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Shadowban on Twitter: What Is It & How To Get Unshadowbanned

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Despite Social Media Giants such as Tiktok, Twitter, and Instagram's refusal to disclose that they are shadowbanning, it is common knowledge that they are preventing spammers, trolls, and bots from using their platforms.

Social media platforms encourage users to create engaging information that is relevant and intriguing. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the submissions and tweets are spam or automated. As a result, these platforms have been obligated to create and use algorithms and AI approaches to eradicate this sort of material and bloggers, in particular, are frequently slipping into this trap due to their repetitious behaviors. Shadowbanning is also suspected of being utilized to obscure some political tweets.

While there is some speculation around whether shadowbanning is fact or fiction, that is usually reserved for other social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok. Twitter, on the other hand, released a statement in 2020 which had the following clause:

In short, they came out and said that they would limit the number of people your Twitter account reaches if you're found to breach any of their community guidelines. Even though Twitter does not explicitly go out and term this action as a shadowban, this is effectively what a shadowban is.

Twitter has the power to censure your posts and make them disappear from their community without any official notification. They will effectively block or "shadowban" you without you finding out, which means that people wont be able to see what you post on the site. The reason for this? Twitter does it because they suspect someone of spamming or breaking its policies (whatever those maybe).

Generally, shadowbanning on Twitter is bucketed under three broad categories:

Like most Social Media platforms and Communities, Twitter has its own set of rules that outline exactly what and what is not expected from Twitter users and community members. If you follow these religiously, you can likely keep your account from being shadowbanned. Here are some things that might lead to Twitter limiting your reach.

Twitter takes its community guidelines very seriously. They want to create an environment of constructive debate and frown upon aggressive harassment. Any behavior that would be considered impolite in real life will not be tolerated on Twitter.

Your account will be muted and banned if you are continuously getting into disputes or harassing other users. This raises an alarm for Twitter.

Make sure you're not over-posting the same information if you're attempting to advertise anything fresh for your company or your brand. You also don't want to use numerous accounts to send the same message.

It's crucial to double-check that third-party apps you link to your Twitter account don't automatically retweet to your timeline. Social media apps, in general, are extremely cognizant of the bot problem, and their algorithms are becoming more and more sophisticated as they crack down on accounts that they believe to be bot-controlled and spammy. Uncheck any options that grant the app access to automatically tweet on your account in the app's settings.

Churning is a term used to describe the process of following and then proceeding to unfollow a large number of people within a small time frame. This method became a popular tool that was used by users to gain a following. They will request to follow a large number of accounts, and if they are not followed back, they will unfollow. Some bots will do this for you in large quantities. This might result in your Twitter account being permanently suspended.

For starters, if you're noticing a huge drop in engagement and reach, and your interactions have dropped to zero, chances are you have probably been placed under a shadowban. While this is one signal, there is no official way to figure out whether your account is under a shadowban or not. However, there are some other tactics you can employ to get an idea of the status of your account.

One method for the Twitter shadowban test is to log out of your account, then run a Twitter search for your username. You can do this by logging into your Twitter account, go to the Explore page and search for your username by typing: "from: username". If you are unable to see your tweets or recent feed posts, you might have been shadowbanned.

You can also use external, third-party software and applications that have designed automated tests to check if an account has been shadowbanned. One such website, shadowban.eu is a great place to start.

Fortunately, removing a shadowban is quick and painless. In most situations, Twitter becomes available again within 48-72 hours. And, based on previous experience, it's better to leave your account alone till then.

Do you suspect that Twitter has limited your reach and placed your account under a shadowban? To remove your account from being under a shadowban on Twitter, you can follow some simple steps to restore your reach and visibility to pre shadowban levels.

This might not be the easiest task as you would have to figure out exactly which post resulted in the ban. Still, you may start by turning off any traffic-generating bots or automated tweets. Delete any spam comments, tweets, or links you've left behind.

It's a good idea to clean out your Twitter account of any potentially harmful social media behavior. You can do this by reviewing Twitter's policies and removing anything that stands in violation of their rules.

A lot of times, shadowbans are temporary. You can refrain from tweeting and interacting for some time while you're in your shadowban period. Check back periodically to see if your engagement and reach have changed, but otherwise, keep your activity to a minimum.

If you've successfully reviewed community guidelines, done a Twitter page, and have abstained from using Twitter for some time, but still suspect that your account might be under suspicion, then the only thing left to do is to contact support.

Don't mention the words "shadowban", but simply let them know exactly what you believe the problem is (it could be reduced engagement, or your tweets not showing up under relevant hashtags). Twitter support will get back to you with any additional information, and unflag your account if they deem your content to be appropriate.

If you're under a shadowban and unsure of what to do, it's preferable to leave your account alone for a few days. Once a shadowban has begun, there is no way to appeal or terminate it, and spamming further during that period may result in a new ban once the first one has expired. That means you may start a new ban every day, rendering your tweets inaccessible until your account has had time to calm down.

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Shadowban on Twitter: What Is It & How To Get Unshadowbanned

Project Veritas Appears to Catch Twitter in a Big Lie About ‘Shadow …

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It feels like everything is making its way out into the open, after Elon Musk shocked the social media and political world by purchasing Twitter.

As Jennifer Van Laar reported on Tuesday evening, Project Veritas obtained audio of Twitters all-call meeting following the blockbuster deal. RedState first reported the results of it on Monday, noting the fear and dread pointed toward Musks acquisition.

Now, Project Veritas has dropped another very interesting piece of information, this time on Twitters alleged practice of shadow-banning, which essentially just means throttling an accounts reach and visibility. Ill get to why this is important in a moment, but heres the video Project Veritas put out of Twitter employees discussing the practice and its existence.

If you watch the video, what youll see is one employee asking about whether shadow-banning can happen and if its something that is done. The other employee, in a very coy fashion, makes a semantical argument about how the company defines the term, which is a dead giveaway that they are using the practice but calling it something else. Then, it is admitted that yes, we can reduce visibility on surfaces.

Whats fascinating about this is that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey once testified before Congress that shadow-banning was a bug, and that the accounts that were targeted were done so unintentionally. The then-CEO made those claims back in 2018.

Twitters supposed account shadow banning, which the company says was a bug, was unfairly filtering 600,000 accounts, including some members of Congress in search auto-complete and results. CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed the figure during his opening statement to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday; he shared the statement in a thread of tweets.

Dorsey explained that the shadow banning occurred due to algorithms that take into account how the people following those filtered accounts behave on the platform. Ultimately, Twitter determined that wasnt a fair way to assess accounts, and changed course. Well always improve our technology and algorithms to drive healthier usage, and measure the impartiality of outcomes, he said.

Yet, the leaked Slack conversation posted by Project Veritas exposes the fact that shadow-banning is not an inadvertent bug, but that it exists as an offensive capability of Twitter. Did Dorsey lie to Congress? Certainly, hes not going to be punished for it if he did (only Trump associates have to play by those rules), but its still fun to see this stuff brought to light.

For years, many conservative accounts have noticed stagnant follower counts and reduced engagement on the platform. Yet, those on the other side of the discussion have long dismissed allegations of shadow-banning as conspiracy theories. It appears the suspicions were warranted, though.

Its also worth noting that after Musk bought Twitter, there seemed to be a change in the algorithm, resulting in large follower and engagement bumps for many conservative accounts. My account is on the smaller end (14.8K followers), but Ive picked up several hundred just in the last 24 hours. Why is that suddenly happening, even before Musk technically takes full control? Some are suggesting that its the current Twitter regime trying to cover their tracks, getting rid of the shadow bans and throttling algorithms, so Musk cant expose what theyve been doing.

Either way, it looks like a new day of free speech and extended reach has dawned on the social media giant that is most important in the political world. Fun days are ahead.

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Project Veritas Appears to Catch Twitter in a Big Lie About 'Shadow ...

A bill banning the Palestinian flag passes preliminary vote in Israeli Knesset – Mondoweiss

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On Wednesday, June 1, the Israeli Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a bill pushed by Likud Party MK member, Eli Cohen, to ban the display of enemy flags across Israeli state-funded institutions.

After the first preliminary reading, the Knesset favored the bill with 63 votes for and only 16 against. The pretext for pushing the bill forward is the raising of the Palestinian flag over Ben Gurion University in May of this year. The bill was primarily supported by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet, as well as members of the Israeli Yamina and New-Hope parties.

Although the bill notes the banning of enemy flags, the only flag that is explicitly noted is the Palestinian one.

During the Knesset vote, Cohen emphasized to those opposing the bill in the Arab-majority Joint List Coalition, including Palestinian MK Sami Abu Shehadeh, to go to Gaza or Jordan.He said thatthose who see themselves as Palestinians are invited to move to Gaza or Jordan. I promise you funding for the transportation. Prior to the vote, Cohen expressed similar anti-Palestinian sentiments, saying, Anyonewho sees themselves as Palestinian, will get any help they need from us for a one-way trip to Gaza.

The bill comes after major international human rights organizations released the results of their years-long investigations into Israeli practices and found that Israel is committing crimes against humanity, apartheid, and persecution.

While the bill must pass three additional Knesset votes before it becomes law, the overwhelming support of it in the Knesset has sparked concerns amongst Palestinians living in Israel and across the occupied Palestinian territory, over what it could mean for their lives and identities as Palestinians.

The Palestinian flag is a comparatively new symbol in Palestinian politics. It was formally adopted by the PLO only in the 1960s and was raised for the first time at the United Nations headquarters only in 2015.

Following the 1967 Naksa (Arabic for setback) where Israel seized Sinai, the Golan Heights, Gaza, and the West Bank by military force, official Israeli policy banned the national colors of the Palestinian flag (red, white, green, black). In the 1980s, Israeli law-makers banned artwork seen to hold political significance.

Israeli military and police went as far as to threaten Palestinian artists using the colors of the flag in their art work. Even Poppies and watermelons were seen as incitement and violations of Israeli law. While the law was revoked after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993-94, the confiscation and criminalization of the Palestinian flag and its colors remained common practice.

This bill comes in conjunction with the Israeli flag-march which took place in May. Israeli groups marched in the city of Jerusalem chanting slogans such as death to Arabs and may your village burn, the same slogans which further provoked and hyped the mass assault against Palestinians last year.

MK Eli Cohen, who introduced the bill, is also a member of Lobby for Eretz Israel, one of the strongest lobby groups in the Knesset. The primary goal of the group is to strengthen the Israeli states stronghold on the occupied West Bank and Area C and to include the illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank as sovereign Israeli areas.

For Palestinians, the bill is not merely an attack on their flag, but is symbolic of a continued and systemic assault on symbols which express Palestinian identity. The potential consequences of the bill are especially real for Palestinians in Jerusalem and those with Israeli citizenship, whose Palestinian identity is considered a threat to Israels demographic concern.

The bill is seen as another attempt to erase Palestinian existence in the region. Banning the flag at state-funded institutions not only includes universities, but extends to cultural institutions, among others.

The attack on the Palestinian flag could also signal a further crackdown on Palestinian symbols in the digital sphere. During the large-scale assault on Palestinians in May of 2021, Palestinians on social media witnessed the shadow-banning, censorship, and deletion of Palestinian testimonies and documentation.

So where are the Palestinian voices in mainstream media?

Mondoweiss covers the full picture of the struggle for justice in Palestine. Read by tens of thousands of people each month, our truth-telling journalism is an essential counterweight to the propaganda that passes for news in mainstream and legacy media.

Our news and analysis is available to everyone which is why we need your support. Please contribute so that we can continue to raise the voices of those who advocate for the rights of Palestinians to live in dignity and peace.

Palestinians today are struggling for their lives as mainstream media turns away. Please support journalism that amplifies the urgent voices calling for freedom and justice in Palestine.

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A bill banning the Palestinian flag passes preliminary vote in Israeli Knesset - Mondoweiss

International in EL PAS English Edition

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Marcelo Pecci

Colombian police say the plot was coordinated by a Brazil gang named PCC and that the perpetrator was likely a Venezuelan national. The hitmen were allegedly paid $500,000

Proving that US intelligence services learned about the WikiLeaks founders defense strategy by spying on his lawyers could annul the extradition request, say legal sources

A fisherman has been detained after his boat was seen chasing Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira on Sunday as they approached their destination

The move was announced as part of the US-hosted Americas Summit, which is being boycotted by the Mexican president because Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were not invited

The politician, who was killed by a childhood friend, is remembered for his unwavering commitment to upholding the laws that protect environmental rights

The father of a young man who was doing his military service and died in the sinking of the Moskva warship is defying the silence of the Kremlin

The Colombian government has announced that it also found two other shipwrecks in the same area

Sofa Heinonen, head of the Rewilding Argentina Foundation, says it took 15 years to get people to support the comeback of the largest land predator on the continent

The CNN journalist who reported on the fall of Kabul talks to EL PAS about her memoir, On All Fronts, which addresses the challenges and highlights of her line of work

The Biden administration hopes the move will help European countries to ease their dependence on Russian crude, but others warn it will be a symbolic boost for Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro

Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a package of gun-related bills that also restrict body armor sales following mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde and Tulsa

Ismael Bojrquez, editor of the weekly newspaper Rodoce in Sinaloa, says that the narco and corruption have infiltrated all of society in Mexico

Naasn Joaqun Garca has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two children in exchange for avoiding trial, but many have questioned whether the agreement brings justice to the victims

More than a hundred indigenous communities that shun contact with white people in the Brazilian Amazon are faced with the growing danger of poachers, missionaries, drug traffickers and loggers, not to mention the coronavirus and President Bolsonaro. How should we protect this anthropological treasure?

With several countries threatening to boycott the event over its guest list, doubts have been raised about whether the meeting will be able to reach any meaningful agreement on illegal immigration

The Prosecutors Office and the Carabinieri in the Italian capital have discovered new criminal groups from Albania who are competing with local clans

Missiles shake two areas of capital causing no civilian victims but significant material damage, a reminder that the entire country remains under threat

In Latin America several tragedies have come together and we have accumulated an untold number of missing persons

The 33-year-old spent nearly eight years in prison after being forced to sign a kidnapping confession in a language that she did not understand. She tells EL PAS how she managed to survive the experience

Amnesty International says that President Nayib Bukele is using the state of emergency to criminalize people living in poverty: nearly 2% of the adult population is in prison

Authorities have reported at least 27 infections. Efforts to trace the disease point to the consumption of organic fruits from the Michoacn-based company FreshKampo

Market analysts and strategists differ in their forecasts for the currency, which has performed surprisingly well in the last two years

The Spanish foreign minister will attend the Summit of the Americas in LA and the pledge is expected to provide a political boost to the Biden administration

The left-wing candidate for Colombias presidency wants people to see him as an advocate for prudent change unlike his opponent, the anti-establishment populist, Rodolfo Hernndez

Local officials reported that the shooter is dead, without specifying the causes

A youth known online as ReSet was prosecuted for hate crimes after he posted a video in which he fed toothpaste-filled cookies to a beggar in 2017

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International in EL PAS English Edition

John Kiriakou: The Steele Dossier and Lying to the FBI Not Guilty as Charged – Scheerpost.com

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The Steele Dossier was a pack of lies, but the Clinton campaign attorney who promoted it to the FBI didnt lie.

By John Kiriakou / Original to ScheerPost

Michael Sussmann, an A-list attorney who was a senior advisor to Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign, was acquitted by a jury in the federal District Court of the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Sussmann had been accused of lying to the FBI, a crime widely considered to be a process felony or a throwaway felony, something the Justice Department charges you with when they cant get you for anything else. Even though the federal sentencing guidelines called for 0-6 months in prison had Sussmann been convicted, the loss of his law license and the humiliation of a felony conviction would have been a far worse punishment.

But that didnt happen. Sussmann was acquitted after the jury had deliberated for only six hours, two of which were spent eating lunch. After the trial was completed, two jurors, including the foreperson, told the Washington Post that the verdict was not a close call or a hard decision. The foreperson added, Politics were not a factor. Personally, I dont think it should have been prosecutedThe government could have spent our time more wisely. The second juror said, Everyone pretty much saw it the same way.

The verdict raises several differentand importantquestions. First, how did this happen? The evidence against Sussmann was pretty straightforward, at least if you take the FBIs word for it. Ill give you the details in a minute. Second, why did this happen? The jury foreperson said that politics was not a factor. But was any prosecution of a senior Clinton campaign official even possible in a jurisdiction where Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump 91-4? Third, was this more a reflection on the incompetence and unpopularity of the FBI? And finally, was it because people still believe the false narrative of the Steele Dossier, that the Russians got Donald Trump elected President of the United States.

This case began with the Steele Dossier. That document, compiled on behalf of the 2016 Clinton campaign by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, made a number of very serious accusations against Donald Trump, his company, and the Trump campaign. Some of these accusations, if they had been true, would have constituted major crimes.

The allegations in the Steele Dossier included that the Russians had:

Literally nothing in the Steele Dossier was demonstrably true. Thats the problem with raw intelligence. Its just a collection of unvetted rumors. Christopher Steele, being a career intelligence professional, knew that. He saw his job as putting all the rumors he could collect from his Russian contacts in one document and then send it to the Clinton campaign. But the Clinton people, including Sussmann, were not intelligence professionals. They accepted the revelations as fact, which is what got them into trouble in the first place.

Sussmanns role in this was that when the Clinton campaign received the Steele Dossier, which had also alleged that the Trump Organization was communicating with Russias Alfa Bank using a private encrypted server, he texted a contact at the FBI, former FBI General Counsel James Baker, saying, I have a time-sensitive (and sensitive) issue that I need to raise with you. Im coming on my ownnot on behalf of a client or companywant to help the Bureau.

That text essentially kicked off the case. Sussmann wasnt going to speak to the FBI as a private citizen. He was going as a representative of the Clinton campaign. At least, that was special prosecutor John Durhams contention. And Durham thought he had proved that because when Sussmann got back to his office, he billed the Clinton campaign for the time he took to talk to Baker. The billing document was entered into evidence as a prosecution exhibit.

This is where there was an odd twist in the case. The Justice Department didnt charge Sussmann with lying to the FBI in the text message. Its unclear why, and DOJ has never explained it. Instead, Sussmann was charged with lying to Baker in their actual meeting. Baker testified that he was 100 percent confident that he said that (that Sussmann was acting as a private individual) in the meeting. Michaels a friend of mine and a colleague, and I believed it and trusted that the statement was truthful. Prosecutors alleged that when Baker then sent the information about Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization to FBI agents for investigation, he could not tell them that the Steele Dossier was a piece of opposition political research from the Clinton campaign. As a result, FBI agents wasted their time investigating the allegations. For their part, the FBI agents conducting the investigation said that all they knew was that the information had come from the General Counsel, so it must have been reliable.

Sussmanns attorneys countered that Baker was mistaken. They found a note from a meeting at the Justice Department in March 2017 attended by Baker, senior Justice Department officials, and FBI agents, which mentioned the Alfa Bank investigation and said the information was brought to the FBI by an attorney on behalf of client (sic). Baker said that he had only a vague memory of that meeting and that he had no recollection that anybody had said anything about Sussmanns client. Baker, however, had to admit that he had not taken any notes in the original meeting with Sussmann and that he was relying only on his memory, a violation of the FBIs standard operating procedure for meetings with people outside the FBI.

The case against Sussmann was clearly weak from the start. It was also very poorly timed. The decision to prosecute the attorney was taken while the FBI was still reeling over allegations that it, not the Russian government, was the one responsible for giving the country Donald Trump. Remember, former FBI Director James Comey said in July 2016, four months before the presidential election, that he was recommending to the Attorney General that Hillary Clinton not be charged for mishandling classified information by using a private email server. But on October 28, 2016, just days before the election, Comey felt compelled to send a letter to Congress saying that he was considering reopening the investigation against Clinton. The act caused a political earthquake, and the Washington Post reported that a senior Justice Department official speaking on the condition of anonymity said, Director Comey understood our position (on the Clinton investigation.) It was conveyed to the FBI, and Comey made an independent decision to alert the Hill. He is operating independently of the Justice Department. And he knows it. Clinton was livid. And she has always blamed Comey for the fact that she lost the election.

Another of the Sussmann defense points was that neither he nor the Clinton campaign would have gone to the FBI if they had wanted to spread rumors about Trump. They didnt trust the FBI, after all. Instead, they said they would have gone to the media. And go to the media they did. Clinton campaign manager Marc Elias said during the trial that it was Clinton herself who ordered senior campaign officials to leak the claim that the Trump Organization had a secret channel to the Kremlin through Alfa Bank. She had the information sent to Slate, which published it immediately. The campaign then followed up with a statement expressing alarm, as if this were some sort of new revelation they had never heard before. It was a false narrative that the Clinton campaign circulated for political gain.

The New York Times, though, even now that the trial is over, continues reporting from an alternative reality. Journalist Charlie Savage, who covered the Sussmann trial for the paper, wrote the day after the verdict that the trial centered on odd internet data after it became public that Russia had hacked the Democrats. A logical conclusion was that the information in the Steele Dossier was true because Mr. Trump had encouraged the country to target Mrs. Clintons emails. Savage continued that, Trying to persuade reporters to write about such suspicions is not a crime.

Nobody ever said it was a crime. Thats not why Sussmann was charged in the first place. He was charged because the FBI believed he had lied to them. And there was never any evidence that Russians had hacked Democrats, by the way.

None of that matters anymore. Its all over. Sussmann is free to go. The FBI looks like a bunch of incompetent boobs. John Durham wasted millions of dollars of the taxpayers money. And the New York Times will have to spin a different story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Salon was the recipient of a Clinton campaign leak about t he Trump-Alfa Bank rumors in 2016. That story appeared in Slate.

John Kiriakou is a former C.I.A. analyst and case officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant. While employed by the C.I.A., he was involved in critical counterterrorism missions following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, but refused to be trained in so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. After leaving the C.I.A., Kiriakou appeared on ABC News in an interview with Brian Ross, during which he became the first former C.I.A. officer to confirm that the agency waterboarded detainees and label waterboarding as torture. Kiriakous interview revealed that this practice was not just the result of a few rogue agents, but was official U.S. policy approved at the highest levels of the government.

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CD Foundation Announces State of CD in 2022 Report, Opens Third Annual cdCon with New Project CDEvents, New… – DevOps.com

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CD Foundation veteran Fatih Degirmenci joins as General Manager

San Francisco, June 7, 2022 The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF), the open source software foundation that seeks to improve the worlds capacity to deliver software with security and speed, today announced its State of CD Report in 2022, a new project called CDEvents building a vendor-neutral specification for defining the format of event data, new members, and more. The announcement comes at the start of CDFs third annual cdCon (June 7-8, 2022). cdCon 2022 is being run as a hybrid event from Austin, TX.

State of CD Report in 2022

A key function of CDF is providing vendor-neutral data on key DevOps and development metrics showing where continuous delivery stands in 2022 and beyond. The Continuous Delivery Report Series started last year; this is the third report in the series.

Key findings include:

As of Q1 2022, less than a quarter (23%) of developers are not involved in any DevOps-related activities, indicating continued growth in the adoption of practices that increase an organizations ability to deliver software at high velocity.

47% of developers use either continuous integration or deployment but only one in five use both continuous integration and deployment approaches to automate all building, testing, and deployment of code to production.

There is an increase in DevOps adoption in every development sector. Mobile app development has now even leapfrogged desktop development, such is its shift in embracing DevOps approaches.

The full report is available for free: View the Report (PDF)

New Project CDEvents Hosted by CD Foundation

CDF recently announced it is hosting the CDEvents project, a vendor-neutral specification for defining the format of event data to provide interoperability across services, platforms and systems. Todays CI/CD systems do not talk to each other in a standardized way. Defining a standard set of specifications is critical in solving the interoperability issues across the continuous delivery (CD) ecosystem. Having a common format for events in the CD space will enable an ecosystem of tools to collect, store, visualize and analyze events across CD platforms. This will cover use cases like measuring DevOps metrics and performance and visualizing end-to-end workflows, from the initial development all the way to operations and remediation flows. The current release of the CDEvents specification is available here: https://github.com/cdevents

cdCon Kicks Off Today in Austin, TX

cdCon is a two-day virtual event running June 7-8, 2022, focusing on improving the worlds capacity to deliver software with security and speed. This years sessions are grouped into 3 channels: Technology Teams, Enterprise Leadership, and Open Source Communities. cdCon is sponsored by IBM, JFrog, Armory, CircleCI, OpsMx, Camunda, Capital One, CloudBees, Cloudsmith, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Liquibase, Spacelift, and more.

The full cdCon schedule is available here: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/cdcon/program/schedule/

Were excited to have our first physical event in two years. The pandemic has shown more than ever how important continuous delivery is to industries as they navigate industry and global changes. cdCon generates passionate participation and is a great platform for connecting with peers and understanding best practices, said Fatih Degirmenci, Continuous Delivery Foundation General Manager. CDF is committed to providing a clear path for companies to participate in a vendor-neutral structure that can greatly improve organizations abilities to deliver software securely and quickly. Come join us at cdCon, theres still time to register and participate virtually!

Keynotes include industry experts and well-known specialists like Isaac Cory Doctorow, Science Fiction Author, Activist, and Journalist; Joe Sepi, Program Director of Open Tech, IBM; Melissa McKay, Developer Advocate, JFrog; Michael Stahnke, Vice President of Platform, CircleCI; Gopal Dommety, CEO, OpsMx; Brian Behlendorf, General Manager, Open Source Security Foundation; Grace Francisco, Vice President, Developer Relations Strategy & Experience, Cisco; Stephen Atwell, Principal Product Manager, Armory; Isaac Mosquera, Principal GTM Leader, Serverless, AWS; and Fatih Degirmenci, Continuous Delivery Foundation General Manager, The Linux Foundation.

CD Foundation Welcoming New Members

Cloudsmith, Spacelift, Stackhawk and Tenable are joining the CD Foundation as new members. They join premier members AWS, Armory, CloudBees, Fujitsu, Google Cloud, Huawei, JFrog, Netflix, and Red Hat, as well as the broader open source CI/CD community, in helping to strengthen the growth and evolution of continuous delivery models.

Cloudsmith Cloudsmith is a cloud-native, global, universal artifact management platform for engineers looking to set up a secure artifact repository in 60 seconds. Cloudsmith is a Belfast-headquartered startup that has raised $15 million in Series A funding. This is the largest ever Series A funding round in Northern Ireland.

We are delighted to join the CD Foundation. How companies deliver software securely and quickly is key to their success, and we believe joining will provide even more value to our customers by connecting us to the broader community of continuous delivery companies and developers around the world, said Lee Skillen, Co-Founder & CTO, Cloudsmith. The future of cloud-native software delivery, artifact management and the whole supply chain is critical to industries everywhere, so we are excited to contribute our knowledge of continuous packaging to it.

Spacelift Spacelift focuses on collaborative infrastructure for modern software teams to manage cloud, infrastructure, or services. Its platform uses Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi, and Kubernetes offering features such as runtime configuration, version management, and state management. They are backed by Insight Partners, Blossom Capital, Hoxton Ventures and Inovo Venture Partners.

We are excited to join the CD Foundation. Spacelift provides a collaboration and automation layer for infrastructure as a code, and we focus on openness, flexibility, and customization. We believe this fits well with the CD Foundation, and by contributing to the direction of open-source CI/CD development through the CD Foundation, our customers will benefit, said Sean ODell, Head of Developer Relations at Spacelift. By inviting infrastructure, security, compliance, and platform teams to collaborate on and approve workflows and policies, you can improve your infrastructure delivery platform.

StackHawk StackHawk helps developers find and fix application security bugs as part of software delivery. StackHawk makes security part of the developer workflow by running automated security testing in CI/CD and notifying developers immediately about new security issues as they emerge. StackHawk recently announced it has raised $20.7 million as part of a series B funding round.

With the rapid pace of software development, security teams are finding it more difficult to test for vulnerabilities on an ongoing basis. At StackHawk, we are placing the ability to resolve vulnerabilities in the hands of the developer, and we see the CD Foundation as a key partner to helping us expand our reach and more broadly address this issue of shifting security left in the development cycle, said Joni Klippert, co-founder and CEO at StackHawk. We see the CD Foundations ability to guide changes in software development as a strength that will help drive the reduction in security vulnerabilities that make it to deployment.

Tenable Tenable is a cybersecurity company known as the creator of the vulnerability scanning software Nessus. Approximately 40,000 organizations around the globe rely on Tenable to understand and reduce cyber risk. Tenable customers include approximately 60 percent of the Fortune 500, approximately 40 percent of the Global 2000, and large government agencies.

As security is a critical component of open source software development and delivery, Tenable will provide expertise and guidance to the CD Foundation, said Glen Pendley, chief technology officer, Tenable. The CD Foundation is uniquely positioned to help steer the course of security-focused development in the continuous delivery space. Tenable looks forward to collaborating with this community to enable end users to influence better solutions that drive value for our customers.

New General Manager Lead

CI/CD open source community leader Fatih Degirmenci has joined the CDF as its new General Manager. Fatih is not new to the CD Foundation. He participated in the very first public meeting during the Open Source Leadership Summit in California in March 2019 when the CD Foundation was announced. Since then, hes been heavily involved in the community including special interest groups (SIG) like the Interoperability SIG and Software Supply Chain SIG. He also served on the Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) as an end-user representative.

Fatih will work closely with the eight CDF-hosted projects CDEvents, Jenkins, Jenkins X, Ortelius, Shipwright, Screwdriver, Spinnaker, and Tekton, and help members and the wider Continuous Delivery CI/CD community improve their software development security and speed when creating cloud-native, legacy infrastructure, mobile, IoT, and bare-metal applications.

Additional CDF Resources

About the Continuous Delivery Foundation

The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) seeks to improve the worlds capacity to deliver software with security and speed. The CDF is a vendor-neutral organization that is establishing best practices of software delivery automation, propelling education and adoption of CD tools, and facilitating cross-pollination across emerging technologies. The CDF is home to many of the fastest-growing projects for CD, including Jenkins, Jenkins X, Tekton, and Spinnaker. The CDF is part of the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization. For more information about the CDF, please visit https://cd.foundation

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media ContactJesse Casman, Story Changes Culture[emailprotected]415-730-2793

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Twitter censors Libs of TikTok, labels their tweets showing kids at drag shows ‘abuse and harassment’ – Fox News

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Social media sensation Libs of TikTok was locked out of its Twitter account on Wednesday for a tweet about kids at drag shows that was deemed to be "abuse and harassment."

Only after losing an appeal and deleting the offending tweet was Libs of TikTok allowed to tweet again. "Twitter thinks its abuse to document drag shows. I think its abuse for drag shows to be taking place in front of kids," Libs of TikTok wrote in an update on their Substack about the ordeal, which included the news that the tweet was banned in Germany.

On Wednesday night Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon reported, "BREAKING: Twitter just locked out @libsoftiktok for posting a thread about several recent drag shows for kids. The thread allegedly violates Twitter's rules against abuse and harassment. You know what's actually abusive? Drag shows for kids."

According to screenshots, the specific tweet flagged by Twitter read, "~MEGA DRAG THREAD~ They say its innocent. They say its just about inclusion and acceptance. They say no one is trying to confuse, corrupt, or sexualize kids. They lie." It was originally posted on May 30.

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST: GUNS HARM CHILDREN MORE THAN CHILD PORNAGRAPHY, SO LETS RESTRICT THEM

The Libs of TikTok account, which shares videos of left-wing individuals openly expressing their social and political views, was locked out of Twitter. (Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"You can promote drag shows for kids on Twitter. That's fine. You can even share videos of yourself performing in them. The only thing you can't do is criticize them," Dillon tweeted. "Somehow the feelings of a few drag queens matter more to Twitter than the corruption of a generation of children."

In an update on Thursday morning, Dillon also announced that Twitter denied Libs of TikToks appeal to overturn the violation.

"Twitter has denied Libs of TikTok's appeal," Dillon tweeted with an image reading that Twitter determined "a violation did take place" of their "rules against abusive behavior" with the tweet.

Libs of TikTok tweeted later on Thursday afternoon, confirming that the account was reopened. The offending tweet has been replaced with the message "This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules. Learn more."

"Im back! Apparently posting videos and flyers of drag events is abusive but the actual events are just innocent family friendly entertainment," the accounted tweeted.

Dillon previously reported shortly after Libs of TikToks original tweet in May that the account was banned from participating in Twitter ads, though the notification did not specify the reason.

Twitter app displayed on an iPhone screen in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

SCHOOLS, ORGANIZATIONS CELEBRATE PRIDE MONTH WITH DRAG SHOWS FOR MINORS

"Libs of TikTok has been banned from running ads on Twitter. A notification of ineligibility was sent out that failed to offer a specific reason," Dillon tweeted at the time.

In May, Libs of TikTok was also suspended from Instagram over the claim that the account violated the platforms Community Guidelines but it was not specified how. Instagram later restored the account over twelve hours later claiming that Libs of TikTok was "disabled by mistake."

The Libs of TikTok account usually shares videos of left-wing individuals openly expressing their social and political views on social media. It has been suspended from Twitter twice so far, once only hours it had been reinstated.

The TikTok logo is seen on an iPhone. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Both Twitter and Dillon did not immediately respond to Fox News requests for comments.

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The recent moves by Twitter follow years of conservative users complaining that social media is attempting to censor their views. Dillons own company Babylon Bee was locked out its Twitter account back in March.

Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.

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Twitter censors Libs of TikTok, labels their tweets showing kids at drag shows 'abuse and harassment' - Fox News

Another VPN quits India, as government proposes social media censorship powers – The Register

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India's tech-related policies continue to create controversy, with fresh objections raised to a pair of proposed regulation packages.

One of those regulations is the infosec reporting and logging requirements introduced by India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) in late April. That package requires VPN, cloud, and numerous other IT services providers to collect customers' personal information and log their activity, then surrender that info to Indian authorities on demand. One VPN provider, ExpressVPN, last week quit India on grounds that its local servers are designed not to record any logs so compliance would be impossible. ExpressVPN will soon route customers' traffic outside India.

On Tuesday, another VPN Surfshark announced it would do likewise.

The company announced its decision in a post that labelled CERT-In's rules "radical action that highly impacts the privacy of millions of people living in India."

India's government decide what millions of Indians can or cannot say online.

CERT-In's rules have also been criticized by The Internet Society, the nonprofit that advocates for an open internet.

In an Impact Brief [PDF] that assesses the impact of CERT-In's rules, the Society rates the requirement to sync with India-controlled network time protocol servers as creating a dangerous single point of failure. The Brief also takes issue with the rules' requirement to collect user data, as India lacks data privacy and data protection laws. The Society also suggests that CERT-In is not the appropriate body to collect data, as it is not a law enforcement agency.

Those criticisms come on top of similar suggestions from BSA The Software Alliance and ten other tech-related lobby groups, all of whom suggest the rules make India a less attractive destination for foreign investment.

India's government has so far shrugged off that criticism, but has earned itself more of the same at home by revising the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules that it introduced in 2021. Those rules saw social media companies push back on grounds that the regulations required them to identify users and could restrict free speech.

On Monday India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) published proposed amendments [PDF] to the Rules that, among other things, propose the creation of a government-run committee that would consider citizens' grievances about content posted to social media. That committee would have the power to override social networks' content moderation decisions.

That's scary, given that Indian police last year visited Twitter's local office to inquire why the microblogging service chose to label posts by a government spokesperson as "manipulated media."

India's Internet Freedom Foundation characterised the proposed committee's powers as follows:

Complicating perceptions of the proposed amendments is that MeitY published them last week, but then took down the file. An identical proposal re-appeared on Monday.

India's IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said the amended Rules add "more effective grievance addressal ensuring constitutional rights of citizens are respected" and will have "no impact on Indian Startups."

Many nations have laws that give local authorities the power to compel social media to remove content under specific circumstances.

India's proposed amendments allow citizens to seek takedown orders whenever they feel aggrieved.

The Register will be surprised if the proposed amendments don't generate another wave of letters from international lobby groups protesting India's plans.

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Another VPN quits India, as government proposes social media censorship powers - The Register

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RSF and international groups call on Turkey’s parliament to reject the disinformation bill as a tool of digital censorship | RSF – Reporters sans…

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Twenty three international media freedom, freedom of expression and journalists organisations today called for the immediate dismissal of the bill on disinformation and fake news which was submitted to the parliament on May 27 by the governing alliance of Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The bill threatens up to three years imprisonment for those found guilty of the deliberate publishing of disinformation and fake news intended to instigate fear or panic, endanger the countrys internal or external security, public order and general health of Turkeys society.

Such a bill, where the definition of disinformation and intent is left so vague, puts millions of Turkeys internet users at risk of criminal action for posting information that the government disagrees with.

Placed in the hands of Turkeys highly politicized judiciary, the law would become another tool for harassing journalists and activists and may cause blanket self-censorship across the internet.

The bill would also increase any sentence by 50% where information is published from anonymous user accounts. This severely undermines anonymity on the internet and further intimidates those wanting to publish evidence of corruption and wrongdoing but are afraid of the consequences of being publicly identified.

The governing alliance claim the bill is in line with the European Unions Digital Services Act and General Data Protection Regulation, however there are no such provisions under either of these laws.

The law would also bring news sites under the Press Law (Basin Kanunu). This gives their journalists access to the official press accreditation and also to public advertising funds through the official Press Advertising Agency, Basin Ilan Kurumu (BIK). In practice however this will simply enable the government to fund pro-government news sites while banning critical media deemed to have breached the disinformation law.

In the drafting stage, the government reportedly organized a consultation with international digital platforms yet it failed to hold any meetings with media representatives, editors, journalism associations or unions, despite these groups, and their members, being the most affected by the legislation.

The draft bill is currently before the Parliament. However the role of parliament has been so heavily undermined by the Presidential system that the bill is being rushed through without proper scrutiny or debate and expected to be passed swiftly into law within days.

Disinformation is an important issue and needs to be combatted but not at the price of restricting journalists rights and the publics rights of freedom of expression. Any such initiatives should be developed in close consultation with media and other stakeholders and include sufficient safeguards for free speech and independent journalism that can prevent their abuse by the government to impose arbitrary censorship.

We, therefore, call on all Turkeys parliamentarians who believe in the parliamentary process and the free flow of ideas and information as central to a democratic society, to vote down this bill.

Signed by:

International Press Institute (IPI)

ARTICLE 19

Articolo 21

Association of European Journalists

Committee to Protect Journalists

English PEN

European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)

European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)

IFEX

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA)

Media Research Association (MEDAR)

OBC Transeuropa (OBCT)

PEN America

PEN International

PEN Norway

Platform for Independent Journalism (P24)

Reporters sans frontires (RSF)

South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO)

Swedish Pen

The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ)

Turkey Human Rights Litigation Support Project

World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)

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RSF and international groups call on Turkey's parliament to reject the disinformation bill as a tool of digital censorship | RSF - Reporters sans...