too bad nobody cares https://jonathanturley.org/2022/12/...-musks-document-dump-could-be-a-game-changer/ 4 hours ago Censorship by Surrogate: Why Musk’s Document Dump Could be a Game Changer by jonathanturley Below is my column in the Hill on the recent disclosures in the “Twitter Files” on the coordination of censorship between the company and both Biden and Democratic party operatives. Beyond personally attacking Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi, many have resorted to the same old saw of censorship apologists: it is not censorship if the government did not do it or direct it. That is clearly untrue. Many groups like the ACLU define censorship as denial of free speech by either government or private entities. It is also worth noting that this censorship (and these back channels) continued after the Biden campaign became the Biden Administration. Moreover, some of the pressure was coming from Democratic senators and House members to silence critics and to bury the Hunter Biden influence peddling scandal. Here is the column: “Handled.” That one word, responding to a 2020 demand to censor a list of Twitter users, speaks volumes about the thousands of documents released by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, on Friday night. As many of us have long suspected, there were back channels between Twitter and the Biden 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ban critics or remove negative stories. Those seeking to discuss the scandal were simply “handled,” and nothing else had to be said. Ultimately, the New York Post was suspended from Twitter for reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Twitter even blocked users from sharing the Post’s story by using a tool designed for child p*rnography. Even Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was suspended for linking to the scandal. Twitter’s ex-safety chief, Yoel Roth, later said the decision was a “mistake” but the story “set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack and leak campaign alarm bells.” The reference to the APT28 Russian disinformation operation dovetailed with false claims of former U.S. intelligence officers that the laptop was “classic disinformation.” The Russian disinformation claim was never particularly credible. The Biden campaign never denied the laptop was Hunter Biden’s; it left that to its media allies. Moreover, recipients of key emails could confirm those communications, and U.S. intelligence quickly rejected the Russian disinformation claim. The point is, there was no direct evidence of a hack or a Russian conspiracy. Even Roth subsequently admitted he and others did not believe a clear basis existed to block the story, but they did so anyway. Musk’s dumped Twitter documents not only confirm the worst expectations of some of us but feature many of the usual suspects for Twitter critics. The documents do not show a clear role or knowledge by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Instead, the censor in chief appears to be Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer who has been criticized as a leading anti-free speech figure in social media. There also is James Baker, the controversial former FBI general counsel involved in the bureau’s Russia collusion investigation. He left the FBI and became Twitter’s deputy general counsel. Some Twitter executives expressed unease with censoring the story, including former global communications VP Brandon Borrman, who asked, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?” Baker jumped in to support censorship and said, “It’s reasonable for us to assume that they may have been [hacked] and that caution is warranted.” Baker thus comes across as someone who sees a Russian in every Rorschach inkblot. There was no evidence the Post’s Hunter Biden material was hacked — none. Yet Baker found a basis for a “reasonable” assumption that Russians or hackers were behind it. Many people recognized the decision for what it was. A former Twitter employee reportedly told journalist Matt Taibbi, “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold.” Obviously, bias in the media is nothing new to Washington; newspapers and networks have long run interference for favored politicians or parties. However, this was not a case of a media company spiking its own story to protect a pal. It was a social media company that supplies a platform for people to communicate with each other on political, social and personal views. Social media is now more popular as a form of communications than the telephone. Censoring communications on Twitter is more akin to the telephone company agreeing to cut the connection of any caller using disfavored terms. And at the apparent request of the 2020 Biden campaign and the DNC, Twitter seems to have routinely stopped others from discussing or hearing opposing views. The internal company documents released by Musk reinforce what we have seen previously in other instances of Twitter censorship. A recent federal filing revealed a 2021 email between Twitter executives and Carol Crawford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s digital media chief. Crawford’s back-channel communication sought to censor other “unapproved opinions” on social media; Twitter replied that “with our CEO testifying before Congress this week [it] is tricky.” At the time, Twitter’s Dorsey and other tech CEOs were about to appear at a House hearing to discuss “misinformation” on social media and their “content moderation” policies. I had just testified on private censorship in circumventing the First Amendment as a type of censorship by surrogate. Dorsey and the other CEOs were asked about my warning of a “‘little brother’ problem, a problem which private entities do for the government that which it cannot legally do for itself.” In response, Dorsey insisted that “we don’t have a censoring department.” The implications of these documents becomes more serious once the Biden campaign became the Biden administration. These documents show a back channel existed with President Biden’s campaign officials, but those same back channels appear to have continued to be used by Biden administration officials. If so, that would be when Twitter may have gone from a campaign ally to a surrogate for state censorship. As I have previously written, the administration cannot censor critics and cannot use agents for that purpose under the First Amendment. That is precisely what Musk is now alleging. As the documents were being released, he tweeted, “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.” more
conclusion: The incoming Republican House majority has pledged to investigate — and Musk has made that process far easier by making good on his pledge of full transparency. Washington has fully mobilized in its all-out war against Musk. Yet, with a record number of users signing up with Twitter, it seems clear the public is not buying censorship. They want more, not less, free speech. That may be why political figures such as Hillary Clinton have enlisted foreign governments to compel the censoring of fellow citizens: If Twitter can’t be counted on to censor, perhaps the European Union will be the ideal surrogate to rid social media of these meddlesome posters. The release of these documents has produced a level of exposure rarely seen in Washington, where such matters usually are simply “handled.” The political and media establishments generally are unstoppable forces — but they may have met their first immovable object in Musk. Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
WOW you really are a special kind of idiot. This not only went over your head but also circled around another planet.
I am fine with newly released information from Twitter about Hunter Biden. It isn't anything actually earth shattering. Reporters did report on the story. There is very little to implicate Joe Biden in any way much less criminally. Had all of the information been released initially pretty much nothing would have changed. The most troubling part is probably that the government agencies may have been helped social media be premature in removing and not allowing discussions about the story. There were certainly reasons why reporters wouldn't do additional stories on it. We'll see if anything comes from the whole story.
"hard to imagine a more brazen attack on our democracy..." um, yeah, Tucker... about that... don't strain your active imagination. Here ya go, and thx for your big role in it: Spoiler
Price fixing, or using a tool to maximize profits? Is there evidence of collusion between competitors in setting rental prices? From the articles I am seeing, it looks like landlords just using data analytics to determine how much they can raise rents to maximize profit. Rent Too Damn High? Blame YieldStar, a Secret Algorithm from Housing Hell (futurism.com) Algorithms for Rent: The Price Is Right (technewsworld.com) Pro Publica hints that this could be price fixing (despite the only quote from anyone on the subject being that it would be impossible to do price fixing in a big real estate market because there are too many competitors to collude), but they are Pro Publica, so of course they do. How a Secret Rent Algorithm Pushes Rents Higher — ProPublica
Release of Twitter files on how Hunter Biden story was censored ‘not healthy’: White House https://nypost.com/2022/12/05/jean-...s-on-censorship-of-hunter-biden-laptop-story/ excerpt: WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday it was “not healthy” for Twitter owner Elon Musk to publish internal company files revealing Twitter’s censorship of The Post’s 2020 reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. “What is happening — it’s frankly, it’s not healthy. It won’t do anything to help a single American improve their lives. And so look, we see this as an interesting, you know, coincidence, and you know, it’s a distraction,” Jean-Pierre concluded during her Monday briefing, offering a lengthy denunciation of Musk’s Friday reveal of how Twitter execs decided to suppress The Post’s damning expose. “We see this as an interesting, or a coincidence, if I may, that he would so haphazardly — Twitter would so haphazardly push this distraction that is full of old news, if you think about it,” Jean-Pierre said, brushing off the politically motivated denial of free speech protections raised by Musk’s document dump. “And at the same time, Twitter is facing very real and very serious questions about the rising volume of anger, hate and anti-Semitism on their platform and how they’re letting it happen.” more at the link
Hot take prediction: I think AG Garland will appoint a special counsel on the Hunter Biden laptop issue…. BUT…. MAGA folks will celebrate at first but there’s just no way to avoid the Rudy and likely foreign hacking part of this investigation that could turn it on its head and end up being yet another investigation of Trump. Just like the first impeachment of Trump started with Rudy and Trump trying to strong arm Zelensky and that ended up getting Trump impeached. There’s really no reason to hire a special counsel for this nonsense in a normal scenario but I do think that AG Garland is kind of weak and will want to protect himself when he gets called to testify to the MAGA House every other day for two years. Appointing a special counsel allows him to do his day job. So knowing this likely will also HAVE TO also investigate the disinformation side of the story, do MAGA fans here actually want a special counsel or do you guys just want a media/MAGA house cloud of disinformation with whatever fantasy you want or do you guys want an actual investigation?
They want fantasy (including the chance to wank it to pics of hunter) and they want the cloud of disinformation their handlers (Putin/Saudi) are ordering. remember it's the old - "rather be russian than dem! and let me see those pics so I can stroke it! but don't say gay!!"
