Apple and Google Play threaten to remove Elon Musk’s Twitter from your phones if free speech is allowed on the platform

By Robert Romano

“I am told this morning that Apple and Google will remove Twitter from the App Store if it does not moderate and remove hate speech under @ElonMusk. This isn’t a new policy, but a commitment already made. Amazon Web Services has the same commitment. So there’s that.”

That was social justice activist Shaun King on Twitter on April 27, reporting that if Elon Musk, the new 100 percent owner of Twitter, follows through with his plan to take the company private and make it a free speech platform, it will be promptly removed from the Apple and Google Play stores, and Amazon Web Services, too — just like Parler was in 2021 in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

King’s report came a day after Media Matters for America President Angelo Carusone urged Apple and Google to deplatform Twitter, writing in a Twitter statement, “Musk will unwind a whole range of very basic protections against harassment, abuse, disinformation. Effectively, he’ll open the flood gates of hate and lies. And, he’ll use Twitter as a cudgel against other social media companies to press them to backslide.”

Carusone added, “Apple should make clear and reiterate that Twitter won’t get special treatment. Some of what Musk plans to do will violate Apple’s requirements for the App Store and Apple needs to make it clear they will enforce their rules and uphold their requirements.”

There’s just one problem.

Here, King and Carusone are advocating and celebrating the advent of a corporate state that can deny public accommodations like social media to anyone it chooses, for any reason. This is not only dangerous to free speech but it essentially proves the greatest threat to liberty today comes not from government, but from corporations that seek to govern thought itself.

In 2021, Parler was removed from Apple phones, Google android phones and Amazon’s web servers supposedly for a failure to police advocacies of violence on its platform, even though similar examples of unpoliced advocacies of violence could be found on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and message boards everywhere. In fact, according to Justice Department filings, some of those facing charges were pre-planning the attack as early as Jan. 1 on Facebook, not Parler. But only Parler was punished. None of them should have been.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act allows interactive computer services to govern speech anyway they want as a means of guaranteeing a free and open internet with robust networks freed of individual user liability — or so we thought. Parler embraced free speech and was practically destroyed for it.

In the meantime, federal antitrust law under 15 U.S.C. Section 1 makes “conspiracy… in restraint of trade or commerce” a criminal felony.

But which statute takes precedence? They must be read consistently, and given Congress’ intent behind antitrust was to cover all businesses regardless of industry, I think Section 230 must conform to antitrust’s prohibition on restraining trade of competitors. But if Section 230 were actually an exception to antitrust, then it should be amended.

That is why Congressional Republicans looking to take back the House and Senate this year, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should seek to rein in Big Tech’s monopoly by defining social media as public accommodations under civil rights law and add “opinions” to the protected classes.

Additionally, the very terms of service that restrict unpopular speech on the internet, whether on social media like Twitter, or on Apple, Google or Amazon, have come about directly as a result of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing including Diversity & Inclusion goals that clearly favor “safe spaces” over the freedom of expression.

Republicans in Congress in 2023, should they reclaim majorities, could defund ESG investments incentivized into private retirement plans by a 2015 Obama administration Labor Department regulation, and also end direct subsidies by the $767 billion federal employee retirement plan, the Thrift Savings Plan.

Since the reported actions now targeted at speech on Twitter by Apple and Google Play — if true — are the direct result of ESG objectives; and fit the same pattern of targeting Parler (but not Twitter or Facebook) in 2021, give the appearance of anticompetitive collusion. In the least, the Justice Department Antitrust Division should investigate this repeated censorship of major platforms.

And Elon Musk should sue, too.

There is simply too much at stake. The freedom of the marketplace of ideas to operate is essential to democracy.

Which, that sounds about right. Twitter must fight this battle now or humanity could suffer the “social tyranny” John Stuart Mill warned of in his defense of free speech, On Liberty in 1859: “[W]hen society is itself the tyrant — society collectively over the separate individuals who compose it — its means of tyrannising are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.”

Musk on April 27 on Twitter said he will reveal Twitter’s new content policy soon, but promises that political hardliners will not be happy: “Attacks are coming thick and fast, primarily from the left, which is no surprise, however I should be clear that the right will probably be a little unhappy too. My goal is to maximize area under the curve of total human happiness, which means the ~80% of people in the middle.”

Musk is right. Having a free and open internet is the greatest good for the greatest number. The corporate censorship we are currently living with only serves elite corporations who “own” the public square, the essential ingredient to democracy. Our society is only as free as our ability to criticize it.

https://dailytorch.com/2022/04/apple-and-google-play-threaten-to-remove-elon-musks-twitter-from-your-phones-if-free-speech-is-allowed-on-the-platform

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http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
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Spider-Man fans rejoiced after a controversial line in the 2002 superhero flick was cut in a recent broadcast

Spider-Man fans rejoiced after a controversial line in the 2002 superhero flick was cut in a recent broadcast on Britain’s ITV.

The television channel dramatically slashed a “homophobic” scene in which Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker insults another character during a wrestling match, the New York Post reports.

In the scene, Peter-as-Spider-Man dons a low-budget version of his red-and-blue costume as he tells the other person he’s about to fight: “That’s a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you?”

ITV shortened the line to: “That’s a cute outfit.”

The change was captured in a viral clip on Twitter – captioned “THEY REMOVED PETER PARKER’S HOMOPHOBIA” – and viewers praised the cut of the script’s line.

One person did their own dub to change the line, writing, “Why cut the joke out entirely? Why not try to change it somehow? I threw this together pretty quick, changes it from homophobic joke to classic ‘your mum’ joke.”

“I am glad they changed it. BUT they could have at least changed the line to “did your MUM pick it out for you,” someone suggested, while another noted, “When the punchline is gay marriage it’s not really a good punchline.”

“British TV network ITV removed the vaguely homophobic line Spider-Man says to Bonesaw in the first Raimi film,” one more added. “And nothing of value was lost.”

Others denounced the change, with one tweeter offering, “Eventually everything becomes ‘problematic’,” while another added, “Political correctness Strikes again.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/movies/spiderman-fans-react-to-homophobic-line-cut-from-2002-film/news-story/4ff421712281aeb42a9b6f145664a0cf

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Twitter Will Prohibit 'Misleading' Ads About Climate Change

Twitter announced that the company would be restricting "misleading" advertisements shared on the platform that contradict the "scientific consensus on climate change."

In a blog post published on Earth Day, the platform's sustainability team wrote, "We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis."

The company said in its Friday post that climate advertisements contradicting the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other "authoritative sources" will be prohibited.

"We recognize that misleading information about climate change can undermine efforts to protect the planet," the company wrote. "In the coming months, we’ll have more to share on our work to add reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations happening on Twitter."

"We continue to accelerate our sustainability efforts, and we’re laser focused on reducing our own carbon footprint," the post continued. "Through targeted work, we’ve lowered our emissions for the second straight year – even as the company grew."

Twitter also promised to increase its investments in carbon-removal technology, pledged to make the switch to renewable electricity at its offices and committed to using carbon-neutral power sources at its data centers by the end of the year.

The company also said it had partnered with organizations "committed to environmental conservation and sustainability," including the Earth Day Network, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Greenpeace.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/landonmion/2022/04/23/twitter-will-prohibit-misleading-ads-about-climate-change-n2606256

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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‘We won’t shut down debate’: Australian State Premier stares down crossbench threat

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has stared down threats by a key independent MP to withdraw support for his government amid an intensifying debate over transgender people in sport.

Independent member for Sydney Alex Greenwich warned he would no longer guarantee supply and confidence for the Coalition government after Perrottet was drawn into the debate over excluding transgender people from women’s sports.

Perrottet on Friday evening called for a more tolerant and respectful conversation around the issue, but insisted he would not allow government supply and confidence to be threatened by Greenwich.

“My government will not be threatened on the issue of allowing people to voice their opinions,” he said. “If you are a politician and you don’t have a view, then you are in the wrong profession.”

Despite the threats from Greenwich, Opposition Leader Chris Minns has ruled out supporting a motion of no confidence in or denying supply to the NSW government.

Transgender comments threaten Perrottet’s minority government
“The choice of government should be left to the voters in March 2023,” Minns said.

The debate over transgender people in sport has dominated the federal election campaign in the Sydney seat of Warringah after inflammatory comments from Liberal candidate Katherine Deves were widely circulated.

Olympic champions Emma McKeon and Dawn Fraser voiced their opinion on the matter this week as the issue also filtered into state politics after NSW Treasurer Matt Kean called for Deves to be disendorsed by the party.

Perrottet said twice this week he believed “young girls should compete against young girls,” and rejected calls for Deves’ disendorsement.

Greenwich on Friday said he had organised a meeting with Perrottet, sporting representatives and transgender advocates for next week, as he wanted the premier to be provided with more information about the community.

Perrottet’s office said they had already agreed to the meeting with the advocates on Thursday, before Greenwich threatened to withdraw support for the government.

However, Greenwich said he advised the premier at 2.30pm on Thursday that he could not support a government “developing an anti-trans narrative,” before his office agreed to the meeting at 6pm.

“It’s my hope and intention that we can get to a position where he understands the importance of trans people being able to participate equally and fairly in sport,” Greenwich told the Herald on Friday.

Greenwich said he was concerned an “anti-trans narrative” was forming within the federal Liberal Party, and he did not want it to leach into NSW state politics.

“I want to make sure that that narrative does not follow through to the NSW government, because then my position of supporting them would be impossible,” he said.

“I have built a relationship of respect with the premier and his government where we are very open. He and I have had differing views, but I expect to know where those come from, and I expect that they are based on evidence and consultation, not just ideological opinion.”

Sports Minister Stuart Ayres said sporting bodies were best-placed to determine the issue of transgender athletes, not politicians.

“Sports administrators are responsible for creating safe, inclusive participation environments and that varies from sports,” he said.

“We should let sports regulate themselves in this regard, and they will determine the right outcome for their sports to ensure that sports are open to all, and it’s done in a safe and inclusive environment.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-won-t-shut-down-debate-perrottet-stares-down-crossbench-threat-20220422-p5afh9.html

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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

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http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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It's a mistake to ban Holocaust denial

I agree with Jeff Jacoby below. He makes some good points.  He could have added that antismitism is a deeply ingrained European tradition.  And that usually includes holocaust denial. I am pretty sure that all holocaust deniers are also antisemites.

So is there any hope of eradicating antisemitism?  There is not.  Poland once had a very large Jewish population and still has particularly strong antisemitic traditions even though Jews are a rarity there now.  

The Polish govenment does its best to prevent expressions of antisemitism but the idea seems to be passed on privately.  I know of antisemitic utterances even among people of Polish ancestry who have grown up in the Anglosphere.  It  looks like there is something ineradicable in Polish brains

And for the less prosperous populations in Europe -- e.g. in the Balkans -- antisemitism can be fairly openly expressed.  It provides a ready explanation of why they are economically backward.  They claim that they are somehow kept down by "The Jews".  It is a very useful belief there.  It will never go away.

And there is little point in arguing with something so deeply ingrained. Antisemites of European origin can be otherwise pleasant people.  They are just expressing ingrained traditions. As Jeff Jacoby says, all we can hope for is to be aware of who they are


Holocaust denial is an explicit crime in 17 nations, among them Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, and Israel. Canada is on the brink of becoming the 18th. Included in the federal budget that Parliament will pass in coming days is an amendment to the nation's criminal code making it illegal for anyone to publicly deny that the Holocaust took place or to justify or minimize the genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II. The measure has support across party lines; there seems little doubt that it will be enacted — perhaps as early as Yom Hashoah, the annual day of Holocaust remembrance, which returns Thursday. Whether it should be enacted is a different matter.

"There is no place for antisemitism and Holocaust denial in Canada," Marco Mendicino, the nation's public safety minister, told reporters earlier this month. "That's why we've pledged to prohibit the willful promotion of antisemitism through condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust." The proposed change is backed by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a leading advocacy group, and by Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister and a highly respected human rights activist.

I'm against it.

I despise Holocaust deniers. They are contemptible antisemites and brazen liars who express their Jew-hatred through the grotesque project of rehabilitating the reputation of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. In their eagerness to pervert history, they do more than insist, idiotically, that the most comprehensively documented crime in history never occurred. They also ridicule and taunt the innocent men, women, and children who were its victims. "I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. It's baloney, it's a legend," sneered the notorious Holocaust denier David Irving. "I'm going to form an association of Auschwitz Survivors, Survivors of the Holocaust, and Other Liars, or A-S-S-H-O-L-S."

My father was one of those survivors, the only member of his family to come out of Auschwitz alive. Until the day he died, his left arm was marked with the tattoo he received during the Nazi Selektion that designated him for slave labor on his first day in the notorious extermination camp. He died last year, coincidentally on the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Anyone who denies, justifies, or minimizes the Holocaust is guilty of a vile rhetorical assault not just against truth but against my father and his martyred parents, brothers, and sisters. Those deniers deserve to be drenched with all the obloquy and contempt decent people can pour upon them.

But they do not deserve to be prosecuted as criminals, or punished by the state.

I oppose laws criminalizing Holocaust denial for reasons both moral and practical.

As an American, I cherish the First Amendment and the principle of unfettered expression it embodies. To ban something as odious as Holocaust denial may seem a modest price to pay to maintain a minimal level of social hygiene. Who is harmed, after all, if scurrilous hatemongers are forced to keep their malicious ideas to themselves?

The answer is that we are all harmed. It's dangerous to empower the state to punish ideas — even ideas that are cruel, obnoxious, and false. A government that can criminalize Holocaust denial this week can criminalize other opinions next week. "If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other," wrote Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1929, "it is the principle of free thought. Not free thought for those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate."

That is the first reason Holocaust denial shouldn't be added to the criminal code. But it's not the only one.

Emory University historian Deborah Lipstadt, recently confirmed by the Senate as the new US envoy for combating antisemitism, makes the point that such laws amount to intellectual surrender. In a 2016 debate at Oxford University, Lipstadt argued that "laws against Holocaust denial suggest that we do not have the facts, figures, and extensive documentation to prove precisely what happened." Never was there a genocide more meticulously recorded by its perpetrators while it was underway or more comprehensively described by scholars and survivors in the years since.

When Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, visited the Buchenwald concentration camp complex immediately after its liberation by US forces, he understood at once that the sights he was viewing were the antidote to what we now call Holocaust denial.

"The things I saw beggar description," he cabled the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty, and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. . . . I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the near future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'"

An immense ocean of evidence attests to the horror of the Holocaust and the scope of its evil — from contemporaneous notes made by liberators to oral histories recorded by thousands of survivors (including my father) to, not least, the powerful acknowledgments of German guilt by postwar German governments. That is the best response to Holocaust denial.

Proponents of measures like the one in Canada endorse a ban on Holocaust denial as a prophylactic against antisemitism. Their case would be stronger if the laws actually had that effect. Yet in all the countries that have made it a crime to lie about Hitler's war against the Jews, has antisemitism been suppressed? In many of them, it is surging. A ban on Holocaust denial and other antisemitic hate speech may be easy to enact. But there is no reason to think it will do any good.

Prosecution is no way for a free society to deal with haters who deny and distort the Holocaust — or any other historical truth. "I tremble at the thought," Lipstadt told her Oxford audience, "that we might leave the regulation of ideas in the hands of politicians." I do too. You either believe in free expression for people you loathe or you don't believe in free expression at all.

https://jeffjacoby.com/26176/it-a-mistake-to-ban-holocaust-denial

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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How the left silence women – a current Australian example

The vicious demonisation of Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves is the latest attempt to silence women who speak out about the impact of harmful gender policies and practices on women’s sex-based rights and the welfare of children.

During her first week of election campaigning, the Save Women’s Sport Australasia co-founder and mother of three daughters has been subjected to relentless, coordinated media attacks for past comments related to her advocacy around the rights and safety of women and girls and the reality of biological sex.

Many of those fuelling the attacks against Deves and trolling her online, are the same people who campaign for women’s ‘safety’ and ‘respect’ and complain that ‘we need more women in politics’, especially in the Liberal Party. But as usual, it is clear that such sentiments are reserved only for women they agree with, which ironically does not include those concerned about issues like the erosion of women’s safety and privacy as males identify into their sports and spaces. The horrendous treatment Deves has received (including threats of dismemberment and burning at the stake) would not be tolerated in any other context.

Aware of Deves’ tireless efforts to highlight the unfair and unsafe participation of trans-identifying males in women’s sport, and to protect single-sex sport for women alongside advocates like Tasmanian Senator Claire Chandler – trans activists have been trawling the internet for anything they can use to tear her down and bully her out of the election.

While ‘cancel culture’ is an established part of the trans lobby’s modus operandi, the attempt to censor and shut down debate is even more concerning in the lead-up to an election. Every comment Deves has made has been twisted, taken out of context, and attacked with such ferocity so as to hamper any opportunity for meaningful discourse around some of the most important issues affecting women, and to ultimately shut down Deves herself. Such attacks only serve to validate her comparison with totalitarianism, one of her many comments distorted by the media

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/04/how-the-left-silence-women-starting-with-deves/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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How teachers in an Australian territory could soon be forced to call students 'crew' instead of 'boys and girls'

Teachers calling students 'boys' and 'girls' may soon be a thing of the past under plans to create a more welcoming environment for gender diverse children.

In draft guidelines on gender identity from the Northern Territory's Education Department, a variety of steps would be taken to ensure those questioning their gender weren't being offended in the classroom.

School sport days would not be split between boys and girls while students on overnight excursions and school camps would be allowed to sleep in rooms and use bathrooms of their 'affirmed gender', Sky News reported.

'Using gendered language such as 'girls and boys' or 'ladies and gentlemen' confirms gender stereotyping and roles and can be alienating for gender questioning and gender diverse children,' the document says.

'Avoid this by using vocabulary such as 'students', 'class', 'crew', 'everyone', people' or 'year X' that are more inclusive.'

But the draft wasn't well received by everyone in the state with Country Liberal Party Senate candidate Jacinta Price labelling it 'utterly ridiculous'.

She said the focus should instead be on lifting attendance rates in schools in remote communities.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10731773/Teachers-encouraged-use-gender-neutral-terms-plans-Northern-Territory.html

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Australian Prime Minister says he won't allow a controversial conservative candidate who campaigned against trans women in sport to be 'silenced'

In his strongest comments on the matter yet, Mr Morrison on Tuesday said Warringah candidate Katherine Deves would be a 'great member of Parliament' and doubled down on his support for the embattled aspiring MP.  

Some moderate Liberal members have called for Ms Deves to be disendorsed after she apologised for calling transgender children 'surgically mutilated and sterilised' in tweets last year.

But Mr Morrison today stood by his candidate, saying: 'I'm not going to allow her to be pushed aside as the pile on comes in to try and silence her.

'I will stand up with her, my team is standing up with her, and we will make sure that she won't be silenced.'

Ms Deves co-founded the group Save Women's Sport which aims to stop transgender women competing alongside biological women.

'She is standing up for women and girls and their access to fair sport in this country,' Mr Morrison said.

'I think she will make a great Member of Parliament, she has learned in her advocacy in her private life there are better ways to do things to take things forward as a Member of Parliament.  

'I believe that is how she will approach the task if she is elected as the member for Warringah, and I don't think she should be silenced,' he said.

In the first week of the election campaign Ms Deves apologised for the wording of her old tweets about the issue.

In those tweets she described transgender children as 'surgically mutilated and sterilised', and likened her stance on the issue as being akin to the French Resistance fighters who resisted German occupation during World War II.

Ms Deves revealed she has been bombarded with death threats by left-wing activists on social media.

High profile Liberal moderates Trent Zimmerman and Matt Kean have publicly called on Mr Morrison to dis-endorse her over fears her views will haemorrhage support in inner-city seats.

'I don't think having candidates that want to spruik the politics of division is in the interests of the party or in the interests of those people candidates,' NSW Treasurer Mr Kean said.

But Ms Deves has support on the party's conservative wing with former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott backing her stance.

On Monday, independent Warringah MP Zali Steggall told Sky News the topic of trans athletes competing in female sport was a 'distraction' from bigger issues.

'I feel there's a lot of lying going on about the actual status quo, we already have a law. The Sex Discrimination Act already deals with the situation, this is just not an issue,' Ms Steggall said.

'And saying that parents will be concerned is just repeating a transphobia line.'

When she was asked to clarify why concerns about the issue should be deemed 'transphobic' she said 'because we are talking about a minority of the population that is already incredibly vulnerable.'

Warringah takes in part of Sydney's northern beaches and north shore. It was Tony Abbott's seat but was taken by Ms Steggall at the 2019 election. She is favourite to hold on to the seat.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10730297/Australia-election-2022-Scott-Morrison-defends-Warringah-candidate-Katherine-Deves.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Silence is no longer golden: The left demands woke words

In the United States, we have the right to remain silent. That is, unless you are a celebrity, a major corporation, a professional sports league or almost any other public entity when a social-justice panic occurs.

Any time the national spotlight lands on alleged racism or sexism or any ism, “silence is violence” and everyone with a platform must say all the right things, even if those things are ridiculous.

This is how Disney wound up in a cultural firestorm after a small group of employees demanded the company commit a hair-on-fire attack against Florida’s popular parental-rights legislation. Back in March, CEO Bob Chapek wisely said he didn’t want to wade into the issue and make the Mickey Mouse brand a “political football.” But then he caved to the loud lefties, the Disney stock fell off a cliff, and people all over America started rethinking vacations and streaming bundles.

We saw this in the wake of the George Floyd protests when the NBA and the NFL went all in on BLM. Black Lives Matter was emblazoned everywhere, and rich donations proffered that we now know went to buy a luxury mansion for the group’s founders. Rather quickly, ratings plummeted — it turned out nobody really wanted their sports with a side of radical Marxism.

Examples of this virtue-signaling abound: Think of every horrible video with endless Hollywood celebrities profoundly and sincerely decrying whatever the outrage du jour is. The issue here isn’t really “cancel culture,” it’s whether we can have entertainment and corporate spaces that are free of politics.

Oh, to be as privileged as a Black Lives Matter leader
This is part of a weird larger trend in corporate America in which it is no longer enough for companies to sell us soap and smartphones; they also must be saving the world, leading the way for cultural change or standing up to this, that or the other thing. Why? Why can’t they just sell us a widget and shut up?

The answer, until recently, has been that progressive public-relations stunts bought companies cred with the hyper-left at little cost. You could throw “love is love” into a commercial, throw on a colorful ribbon at the Oscars, and feel smug as you collected a paycheck.

Now that’s not enough. Activists and the Twitter mobs won’t accept it when businesses and cultural heroes don’t take a stand. You denounced that law in Kentucky, why won’t you do the same in Texas?

It’s hypocritical, of course, because the loudest voices in the room are screaming about Republican governors, but never call for a boycott of, say, Myanmar. And progressives are never happy with bland slogans of unity — they are increasingly pushing companies to oppose laws that most Americans agree with, including the Florida school curriculum one.

The end result will not be a pretty one. Conservative competitors will arise, as we see in many entertainment industries, and everything we purchase or consume will become a political and social statement. A world where you can buy the Democrat toothpaste or the Republican toothpaste or the weird libertarian toothpaste. It sounds exhausting.

Or: American corporations and entertainment can end this. They can stop moving sporting events because of @angrywokeguy’s tweets. They can stop arriving to award shows wearing enough ribbons to be a three-star general. They can just sell to us, play for us, entertain us.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/15/left-demands-woke-words-from-corporations/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Twitter Just Banned One Of Clinton’s Rape Victims For Speaking Her Mind!

On April 9, Broaddrick, 79, published a tweet that called into question the effectiveness of vaccines and argued they are ‘DNA-altering’ jabs being pushed so pharmaceutical companies can make big profits.

“When will this vaccine crap be over? Big Pharma has profited enough for the next hundred years. Stop pushing vaccines that don’t work and alter DNA,” Broaddrick wrote.

According to Fox News, Broaddick received an email from Twitter that her account was subsequently locked Twitter for ‘violating the policy on spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.

The platform said:

“We understand that during times of crisis and instability, it is difficult to know what to do to keep yourself and your loved ones safe,

Under this policy, we require the removal of content that may pose a risk to people’s health, including content that goes directly against guidance from authoritative sources of global and local public health information.”

“The social media site instructed Broaddrick that repeated offenses could result in the ‘permanent suspension’ of the account, the statement did not clarify if a previous violation occurred or if this was the first offense.”

Broaddrick, a former nursing administrator, claimed Clinton raped her in 1978 while she worked on his campaign for governor of Arkansas. The alleged incident would have occurred while he was attorney general of Arkansas.

https://independentminute.com/2022/04/12/twitter-just-banned-one-of-clintons-rape-victims-for-speaking-her-mind/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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LinkedIn apologizes for labeling Air Force vet’s post as ‘hate speech’

LinkedIn reversed course on Monday and reinstated an Air Force veteran’s post about student loans and apologized for labeling the innocuous statement as “hate speech.”

“Freedom has been secured with our blood, sweat, lives and tears,” the veteran, Gretchen Smith, told Fox News. “Every American has a duty to protect our freedoms.”

She added: “I am grateful LinkedIn reinstated our account. Now we can resume focusing on veterans in crisis/need.”

Last week Smith, founder of the non-profit organization Code of Vets, shared a post that encouraged people to claw their way out of student loan debt.

“I am not responsible for your student debt,” Smith wrote in posts on both LinkedIn and Twitter. “I grew up in poverty in NC. Ate from a garden, name was on a community Angel tree for Christmas, bought clothes from yard sales & if I was lucky, on a rare occasion Sky City. I joined the Air Force then went to college. I made it happen.”

The post came after President Biden announced that federal student loan repayments would be paused through Aug. 31, extending the moratorium that had been set to expire next month.

The Air Force vet was baffled when the social media network removed her post and restricted her account because, they said in a message, the missive “goes against our policy on hate speech.”

“What did I do wrong?,” Smith told Fox News last week. “I shared my story. That’s how I grew up. That’s how I believe everyone is responsible for their own bills and payments, and I’m being punished for it. And I just find it absolutely unacceptable that Big Tech has that kind of power.”

After Smith appealed the move by LinkedIn, the company acknowledged the mistake and apologized.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/linkedin-apologizes-for-labeling-vets-post-as-hate-speech/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Pinterest Banning All So-Called Climate Change ‘Misinformation’ From Its Site

Pinterest announced today it’s becoming the first major digital platform to introduce a comprehensive misinformation policy designed to combat false and misleading claims around climate change on its platform.

According to the company’s newly updated misinformation guidelines, Pinterest will now be able to remove content that denies the existence of impacts of climate change, denies human influence on climate change, and denies climate change is backed by scientific consensus, among other things. [bold, links added]

It will also remove false and misleading content about climate change solutions that contradict scientific consensus, content that misrepresents scientific data either by omission or cherry-picking to erode trust in climate science and experts, and harmful and misleading content about public safety emergencies including natural disasters and extreme weather events.

The company noted the new Community guidelines don’t only apply to posts on the social network, but also to ads.

Pinterest advertisers will have to follow the same rules and the Pinterest Advertising guidelines were updated to also prohibit ads containing conspiracy theories, misinformation, and disinformation related to climate change.

“Pinterest believes in cultivating a space that’s trusted and truthful for those using our platform. This bold move is an expansion of our broader misinformation guidelines, which we first developed in 2017 to address public health misinformation, and have since updated to address new and emerging issues as they come to the forefront. The expanded climate misinformation policy is yet another step in Pinterest’s journey to combat misinformation and create a safe space online,” said Sarah Bromma, Pinterest’s head of Policy, in a statement about the announcement.

The company says it relied on input from partnered experts, including the Climate Disinformation Coalition and the Conscious Advertising Network, to help develop and inform its new policy decisions.

The change follows what Pinterest says has been an increase in user searches for topics related to sustainability and the environment.

Over the past year, searches for “zero waste tips” increased by 6x, “recycling clothes ideas” were up by 4x, and searches for “recycled home decor” were up 95%, while “zero waste lifestyle” searches were up 64%.

To encourage further inspiration around greener lifestyles, Pinterest will launch a Creator Originals content series led by creators from the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, and India, which will focus on things like thrifting tips, upcycling clothes, minimizing food waste and more.

https://climatechangedispatch.com/pinterest-banning-all-so-called-climate-change-misinformation-from-its-site/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Google’s Gmail favors left-wing candidates, sends far more emails from conservatives to spam: study

A new study found that Google’s Gmail favors liberal candidates, allowing the vast majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in the user’s inbox while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates are marked as spam.

North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science published, "A Peek into the Political Biases in Email Spam Filtering Algorithms During US Election 2020," last week in order to determine if spam filtering algorithms (SFAs) are biased toward a particular political party or ideology. The extensive study took place over a course of five months, from July 1, 2020 to November 30, 2020 on Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. They created 102 email accounts and subscribed to two Presidential, 78 Senate, and 156 House candidates.

"To accurately estimate the political biases and mitigate any potential effects of demographics (ethnicity, age, and gender), we created multiple email accounts with different combinations of demographic factors and designed two experiments. The first experiment studies the general trends of biases in SFAs across the email services for the Presidential, Senate and House candidates.

The second experiment studies the impact of different email interactions such as reading the emails, marking them as spam, or vice versa on the biases in SFAs. We designed an automated process to perform all the subscriptions, and took periodic backups to keep all the email accounts active as well as to keep track of the correct number of spam emails received over the course of data collection for each of the three services," they wrote.

"We made several important observations in our study. For example, as an aggregate trend, Gmail leaned towards the left while Outlook and Yahoo leaned towards the right. Yahoo retained about half of all the political emails in inbox (up to 55.2% marked as spam) while outlook filtered out the vast majority of emails (over 71.8%) from all political candidates and marked them as spam," the proposed methodology section continued. "Gmail, however, retained the majority of left-wing candidate emails in inbox (< 10.12% marked as spam) while sent the majority of right-wing candidate emails to the spam folder (up to 77.2% marked as spam)."

The study "further observed that the percentage of emails marked by Gmail as spam from the right-wing candidates grew steadily as the election date approached while the percentage of emails marked as spam from the left-wing candidates remained about the same" in the days leading up to Election Day.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/google-gmail-favors-left-wing-candidates-conservatives-spam-study

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Big Abortion’s Big Tech Allies Aim to Censor Pro-Lifers. They Won’t Win

The future of abortion law in the U.S. hinges on the forthcoming ruling in a Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, but the pro-life movement must begin gearing up to fight another insidious foe—Big Tech censorship.

Organizations standing for the sanctity of life are well aware of the uphill battle they face.  

The prominent anti-abortion group Live Action had its content censored online long before the docket put the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide in the crosshairs.

In 2019, social media platform Pinterest added Live Action’s website to its blacklist of banned sites. The blacklisting meant users were unable to link to Live Action’s content or post it on Pinterest.

The Daily Signal reported that after Live Action attempted to appeal the ban, Pinterest took things a step further and permanently banned its account, claiming the organization violated Pinterest’s misinformation policies.  

Andrew Moore, digital and creative director at pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, says his organization also has been hit by Big Tech censorship on several occasions.  

“In 2017, Twitter prevented SBA List from running an ad featuring a pro-life quote by Mother Teresa, claiming our ad violated their policy on promoting the sale of health and pharmaceutical products,” Moore said in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“In 2020, citing a factually incorrect ‘fact-check’ by the Dispatch, Facebook banned our ads stating that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support late-term abortion. Meanwhile, Big Abortion was permitted to run comparable ads without any restrictions.”

The examples of Big Tech censorship of pro-life causes are innumerable. But what it all leads back to is that Big Tech is hostile to the anti-abortion movement and has openly thrown its considerable weight behind leftist pro-abortion causes.  

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/04/08/big-abortions-big-tech-allies-aim-to-censor-pro-lifers-they-wont-win

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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YouTube blocks Russian parliament channel, drawing ire from officials

YouTube has blocked Duma TV which broadcasts from Russia's lower house of parliament, drawing an angry response from officials who said the world's most popular streaming service could face restrictions in response.

On Saturday, a message on YouTube said the Duma channel had been "terminated for a violation of YouTube's Terms of Service".

YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc.'s Google, has been under pressure from Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor and officials were quick to respond.

"From the look of it, YouTube has signed its own warrant. Save content, transfer (it) to Russian platforms. And hurry up," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging service.

The communications watchdog said it had requested Google restore access to the Duma channel immediately.

"The American IT company adheres to a pronounced anti-Russian position in the information war unleashed by the West against our country," Roskomnadzor said.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/youtube-blocks-russian-parliament-channel-drawing-ire-officials

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Why does Twitter think Russian lies are OK but Trump isn't?

So on Twitter you can lie about war crimes but you cannot tell the truth about biology? That is the only conclusion one can draw from Twitter’s decision to leave up a vile, false tweet posted by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The tweet says the massacres in Bucha are made up. They didn’t happen. The photos and videos of dead bodies on the streets are all part of a ‘hoax’ drawn up by ‘the Kiev regime’, it says.

This is a lie. Russia’s claim that the bodies were dumped in the streets by Ukrainian forces after Russian troops had withdrawn, all in an effort to demonise Russia as a commissioner of war crimes, is entirely without foundation. Indeed, a New York Times investigation of satellite imagery has confirmed that many of the bodies were lying in the streets for more than three weeks, back when Russian forces were still occupying Bucha. Not content with brutalising and murdering Ukrainian people, the Russian regime now tries to cover its tracks with lies. This is despicable.

And yet the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ tweet is still there, for the world to see. Sure, it’s hidden behind a warning – ‘This tweet violated the Twitter Rules about abusive behaviour’ — but one click will take you through to the odious disinformation, to Russia’s lies, to Russian officials effectively dancing on the graves of the Ukrainians their military forces killed.

Let’s remind ourselves that this is Twitter we’re talking about. A platform that permanently expelled Graham Linehan after he said ‘men aren’t women tho’ in response to a tweet by the Women’s Institute wishing its trans members ‘Happy Pride’. A platform that slapped a lifetime ban on feminist writer Meghan Murphy after she referred to Jessica Yaniv – a born male who achieved notoriety when he sued female beauticians for refusing to wax his pubic area – as ‘he’.

It’s really worth taking stock of this. According to the moral overlords of Silicon Valley, stating biological facts is a speechcrime deserving of punishment, whereas lying about the heinous crimes you committed during your invasion of a sovereign state only requires the attachment of a warning. Saying ‘men aren’t women’ could see you cast into the wilderness forever; saying ‘Bucha is a hoax’ will get you a slap on the wrist.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/04/why-does-twitter-think-russian-lies-are-ok-but-trump-isnt

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Degas’ ‘Russian dancers’ is renamed ‘Ukrainian dancers’ by UK’s National Gallery

Edgar Degas’ treasured “Russian Dancers” artwork has been renamed “Ukrainian Dancers” by the UK’s National Gallery more than 120 years after it was drawn.

The famed pastel work, believed to have been created by the French Impressionist in 1899, already has its new, updated name in the National Gallery’s online listing.

“It is almost certain that these visiting dancers, and those drawn by Degas, were Ukrainian, rather than Russian,” the gallery said of the artwork that features the blue and yellow of Ukraine’s flag.

A spokesperson for the National Gallery told The Guardian that “the title of this painting has been an ongoing point of discussion for many years and is covered in scholarly literature.”

Still, “there has been increased focus on it over the past month due to the current situation” with Russia’s bloody war on its neighbor, the spokesperson said.

“So therefore we felt it was an appropriate moment to update the painting’s title to better reflect the subject of the painting,” the spokesperson said.


https://nypost.com/2022/04/04/degas-russian-dancers-is-renamed-ukrainian-dancers-by-uks-national-gallery/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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University of Virginia faculty slams its student newspaper after it demanded former VP Mike Pence be banned from speaking on its campus next week

Faculty members at the University of Virginia slammed its student newspaper on Tuesday for failing to understand the principles of free speech after it called for former Vice President Mike Pence not to be allowed to speak on campus.

Pence is scheduled to appear next Tuesday.

But the editorial board  of The Cavalier Daily triggered a furore by last month calling for his invitation to be rescinded on the grounds that 'hateful rhetoric is violent.'

Now, members of faculty have weighed in by saying it was simply wrong to say that a speech could threaten the wellbeing of students.

'This speech-is-violence argument is not only wrong — no calls for violence will be issued April 12 — but also contradicts the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment, which generally creates space for a wide range of views to be expressed so long as the relevant speech does not incite violence,' said the letter signed by 17 senior members of staff.

'It is also a disservice to those who are the victims of actual physical violence — whether those injured and killed during the many civil rights struggles in American history, those who fought and died for our constitutional rights as members of our armed services or the brave people of Ukraine who are fighting and dying for their freedoms, including free speech.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10689361/UVA-faculty-slams-student-newspaper-demanded-former-VP-Mike-Pence-banned.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Amazon's new internal chat app plans to ban words including 'union', 'pay rise' and 'plantation' to avoid 'negative sentiment'

Amazon employees could be banned from writing words including 'union' and 'pay rise' on the company's planned internal messaging app to avoid 'negative sentiment'.

The new app, which is in the planning stages, would block 42 words and phrases including those that could be used to criticize Amazon's working conditions, such as 'plantation', 'prison' and 'slave labor', according to The Intercept.

Employees posting other keywords including 'ethics', 'unfair', 'vaccine', 'master', 'freedom' and 'injustice' could also see their posts on the messaging app blocked and flagged to management.

But Amazon has disputed that the entire list of words will be banned, saying that 'many' that were listed by The Intercept will not be screened.

The plans have emerged just days after Amazon workers at the Staten Island center in New York shocked the nation by becoming the first Amazon location to unionize.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10687461/Amazons-new-internal-chat-app-ban-words-including-union-pay-rise-plantation.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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More Big Tech Censorship: RNC Video of Interview with Donald Trump Removed from YouTube

The censorship of Big Tech has truly been ramping up as of late. On Friday, YouTube informed the RNC that they had pulled a video of the latest edition of "Real America with Ronna McDaniel" between RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and former President Donald Trump. The reason given was to do with claims Trump made about the 2020 election.

Tim Pearce, writing for The Daily Wire, included email correspondence with YouTube in his reporting:

I wanted to let y’all know that your video, Real America Season 2, Episode 5: President Donald J. Trump, has been removed from the GOP YouTube channel, because it violated our policies pertaining to elections misinformation and does not contain sufficient EDSA context. Namely, the video contains claims that the 2020 election was “rigged,” with “tremendous voter fraud,” and countervailing views, which we refer to as EDSA context, on those remarks are not provided in the video, audio, title or description.

To clarify, this content would be permitted if it included sufficient context with countervailing views.

As a result, a one-time warning has been applied to the channel. This warning does not restrict your access to YouTube features, but future violations may result in Community Guidelines strikes and restrict feature access. You can find more information about our other Community Guidelines here.

Those "Community Guidelines" have sections directly relating to "Elections misinformation policies." One such example pertaining to the 2020 election, under "Election integrity," mentions "Claims that a candidate only won a swing state in the U.S. 2020 presidential election due to voting machine glitches that changed votes," under what is not allowed.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2022/04/02/more-big-tech-censorship-rnc-video-of-interview-with-donald-trump-removed-from-youtube-n2605418

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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Twisted Scottish statue topplers

The Glasgow slavery audit has finally reported this month and identified eight statues in the city as representing people connected to the Atlantic slave trade. Apparently, gifts inherited from those linked to the slave trade are valued to be worth £30 million today – about the price of an adolescent Wayne Rooney circa 2004. Aitken says the report showed Glasgow’s complicity and that an official apology is needed. Finally, something the SNP will apologise for…

Mr S isn’t exactly sure though whether the audit is correct in all of its judgments. For among the aforementioned eight statues is one of David Livingstone, the great Victorian missionary and, er, noted abolitionist. What crime has Livingstone, who loathed the Arab slave traders, supposedly committed? Well, according to the council-backed audit, Livingstone worked in a cotton manufacturer owned by Henry Monteith, who ‘likely’ sourced the material from the West Indies. The report sniffs that:

Livingstone mounted a strong defence of cotton masters,whom he regarded as paternalistic and benevolent. Perhaps this was understandable:Livingstone’s rise was based upon the high wages provided by Scottish cotton manufacturingwhich was itself dependent upon Atlantic slavery economies.

What the author neglects to mention of course is that Livingstone was just ten years old when he went to work in that cotton mill. He was a victim of child labour, forced to work there because of extreme poverty, who publicised the horrors of the East African slave trade to millions at home. In much of Africa he is still regarded as a hero of freedom: not for nothing are towns still named after him in Malawi and Zambia.

Livingstone’s reputation should mean his statue does not meet the same fate as Edward Colston in Bristol or Cecil Rhodes in Oxford.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/03/now-the-statue-topplers-come-for-abolitionists/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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YouTube Bans St. Louis Talk Radio Station’s Channel for Discussing Election Integrity

The censor-happy goons at YouTube are at it again, but this time they struck a little too close to home.

The Big Tech streaming platform banned St. Louis radio station NewsTalk STL’s YouTube channel after it posted an interview with me discussing the 2020 election and the need for election integrity legislation on the channel.  

On March 14, I joined “The Vic Porcelli Show,” a NewsTalk STL program, to discuss election integrity and legislation aimed at making America’s elections more secure. Hosts Vic Porcelli and Ken Williams asked me about a Rasmussen Reports poll, posted six days earlier, “Election Integrity Will Be Important Issue in November, Voters Say.”

The poll found that more than half of voters think that cheating affected the 2020 presidential election and that 83% of likely voters said election integrity would be an important issue in the 2022 midterm elections.

The conversation focused on the perception many American voters have of election fraud, and how legislation aimed at making it easier to vote but harder to cheat would be essential in renewing trust in our elections.

Notably, neither the hosts nor I claimed during the conversation that the election was “stolen,” only that more than half of Americans polled thought that fraud and cheating occurred.  

A week later on March 21, the station reported that it had received an email from YouTube informing it that it had received a third and final strike for that March 14 episode of “The Vic Porcelli Show,” resulting in a permanent ban from the site. All its content was deleted, and it could no longer post or share videos.  


“All we did was read things that we see in news, stories, and things,” said Porcelli in an interview with The Daily Signal. “And one of those news stories was, say, Joe Rogan, who got COVID, took ivermectin, and it made him better.”

https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/03/31/youtube-bans-st-louis-talk-radio-stations-channel-for-discussing-election-integrity

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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British female cycling stars are 'silenced and too scared to speak out' after threatening to boycott national championships if trans rider Emily Bridges competed against them

A former Team GB marathon runner claims female cyclists are 'too scared' to speak out against transgender athletes amid the furore over Emily Bridges being blocked from racing in the British National Omnium Championship.

She has been barred from competing in women's race this weekend while still registered as a man

Double Olympian Mara Yamauchi told GB News female competitors could not speak up about trans rivals, because British Cycling, 'has a policy which says you must accept people in the gender in which they present, you cannot challenge this.'

Female riders are understood to have threatened to pull out of the National Omnium Championships in Derby on Saturday, before Miss Bridges was banned from racing against them because she had competed as a man until a few weeks ago.
more videos

Stonewall has since criticised the decision to ban Bridges from the event.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10675581/Olympian-Mara-Yamauchi-warns-cyclists-scared-speak-against-trans-competitors.html

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)
 
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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