Free Speech

Social media platforms and Big Tech companies have been slowly working to censor content on their platforms more efficiently. Emma Llanso, Director of Free Expression at the Center for Democracy and Technology, wrote in an op-ed for Wired that the response to the New Zealand mass shooting in March brought the internet to a terrifying reality.

Social media companies are going to have to come up with a solution for privacy scandals. Otherwise, the government will do it for them and their bosses won’t like it. On Thursday, two sources told NBC News that regulators are debating if and how they will hold Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responsible for Facebook’s private information leaks. Facebook’s latest privacy scandal was that it "…

Big Tech bias hits even at times of major news. After the Mueller Report was released April 18, journalists and pundits took to social media to analyze the findings. But no one would know there was  “no evidence of Trump campaign ‘collusion’” from looking at the curated Twitter Moments.

Ideological diversity is crucial when it comes to building a well-balanced fact-checking team. But the left won’t accept anyone who isn’t on their side. Facebook’s controversial fact-checking program announced on April 17 that it had added two more partners to its United States branch, Science Feedback and Check Your Fact.

On April 16 cartoonist Ben Garrison announced on Twitter that he had been banned by Instagram for supposedly “violating their terms.” But he said it more likely posting conservative speech Instagram didn’t like. The cartoonist gained renown for his comics supporting Trump during the 2016 campaign. He quipped that the real translation of his alert from Instagram was: “You're a threat to the…

While Twitter might not be sure as to who is a Nazi and who isn’t, it thinks bots can help decide. And, like it or not, more censorship is on the horizon.

Antitrust is coming for Big Tech, at least according to one business expert. Prof. Scott Galloway, of the NYU Stern School of Business, said it will take some time, but there will a bipartisan breakup of Big Tech. “I believe DOJ or FTC action perhaps supported by attorney generals [sic] in states, maybe even red states, that file antitrust action” will happen. 

Google gathers so much data on its users that police are relying on that information to help solve crimes. And that has privacy advocates very worried. Google’s phone location tracking system Sensorvault has been dubbed the “digital dragnet” for law enforcement and has been employed in states such as California, Florida, Minnesota and Washington. It’s a database of where users have been and hat…

Data gathered from millions of individual users was apparently handed out as gifts at Facebook. In a new leak published by NBC, it was determined that Facebook did not sell data to third-party companies or advertisers.

Social media companies are not only censoring, but they are also adding a new item to the agenda: make sure no one mentions that it’s happening. The TV company Starz asked Twitter to take down users’ tweets on a story that explained how Starz shows were being pirated.  

A tech company that investigates job applicant social media posts has found “red flags” in roughly 24.5 percent — marking them for sexism, racism, and hate speech. Companies are hiring California-based Fama Technologies, which scanned more than 20 million pieces of public content in 2018. According to CNN Business, Fama creates “risk profiles” for job applicants and/or current employees “by…

An organization that includes an offensive tweeter has no business petitioning to ban someone else from Twitter. The Women’s March has launched a petition asking Twitter to ban President Donald Trump on March 13. The Women’s March has launched a petition asking Twitter to ban President Donald Trump on March 13. The group reacted to the president’s tweet with a video of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN),…

Google has joined other tech companies in trying to explain its bias against the pro-life film, Unplanned. Unplanned is the story of Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, experienced a profound change of heart after watching an ultrasound-guided abortion, eventually becoming a prominent pro-life activist. 

At the Senate Judiciary hearing on April 10, Republican senators went beyond establishing the liberal biases of Silicon Valley social media giants, and questioned the very idea of “hate speech.” Senator Ted Cruz proclaimed not only that banning “emotionally” harmful content is absurd, but that “None of us have a right to live in a world free of being offended.”