President Donald Trump was busy on Sunday night sharing numerous social media posts — many from anonymous accounts — that accused six Democratic lawmakers of sedition over their calls for military members to disobey &#8220;illegal orders.&#8221;
After two Democratic senators and four representatives appeared in a video <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-urge-military-to-disobey-orders-from-trump-admin-trigger-accusations-of-insurrection">urging</a> military members to refuse unlawful orders, Trump suggested that their action could be viewed as &#8220;SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!&#8221; Trump later clarified that he was not calling for the Democrats to face the death penalty, saying, “In the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death.”
Trump, however, appears to believe that the Democrats should be punished in some form. On Sunday night, he shared an AI-generated video depicting the six Democrats in <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115601863709910309">prison</a>. In another <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115601898049338376">post</a> shared by Trump, an anonymous social media user argues that the Democrats&#8217; plea is the &#8220;literal definition of sedition and they literally put it on video!!!!&#8221;
The president also <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115601867440120506">shared</a> multiple posts that argued that the Democrats are guilty of violating <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section2387&amp;num=0&amp;edition=prelim">18 USC 2387</a>, which makes it a crime to &#8220;interfere with, impair, or influence the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the military or naval forces of the United States.&#8221; Those who violate the U.S. code face up to ten years in prison. Trump shared yet another post that <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115601883571083274">called</a> for bypassing the &#8220;corrupted&#8221; justice system by holding military tribunals.
The video that caused an uproar and resulted in accusations of treason was made by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO). In the video, the Democrats accuse the Trump administration of &#8220;pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.&#8221;
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“Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders,” they said in the video, adding, “You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
Another <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115601862810818001">post</a> shared by Trump on Sunday night suggests that Slotkin is using her training and knowledge from working at the CIA to &#8220;invoke a rebellion.&#8221; Slotkin, who worked for the CIA and the then-Defense Department in the early 2000s, defended the Democrats&#8217; video, arguing that it is lawful to disobey illegal orders and that the Founding Fathers wanted &#8220;to ensure our military upholds its oath to the Constitution — not a king.&#8221;
On Sunday, Slotkin was asked by &#8220;This Week&#8221; host Martha Raddatz on ABC whether any of Trump&#8217;s orders have been unlawful.
&#8220;To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal, but certainly, there are some legal gymnastics going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela,&#8221; Slotkin <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-11-23-25-sen-elissa-slotkin/story?id=127763059">said</a>.
She added that she is also concerned about &#8220;the use of U.S. military on American shores &#8230; in our cities and in our streets.&#8221;
Another post <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115600871102876776">shared</a> by Trump came from one social media user, who stated, &#8220;Get all of those traitorous sons of b*tches for sedition at the very least. Those pompous traitorous communities should be impeached and prosecuted.&#8221;

Donald Trump

Trump Amplifies Claims That Dem Lawmakers Committed Sedition Against America

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Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a class action by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.
In a 2020 research project code-named “Project Mercury,” Meta scientists worked with survey firm Nielsen to gauge the effect of “deactivating” Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta documents obtained via discovery. To the company’s disappointment, “people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison,” internal documents said.
Rather than publishing those findings or pursuing additional research, the filing states, Meta called off further work and internally declared that the negative study findings were tainted by the “existing media narrative” around the company.
Privately, however, staff assured Nick Clegg, Meta’s then-head of global public policy, that the conclusions of the research were valid.
“The Nielsen study does show causal impact on social comparison,” (unhappy face emoji), an unnamed staff researcher allegedly wrote. Another staffer worried that keeping quiet about negative findings would be akin to the tobacco industry “doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves.”
Despite Meta’s own work documenting a causal link between its products and negative mental health effects, the filing alleges, Meta told Congress that it had no ability to quantify whether its products were harmful to teenage girls.
In a statement Saturday, Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the study was stopped because its methodology was flawed and that it worked diligently to improve the safety of its products.
“The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens,” he said.
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The allegation of Meta burying evidence of social media harms is just one of many in a late Friday filing by Motley Rice, a law firm suing Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat on behalf of school districts around the country. Broadly, the plaintiffs argue the companies have intentionally hidden the internally recognized risks of their products from users, parents and teachers.
TikTok, Google and Snapchat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allegations against Meta and its rivals include tacitly encouraging children below the age of 13 to use their platforms, failing to address child sexual abuse content and seeking to expand the use of social media products by teenagers while they were at school. The plaintiffs also allege that the platforms attempted to pay child-focused organizations to defend the safety of their products in public.
In one instance, TikTok sponsored the National PTA and then internally boasted about its ability to influence the child-focused organization. Per the filing, TikTok officials said the PTA would “do whatever we want going forward in the fall… (t)hey’ll announce things publicly(,), (t)heir CEO will do press statements for us.”
By and large, however, the allegations against the other social media platforms are less detailed than those against Meta. The internal documents cited by the plaintiffs allege:
1. Meta intentionally designed its youth safety features to be ineffective and rarely used, and blocked testing of safety features that it feared might be harmful to growth. 2. Meta required users to be caught 17 times attempting to traffic people for sex before it would remove them from its platform, which a document described as “a very, very, very high strike threshold.&#8221; 3. Meta recognized that optimizing its products to increase teen engagement resulted in serving them more harmful content, but did so anyway. 4. Meta stalled internal efforts to prevent child predators from contacting minors for years due to growth concerns, and pressured safety staff to circulate arguments justifying its decision not to act. 5. In a text message in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg said that he wouldn’t say that child safety was his top concern “when I have a number of other areas I’m more focused on like building the metaverse.” Zuckerberg also shot down or ignored requests by Clegg to better fund child safety work.
Meta’s Stone disputed these allegations, saying the company’s teen safety measures are effective and that the company’s current policy is to remove accounts as soon as they are flagged for sex trafficking.
He said the suit misrepresents its efforts to build safety features for teens and parents, and called its safety work “broadly effective.”
&#8220;We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions,” Stone said.
The underlying Meta documents cited in the filing are not public, and Meta is opposing their unsealing.
A hearing regarding the filing is set for January 26 in Northern California District Court.
(Reporting by Jeff Horwitz in San Francisco; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows Meta logo

Meta Buried ‘Causal’ Evidence Of Social Media Harm, U.S. Court Filings Allege

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If you didn&#8217;t see Tucker Carlson&#8217;s recent segment on Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man who nearly assassinated Donald Trump live on national television during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last year, there are a few important revelations you should know about.
The first revelation — which isn&#8217;t remotely controversial — is that the FBI has clearly been hiding relevant information about Thomas Crooks from the general public. And by itself, that&#8217;s a national scandal that justifies completely gutting the FBI, from the highest levels on down. Even if you firmly believe that Thomas Crooks was a lone gunman, and even if you believe that the Secret Service was merely incompetent (as opposed to complicit) — the fact remains, our government has been withholding important details about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump&#8217;s life, without any justification whatsoever.
We should not have to rely on Tucker Carlson, or any podcaster, to tell us that Thomas Crooks left a lengthy trail of comments on YouTube, in which he openly called for political violence for several years.
These calls were so overt, and so disturbing, that one user wrote in response to Crooks:
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003085 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="158" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-300x46.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-768x119.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1.jpg 1520w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
<blockquote>You&#8217;re on YouTube threatening to shoot government officials. I sure hope the FBI is monitoring social media for violent nutcases.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s almost too on-the-nose to be real. But that comment is still available on YouTube, to this day. Thomas Crooks&#8217; account has been suspended, and all of his comments have been hidden. They&#8217;re only accessible using the Internet archive website. But the replies are still there. And yet, more than a year after the assassination attempt in Butler, we have to rely on Tucker Carlson to tell us about any of this. That is completely, overwhelmingly, unequivocally unacceptable. It shouldn’t fall to anyone in the media to tell us what Thomas Crooks was saying online — and how people were reacting to his comments.
We also shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Thomas Crooks decided, sometime during the COVID lockdowns, to completely reverse his political views, and to begin openly attacking Donald Trump and his administration on social media. And we certainly shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Crooks was in contact with a mysterious person — who remains unidentified, beyond the online alias &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; — who openly encouraged Crooks to commit acts of violence.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003091 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="204" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-300x60.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-768x153.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1536x305.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
At one point, Willy Tepes wrote to Crooks, 
<blockquote>&#8230;authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do. There is no way we can avoid a war at this point, so you better just get used to the idea.</blockquote>
In common parlance, this is known as &#8220;fed posting.&#8221; Willy Tepes is almost being too obvious about it. He understands that Thomas Crooks is a radical who&#8217;s prone to violence. He sees that Crooks is posting about acts of violence against political officials — and that Crooks wrote, at one point, that even the White House could be overwhelmed if enough Americans took up arms. Willy Tepes is aware of all this. And instead of expressing concern, he encourages Crooks to go to war.
Is it possible that this is just some random internet troll? Of course it is. It&#8217;s also possible that &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; was working with a government agency or a terror cell — either in this country or some other country — to groom potential assassins. In fact, given how weird &#8220;Willy&#8217;s&#8221; comments were — and to be clear, he replied to Crooks multiple times — it seems very likely that he was trying to groom Thomas Crooks. So what has the FBI done to investigate Willy Tepes? What have they done to figure out his identity? Why is Tucker’s show the first time — literally, the first time — that anyone in this country has heard the name &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221;?
That is inexcusable, for about a million different reasons. It&#8217;s not the FBI&#8217;s job to determine what information is worth sharing to the public, or what information they deem is &#8220;important.&#8221; When it comes to the near-assassination of the leading presidential candidate, no detail is irrelevant. If Thomas Crooks went bowling every week, we should know that. If Thomas Crooks loved the film &#8220;Good Will Hunting,&#8221; we should know that. And certainly, if he was in regular communication with an anonymous person who sounded a lot like a fed, we should know that, too. At the very least we should know something about this guy. But if the feds had their way, we would know nothing at all. And that’s what we knew — nothing — until this week.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1694-tucker-carlson-reveals-shocking-details-about-thomas-crooks?"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-976065 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And on top of that, beyond the transparency issues, it would obviously help the government&#8217;s investigation to raise awareness about these posts. Maybe someone, somewhere, knows who &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; is. And as long as Willy Tepes isn&#8217;t the alias for a CIA agent or something like that, then you&#8217;d think your government would want someone to come forward and identify him immediately. But that&#8217;s not possible if they bury his identity, and all information about him.
And then there&#8217;s the fact that Crooks&#8217;s PayPal account, for one reason or another, uses the name of an ex-FBI agent who worked in Pennsylvania, and who investigated the Las Vegas mass shooting — the one where no motive has ever been established. What exactly is going on there? We have no idea, because again, this is the first time anyone&#8217;s hearing about any of this. Our government — under both the Biden administration and the Trump administration — made the conscious decision to hide all of this information from us. The only reason we&#8217;re hearing about it now is that a random source got in contact with Tucker Carlson&#8217;s team, and tipped him off to Crooks&#8217; online history. And because this information remains uncontested by the FBI, several days after Tucker Carlson&#8217;s broadcast, we can assume it&#8217;s all true.
So let&#8217;s pause for a minute here, and zoom out. Let&#8217;s really think about what&#8217;s happened here. This is the official narrative. Last summer, Thomas Crooks — supposedly an untrained 20-year-old with an angry, inconsistent social media history — managed to outwit the Secret Service and gain access to a roof 500 feet away from Donald Trump. 
And he wasn&#8217;t particularly subtle about it. As you can see here, he was clearly visible, running along the rooftop as Trump spoke.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CRAZY. This video is from James Copenhaver &#8211; one of the bystanders who was shot twice and critically wounded during the assassination attempt against Trump. It CLEARLY shows Crooks&#8217; head scurrying on the rooftop moments before the shooting.
Takeaway: Secret Service BLEW IT and… <a href="https://t.co/1rP6083ZFH">pic.twitter.com/1rP6083ZFH</a>
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1818701467190165566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @justin_hart/X.com
But the Secret Service didn&#8217;t notice him — even though random attendees in the crowd were suspicious, and notified law enforcement. Somehow the Secret Service didn&#8217;t have anyone on the roof — because it was too &#8220;sloped&#8221; — and somehow the Secret Service counter-snipers couldn&#8217;t see any of this. They only shot Thomas Crooks after he unloaded several shots at Donald Trump, including a shot that hit Trump in the head. And coincidentally enough, the rally in Butler was the first time that the Secret Service had deployed counter-snipers to a Trump rally during the 2024 campaign season. Yes, the Secret Service snipers made their debut at the Butler rally — just in time to neutralize Thomas Crooks after he got his shots off. 
So in a very tidy fashion, Thomas Crooks was quickly erased from the picture. No one could question him. No one could put him on trial. And then a funny thing happened. No one really investigated Thomas Crooks. No one told us anything about his social media posts, or his political views — beyond the claim that he was a Trump supporter, which was false. It took more than a year for us to learn that, in fact, Thomas Crooks was openly promising to commit violence on social media — and that someone was encouraging him to do so.
But the story gets even stranger from there. 
Less than 48 hours after Tucker&#8217;s reporting, out of nowhere, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/us-news/thomas-crooks-used-they-them-pronouns-had-obsession-with-violence-and-muscle-mommies-sources/">published</a> this exclusive information.
<blockquote>Thomas Crooks used they/them pronouns and posted threats of political violence and violent art on his secret social media accounts before he attempted to assassinate President Trump, according to sources who shared the suspected messages with The Post. &#8230; .Crooks had two possible accounts on DeviantArt, a site that hosts fan art and has become notorious for its community of furries — people who identify as anthropomorphized animal characters and/or are sexually attracted to them. One of the DeviantArt accounts linked to Crooks shared just one post, a repost of a towering, muscular female bodybuilder and a slight man in his underwear.</blockquote>
Separately, the Post&#8217;s Miranda Devine reported that Crooks, &#8220;had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads.&#8221;
This seems to be a clear case of yet another psychologically disturbed mass shooter — someone who had been indoctrinated into the LGBT cult — turning to violence. Which is not a particularly surprising development. As I&#8217;ve said repeatedly, the LGBT cult is the single greatest domestic terror threat this country faces. In just the past few years, trans-identifying terrorists have shot up multiple Christian churches and schools. &#8220;Non-binary&#8221; mass shooters have targeted high schools and bars. A Leftist living with a &#8220;furry&#8221; assassinated Charlie Kirk in front of thousands of people.
Put simply, trans extremism is an epidemic. And the pattern of trans and “non-binary” violence is not at all surprising, even though the media tries to cover it up. Any man who identifies as a woman or a “they/them” is mentally unstable by definition. It seems nearly certain that all of these people were on psychiatric meds and in some cases hormones. And there&#8217;s another common theme here as well, which is that all of these violent LGBT shooters all probably developed their “gender identity” from consuming hundreds of hours of porn. The gender stuff is the product of extreme nihilism and extreme perversion. A steady long term diet of pornography turns anyone into a nihilist pervert. It’s not a far leap to get from that to murderer.
That&#8217;s why it’s not exactly shocking to hear that Thomas Crooks was also a member of the &#8220;they/them&#8221; cult, who regularly consumed various degenerate forms of media. At this point, you almost expect the investigation to uncover something like this. Thomas Crooks is yet another violent LGBT-linked killer, to add to a very disturbing, and fast growing, list.
There were some concerns expressed by some commentators that perhaps this revelation was an intentional diversion. A targeted leak, intended to distract us from the investigation that Tucker Carlson just published. That does seem like something the FBI might try to do, but that’s not what happened in this case. Miranda Devine has made it clear that her source is the same as Tucker’s — the information didn&#8217;t come from the FBI. Devine also provided more information on the Willy Tepes character, who was first identified by Tucker Carlson. 
Here&#8217;s what Devine <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/fbi-secret-service-butchered-the-thomas-crooks-case-and-invited-conspiracies-we-deserve-the-truth/">wrote</a>.
<blockquote>One of the people Crooks interacted with online was &#8216;Willy Tepes,&#8217; a member of Norwegian neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement, which has since been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department. In one comment on Oct. 5, 2025, more than a year after Butler, Tepes commented to another user that he had been contacted by both Russian and American intelligence. &#8216;People who ask you to contact them when they just as easily could contact you, are Feds. This is how they avoid entrapment. Both American and Russian intelligence does this. I have chatted to both.&#8217; Tepes said.</blockquote>
There are only two possibilities here. The first possibility is that we&#8217;re seeing a monumental, unforgivable failure by the FBI — a degree of incompetence that&#8217;s simply staggering. Maybe they missed all of these chats. Or maybe they didn&#8217;t think they were relevant, and just never got around to releasing them. So they&#8217;re left to respond with pathetic &#8220;rapid response&#8221; press releases when Tucker Carlson and Miranda Devine publish investigative reports a year later. That&#8217;s the best-case scenario. That is the absolute, best-case scenario we&#8217;re dealing with.
The worst-case scenario is almost too dark to say out loud. But I&#8217;ll try my best. The worst-case scenario is that the FBI has been hiding all of this information about Thomas Crooks for the same reason that the Secret Service — supposedly the most elite protective force in the entire world — failed to secure that slightly-sloped roof 400 feet away from Donald Trump, with a direct line-of-sight to his head. The worst-case scenario is that the leadership of our intelligence agencies want Donald Trump dead. And if that&#8217;s the case, then there&#8217;s no reason to think they&#8217;re going to stop trying to kill him.
It&#8217;s not my job, or your job, to decide between these scenarios. It&#8217;s the job of our government, out of an abundance of transparency, to absolve itself completely of any responsibility in the attempt to murder Donald Trump. They should be telling us everything they know, even if they don&#8217;t think the information is relevant. But our government has not done so. And for that reason, it&#8217;s not insane or paranoid to assume the worst, or at least to consider it a very real possibility. For one reason or another, we aren’t being told the whole story, or even an incomplete story. And it’s way past time for us to ask one question: why?

Secret Service Says Trump Is ‘Safe’ After ‘Incident’ At Rally

Tucker Carlson Reveals Shocking Details About Thomas Crooks

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Mass Shooting

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Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett raised eyebrows with a rap video she made for TikTok with Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist after endorsing him in his campaign for governor.
The <a href="https://x.com/garlin/status/1990443888046424553">video</a> begins with Gilchrist facing the camera — back-to-back with Crockett, who is barely visible behind him — lip-syncing to &#8220;What&#8217;s Up,&#8221; the 1993 smash hit by the 4 Non Blondes. Text on the screen reads, &#8220;POV you&#8217;re about to elect Michigan&#8217;s first Black governor.&#8221;
&#8220;And so I wake in the morning and I step outside. And I take a deep breath and I get real high. And I scream from the top of my lungs,&#8221; he mouths the words, and then the camera swings around to Crockett.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@garlingilchristmi/video/7573480169638350093" data-video-id="7573480169638350093" data-embed-from="oembed" style="max-width:605px; min-width:325px;">
<section> <a target="_blank" title="@garlingilchristmi" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@garlingilchristmi?refer=embed">@garlingilchristmi</a> 
POV you’re about to elect Michigan’s first Black Governor @Jasmine Crockett <a title="mi" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/mi?refer=embed">#mi</a> <a title="politics" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/politics?refer=embed">#politics</a> <a title="blacktiktok" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/blacktiktok?refer=embed">#blacktiktok</a> <a title="dance" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/dance?refer=embed">#dance</a> <a title="jasminecrockett" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/jasminecrockett?refer=embed">#jasminecrockett</a> 
 <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Garlin Gilchrist" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7573480236921326349?refer=embed">♬ original sound &#8211; Garlin Gilchrist</a> </section>
</blockquote>
 <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Crockett dives right into her impression of rapper Nicki Minaj, dancing as she lip-syncs, &#8220;Bit**es ain’t sh** and they ain’t sayin&#8217; nothin&#8217;, A hundred mothafu**ers can’t tell me nothin&#8217;, I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap, I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap.&#8221;
&#8220;Idiocracy was a documentary,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/VickieforNYC/status/1990595198465028592">observed</a> New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino.
&#8220;Can you imagine our founders watching this …&#8221; Robby Starbuck <a href="https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1990604192046809477">mused</a>.
Radio host Justin Barclay <a href="https://x.com/MrJustinBarclay/status/1990541102731178124">added</a>, &#8220;If one were seriously running for governor in Michigan, Jasmine Crockett wouldn&#8217;t be on your list to work with.&#8221;
&#8220;Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist just released this ridiculous gubernatorial campaign video featuring a sitting member of Congress. Gilchrist says: &#8216;Take it from Jasmine Crockett, Trump can’t tell me nothin’,'&#8221; Newsmax&#8217;s David Harris Jr. <a href="https://x.com/DavidJHarrisJr/status/1990818816465735847">said</a>.
The Gilchrist and Crockett video came just over two weeks after the White House posted a TikTok video using the same musical mashup.
<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@whitehouse/video/7568669729519389966" data-video-id="7568669729519389966" data-embed-from="oembed" style="max-width:605px; min-width:325px;">
<section> <a target="_blank" title="@whitehouse" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@whitehouse?refer=embed">@whitehouse</a> 
The best to ever do it 🇺🇸
 <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - The White House" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7568669763774909197?refer=embed">♬ original sound &#8211; The White House</a> </section>
</blockquote>
 <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>
Gilchrist hosted a fundraising event featuring the Texas Democrat in Detroit over the weekend, and has also been endorsed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). He is the first Democrat in a crowded primary field to state that the situation in Gaza is an active &#8220;<a href="https://www.wlns.com/capital-rundown/gilchrist-calls-situation-in-gaza-a-genocide-at-dearborn-convention/">genocide</a>.&#8221;

US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)

Jasmine Crockett Mocked For Bizarre Rap Promoting Michigan Democrat

Gretchen Whitmer

Jasmine Crockett

Media

Michigan

A Cloudflare outage early Tuesday sparked a ripple effect that took down multiple platforms, from social media platform X and music streaming service Spotify to the artificial intelligence assistant ChatGPT, impacting thousands of users.
Cloudflare is an American company that provides internet infrastructure and acts as a &#8220;gateway&#8221; — providing security for multiple websites and acting as a content delivery network (CDN) to make sure things run more smoothly and efficiently — so when Cloudflare went down, multiple websites and applications felt the impact.
The outages were first reported, according to tracking website DownDetector, just after 6 a.m. ET as users reported error messages across X and other platforms.
Reports of X outages peaked at over 10,000 users affected. OpenAI saw fewer reports — just over 1,800 — but those reports peaked in the same timeframe. A number of other applications and websites — from Shopify, Google, and Amazon to DoorDash, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom — also saw reports of outages and error messages that peaked during the same time.
Cloudflare posted an update a short time later:
<blockquote>Our support portal is currently experiencing issues, and as such customers might encounter errors viewing or responding to support cases. Responses on customer inquiries are not affected, and customers can still reach us via live chat (Business and Enterprise) through the Cloudflare Dashboard, or via the emergency telephone line (Enterprise). We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem.</blockquote>
After several hours and numerous updates stating that they were still working on the problem, a follow-up message stated, &#8220;A fix has been implemented and we believe the incident is now resolved. We are continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal.&#8221;
They warned that some users might still experience lagging outages or error messages, and assured that they were monitoring for further issues.

Elon Musk Changes Twitter Name And Logo To X

Cloudflare Outage Impacts Thousands As Ripple Effect Hits X, Spotify, And ChatGPT

ChatGPT

Internet

As Americans, we like to think our boys are tough and resilient. But online, they’re the most vulnerable — and the most overlooked.
The internet has become a digital trap for millions of young men and boys. The addictive features programmed into smartphones, social media, video games, and online pornography are intentionally designed to hook kids at an early age. 

Boys are now spending significant amounts of time gaming, scrolling, and chatting on platforms that were never built for their safety.
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination by suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, a Wall Street Journal columnist astutely <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/tyler-robinson-and-americas-lost-boys-16e1a64f?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAiDLHQk7XYUWCYadmUhnBP8_i51LLKSxIVs9t7s6dHSxgWLkTp53M4RQeaPdnc%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68c85e0f&amp;gaa_sig=FtIvSFrAOw7LAbNtikhsW7FZPGTE7FTBmqlB_6pOrJLWP67qk-WkTCu_mrS6z0uIn-HnujYpWDNNwlbyqQyFMw%3D%3D">noted</a>, “Political violence is a problem. But so is the atomized culture in which young men retreat into confused inner worlds and virtual realities, which can be as addictive and destructive as any drug.” 
 
Across America, young men are drifting into digital isolation — where algorithms, pornographers, sexual predators, and toxic role models, not parents or mentors, manipulate their mindsets and attitudes and ultimately shape who they become. 
 
Those algorithms are now even more powerful. A Common Sense Media <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/press-releases/new-report-reveals-how-online-experiences-inform-adolescent-boys-development">survey</a> revealed that “algorithms, not user intent, are the primary driver of boys&#8217; exposure to posts about masculinity; 68 percent of boys who see such material online say it started showing up in their feed without them searching for it.” 
 
Toxic influencers online exploit boys searching for identity, feeding them anger, distorted ideas about women, and extreme behaviors amplified by social media algorithms. 
 
Social media, video games, and online pornography are engineered for compulsion, addiction, and control. They hijack attention and reward obsession — and boys are the biggest consumers. 
 
Violent video games can be especially problematic for boys, since they use the same first-person shooter technology used to train military and law enforcement to kill. 
 
“Modern military and law enforcement training to adults with discipline makes killing a conditioned response. And it works … we know video games can do the same thing to our kids. The term I use is ‘murder simulators.’ The flight simulators teach you to fly — the murder simulators teach you to murder,” Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, one of the world’s foremost experts on human aggression, shared on my <a href="http://youtu.be/vlnarQ9Na5k">podcast</a>. 
 
According to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/05/09/teens-and-video-games-today/">Pew Research</a>, 85% of U.S. teenagers play video games, with 67% of teen boys (compared to 22% of girls) playing daily. A UK <a href="https://ygam.org/news/teenage-boys-spend-more-hours-gaming-than-in-school/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">report</a> found that teenage boys (ages 15-17) spend almost 34 hours per week playing video games. Pew Research also <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/teens-and-social-media-fact-sheet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicates</a> that 93% of boys ages 13-17, compared to 87% of girls, watch YouTube. 
 
And when it comes to today’s online pornography, which often depicts violence against young women, the numbers are just as alarming. A national <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/press-releases/new-report-reveals-truths-about-how-teens-engage-with-pornography">survey</a> found 73% of teens 13–17 have seen pornography online, and more than half saw it by age 13. Adolescents who view this toxic content are <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9853222/">more likely to engage</a> in risky sexual activities or have anxiety and depression. Boys are far more likely to have sought it out intentionally. 
 
The risks of any child or teen being online are not theoretical. Many parents who have lost children to social media challenges, like the TikTok “blackout challenge,” have said that their children were led into dangerous content by algorithmic design that favors engagement, extremes, and harmful viral trends. 
 
As boys spend time gaming online or scrolling social media feeds alone, they are left wide open to manipulation. 
The FBI has <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sacramento/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-preying-upon-our-nations-teens">warned</a> that global financial sextortion — predators posing as teen girls to lure boys into sending explicit photos, then blackmailing them — is one of the fastest-growing crimes targeting children, in particular minor-aged boys. 
 
Tragically, dozens of boys have died by suicide after being trapped in these schemes. Gavin Guffey, 17, became <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/us/nigerian-extradited-guffey-sextortion-cec">a victim</a> of online sextortion and sadly took his own life. 
 
No parent should ever have to live through that nightmare. 
 
Congress must start holding Big Tech accountable by passing the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748/text">Kids Online Safety Act</a> and other bipartisan legislation. Big Tech must ensure its products are designed with safety in mind, with default safety settings turned on, not off, and not as an afterthought once childhood innocence has been destroyed. The Department of Justice must start aggressively prosecuting the existing federal obscenity laws according to the 1997 Supreme Court ruling that determined “transmitting obscenity and child pornography, whether via the Internet or other means, is&#8230; illegal under federal law for both adults and juveniles.” 
 
Ensuring our boys and young men are protected from harm must be a shared responsibility in which Congress, Big Tech, communities, and ultimately parents, each do their part. 
 
Boys need fathers and mentors who model authentic masculinity — strength, responsibility, and courage. Positive role models can help them navigate the digital world and grow into men their families and our communities can rely on. 
 
If we lose our boys to screens, to rage, counterfeit sexuality, or despair, we lose the next generation of American men. If we want strong men tomorrow, we must start protecting and guiding our boys today. 

* * *
Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of <a href="https://enough.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enough Is Enough</a>, is an internationally known internet safety expert, author, speaker, media commentator, producer, and host of the Emmy Award-winning PBS Internet Safety series and host of the podcast, “<a href="https://internetsafety101.org/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Internet Safety, with Donna Rice Hughes</a>”. Under her leadership, EIE created the <a href="https://internetsafety101.org/">Internet Safety 101 Program</a> in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Playing Video Games

Boys Are Now Caught Under The Spell Of Predatory Algorithms

algorithm

Big Tech

Boys

Culture

Pornography

Social Issues

Technology

Video Games

When the news broke on Thursday that Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) had suffered a fall in his home town of Braddock, Pennsylvania, the response on social media was immediate: conservatives flooded the platform with well wishes for the Democratic senator, and the lefties on BlueSky mocked him and complained that he&#8217;d lived.
Fetterman&#8217;s team announced that he&#8217;d simply suffered a &#8220;ventricular fibrillation flare-up,&#8221; and then fell because he&#8217;d felt light-headed. He sustained minor injuries to his face and is expected to recover. Fetterman himself seemed to be in good spirits, quipping, &#8220;If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!&#8221;
Conservative commentator Steve Guest shared a screenshot showing a few of the posts from BlueSky responding to the news — and they ranged from simply mocking him to wishing he&#8217;d been unable to get up again.
&#8220;Blue Sky is an absolute cesspool right now in the wake of the news about John Fetterman&#8217;s fall,&#8221; he posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Blue Sky is an absolute cesspool right now in the wake of the news about John Fetterman&#8217;s fall. <a href="https://t.co/fNKhvXEGuQ">pic.twitter.com/fNKhvXEGuQ</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1989041566275760554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Tragically, he&#8217;s expected to live,&#8221; one post read, and another said, &#8220;Karma is a bitch, ain&#8217;t it, Fetterman? Looks like he&#8217;s not getting enough oxygen to his brain, I could have told you that &#8230;&#8221;
Commenting on a headline about the injuries to Fetterman&#8217;s face, another asked, &#8220;How the f*** could anyone tell?&#8221;
&#8220;Damn, I hope the pavement is ok,&#8221; another posted.
Meanwhile, Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham offered well wishes via X. &#8220;Wishing Sen. Fetterman a full and speedy recovery. Health scares are no joke. Glad he’s doing well and under care,&#8221; she said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Wishing Sen. Fetterman a full and speedy recovery. Health scares are no joke. Glad he’s doing well and under care. <a href="https://t.co/E8ODdn7vUm">pic.twitter.com/E8ODdn7vUm</a>
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) <a href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1989055505390809113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I reached out to Senator Fetterman and Dina has spoken to Gisele. John is a tough Pittsburgher and is already on the mend. We are thinking of him, Gisele, and their entire family — looking forward to seeing my good friend in the coming days,&#8221; Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I reached out to Senator Fetterman and Dina has spoken to Gisele. John is a tough Pittsburgher and is already on the mend. We are thinking of him, Gisele, and their entire family — looking forward to seeing my good friend in the coming days.
— Senator Dave McCormick (@SenMcCormickPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMcCormickPA/status/1989068482194076112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Senator Lindsey Graham offered his thoughts as well, adding, &#8220;Like so many who know and appreciate Senator Fetterman, I’m wishing him a speedy and full recovery. Praying for John and his wonderful family.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Like so many who know and appreciate Senator Fetterman, I’m wishing him a speedy and full recovery.
Praying for John and his wonderful family. <a href="https://t.co/iuSsCwQakB">https://t.co/iuSsCwQakB</a>
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1989092534094819786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The decidedly meaner comments from the Left only served to back up what Fetterman said a day earlier during an interview with CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash, when he explained just how much more vicious the attacks from the Left had been compared to the attacks from the Right.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: John Fetterman *STUNS* CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash by telling her how Left crueler than Right🚨
FETTERMAN: &#8220;The Right would say really rough things and names &#8230; but on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that &#8216;We&#8217;re cheering for your next stroke&#8217; &#8230; they even have a gif… <a href="https://t.co/iMRyVTssgs">pic.twitter.com/iMRyVTssgs</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1988670736924336374?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The Right would say really rough things and names,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;But on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that &#8216;We&#8217;re cheering for your next stroke.'&#8221;

Sen. John Fetterman

Conservatives Rally Around Fetterman After Fall, Lefties Can’t Get The Knives Out Fast Enough

Conservatives Rally Around Fetterman After Fall, Lefties Can't Get The Knives Out Fast Enough

John Fetterman

Republicans

There was a time not so long ago when Americans debated ideas around dinner tables, not timelines. We wrestled with differences in living rooms, classrooms, and church halls. But now? We live in the age of &#8220;I don’t believe you. Prove me wrong.&#8221; The default mode of curious conversation has turned into combat.
Scroll through any comment section and you’ll see it: people don’t log on to learn, they log on to win. They enter digital arenas, not classrooms. Social media has turned intellectual inquiry into an Olympic sport of outrage where every disagreement demands a takedown, every nuance is flattened into a meme, and every opponent becomes an enemy. That shift—from curiosity to cynicism—is quietly dismantling the very foundation of a free society: Trust.
Once upon a time, conservatism—and really, American discourse as a whole—was built on questions. Our Founders argued fiercely, but the goal was understanding. Debate was an act of discovery, not destruction. “Teach me” was the posture of a citizen who loved truth more than tribe.
Today, that posture is rare. We’ve mistaken being informed for being inflexible. We say, “I’ve done my research,” but really mean “I’ve read five posts that agree with me.” We talk about “owning the libs” or “crushing the cons,” but what we’ve really destroyed is the middle ground where reason used to live. This new culture doesn’t seek understanding. Rather, it seeks affirmation. The tragedy is that the tools meant to connect us have been weaponized to divide us.
Let’s be honest: social media isn’t a modern-day marketplace of ideas. It’s a slot machine that rewards outrage. Every swipe and tap feeds a machine designed to give you more of what you already like. It’s not expanding your mind; it’s tightening your echo chamber.
As a capitalist, I have no problem with profit. Platforms are businesses, not ministries. Their product is attention—and they’ve mastered the art of keeping it. But when the free market of attention becomes the only market that matters, ideas become entertainment, and truth becomes whatever gets the most clicks. The algorithm doesn’t care if you’re right—it cares if you’re riled up. It feeds you more of what you think you want instead of what you might need. It’s like a spiritual diet of junk food: easy to consume, but hard on the soul.
And look, I get it. I have social media, too. (<a href="https://x.com/GatesGarciaFL">Please follow me</a> before I sound too self-righteous.) But it’s time we’re honest about what these platforms are and what they aren’t. They aren’t designed to elevate ideas; they’re designed to amplify emotion.
At 40 years old, I still remember what life looked like before all this—before the dopamine hits, before algorithms knew our habits better than our parents did. I remember when you actually had to call someone to argue about politics, when disagreement came with a voice, a tone, a relationship. But we’re now raising entire generations that only know a world filtered through social media. And the ramifications of that are enormous. Kids are learning to form their identities in front of an audience instead of within a family. They’re measuring truth in likes, not logic.
The answer, though, isn’t to abandon social media altogether. Like any tool, it can build or destroy depending on who’s holding it. Used well, it’s the most powerful communications platform in human history. It can spread truth faster than tyranny, unify movements for good, and give a voice to people long ignored by legacy media.
That’s the paradox of our age: we have the means to hold the world’s largest conversation, yet we’ve reduced it to a shouting match. Free markets are supposed to thrive on innovation and exchange, but our digital marketplace has become a monopoly of emotion. And that’s not capitalism. That’s chaos.
As conservatives, we should be leading the charge to reclaim these platforms for dialogue, not diatribe. Free speech is more than the right to speak. It’s the responsibility to listen. We should want social media to be the world’s public square, not its virtual food fight.
Imagine if, instead of “prove me wrong,” we started from “help me understand.” Imagine a culture where humility was a virtue again, not a weakness. That’s not naïve—it’s necessary.
Before social media, you couldn’t just parachute into a conversation armed with rage and a Wi-Fi connection. You had to engage face-to-face. There were natural filters: manners, context, tone. You couldn’t just drop a bomb and vanish into anonymity. Those days weren’t perfect, but our debates had weight. They demanded patience, presence, and perspective. Today, our political culture is built for the opposite. Speed over thought. Visibility over virtue. Snark over substance.
We used to shake hands after arguments. Now we block people. That’s not progress. That’s paralysis.
The challenge before us isn’t simply to win elections; it’s to win back curiosity. To remind a cynical culture that disagreement isn’t dangerous—it’s democratic and that the purpose of argument is not annihilation but illumination.
If conservatives want to shape the next generation, we have to model what it means to seek truth, not just victory. We can defend principles and still learn from people. We can hold convictions without closing our minds.
There’s nothing “soft” about humility. Jesus Himself—who held the ultimate truth—still asked questions, still taught through dialogue, still invited people to understand. Maybe that’s the model we need again.
So, here’s my modest proposal: the next time someone says something you disagree with online, try answering with, “I don’t understand, teach me.” It won’t always work. Some people will still argue in bad faith. But if enough of us adopt that posture, we might just start rebuilding the bridges that algorithms have burned.
Because at the end of the day, a nation built on freedom depends on the free exchange of ideas. Not just the loud ones. The honest ones.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go post this on social media. And please—prove me wrong by following me there.
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast We The People. Follow him on IG and X @GatesGarciaFL
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Social Media And Messaging Apps

From ‘Teach Me’ To ‘Prove Me Wrong’: How Social Media Killed Curiosity

America

Conservatives

Division

Free Speech

Freedom

Liberals

For all the attention Generation Z gets, we need to start talking about Generation Alpha while there is still time to save them from their older siblings’ dismal futures. Born between 2010 and 2024, Gen Alpha is the youngest living age demographic with its members ranging from toddlers to younger adolescents. Most still have all of high school ahead of them and none have entered the workforce as adults.
American twelfth graders, who are on the younger side of the Gen Z cohort, are at their <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/test-scores-low-reading-math-naep-d87099b6?mod=Searchresults&amp;pos=1&amp;page=1">lowest reading proficiency levels</a> on record. Our broken education system has enabled that steady decline over the last two decades as K-12 schools push forward failing students who cannot read, and college curriculum has made it possible to earn a degree <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/">without reading a whole book</a>. Poor literacy levels have, of course, led to a national crisis with <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/05/lifestyle/gen-z-turns-to-ai-for-homework-essays-and-college-apps/">writing ability</a>.
This confluence of trends — combined with the rise of AI — risks Gen Alpha’s future success in work and in life. The good news is that the solution is found at home. Parents can make the home life more conducive to their children’s future success by prioritizing off-screen reading … yes, physical books. Reading books is vital to keeping children ahead of the AI curve. And the home is where children need to become good readers so they can go on to become good writers.
Writing is the necessary transferable skill young people must perform to apply critical thinking, self-awareness, and logic to their jobs, tasks, and everyday lives. Lack of proficiency in the classroom leads to lack of accountability and responsibility in adulthood.
It is impossible to be a good writer without being a good reader, which makes fixing reading proficiency all the more urgent for today’s elementary and middle schoolers. As <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/agentic-ai-vs-generative-ai">generative and agentic AI</a> reorganize the workforce, high social and economic status will not be won by those that can simply use AI well, but those who think better than AI and can apply the technology in the production of new knowledge.
The urgency is today. A grown adult with poor reading proficiency is already lost and will spend the rest of his life behind the curve of those that can read, write, think, and do better. That string of verbs is not a list — it is a sequence of inseverable skills necessary to achieve success. If that prognostication seems bleak, that’s because children who use AI to do schoolwork do not see the pitfall lying beyond short-term convenience.
Children&#8217;s futures may come to resemble Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in which the lower castes of menial workers toil under the elite few who are capable of intelligent output. AI <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/02/ai-can-catalyze-and-inhibit-your-creativity-here-is-how/">does not create</a> new ideas or knowledge; it produces and iterates content based on past information and results. It yields answers derivative of other people’s intellectual labor without activating or engaging critical reasoning skills in the user.
The solution is for children to read good books that stand the test of time and have complex sentence structure. Reading early and reading often in childhood <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_reading_is_important_children_brain_development#:~:text=We%20discovered%20that%20reading%20for,time%20spent%20on%20electronic%20devices.">unlocks</a> intellectual and productive potential <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/foundational-learning">later in life</a>. Parents should replace at least some of their children’s screentime with good books. The number of books children read is less important than the quality of stories they read. They should mix non-fiction with fiction. The topics and sub-genres do not matter. It is the complement between truth in fact, and truth in expression that helps cultivate minds and critical reasoning.
Millennials are the parents of Gen Alpha and their childhoods model how to select rewarding books in a digital age filled with screentime. Millennials grew up on Reading Rainbow and Wishbone. Reading Rainbow brought children’s books to life with lively narration and Wishbone retold William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, Walter Irving, and other great authors. 
Parents can find worthwhile books about the animals, fantasy settings, sports, historical figures, and situations depicted in their children’s favorite shows, movies, and games. That is the strategy Reading Rainbow and Wishbone deployed: limited but enriching television content as a tool to catalyze lifelong love of reading and intellectual exploration in children. 
Technology has crushed the inner drive and desire to read, and AI is poised to turn that absence into personal failure on a mass scale. Meeting children where they are with a physical book can transition them away from complete dependence on digital technology for entertainment. Exposing children to slightly more literature can open up their worlds and increase chances for success.
I already dubbed Gen Z as the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gen-z-shaping-itself-into-wasted-generation">“Wasted Generation”</a> in early 2024, and that still holds true. But if nothing changes substantially, Gen Alpha will suffer from more severe and longer-lasting consequences than the arbitrary concentrated learning-loss Gen Z underwent during COVID-19.
Even with the lightning speed of President Trump’s educational reforms, it will still take years for reforms implemented today to take hold and reverse prevailing trends. Let’s focus on where we can make a long-term difference for most people. That focus needs to be on Gen Alpha. Let’s help them now while we can. Cultivating and encouraging reading at home is the best way for parents to set their children up for success in our brave new world.
* * *
Zachary Marschall, PhD is Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Institute&#8217;s Campus Reform and an adjunct assistant professor of arts administration at the University of Kentucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Excited Blonde Boy Wearing VR Headset in School

What Gen Alpha Can Do To Stay Ahead Of AI

Artificial Intelligence

Books

Campus Reform

cell phones

Computer

Education

Gen Alpha

Gen Z

Generation Z

Teenagers

The Daily Wire is releasing an important new documentary today. In association with Our Rescue, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/hiding-in-plain-sight-america-s-trafficking-epidemic">Hiding in Plain Sight</a>” takes you inside the shocking world of digital predators who use everyday apps to hunt, groom, and traffic children from their own bedrooms — at a scale law enforcement has never seen before.
Few people know that better than Derek Benner, CEO of <a href="http://www.ourrescue.org">Our Rescue</a>. Benner helped lead the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the nation’s first unified task force dedicated to ending modern slavery.
As Benner points out, the crisis is closer than we think. — The Daily Wire
* * *
One of the most common questions I get as the CEO of Our Rescue is: “Does child exploitation and sex trafficking really happen here?” 
I often reply, if you ask any law enforcement officer working sex trafficking and child exploitation cases, they’ll tell you the same thing: “The biggest mistake people make is thinking this crime doesn’t happen at home, in our communities, in the United States. It does. And it’s everywhere.”
Worldwide, there are nearly 50 million people trapped in modern slavery, according to the International Labor Organization. In 2024, the Global Tips Report showed that the number of children being trafficked had increased 31% in 2022 compared to 2019, with a 38% rise recorded for girls. Before I joined Our Rescue, I spent my career at Homeland Security Investigations — leading complex efforts to combat human trafficking and child exploitation and spearheading the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the first unified, inter-agency coordination center dedicated to combating trafficking in all forms. And I can tell you, everyday law enforcement officers uncover cases of children and adults being groomed, recruited, coerced, or even sold in our own communities. The victims are not just statistics; they are neighbors, classmates, and children whose lives are being stolen in plain sight.
But beyond these trafficking cases, another fast-growing threat is here in the U.S. — the online sexual exploitation of children. Technology has opened new frontiers for predators and organized criminal groups, making it easier than ever to target American kids in their own homes.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Hiding in Plain Sight: America’s Trafficking Epidemic | The Official Trailer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AOS9VUHpDpE?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>
The scale of child sexual exploitation in the United States is staggering. In 2024 alone, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline received over 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. These reports included more than 62.9 million files of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). This is not just a statistic; it represents real images, videos, and other materials depicting children enduring unimaginable harm.
Mike Prado, who heads the Cyber Crimes Center (C3) at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), put it plainly: “This is no longer just about lone offenders. Today, organized criminal groups overseas are running sextortion schemes that deliberately target American children for profit.” Operations out of places like West Africa have pushed kids in America into such despair that some have taken their own lives within hours of first contact. That is the new face of exploitation. And it’s happening in U.S. households. Every. Single. Day.
The game has changed. “Now these offenders have access to the same technology that the government has,” Prado told me. “They don’t have to go to MIT. They don’t have to have a computer science degree to figure this stuff out.”
Two decades ago, law enforcement relied on basic email for victim identification. Smartphones weren’t widely available, the darknet was barely in use, and exploiting technology required computer science expertise. Today, both predators and our children can figure out these tools with ease. Technology is everywhere, and every device a child receives, whether for school or learning, can become a portal into the darker areas of the internet. According to a 2019 Kaspersky study, 84% of parents worldwide are worried about their children’s online safety. Yet also according to the study, on average, parents only spend a total of 46 minutes talking to their children about online security throughout their entire childhood. Ignoring that is a luxury we can’t afford anymore.
While law enforcement and government investment in combating exploitation have increased over the years, there is still much more to do to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated offenders.
The core challenge is sheer scale. Every success is quickly met with new cases, and for every criminal network taken down overseas, another takes its place. It is the demand for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in the U.S. that keeps this cycle in motion.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/hiding-in-plain-sight-america-s-trafficking-epidemic"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-993575 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Untitled-design-7.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
In 2024, reports involving generative artificial intelligence (AI) increased by 1,325%, highlighting how technology is being weaponized against our children. Additionally, reports of online enticement, including sextortion, rose by 192%, with nearly 100 reports of financial sextortion per day. Since 2021, NCMEC has been aware of at least 36 teenage boys who have taken their lives due to this crime.
The problem is not just the number of cases but the sophistication of the predators and the overwhelming volume of reports. In 2024, NCMEC assisted law enforcement with 29,568 cases of missing children and helped bring 91% of them home. However, the risks, especially online, are becoming more complex and widespread.
But I believe that partnerships are the key to changing the tide in this fight. Just this year, the inaugural Interstate Justice Coalition surge operation (coordinated between Our Rescue, We Fight Monsters, and Skull Games Solutions and in partnership with local law enforcement agencies) spanned across Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, resulting in the identification of 32 trafficking victims, the safe recovery of 26 survivors, and the arrest of 15 traffickers.
It’s work like this — collaboration between law enforcement, nonprofits, communities, and individuals is what ultimately keeps children safe. Fighting sex trafficking and child exploitation isn’t only about arrests: It’s also about prevention and education, because the best defense is an informed community. I invite you to learn more about how you can <a href="https://ourrescue.org/join-the-fight">Join the Fight</a> against sex trafficking and child exploitation.
We must stop living like it is someone else’s problem. It’s not. It’s here, and it’s exploding at a rate our communities are not prepared to handle.
No one can fight it alone. But together we can save lives and dismantle networks that exploit and harm children.
* * *
Derek Benner is proud to serve as the CEO of Our Rescue. Formerly the Chief Mission Officer, overseeing international and domestic Operations and Survivor Care teams, he brings expertise gained from a 30-year career in federal law enforcement that includes leading Homeland Security Investigations within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Derek led the creation of the DHS Center for Countering Human Trafficking, the first unified, inter-component coordination center for countering human trafficking.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took a cheap shot at former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines on Monday, siding with trans-identifying men over women in her desperation to land an attack on Gaines.
The spat — which played out on X — began on Sunday with a photo Gaines posted from a New York City political rally. The photo showed Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), both of whom self-identify as democratic socialists, campaigning for a fellow socialist — Zohran Mamdani — in New York City&#8217;s mayoral race.
&#8220;We&#8217;re being destroyed from within,&#8221; Gaines posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We&#8217;re being destroyed from within <a href="https://t.co/hsD3mYkc6t">pic.twitter.com/hsD3mYkc6t</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982654572075360550?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth,&#8221; Ocasio-Cortez jabbed back, referencing the 2022 NCAA championships where Gaines had tied for 5th place with trans-identifying male swimmer Lia Thomas.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It&#8217;s *always* &#8220;we support women&#8217;s rights!&#8221; until it&#8217;s a woman who wants the right to compete &amp; undress free from less than mediocre men
Keep your mentally ill men out of our sports, locker rooms, prisons, etc.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982885793954967637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;It&#8217;s *always* &#8216;we support women&#8217;s rights!&#8217; until it&#8217;s a woman who wants the right to compete &amp; undress free from less than mediocre men,&#8221; Gaines replied. &#8220;Keep your mentally ill men out of our sports, locker rooms, prisons, etc.&#8221;
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
&#8220;It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a &#8216;gotcha&#8217; by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol. Misogynistic dunce,&#8221; Gaines added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a “gotcha” by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol
Misogynistic dunce <a href="https://t.co/d1aiAHHoYQ">https://t.co/d1aiAHHoYQ</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1982886290912883102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Gaines, host of OutKick&#8217;s &#8220;Gaines for Girls&#8221; podcast, joined Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday&#8217;s broadcast of &#8220;The Ingraham Angle&#8221; and challenged Ocasio-Cortez to debate her.
&#8220;I’ll debate her anytime. She can defend socialism — I’ll defend capitalism. She can defend removing God — I’ll defend a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice — I’ll defend the sanctity of life,&#8221; the 12-time All American offered.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨RILEY GAINES CHALLENGES <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AOC</a> 🚨
“I’ll debate her anytime. She can defend socialism — I’ll defend capitalism. She can defend removing God — I’ll defend a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice — I’ll defend the sanctity of life.” —<a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Riley_Gaines_</a> <a href="https://t.co/teaTLDh5Vp">pic.twitter.com/teaTLDh5Vp</a>
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) <a href="https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/1982979855772987600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ocasio-Cortez tried to jab at Gaines again, responding to her debate challenge by saying, &#8220;And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job.&#8221;
&#8220;I have a real job. I&#8217;m a mom. It&#8217;s the most important &amp; rewarding job in the world. I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you&#8217;d understand my positions a little better,&#8221; was Gaines&#8217; reply.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I have a real job. I&#8217;m a mom. It&#8217;s the most important &amp; rewarding job in the world.
I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you&#8217;d understand my positions a little better. <a href="https://t.co/to8syxkXjP">https://t.co/to8syxkXjP</a>
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1983009006122684775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Photo courtesy of Riley Gaines

AOC Takes Cheap Shot At Riley Gaines, And Gaines Lets Her Have It: ‘Misogynistic Dunce’

AOC Takes Cheap Shot At Riley Gaines, And Gaines Lets Her Have It: 'Misogynistic Dunce'

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Lia Thomas

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From State Rep. Melissa Hortman’s murder to Luigi Mangione’s manifesto to Charlie Kirk’s assassination to whatever fresh horror will have meteor-impacted the news cycle between my typing these words and their publication, it has never been clearer that online radicalization is leading to real-world consequences.
My team at <a href="https://usthestory.org/">US the Story</a> last year analyzed just a handful of the most vile posts from 14 of the top full-blown hate accounts on one platform. These 14 posts showed a combined view count of over 50 million. The accounts themselves had a reach of 6,450,000,000 impressions. Engagement — the number of times people actually interacted with the content in total to like, quote, or share — crossed 448 million over the course of roughly 10 months.
These posts, their volume, and their reach create a permission structure for more and more hatred. It’s a quickening descent into violence and chaos; the more it becomes fair game to denigrate and threaten “the other group,” the more blaming and attacking that group becomes normalized.
One way of looking at this is as a network contagion issue. Debates around social-media-facilitated social contagions have raged in the culture wars for years. Young women in particular have been targeted by bots and accounts promoting anorexia, gender dysphoria, and more. Viral events such as the 2023 explosion of bin Laden’s “Letter to America” and widespread <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-20/tiktok-effects-on-mental-health-in-focus-after-teen-suicide">messaging encouraging suicidality</a> caused immediate concern in the broader culture. At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised that algos designed to maximize virality for profit at any cost fuel the most toxic, contagious, and sticky topics.
Studies have consistently shown that violent crime follows a Pareto distribution, with 1% of criminals committing up to 60% of crimes. The same is true of hateful content strategically riding the algos in the service of encouraging real-world violence. Do we really want our social media platforms taken over by psychopaths in a full-blown network contagion? And more importantly, what happens if we do?
Most contagions left unimpeded spread enough to damage and threaten the entire system. That’s why many such cases are fueled by foreign PSYOPs.
<div id="attachment_992051" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-992051" class="size-large wp-image-992051" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-864x576.jpg" alt="cream_ph. Getty Images. Young hacker working in the dark room and using laptops to steal private information" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1171004713-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />cream_ph. Getty Images.</div>
The aim of these contagions is never the stated topic at hand. They aren’t actually about trans rights or Jews or vaccinations or immigration. They’re about, first, setting Americans against one another in radicalized tribal conflicts, and, second, making these topics impossible or even dangerous to discuss productively (eliminating sane discussion, an obvious precondition for solving problems). During the Cold War, for instance, the KGB provided financial and logistical support to the Black Panthers while also sending forged menacing letters from the Ku Klux Klan to black leaders in order to stoke racial tensions.
The point is to poison both sides in order to sow maximum chaos to undermine and destroy Western democracies.
It’s nearly impossible to withstand algorithmically-driven content engineered to maximize rage, fear, and anxiety in the service of keeping people glued to their screens. It is indeed a type of mind control. This level of nervous-system hacking and the deluge of toxic messaging can trigger terrible instincts and behavior, especially in young people whose prefrontal cortexes are literally not yet fully developed.
On top of hostile regime influence and outrage algorithms maximized for profit, there are also bad-faith domestic players urging America along its path of destruction. Most of these behind-the-scenes manipulators exhibit the Dark Tetrad traits of sadism, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. These nefarious individuals are using sophisticated and furtive onboarding techniques to hijack the platforms.
Earlier this year, our team recorded a live conversation on a prominent social media platform between self-avowed neo-Nazis, one of whom has a sizable account with millions of views and reach. The conversation was a strategy session about how to manipulate larger non-ideologically aligned influencer accounts to share Nazi content. The strategy entails using carefully selected words, phrasing, and arguments that may be polarizing but aren’t explicitly antisemitic or racist. They target certain specific influencers and thought leaders’ interests that are political but outside the “Nazi diet.” When another large account interacts with a seemingly benign post by these Nazi accounts, it boosts that account algorithmically so the Nazi account gains followers, views, and increased power to change the culture on the platform and elsewhere. It’s the Nazi equivalent of algorithmic grooming.
The same holds true with radical leftist techniques. An April study by our partner group, <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/">NCRI</a>, found that more than 50% of self-identified people on the left of the political spectrum believed it at least somewhat acceptable to assassinate President Trump. And a whopping 78% of BlueSky users expressed some level of support for Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The biggest predictor of Mangione support? BlueSky usage.
Heavy social media use is indeed the one constant. Increasingly, when we dissect the social media diet and posts of those onboarded to radicalism, we are finding a toxic blend of ideologies. This is because the aim is not to support liberal or conservative politics. The aim is to get as many (especially young Americans) to arrive where far left and far right meet at the horseshoe of nihilism: the No Lives Matter cohort. Once the conditions are set for, say, a young man’s radicalization, it doesn’t matter to our hostile foreign adversaries whether the next bus he boards is filled with violent trans-Antifa-types or your-body-my-choice groypers.
We have no intention of vilifying the social media platforms (aside from those purposefully running full-blown foreign PSYOPs) or undermining free speech. In our informal engagements with leaders at these platforms, we have found them concerned and receptive to discussing ways to counter this. Vilifying CEOs, big tech, and the workers within these corporations not only forecloses on cooperative progress, but will likely shove them into a defensive posture. There are plenty of good people in tech leadership who have expressed a willingness to address this problem.
<div id="attachment_992053" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-992053" class="size-large wp-image-992053" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1024x576.jpg" alt="Outflow Designs. Getty Images. Technology icons transfer data through programming codes, artificial intelligence concept." width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-1383963898-2048x1152.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Outflow Designs. Getty Images.</div>
So how might we approach this?
Here are five concrete recommendations to turn down the temperature on destructive social media trends while protecting freedom of speech and steering clear of government overreach and censorship.
<h3>1. Make algorithms transparent.</h3>
Citizens, parents, and the free market (advertisers and content producers) have a right to know if they or their children are participating in platforms feeding suicidality, hate-mongering, violent pornography, anti-American propaganda, or anything else damaging. This is not about control or censorship but about allowing people to know what they are engaging with so they can make informed choices for themselves, their companies, and their children. We aren’t making a demand that the platforms publish their proprietary trade secrets in terms of the algorithms. Rather, we are suggesting to allow independent researchers access to the data required to assess algo impacts in relation to illegal activity and whether the platforms are enforcing their own rules as defined in their terms of service. That is indeed the contract with the user—and the free market.
There is a valid argument too for the right of Americans to explore fringe and even perilous ideas and viewpoints. The world is a dangerous place and neither the government nor corporations should foreclose on the rights of citizens to explore beyond the bounds of what is considered widely acceptable (excluding, of course, illicit materials). But contact with the terrible and extreme should be done knowingly, not as a result of covert algorithms that are optimized for profit and forced into your feed. Ideally, dipping into dangerous arenas should be inoculating, not poisoning.  

<h3>2. Reward those on social media who identify themselves as verified users and stand behind their words in the public square.</h3>
Social media participants who use their real identities deserve to have their opinions elevated above those who post anonymously and have zero accountability. A free marketplace of ideas should privilege a modicum of courage, transparency, and responsibility.
There are certainly arguments to be made for anonymous accounts, with whistleblowers being oft-cited. That’s fair enough. They can still post their information in a second tier of engagement below verified users. It just won’t be elevated to the top along with every anonymously cited conspiracy theory. 

<h3>3. Differentiate freedom of speech from freedom of reach for profit.</h3>
As a vehement free speech advocate, I believe in the right for people to explore what they want and express themselves how they wish. But algorithms pushing hatred, lies, and violence are waging an asymmetric war on the truth. Freedom of speech is one thing. Distortion of speech and covert manipulation of the free marketplace of ideas is another.
Sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant for bad ideas but light of day is insufficient to combat targeted deep-machine-learning computing power designed to elevate lies above all else and compounded by the machinations of psychopathic actors. This level of skew on the playing field makes a competition of ideas nearly impossible. Why hide the truth at the bottom of a cesspool? A hierarchy of values and a hierarchy of information is necessary for any endeavor that hopes to produce anything beyond chaos and ruin. 

<h3>4. Preserve human judgment at social media companies.</h3>
Of course, humans have biases and can fall victim to corruption. But that doesn’t mean that we should eliminate human good from the decision-making process. Shouldn’t we encourage and reward that which moves us toward greater truth and health? Rather than encouraging and rewarding the opposite? Every playing field needs a referee and every company should have stewards of common sense and common decency who assess the automated content moderation systems to ensure they’re not being gamed and to help enforce the agreed-upon rules of the game. Corporations are certainly equipped to encourage free speech, social engagement, and network health while ensuring that the tiny percentage of psychopathic accounts are not rocket-fueled by algos to infect the entire platform.
<h3>5. Identify and combat bot swarms and inauthentic coordinated material.</h3>
Users, advertisers, and the platforms themselves should know whether they are engaging with real accounts and ideas or with manipulative bad actors and swarms of bots from a Saint Petersburg troll farm. Independent research access to the data can bring additional resources to the table when it comes to identifying these threats to users and the platforms themselves. A bigger ecosystem of transparency is to our collective benefit. 
These five concrete recommendations will go a long way toward tamping down chaos, lies, and sadism online and in the real world.
* * *
Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 26 thrillers including the Orphan X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he’s written screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, and is an award-winning documentary producer. Gregg also wrote comics for AWA (including the critically acclaimed anthology NewThink), DC, and Marvel, and poetry. Currently, Gregg is working against polarization in politics and culture. To that end, he’s penned dozens of Op/Eds and pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark, Salon, and others, and pieces of creative content which have won numerous industry awards and achieved several hundred million views on digital TV platforms. He also helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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When Algorithms Turn Deadly: Five Fixes For Preserving Free Speech In A System Out Of Control

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