian casualties and demanded that TikTok block recommendations of any "content of a military or political orientation" to minors.
Additionally, Russia has demanded that Google restore access to its YouTube channels in Ukraine.
RT France has responded to the Europe-wide block by vowing to "defend its rights against the decision to ban RT in Europe."
RT France's President Xenia Fedorova added: "The decision to ban our channel, in which 176 employees work, including more than 100 journalists, is a violation of the rule of law and goes against the very principles of freedom of expression. Nothing can justify this censorship."
"The basis for RT restriction should be grounded in Meta's content moderation policies, not acquiescence to EU demands," Emerson T.
Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, said. "Authoritarian nations *routinely* demand the removal of content. They will cite this in future to charge Meta with Eurocentrism."
Free speech social network Gab and blockchain-based video sharing platform Odysee have both committed to viewpoint neutrality and have said they won't ban RT.
"Gab’s platform position is viewpoint neutrality no matter what," Gab said.
"We will not remove any content from the site unless a terms of service violation occurs or we are required by law to do so."
Odysee said it had been asked to remove RT but refused.
"We don't care about politics, and being a platform means we have to be a platform," Odysee said. "Whether it's CNN, Fox ??, RT, etc. It all has its place on Odysee."
|
In the ongoing Ukraine war, the West has intervened by applying sanctions on Russia, effectively crippling its economy and causing its currency to plummet. The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Federov went as far as requesting cryptocurrency exchanges to ban all users in Russia and its ally Belarus.
However, a few of the largest crypto exchanges have refused the request, saying it went against what crypto stands for.
In a series of tweets, the CEO of US-based Kraken Jesse Powell said that while he understood the “rationale” for Federov’s request, his company would not freeze all Russian accounts unless it was legally required to do so.
|
|
In Powell’s view, the request contradicted crypto’s “libertarian values.” And, crypto should be “a weapon for peace, not for war.”
He reminded followers of Kraken's mission of bringing people into the “world of crypto, where arbitrary lines on maps no longer matter, where they don't have to worry about being caught in broad, indiscriminate wealth confiscation.”
Powell concluded by pointing out that the US was responsible for most conflicts and wars around the world.
“Our mission is better served by focusing on individual needs above those of any government or political faction,” he wrote.
“Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all U.S. accounts. As a practical matter, that's not really a viable business option for us.”
A spokesperson for the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, told CNBC that the company was complying with sanctions, but it would not comply with Federov’s request to “unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts.”
“Crypto is meant to provide greater financial freedom for people across the globe. To unilaterally decide to ban people’s access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists,” they added.
Like Binance, Coinbase also said that it is complying with sanctions, but it is not going to honor Federov’s request, because it would harm ordinary Russians and contradict Coinbase’s mission of “economic freedom.”
“At this time, we will not institute a blanket ban on all Coinbase transactions involving Russian addresses. Instead, we will continue to implement all sanctions that have been imposed, including blocking accounts and transactions that may involve sanctioned individuals or entities,” a spokesperson told Motherboard. “Our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world.
A unilateral and total ban would punish ordinary Russian citizens who are enduring historic currency destabilization as a result of their government’s aggression against a democratic neighbor. We remain vigilant as this invasion evolves and are deeply committed to playing our part.”
However, the Ukraine-based NFT marketplace DMarket froze the accounts of all users in Russia and Belarus, and even banned the Russian ruble.
The crypto community has largely responded to the war by supporting Ukraine, instead of sanctioning Russia, with Binance committing $10 million and launching a fundraiser, the goal being $20 million.
|
|
A US district judge must have been asleep at the wheel, supporters of President Trump suspect, if he really failed to notice that Trump's banishment from major social media happened under serious pressure from his political opponents.
The issue of whether or not Big Tech's social media platforms were effectively forced to ban a sitting president at the coercive behest of certain lawmakers and groups has come up as part of proceedings in a court case Trump has launched in a bid to regain the right to use Twitter.
Judge James Donato, Bloomberg reported, wasn't at all sure that coercion is what happened. Judge Donato, who is currently considering Twitter's motion to dismiss the case, seems to be hung up on the term as he looks into the merit of Trump request to have his account reinstated, and his allegations of Twitter committing a free speech violation when it banned him.
The judge also suggested that Trump's complaint focused on the coercive element in pressure on social media as "the hook you are hanging your hat on.”
Then came time to try to define the term. Twitter's legal representative, Patrick Carome, said Trump's filing showed no evidence of coercion - but "merely" of haranguing or jawboning by legislators, reports said. In other words, nobody was putting a literal gun to Twitter's head - it was "merely" a figurative one.
In the request to dismiss, Twitter claims it is no more than a private company that does not have to protect free speech as per the US Constitution.
It was this point that Trump's lawyer Marie Fiala tried to dispute by remarking that acquiescing with state actors who demanded Trump's deplatforming means that Twitter itself is a state actor. According to Fiala, Twitter's "alternative" was to be stripped of (Section 230) legal liability protections for user generated content.
In other words, Twitter was allegedly forced to either comply with the demand to kick Trump off the platform or see its business burn down in proverbial flames of endless potential lawsuits over what any of its users had posted on the site.
But the judge didn't see elements of coercion in any of this and is now set to rule on Twitter's motion to dismiss the case at a currently undisclosed date.
|
Reclaim The Net exists because of readers like you. Keep us going and become a supporter.
We appreciate your support.
|
|
