solarbird: (sb-worldcon-cascadia)
[personal profile] solarbird
Item 12 really should've been with the rest of the Twitter bloc, but it's not, because I found it late and didn't want to resort everything.

  1. Trump threatens to 'strongly regulate' or 'close down' social media platforms after Twitter fact check
  2. Twitter's Head of Site Integrity Compares Kellyanne Conway to Joseph Goebbels in Resurfaced Tweets: 'Actual Nazis in the White House'
  3. White House organizes harassment of Twitter employee as Trump threatens company
  4. Trump threatens social media after Twitter fact-checks him
  5. Zuckerberg hits twitter / twitter.com/Jack on Fox News about fact-checking Trump.
  6. Trump expected to sign executive order that could threaten punishment against Facebook, Google and Twitter over allegations of political bias
  7. why the president won't give the family of this woman who died while working for Scarborough peace
  8. Republicans are really, really worried about states making it easier to vote
  9. Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail 11 times in 10 years
  10. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduce ban on student visas for Chinese nationals for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields
  11. Here’s Why Men Are Pointing Loaded Guns at Their Dicks
  12. Dorsey defends decision to fact check Trump tweet: 'More transparency from us is critical'

----- 1 -----
Trump threatens to 'strongly regulate' or 'close down' social media platforms after Twitter fact check
Kelly Tyko, USA TODAY
27 May 2020

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/trump-threatens-to-strongly-regulate-or-close-down-social-media-platforms-after-twitter-fact-check/ar-BB14FhTR

President Donald Trump is threatening to "strongly regulate" or "close down" social media platforms a day after Twitter added a "fact check" label to two of his tweets about mail-in ballots.

After tweeting Tuesday that "Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election" and "stifling FREE SPEECH," Trump initially tweeted again Wednesday about social media platforms without specifically naming Twitter, which has been his favorite platform to post unfiltered views to his millions of followers.

Asserting that "Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices," Trump tweeted, "We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen."

Hours later he called out Twitter in a tweet and wrote: "Twitter has now shown that everything we have been saying about them (and their other compatriots) is correct. Big action to follow!"

He also repeated his claims Wednesday morning about mail-in ballots, tweeting that expanding mail-in voting "would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots."

A fact check label had not been added to the new tweet about mail-in ballots as of Wednesday morning.


----- 2 -----
Twitter's Head of Site Integrity Compares Kellyanne Conway to Joseph Goebbels in Resurfaced Tweets: 'Actual Nazis in the White House'
By Jason Lemon On 5/27/20

https://www.newsweek.com/twitters-head-site-integrity-compares-kellyanne-conway-joseph-goebbels-resurfaced-tweets-1506801

In a resurfaced tweet from 2017, Yoel Roth, head of site integrity at Twitter, compared President Donald Trump's senior counselor Kellyanne Conway to Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi politician who was one of the closest associates of Adolf Hitler.

"'Today on Meet the Press, we're speaking with Joseph Goebbels about the first 100 days...'–What I hear whenever Kellyanne is on a news show,'" Roth tweeted on January 22, 2017. Goebbels was the Nazi government's Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. Newsweek can confirm this tweet was still on the site as of Thursday morning.

The tweet was resurfaced and shared by Jon Levine of the New York Post. Levine shared screenshots of three other tweets from Roth that were highly critical of Trump, his supporters and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky.

"I'm just saying, we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason," Roth tweeted on November 18, 2016.

"Yes, that person in the pink hat is clearly a bigger threat to your brand of feminism than ACTUAL NAZIS IN THE WHITE HOUSE," he wrote in another post on January 22, 2017.

Then on July 27, 2017, Roth took aim at McConnell. "How does a personality-free bag of farts like Mitch McConnell actually win elections?" he tweeted.



----- 3 -----
White House organizes harassment of Twitter employee as Trump threatens company
After the company fact-checked two of Trump’s tweets
By Nick Statt
May 27, 2020

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/27/21272210/trump-twitter-fact-check-admin-targeting-employee-voter-fraud-controversy

The White House has set its sights on a single Twitter employee after the company attached a fact-checking link to two of the president’s tweets containing lies and misinformation related to voter fraud. The charge was led on Fox News Wednesday morning, with Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway targeting Twitter’s head of site integrity, Yoel Roth, after digging up some tweets that were critical of Trump, Conway, and the administration.

Conway called the employee “horrible” and directed listeners to go after him. “Somebody in San Francisco go wake him up and tell him he’s about to get a lot more followers,” she said on air. Immediately, the call was picked up by right-wing personalities and Trump supporters, who began sharing screenshots of the employee’s tweets. Roth is already facing a torrent of abuse and harassment, including multiple death threats, reports Protocol.

Twitter won’t be taking any action against Roth for his tweets, and the company tells BuzzFeed News he was not responsible for the fact-checks. “No one person at Twitter is responsible for our policies or enforcement actions, and it’s unfortunate to see individual employees targeted for company decisions,” a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge.

Twitter fact-checked Trump’s tweets late on Tuesday afternoon by attaching information designed to clarify common lies and misinformation on mail-in voting resulting in rampant voter fraud, which is untrue and unsupported by any evidence. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.” Tapping or clicking the link attached to Trump’s tweets that says “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” leads to a series of news articles and links debunking the lies.

...

Trump has consistently targeted tech companies that don’t show him unquestioning adulation. Twitter’s decision to label his falsehoods sent him on a tirade against the company. Trump immediately responded to Twitter’s actions with threatening messages, writing on his Twitter account on Tuesday evening that the company is “now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election,” and reiterating his false statement that mail-in ballots “will lead to massive corruption and fraud.”

Trump on Wednesday then threatened “big action” against the company and said he will regulate or shut down any social media platform. While he doesn’t have the authority to shut down private companies for exercising their constitutional rights, Trump’s escalation of rhetoric, combined with the targeting of individual employees, is a disturbing new advancement in his culture war.


----- 4 -----
Trump threatens social media after Twitter fact-checks him
May 27, 2020
By Zeke Miller
The Associated Press

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/trump-threatens-social-media-after-twitter-fact-checks-him/

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened social media companies with new regulation or even shuttering after Twitter added fact checks to two of his tweets.

The president can’t unilaterally regulate or close the companies, and any effort would likely require action by Congress. His administration shelved a proposed executive order empowering the Federal Communications Commission to regulate technology companies, citing concerns it wouldn’t pass legal muster. But that didn’t stop Trump from angrily issuing strong warnings.

Claiming tech giants “silence conservative voices,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday, “We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen.” Later he tweeted without elaboration, “Big Action to follow.”

He repeated his unsubstantiated claim — which sparked his latest showdown with Silicon Valley — that expanding mail-in voting “would be a free for all on cheating, forgery and the theft of Ballots.”

There was no immediate reaction from Twitter or other social media companies to the president’s threats.


----- 5 -----
Alex Thompson
twitter.com/AlxThomp
27 May 2020

https://twitter.com/AlxThomp/status/1265790114455838731

Zuckerberg hits twitter / twitter.com/Jack on Fox News about fact-checking Trump. "I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.”

[LINK TO: Fox News article]


----- 6 -----
Trump expected to sign executive order that could threaten punishment against Facebook, Google and Twitter over allegations of political bias
The president is expected to sign the order on Thursday
By Tony Romm and Josh Dawsey
27 May 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/27/trump-twitter-executive-order/

President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order Thursday that could roll back the immunity that tech giants have for the content on their sites, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Trump’s directive chiefly seeks to embolden federal regulators to rethink a portion of law known as Section 230, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a document that could still evolve and has not been officially signed by the president. That law spares tech companies from being held liable for the comments, videos and other content posted by users on their platforms.

The law is controversial. It allows tech companies the freedom to police their platforms for abuse without fear of lawsuits. But critics say those exceptions have also allowed some of Silicon Valley’s most profitable companies to skirt responsibility for the harmful content that flourishes on their online platforms, including hate speech, terrorist propaganda and election-related falsehoods.


----- 7 -----
Eli Stokols
twitter.com/EliStokols
26 May 2020

https://twitter.com/EliStokols/status/1265350650000543745

After the fourth question on this, McEnany abruptly ends the briefing after 22 minutes and walks out.

[QUOTED TWEET]

Maggie Haberman
twitter.com/maggieNYT
May 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1265349305436602378

.twitter.com/Yamiche asks twitter.com/PressSec why the president won't give the family of this woman who died while working for Scarborough peace. She deflects, says onus is on Scarborough for something he said yesterday ago. Yamiche tries a follow up, Press Sec cuts to the OANN woman at the back.


----- 8 -----
Angry Staffer
twitter.com/AngrierWHStaff
27 May 2020

https://twitter.com/AngrierWHStaff/status/1265687313151115273

Republicans are really, really worried about states making it easier to vote

[QUOTED TWEET]

Dan Patrick
twitter.com/DanPatrick
May 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/DanPatrick/status/1265470530733379586

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the Lt. Governor of Texas, known for saying grandparents should be proud to die for the economy.]

The Democrat plan to have everyone in the USA vote by mail is an invitation to fraud and a scam to rig the election. RT; RT twitter.com/realDonaldTrump and write your own #DemVotebyMailScam tweet. Let’s see if twitter.com/twitter can fact check us all. #txlege #MAGA


----- 9 -----
Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has voted by mail 11 times in 10 years
The Tampa native has said it shouldn’t be available to everyone.
By Steve Contorno
27 May 2020

https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/05/27/trump-press-secretary-kayleigh-mcenany-has-voted-by-mail-11-times-in-10-years/

For a week, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has defended President Donald Trump’s assault on vote-by-mail, insisting, like her boss, that it invites election fraud.

But, also like her boss, McEnany has taken advantage of its convenience time and time again.

In fact, the Tampa native has voted by mail in every Florida election she has participated in since 2010, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of her voting history. Most recently, she voted by mail in the state’s March 2020 presidential primary, just as Trump did after he made Florida his new permanent home.


----- 10 -----
Chemjobber
twitter.com/Chemjobber
27 May 2020

https://twitter.com/Chemjobber/status/1265774490731995137

"Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) today unveiled the SECURE CAMPUS Act, legislation that would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields."

[LINK TO: https://www.cotton.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1371 ]

Cotton, Blackburn, Kustoff Unveil Bill to Restrict Chinese STEM Graduate Student Visas & Thousand Talents Participants
May 27, 2020

Washington, D.C. - Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) today unveiled the SECURE CAMPUS Act, legislation that would prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields. The bill would also place restrictions on participants in Chinese foreign talent-recruitment programs, such as the Thousand Talents Program. Congressman David Kustoff (R-Tennessee) will introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

"The Chinese Communist Party has long used American universities to conduct espionage on the United States. What's worse is that their efforts exploit gaps in current law. It's time for that to end. The SECURE CAMPUS Act will protect our national security and maintain the integrity of the American research enterprise," said Senator Cotton.

"Beijing exploits student and research visas to steal science, technology, engineering and manufacturing secrets from U.S. academic and research institutions. We've fed China's innovation drought with American ingenuity and taxpayer dollars for too long; it's time to secure the U.S. research enterprise against the CCP's economic espionage," said Senator Blackburn.

"Student visas should be only for those who want to contribute to our research institutions and advance our national interests. Unfortunately, China's Communist Party has been exploiting our universities to spy and steal our technology for far too long. This bill will put an end to this abuse. I am proud to introduce this legislation with my friends Senator Cotton and Senator Blackburn that will help safeguard our nation's national security," said Congressman Kustoff.


----- 11 -----
Here’s Why Men Are Pointing Loaded Guns at Their Dicks
Internal fighting among gun owners has led to one of the dumbest memes of all time.
by Matthew Gault
27 May 2020

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/k7q83v/heres-why-men-are-pointing-loaded-guns-at-their-dicks

Gun people are taking pictures of themselves aiming weapons at their dicks. The safety is off, their finger hovers on the trigger, and the barrel of the weapon is pointed straight at their genitals. “Now these MAGA dolts are pointing guns at their dicks with the safeties off and their fingers on the trigger to own the libs,” filmmaker Dylan Park tweeted alongside three pictures of guns pointed at dicks.

But pointing a gun at your penis has nothing to do with owning the libs and everything to do with ironically mocking basic safety in gun culture. The trend is about a year old and it was born in the fires of Facebook’s gun groups. On one side are responsible gun owners, on the other is a group of men aiming a deadly weapon at their dicks to prove a point that they can only vaguely explain.


----- 12 -----
Dorsey defends decision to fact check Trump tweet: 'More transparency from us is critical'
By Rebecca Klar - 05/27/20

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/499866-dorsey-defends-decision-to-fact-check-trump-tweet-more-transparency-from-us

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his platform’s decision to fact check and place warnings on two of President Trump’s tweets this week, further emphasizing the difference between Twitter and Facebook's policies on misinformation.

“Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me,” Dorsey tweeted. “Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.”

He also said that the decision to place the warnings doesn’t make the platform an“arbiter of truth,” directly quoting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who used the same phrasing earlier Wednesday while defending his decision not to label misinformation shared by politicians on his social media platform.

“This does not make us an ‘arbiter of truth.’ Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions,” Dorsey said.

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