Elon Musk has famously <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1688022163574439937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered</a> to take up the costs of anyone who suffers professional losses for what they like or post on Twitter. Now, we need him to turn his attention to those suffering criminal charges at the hands of government for the same. This month has been rife with oppressive signs that Twitter is far from a safe space for the right to free expression.
On August 9th, Mexico’s highest court for electoral issues issued a final conviction in the case of former congressman <a href="https://adfinternational.org/mexican-civil-society-leader-found-guilty-of-gender-based-political-violence-for-tweets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rodrigo Iván Cortés</a>. The court upheld a guilty verdict for “gender-based political violence” for Cortés’ assertion, on Twitter and Facebook, that a transgender-identifying congressional representative is a “man who self-ascribes as a woman.” The charges were levied after the representative sued on the basis of “denial of identity.”
For stating the truth of biological reality, Cortés has been walloped with draconian reparations measures, including the payment of a fine, and absurdly, a court order that he post the judgment and a court-drafted apology on his social media daily for 30 days. Further, he must attend a course for political violators, and register on a list of offenders. Needless to say, for saying what he believes on Twitter, Cortés’ life will never be the same.
Lest this sound too outrageous to have ever happened before, Cortés is not the only one. The same transgender representative filed a parallel suit and won against sitting Mexican congressman <a href="https://adfinternational.org/gabriel-quadri-mexico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gabriel Quadri</a>. Interestingly, the representative, Salma Luévano, together with Maria Clemente, another transgender representative, is notorious for fomenting unrest within Mexico’s Congress, including presenting a “hate speech” bill aimed at Christian teaching on sexual morality while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNbxIAj4YTw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wearing</a> the vestments of a Catholic bishop.
Luévano also participated in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgwHLlUfHsc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">incident</a>, together with transgender representative Maria Clemente, in which the chair of the congressional session was physically ousted in an attempt to force the expulsion of Congressman Quadri for his views on what makes a man a man. Clemente also prompted international outrage by Tweeting explicit videos of Clemente’s own “sex work,” <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34wx9/mexico-trans-politician-maria-clemente-garcia-moreno" target="_blank" rel="noopener">citing</a> a right to freely share this kind of content on digital platforms. The irony is palpable.
Disagreement is not discrimination, and peaceful dissent should never be penalized as violence. It is deeply disturbing that Cortés and Quadri, who exercised their basic human right to peaceably share their views on a matter of significant current debate have been convicted as violent offenders when it is their political opponents who are perpetuating unrest within Mexico’s political institutions.
Now, both Cortés and Quadri have exhausted all avenues for justice in Mexico and are taking their cases to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, with the support of ADF International.
Also, this month, Finnish member of parliament <a href="https://adfinternational.org/free-speech-on-trial/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Päivi Räsänen</a> returns to court for a 2019 Twitter post that landed her with criminal charges of “hate speech” for “agitation of a minority group”. Räsänen’s tweet questioned her church’s participation in a local pride parade, and four years later, this much-loved civil servant, medical doctor, and grandmother is still bearing the cost of exercising her right to free expression.
Räsänen was fully acquitted in 2022, but the Finnish system permits legal double jeopardy allowing the prosecution to <a href="https://adfinternational.org/prosecutor-files-appeal-against-finnish-mps-major-free-speech-victory/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeal</a> on the grounds that it was unsatisfied with the verdict. She will be back in court on August 31st, with charges against her that carry tens of thousands of euros in fines, and even the possibility of a two-year prison sentence.
Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society and a basic right of everyone guaranteed by all major human rights treaties. Without it, all our other human rights erode. Happening before our eyes is a dangerous global trend to criminalize free expression. In a world facing mounting censorship, it’s never been more important to protect the right of every person to speak freely, whether you like what they’re saying or not.
Cortés, Quadri, and Räsänen have in common the peaceful expression of their convictions. And, notably, all experienced the brunt force of the law for daring to speak out on an “unwelcome” topic. Nobody should be punished, let alone criminally charged, for simply sharing what they believe. State-backed censorship blurs the line between dictatorships and democracies, leaving the rest of us with no choice but to question — how long before this happens to me?
Elyssa Koren is an international human rights lawyer and director of legal communications for <a href="https://www.adfinternational.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ADF International</a>, which is supporting the legal defense of Cortés, Quadri, and Räsänen. Follow her on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/elyssa_koren?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@Elyssa_Koren</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

TikTok To Be Banned From UK Government Phones

The Dangerous Global Trend Of Criminalizing Free Expression Online

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Facebook

Finland

Mexico

Readers Pass

Social Media

Twitter

An FBI agent made “completely false” statements during a congressional deposition about the agency’s role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story on social media platforms, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said on Monday in his fourth edition of the &#8220;Facebook Files.&#8221;
Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said internal Facebook communications reveal San Francisco-based FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan was “the main conduit” between the bureau’s Foreign Influence Task Force and big tech companies to suppress the scandalous story involving alleged foreign business deals with then-presidential candidate Joe Biden just weeks before the 2020 election.
Chan told lawmakers during testimony the FBI had not communicated with Facebook outside of a meeting that occurred the same day the New York Post published the Biden laptop article on October 14, 2020. But according to the Jordan, Chan was involved in a “secret ‘follow up’ call” with the social media giant the next day, allegedly contradicting a claim he made during a November 2022 deposition in the government censorship case Missouri v. Biden
The federal agent also spoke with a Facebook employee that same day, who said, “Chan advised that he was up to speed on the current state of the matter within the FBI.” Chan also told the social media platform that “there was no current evidence to suggest any foreign connection &#8230; of the leaks,&#8221; according to the documents released by Jordan.
“Of course, there was ‘no evidence’ of ‘any foreign connection.’ The laptop was real, and the FBI knew it,” Jordan said. “Is there any wonder why the Biden DOJ has so far stonewalled the Committee’s efforts to interview Agent Chan?”
Internal documents also claimed that Chan admitted that Section Chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force Laura Dehmlow told executives to respond “no comment” when asked if the Biden laptop was real.
“Did Dehmlow know that the FBI had the laptop and it was real? Yes. Did other key members of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force know? Yes. The FBI knew the laptop was real and yet decided it would say ‘no comment,’” Jordan said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
THE FACEBOOK FILES PART 4. FBI LIED ABOUT MEETING WITH BIG TECH REGARDING NY POST’S HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY
Internal FB docs reveal that an FBI Special Agent made false statements in testimony about the FBI’s role in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story
🧵 Thread:
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1688553339624042496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The “Twitter Files” released by Elon Musk last year revealed that Chan frequently pressed the social media company to take down posts that he thought violated the site’s terms of service, furthering the agency’s alleged content moderation tactics for private companies, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-takeaways-from-twitter-fbi-agents-deposition-in-censorship-lawsuit-brought-by-conservative-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Chan sent ten documents to former Twitter Head of Site Integrity Yoel Roth on the evening of October 13, hours before the New York Post article would be released, asserting to Roth that the documents were “not spam” and asked him to “confirm receipt.”
“Is there any wonder why the Biden DOJ has so far stonewalled the Committee’s efforts to interview Agent Chan?” Jordan said. “Our investigation remains ongoing and we will continue to update the public with our findings as we prepare and consider legislation to fight the censorship-industrial complex and protect the First Amendment.”
Jordan released his third edition of the “Facebook Files,” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-releases-new-facebook-files-highlights-how-biden-admin-sought-to-suppress-daily-wire-content" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> the Biden administration pressured the social media giant to stifle speech the White House didn’t like, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-pressured-fb-to-suppress-daily-wire-content-push-users-to-legacy-outlets-newly-released-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">limiting The Daily Wire’s reach</a> on the platform and boosting the reach of legacy media outlets.
Luke Rosiak and Zach Jewell contributed to this report.

elvis-chan

Facebook Docs Reveal FBI Agent Made ‘Completely False’ Congressional Statements Involving Hunter Biden Laptop, Jordan Says

Facebook Docs Reveal FBI Agent Made 'Completely False' Congressional Statements Involving Hunter Biden Laptop

Biden Administration

Hunter Biden

Jim Jordan

Twitter Files

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

We now have actual open evidence that the Biden White House asked Facebook to degrade the traffic of The Daily Wire, our company.
According to Just the News and John Solomon, “The memos, reviewed by Just the News, chronicle a series of meetings between White House digital director Rob Flaherty and executives from Facebook, now known as Meta, in spring 2021 as the first questions about the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccine began surging on social media.”
“The memos delivered recently <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-gop-subpoenas-facebook-google-content-moderation-rcna70910" target="_blank" rel="noopener">under subpoena</a> to the House Judiciary Committee make clear the White House was actively interacting with Facebook, and sometimes pressuring the social media giant to moderate content in a way that would encourage more Americans to get inoculations,” Just the News reports, continuing:
<blockquote>On April 14, 2021, for instance, the White House&#8217;s Flaherty asked Facebook whether it could promote The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal over The Daily Wire &#8230; Flaherty asked Facebook employees, “If you were to change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see NYT, WSJ, any authoritative news source over The Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people. You wouldn’t have a mechanism to check the material impact?” </blockquote>
“Flaherty is cited in the notes as asking the questions ‘because candidly there is not a lot of trust towards FB,’” Just the News goes on to report, “and the Biden White House wanted to know whether the platform was ‘finding things that are effective that you aren’t doing’ to combat resistance to the vaccines. &#8230;In terms of interventions, know that there are groups that are hot spots – mandatory post approvals – admins have to approve posts. If violating content approved, gives the group a strike. I’m uncovering new examples on comments – public figures on comments might be contributing more.” 
We are the site that filed a landmark lawsuit challenging the OSHA vaccine mandate under Joe Biden. We are the only major company in the United States on the Right to actually file a lawsuit against the OSHA vaccine mandate, while other major American media companies on the Right were actively forcing their employees to get the shot. 
We were suing the federal government to stop it.
We are not afraid to sue the federal government again.
We are not afraid to sue the Biden White House. There may be criminal violations here.
We are absolutely delighted to examine the effects on our business from the Biden White House engaging in a First Amendment violation.
There is no question this is a First Amendment violation; it is as simple as that. It is a First Amendment violation because the federal government cannot force or even pressure a private company into censoring information.
It&#8217;s quite possibly a criminal violation. Government officials were attempting to use government power to suppress the civil rights of American citizens. So perhaps there will be a criminal indictment here.
We are examining all of our legal options at this point.
We did it before. We may do it again. It costs millions of dollars, but we are perfectly happy to do the exact same thing with the Biden White House right now to stop them from ever violating the civil rights of Americans by pressuring Facebook and other social media companies.
We have looked at the traffic on our website and whether it declined as a result of what happened. Evidence will be presented.
We’ll keep you posted.

TOPSHOT-LITHUANIA-US-DIPLOMACY

PROOF: White House Targeted Daily Wire 

COVID

Joe Biden

White House

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) released his third edition of the &#8220;Facebook Files,&#8221; saying the Biden administration pressured the social media giant to stifle speech the White House didn&#8217;t like, including <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-pressured-fb-to-suppress-daily-wire-content-push-users-to-legacy-outlets-newly-released-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">limiting The Daily Wire’s reach</a> on the platform and boosting the reach of legacy media outlets.
In a tweet thread Thursday, Jordan highlighted newly released documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which he chairs. The documents, which were reviewed by The Daily Wire, show that Facebook repeatedly confirmed to the White House that it was working to re-engineer its platform in order to accomplish the administration’s directives on suppressing content that clashed with its COVID vaccine agenda.
&#8220;Newly subpoenaed internal notes of meetings between Facebook executives and Biden Admin officials reveal more about the lengths the Biden White House wanted to go to control true speech on Facebook,&#8221; Jordan began.
&#8220;In 2021, the White House wanted to control what narratives and true content was posted on Facebook surrounding [COVID-19],&#8221; the congressman said. &#8220;President Biden went so far to say that Facebook was &#8216;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/16/politics/biden-facebook-covid-19/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killing people</a>&#8216; for allowing certain statements to be published on the site.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
THE FACEBOOK FILES PART 3.
Newly subpoenaed internal notes of meetings between Facebook executives and Biden Admin officials reveal more about the lengths the Biden White House wanted to go to control true speech on Facebook.
🧵 Thread: <a href="https://t.co/AeXrs1U8wr">https://t.co/AeXrs1U8wr</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1687116316073930752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Rob Flaherty, President Biden’s then-Director of Digital Strategy, repeatedly put pressure on Facebook to explain its content decisions,&#8221; Jordan said.
“We have to explain to President, Ron, people, why there is misinfo on the internet…&#8221; Flaherty told Facebook employees during one meeting on April 14.
&#8220;For example, Flaherty questioned whether Facebook was doing enough to reduce traffic from sites like the [The New York Post],&#8221; Jordan said. 
“I’m curious – NY Post churning out articles every day&#8230; What is supposed to happen to that from Policy perspective. Does that article get a reduction, labels?” Flaherty asked.  
&#8220;But that wasn’t enough for the Biden White House. Flaherty wanted Facebook to go a step further,&#8221; Jordan added. &#8220;He wanted Facebook to kick people off its site.&#8221;
&#8220;The Biden White House’s effort to censor opposing viewpoints only grew,&#8221; said Jordan. &#8220;So, they upped the pressure. Flaherty demanded that Facebook &#8216;play ball&#8217; and work with the Biden White House on censorship. But that’s not all. The Biden White House wanted to control what you saw on Facebook.&#8221;
They questioned whether Facebook could change its algorithm so users saw more posts from the New York Times and less from [The Daily Wire] and [Tomi Lahren],&#8221; Jordan said. &#8220;Why did they do that? Because they didn’t think you were smart enough to decide for yourself.&#8221;
&#8220;President Biden’s head of strategic communications and public engagement for the [COVID-19] response, Courtney Rowe, mocked Real America’s ability to determine what&#8217;s true and what isn’t,&#8221; Jordan added. &#8220;Facebook knew it had to act. One employee tried to explain to the White House that if the company couldn’t &#8216;remove&#8217; content, it could at least &#8216;contain it.&#8217; But Flaherty continued to press for more content moderation and CONTROL on so-called &#8216;bad&#8217; content.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
But Flaherty continued to press for more content moderation and CONTROL on so-called “bad” content.
Read ⤵️ <a href="https://t.co/OpmcIktt0K">pic.twitter.com/OpmcIktt0K</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1687116332536619009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;And of course, Facebook caved. The company ADMITTED to the White House that it reduced content of certain posts – even if the posts didn’t violate the company’s terms and contained TRUE information,&#8221; Jordan said. &#8220;Just read this from a Facebook employee.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Just read this from a Facebook employee. <a href="https://t.co/IXMKmzAEvE">pic.twitter.com/IXMKmzAEvE</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1687116335686516736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;These newly subpoenaed meeting notes continue to show the Biden White House’s desire to direct and control content on Facebook. More evidence of the censorship-industrial complex. To be continued…&#8221; Jordan concluded.

Jim Jordan Releases New ‘Facebook Files,’ Highlights How Biden Admin Sought To Suppress Daily Wire Content

Jim Jordan Releases More 'Facebook Files,' Highlights How Biden Admin Sought To Suppress Daily Wire Content

Biden Admin

Big Tech

Censorship

Daily Wire

Politics

The Daily Wire

Shortly after taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden’s administration pressured Facebook to stifle The Daily Wire’s reach on the platform and boost the reach of legacy media outlets, according to meeting notes recently turned over to Congress.
The newly released documents, which were reviewed by The Daily Wire, show that Facebook repeatedly confirmed to the White House that it was working to re-engineer its platform in order to accomplish the administration’s directives on suppressing content that clashed with its COVID vaccine agenda.
The meeting notes, first <a href="https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/white-house-asked-facebook-censor-daily-wire-tomi-lahren-over-covid-vax?utm_source=daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter">reported</a> by Just The News, detail discussions then-White House Digital Director Rob Flaherty had with Facebook executives in 2021 where the Biden staffer pressured the Big Tech company to moderate content related to COVID vaccines in order to enforce the administration’s policy goals. During one meeting on April 14, 2021, Flaherty asked Facebook about “chang[ing] the algorithm” to push content from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal over news from The Daily Wire and other “polarizing” entities. 
“If you were to change the algorithm so that people were more likely to see NYT, WSJ, any authoritative news source over Daily Wire, Tomi Lahren, polarizing people. You wouldn’t have a mechanism to check the material impact?” Flaherty asked Facebook employees in a conversation about changing Americans’ attitudes about COVID vaccines, according to typed notes from the meeting.
At the time of the meeting in April 2021 and in the months following, The Daily Wire was the leading publisher on Facebook, getting far more clicks and reactions than the NYT, WSJ, and every other conservative and liberal news site. The meeting notes show the Biden administration telling Facebook that it was concerned about “misinformation” on the platform that caused many Americans to be “hesitant” about rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccinated against COVID. 
“We have to explain to President, Ron, people, why there is misinfo on the internet, bigger problem than FB,” Flaherty was quoted as saying. “Where issues are, what interventions are, how well they are working, for products, want to engage in things that you know to be effective. I don’t even care about specific methodology, you have better, richer data than we’ll ever have.”
“What are the things driving hesitancy on your platform? What is it? How big is the problem? When you are intervening, how are you measuring success?” Flaherty asked, according to the meeting notes.
At one point in the meeting, Flaherty became frustrated that Facebook could not provide some of the data the White House wanted and pushed the company to “play ball.” 
“I feel like we’re running around in circles. Some partners give us lots of information, some partners tell us to f*** right off. This feels like we’re chasing our tails. If you don’t want to give information, just say that,” Flaherty is quoted as saying. “I don’t want to feel like I’m going to a dog and pony show. My dream for FB to play ball. It’s about will we get out of this f***ing mess.”
The Biden administration’s collusion with Facebook was also detailed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Jordan has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-unleashes-the-facebook-files-social-media-giant-censored-americans-because-of-biden-white-house-pressure">releasing information</a> on the lengths the Biden administration went to pressure Facebook to censor Americans, and in his latest post, the congressman highlighted the administration’s targeting of The Daily Wire. 
“The Biden White House wanted to control what you saw on Facebook,” Rep. Jordan wrote Thursday. “They questioned whether Facebook could change its algorithm so users saw more posts from the New York Times and less from [The Daily Wire] and [Tomi Lahren].” 
“Why did they do that?” he asked. “Because they didn’t think you were smart enough to decide for yourself.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
But that’s not all. 
The Biden White House wanted to control what you saw on Facebook.
They questioned whether Facebook could change its algorithm so users saw more posts from the New York Times and less from the <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TomiLahren?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TomiLahren</a>. <a href="https://t.co/oZUDDv6324">pic.twitter.com/oZUDDv6324</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1687116327155298304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro responded to the communications between the White House and Facebook, telling <a href="https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/white-house-asked-facebook-censor-daily-wire-tomi-lahren-over-covid-vax?utm_source=daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter">Just The News</a>, &#8220;The Biden White House&#8217;s pressure on Facebook to target Daily Wire for traffic reduction is an obvious, disgusting, and predictable First Amendment violation.” 
“Government action is still government action even when the government is cudgeling private corporations to do the dirty work of censorship,” Shapiro added. &#8220;We sued the Biden administration to stop the OSHA vaccine mandate, and we&#8217;re not afraid of taking them to court again to preserve free speech rights. We&#8217;re looking into all available remedies as we speak.”

President Biden

Biden Admin Pressured FB To Suppress Daily Wire Content, Push Users To Legacy Outlets: Newly Released Docs

Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram will be cut off in the coming weeks after Meta said Tuesday that a “fundamentally flawed” law is forcing the company to make the tough decision. 
Canada’s Online News Act, passed by its leftist legislature earlier this summer, requires Big Tech companies to negotiate agreements with Canadian news outlets and pay them for news content shared on social media platforms, Reuters <a href="https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/meta-starts-process-end-news-164645853.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Meta spokesman Andy Stone slammed the law in a tweet on Tuesday and said ending access to news on its platforms was the only option. 
“Today we&#8217;ve begun the process of ending news availability in Canada. Changes will roll out over a few weeks,” Stone said. “As we&#8217;ve always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada.”
Both Meta and Google said in June that they would fight the law by blocking access to news in Canada. The country’s move is part of a global trend to force Big Tech companies to pay for news shared on their platforms, according to Reuters. Australia passed a similar law in 2021, while <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/deeply-irresponsible-canada-pm-justin-trudeau-slams-facebooks-flawed-argument-against-paying-for-news-380681-2023-05-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">France and Spain</a> also have social media news laws on the books.
The trend is making its way to the U.S. as well, as lawmakers in California have advanced a bill with bipartisan support mirroring Canada’s Online News Act. Meta has also <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/01/meta-says-it-will-block-news-in-california-if-bill-becomes-law.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threatened</a> to block news in California if the bill, dubbed the “Journalism Preservation Act,” passes the state Senate and gets signed into law by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.  
“If the Journalism Preservation Act passes, we will be forced to remove news from Facebook and Instagram, rather than pay into a slush fund that primarily benefits big, out-of-state media companies under the guise of aiding California publishers,” Stone said in a statement in May. “The bill fails to recognize that publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves and that substantial consolidation in California’s local news industry came over 15 years ago, well before Facebook was widely used.”
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-45668">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
In Canada, Meta argued that news articles made up less than 3% of the content in users’ feeds and said news lacks economic value, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shot back, <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/deeply-irresponsible-canada-pm-justin-trudeau-slams-facebooks-flawed-argument-against-paying-for-news-380681-2023-05-10">saying</a> that Meta’s argument was “not just flawed, but dangerous to our democracy, to our economy.” Trudeau also accused the social media giant of being “deeply irresponsible and out of touch.” 
Google said that Canada’s law is even broader than those passed in Australia and Europe, as it also can apply to outlets that do not produce news. In June, the tech company <a href="https://blog.google/intl/en-ca/company-news/outreach-initiatives/an-update-on-canadas-bill-c-18-and-our-search-and-news-products/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it “informed the Government that we have made the difficult decision that when the law takes effect we will be removing links to Canadian news from our Search, News, and Discover products and will no longer be able to operate Google News Showcase in Canada.”

Canada/Facebook

Meta Begins Removing Canadians’ Access To All News On Facebook, Instagram

Meta Begins Removing Canadians' Access To All News On Facebook, Instagram

Canada

Instagram

News

World

House Judiciary Committee Chairman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jim-jordan">Jim Jordan</a> (R-OH) released internal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/meta">Meta</a> documents on Thursday that he said were evidence of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/white-house">White House</a> improperly pressuring <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/facebook">Facebook</a> and Instagram into censoring posts.
The congressman said in a thread posted to X that he was unveiling &#8220;Part 1&#8221; of &#8220;The Facebook Files&#8221; — which appears to be a nod to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-twitter-files-twitter-and-the-fbi-belly-button">&#8220;Twitter Files&#8221;</a> — obtained by his panel only after he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-committee-moves-forward-with-plan-to-hold-meta-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-in-contempt">threatened to move forward</a> with holding Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> in contempt of Congress. Jordan said that plan is being placed on hold unless the Big Tech giant stops cooperating with his investigation.
Jordan&#8217;s thread, which he said involved &#8220;smoking-gun&#8221; documents that &#8220;prove Facebook censored Americans because of Biden White House pressure,&#8221; contained some screenshots of the documents, but not the full correspondence.
&#8220;Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House,&#8221; Jordan <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1684595375875760128">began</a>.
&#8220;During the first half of 2021, social media companies like Facebook faced tremendous pressure from the Biden White House — both publicly and privately — to crack down on alleged &#8216;misinformation,'&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;In April 2021, a Facebook employee circulated an email for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, writing: &#8216;We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House&#8217; to remove posts,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;In another April 2021 email, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s president for global affairs, informed his team at Facebook that Andy Slavitt, a Senior Advisor to President Biden, was &#8216;outraged . . . that [Facebook] did not remove&#8217; a particular post,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;What did the Biden White House want removed? A meme,&#8221; Jordan said, posting a screenshot of a meme concerning COVID vaccines. &#8220;That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What did the Biden White House want removed?
A meme.
That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts. <a href="https://t.co/6BhDxTHsUi">pic.twitter.com/6BhDxTHsUi</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1684595385199734784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;When Clegg &#8216;countered that removing content like that would represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US,&#8217; Slavitt disregarded the warning and the First Amendment,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;What happened next? Facebook panicked. In another April 2021 email, Brian Rice, Facebook’s VP of public policy, raised the concern that Slavitt&#8217;s challenge felt &#8216;very much like a crossroads for us with the [Biden] White House in these early days,'&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;But Facebook wanted to repair its relationship with the White House to avoid adverse action: &#8216;Given what is at stake here, it would also be a good idea if we could regroup and take stock of where we are in our relations with the [White House], and our internal methods too,'&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;This wasn’t the first time that the Biden White House was angry that Facebook didn’t censor more,&#8221; Jordan said. &#8220;According to these documents, the Biden White House demanded to know why Facebook had not censored a video from [journalist Tucker Carlson]. So, Facebook prepped its response.&#8221;
&#8220;To appease the Biden White House, talking points were drafted for Clegg. Facebook was ready to tell the White House that it had demoted a video posted by Tucker Carlson by 50% in response to the White House’s demands, even though the post didn’t violate any policies,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;Public pressure mounted as well,&#8221; Jordan said, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/white-house-says-facebooks-steps-stop-vaccine-misinformation-are-inadequate-2021-07-16/">linking to a Reuters article</a>. &#8220;In July 2021, President Biden publicly denounced Facebook and other social media platforms, claiming they were &#8216;killing people&#8217; by not censoring alleged &#8216;misinformation.'&#8221;
&#8220;On August 2, 2021, Facebook admitted it was going to change its policies because of pressure from the Biden White House,&#8221; Jordan said. &#8220;August 2, 2021: &#8216;[Facebook’s] Leadership asked Misinfo Policy . . . to brainstorm some additional policy levers we can pull to be more aggressive against . . . misinformation. This is stemming from the continued criticism of our approach from the [Biden] administration.'&#8221;
&#8220;But it wasn&#8217;t just the White House. Facebook also changed its policies in direct response to pressure from Biden&#8217;s Surgeon General, censoring members of the &#8216;disinformation dozen,'&#8221; Jordan said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
But it wasn&#39;t just the White House.
Facebook also changed its policies in direct response to pressure from Biden&#39;s Surgeon General, censoring members of the “disinformation dozen.” <a href="https://t.co/FvGuoqUlns">pic.twitter.com/FvGuoqUlns</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1684595401863614464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;These documents, AND OTHERS that were just produced to the Committee, prove that the Biden Admin abused its powers to coerce Facebook into censoring Americans, preventing free and open discourse on issues of critical public importance,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;Only after the Committee announced its intention to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt did Facebook produce ANY internal documents to the Committee, including these documents, which PROVE that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook,&#8221; Jordan said.
&#8220;Based on Facebook’s newfound commitment to fully cooperate with the Committee’s investigation, the Committee has decided to hold contempt in abeyance. For now. To be clear, contempt is still on the table and WILL be used if Facebook fails to cooperate in FULL,&#8221; Jordan said.
The chairman concluded his thread by stating, &#8220;To be continued…&#8221;
Elon Musk, who just rebranded Twitter to &#8220;X,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1684606168113815552">commented</a> on the thread by saying, &#8220;Extremely concerning!&#8221;
The Daily Wire reached out to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, seeking comment on the new thread.
Earlier in the week, a spokesperson for Meta <a href="https://twitter.com/andymstone/status/1683904883194200067">said the company delivered</a> over 53,000 pages of documents — &#8220;both internal and external&#8221; — and made current and former employees available to talk with the committee. &#8220;Meta will continue to comply, as we have thus far, with good faith requests from the committee,&#8221; the spokesperson added.
Jordan posted &#8220;The Facebook Files&#8221; amid an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-scores-victory-against-order-blocking-contact-with-social-media-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ongoing lawsuit</a> brought by GOP state attorneys general over alleged collusion between the federal government and social media companies to censor speech in violation of the First Amendment.
Pushing back against the claims, a White House official <a href="https://apnews.com/article/social-media-protected-speech-lawsuit-injunction-148c1cd43f88a0284d5a3c53fd333727">told the Associated Press</a> that the Biden administration &#8220;has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections.&#8221;

Jim Jordan Unleashes ‘The Facebook Files’: Social Media Giant ‘Censored Americans Because Of Biden White House Pressure’

Jim Jordan Unleashes 'The Facebook Files'

Congress

When Meta introduced its new social media site &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meta-to-release-new-app-threads-to-compete-with-twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Threads</a>&#8221; to compete with Twitter, supporters dubbed it the &#8220;Twitter Killer.&#8221; Now, Threads is on life support as usage of the new platform is plummeting.
On Friday, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/threads-user-engagement-continues-to-drop-adding-urgency-for-new-features-8ed2f384" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported Thread&#8217;s daily user engagement is around 13 million members. That&#8217;s down nearly 70% from its July 7 peak. Furthermore, iOS and Android app users are spending on average just four minutes per day on Threads. For comparison, the report said Twitter&#8217;s daily users hover around 200 million, with the average time spent on the app around 30 minutes per day, per web analytics firm SimilarWeb.
Liberals had high hopes for Threads because, unlike Twitter under &#8220;Chief Twit&#8221; Elon Musk, the Left felt confident that Facebook&#8217;s new sister platform would censor certain information — chiefly any story or fact inconvenient to the Democrat-Media Complex. If that business model wasn&#8217;t enough to indicate that Threads was doomed to be a failure, then perhaps the kiss of death from CNBC&#8217;s Jim Cramer should have indicated that it was going to fail.
&#8220;Meta&#8217;s new Threads has been endorsed by CNBC&#8217;s Jim Cramer,&#8221; tweeted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, sharing a video of Cramer extolling the new social media platform. &#8220;And just like that it&#8217;s all over. &#8216;I say game, set, match [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg&#8230;.Facebook, Instagram is a really terrific product and Twitter is awful.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Meta&#39;s new Threads has been endorsed by CNBC&#39;s Jim Cramer. 
And just like that it&#39;s all over.
&quot;I say game, set, match Zuckerberg&#8230;.Facebook, Instagram is a really terrific product and Twitter is awful.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/zJW7uK1e1n">pic.twitter.com/zJW7uK1e1n</a>
&mdash; Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) <a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1676695464404733952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 5, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Ironically, Twitter&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-and-skeleton-crew-take-on-problem-ousted-twitter-employees-ignored-child-exploitation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">death</a> has been predicted — perhaps even hoped for by some — ever since Musk bought it. He earned the scorn of Legacy Media and the Left because he dared to defend free speech. There is no indication that Twitter is going to die anytime soon.
Threads on the other hand, well, might be hanging on by a thread.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Elon Musk, Twitter bird

Threads — The Would-Be ‘Twitter Killer’ — May Already Be Gasping For Air

Threads — The Would-Be 'Twitter Killer' — May Already Be Gasping For Air

A senior <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> official allegedly informed Twitter that the abandoned laptop believed to have belonged to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hunter-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Biden</a> was real on the same day the New York Post broke news about the device&#8217;s contents in a story that Twitter went on to censor, according to newly-released testimony.
Laura Dehmlow, the section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), spoke with the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government this week, House Judiciary Republicans announced on Thursday.
Citing her testimony, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2023-07-20-jdj-to-wray-re-dehmlow-testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a new letter</a> that the FITF attended a previously scheduled meeting with Twitter on October 14, 2020 — the morning of which the Post published its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-cybersecurity-expert-authenticates-new-york-posts-smoking-gun-hunter-biden-email-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;smoking-gun&#8221; email story</a> — and during that discussion, a Twitter employee asked FITF about the authenticity of the laptop.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 BIG BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Testimony reveals the FBI knew the Hunter Biden laptop was authentic, but when asked by a social media company about the laptop’s authenticity the FBI said “no further comment.” 
The rest is history. <a href="https://t.co/LzjS5cSBS6">pic.twitter.com/LzjS5cSBS6</a>
&mdash; House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1682024280853295105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I remember having a conversation with or being involved in a conversation with Twitter, and I honestly can’t recall if this was repeated to me &#8212; I might have been a few minutes late to the meeting &#8212; or if &#8212; or if I was &#8212; I actually overheard it,&#8221; Dehmlow said, according to an excerpt of her testimony.
&#8220;But it was &#8212; it was relayed to me later that somebody from Twitter &#8212; I don’t recall who. I’m not sure who. Somebody from Twitter essentially asked whether the laptop was real,&#8221; she added. &#8220;And one of the FBI folks who was on the call did confirm that, &#8216;yes, it was,&#8217; before another participant jumped in and said, &#8216;no further comment.'&#8221;
Jordan claimed Dehmlow’s testimony further showed that it was an analyst in the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division embedded in FITF who had begun to explain that the laptop was real before being cut off.
On the instruction of FBI counsel, Dehmlow refused to reveal which FBI official made the decision to stick with &#8220;no comment&#8221; going forward, but she did state that it was not her call, the chairman said. The FITF also had a meeting with Facebook later on October 14, 2020, during which the social media giant was only told &#8220;no comment&#8221; when a similar question was posed about the laptop&#8217;s authenticity, according to Dehmlow’s testimony.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-7029">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Another excerpt shows that Dehmlow said she was &#8220;pretty certain&#8221; that then-FITF Section Chief Brad Benavides and individuals on the Russia unit were aware at that time the laptop was real.
In the hours that followed publication, Twitter blocked the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> with details of Hunter Biden&#8217;s shady business dealings and his father&#8217;s possible ties to them from being shared, claiming the story violated its rule against sharing &#8220;hacked&#8221; materials. Facebook, too, took steps to limit the spread of the story, which came just weeks before Hunter&#8217;s father, Joe Biden, was elected President of the United States.
While Democrats in Congress have downplayed the temporary social media clampdown on the story, with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) <a href="https://6abc.com/former-twitter-execs-say-removal-of-hunter-biden-laptop-story-was-a/12790381/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing his GOP colleagues</a> of whipping up a &#8220;faux scandal about this two-day lapse in their ability to spread Hunter Biden propaganda on a private media platform,&#8221; Republicans have raised concerns about there being a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-subpoenas-big-tech-executives-in-collusion-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coordinated effort</a> involving Big Tech and government agents to suppress damaging information about the Bidens in the run-up to the 2020 election. In addition, current and former <a href="https://6abc.com/former-twitter-execs-say-removal-of-hunter-biden-laptop-story-was-a/12790381/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/25/mark-zuckerberg-criticizes-twitters-handling-of-the-posts-hunter-biden-laptop-story/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> executives have conceded that cracking down on the story was a mistake.
As Jordan contended in his letter, the same FBI personnel who were warning social media companies about a potential Russian “hack and leak” operation in the run-up to the 2020 election knew that the laptop was not Russian disinformation, as was suggested in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/active-cia-employee-asked-intel-veteran-if-he-would-sign-hunter-biden-letter-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter from former intelligence officials</a>. He cited <a href="https://waysandmeans.house.gov/smith-testimony-of-irs-employees-reveals-biden-irs-doj-interfered-in-tax-investigation-of-hunter-biden-revealing-preferential-treatment-for-wealthy-and-politically-connected/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent testimony by Internal Revenue Service supervisory agent Gary Shapley</a>, who has emerged as a whistleblower in the Hunter Biden criminal case, asserting that the FBI <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-knew-hunter-biden-laptop-was-not-manipulated-contained-reliable-evidence-in-2019-whistleblower" target="_blank" rel="noopener">verified the authenticity</a> of the laptop in November 2019.
Hunter Biden <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/546148-hunter-biden-doesnt-know-if-delaware-laptop-was-his/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has said in the past</a> that he did not know whether he was the owner of the laptop abandoned at a Delaware repair shop before it was seized by the FBI, and his legal team has <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-denver-riggleman-former-gop-congressman-jan-6-select-committee-adviser/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly been</a> looking for possible distorted or fabricated data linked to the first son.
Jordan&#8217;s letter was addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray, requesting information and documents from the bureau, including the identities of the officials who dictated how the bureau would respond to inquiries about the laptop, with an August 3 deadline. An FBI spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the bureau received the letter, but had no further comment.

Hunter Biden laptop graphic at congressional hearing with Rep. Jim Jordan

FBI Allegedly Informed Twitter The Hunter Biden Laptop Was Real On Key Date

2020 Election

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody wrote a letter to Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> this week asking the billionaire to testify about the alleged use of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/facebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> by human traffickers. 
In the letter, dated Monday, Moody asked Zuckerberg to appear before Florida’s Statewide Council on Human Trafficking in October, citing reports from law enforcement who have said that human trafficking cases frequently involved Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. 
“Before launching new products or wasting time preparing for a cage match that will likely never happen, Zuckerberg should be working to make Meta’s existing platforms safer for users and to prevent vulnerable people from being forced into illicit sex work. The findings of our statewide survey and other reports make it clear that Meta platforms are the preferred social media applications for human traffickers looking to prey on vulnerable people,” <a href="https://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrelease/attorney-general-moody-calls-meta-ceo-zuckerberg-florida-testify-about-use-meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Moody, who is the chair of Florida’s human trafficking council, in a press release. 
According to Moody’s <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/658485281/Meta-Letter#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a>, the council surveyed Florida law enforcement agencies to see what role various social media companies may have played in facilitating human trafficking. Moody said the survey found that more than 53% of the 271 human trafficking cases that involved social media were linked by law enforcement to Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. 
“As Chair of the Council, and as Florida&#8217;s Attorney General, I invite you to appear before the Council to discuss this very important issue and address the Council as to what Meta is doing to prevent its platforms from being used to assist, facilitate or support human trafficking,” Moody wrote in her letter. 
Moody requested that Zuckerberg respond by September 5 to her request. Her letter comes on the heels of a report from The Wall Street Journal and academic researchers that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/instagram-accused-of-connecting-vast-pedophile-network-in-new-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused Instagram of facilitating</a> a “vast pedophile network.” 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
The Journal, alongside researchers at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that Instagram allowed and promoted accounts that openly purchased and commissioned “underage-sex content.”
Accounts on Instagram have posted “menus” that offered inappropriate content, including “imagery of the minor performing sexual acts with animals,” according to researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Other “menus” reportedly offered videos of children hurting themselves or “meet-ups” with kids.
In 2022, Facebook <a href="https://www.missingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/2022-reports-by-esp.pdf">reported</a> more than 21 million instances of “apparent child pornography” while Instagram reported over 5 million.

TOPSHOT-FRANCE-TECHNOLOGY-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-ECONOMY

Florida AG Asks Zuckerberg To Testify On Human Traffickers’ Reported Use Of Facebook

Florida AG Asks Zuckerberg To Testify On Human Traffickers' Reported Use Of Facebook

Crime

Florida

Human Trafficking

Mark Zuckerberg

A federal judge in Louisiana set off a political firestorm with a Fourth of July <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-blocks-biden-officials-from-contacting-social-media-companies-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">injunction</a> that bans numerous federal government agencies and officials from communicating and meeting with social media companies. The move was praised by conservatives, who have warned that the feds have become too cozy with Big Tech executives.
After Judge Terry Doughty’s injunction, State Department officials reportedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meeting-between-state-department-and-facebook-axed-after-judge-warns-of-orwellian-relationship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">canceled</a> a weekly meeting with Facebook, according to an employee at the tech giant who told The Washington Post that meetings with the feds had been “canceled pending further guidance.” Those meetings between the federal government and tech companies have become commonplace since former President Donald Trump&#8217;s re-election bid in 2020. Here&#8217;s how federal government officials got in bed with social media companies before, during, and after the COVID pandemic and the tumultuous 2020 presidential election. 
<h2>Hunter Biden Emails</h2>
The partnership between federal government agencies and social media companies ramped up during the last few weeks of the 2020 presidential election as federal government officials communicated often about what they deemed “Russian disinformation” surrounding a certain candidate’s troublesome son.
The supposed Russian disinformation op was about Hunter Biden, and it was making waves on social media before Twitter stopped its circulation and Facebook censored the story. Years later, through the Twitter Files and revelations from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the public found out about the FBI’s communication with Twitter and Facebook in the days before the bombshell New York Post story. 
In Part 7 of the Twitter Files, journalist Michael Shellenberger, who was given inside access to Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover, reported that the day before the New York Post published the Hunter Biden email story, FBI Special Agent Elvis Chen <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1604875478749171712">sent</a> 10 documents to Twitter’s then-head of site integrity Yoel Roth. Hours after the Biden laptop story went up, Twitter censored the piece, stopping it from being shared on the site. A few months later, Roth gave a sworn declaration <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1604879477732831235">admitting</a> he had regular meetings with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Director of National Intelligence, where the federal agencies warned of a “hack-and-leak” operation involving Hunter Biden.
The FBI also met with Facebook in the weeks leading up to the New York Post story. Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zuckerberg-fbi-pushed-facebook-to-crack-down-on-misinformation-before-hunter-biden-laptop-story-was-published">told</a> podcast host Joe Rogan, “The FBI … basically came to us, some folks on our team, and was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert. There was, we thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant.’”
In response, Facebook stifled the distribution of the Hunter Biden story “so fewer people saw it than would have otherwise,” according to Zuckerberg. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
13. They did the same to Facebook, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “The FBI basically came to us [and] was like, ‘Hey&#8230; you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in 2016 election. There&#39;s about to be some kind of dump similar to that.&#39;&quot; <a href="https://t.co/yPGP8nYgCq">pic.twitter.com/yPGP8nYgCq</a>
&mdash; Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1604880181906116608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<h2>2020 Election</h2>
The federal government’s meetings with tech companies weren’t only about the Hunter Biden story. According to independent journalist Matt Taibbi, who was also given inside access to Twitter, internal Slack communications between Twitter executives showed that the social media company was meeting with federal government agents to discuss election-related posts and stories as well. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1688648178298000&amp;usg=AOvVaw10v0UGh9BJZV8inaPuI6t7">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
After the January 6 riot at the Capitol, Roth <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601359872528101376">complained</a> that there weren’t “generic enough” calendar descriptions to conceal apparent meetings with FBI officials. During another conversation, Policy Director Nick Pickles asked if Twitter should say it detects “misinfo … through partnerships with outside experts,” before adding, “not sure we’d describe the FBI/DHS as experts.”
Another screenshot of internal communications <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601366094584823808">showed</a> that the FBI sent Twitter reports about tweets related to mail-in-ballots, which were heavily scrutinized by Trump and his supporters before and after the 2020 election. “The FBI-flagged tweet then got circulated in the enforcement Slack,” Taibbi reported. “Twitter cited Politifact to say the first story was ‘proven to be false,’ then noted the second was already deemed ‘no vio on numerous occasions.’”
Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1601367192033189889">responded</a> to the FBI’s concern by applying a “learn how voting is safe” label to one of the tweets. 
<h2>COVID</h2>
In another Twitter Files entry, Free Press writer David Zweig reported that “The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.” According to Zweig, both the Trump and Biden administrations “directly pressed Twitter executives to moderate the platform’s pandemic content according to their wishes.” 
During the early days of the pandemic, the Trump administration was concerned with “misinformation” surrounding “panic buying” and <a href="https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607381544351698948">held meetings</a> attended by Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and others, according to Zweig. 
When President Joe Biden took over in January of 2021, one of his administration’s first meeting <a href="https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607382379018190849">requests</a> with Twitter was concerning COVID and “anti-vaxxer” accounts, most notably that of Alex Berenson, who was banned by Twitter after regularly raising concerns about the COVID vaccines. Berenson sued Twitter over the ban and eventually settled with the social media company. During the legal battle, Twitter was forced to release internal communications that showed how the White House met with the Big Tech company and pressured Twitter to kick Berenson off the platform. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.
​​<a href="https://t.co/CHt0s7ZqfQ">https://t.co/CHt0s7ZqfQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/dFgRmyRB3z">pic.twitter.com/dFgRmyRB3z</a>
&mdash; David Zweig (@davidzweig) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidzweig/status/1607383214452080647?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
These are just a few of the reported examples of the federal government having a direct line into social media companies where they influence decisions on censorship. That relationship between the feds and companies like Twitter and Facebook has been largely restricted thanks to Doughty’s injunction following a lawsuit from the attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana, who alleged that the federal government and social media companies were colluding to censor “disfavored” speech in violation of the First Amendment.  
The injunction is not the final ruling in the case, and the Biden administration has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-to-appeal-judges-order-blocking-contact-with-social-media-companies">appealed</a> the order blocking its communication with social media companies, but the judge made the reasoning for his injunction clear, writing, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.&#8217;”

White House/Big Tech

A Judge Blocked The Feds From Meeting With Social Media Giants. Here’s How The Government Colluded With Big Tech.

A Judge Blocked The Feds From Meeting With Social Media Giants. Here's How The Government Has Colluded With Big Tech.

Federal Government

Facebook founder <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> said Thursday that his new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> competitor, Instagram&#8217;s Threads, attracted a whopping 30 million sign-ups in its first 24 hours.
Zuckerberg&#8217;s Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched Threads Wednesday night. Threads went live on Apple and Android app stores in 100 countries at 7 p.m. ET.
&#8220;Wow, 30 million sign ups as of this morning. Feels like the beginning of something special, but we&#8217;ve got a lot of work ahead to build out the app,&#8221; Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuXCjGVrd6R/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Threads Thursday morning.
Threads is likely to be Twitter&#8217;s most serious competitor yet. The platform features tweet-style posts, and users can comment on others&#8217; Threads posts, just like on Twitter.
Zuckerberg tweeted for the first time in over a decade to launch a playful missive at Elon Musk on Twitter, tweeting a meme of two matching Spidermans pointing at each other.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://t.co/MbMxUWiQgp">pic.twitter.com/MbMxUWiQgp</a>
&mdash; Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) <a href="https://twitter.com/finkd/status/1676747594460962817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
The goal is to get one billion people to sign up for Threads, Zuckerberg said. The Facebook founder also said they will hold off on ads for now and suggested Meta will grow Threads the same way he grew Facebook.
&#8220;Our approach will be the same as all our other products: make the product work well first, then see if we can get it on a clear path to 1 billion people, and only then think about monetization at that point,&#8221; Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuW5-eWL34x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in another Threads post.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1688648178298000&amp;usg=AOvVaw10v0UGh9BJZV8inaPuI6t7">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Instagram head Adam Mosseri posted early Thursday morning after staying up all night and touted the app already reaching 10 million sign-ups, but he acknowledged Instagram still has a lot of work to do.
&#8220;Lots more to do. It&#8217;s easy to get a bunch of people to sign up, it&#8217;s hard to build something that people want to keep using, but quite the first day,&#8221; Mosseri <a href="https://www.threads.net/t/CuWOMBzgnto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
A slew of celebrities have already signed up for Threads, including Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Oprah, Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Gordon Ramsay, and Hugh Jackman.
Several big brands also signed up early, including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Shark Week, Animal Planet, Billboard, HBO, NPR, HGTV, The Washington Post, The Economist, and CBS News.
Threads still lacks many of the features Twitter includes, including direct messaging, a feed of only the accounts the user follows, hashtags, and a search feature. However, some of those features are in the works, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/instagrams-threads-bursts-gate-millions-sign-ups-rcna92827" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Instagram&#8217;s head.
Twitter responded Thursday by threatening legal action against Meta over Threads, accusing the company of poaching former Twitter employees to build a &#8220;copycat&#8221; app.
Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-threatening-sue-meta-over-181843547.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent</a> Zuckerberg a letter accusing Meta of “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.”
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Spiro wrote. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”

Facebook Annouces A New Product

Zuckerberg Says Instagram Threads Has 30 Million Sign Ups

Menu