Corinne Weaver

Twitter defines “sensitive content” as something that might contain “violence or nudity.” So why did a photo of a Nascar racer and the president get flagged by the platform as potentially sensitive content? NASCAR star Hailie Deegan posed for a picture with President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16. After she posted it to Twitter, some of her followers noted that the photo was covered by Twitter’s “sensitive content” filter. Memer and influencer Carpe Donktum (known for his memes that have been retweeted by Trump) tweeted a screenshot of Deegan’s post as it appeared on his feed.

A wealthy billionaire tech CEO has endorsed the economically irresponsible concept of a universal basic income. Unfortunately for him, its advocate Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has dropped out of the race. Twitter head Jack Dorsey tweeted after the news of Yang’s departure broke, “Really sad Andrew is dropping out.” The tech giant, who is worth $5 billion according to Forbes, thanked Yang “for bringing universal basic income back into the national conversation.”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) might not be strong enough to take on Big Tech anymore, says Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MI). In a Feb. 10 proposal, the senator, who has made a name for himself pursuing the investigation of Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook, stated that Congress needed “to overhaul the FTC and bring it into the 21st century.”

Twitter bans accounts for transphobia and won’t allow pro-life organizations to run ads on its platform. But a cartoon encouraging terrorism is apparently allowed to spread.

Do YouTube’s hate speech policies try to protect even demonic entities? A video produced by The Catholic Talk Show entitled, “7 Secrets Catholic Exorcists Want You to Know,” was deleted by YouTube for violating hate speech rules. A video produced by The Catholic Talk Show entitled, “7 Secrets Catholic Exorcists Want You to Know,” was deleted by YouTube for violating hate speech rules. 

Disinformation is the new buzzword for the left to push for more censorship on Twitter. While results from the Iowa Caucus are still being counted, journalists from the left want tweets from the right taken down. “Trump campaign folks are tweeting veiled suggestions Iowa is ‘rigged,’” tweeted Washington Post senior tech policy reporter Tony Romm.

Two conservative outlets have complained that their livestreams of the Senate impeachment trial have been taken down—for no apparent reason. Judicial Watch’s president, Tom Fitton, noted that the organization’s livestream of the impeachment trial was halted mid-stream. YouTube claimed that the stream was “violating ‘community standards,’” according to Fitton’s Jan. 21 tweet. While the stream still remains on Judicial Watch’s feed, it was not allowed to continue.

Leading journalists and editors around the world have some advice for social media companies: there needs to be more censorship. In a 2020 report released by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 233 people from 32 countries, including the United States, complained about misinformation in tech and where it stands in relation to journalism.

The media and Democrats want to limit Facebook ads before the 2020 election. But Facebook refused to cave in to their demands. In a Jan. 9 blog post published by Facebook Director of Product Management Rob Leathern, the company argued that “we don’t think decisions about political ads should be made by private companies.”