Alexander Hall

Twitter has booted conservatives and liberals for citing facts, but it goes out of its way to bring back blatant anti-Semitism. Reclaim The Net observed that Rev. Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, was today “temporarily kicked off of Twitter.” He was also “temporarily restricted” from Twitter from Jan. 3 up until mid-January when his account was completely booted on Jan. 18. Shortly thereafter, however, his account was reinstated, and a Twitter spokesperson reportedly told Reclaim The Net that “The account was caught by our spam filter in error and has been reinstated.”

If it wasn’t scary enough being monitored by random strangers, a former Microsoft contractor reportedly claimed some private calls could have been accessed by the Chinese government! An anonymous former Microsoft contractor came forward and alleged that Microsoft’s grading program to transcribe and vet users’ audio “ran for years with no security measures.” The audio was sourced both from Skype conversations and Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant equivalent of Apple’s Siri. The anonymous contractor also explained how working in any territory ruled by the Chinese regime is hazardous in itself, stating that “Living in China, working in China, you’re already compromised with nearly everything."

One of the internet’s foremost tech journalists blasted the owner of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal as the “largest menace to the modern world.” Recode co-founder and New York Times contributor Kara Swisher wrote in a tweet on Jan. 8, 2020, “If you had to pick one person who has been the largest menace in the modern world, spreading hate and disinformation that has disastrous results everywhere he goes, Rupert Murdoch or, as I like to call him, Uncle Satan, would top the list.”

Want to be a successful YouTuber? Better bow down to diversity and inclusion demands and stop with your “unconscious bias.” YouTube released a video blog “Create Inclusive Videos to Reach More Viewers” via its YouTube Creators channel back in November proposing that if creators wish to be viable and successful on the platform, they need to pay up with some inclusion and diversity. The host and YouTube partner, Dr. Knatokie Ford, introduced herself as the Founder and CEO of Fly Sci Enterprise -- “an education and media consulting firm focused on leveraging the power of storytelling to promote social change.” 

As deceptively edited videos and memes go viral, the Internet's leading social network has had to make a tough call as the 2020 election approaches. Facebook’s Vice President of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert wrote a company blog “Enforcing Against Manipulated Media” on Jan. 6. The blog was written to announce upcoming safeguards to protect against “people who engage in media manipulation in order to mislead.” 

In a stunning list reviewing the most dangerous internet denizens of the past decade, Wired listed President Trump first among oppressive foreign leaders, terrorists and others. Wired painted a foreboding cyberpunk future of the new decade -- a world where “authoritarian governments have turned the internet to their own purposes in the form of propaganda, disinformation, and cyberwar” and “[e]xtremists have coopted [sic] and corrupted social media to spread hatred and advocate violence.” It even cited how Big Tech companies “that once seemed like innovative underdogs now loom over the economy as vast, unaccountable monopolies.

One of the top YouTube creators, PewDiePie, warned that the site is under threat — from the very people who run it. PewDiePie addressed questions from his fans in a Dec 28 video and questioned the future of the entire platform and its relationship with its creators. “It’s not impossible but it doesn’t seem that likely that YouTube is just gonna be the top website forever” he mused. He later that the platform has alienated its creators with “anti-YouTuber” decisions that “it’s gonna take them a lot to come back to a better point with the community.”

The photo sharing platform Instagram has launched the rise of many influencers ranging from aspiring models to artists, but now it is restricting what products these influencers can be paid to promote. “Across the Facebook company, we are updating our policies to include clearer rules for the paid promotion of certain goods and services such as vaping, tobacco, alcohol and diet supplements,” Instagram Business Team wrote in a Dec. 18 blog post. “Branded content that promotes goods such as vaping, tobacco products and weapons will not be allowed,” while “goods such as alcohol or diet supplements will require special restrictions."

Some in Big Tech have made swipes at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his company’s free speech stance on political ads, and the hits keep on coming. The CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey unfollowed Mark Zuckerberg handle “@finkd” in a set of circumstances that were mysterious but may have been intended as a public display. “Dorsey followed a twitter account, @bigtechalert, which exists only to report on the following and unfollowing activities of CEOs of tech companies,” Inc. reported, before adding shortly afterward that “Dorsey unfollowed Mark Zuckerberg, which was promptly reported by BigTechAlert.