Since 1998 — the last year Congress passed a major law to reform the tech industry and protect children in the virtual space — a lot has changed.
In the last 26 years, more than 100 million Americans were born during the internet’s profound transformation from dial-up to near constant connectivity, especially with the emergence of the biggest social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and more.
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Former President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that Congress could close down Google for its alleged bias and censorship.
Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall demanded in a Wednesday letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the company provide answers relating to its apparent “censorship” of the Trump assassination attempt from the tech giant’s “autocomplete” feature. Trump on “Mornings With Maria Bartiromo” said the company could face additional congressional scrutiny and possibly closure for how its handled political issues.
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In the arsenal of the censorship-industrial complex, few weapons have been more effective than advertiser boycotts. Long before online censorship reached its peak in 2020 and 2021, advocates of online censorship had identified online advertisers as the most important source of pressure on social media companies to restrict free speech. When direct appeals to social media platforms fail, pro-censorship campaigners use the threat of advertiser boycotts to produce the desired result.
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Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz demanded Wednesday that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas provide any key documents that could shed light on his agency’s ties to Big Tech and alleged efforts to censor online information surrounding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Gaetz alleged that Mayorkas’ department has had a “pattern of coercion and collusion” with Big Tech companies, and suggested that DHS may have collaborated to “unconstitutionally” censor the former president through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), according to the letter. Gaetz demanded the DHS to turn over all documents and communications it may have had with social media platforms, internally among DHS personnel as well as federal and state employees from July 13 to July 31 that referenced the Trump assassination attempt.
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Former President Donald Trump blasted Facebook and Google Tuesday after Facebook admitted it had censored photos of Trump’s assassination attempt, images widely seen as a major moment and rallying point for the Trump campaign.
Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, began posting online this week that Google searches for Trump’s assassination, including the photo, were not being autocompleted like other searches. They also posted screenshots saying that searches for Trump turned up news for Trump’s opponent, Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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A Telegram channel used by Chinese nationals to illegally immigrate to the U.S. also appears to be aiding and abetting prostitution and sex trafficking, a months-long Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.
The “American Self-Guided Tour Channel” on Telegram is one of several that facilitates Chinese illegal immigration into the U.S., serving as a hub for documents detailing things like border wall gaps and scripts for obtaining asylum, the DCNF recently reported. The 8,000-member channel is controlled by a self-proclaimed Chinese “cyber police” agent, who regularly bans accounts critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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Mike Benz, a former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is actively censoring conservative Americans under the guise of carrying out unaudited “cybersecurity operations.”
Benz said the practice began in 2018 when CISA was created under the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018. It was in full swing during the 2020 election under the guise of being a “cyber security and infrastructure security agency,” which, Benz said, is why the program was funded under former President Donald Trump’s watch.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) celebrated on Tuesday after the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act with bipartisan support.
Blackburn wrote in a post to the social media platform X that the legislation passing the Senate is “a big step to protect” minor children from online harms, and noted Congress last passed legislation with that goal in 1998, when it passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
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Google’s search engine conspicuously left out Donald Trump in autocomplete suggestions for “assassination,” “assassination attempt” and even “president donald” Sunday, drawing criticism from social media users including X owner Elon Musk that it was censoring recent history.
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The lead sharpshooter of the SWAT Team working alongside the U.S. Secret Service during the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the group had “no communication” with the agency until after the shooting.
In an interview with ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky, the local SWAT team from Beaver County, Pennsylvania, appeared on the outlet to discuss security concerns from the day around the assassination attempt against Trump. On the day of the rally, the SWAT group was positioned within the second floor of the building that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks later used throughout the day to shoot from, with the lead sharp shooter noting that the SWAT team was supposed to receive a “face-to-face briefing” with the Secret Service agents when they had arrived on site; however, it never happened.
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A Mississippi-based telecoms and technology company swiftly pulled its advertising from the 2024 Olympics after drag queens apparently mocked the Last Supper during the opening ceremony.
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The Justice Department on Friday evening accused the social media app TikTok of gathering information on users’ opinions on social issues such as abortion and gun control.
Attorneys for the DOJ said in documents filed at an appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance used an internal web-suite system called Lark to get TikTok employees to communicate with ByteDance engineers in China.
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The Cambridge Social-Decision Making Lab (CSDMLab) has a Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST) that purports to test people’s susceptibility to so-called “misinformation.” Researchers at the lab have used the results of the test to portray younger people (millennials and Gen Z) and conservatives, who tend to rely less on mainstream media sources for news, as particularly susceptible to misinformation.
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Another left-wing news outlet is scrambling to re-write history to prevent Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, from attacks by her opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“Trump claims Harris helped raise millions and personally donated to a fund that got extra support to bail out protestors in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death,” says a report by WCCO, the Minneapolis affiliate of CBS, titled “Trump falsely accuses Harris of donating to Minnesota Freedom Fund, bailing out “dangerous criminals.”
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As Vice President Kamala Harris has become the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, the left-wing media has scrambled to erase her title as President Biden’s “Border Czar.”
Far-left Axios published a story Wednesday trying to obfuscate Harris’ role in the current border crisis.
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New poll data of registered and potential voters reveals a general consensus that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to people as it further develops.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is technology broadly used to complete tasks, learn information, and enable computers to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Recently, AI technology has become more sophisticated and more widely used at an increasing rate.
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Former President Donald Trump sought to capitalize Sunday night on Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race, suggesting the next debate be moved to Fox News instead of ABC News.
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Elon Musk has announced that X (formerly Twitter) and SpaceX headquarters will be leaving California and relocating to Texas.
The move comes after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on Monday requiring school districts to deny parents the right to know when their child is using a different name or pronoun at school.
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South Carolina transportation officials have approved updates to the state’s bridge program, deciding how to allocate $200 million in additional money state lawmakers approved.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission directed half the $200 million in one-time funding to bridges on secondary roads. The remaining $100 million will go toward bridges on primary and interstate routes.
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Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike said Friday a major technology outage is not a cyberattack but is due to a defect in a single content update.
Banks, airlines and other services all across the world were affected by the incident.
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Ford is reversing course on plans to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) at a major plant and instead will produce gas-powered, heavy-duty pickup trucks at the facility, Reuters reported Thursday.
The company initially planned to build three-row electric SUVs at its facility in Oakville, Canada, between 2025 and 2027, but the plant will now add capacity to produce 100,000 F-Series Super Duty trucks at the plant, according to Reuters. Ford said that it is still committed to producing those EVs on that timeline, though it is unclear which of its plants will handle that production.
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According to court-appointed class attorneys, less than 1% of the nearly 200,000 households involved in the East Palestine train derailment settlement opted out of the $600 million deal.
A court filing after the July 1 opt-out and objection deadline showed 0.09% of the 190,887 households in the settlement class opted out of the agreement. The settlement class includes households in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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Intel is starting up a workforce development program with some help of the state of Arizona in order to bolster the state’s growing semiconductor industry.
The program is meant to train people to become manufacturing facility technicians in a formal apprenticeship, the first of its kind in the United States from the technology company. According to a news release, the apprenticeship will feature educational components from the Maricopa County Community College District.
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The most refreshingly true statements articulated by Gill Pratt at the RealClearEnergy Future Forum are “Not everyone is the same” and “One size does not fit all.” As Toyota’s chief scientist, Pratt understands very well the complex nature of a very diverse consumer base (check the video link above to see his part).
That is why a multi-path approach that enhances the customer’s quality of life is the most productive strategy. America’s motorists come from a variety of backgrounds who purchase vehicles for a variety of purposes. “Our job as a manufacturer is to adapt and provide customers with choices to satisfy their needs and desires,” says the executive.
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Offshore wind is likely to miss the Biden administration’s 2030 target for the industry despite receiving billions of dollars of subsidies, according to a Tuesday American Clean Power Association (ACP) report.
The administration has a stated goal of having the offshore wind industry provide 30 gigawatts (GW) of power by 2030, but the ACP report projects that capacity will only reach about 14 GW by then. The Biden administration has subsidized the industry to the tune of billions of dollars since assuming office in 2021, but those efforts appear unlikely to put the 2030 target in reach until at least 2033, per ACP’s analysis.
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American automakers will need to make major changes to their businesses if they want to remain competitive with Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) poised to flood the global market, according to analysis published by auto industry consultants.
U.S. manufacturers currently do tens of billions of dollars of business abroad, but Chinese competitors are poised to take over approximately one-third of the global market share by 2030 with particularly strong growth in Europe, South America and Asia driven by EVs and plug-in hybrids, AlixPartners projects in its report.
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Tennessee sent federal funding to five small agricultural businesses to help with production increases through the Tennessee Urban Farm and Forestry cost share program.
The program’s goal is to increase access to nutritious food in urban areas of the state.
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Tech giant Meta announced Friday it will be lifting former President Donald Trump’s “heightened suspension penalties” on Facebook and Instagram as the 2024 elections grow closer.
President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, released an updated statement on the company’s site, announcing the change to the protocols from January 2023, specifically for Trump’s restrictions, in order for users to “hear from political candidates.” The company stated the previous restrictions on Trump had been placed in “response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances” following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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Virginia has again ranked first in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business index, its sixth time topping the chart since CNBC started the survey in 2007.
States are ranked on 128 metrics in 10 “broad categories of competitiveness” selected through consultation with business and policy specialists and the states.
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Large numbers of people entering or living in America illegally are exacerbating the housing crisis, including in areas like Ohio far from the border.
City Manager Bryan Heck of Springfield sent an urgent letter requesting federal aid to U.S. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Despite the city’s ongoing advancements in housing projects, the sheer number of migrants arriving and residing in the area has strained resources to their limits.
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Four weeks out from Michigan’s Primary Election Day, more than 1.5 million of the state’s voters have requested or received an absentee ballot, breaking records set in 2020.
More than 178,000 of those voters have already submitted a completed ballot.
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The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is spending billions of dollars more to help automakers mass-produce electric vehicles (EVs).
The Department of Energy (DOE) is spending $1.7 billion to help manufacturers convert closed or struggling manufacturing facilities to produce EVs or EV components in eight states, including swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, as the American EV market struggles. The funding complements $12 billion the DOE unveiled in August 2023 to help major manufacturers retrofit plants for EV production, and the agency projects that the cash announced Thursday will allow for the retention of 15,000 union workers while creating nearly 3,000 jobs.
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The lithium-ion batteries that are essential to the green energy transition are an “unrecognized and potentially growing” source of chemical pollution, according to a new study published in Nature.
The study sought to fill in knowledge gaps about whether or not chemicals used in lithium-ion battery components can pose environmental hazards, a key question given that Western policymakers are relying on the technology to help replace fossil fuel-fired infrastructure and meet long-term emissions reductions targets. After conducting “a cradle-to-grave evaluation” on the subject and collecting dozens of samples in the U.S. and Europe, the study’s authors “[confirmed] the clean energy sector as an unrecognized and potentially growing source” of chemical pollution, and that the growing prominence of lithium-ion batteries around the world makes pollution from their waste “an issue of global concern.”
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The word charade has several meanings, and including an act or event that is clearly false (Cambridge Dictionary), something done just for show (Vocabulary.com), or a situation in which people pretend that something is true when it clearly is not (Oxford Leaner’s Dictionary).
The charade I refers to is President Biden’s $7.5 billion dollar investment to install 500,000 electric charging stations along America’s highways by 2030. A reliable and convenient public EV charging infrastructure is critical to achieve the President’s goal of meeting the recent EPA CO2 emission regulation that require nearly 72 percent of U.S. new light vehicle sales to be fully electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032. Without diving deeper into the announcement, one would likely assume that $7.5 billion is sufficient to construct the 500,000 charging stations, one every 50 miles along the nation’s highways.
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The environment, social and governance (ESG) investing movement has faced a lot of criticism over the past couple years for undermining fiduciary responsibility and pushing progressive agendas through an undemocratic process.
At the Energy Future Forum presented by RealClearEnergyWednesday, Terrence Keeley, author and former senior advisor at Blackrock, argued that ESG is also misallocating resources and doing nothing for the environment it claims to protect.
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Earlier this year, students at a Pennsylvania middle school created over 20 TikTok accounts that impersonated teachers at their school.
Unfortunately, many of these ersatz Great Valley Middle School teacher accounts included “racist, homophobic, [and] sexually inappropriate content.”
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A House subcommittee is exposing the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to let Cuban agents visit a U.S. airport and tour agency facilities, a potentially embarrassing episode for the Biden administration as polls show Latino voters are up for grabs in the 2024 election.
Rep. Carlos Giminez, R-Fla., the chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, has scheduled a hearing Wednesday titled “Protecting the Homeland – Examining TSA’s Relationships with U.S. Adversaries” that will focus heavily on the episode a few weeks ago at the Miami airport that has drawn widespread condemnation, particularly in the Cuban ex-pat community in America.
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Installation of the country’s largest offshore wind farm began in earnest just two months ago off the coast of Virginia, and the Biden administration announced Friday it will be auctioninganother even bigger wind energy lease sale off the coast of the commonwealth.
Dominion Energy leased the approximately 113,000 acres that would become the site of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project in 2013. After installing two pilot turbines in 2020, the utility began the installation of the rest of its 176 turbines in May.
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WURD Radio, the only African-American owned and operated talk radio station in Pennsylvania, has terminated the morning radio host Andrea Lawful-Sanders after she admitted to using questions pre-provided by President Joe Biden’s team during an interview. The station made this decision in response to Lawful-Sanders’ revelation that she received eight questions from Biden’s team and used four of them during the broadcast, which they stated violated their commitment to “independent journalism.”
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George Stephanopoulos’ interview of President Biden was painful to watch — unless, probably, you’re Donald Trump. Even partisan Trump supporters could feel sorry for the president — though that would be a mistake: if you were in Biden’s shoes, he would not feel sorry for you.
At least some people were not sure Stephanopoulos would ask, and then press, hard questions. He did. But there was no real reason to suppose he would let Biden off lightly: he surely wants the Democrats to win the election as much as any other partisan Democrat, and letting Biden remain the party’s candidate is — now, clearly — not in their best interest.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody welcomed new police officers to the state after they relocated from Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New York.
“Florida is the most pro-law enforcement state in the nation because we back our blue,” Moody said. “We’ve been spreading the word about all the great incentives to join our ranks, and individuals like the new Sarasota recruits have answered the call – leaving behind places where their service was not as appreciated as it is here.”
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In a recent report, “Powering Human Advancement,” The Heritage Foundation laid bare the truth that the driving force behind wealth creation and raising human development standards is the innovative harnessing of energy.
As historian Vaclav Smil sees it, “Energy is the only universal currency.”
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Getting immunizations in Ohio is closer to getting a little easier.
Pharmacy technicians and registered pharmacy technicians could soon be able to administer immunizations around the state, servicing children as young as 5 years old.
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A new audit raises questions as to whether Wisconsin’s attorney general will be able to meet a new state requirement to get sexual assault kits tested within six months.
The Legislative Audit Bureau released its new report on the state’s crime recently, saying there are fewer requests for sexual assault DNA kits at the crime labs, but it is taking the labs longer to process each kit.
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Green Energy Failure: Supply chain issues, financing, fleet-adequate solutions, engineering costs, and inadequate software among roadblocks cited in the survey.
Businesses building electric vehicle charging stations say that finding enough electricity is a major — perhaps fatal — problem.
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Social media plays a significant role in shaping the opinions of those 35 and under — it’s the primary news source for most in that age group, one survey found.
Some stats report that daily screen time for 16- to 24-year-olds is nearly eight hours among females and seven hours among males. To put that in perspective — that’s equivalent to the average time in a school day.
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Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that Steve Bannon is “a brain bending communicator” who sounds “almost rational” after the program played ABC’s Jonathan Karl’s exclusive interview with the former Trump White House advisor and current WarRoom host.
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A new report from the House of Representatives claims that the Biden Administration repeatedly pressured the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into speeding up the approval of the Chinese Coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer.
According to the Daily Caller, the staff report from the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust alleges that the FDA did not follow the usual regulatory guidelines when it came to approving the Pfizer vaccine. As such, when the FDA gave its approval to the vaccine, it allowed the Biden Administration to more quickly issue a mandate forcing federal workers and active duty troops to take the Pfizer vaccine or else risk losing their jobs.
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For three and a half years, Joe Biden’s handlers have hidden him from public view and kept him locked deep inside the confines of the White House or at Rehoboth Beach—far away from “we the people.”
For three and a half years, Biden has barely averaged more than a 30-hour work week and has almost never said anything without the assistance of a teleprompter or a notecard. When he does speak, he gives terse remarks that rarely last more than 15 minutes and are almost never in prime time, meaning his audience is negligible.
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Human trafficking brings in $236 billion dollars a year, according to the International Labor Organization.
Microsoft’s 2023 revenue totaled $212 billion.
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