GOP-Led House To Probe Alleged White House Collusion With Tech Giants (wsj.com) 269
Republicans in the House plan to scrutinize communications between the Biden administration and big technology and social-media companies to probe whether they amounted to the censorship of legitimate viewpoints on issues such as Covid-19 that ran counter to White House policy. WSJ: House Republicans are expected as soon as Tuesday to launch the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The panel is expected to seek to illuminate what some Republicans say have been efforts by the Biden administration to influence content hosted by companies such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Alphabet, owner of YouTube and Google.
The panel will examine, among other things, how the executive branch works with the private sector, nonprofit entities or other government agencies to "facilitate action against American citizens," such as alleged violations of their free-speech rights, according to a draft resolution to establish it. A White House spokesman dismissed the effort. "House Republicans continue to focus on launching partisan political stunts," said spokesman Ian Sams, "instead of joining the president to tackle the issues the American people care about most like inflation."
The panel will examine, among other things, how the executive branch works with the private sector, nonprofit entities or other government agencies to "facilitate action against American citizens," such as alleged violations of their free-speech rights, according to a draft resolution to establish it. A White House spokesman dismissed the effort. "House Republicans continue to focus on launching partisan political stunts," said spokesman Ian Sams, "instead of joining the president to tackle the issues the American people care about most like inflation."
I expect (Score:5, Funny)
A calm and rational discussion about this
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Doesn't sound like news for nerds to me. This is offtopic to the forum.
Re:I expect (Score:4, Insightful)
The government investigating itself for its collusion with big tech to suppress speech on the internet doesn't sound like the kind of story Slashdot covers...? Your user ID would indicate that you remember things like the CDA blackout, which Slashdot participated in... huh?
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The government investigating itself for its collusion with big tech to suppress speech on the internet doesn't sound like the kind of story Slashdot covers...? Your user ID would indicate that you remember things like the CDA blackout, which Slashdot participated in... huh?
Afaik the CDA blackout was in februari 1996 https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/... [eff.org] slashdot was launched in october 1997 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] That said I believe the story is "stuff that matters", as long as everyone stick to facts that actually happened.
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Doesn't sound like news for nerds to me. This is offtopic to the forum.
Given that it currently is the most commented on story on the front page it has more interest than any other story on Slashdot. Maybe not all nerds think like you?
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Exposing government abuse is off-topic for this forum as are unsubstantiated rumors about any-wing with exceptions for things related to tech, games, science, sci-fi etc.
For that matter it would be nice if we could get everyone calling someone snowflake, election-denier, or other politically and not nerd culture related bash tossed off the forum.
This is a place to talk about a cool new hack-a-day, story about robots, something new programming technique, an awesome/terrible new 0-day, fusion breakthroughs/bu
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It does seem like for any topic there is someone who sees it as a metaphor for whatever political flavour they hate. Annoying.
Why Can't We be Friends [youtu.be]
Re:I expect (Score:4, Insightful)
Exposing government abuse is off-topic for this forum as are unsubstantiated rumors about any-wing with exceptions for things related to tech, games, science, sci-fi etc.
Why aren't nerds interested in government? Being a nerd doesn't just mean you like sci-fi and technology. It is "a person devoted to intellectual, academic, or technical pursuits or interests." Political science seems like something a nerd may be interested in, or even specializing in.
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Political science isn't really science and no nerd would claim otherwise.
"Why aren't nerds interested in government?"
By that reasoning there is no theme to the news on the site at all. There are plenty of nerds interested in government and plenty who don't give a damn unless it interferes in their cool hobby project. When some guy replicates a fully functioning Apple 2 by stringing together logic circuits from charged pasta noodles and runs a webserver on it... only nerd/geeks give a shit. That I expect to
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2600, the epitome of the nerd/hacker culture, had regularly featured articles regarding individual freedoms and freedom of speech. I remember one letter to the editor asking what to do if pulled over by a cop and being asked for your SSN; the answer was that it is not against the law to not remember your SSN.
In that spirit, even big tech companies acting on their own to supress free expression of legitimate views IS a valid topic for discussion, let alone them doing that because the government asked them to
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C'mon, it's not like an investigation into the other branch of The Party would yield a better result. Different, yes, because other industries own it.
In the US, all you really get to choose is which industries get to fleece you the next 4 years. It's like living in a really bad neighborhood where two gangs battle for control, but hey, you get to choose which gang you pay protection money to, ain't that something?
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A calm and rational discussion about this
"Forget it, Jake. It's Slashdot."
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Re:A Vice President has no declassification powers (Score:5, Insightful)
An ex-president doesn't have the power to declassify anything either.
An ex-president cannot retroactively declassify document when they are discovered in his possession.
A sitting president cannot declassify documents simply by saying they are declassified. Depending on the document there are procedures that need to be followed before the document is actually declassified. That process definitely isn't as simple as thinking about declassifying documents.
The documents weren't just in "an office at a University" (although I don't really see how Mar-a-Lago is any more secure than that). They were in the Penn Biden Center, ina a locked closet, of an office previously used by Biden before he ran for election in 2020. I guess technically this qualifies as "an office at a University" but it is a bit more nuanced that that simple statement implies. I could also say that the classified files found at Mar-a-Lago were found in an office of a resort.
Space lasers (Score:2)
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Fun 2 years (Score:5, Insightful)
In a righteous rage, the GOP will investigate anything they feel can disrupt the democrats in any way, regardless of evidence. If they "feel" indignant about something, that's enough. It's not about truth, it's about revenge. The current investigations they call "Witch Hunts" will look like bastions of mountains of evidence compared to those coming up. They'll spend prodigiously on frivolous such actions, even if the indiscretion they suspect (were it to be true) won't change anything, anywhere but perception (i.e. somebody's laptop)
What they won't do is anything tangible and meaningful. They carefully built a party where truth, humility, compromise, self-reflection, flexibility, and other such traits aren't just unimportant - they're actively despised. Individualism is paramount, allegiances are fleeting, loyalty is nonexistent, and the pursuit of power is absolute. And now they seem surprised that they've got it.
That small group within the party will gum up the works completely if things aren't supporting their agendas - so little of consequence will be done.
All the GOP can do is ride out these two years campaigning - not governing. And that's exactly what they will do. Everything will be in pursuit of power.
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You know, you never hear anything about the Clintons lately... perhaps they need to be investigated some more. And if they don't find anything, it just proves how good they are at covering things up!
Re:Fun 2 years (Score:4, Interesting)
How many people need to land in jail before people admit there was some substance?
Besides, I'm not reaching back into the past. I'm describing what I think is the future.
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Like this [justsecurity.org]
Your guys are actually guilty, false equivocator
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"My guys"? I am an outside viewer - not American, never lived there. I'm not invested in either side.
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In base terms (Score:2)
"Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is" - CEO of Twitter
6:36 PM Dec 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s... [twitter.com]
Re:In base terms (Score:5, Informative)
"Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is" - CEO of Twitter
6:36 PM Dec 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/s... [twitter.com]
Isn't this the same guy who said he wants his enemies to be able to stay on Twiiter, then turned around and started blocking people because he thought they were mean to him? The same guy who said he wouldn't be blocking people for what they say, then turned around and started unilaterally blocking people [imgur.com] because of what they said?
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He also committed to eliminating child porn on Twitter. You can add that to your list of free speech he is suppressing.
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He also committed to eliminating child porn on Twitter. You can add that to your list of free speech he is suppressing.
Since he's fired [cbsnews.com] most of the entire moderating staff, clearly he's not [nbcnews.com] suppressing child porn. With the expected results [nbcnews.com].
Problem is most of the hate-spewing (Score:2, Insightful)
lies and threats originate with the lunatic right. Clean that up and you won't feel your posts are discriminated against anymore.
Really? (Score:2)
Republicans in the House plan to scrutinize communications between the Biden administration and big technology and social-media companies to probe whether they amounted to the censorship of legitimate viewpoints on issues such as Covid-19 that ran counter to White House policy
And what would those legitimate viewpoints on issues such as Covid-19 be? That cattle de-worming medication, zinc pills and bleach drinking can cure viral repository infections?
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I always said it, just take the warning labels off the various containers and the problem should take care of itself within a generation.
Then again... that's assuming people can actually read...
legitimate viewpoints? Republicans now spout BS (Score:2)
Free speech is important but BS is not free speech, it is a con
Alleged ? (Score:3, Insightful)
You have seen the Twitter files emails... GOV employees (from the White house, DHS, Pentagon, all shutting down protected speech.
Blatant first amendment violations..
How can you be a "liberal" and support government prior restraint of free speech ?
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I haven't. Would you post a linky where the emails can be seen? I don't want a page with reporter-interpretations or partisan speculations, I want to see the original word-for-word emails so I can see what the ruckus is about.
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I don't think there are any normal politician left.
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You are talking to cultists. They won't listen, they'll just claim we are both trolling.
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The government colluding with private enterprise to suppress speech is pretty critical to the overall health of the country, and the Twitter files have provided a mountain of evidence that that is exactly what has been happening.
Is this like the government ordering phone companies to install sniffers so every single phone call can be swept up and examined, all without any warrant or evidence of a crime?
Complexity allows weaving narratives (Score:5, Informative)
> the Twitter files have provided a mountain of evidence [of gov't censorship]
No they don't. Musk refused to show the press the context of allegedly suspiciously looking snippets, for example. It appears Musk is trolling for attention, as he has a history of doing.
I agree we need checks and balances for such things and an investigation is arguably worth it, but mostly likely they'll find an inadvertent mistake some low-level bureaucrat made and GOP will used this as evidence of "institutional bias".
The IRS Lois Lerner incident was like this. They found bumbling decisions but NO clear evidence of intentional wrong-doing. It's enough complexity for the critical party to spin a narrative by cherry-picking facts/statistics or using them out of context, and that's probably what will happen here. It makes their base happy to "expose the dirtbags".
(Ironically part of the reason IRS did a sloppy job is because they are understaffed, but GOP wants to reduce IRS staff even more. It's like kicking a horse in the leg as punishment for being slow.)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Here's a good starting point from Matt Taibbi proving everything you just said wrong: https://taibbi.substack.com/p/... [substack.com]
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You mean the Biden campaign asking twitter to remove his son's dick pictures? That's literally what this all about. Biden wasn't employed by the government at the time.
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You mean the Biden campaign asking twitter to remove his son's dick pictures? That's literally what this all about. Biden wasn't employed by the government at the time.
Exactly.
That's infringing on my 1st Amendment rights to see Hunter's huge hog!
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A fiscal conservative would spend a million dollars if it briefly annoyed a liberal.
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I really hope you are trying to be funny with this comment because if you are serious, you complete idiot who has no idea what that term means. This site is seriously becoming a parking lot of uneducated fools.
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These are not conservatives. With actual conservatives it would be possible to find common ground. These are imposters scramming their voters.
Re:Any normal conservatives left? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Any normal conservatives left? (Score:5, Funny)
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Ironically, That is a fair description of the bill.
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It did. Where have you been?
Also, 50% of it wasn't inflation, yet the MSM decided to brand it that way because "corporate price gouging" would make their advertisers mad.
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From what I have read and understand from the "twitter files"...and more recently some govt emails that were released showing conversations with FB, it appears that govt. agencies were having undue influence on speech and were responsi
Re:Any normal conservatives left? (Score:4, Insightful)
From what I have read and understand from the "twitter files"...and more recently some govt emails that were released showing conversations with FB, it appears that govt. agencies were having undue influence on speech and were responsible for squashing US citizen attempts at speech on social media.
False. The only places you saw such crap is from Breitbart, New York Post, and DailyWire, all right-wing, conspiracy-prine tabloids. The companies themselves were doing the moderating, getting rid of crap such goat paste curing covid, or how covid vaccines were being used to inject trackers into people, or it was really Biden who was an agent for Russia rather than the con artist and his cabal.
The US govt should not be telling any private entity what is mis-information or directing or even suggesting that social media suppress any posts of speech.
Cool. Then I can tell people to inject themselves with bleach to cure covid, or snorting cocoa powder will prevent colds, or swallowing a Tide pod will cleanse your colon. Can't suppress that, can we?
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False. The only places you saw such crap is from Breitbart, New York Post, and DailyWire, all right-wing, conspiracy-prine tabloids.
I didn't read about the Twitter files from any of those sources, I read the material from the journalists that Twitter gave them to. There is no reason to wait for any news organization to filter the material, spin it, etc.
But for people who prefer their information that way, those were pretty much the only organizations to publish anything about the files other than the "this is a nothingburger don't even bother to look at any of it" that came from the usual suspects when it first started.
People like
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Bypass the journalists and go right to the court transcripts. https://ago.mo.gov/docs/defaul... [mo.gov]
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False. The only places you saw such crap is from Breitbart, New York Post, and DailyWire, all right-wing, conspiracy-prine tabloids.
I didn't read about the Twitter files from any of those sources, I read the material from the journalists that Twitter gave them to. There is no reason to wait for any news organization to filter the material, spin it, etc.
Elon Musk's whole narrative around buying Twitter is built around the idea that it was censoring Conservatives and colluding with Democrats.
The journalists you're talking about are the ones that Musk hand-picked because he trusted them to give it an appropriate spin.
But for people who prefer their information that way, those were pretty much the only organizations to publish anything about the files other than the "this is a nothingburger don't even bother to look at any of it" that came from the usual suspects when it first started.
Mainstream US media organizations publish stuff critical of the Democrats all the time, what they tend to do less of is keep reporting on non-stories like this one.
The "Twitter files" are mostly Twitter execs making decisions Musk disagrees with
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The only thing that really convinced me that Putin didn't have major leverage over Trump was the invasion of Ukraine, because if Putin did have leverage I expect he would have gotten Trump to politicize the hell out of support for Ukraine.
You mean like this? [cnbc.com] Exactly the thing you say didn't happen actually happened. Are you now ready to believe that Putin had major leverage over Trump? Because this is the criteria you set.
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The only thing that really convinced me that Putin didn't have major leverage over Trump was the invasion of Ukraine, because if Putin did have leverage I expect he would have gotten Trump to politicize the hell out of support for Ukraine.
You mean like this? [cnbc.com] Exactly the thing you say didn't happen actually happened. Are you now ready to believe that Putin had major leverage over Trump? Because this is the criteria you set.
No, because it's not exactly what I said would happen.
Since February 24th 2021 Russia has been engaged in an actual war in Ukraine, and they've been getting their asses handed to them in part due to the ongoing support of the US to give Ukraine the hardware to actually mount a defence.
The outcome of this war is likely to result in Russia losing the land it previously conquered in East Ukraine and possibly even Crimea. It will also destroy Putin's legacy and possibly even result in his loss of power before h
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What on earth do you think Trump can do at this point? His influence is waning, and he's turtling up in self-protection mode.
His midterm picks were almost all flops, he couldn't get "my kevin" elected speaker without a shitshow, despite threats and begging, he's in serious legal jeopardy on multiple fronts, his taxes got released so everyone can see who he owes, and he just alienated half of what's left of his base by claiming that the reason the republicans did poorly in the midterms was because they were
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What on earth do you think Trump can do at this point? His influence is waning, and he's turtling up in self-protection mode.
His midterm picks were almost all flops, he couldn't get "my kevin" elected speaker without a shitshow, despite threats and begging, he's in serious legal jeopardy on multiple fronts, his taxes got released so everyone can see who he owes, and he just alienated half of what's left of his base by claiming that the reason the republicans did poorly in the midterms was because they were too abortion crazy, and should moderate their views on it.
It doesn't matter what Putin has on Trump - it's nothing compared to the shit he's dealing with at home.
You think Trump is in trouble now? How much more trouble would he have if Putin did release some seriously compromising material, or even worse, disclosed that Trump was taking direction from Putin.
The fact is that if Putin had serious leverage over Trump (ie, Trump was a Russian asset) then he'd have Trump trashing Ukraine.
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Yesterday I had 15 mod points, today I have 0.
Very disturbing. Someone should look into that Deep State conspiracy!
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False. The only places you saw such crap is from Breitbart, New York Post, and DailyWire, all right-wing, conspiracy-prine tabloids. The companies themselves were doing the moderating, getting rid of crap such goat paste curing covid, or how covid vaccines were being used to inject trackers into people, or it was really Biden who was an agent for Russia rather than the con artist and his cabal.
Well the cool thing is the Twitter files are public information so, while we could entertain your strategy of just dismissing anything you don't like as conspiracy by the reporters you don't like, we can actually just look up the documents themselves and find out you are the one spreading misinformation.
This is not comprehensive but just what I was able to personally find over a quick search.
1) Twitter was getting requests from numerous political actors to censor posts - including jokes they didn't like
"By
Re:Any normal conservatives left? (Score:5, Informative)
it appears that govt. agencies were having undue influence on speech and were responsible for squashing US citizen attempts at speech on social media.
Except... they weren't. Asking a company to stop posting dangerous lies is not "an undue influence on speech". It's a request to not spread dangerous lies that get people killed. That's also not any kind of 1A violation because the company is well within its rights to continue posting dangerous bullshit claiming it as fact. Just look at Facebook: that's their entire business model.
The US govt should not be telling any private entity what is mis-information or directing or even suggesting that social media suppress any posts of speech.
Good thing they weren't. And also, if you're posting blatant, obvious, demonstrable lies... anyone who reads it should tell you it's misinformation. Because it is.
If the 3 letter agencies like FBI and DHS were indeed talking to social media, and suggesting they ban users or suppress posts, then they need to be slapped down and slapped down HARD.
It's a good thing they weren't, then.
This does need to be investigated, because there seems to be credible evidence that it did...and if this does prove to be true, it does indeed have profound consequences for all US citizens of all political bents.
It doesn't need to be investigated, and there's zero evidence because it didn't happen. It's more smoke and mirrors, blind attacks against the left by the right, and fundamental misunderstandings about how the first amendment operates. If you think this is a good thing, you're a fucking drooling moron who drank the QAnon kool-aid.
Social media is the new theatre of battle (Score:4, Insightful)
Normally, I'd agree 100% with you. The US government cannot tell media outlets what they can and cannot say as that would be a violation of the First Amendment.
That said, there is also considerable evidence that the disinformation campaign was perpetrated by state actors outside of the US. That is at least a wrinkle with national security implications, and that does fall under the goverment mandate. It would be fair to say that the waters get murky when the weapon is information (or disinformation) and the theatre of battle is online. It's much more clear when it's tanks, ships, and planes over land, sea, and air.
If there is evidence of the US government speaking to social media companies, my hope is that a strong case for national security was presented but ultimately the choice was left to the companies about what to do. That I think would be fair game. It would even be fair if the government offered a carrot. I'm not sure how I'd feel if they offered a stick.
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From what I have read and understand from the "twitter files"...and more recently some govt emails that were released showing conversations with FB, it appears that govt. agencies were having undue influence on speech and were responsible for squashing US citizen attempts at speech on social media.
I would think that this warrants investigation, and if it proves to be true...would be frightening to both sides of the aisle.
Well here's the court transcripts. https://ago.mo.gov/docs/defaul... [mo.gov]
Feel free to back up your claims.
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The US govt should not be telling any private entity what is mis-information or directing or even suggesting that social media suppress any posts of speech
It's the "even suggesting" part that's going to be a really bad look for this investigation as both sides of the aisle and outside the usual three letter agencies, do this routinely. Members of Congress have sent several cease and desist letters, looked to weaponizing the court system, and other things that would fly in the face of State level anti-SLAPP laws to social media. Let us not forget Devin Nunes' cow.
The thing is when one puts forth the "even suggesting" what they're indicating is a no line draw
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And it's gonna solve all of those things in just one week!
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Am I the only one that gets the Not Sure reference?
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1. Obstruct any attempt to govern or solve problems
2. Blame the resulting issues on the other side
3. Win next election round due to the blame sticking
4. PROFIT
No ??? needed, this plan actually works!
Agreed (Score:2, Interesting)
GOP, now is your time to step up to the plate. Fix all the issues you've been crying about for the past two years.
What are your plans to tackle rising inflation along with skyrocketing grocery prices? How do you plan on getting better healthcare for all weekly mass shooting suspects?
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Re:Any normal conservatives left? (Score:4, Insightful)
Corporations in bed with government seems like the kind of 1984-ish nightmare a normal liberal would normally cry about.
Yes, yes it does [imgur.com].
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It's only a conspiracy theory...till it's not.
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Just 'cause a stopped watch is right twice a day doesn't make it a sensible source for time.
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I think it's more a case of "hey, they're doing that too!" rather than some sort of reptilian hollow earth thing.
It's just a shitton of money and power being tossed around. it's pretty obvious you will have colusions and manipulations and favors being done.
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They're proposing that it be investigated.
If it turns out there is nothing to do it, then that's what the investigation would report. If on the other hand there is some truth to it, then the investigation should uncover it.
There is no harm in investigating, unless you have something to hide.
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>>..unless you have something to hide.
"Give me 12 lines written by the most honest of men, and I shall find something within to hang them."
TomÃs de Torquemada, Spanish inquisitor.
Just because you have nothing to hide, doesn't mean the other side isn't looking very hard to hang you.
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They're proposing that it be investigated.
If it turns out there is nothing to do it, then that's what the investigation would report. If on the other hand there is some truth to it, then the investigation should uncover it.
There is no harm in investigating, unless you have something to hide.
Have you been asleep during the four year they've been investigating Benghazi?
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There is no chance that this will be balanced in any way.
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This will be a witch hunt just like Benghazi. Republicans will spend tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to find nothing, then whine about the soaring defict.
After all, there is nothing Republicans can do to help Americans [imgur.com].
Re:It should NOT be a witch hunt... (Score:4, Interesting)
This would be a shame, however, because from what I can see from the "twitter files"...govt entities were having influence on what speech was suppressed on social media...directly or even indirectly.
The investigation is being run by people who 1) didn't want to count Biden's electoral votes; 2) Do want Fauci in Gitmo. It will not be reliable or informative.
Trump boosters and general loons, Diamond and Silk were kicked off Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation. Diamond was hospitalized for Covid in November and just died. I don't have a problem if they were banned from Twitter because the government said "This woman is spreading misinformation that will get people killed."
I *would* object if the government backed-up the suggestion with even an implicit threat--just as I am troubled by DeSantis' open attempt to punish Disney and Twitter for their free speech. But not every PSA is a government shakedown and the Twitter files I've seen so far seem non-scandalous and reasonable.
But please educate us (me) as to which suppressed M-RNA and covid stories proved true.
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I wouldn't say I am "fine" with banning everyone with Ivermectin and Covid in the same sentence. But it would probably have saved some lives.
Since you called me an asshole, please tell me which of the following you deny being:
1) anti-vax
2) far-right
3) racist
4) horse-dewormer taking
5) covid denier.
I don't want to accidentally pay you a compliment.
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> If you give the govt an inch...they'll want a mile.
Everyone is this way: corporations, the rich, news channels, political parties, etc. It's human nature. Everybody needs checks or balances or they slip into bad habits. To single out gov't for heavy oversite is a mistake. It's humans that are f!cked up, not the concept of government itself. If you weaken gov't, you increase the slime-hood of other entities; there's no free lunch away form human nature.
> There seems to have been suppression of covid
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>I think we need to pretty much ban ANY govt. input into private media companies somehow.
That's literally what the first amendment says.
Re:It should NOT be a witch hunt... (Score:5, Insightful)
It will be just like the endless Benghazi investigations. Which Republicans have admitted were for reducing Secretary Clinton's popularity, nothing more.
After the first investigation turned up no evidence of wrongdoing, the Republicans took that as evidence that the conspiracy was deeper and more well organized, so they had to investigate that, and so on until the Republicans lost power.
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What else should it be? It's a distraction. Nothing else. It's yet another round of trying to show just how evil, evil, evil, EVIL the other guy is, so you don't start pondering why the fuck you should instead prefer this guy.
And you can put democrats and republicans on either side of this and that guy. Because this time it's that way around and next time the other way around. The labels get traded, the dog-and-pony show stays the same.
Neither party has any convincing arguments why you should vote FOR them
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Yeah totally. Let's just let the executive branch do whatever they want... Strong-arm the tech companies to censor speech, reveal citizen location data, and spy on opponent journalists' communications? Sure! I totally trust them to do the right thing...
I know what you mean [imgur.com]. Totally trustworthy.
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You seem confused. Biden was applying for a government job when this happened.
Re:Call me paranoid... (Score:4, Informative)
Except it never happened. And isn't happening.
This is just more retarded bullshit from the idiots on the right. Just Pizzagate but with a blue bird logo this time.
The government wasn't censoring anyone. It was a private platform banning people violating its terms.
I don't know why I expected anything but further retarded witchhunt nonsense from this house, but here we are.
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The Twitter Files have revealed that various government agencies and individual politicians were using the FBI's official national security coordination channels to pressure social media companies to limit the speech of American citizens engaged in protected speech activities.
Revenge porn is not a protected speech activity. You lie again. What a shock. Now your guys are going to do exactly what you and they are accusing others of, further shock.
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Oh noes, people spreading disinformation and hate speech were stopped
What a tragedy... for cuckservatives
Re:Call me paranoid... (Score:4, Interesting)
Go ahead an read the court transcripts and tell me it happened. https://ago.mo.gov/docs/defaul... [mo.gov]
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People don't want big tech, banks, payment processors, employers, etc trampling on their rights and those of their neighbors
So they want the government to dictate what private companies can do? That sounds an awful lot like fascism.
What people often forget about that is while the bill of rights applies only to government that doesn't mean you only have the right vs government and private parties are welcome to walk up and toss a ball gag on you as they please, it just means there isn't a precanned and auto
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"So they want the government to dictate what private companies can do? That sounds an awful lot like fascism."
Private companies rights don't out rank those of private individuals and unlike private individuals they are created by government decree. There are all sorts of limits on what private companies can do to individuals however because they are NOT private individuals. When the rights of two private parties conflict, we have courts to settle the matter. Luckily if human rights get in the way of a certa
Snowflakes (Score:2)
No these are fragile snowflakes who feel upset because large chunk of the population keeps saying their ideas are unpopular. They need a conservative safe space because they catch too much shit on twitter. The only problem is nobody uses Truth Social so they want the government to step in and punish twitter. Brought to you by the party of law and order and small government
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https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
First order of business. Fix inflation? Nope. Fix healthcare? Nope. Fix corruption? Nope.
Dissolve the House Ethics Committee!
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And the Democrats are just as bad because there is no real difference anymore. The fact that you only are calling one one side of the issue tells the world that you are strictly a laptop to your party. It's a real shame that so many people simply look at the letter next to their name and cast judgement accordingly.
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Because our people are too stupid to deserve freedom of speech.
Get a better educated population and we talk. The way it is now, they are a danger to themselves and the rest of the country.
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