<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Three of the world&#8217;s largest social media platforms are heading to court on Tuesday as they defend themselves in a bellwether social media addiction case.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The California Superior Court in Los Angeles County is set to hear the case, which alleges that Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have contributed to the growing problem of social media addiction and the mental health issues that stem from it. TikTok and Snapchat were also sued in the case, but settled with the plaintiff before the trial began. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jury selection for the trial begins on Tuesday, with opening arguments scheduled for next week. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The case is part of a coordinated effort across the country that includes hundreds of similar cases where litigants accuse social media giants of fueling addiction.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the case before the California Superior Court, a 19-year-old woman, referred to as K.G.M., argues that social media platforms have knowingly designed their platforms to get children and young users addicted. Studies have shown that social media features such as autoplay and infinite scroll induce a dopamine hit, which can lead to users spending hours on platforms each day.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">K.G.M.&#8217;s social media addiction </span><a href="https://www.carriermanagement.com/news/2025/10/21/280613.htm"><span style="font-weight: 400;">resulted</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in crippling depression, body dysmorphia, and suicidal thoughts, according to the lawsuit. K.G.M.&#8217;s case is just the first of many that are expected to trial this year, targeting Snapchat, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, which is owned by Google. Snapchat settled with K.G.M., but it remains a defendant in numerous other social media cases that are set to go before state and federal courts.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">YouTube told The Daily Wire that the allegations it faces in the cases “are simply not true.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” said YouTube spokesman José Castañeda. “In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls. The allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Daily Wire also reached out to Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Snapchat told The Daily Wire that it was &#8220;pleased&#8221; to have settled the K.G.M. case in &#8220;an amicable manner.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The K.G.M trial will likely put Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the witness stand, where he will have to answer questions in front of a jury. Meta’s lawyers </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/meta-tiktok-youtube-stand-trial-youth-addiction-claims-2026-01-26/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Reuters that the social media giant will argue before the court that its platform did not lead to K.G.M’s mental health issues. YouTube said it will argue that its platform is different from those of the other defendants and shouldn&#8217;t be considered in the same case as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The California Superior Court trial could shape public opinion on social media platforms moving forward as the companies face more trials, including one in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which is set to begin on June 12. The lawsuit before the federal court was filed by school districts, which argue that social media addiction fueled by social media companies “not only harms individual children and their loved ones but also causes substantial and financially burdensome interference with school district, county, and municipal operations.”</span></p>
<p>In recent years, Meta has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-introduces-teen-accounts-with-built-in-privacy-settings-to-better-support-parents">rolled out</a> online safety features for children using Instagram. The platform&#8217;s &#8220;Teen Accounts&#8221; keep children&#8217;s accounts private, meaning other Instagram users cannot see posts from or contact a Teen Account unless the teenager accepts their follow requests. Instagram also censors content on Teen Accounts, so that children are not shown content that features fighting or cosmetic procedures.</p>
<p>TikTok, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/support/faq_detail?id=7543604789335071238&amp;category=web_account">created</a> &#8220;a separate TikTok experience specifically designed&#8221; for kids under 13 years old. The &#8220;TikTok Under 13 Experience&#8221; curates content that is more appropriate for young children, makes all accounts private, and limits screen time to one hour. YouTube also has a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/intl/ALL_us/kids/safer-experience/">kids version</a> of the platform that is &#8220;designed to be a safer and simpler place for kids to explore their interests through online video.&#8221; YouTube requires videos uploaded on YouTube Kids to be &#8220;family-friendly.&#8221;</p>
<p>The effects of social media on children has become a hot topic in recent years, and the issue gained more attention after the book, &#8220;The Anxious Generation,&#8221; by Jonathan Haidt was published in 2024. In the book, Haidt, a social psychologist, argues that anxiety and depression skyrocketed in the past 15 years, coinciding with what he calls the &#8220;great rewiring of childhood,&#8221; which is the flip from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood.</p>
<p>The social media addiction case in California comes as some countries move to ban social media for children. Last month, Australia became the first nation in the world to ban social media for kids under 16. Malaysia has introduced a similar social media ban, and Utah passed a law in 2024 requiring social media platforms to verify a users&#8217; age and obtain parental consent, but parts of the law were temporarily blocked by a federal judge.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated after TikTok settled with K.G.M. shortly before the trial started. </em></p>


Social media

Bellwether Social Media Addiction Trial Puts Instagram, Facebook, And YouTube In The Crosshairs

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<p>Meta Platforms on Monday named former Trump administration official Dina Powell McCormick as its president and vice chairman, boosting the company&#8217;s lobbying efforts in the U.S. capital.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump congratulated Powell McCormick in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115882511750475574">post</a> on his Truth Social account minutes after the company announced her promotion.</p>
<p>&#8220;Congratulations to DINA POWELL MCCORMICK, WHO HAS JUST BEEN NAMED THE NEW PRESIDENT OF META. A great choice by Mark Z!!! She is a fantastic, and very talented, person, who served the Trump Administration with strength and distinction!&#8221; the president wrote.</p>
<p>Her appointment is the latest in a series of changes Meta has made in the last year that more closely align the company with the Trump administration. Meta is accelerating investments in frontier AI and personal superintelligence. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seeking Trump&#8217;s support to build data centers and energy capacity for those projects.</p>
<p>Zuckerberg, ahead of Trump&#8217;s second inauguration, visited him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. His company also scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program, elevated Republican Joel Kaplan as the company&#8217;s new chief global affairs officer, and ended its diversity programs, all moves that appealed to Trump. Meta in early January hired former Trump trade adviser C.J. Mahoney to lead its legal team, replacing general counsel Jennifer Newstead, who served in former President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration.</p>
<p>Meta declined to comment on whether Powell McCormick&#8217;s appointment is intended to appeal to Trump.</p>
<p>She will help Meta expand its data centers, build new strategic capital partnerships, and increase the company&#8217;s &#8220;long-term investment capacity,&#8221; according to a company statement.</p>
<p>Powell McCormick spent 16 years in senior leadership roles at Goldman Sachs. She served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and as a senior White House adviser under former President George W. Bush. Her husband is U.S. Senator David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Senate subcommittee responsible for energy policy &#8211; an area in which she will be involved at Meta.</p>
<p>The senator will &#8220;continue to comply with all U.S. Senate ethics rules,&#8221; his spokesperson Katy Montgomery said by email.</p>
<p>&#8220;Senator McCormick should recuse himself from every vote or committee action that involves Meta&#8217;s business,&#8221; said Sacha Haworth, executive director at the Tech Oversight Project, a group that has criticized the industry.</p>
<p>Powell McCormick&#8217;s role echoes efforts by previous Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who, during her tenure, leveraged deep ties to the Washington establishment and the Democratic Party to help the company navigate scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.</p>
<p>Powell McCormick resigned from Meta&#8217;s board in December, just eight months after joining.</p>
<p>Meta has been scrambling to stay relevant in Silicon Valley&#8217;s artificial-intelligence race after its Llama 4 model met with a poor reception. It committed as much as $72 billion in 2025 capital spending.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Courtney Rozen in Washington; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)</p>


VivaTech conference dedicated to innovation and startups in Paris

Former Trump Adviser Named Meta’s President

Donald Trump

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg

<p>Australia will soon become the first nation to ban children under 16 from creating accounts on many social media platforms, but the law is already facing criticism as some platforms will be excluded.</p>
<p>Beginning on Wednesday, December 10, Australia will require social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, to take &#8220;reasonable steps&#8221; to block children under 16 years old from creating accounts. Any platform that fails to restrict children under 16 from gaining access could face civil penalties of up to $49.5 million, according to the government&#8217;s <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/platforms-on-notice-to-comply-with-social-media-minimum-age">eSafety Commissioner</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t really seen a plan like this be put into action,&#8221; said Jessica Melugin, the director of the Center for Technology &amp; Innovation at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. &#8220;So I think the world is certainly watching.&#8221;</p>
<p>Along with Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, the Australian government also lists Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, and X as &#8220;age-restricted&#8221; social media platforms. Numerous social media platforms, however, will not be affected by the law, including messaging platforms and gaming apps such as Discord, Roblox, and Steam. Australia&#8217;s decision to keep those platforms off its age-restricted list has raised more questions about whether the law will keep children away from online harm.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is a little bit of a red flag. I don&#8217;t agree with doing it this way at all, but it does make it harder for the government to make its case when you have gaming apps and AI chatbots exempted,&#8221; said Melugin. &#8220;It seems like a strange line to draw.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Australian government says the new law is popular with parents and would reduce the number of risks that children are exposed to online, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyp9d3ddqyo">reported</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Delaying children’s access to social media accounts gives them valuable time to learn and grow, free of the powerful, unseen forces of harmful and deceptive design features such as opaque algorithms and endless scroll,&#8221; said Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman. &#8220;This important normative change will be invaluable to parents and young people alike – creating friction or a check in the online ecosystem that previously did not exist.&#8221;</p>
<p>To support its move, the Australian government cited a <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/research/the-online-experiences-of-children-in-australia/snapshot-content-associated-with-harm">study</a> that it commissioned earlier this year, which found that more than 70% of children between 10-15 who use social media are exposed to harmful content. The government says that harmful online content includes &#8220;sexist, misogynistic or hateful content, content depicting dangerous online challenges or fight videos, or content that encourages unhealthy eating or exercise habits.&#8221;</p>
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<p>The first-of-its-kind law is already receiving some strong pushback.</p>
<p>Melugin told The Daily Wire that she has some major concerns about the new law.</p>
<p>&#8220;We live in a digital world. That&#8217;s how you are going to maybe find your partner one day. It&#8217;s probably how you&#8217;re going to find a job one day, maybe how you promote yourself or your business, maybe how you keep in touch with friends and pursue your interests,&#8221; Melugin said.</p>
<p>She added that the law could create a &#8220;false sense of security&#8221; for parents, who she argues would take a step back from monitoring their children&#8217;s social media. &#8220;They think, &#8216;Well, the government has now stepped in with its magic wand and silver bullet and now everything is safe,&#8217; which certainly won&#8217;t be the case,&#8221; Melugin added.</p>
<p>Melugin argued that the best way to keep children safe online is for parents to keep having conversations with their kids on &#8220;how to keep yourself safe online, how to avoid making mistakes online.&#8221;</p>
<p>Australia&#8217;s exclusions for Roblox, Discord, Steam, and other platforms have also come under scrutiny. Roblox, an online gaming platform marketed toward children, has been criticized for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-roblox-pedophile-problem/">allowing</a> adults to use the platform alongside children, and even the Australian government has acknowledged that Roblox has given pedophiles an open door to &#8220;groom children.&#8221;</p>
<p>Roblox was also sued by Texas last month, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton calling the children&#8217;s gaming platform “a habitual destination for child predators.”</p>
<p>An Australian government official told The Daily Wire that &#8220;gaming and messaging services were excluded under the legislative rules.&#8221; The official also directed The Daily Wire to a press release from September, showing that Roblox <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/roblox-commits-to-lift-game-to-protect-kids-from-online-grooming-under-australias-world-leading-online-safety-codes-and-standards">committed</a> to introduce new safety measures for its site in response to concerns raised by the Australian government.</p>
<p>“We know that when it comes to platforms that are popular with children, they also become popular with adult predators seeking to prey on them. Roblox is no exception and has become a popular target for pedophiles seeking to groom children,&#8221; Inman said at the time. “We’ve been engaging with Roblox on this issue for several months to make it clear to the platform that under Australian law they are required to take meaningful action to prioritize the protection of children.&#8221;</p>
<p>Discord has also faced scrutiny for allowing child sex predators, extremists, and terrorists who <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/discord-messages-server-dhs-terror-extremist-charlie-kirk-fbi-patel-rcna232377">target</a> children.</p>
<p>Some of the social media giants affected by Australia&#8217;s new law have blasted the government&#8217;s strategy. Meta argues that families, not the government, should &#8220;decide which apps teens can access.&#8221;</p>
<p>“To comply with Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Law, teens under 16 will begin losing access to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads next month. While we’re committed to meeting our legal obligations, we’ve consistently raised concerns about this law,&#8221; a Meta spokesman told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Experts, youth groups, and many parents agree that blanket bans are not the solution—they isolate teens from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection across the many apps they use. There’s a better way: legislation that empowers parents to approve app downloads and verify age allows families—not the government—to decide which apps teens can access.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meta believes its &#8220;teen accounts,&#8221; which were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-introduces-teen-accounts-with-built-in-privacy-settings-to-better-support-parents">introduced</a> last year, are effective at keeping children safe online by putting parents in control and limiting who can contact children on social media.</p>
<p>Australia&#8217;s new law is already facing a legal challenge brought on behalf of two 15-year-old Australians who argue that the law robs them of their right to free speech, according to the BBC.</p>
<p>&#8220;We shouldn&#8217;t be silenced. It&#8217;s like Orwell&#8217;s book 1984, and that scares me,&#8221; said 15-year-old Macy Neyland.</p>
<p>Noah Jones, the other 15-year-old pushing back against the law, added, &#8220;We are the true digital natives and we want to remain educated, robust, and savvy in our digital world. &#8230; They should protect kids with safeguards, not silence.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Daily Wire reached out to the prime minister&#8217;s office for comment.</p>
<p>Following Australia&#8217;s move to ban some social media for kids, Malaysia introduced a similar ban. In the United States, Utah passed a law last year requiring social media platforms to verify a user&#8217;s age and obtain parental consent. Parts of the Utah law, however, have been temporarily <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/utah-law-restricting-youth-social-media-use-blocked-by-judge-2024-09-11/">blocked</a> by a federal judge.</p>


Australia’s Novel Social Media Ban For Kids Sparks Debate As Some Platforms Get A Free Pass

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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Wicked” star Ariana Grande attacked Trump voters with a snarky, sarcastic post on Instagram, asking if they were happy with their decision to select the Republican candidate to lead the country.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I want to check in with trump voters. I have one very genuine question: it’s been 250 days. Now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech is on the brink of collapse for us all — has your life gotten better?” the singer’s Instagram story posted on Monday </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/arianagrande/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Though the two-time Grammy Award-winner didn’t seem to actually expect a response, plenty of social media respondents had something to say.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Hey Ariana Grande, as a Trump voter I will answer your question: Yes life got better since Trump became President!” Libs of TikTok posted on X. She went on to list the things the president accomplished during his first months in office, including that he “secured our border, made cities safer, banned racist dei and child m*tilation, historic peace deals around the world, American hostages rescued, cut down gov fraud and wasteful spending, protected women’s sports, secured trillions of new investment into the US, brought back American jobs.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I do not regret my vote for a second,” the post concluded. “Couldn’t be happier!”</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hey Ariana Grande, as a Trump voter I will answer your question:</p>
<p>Yes life got better since Trump became President!</p>
<p>&#8211; secured our border<br />
&#8211; made cities safer<br />
&#8211; banned racist dei and child m*tilation<br />
&#8211; historic peace deals around the world<br />
&#8211; American hostages rescued<br />
&#8211; cut down… <a href="https://t.co/vb14BvzrwM">pic.twitter.com/vb14BvzrwM</a></p>
<p>— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1972706007286510063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“My life has gotten so much better! Thanks for asking!” conservative commentator Tomi Lahren </span><a href="https://x.com/TomiLahren/status/1972696941470347385"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in reply. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I love when celebs worth over $200 million, that have no clue about real life, treat everyday Americans like peasants. It’s so effective,” another commenter </span><a href="https://x.com/almostjingo/status/1972713713296875974"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Why yes Ariana, it has,” another X user agreed. “One of the best things that has happened is that we’ve learned to ignore spoiled, rich, elitists handing out advice to the ‘peasants.’ That you’re all a bunch of freaks who think you know what’s best for the ‘greater good.’ You make us laugh.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Grande publicly endorsed Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election and subtly mocked fellow recording artist Carrie Underwood for performing at Trump’s presidential inauguration in January.</span></p>


Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande Attacks Trump Voters With Sarcastic Instagram Post

Celebrities

Politics

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leftists are losing their minds over social media influencer Jeffree Star having a compassionate, human response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The makeup brand founder, who has more than 13 million followers on Instagram and close to 8 million on TikTok, clapped back at those who accused him of being a Republican because of his reaction. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Am I Republican? No, I’m a person,” Star said during his livestream, which included footage of him reacting to the news that Kirk had been shot at a college event in Utah. “Because I’m standing up for someone that passed away, I’m now being called names in the chat.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“He encouraged everyone to speak about their beliefs, whether he believed them or not,” the pink-haired influencer and makeup enthusiast said in the TikTok clip, which has been widely circulated on X. </span></p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="Jeffree Star gets the news of Charlie Kirk’s passing while livestreaming #shorts" width="422" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Qwwd_PPpo0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>(Credit: @jeffreestar via TikTok)</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“So a grown man that goes around the country, debating people, spitting facts, was just taken out. And I’m not over it… So no, I’m not a Republican. No, I’m not a Democrat. I’m Jeffree Star. Stop trying to label me.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Charlie Kirk fought … for the truth,” he added. “He debated everybody. And you guys cannot argue that.” Star mentioned Kirk’s young daughter and started tearing up, saying the tragedy makes him “so sick.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At another point, reacting to the comments being posted, Star said people who identify as transgender are in the wrong.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is what’s wrong with a lot of you people. You will never get far in life. You are sick in the head,” Star said as angry comments from viewers continued to come in. “Someone just said they’re unsubscribing from me … Thank God. Please! If you believe in they/thems, you are part of the problem. If you’re stupid enough to go against science, please unfollow me.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The social media influencer said you can “be whoever you want to be,” but that doesn’t override physical reality. “The truth hurts a lot of you, I see,” he added.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Yes, I am a grown ass man that wears makeup,” he said. “I will always be a male. My name is Jeffrey … I am a male that likes cosmetics.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“All these grown men going into women’s bathrooms and wearing wigs, you should all be in prison forever. You are the problem.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Politics aside, biology will never change,” Star said. “Why is that up for debate?”</span></p>


Charlie Kirk

Pink-Haired Makeup Artist Jeffree Star Has Unlikely Reaction To Charlie Kirk’s Murder

Pink-Haired Makeup Artist Jeffree Star Has Unlikely Reaction To Charlie Kirk's Murder

assassination

Entertainment

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<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is back in the news this week — but he probably wishes he wasn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>The New York Democrat on Sunday posted a photo of himself leaning against a park bench in Brooklyn, with the caption: “Home Sweet Home.&#8221;</p>
<p>The problem: the photo was obviously edited, as evidenced by the fact that the area around Jeffries&#8217;s legs was warped, as was the bench behind him.</p>
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<p>His followers quickly commented on how bad the photoshopping job was, speculating on whether he was trying to make himself look slimmer, or taller.</p>
<p>Soon, less friendly <a href="https://x.com/hollandcourtney/status/1942267253178917068" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X users</a> began wondering the same thing.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Yes, this is real.</p>
<p>Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Photoshopped himself so hard he bent the bench. <a href="https://t.co/WBifTUhp8y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/WBifTUhp8y</a></p>
<p>— Courtney Holland 🇺🇸 (@hollandcourtney) <a href="https://twitter.com/hollandcourtney/status/1942267253178917068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hakeem Jeffries slimming himself in Photoshop is the most transparency we’ve seen from Democrats in years <a href="https://t.co/OFOiOm65OC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/OFOiOm65OC</a></p>
<p>— Erin Maguire (@ErinMMaguire) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErinMMaguire/status/1942258860493766753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hakeem Jeffries is such a charisma black hole that it’s warping the fabric of spacetime <a href="https://t.co/X8se04ZiC8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/X8se04ZiC8</a></p>
<p>— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1942256344414683624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></p>
<p>Jeffries posted the picture upon his return home from his <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/03/congress/hakeem-jeffries-longest-house-speech-00438933" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record-breaking</a> 8-hour and 45-minute speech in the House on Thursday, in which he attempted to delay the vote on the Big Beautiful Bill. The House passed the bill shortly after Jeffries finished speaking, and President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on July 4th.</p>
<p>Jeffries’ social media team seems to be defective when it comes to photoshoots. On Thursday, he posted a photo of him in his office with the caption “Protecting your healthcare is as American as baseball, motherhood, and apple pie.” In the photo, Jeffries is unsmiling, and stiffly holding a baseball bat.</p>
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<p><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p>
<p>The top comment on the post: &#8220;who thought this photo was a good idea?”</p>


House Democratic Caucus Speaks To The Media

Hakeem Jeffries Roasted For Obviously Photoshopped Instagram Post

Hakeem Jeffries

House Democrats

Photoshop

Twitter

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson shared an emotional Instagram post about his late father Phil Robertson, who died on Sunday at the age of 79. Willie’s post included a photo montage of his father and him, and revealed the last thing Phil said to Willie before his death.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I remember Phil’s many prayers on Memorial Day and all the times with my dad. I don’t have enough words to tell of all of it, perhaps it will take months or years of remembering,” the post began.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Looking back at pics I noticed he was always looking at me funny, prolly trying to figure out, ‘How did this boy turn out like this?’ I remember in 8th grade bringing my boombox in the living room and doing a break dance routine for him as he sat on his recliner. He just looked strangely at me and said, ‘Well, I’ve never seen anything quite like that!’ I took it as a compliment,” the post continued.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Willie next recalled dancing again in front of his dad “at he very end of his life” saying, “Maybe I figured it was the last thing he would think I would do, so I just did it.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The “Duck Dynasty” alum next reflected on his father’s faith and legacy.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“He taught me many things in life and most without ever saying a word. I watched him, and knew he had figured out so many things. Most importantly, he taught me the value of sharing my faith with others. He was the Real Deal, the same on Sundays as Fridays. Most of our conversations were not about hunting or business, but about sharing the Gospel,” the Instagram post continued.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The last words he said to me as I leaned down over his weakened body was ‘You’re my brother.’ It made total sense to me. He always told me we were coworkers in the Kingdom of God. Maybe that’s why I always just called him Phil. Not sure if he is up in Heaven now doing his own dance moves for our Father,” Willie wrote.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He concluded with words of thanks for his late father. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The reality star wrote, “Thank you for raising me the right way and teaching me the most important lesson to prepare me for the day you passed on. Not sure how people deal with loss without the Lord. We may be wrong about all this….but I doubt it! Sleep well Dad, can’t wait to see you.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Family patriarch Phil died just months after receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, as The Daily Wire previously </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/duck-dynasty-patriarch-and-devout-christian-phil-robertson-dies-at-79?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98Duck+Dynasty%E2%80%99+Patriarch+And+Devout+Christian+Phil+Robertson+Dies+At+79"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Phil was an avid outdoorsman who invented his first duck call in 1972. Decades later, Duck Commander became a multi-million-dollar business and was featured in the show “Duck Dynasty,” which aired for 11 seasons between 2012 and 2017. It became one of the most-watched reality shows on TV.</span></p>


Phil Robertson Willie Robertson

‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Willie Robertson Reveals Father’s Last Words In Emotional Tribute

'Duck Dynasty' Star Willie Robertson Reveals His Dad Phil's Last Words In Emotional Tribute

Duck Dynasty

Phil Robertson

Willie Robertson

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Imagine your teenage son goes upstairs to do homework — and just hours later, you discover he has taken his own life. For </span><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/02/25/teenage-boys-mental-health-suicide-sextortion-scams/78258882007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">too many families</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, this nightmare is a grim reality, the result of a rapidly growing and devastating crime known as sextortion. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sextortion is a powerful form of exploitation where predators trick and coerce victims, often young boys, into sending explicit images online. The exploiters often pose as teen girls and reach out with flirtatious messages. This is no haphazard operation, research has found that thousands of Instagram accounts perpetrating sextortion were linked to </span><a href="https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/meta-takes-down-63k-instagram-accounts-5700-facebook-groups-1300-facebook-accounts-linked-1725744" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">only 20-25 individuals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> — in other words, this is often an organized criminal activity, something no teenager is prepared to go up against. They are trained and skilled at building trust quickly, shifting the conversation to sexual topics and eventually sending pictures or videos and requesting some in return.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In mere minutes, the blackmail begins. Predators threaten to expose the victim’s nude photos to their contacts or social media connections unless they pay a demanded sum — fueling fear, shame, and deterring them from seeking help. To heighten the pressure, some blackmailers may falsely accuse teens of criminal activity, warning that they could end up on sex offender registries.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For some, the shame and fear of being exposed are so overwhelming that they see no way out, leading to tragic actions like suicide within mere hours of being targeted.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sextortion has been connected to dozens of deaths of teen boys by suicide in </span><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sacramento/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-preying-upon-our-nations-teens#:~:text=The%20sextortion%20involved%20at%20least,the%20activity%20to%20law%20enforcement." target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">recent</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> years. Tragically, these numbers are likely underreported as family members may not know the circumstance that led to a loved one’s death by suicide.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are an average of 812 reports of sextortion </span><a href="https://www.thorn.org/research/library/financial-sextortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">per week</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This crisis demands immediate attention and action.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For too long, online platforms have failed to prioritize safety. Take Snapchat, for example. New Mexico’s attorney general recently brought a lawsuit against Snapchat. According to a report from </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/new-mexico-attorney-general-says-internal-snap-documents-show-company-rcna173486" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">NBC News</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, documents from the lawsuit reveal “‘Snap employees were discussing 10,000 user reports of sextortion each month,’ which is most likely ‘a small fraction of this abuse.’”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In addition, the suit alleges internal documents show that reports of grooming and sextortion made about specific users largely went unanswered or unaddressed,” according to NBC NEWS.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Meta’s Instagram appears to be the </span><a href="https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf?sm_guid=NzcxOTIyfDc4MzA5NjAxfC0xfGNlc2VAbmNvc2UuY29tfDcyMDIwMTJ8fDB8MHwyMjU0MzA0NTd8MTEzMnwwfDB8fDc2NjM5Nnww0" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">#1 platform for sextortion</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. One key reason is the availability of follower lists, which predators can leverage against victims. While the platform has </span><a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2024/04/new-tools-to-help-protect-against-sextortion-and-intimate-image-abuse/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">taken steps</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to identify and protect kids from sextortion, there’s still more they can do to prioritize the safety of minors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to </span><a href="https://www.thorn.org/research/library/financial-sextortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">a report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from Thorn titled “Trends in Financial Sextortion,” online payments are another avenue for exploitation. “The most common payment methods were Cash App and gift cards, followed by other easy-use payment apps such as PayPal and Venmo. The dominance of gift cards and Cash App has slightly increased over time relative to other payment services.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With Cash App ranking as the </span><a href="https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">#1 payment method</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for financial sextortion, there is valid concern over many of their default features like public profiles and limited identity verification. These vulnerabilities could expose younger users to predatory behavior.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It is time to require a higher standard of care from online platforms.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One vital step to combat sextortion and image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the “Take It Down Act,” a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). This legislation has already gained significant momentum, passing unanimously in the Senate. Now, it is time for the House to act and make this bill law.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The “Take It Down Act” is a bold step toward creating meaningful protections for sextortion victims and victims of nonconsensually-shared explicit content. It addresses the crisis in two key ways, first, by mandating quick removal of harmful content, and then by criminalizing image-based abuse. Under the &#8220;Take It Down Act,&#8221; social media platforms and websites would be legally required to remove explicit images within 48 hours of a survivor’s request. These platforms must also make efforts to prevent the images&#8217; reappearance, reducing the cycle of trauma for victims. This bill also makes it a federal crime to publish explicit images of a person without their consent, including AI-generated or “deepfake” content. This brings critical accountability to perpetrators who weaponize private imagery.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">By passing this legislation, Congress can empower victims to regain control while ensuring that perpetrators face appropriate consequences for their actions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For young boys targeted by sextortion, the bill’s immediate removal mandate could mean the difference between life and death, offering assurance that exposure is not inevitable and their situation is not hopeless.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you are a parent or guardian, use this article as a reason to talk with your kids now about this threat online — before they ever find themselves in a dangerous situation. It’s natural to react with fear or anger if a child makes an unsafe choice, but we never know what difference maintaining an open dialogue can make.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sextortion is a profoundly isolating crime — but no victim or family needs to face it alone. If explicit images have already been shared, resources are available. &#8220;Take It Down,&#8221; a free service from the National Center for Missing &amp; Exploited Children, helps remove nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images taken before the age of 18. Visit </span><a href="https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">takeitdown.ncmec.org</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> for more information. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative also offers critical support and resources for those affected.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Congress can and must pass the “Take it Down Act,” helping to give every child the safety they deserve and ensuring no life is stolen by this devastating fraud.</span></p>
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<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Haley McNamara is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs at the </span><a href="http://www.endsexualexploitation.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">National Center on Sexual Exploitation</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography. On X: @NCOSE</span></em></p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.</em></p>
<p>* * *</p>
<h3><strong><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dozens-of-teen-boys-take-their-own-lives-as-online-sextortion-cases-spike?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=Original&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Dozens+Of+Teen+Boys+Take+Their+Own+Lives+As+Online+Sextortion+Cases+Spike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: Dozens Of Teen Boys Take Their Own Lives As Online Sextortion Cases Spike</a></strong></h3>


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Sextortion Is A Rising Crisis Linked To Teen Suicide, Action Cannot Wait

Sextortion Is a Rising Crisis Linked to Teen Suicide, Action Cannot Wait

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<p style="font-weight: 400;">Taking a page out of X’s book, Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2025/03/testing-begins-community-notes-facebook-instagram-threads/">announced</a> on Thursday that it would start testing Community Notes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the United States on March 18.</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Meta offered implied criticism of “third-party” fact checkers, on whom it had heretofore relied, writing, “We expect Community Notes to be less biased than the third party fact checking program it replaces because it allows more people with more perspectives to add context to posts.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Meta <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/">announced</a> in January it would move to a community notes-based approach, stating, “Starting in the US, we are ending our third party fact-checking program and moving to a Community Notes model. We will allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing our enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations. We will take a more personalized approach to political content, so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">“Notes won’t initially appear on content,” Meta warned. “We will start by gradually and randomly admitting people off of the waitlist, and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Meta acknowledged its debt to X, explaining, “Many of you will be familiar with X’s Community Notes system, in which users add context to posts. That’s the broad approach we are adopting. &#8230; Initially we will use X’s open source algorithm as the basis of our rating system. This will allow us to build on what X has created and improve it for our own platforms over time.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">Meta stated it would guard against bias in the notes by ensuring the notes would not be published unless “contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them. This isn’t majority rules. No matter how many contributors agree on a note, it won’t be published unless people who normally disagree decide that it provides helpful context.”</p>
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The notes are limited to 500 characters and require a link to support them. Contributors must be over 18 with an “account that’s more than 6 months old and in good standing, and either have a verified phone number or be enrolled in two-factor authentication.”</p>


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Meta Follows X, Will Start Testing Community Notes On Facebook And Instagram Next Week

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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last summer, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">I went undercover in the West Bank</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, sneaking in with a Muslim film crew while hiding my Jewish identity to ask Palestinians the kinds of questions no other journalist had dared to since the war broke out. And that’s the real scandal — because before October 7, I wasn’t exactly a journalist. I was a comedian. The fact that it took a comic to go in there and do their jobs for them is outrageous. The mainstream press, with all its resources, all its foreign correspondents, all its Middle East &#8220;experts,&#8221; refused to ask the most basic questions. Arguably the most viral report of the war — what the Palestinian people actually think — wasn’t broken by a major network. It was broken by me.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you follow my three-part series, you’ll see that </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAYxi4WpYJ4/?igsh=MXVsdXBob2Y3Y2hlMQ==" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">I almost died</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">just for asking simple questions. That’s how deeply ingrained the hatred is. That’s how dangerous it is to expose the truth.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My raw, unfiltered interviews — conducted randomly on the streets of Ramallah — exposed the depths of Jew-hatred and propaganda in Palestinian society. But the most chilling encounter came when my Muslim producer arranged a private, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9xWl1ZJshF/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==">one-on-one interview</a> with a man who had been freed from Israeli prison not once, not twice, but four times — an alleged terrorist.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When I released the interview this January, after the first wave of prisoner releases, it went viral for its shocking revelations. In our conversation, Arafat Mudar Mohamed displayed just how deeply the Palestinian people have been indoctrinated. He claimed — with absolute certainty — that Hamas is incapable of killing women and children for &#8220;religious reasons,” that Israel never actually left Gaza in 2005, that no Israel civilians died on October 7, and, perhaps most disturbingly, that the hostages in Hamas captivity were actually enjoying their time there.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To prove this last claim, he pulled up photos from Hamas’s staged propaganda during the 2023 ceasefire — a grotesque spectacle in which hostages were forced to smile as they were paraded before cameras, surrounded by armed terrorists. But we now know that freed hostages have revealed the full extent of this deception: not only were they forced to smile, but they were drugged beforehand to appear happier and more cooperative.</span></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">This moment from the interview is what I believe the world must grasp most urgently. Propaganda doesn’t just work on the privileged Ivy League liberals bending over backward to reinforce their absurdly black-and-white principles of DEI — it is most effective on the Palestinian people themselves. DEI has conditioned the West to see the world in terms of the oppressed versus the oppressors, the weak versus the powerful, the dark-skinned versus the white. And this is precisely where Hamas’s propaganda succeeds.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The narrative they are selling to the world is simple: they are David, the small, brown-skinned, slingshot-wielding underdog, standing against the monstrous Goliath of Israel. But in reality, Israel is David. A tiny Jewish state — just the size of New Jersey — surrounded by 54 Muslim and Arab nations, many of whom openly call for its destruction. The real Goliath is the Islamic world, which seeks to erase the one Jewish country from existence, create a caliphate across the Middle East, North Africa, and ultimately extend its rule across the entire world. This is not just a regional conflict — it is a global mission for domination, and Israel is the only thing standing in its way to go after the rest of The West.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The irony, of course, is that Israel is just as brown-skinned as Gaza. While the media works tirelessly to paint Israelis as &#8220;white colonizers,&#8221; in truth, over half of Israel’s Jewish population are Mizrahim — Jews kicked out of Arab and North African countries who look just like their Palestinian neighbors. Many Israelis are darker-skinned than the very Hamas leaders orchestrating these terror attacks. Yet because it doesn’t fit the pre-packaged DEI narrative, the media ignores this truth entirely.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And while Gaza has suffered a year and a half of destruction as Israel tried to find its hostages and destroy terror tunnels and rockets, Hamas’s propaganda machine is somehow bigger and more sophisticated than ever. The cruder, shaky videos of a year ago have now evolved into Hollywood-style productions with drones, stedicams, and professionally built sets with fancy laminated backdrops. They’re not just spreading disinformation — they’re refining it, making it more convincing, more visually compelling, more impossible to argue against. Instead of using their resources to rebuild Gaza, Hamas is pouring money into selling their war narrative to the world, but even worse to convince the Palestinian people that they are winning a war which they are by all measures losing. All Hamas has left is PR.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And with the latest hostage releases playing out like a scene from “The Hunger Games” — a dystopian horror show in which Jewish captives are thrown to the mobs like meat to a pack of hyenas — it’s clear that this continued indoctrination will only fuel the next generation of so-called “martyrs” in Gaza and the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The mainstream media refuses to confront the reality behind these disturbing images: innocent women and elderly men, tortured for months, swarmed by thousands of Palestinians clamoring to spit on them, kick them, and take selfies — while their terrorist captors force them to smile and wave like puppets in a twisted performance. The media also won’t show you the child abuse Hamas broadcasts proudly: Palestinian children, dressed in headbands and military gear, brandishing machine guns and chanting “Death to the Jews.” This is clearly not a genocide, but a continued call for genocide from the Palestinian people against the Jewish people.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And one of the biggest reasons the mainstream media won’t show you this? Because it doesn’t fit their narrative — the lie that Palestinians are simply innocent bystanders to Hamas’s crimes. In reality, after years of indoctrination, much of Palestinian society has become Hamas itself. This is not just a war against a terror group but against an ideology that has consumed an entire generation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Arafat Mudar Mohamed said it himself in our interview: &#8220;The Palestinian people like Hamas.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is what the media refuses to acknowledge. Since they won’t show you this Nazi-level brainwashing, I will. My interview with this freed Palestinian terrorist offers a chilling look inside the mind of a man who fits the pattern we’ve seen time and time again: every time he was released, he went back to terrorism. And with thousands more just like him now walking free, we can be certain — this cycle of terror is far from over.</span></p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Zach Sage Fox is a comic, writer, and CEO of Fat Camp Films. An NYC based production company that has made movies and shows for Disney, Hulu, and Amazon, as well as pioneered viral video marketing for big brands and non-profits.</span></em></p>
<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.</em></p>


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I Went Undercover In The West Bank To Interview A Freed Palestinian Terrorist

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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Actress </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/selena-gomez"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Selena Gomez</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is getting a lot of reactions for posting a video of herself openly weeping over President Trump beginning mass deportations of </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/illegal-immigration"><span style="font-weight: 400;">illegal alien criminals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 32-year-old star, a native of Texas, shared the now-deleted video to her </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/instagram"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Instagram Stories</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> on the morning of January 27. “All my people are getting attacked,” she said as tears streamed down her face. “The children,” she cried. “I don’t understand.” The story included the caption, “I’m sorry,” along with a Mexican flag.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I’m so sorry,” Gomez continued in the clip. “I wish I could do something, but I can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything, I promise.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The celebrity later deleted the post and added another which said, “Apparently it’s not ok to show empathy for people.”</span></p>
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">My lord these people are insufferable. 🙄</p>
<p>&mdash; Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) <a href="https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1883920304508133715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p>&#8220;My lord these people are insufferable,&#8221; filmmaker Robby Starbuck wrote in response to a repost of the original Story which was circulating on X.</p>
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<div id="id__qykmdfri6kg" class="css-146c3p1 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-37j5jr r-1inkyih r-16dba41 r-bnwqim r-135wba7" dir="auto" lang="en" data-testid="tweetText"><span class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3">&#8220;And they do this on camera. Intentionally! I do not [understand],&#8221; another reply said.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr">&#8220;And dangerously uninformed,&#8221; a third person agreed. &#8220;The Trump administration is prioritizing criminals and dangerous threats to our country. She is crying over s*xual predators and potential ter*orists being deported.&#8221;</div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Border Czar Tom Homan announced on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and law enforcement officers had already made some 1300 arrests through deportation operations since President Trump’s inauguration, noting how the vast majority of those arrests focused on individuals who had committed additional crimes, such as pedophiles, gang members, and at least one terrorist, as The Daily Wire previously </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homan-ice-has-made-1300-arrests-including-pedophiles-gang-members-and-at-least-1-terrorist"><span style="font-weight: 400;">reported</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dr. Phil McGraw accompanied Homan on one Chicago raid and </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dr-phil-joins-tom-homan-for-chicago-ice-raid-convicted-sex-offender-nabbed"><span style="font-weight: 400;">documented</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the arrest of a convicted child sex offender from Thailand who was flagged for deportation. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This isn’t the first time Gomez discussed immigration topics. In 2019, she produced a Netflix documentary series called “Living Undocumented” which explored the lives of illegal alien families living in the United States. She has also talked about her grandparents being Mexican immigrants.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I feel afraid for my country,” Gomez </span><a href="https://time.com/5690070/selena-gomez-americas-immigration-crisis/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wrote</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in an op-ed published in TIME the same year her docuseries was released. “I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m not a politician, I’m not a doctor, and I don’t work in the system at all. I understand it’s flawed and that we need rules and regulations, but we also have to remember that our country was formed by people who came here from other countries.”</span></p>


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