Professor Shmuel Shapira, M.D., MPH, the former Director General of the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), is one of the top medical scientists in the world, and since his “vaccine” injury, he’s become one of the world’s top critics of the COVID-19 shots.
Read the full storyTag: Twitter
Twitter Censors ‘Groomer’ Term After Left-Wing Pressure Campaign
Twitter began censoring the word “groomer” after left-wing media watchdog group Media Matters for America pressured the site to crack down on the term, which they claim is anti-LGBT.
Commentator James Lindsay was locked out of his Twitter account Thursday for calling a Media Matters employee a groomer, according to screenshots Lindsay shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. He had to delete his tweet and wait an additional 12 hours to regain full access to his account.
Read the full storyTwitter Sues Elon Musk to Force Him to Purchase Company
Twitter sued Elon Musk to force him to purchase the social media giant for $44 billion after Musk stated last week that he plans to walk away from the deal.
Despite deflecting the company’s legal threat with humor on Monday, Musk now faces a lawsuit in Chancery Court in Delaware, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Read the full storyGETTR CEO Jason Miller Discusses Musk’s Failed Twitter Takeover
Claiming that Twitter was in “material breach” of its agreement to sell the microblogging platform to him, Elon Musk said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that he does not intend to purchase Twitter, invoking a massive response in the tech space.
“Today’s announcement that Elon Musk is abandoning his takeover of Twitter comes as no surprise to those of us who predicted the implosion for months,” GETTER CEO Jason Miller said in a statement. “But the lasting result of the failed acquisition will be permanent, and Musk deserves credit for further exposing the incurable, rotting, politically discriminatory culture inside the Blue Bird.”
Read the full storyElon Musk Cancels Bid to Buy Twitter
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday announced that he was canceling plans to purchase social media giant Twitter, citing the company’s failure to produce information on fake accounts.
Musk sent a letter to Twitter’s board of directors on Friday announcing he would not acquire the company. He told the Securities and Exchange Commission that Twitter has “not complied with its contractual obligation,” according to the Associated Press.
Read the full storyBiden Climate Czar Urges Big Tech to Censor Energy Debate
President Joe Biden’s top adviser on environmental issues called on technology companies to censor debates on environmental issues and energy policy during a Thursday event.
“The tech companies have to stop allowing specific individuals over and over again to spread disinformation,” White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, a former EPA Administrator, said during a virtual event, according to Axios. “We need the tech companies to really jump in.”
Read the full storyTwitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Leaves Company’s Board of Directors
Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey has exited the social media company’s board of directors.
The planned departure comes as Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk continues his attempt to purchase the company. The company initially announced last November that Dorsey would leave the board when his term expired at the company’s 2022 shareholder meeting, which took place Wednesday.
Read the full storyTennessee Lawmakers React to School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas
Tennessee lawmakers are speaking out on social media after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas unfolded on Tuesday that has since left 22, including the gunman, dead.
Read the full storyConservative Investors Launch Campaign to Take On America’s ‘Wokest’ Corporations
A group of conservative investors plan to take on four of the “wokest” corporations at upcoming shareholder meetings over allegedly discriminatory policies in an effort to defend shareholders, according to a press release.
The Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Boardroom Initiative (BI) coalition member, will make proposals at Walmart, Twitter, Facebook and Comcast shareholder meetings held over the next two weeks to hire outside firms to investigate whether or not the companies are placing merit behind “equity” considerations, according to the release.
Read the full storyTwitter Will Now Suppress ‘False’ and ‘Misleading’ Tweets Under ‘Crisis Misinformation’ Policy
Twitter announced Thursday that the company would be implementing a new policy for its users that would focus on making sure widespread “misinformation” was not amplified on the site during crises.
Tweets branded as misinformation during a crisis will be blocked out with a warning notice under the new “Crisis Misinformation Policy,” the blog post read. Twitter added that the policy would prioritize tweets with high exposure or from “high profile accounts.”
Read the full storyTwitter Lead Client Partner Caught on Tape Slamming Free Speech and Describing Elon Musk as a ‘Looney Tune’ with ‘Special Needs’
Twitter is not in business to make a profit or to give people free speech, but to do “something that’s good for the planet,” a company employee can be heard saying in a secretly recorded video.
The new undercover footage from Project Veritas features Lead Client Partner Alex Martinez discussing the company’s authoritarian views on speech, and denigrating Tesla CEO Elon Musk as a “loony toon” with “special needs.”
Read the full storyTwo Top Twitter Managers Fired Ahead of Musk Purchase
Two top officials at Twitter were fired on Thursday, signaling ongoing internal chaos at the tech giant as Elon Musk prepares to take over the company.
According to ABC News, one of Twitter’s general managers, Kayvon Beykpour, was fired after working at Twitter for seven years. The same day, revenue and product lead Bruce Falck announced his firing in a tweet that has since been deleted. Beykpour described his situation in several tweets, claiming that CEO Parag Agrawal “asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction.” Falck’s Twitter bio now simply reads “unemployed.”
Read the full storyMusk Says He Would Reverse Twitter Ban on Trump
Incoming Twitter owner Elon Musk said Tuesday he would reverse the social media platform’s ban on former President Donald Trump.
The decision to ban Trump, said Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, was “morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
Read the full storyMyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Alleges Twitter Is Carrying Fake Accounts in His Name; His Just-Banned Official Account’s Takedown Reveals the Ruse
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Sunday launched a new Twitter account that was suspended less than four hours after its creation.
On the move by the social media giant, Lindell said, “Like the [banned] Twitter account, it’s more corrupt than you’ve seen there. Twitter, a week before that – a week before – they put up a fake account. Twitter’s done this three times to me, and then they run the account, and act like they’re me. So they go, ‘Oh, Mike’s okay with the election.’ Like everything’s business as normal.
Read the full storyCommentary: Americans Are Sounding the Alarm over Big Tech Monopolies
Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition — which can be summed up as the world’s wealthiest person buying one of the most powerful social media and news platforms — underscores one of the big problems with Big Tech.
In the absence of modernized anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws, Big Tech companies in the U.S. have amassed far too much economic and political control over society, and especially over the news and publishing industries.
Read the full storyDavid Perdue Compares Digital Censorship to Communist and Socialist Dictatorships
Former U.S. Senator David Perdue made a surprise visit Wednesday to Habersham County Airport, where he criticized social media platforms run by the progressive-dominated tech companies of Silicon Valley for their silencing of conservative voices.
Read the full storyTwitter Locks Tennessee Star Account Again After Reposting Same Factual News Story
For the second time in three days, Silicon Valley giant Twitter has locked The Tennessee Star out of its account for posting a factual story.
The temporary ban comes less than a day after The Star’s account was unlocked. After its account was unlocked Sunday, The Star reposted the story that caused the account to be locked in the first place.
Read the full storyTwitter Unlocks The Tennessee Star Account
After about 24 hours of being locked out, The Tennessee Star’s Twitter account has been unlocked, and its full functionality restored.
“After The Tennessee Star reported a factual story on Friday about Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) signing a bill into law making Ivermectin available over-the-counter, Twitter has locked The Tennessee Star out of its account,” The Star reported Saturday.
Read the full storyCommentary: Biden’s Scary and Unconstitutional Ministry of Truth
Earlier this week Biden announced that the Department of Homeland Security would be launching a “Disinformation Governance Board,” which will be headed by executive director Nina Jankowicz.
Katelyn Caralle, of the UK’s Daily Mail, describes Jankowicz as a woke so-called expert who’s against free speech and tried to pour cold water on the Hunter laptop scandal.
Read the full storyTwitter Locks The Tennessee Star Account for Reporting Facts
After reporting a factual story about Gov. Bill Lee (R) signing a bill into law making anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin available over-the-counter, Twitter has locked The Tennessee Star out of its account.
The company said that The Star’s reporting might pose a risk to public health, and in response, The Star will not be able to make posts for several hours.
Read the full storyArizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward’s Husband Michael Ward Permanently Suspended from Twitter for ‘Multiple, Severe Violations’
Twitter suspended Michael Ward, the husband of Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, Wednesday morning for “multiple, severe violations” according to his wife. She tweeted, “Weird. He’s not a terrorist or a tyrant. He’s a doctor, dad, & veteran. That must be it!”
https://twitter.com/kelliwardaz/status/1519313005174874113
Michael Ward told The Arizona Sun Times, “I want to know whether they’re targeting me because I opposed COVID-19 restrictions, or because I am a conservative physician, or because I’m a retired colonel who opposes the Biden administration.” He believes he was probably singled out because of who he’s married to. He said Twitter first suspended him on Jan. 7, 2021, his first account, @JimmyTheMole01, because he retweeted former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol. He was never given a warning, temporary suspension, or second chance when he tried to appeal, the account was permanently banned.
Read the full storyCommerical and Intellectual Property Attorney Akiva Cohen on Elon Musk Twitter Buy
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed New York City attorney Akiva Cohen to the newsmaker line to comment upon the Elon Musk, Twitter buy, next steps, and anti-trust law.
Read the full storyCommentary: Reaction to Musk Offer Suggests Content Moderation More About Control Than Safety
The reaction among the press and tech communities to Elon Musk’s efforts to purchase Twitter has been nothing short of apocalyptic. A common theme has been that democracy itself would be under threat if unelected billionaire oligarchs controlled what was allowed online. Yet this is precisely how social media works today. The Musk controversy, like the Cambridge Analytica story before it, highlights the real issue: the fight over content moderation is less about online safety and more about who controls the digital public square.
Only a year ago, the media cheered the unilateral decisions by a handful of billionaires to effectively banish then-President Donald Trump from the digital public square. Lawmakers and media outlets alike proclaimed the societal benefits of private companies controlling the digital public square beyond the reach of government. In contrast, the possibility of a libertarian-leaning billionaire like Musk wielding that same power has been presented as nothing short of an attack on democracy itself.
Read the full storyGrant’s Rants: ‘It’s Time for All of Us to Decide If the New Motto of Twitter Will Be the Following: I May Disapprove of What You Say, but I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It’
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed official guest host Grant Henry in studio for another edition of Grant’s Rants.
Read the full storyElon Musk Secures Deal to Buy Twitter for $44 Billion
Billionaire Elon Musk reached a deal Monday to purchase social media giant Twitter for a sum of $44 billion.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said, per Reuters.
Read the full storyTwitter Bans Ads Contradicting U.N. Climate Science
Twitter will no longer sell ads with messaging that contradicts the United Nations’ (UN) scientists, according to a statement from the Silicon Valley tech giant.
“To better serve these conversations, misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy,” the statement says. “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. This approach is informed by authoritative sources, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports.”
Read the full storyCommentary: Twitter Is Not a Business, It’s a Political Operation
Here’s your first clue Twitter is not really a business with a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value – when Elon Musk made a public offer to buy the company for $54.20 a share (roughly $40 billion) the company’s management not only turned down the offer, but began to work on a poison pill defense aimed solely at Mr. Musk, who is already Twitter’s largest shareholder.
According to reporting by the New York Times, some investors and Wall Street analysts said that Mr. Musk’s offer of $54.20 a share was too low, and that he would need to go to at least $60 a share to appeal to shareholders. That would be 25 percent higher than the share price when Mr. Musk announced this month that he had acquired a 9 percent stake in Twitter.
Read the full storyTwitter Board Adopts So-Called ‘Poison Pill’ Plan to Block Musk from Taking Platform Private
Twitter’s board of directors on Friday unanimously adopted a plan to stop Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s plan to take private the social media company.
Read the full storyAll-Star Panelist Ben Cunningham and the Tyranny of Social Media Companies
Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Ben Cunningham to discuss the tyranny of social media companies and their censorship of conservative voices.
Read the full storyGrant’s Rants: ‘Technocratic Elites Have an Agenda, and I Can Promise You That Agenda Does Not Include You’
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed official guest host Grant Henry in studio for another edition of Grant’s Rants.
Read the full storyElon Musk Named to Twitter Board of Directors
In a move that has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who became Twitter’s largest shareholder Monday, will now be a member of the company’s board of directors.
“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing [Musk] to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said Tuesday.
Read the full storyMusk Takes 9 Percent Stake in Twitter amid Speculation Buy Will Lead to ‘Active Stake,’ Stocks Soar
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has questioned Twitter’s commitment to free speech, has taken a 9% stake in the social media platform, making him its largest shareholder.
Musk bought 73.5 million shares worth $2.9 billion, based on the closing price Friday, the Associated Press reported Monday.
However, what Musk intends to do as a result of the purchase remains unclear.
Read the full storyCongressman Demands Internal Records from Facebook and Twitter over Suppression of Hunter Biden Laptop Story
On Thursday, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) demanded that Big Tech companies Facebook and Twitter preserve all internal documents related to the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Issa’s office sent letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Facebook communications director Andy Stone, and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. The letters all ordered the companies to “immediately initiate document preservation for all materials relating to questions, inquiry, conversation, strategy, and response to the media reporting of the Hunter Biden laptop and/or its contents that first appeared in the New York Post on October 14, 2020.” The companies were additionally instructed to notify employees, consultants, and subcontractors who may have access to the relevant information.
Issa’s requests are in reference to an apparently coordinated campaign by Big Tech companies and the mainstream media to suppress the bombshell story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. First reported on by the New York Post, the story broke less than one month before the 2020 election in which Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, was running against incumbent President Donald Trump. The laptop in question, retrieved from a repair shop in Delaware, contained numerous damning documents, photos, and videos depicting Hunter’s foreign business dealings through his father’s political connections, as well as Hunter’s personal habits involving drugs, alcohol, and prostitution.
Read the full storyDonald Trump’s Truth Social Propels Conservatives’ Reach Past Twitter in Few Short Weeks
Radio host and TV commentator Dan Bongino built an army-sized following over the years on Twitter, with 2.4 million fans. In a few short weeks, he’s attracted about a tenth of the same following on President Trump’s nascent Truth Social platform.
But with millions fewer users and hundreds of thousands fewer followers, Bongino’s Truth Social account — like those of scores of other conservative stars — is creating substantially more engagement on posts than his long-time audience on Twitter.
Read the full storyGETTR Director of Media Affairs Sonny Joy Nelson on Record Enrollment and Platform Mission
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Director of Media Relations for GETTR social media, Sonny Joy Nelson to the newsmakers line to describe the new platform and its mission.
Read the full storyCensored: Twitter Suspends John Solomon’s Account for Story on Peer-Reviewed COVID Study
Twitter on Thursday suspended the account of Just the News CEO and Editor John Solomon for tweeting a story about a peer-reviewed study on COVID vaccines published in a respected medical journal by a research university that has worked with the both National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.
Read the full storyPuskaric to Ask Pennsylvania Agencies to Ditch Social Media Platforms That Censor
Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Puskaric (R-Jefferson Hills) indicated Wednesday he will urge state agencies to ditch social-media platforms he says engage in censorship.
In a memorandum asking fellow representatives to cosponsor his upcoming resolution, the Pittsburgh-area legislator argued that especially large information-technology companies violate the state and federal constitutions when they make politicized publishing decisions. He insisted government institutions and officials should respond by cancelling their accounts on such sites and signing onto more permissive online venues instead.
Read the full storyHacking Group ‘Anonymous’ Signals All-out Campaign Against Russia
The infamous hacking group Anonymous appeared to declare an all-out digital war against Russia late this week, indicating the opening of a hacking front against Russian president Vladimir Putin amid his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Anonymous is a loosely federated collective of hackers who regularly carry out digital sabotage of targets they claim deserve to be hacked. On Friday, a Twitter account purporting to represent some members of Anonymous issued a broad call for hackers to target the Russian government.
“Hackers all around the world: target Russia in the name of #Anonymous,” the account posted. “Let them know we do not forgive, we do not forget. Anonymous owns fascists, always.”
Read the full storyPennsylvania Professor Files Lawsuit Following Dismissal over Anonymous Tweets
Professor Gregory Manco has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, St. Joseph’s University, citing undue discrimination after a previous student of his complained to the institution about what she perceived to be racist activity on Manco’s Twitter account.
Manco had served as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at St. Joe’s for 17 years. In 2017, Hadassah Colber, a student that Manco failed, claimed that she found offensive tweets on the scholar’s anonymous Twitter account, Broad + Liberty reports.
According to the lawsuit, Colbert learned about his Twitter account on Jan. 22, 2021, and emailed the University to complain about the “racist” and “transphobic” content she saw.
Read the full storyTwitter Reverses Ban on Account That Highlighted Left-Wing Hypocrisy
Twitter Tuesday evening banned a well-known Twitter account called @DefiantLs, which posted screenshots pointing out left-wing hypocrisy.
The owner of the account, who has always been anonymous and remains so, said the account was banned for an alleged “ban evasion,” despite the fact that the account owner says he or she has “never had an account suspended so I’ve never had a ban to evade.”
Read the full storyBig Tech Censored Dozens of Doctors, over 800 Accounts for COVID-19 ‘Misinformation,’ Study Shows
Major technology companies and social media platforms have removed, suppressed or flagged the accounts of over 800 prominent individuals and organizations, including medical doctors, for COVID-19 misinformation, according to a new study from the Media Research Center (MRC).
MRC’s Free Speech America CensorTrack, an initiative that monitors acts of censorship across online platforms, identified over 41 instances between March 2020 and February 2022 in which doctors, scientists and medical organizations were censored, according to the results of a study shared with Daily Caller News Foundation.
Read the full storyDemocratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna Calls out Twitter for Trying to Hide Hunter Biden Laptop Story
Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna criticized Twitter and Facebook for censoring the New York Post’s story on Hunter Biden, saying the story should not have been blocked.
“I thought it was a mistake for Twitter to take down some of this stuff about Hunter Biden, or Facebook to do that,” Khanna said during an interview with Joe Lonsdale on the American Optimist podcast while promoting his book “Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us.”
The New York Post published a story in October 2020 detailing a meeting between Hunter Biden, then-Vice President Joe Biden and a top executive at Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2015, relying on data recovered from a laptop reportedly belonging to Hunter. Shortly after the story was published, Twitter blocked users from sharing the link and suspended accounts that attempted to tweet it out.
Read the full storyGrant’s Rants: Grant Henry Quits Twitter Today, Model of Free Speech Party over
Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed official guest host Grant Henry in studio for another edition of Grant’s Rants where he discusses the censorship of Twitter.
Read the full storyTrump Calls Twitter, Facebook ‘Disgrace to Our Nation,’ Urges Americans to Abandon Platforms
Former President Donald Trump, who is building his own social media solution, on Monday night called Twitter and Facebook a “disgrace to our Nation” for their continued censorship of conservative voices and implored Americans to abandon their platforms.
Trump’s statement was released after a tumultuous 24-hour period in which freshman Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was banned permanently from Twitter and given a 24-hour timeout on Facebook for information she posted on COVID-19.
“Twitter is a disgrace to democracy. They shouldn’t be allowed to do business in this Country,” the former president said. “Marjorie Taylor Greene has a huge constituency of honest, patriotic, hard-working people. They don’t deserve what’s happened to them on places like low-life Twitter and Facebook.
Read the full storyTwitter Permanently Suspends Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Personal Account
Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over repeated violations of its COVID-19 misinformation policy, the company confirmed early Sunday.
Greene’s personal account, @mtgreenee, was no longer active Sunday morning, and it has been labeled with an “account suspended” notice. Greene’s official government account, @RepMTG, is still active.
When reached for comment, Twitter confirmed Greene’s account was suspended, and the company said she committed “repeated” violations of its policy on COVID-19 misinformation.
Read the full storyTwitter Admits ‘Error’ in Suspending Just the News Founder John Solomon’s Account over COVID Facts
Twitter late Thursday acknowledged that Just the News founder and Editor-in-Chief John Solomon’s account was “suspended in error” this week over a post about a COVID-19 vaccine.
The respond follows an appeal earlier in the day by Solomon after his account was suspended Tuesday for his tweet linking to the article “Pfizer to continue distributing version of COVID-19 vaccine not fully approved by FDA.”
Read the full storyCommentary: The Year in Unhinged Liberal Celebrities’ Freakouts
Despite the triumph of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, liberal celebrities didn’t get much happier in 2021.
It began with Donald Trump refusing to concede that he lost the presidential election. A year ago, one actor engaged in violent fantasies over this stubborn resistance to the facts. “Who arrests Trump if he refuses to concede? Who drags him out? Pepper spray? Cuffs?” That sounds like an action movie.
But then it turned threatening: “A knee on his neck, cutting off his oxygen? Does he wheeze ‘I can’t breathe'(?) Just whale away on him like a pinata? Rodney King style? The thug who has destroyed the country. What does he deserve?”
Read the full storyDr. Robert Malone Banned from Twitter Day Before Filming Joe Rogan Episode
A prominent doctor who has often challenged government and media narratives about the COVID-19 vaccines has been permanently banned from Twitter.
Dr. Robert Malone played a key role in the invention of the mRNA vaccine, the type of vaccine that is being administered to many Americans in an effort to stave off COVID-19. Malone has often been critical of the use of the vaccines, as well those in media and government who support them.
Read the full storyTwitter Suspends Just the News Founder for Report on Legal Distinctions Between COVID Vaccines
Twitter suspended the account of Just the News founder John Solomon for sharing an article about the legal distinctions between Pfizer’s fully approved and emergency use authorization (EUA) COVID-19 vaccines, which could affect the legality of vaccine mandates.
Read the full storyIndependent Journalist Alex Berenson Sues Twitter for First Amendment Violation
Independent journalist Alex Berenson on Monday announced from his SubStack account, “Unreported Truths,” a lawsuit against Twitter for violating his First Amendment rights.
The lawsuit, which follows the social media giant banning the author from the platform, contends that multiple Twitter officials assured Berenson that he would have access to the platform, only to be kicked off later.
Read the full story