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Saturday, April 19, 2025

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https://nordictimes.com/world/meta-censors-billionaires-flight-habits/

World

Meta censors billionaires’ flight habits

Internet censorship

Published 23 October 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Sometimes one private jet isn't enough – Bill Gates, for example, owns four.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Meta has deleted a number of accounts on Instagram and Threads that map the private jets of multi-billionaires and their travel patterns. The company argues that the elite risk violence if the public knows their whereabouts.

Accounts that publicized the travel around the world of power players such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have been deleted, and Meta claims that the decision was taken to protect the billionaires’ safety. The company states that the publication of the jets’ travel risks causing “physical harm” to the celebrities and further violates Meta’s privacy policy.

“Given the risk of physical harm to individuals, and in keeping with the independent Oversight Board’s recommendation, we’ve disabled these accounts for violating our privacy policy”, a Meta spokesperson stated in an email to TechCrunch.

Previous posts with links tracking flights by presidential candidate Donald Trump, Governor Ron DeSantis and certain pop culture celebrities have also been deleted, and anyone trying to click on them is instead met with an error message that the link may be broken or the page may have been removed.

Jack Sweeney is a Florida student who was banned from X (formerly Twitter) two years ago after mapping and posting Elon Musk’s air travel, and now he’s banned from Instagram.

Anonymized registration information

As recently as May, US President Joe Biden signed a law allowing private aircraft owners to anonymize their registration information, but Sweeney says it is still very easy to track “high-profile individuals” – not least through tips from other flight-tracking enthusiasts.

Censorship measures are a heated topic on social media, with some arguing that even billionaires deserve privacy and freedom from surveillance. Others counter that, since they often travel to meet with leaders, expand their influence, and attend events impacting the lives and futures of citizens, transparency should take precedence.

Some also highlight the fact that it is often multi-billionaires and other celebrities with private jets who urge people to stop traveling and consuming for the sake of the climate, while their own travels frequently generate as much emissions as hundreds, or even thousands of ordinary people, and that this hypocrisy remains important to point out.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/world/us-shuts-down-bidens-censorship-agency/

World

US shuts down Biden’s censorship agency

Donald Trump's USA

Published yesterday 9:57
– By Editorial Staff
Members of the Trump administration have long expressed concerns about how freedom of expression is being restricted and curtailed in various ways.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The United States has now officially shut down an agency that, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was used by the Biden administration to systematically censor US citizens with uncomfortable views.

The Global Engagement Center (GEC) was established in 2016 within the US Department of State, with a mission to “recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation”.

In December, the center was renamed Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI), but on Wednesday, Marco Rubio announced that it had been permanently shut down.

– Under the previous administration, this office, which cost taxpayers more than $50 million per year, spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving, Rubio said.

– This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America.

In an interview published Wednesday with conservative activist Mike Benz, Rubio explained that the GEC was initially intended as a tool to combat extremist propaganda from groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, but that the operation later began “going after individual American voices”.

– We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department, he declared.

“Worst offender in US government censorship”

Rubio added that the Biden administration had supported groups that “literally tagging and labeling voices in American politics – Ben Shapiro, The Federalist, others – tagging them as foreign agents”.

The GEC had an annual budget of $61 million and employed about 120 people. In December, Republican members of Congress refused to provide continued funding for the unit.

President Donald Trump and his supporters have long accused Democrats of using government institutions to silence conservative views online. In 2023, tech billionaire Elon Musk also criticized the GEC, calling it “worst offender in US government censorship & media manipulation” and “a threat to our democracy”.

Journalist Matt Taibbi also accused the center of trying to suppress discussions on COVID-19 under the pretext of fighting “Russian personas and proxies”.

Already last year, a group of Republican members of Congress harshly criticized the GEC in a letter to then Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The letter accused the Center of bias in favor of “American progressives” and of trying to silence opinions that were “deemed politically inconvenient or disagreeable”.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/us-tech-giants-cave-to-eu-censorship-demands/

Tech

US tech giants cave to EU censorship demands

Internet censorship

Published 29 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Most major tech giants have chosen to adopt the EU Code of Conduct - which is supposedly voluntary.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

US tech companies Facebook, X and YouTube have agreed to step up their efforts to combat alleged online hate.

The agreement comes under the updated EU Code of Conduct, which is now integrated into the Union’s regulatory framework, the Digital Services Act (DSA).

Meta, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), Google’s YouTube and several other tech companies have agreed to strengthen their efforts against so-called hate content on their platforms. This includes enhanced efforts to detect and address unauthorized online speech and posts under the updated EU Code of Conduct.

– In Europe there is no place for illegal hate, either offline or online. I welcome the stakeholders’ commitment to a strengthened Code of conduct under the Digital Services Act (DSA), commented EU Tech Commissioner Henna Virkkunen.

The revised code, which is said to be voluntary for companies to sign up to, requires, among other things, faster handling of reports of suspected “cyber hate”. Companies commit to working with non-profit organizations and public bodies to review at least two-thirds of incoming reports within 24 hours. In addition, automated tools will be used to reduce the spread of so-called hate content, and companies will also provide detailed information on the role of algorithms and content recommendations.

In addition to the major platforms, other affiliates include TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitch. The EU stresses that compliance with this code of conduct could influence how Union regulators apply the rules of the DSA, which entered into force in 2022 and aims, among other things, to combat illegal content and protect users’ safety online.

Threatened annulment of elections

The EU’s new measures are part of its broader strategy to regulate the tech sector and ensure that companies act in line with what the EU itself claims are “democratic values”. In the past, the EU has also introduced the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to limit the dominance of tech giants and promote competition.

Another example of the EU’s regulatory zeal is recently reported statements by Thierry Breton, former European Commissioner, that the Union can use the DSA to annul elections if there is suspicion of foreign influence. Breton mentioned, among others, Elon Musk’s platform X as a potential risk of influence during the upcoming German elections.

In addition, Google has been criticized for its introduction of “digital fingerprinting”, a technology that critics say undermines users’ privacy. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has expressed concerns about the technology and warned that it could be used for widespread surveillance.

Although the EU claims that the aim of the DSA and the updated code of conduct is to combat hate speech and protect democracy, critics have warned that the Union’s rules could severely restrict citizens’ freedom of expression.

By imposing strict requirements on platforms to monitor and filter content, there is a risk of creating a digital landscape where controversial views are censored and the climate of debate is negatively affected.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/zuckerberg-biden-administration-forced-us-to-censor-vaccine-criticism/

Tech

Zuckerberg: Biden administration forced us to censor vaccine criticism

Internet censorship

Published 11 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg says it was Biden's team that forced Facebook to censor vaccine criticism.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it was the Biden administration that forced the company’s platforms to censor posts criticizing the experimental COVID-19 vaccines.

The conversation covered several topics, but one that stood out was when Zuckerberg talked about government censorship and how the outgoing administration forced the tech company to weed out uncomfortable opinions – even if they were completely true.

– This hit the most extreme. I’d say it was during the Biden Administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine programme. Now I’m generally pretty pro rolling out vaccines, I think on balance the vaccines are more positive than negative but I think that while they’re trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who was arguing against it.

– They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true. I mean, they basically pushed us and said, ‘You know anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you need to take down’ , the billionaire explained in the interview, claiming he opposed this demand.

According to Zuckerberg, representatives of the Biden administration contacted him personally and demanded that posts highlighting the side effects of the mRNA vaccine be deleted.

“That’s ridiculous“

Referring to the investigation, and the committee set up to look into the Biden administration’s censorship, Mark Zuckerberg went on to say that government representatives called and yelled at Meta’s team, demanding that various posts, even of a humorous nature, be deleted immediately.

– It just got to this point where we were like, no, we’re not gonna take down true things. That’s ridiculous… We’re not going to take down humor and satire.

According to Zuckerberg, his alleged refusal to comply with the Biden administration’s censorship demands also led the government to begin attacking his company through various pronouncements and government investigations.

– It was brutal, he claims.

With the departure of the Biden administration and the arrival of the Trump administration, the Facebook founder says it is high time to “restore freedom of expression” on platforms that were previously subject to widespread and arbitrary censorship, and where dissent was often effectively banned.

– We will go back to our roots, they say.

“Criminal censorship”

Not everyone finds Zuckerberg’s claims particularly credible, however. For example, author David Icke, an early critic of mass vaccination programs, points out that he was censored and suspended from Facebook back in 2020 when Donald Trump was president.

“They are all at it – letting Zuckerberg’s criminal censorship be whitewashed to bring him into the MAGA fold while Biden takes the blame”, he writes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/facebook-stops-fact-checking-too-much-censorship/

Tech

Facebook stops fact-checking: “Too much censorship”

Internet censorship

Published 8 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg himself has been a driving force in censoring dissidents and other dissenters on Meta's platforms.
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, announces that it will stop fact-checking posts on both platforms and move to a user-driven system.

Zuckerberg also blames politicians and the media for forcing such widespread censorship, saying it is now time to “restore freedom of expression“.

– We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US, the billionaire states in a video clip.

He also admits that Trump’s election win played a big role in the decision, while criticizing “governments and legacy media” for pressuring the company to “censor more and more”.

– The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.

The Facebook CEO also acknowledges that the sophisticated systems created to moderate the platforms do not work well and lead to an unreasonable censorship of content that does not violate any rules at all.

– The problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.

“A trade-off”

Some content guidelines will also be removed, for example on immigration and LGBT issues. This is interpreted as meaning that in future it will be possible to discuss these topics more freely and to hold dissenting views – without risking being suspended or censored as easily as before.

The content filter will also be modified, it says, and set so that posts are not deleted as easily and arbitrarily as before.

– The reality is that this is a trade-off. It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down, Zuckerberg continues.

In recent years, censorship on Facebook has been extremely widespread and it has often been difficult to discuss political or other topics without risking censorship. According to analysts, the reason for Meta’s reversal is that Mark Zuckerberg wants to improve relations with President-elect Donald Trump and his administration.

Trump himself has been banned from both Facebook and Instagram for years – but was welcomed back this summer when it became clear that he would again be the Republican presidential candidate.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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