The FBI arrested a man in Illinois on Tuesday, saying he was recorded in a TikTok video attacking National Guardsmen as they were attempting to hold the line with riot shields on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. The FBI said that two witnesses, over the span of five days, came forward and identified Mathew Capsel (born in 1993) as a Capitol rioter, submitting screenshots of his Mateo Q Capsel Facebook profile.

Witness 1 reported that they were a former neighbor of CAPSEL and that CAPSEL was known to be violent,' the FBI affidavit said. On or about January 13, 2020, the FBI received a tip from Witness 2 who submitted screenshots of Facebook posts by Mateo Q Capsel stating that they are friends on social media with CAPSEL and that CAPSEL was at Capitol building when the protesters and rioters got on the building before entering and had video of this on his Facebook page.

The FBI Special Agent on Capsels case said that, based on the foregoing, the defendant was the @mateoqcapsel on TikTok who attacked National Guardsmen. The feds cited Capsels distinctive tattoos on his face and neck.

A Twitter profile of an Illinois man with the name Mathew Capsel clearly indicates that Mateo Q is a reference to QAnon. Law&Crime obtained screenshots of the account.

On that Twitter timeline is a TikTok video with a slightly different handlethis one is @capselqbut it shows what appears to be the same man with a face tattoo. Notice the blatant references to QAnon:

The FBI affidavit included an image of Capselsdrivers license photo, which the FBI said appears to show the same face tattoo.

The tweets and retweets, as viewed by Law&Crime, were filled with right-wing content and strongly suggest a true belief in the QAnon conspiracy.

The Twitter account was fixated on Hillary Clinton, Seth Rich, Ukraine, Twitter shadow banning, and Antifa nut jobs on meth.

The rage at Twitter while on Twitter was notable. Twitter is outnumbered and nazis, said tweets from consecutive days in March 2019.

[F]uck you twitter, began another tweet, before saying that Twitter isnt kindergarden.

This isnt a kindergarden [sic] classroom. we can say what we damn well plees [sic]. blocking my freedom of speach [sic] is shaira [sic] law, the tweet said.

Another tweet acknowledged that the account only had 15 followers, but nonetheless claimed the account must have been shadow banned. If the Twitter user promoted socialism or praised Allah, more likes and RTs would occur, the tweet suggested.

The pinned tweet on the account, which @realDonaldTrump definitely cant see right now, says @realDonaldTrump I Dont Know if you have seen this but is really cool. Included is a link to the YouTube video PROOF Is Donald Trump a Time Traveler?! Mind Blowing.

Capsel has been hit with numerous and serious federal charges:

Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; and knowingly engages in any physical violence against any person or property in any restricted building or grounds; or attempts or conspires to do so; Forcibly assaulted, resisted, opposed, impeded, intimidated, or interfered with any officer or employee of the United States or of any agency in any branch of the United States Government (including any member of the uniformed services) while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties; Committed or attempted to commit any act to obstruct, impede, or interfere with law enforcement officer lawfully engaged in the lawful performance of his official duties incident to and during the commission of a civil disorder which in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or adversely affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce or the conduct or performance of any federally protected function.

[Images via FBI, Twitter screengrab]

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

Link:

Mateo Q Accused of Attacking National Guardsmen at Capitol. His Tweets Are Exactly What You Would Expect. - Law & Crime

By Andrew Hammond

The News Tribune

Tribal rights and criminal justice reform are high on Washington Attorney General Bob Fergusons agenda for this legislative agenda.

Fergusons legislative slate, which was announced Friday, includes a bill to enshrine in state law the Attorney Generals Offices first-of-its-kind policy that requires the office to obtain informed consent from Washingtons 29 federally recognized tribes before initiating a program or project that affects tribes, tribal rights, tribal lands and sacred sites.

Along with his tribal agenda, Ferguson is re-introducing his legislation abolishing the death penalty and limiting high-capacity magazines.

HIs agenda also includes a new bill requiring the collection and publication of data on the use of deadly force by law enforcement, which already has passed out of committee with bipartisan support, and another prohibiting price gouging during emergencies.

My office enforces and defends state law and we also work to improve state law to benefit Washingtonians, Ferguson said in a statement.

Here are some of the key issues on his agenda:

Public safety and criminal justice reform

Use of deadly force data collection: Ferguson is proposing legislation to create a centralized, publicly accessible database containing all incidents of law enforcement use of deadly force in Washington state. Currently, there is no single location where the public and lawmakers can obtain information about the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers.

High-capacity magazine limits: Ferguson is reintroducing legislation to prohibit the sale or possession of high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds. The bill includes exceptions for grandfathered magazines, law enforcement, military personnel and recreational shooting ranges. Multiple federal courts have upheld these public safety bans as constitutional.

Banning assault weapons: The Attorney General is reintroducing legislation in 2021 to ban the sale of military-style assault weapons in Washington state. The bill includes exceptions for grandfathered weapons, law enforcement, military personnel and recreational shooting ranges. Seven states already have a similar ban that federal courts have upheld.

Repealing the death penalty: For the fifth session, Ferguson is requesting a bill to repeal Washingtons death penalty. In 2018, the state Supreme Court found that Washingtons use of the death penalty is racially biased, arbitrary and lacks fundamental fairness, but the ruling did not repeal the law. Fergusons bill passed the Senate last year, but not the House.

Tribal treaty rights

Free, prior and informed consent from tribes: This legislative session, Ferguson is requesting legislation that would codify this policy, ensuring it cannot be unilaterally eliminated by future Attorneys General. As part of the legislation, the Attorney Generals Office would be required to refrain from filing any litigation against a tribal government or tribal-owned business without first engaging in meaningful consultation to resolve the dispute.

Protecting off-reservation treaty rights and state-tribal cooperative agreements: Ferguson and the state Department of Fish & Wildlife are jointly proposing legislation to repeal a 1984 unenforceable, anti-tribal statute codified in state law as RCW 77.110. The law casts a shadow over treaty fishing rights and the states well-established cooperative fisheries management agreements with tribes, Ferguson contends.

Consumer protections

Price gouging: The Attorney Generals Office has received more than 1,300 complaints from residents about excessive price increases on items like face masks or hand sanitizer during the pandemic. But Washington does not have a specific law to prohibit price gouging during a state of emergency. Ferguson is proposing a bill that provides a clear and unambiguous definition of price gouging and establishes civil penalties for violations.

Strengthening the Consumer Protection Act: The state Consumer Protection Act currently allows up to $2,000 in penalties per violation. These penalties have not increased since they were adopted in 1970. Fergusons legislation would adjust the penalties to $13,350 per each unfair or deceptive practice that violates the act.

Continued here:

Tribal rights, criminal justice reform on AG Ferguson's legislative agenda - The Daily World

QAnon has been classified by the FBI as a domestic terror threat, according to an internal memo first published by Yahoo! News. USA TODAY

The QAnon faithful are still pushing conspiratorial lies about the election and amplifying allies of former President Donald Trump even after Facebook and Twitterremoved tens of thousands of QAnon-linked accounts to stop the spread of violent threats and misinformation.

More than 1,300 QAnon-related accounts have posted on Twitter some 81,014 times since President Joe Bidens inauguration, according to a new report from Advance Democracy, a research organization that studies disinformation and extremism.

On Facebook, popular QAnon terms such as WWG1WGA (Where We Go One, We Go All) and NCSWIC (Nothing Can Stop What Is Coming) have been shared in hundreds of posts since the inauguration.

Larger accounts are spreading false claims that Trump won the election and remains in control of the country as a shadow president or that Trump will soon be reinstated, even after some adherents became disillusioned when Biden was sworn into office and promises of mass arrests or executions never materialized.

QAnon Twitter purge hits GOP: Trump allies and Republican lawmakers lost thousands of followers in Twitter purge after Capitol riots

Twitter suspends Donald Trump forever: President Trump permanently banned from Twitter over risk he could incite violence

The most active QAnon-related account on Twitter has posted more than 1,800 times since the inauguration and continues to promote false claims of election fraud, Advance Democracy found.

There is no doubt that some QAnon adherents have drifted away from movement after the inauguration of President Biden. This drift, along with the mainstream social media platforms banning QAnon accounts, has made a substantial difference in the volume of QAnon material easily accessible online, said Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy.

Supporters of President Donald Trump hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory at a campaign rally at Las Vegas Convention Center on February 21, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.(Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images)

Nonetheless, were still finding QAnon adherents on the mainstream social media platforms. And these QAnon accounts continue to promote violence and election-related conspiracy theories that call into question the legitimacy of Bidens presidency.

Mainstream social media platforms cracked down on accounts linked to QAnon following the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. QAnon followers believe that Trump is a messianic figure battling a deep state of devil-worshipping, child-molesting Democrats.

People cheer as President Donald Trump speaks at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, Florida on July 31. A sign showing the letter Q can be seen. Q stands for QAnon.(Photo: Rod Millington, EPA-EFE)

Those forced out of Facebook and Twitter have joined QAnon channels on alternative platforms such as Gab and Telegram and or have flocked to QAnon websites.

Popular QAnon-related accounts on Gab have embraced false claims such as the Plan is still underway, Advance Democracy found.

An account with 206,200 followers this week pushed the baseless theory that the Great Awakening, when Trump declares martial law and brings his political enemies to justice, is happening at multiple levels.

Another account with 107,600 followers, shared a post that said: Why should we think this wasnt factored into the strategy?

Save the Children?QAnon fabricates pedophile claims against Joe Biden as election looms

QAnon uses COVID, election to radicalize: How QAnon and other dark forces are radicalizing Americans as the COVID-19 pandemic rages and election looms

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/27/facebook-twitter-qanon-election-trump-capitol-gab-biden/4280816001/

See the original post:

QAnon still pushing conspiracies, lies about the election and former president Trump on Facebook and Twitter - USA TODAY

Above: Worship leader Sean Feucht appeared on the Friday edition of CBN News' Faith Nation to discuss how believers should respond to aBiden presidency.For a programming schedule,click here.

Worship leader Sean Feucht shared several prayer points that Christians can turn to while navigating through this new season in America.

Feucht said the first step is to worship God because he reigns above all things.

"Worship aligns our perspective. It helps us remember the reality that He's still on the throne. He's still in control and it really catches us up to see things from His perspective," he told CBN News. "God is not intimidated, He's not worried, He's not concerned. The angels are not hyperventilating...Heaven fully knows that the agenda of God's will is going to come to pass in this season in America."

The praise leader noted that Christiansmust pray for President Joe Bidenand for this nation, even if there are disagreements.

"We have a call and a mandate to pray as we prayed for Obama, Bush, Clinton, and for Trump," Feucht said. "We have a call to pray for Biden. We can pray that God's wisdom would be released over that administration and that His will will be done."

And he said believers should stand for the truth, even if that means we stand alone.

"We have to fear God above man. We have to fear," Feucht asserted. "Even though that standing up to the mob, standing up to this wokeness in our culture is going to have repercussions as we've seen with censorship, shadow banning, and with big tech and really with our culture people want to try and cancel you but we cannot bow our knee to those things. I believe the church is going to get her spine back for what she believes and what she stands for."

Although many prophesied that Trump would win a second term as president, and it didn't come to pass,Feucht said Christians still have a calling to listen to the prophet voice.

"We have to say, 'They missed it.' I believe we still have a calling to listen to the prophetic voice but I feel like this is a season for the prophets. We've got to take inventory. We have to look at how we missed it, why we missed it, and how we can regain that credibility back."

Feucht told CBN News thathe plans to continue spreading God's Word across the country during his Let Us Worship events.

"I believethis is going to be an incredible hour for the church. 2021 is going to be a beautiful hour for the church in America. With the intensity of this season as we've seen all over the world and revival history, the church always rises to the occasion and I believe it's going to happen this year and I'm so excited. We're seeing thousands gather together in these cities across America. There is a hunger that I've never seen before and I believe it's going to increase. Nothing can stop the spread of an unstoppable Kingdom."

"We're just getting started...it's just beginning. I feel an incredible grace and now more than ever, we gotta gather in the spirit of unity, to seek the face of the Lord and go after His Kingdom in this hour."

STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FREE CBN NEWS APPClick Here Get the App with Special Alerts on Breaking News and Top Stories

See more here:

'He is Still on the Throne': Sean Feucht Shares How Christians Can Navigate During This New Season - CBN News

Amanda Goetz is a single mom of three young children who was recently working as a marketing executive at The Knot Worldwide after her first tech startup failed.

So when she found herself navigating a divorce at the height of her career, she turned to regular therapy visits while simultaneously researching something unexpected (at least for her) Cannabis. She had never touched it, but after dabbling a bit she realized how much a small dose could bring her clarity, helping her sleep better and handling stress more effectively.

So in another unexpected turn, she quit her corporate job in the middle of the pandemic with her three kids at home to start House of Wise, a company founded at the intersection of commerce, content, community and cannabis to help women take control of their sleep, sex, stress and wealth.

I was lucky enough to chat with Goetz as she navigated her company into its eighth operational month. Here are some of her words of wisdom:

Amanda Goetz

Amy Shoenthal: Tell me about your background. How did you end up creating House of Wise?

Amanda Goetz: As a first generation college graduate from a town of 1,000 people in Illinois, I had never touched cannabis. In 2017, as I found myself in the middle of a divorce with three young children, I turned to therapy while simultaneously digging into some of the research on cannabis. I found it to be an effective way to find focus and calm in the midst of chaos.

In 2019 I realized there was still a stigma in the world of cannabis for career moms, yet none around drinking wine and alcohol - in fact Mom TikTok celebrates it. Alcohol has such horrible effects on your sleep and stress levels, and I wanted people to understand that there was a better way. I started House of Wise and incorporated in May 2020, raised a round of VC capital in July and we launched our first product line on December 1st.

Shoenthal: Why were you so compelled to share this discovery with other women?

Goetz: I have navigated infertility, miscarriage, divorce, dating as a single mom, freezing my eggs, corporate jobs, my failed startup, the acquisition and merger of The Knot/Wedding Wire and now navigating working from home in a pandemic with my kids full time.

Shoenthal: Wow, thats quite a list. What gets you through some of the toughest moments?

Goetz: So one of the things Ive found is by adding words and vocalizing whats happening, on social media or verbally to someone, it gives space for the emotions to live. It helps me. It connects me to other people. When I had a miscarriage, I remember confiding in a friend about my experience, and she said shed had one earlier that year. What I realized in that moment was that she only confided in me once she knew Id had one too. So I made it my own personal mission to always say, Ill go first. Hopefully that will encourage someone to go next. It makes me, and hopefully others, feel less alone.

I was guilty of trying to show off the perfect Instagram family in my 20s and then my whole world crumbled and I realized all we have is our truth, our feelings and our relationships. I created House of Wise to give women a community of people that can support them through these hardships by giving them the tools, resources and products to get them through the things many women face but are too scared to talk about.

Shoenthal: What obstacles did you face as you were building it? How did you overcome them?

Goetz: The cannabis industry is full of red tape, stigma and changing regulations. Payment processors were a nightmare. Shopify works with Stripe. Stripe doesn't work with MRBs (marijuana related businesses) so I had to use third party software to pass through as a gateway to Square.

I am doing all fulfillment from my garage in my quarantine house with the help of neighborhood women. That has been quite interesting. My oldest daughter is getting to be great friends with our local UPS store workers.

Also, my distribution strategy puts women at the heart of it. Rather than giving my acquisition dollars to Facebook or Google, I'm using women as the micro-affiliates. You can only buy House of Wise from a Wise Woman and they get a large cut of my profit margin.

But because of that, everyone thinks were an MLM (multi level marketing scheme.) Removing the stigma that this is an MLM was a hurdle. These are just real women wanting to talk about a product that works for them and get compensated when their friends buy from their affiliate link. No recruiting, no upfront costs, no BS. That was another roadblock - social media channels keep shadow banning our account for either cannabis content or MLM.

Shoenthal: Can you explain that part to me, if youre having women sign up and sell your product how is it different than a MLM?

Goetz: The mission is to empower women to take control of sleep, sex, stress and wealth. The wealth part comes in because we sell through affiliates. Our micro-affiliates are the Wise women. Theyre people who have tried the product and want to tell their friends about it. So we give them affiliate links and a big percentage of the sales.

With MLMs you have to buy all this product up front, its a huge cost, and then youre recruiting others to sell with you. We just allow women to buy whatever product they want for themselves. I send you the link, you sign up, add your Venmo or PayPal, then you get your own custom link. We send you emails and you get access to our Slack community where we talk about wealth, stress management, sex, and more.

We also offer programming that helps women become financially independent. For example, we just hosted a Wise Wednesdays where we hosted a talk with a Bitcoin consultant.

I was raised in a household that was very patriarchal, thats how my marriage was, and I wish someone had helped me way back when. We need more programming around financial literacy and independence.

Sleep Gummies

Shoenthal: Tell me about raising a round of capital in the middle of a pandemic.

Goetz: At my first startup in 2012 I was a first time female founder and I couldnt even get a meeting. It was insane. This year though, despite everything that was going on, I was actually able to actually maximize my time because I could jump from meeting to meeting without taking a cab uptown or flying to San Francisco to take a meeting. I was spending a lot more time on social media, got involved with things like Clubhouse, so all of a sudden the people who exist in certain networking circles became more accessible.

There are still clauses in certain VCs, like if theyve taken money from some investor in, say, the MIddle East, then theyre not allowed to invest in sex or cannabis. So Im a double whammy for them. But because of social media I was connected to people faster. I finally had some ability to keep up with the people who had more discretionary time. I moved in with my parents so they could help with childcare while I fundraised.

Shoenthal: Whats the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Goetz: My therapist has truly helped me understand what drives me, what triggers me and what zaps me. That self awareness is like a cheat code to life. We all have our stuff and knowing your stuff gives you an advantage. Its just about being curious and being conscious instead of being led by the subconscious.

Shoenthal: What are you most excited about right now?

Goetz: My partnership with Last Prison Project. Theyre on a mission to get everyone with a small cannabis charge to get out of jail. They also create scholarships for children of single parent families. The cannabis industry has been built on a lot of inequality so I couldnt build a company without acknowledging that and doing my part in addressing it.

Shoenthal: What advice would you give to others starting their own business in your industry or embarking on a new venture?

Goetz: A rising tide lifts all ships. In other industries it would be taboo to do check-ins and compare notes with competitors but in the cannabis world, which is very much male-dominated, female founders are all in this together. There is plenty of room for everyone and we are stronger together, at least from my perspective.

See more here:

This Female Founder Wants Women To Get More Sleep And Have More Sex - Forbes

Photo: Smith Collection/Gado (Getty Images)

This week, most of the world took a collective sigh of relief as Joe Biden was inaugurated as president without something incredibly terrible happening. That doesnt include the most die-hard loyalists on the Trump Train, who spend Wednesday freaking out.

On pro-Trump board The Donald, which was banned from Reddit for rampant hate speech and harassment, users went into meltdown mode and turned on each other as the last vestige of hope that Donald Trump would somehow overturn the election results and remain president for another four years or longer disappeared. Great Awakening, the similarly Reddit-banned hub for QAnon theorists that believe Trump was secretly at war with the pedophiles, approached a state of complete reality failure as their belief Trump would storm the inauguration and arrest Sleepy Joe imploded.

Those on sites for normal people may have noticed a minor downtick in overall dread, though, as Trump remained banned on Twitter, indefinitely locked out of Facebook, and facing similar doom on a number of other social media networks. Ban sprees of other pro-Trump personalities involved in the Capitol incident also seemed to lower the temperature in the room.

Could things finally be improving? No, dont be a dipshit. Heres this weeks Hellfeed.

G/O Media may get a commission

This week the company handed off the decision of whether Trumps lockout should be permanent to the companys Oversight Board, the (supposedly) independent body it formed to vet moderation decisions. The Oversight Board is composed mostly of lawyers, scholars, journalists, and human rights activists, and this will be one of its first big decisionsand an opportunity for Facebook to try and deescalate the idea CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other execs unilaterally control what can be said on the site.

The Boards decisions are binding, meaning Zuckerberg cannot just choose to overrule it, and deliberations will take 90 days, after which Facebook has a week to enforce its ruling. That means a final determination of whether the ex-president can spew vile diatribes, thinly sourced lies, and general pleas for attention to millions on the site wont be coming until April.

Trumps bans on Twitter and Snapchat are permanent. He has also been indefinitely banned from Shopify and Twitch, while other social media companies have cracked down on his supporters and groups involved in the Capitol riot.

An October report from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard tracked the spread of hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and misinformation about the U.S. electoral system and determined the key factor was an institutionalized disinformation effort by Trump and his allies in the GOP and mass media. Social media played only a secondary role, according to the study, boosting organized astroturfing originating from a relative handful of superspreaders.

Lo and behold, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites decisions to cut the head off the giant appears to have had an immediate and dramatic impact. Without Trump actively shoving this stuff down supporters throats, an early study by analytics firm Zignal Labs found that conversations about election fraud on several sites dropped from 2.5 million the week prior to just 688,000 mentions the week after. Other hashtags like #FightForTrump, #HoldTheLine, and March for Trump plunged by 95 percent or more.

Parler, the social media site for people more interested in reading Dan Bonginos opinions on things than interacting with friends or family, is not having a pleasant month. Parler was flooded with death threats and calls for violence from extremist groups before the Capitol riots, and its users were predictably implicated as involved. Google and Apple thus kicked its app off their stores, while Amazon Web Services terminated its cloud hosting, knocking it offline for days. So far, its only managed to return in the form of a Technical Difficulties page featuring get-well-soon messages from various right-wing chuds.

The site took two more bricks to the face this week. Parlers been suing Amazon in a legally dubious bid to force the company to bring it back online, and its short-term goal was to convince federal courts to issue an injunction forcing Amazon to boot it back up while that lawsuit proceeds. Per NPR, Judge Barbara Rothstein shot down the injunction request in terms that bode very poorly for Parlers legal fortunes:

The Court explicitly rejects any suggestion that the balance of equities or the public interest favors obligating AWS to host the kind of abusive, violent content at issue in this case, particularly in light of the recent riots at the U.S. Capitol, Rothstein wrote. That event was a tragic reminder that inflammatory rhetoric canmore swiftly and easily than many of us would have hopedturn a lawful protest into a violent insurrection.

Second, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, sent a letter to the FBI this week asking for the agency to investigate Parler for being a potential facilitator of planning and incitement related to the violence. Parler has immunity from civil or criminal liability for most of its users terrible content under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, so the request to the FBI may fall flat. But Maloney also said the letter was a prelude to a congressional investigation of Parler and other sites facilitating right-wing extremismpotentially exposing it to subpoenas and likely meaning CEO John Matze will be the latest in a series social media execs dragged before Congress to testify. Perhaps hell do better than the 8chan weirdo.

Gab, the social network that bills itself as a free speech site while serving as an internet hidey-hole for fascists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other unpleasant people, is surging after Parler was taken offline. Between Jan. 6 and Jan. 17, according to NPR, its userbase doubled to 3.4 million and it experienced an 800 percent jump in traffic.

Gab, like Parler, was one of the locations were the flabbergasted and hateful organized the Capitol rampage, and one of its anti-Semitic users posted a message to Gab before killing 11 and wounding six at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018. Gab was hounded off of its U.S. service providers, including cloud hosts, payment providers, and security firms, striking a serious blow to its operations. It managed to crawl back online with the help of cryptocurrency and niche firms like domain registrar Epik, which is known for contracts with white supremacist sites.

Theres no reason to doubt Gab is seeing an influx of users; its been directly marketing itself to QAnon supporters and other disgruntled right-wingers over the past few weeks. But there is reason to be very skeptical its doing anywhere near as well as it says. A software engineer for Gabs web host, Sibyl Sytem Ltd., told the Southern Poverty Law Center in February 2019 that its traffic patterns suggested a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of users rather than the claimed 800,000.

As of Jan. 20, a running Associated Press count of arrests related to the Capitol riot blew past 125in large part because the perpetrators live-streamed virtually every single moment of it. This week, ProPublica released an interactive timeline of 500 videos pulled from Parler alone (out of over 2,500 total), aided in part by the sites sloppy design. Thats not even counting the selfies they took, the text posts detailing exactly where they were, or that most didnt even attempt to mask their appearances despite the heavy media presence.

Its extremely easy to assume that this reflects a total lack of self-awareness from many of the rioters as to the trail of digital evidence they were leaving behind and the laws they were filming themselves breaking. But the violence was itself to a great degree the product of incentives for toxic right-wing personalities to go as extreme as feasible in search of viral reachand for them, the riot conveniently had a dual objective as a monetizable spectacle. Also keep in mind that the horde felt so emboldened reflects their confidence they could run amok with no consequences whatsoever, which is not reassuring!

The government of Poland, which is currently controlled by right-wing populist party Law and Justice, announced it is drafting a law that would allow social media users to contest the deletion of any post that isnt illegal. The proposal under consideration would entitle users to a response from the social media company in question, which could then be appealed by a government-appointed Freedom of Speech Council and in courts. Law and Justice has made it amply clear it views the law as a tool for fighting the shadow cabal of leftist tech CEOs trying to censor criticism.

Uganda ordered internet service providers to cut access to all social media sites and online messaging applications last week before elections on Jan. 14. It also shut down internet access; that was resumed Jan. 18, and the social media bans ended later. The action, came amid a brutal crackdown on opposition to President Yoweri Musevenis National Resistance Movement and was explicitly in retaliation for Facebook banning an inauthentic network of accounts and pages linked to the Government Citizens Interaction Center, which is run by the government.

More here:

The Ban Is Working - Gizmodo

Washington A man says he recorded the moment that police opened barricades and encouraged the crowd to storm the Capitol. Some police officers, which has been verified, even took selfies with protesters. The video, however, is short and is difficult to tell if it is actually in the context in which it appears to be.

Article continued below

For months, America watched as rioters, or protesters as CNN, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush, refer to them, burned down businesses, police stations, and destroyed millions of dollars in property.

The aforementioned socialists are also known as the Squad.

The rioters maimed, killed, and demanded to be heard. BLM and ANTIFA were accepted by AOC and Ilhan Omar, who openly hates America while embracing Islam.

During this time, those on the left, including Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, stated that the protesters must endureor stay strong. The rioters and anarchists were not condemned or referred to as terrorists even as they ran off police officers and burned a police station and other businesses to the ground.

Facebook, Google, and Twitter did not block videos, or ban the accounts of any CNN reporters or politicians who referred to the rioters as protesters. No, instead, the tech giants glorified the mayhem and supported it. They even allowed videos to be promoted and advertised whilst preventing any political video portraying Biden or his family in a bad light from being sponsored or promoted.

On Wednesday, Trump supporters turned up in droves at the Capitol to show their support for President Donald Trump hoping for the Senate to keep socialism out of the Whitehouse.

Emotions were high and many protesters stormed the Capitol building in hopes of swaying the political agenda of the corrupt establishment.

Many, wrote on Facebook, The people should not fear their government. The Government should fear their people.

Amanda Collins wrote, This is as American as it gets. Storming the Capitol to shutdown tyranny.

Democrats immediately moved to label anyone at the protest as a terrorist or right-wing extremists. AOC referred to them as white supremacists.

During the incident, an unarmed Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer. That officer has since been placed on administrative leave. Chief of Police Steven Sund confirmed this information with Ocala Post.

The shooting was captured on video and it was confirmed that Babbitt was not armed and had not threatened any officers. She was shot through a window.

Those on the left, and those who have been bought and paid for, immediately moved to blame President Donald Trump, calling for Congress to invoke Amendment 25. Including, Kamala Harristhe same woman who, over the summer, told rioters protests will not and should not stop. She continually referred to the burning of a police station as a peaceful protest and not a riot. She refused to recognize the rioters as so.

In a video, Kamala said, But [protesters] are not going to stop. Theyre not going to stop. Theyre not. This is a movement. Im telling you. Theyre not going to stop, and everyone, beware. Because theyre not going to stop. Theyre not going to stop before election day in November, and they are not going to stop after election day. And everyone should take note of that on both levels. That theyre not going to let up. And they should not, and we should not.

Kamala was never condemned by the left, AOC, CNN, ABC, CBS, USA Today, Huff Post, or any other news outlet or socialist for her remarks. She was never accused of inciting a riot that devasted more than one city. She was never accused of being a part of the creation of police free zones.

During the George Floyd riots, President Trump Tweeted out against the violence and threatened to send the National Gaurd. The rioters then doubled down on their agenda. In response to President Trumps Facebook posts and tweets, the two tech giants interfered and, even though President Trump was against the violence, they removed his posts. Later, they allowed them to be visible but attached a warning label to his posts in an attempt to keep the riot momentum going. President Trump was damned if he did and damned if he didnt.

Article continued below

During the January 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol, President Trump tweeted out several messages to his supporters denouncing violence.

Additionally, President Trump posted a video that was deleted by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Following the deletion, President Trump was blocked from being able to post to his social media accounts.

Article continued below

The tech giants openly admitted Thursday to shadow banning Trump. In a statement, Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook deleted the video because he felt the video message was violent in nature and would incite further violence.

Shadowbanning, also called stealth banning, ghost banning, or comment ghosting, is when tech giants block or partially block a user or their content from an online community so that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned.

Ocala Post was able to obtain a copy of the video.

Article Continued Below

The video was deleted, but rioters burning down a police station and allowing the videos to be monetized is acceptable by Facebook and Twitter standards.

Anna O., wrote, According to the new Democrats and woke snowflakes, rioting, looting, burning, and killing cops is a good thing. They have supported it all year up until now without a word. So I guess he is safe!

Samantha Volpe, wrote, I think we do need an uprising or revolution. These people wanted to defund police and condoned heavy rioting and burning down a town. Now they will be in power? No, no, no.

There were other tweets sent out condemning Wednesdays violence as well.

Article Continued Below

Essentially, despite video surveillance evidence and eyewitness testimony presented during multiple election fraud hearings, the electoral votes were given in favor of Biden.

The overwhelming evidence was completely ignored.

Facebook and Twitter said they have blocked President Trump from posting indefinitely, once again, violating free speech rights and acting as a publisher.

For years, President Trump was accused of, with zero evidence, of winning a rigged election by way of Russian influence and collusion. This was the headline in every other liberal media outlet paper across the county for the last four years. This was all followed by a bogus impeachment attempt. Which is, again, being spearheaded by Ilhan Omar.

A person could not even show support in public without being beaten. In one of the dozens of cases, a man was beaten and a CNN commentator publicly mocked him.

Now, during the 2020 election, when there was actually hard, physical evidence, evidence tampering, and illegal, last-minute changes to Pennsylvania voting laws in order to assist and benefit Biden during the election, socialist communists such as AOC, Nancy Pelosi, and Ilhan Omar turned their heads and still put the blame on President Trump.

Facebook and Twitter conspired and deleted videos showing the fraud, only to later put them back up and backpedal.

Facebook, Twitter, and Google also conspired and blocked stories about the crime and large scale corruption inside the Biden family. A damning story that was first published in the New York Times was immediately deleted and blocked from the tech giants. A story which outlined that Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, and his son Hunter Biden all have profited immensely from China and the Ukraine.

Many, many people have turned to Facebook and demanded a Revolution. Now, that parts of the Government have seen that the people are fed up, many of those elected officials are scared and are demanding those who came into the Capitol be arrested. Not just because they stormed the Capitol, but because the crooked politicians, both Republican and Democratic, now know the strength of the people in numbers.

A government should never be able to control its people or have any kind of power over them. No more than the government should have control of the internet, which, is exactly what Shiou-Ming Wu wants the U.S to docontrol the internet and its people.

While some laws were broken when storming the Capitol, and property damage is not acceptable, neither is the loss of life, Americans are certainly tired of the tyranny. However, any time an American expresses that sentiment, they are referred to as a right-wing extremist, white supremest, conspiracy theorist, or sovereign citizenseven by some law enforcement officials.

In contrast, what would have happened if the Boston Tea Party had not taken place?

Quick history lesson: In 1773, American colonists, frustrated and angry at Britain for imposing taxation without representation, dumped 342 chests of tea, imported by the British East India Company into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists. It showed Great Britain that Americans wouldnt take taxation and tyranny sitting down, and rallied American patriots across the 13 colonies to fight for independence.

The Boston Tea Party was not an election, but the ideology may be the same.

Now, in 2021, America faces a much larger, more unscrupulous government. Americans face coercive big tech and left-wing media who manipulate the truth and the new president is not likely to bypass the media and post the truth as President Trump did.

President Trump was not a career politician, which is why he was so well-liked and admired.

When interviewed, Attorney Mark Levin said it best.

See the article here:

Storming the Capitol: Americans are fed up with liberal socialists, media, big tech, corrupt government - ocalapost.com

For a long time, social media giants have evaded any responsibility regarding content on their platforms. It has enabled malicious actors to spread misinformation and hate speech with little to no consequences. While all social media platforms self-moderate the contents, many escape scrutiny to reach thousands of users. The storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters on January 6 was one great example of how things could go wrong.

Many supporters of US President Donald Trump, who attended the protest against alleged election fraud at the US Capitol, coordinated their actions on Parler, a social media platform that has become popular amongst the right-wing groups. Many actively talked about gun violence on Parler before the protest.

Even though Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with a larger audience than Parler took action against many infuriating posts, including President Trump's video address where he said he loved his supporters even though they had violated law and order, it was too late. That brings to the question, should the platforms not be held responsible?

While many believe that they should be held accountable, social media companies have hidden behind the First Amendment of the US Constitution that protects free speech and freedom of expression. The social media platforms with algorithms that aim to facilitate audience engagement have been responsible for spreading hate speech and conspiracy theories, even though unintended.

Many studies have shown how YouTube algorithms favor conspiracy theories, recommending videos related to certain topics like the 9/11 attack or JFK assassination. While all these platforms say they are in favor of the First Amendment that protects free speech and freedom of expression, they cannot evade the responsibility of instigating riots.

Hundreds of conspiracy theories related to fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election circulated on all these platforms, leading to the violent Capitol Hill protest. Before that, misinformation related to COVID-19 and vaccine spread like wildfire for months before they were banned or labeled by the platforms.

Virginia Senator Mark Warner, who is the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the social media companies "collaborators" who facilitated the violence that could have been suppressed weeks ago. "The collaborators include some of the wealthiest companies in our country. The Facebooks, the Twitters, the Googles who allow this kind of disinformation. Their 11th hour move to take down Trump's Twitter or Facebook page is way too little, too late," Warner said in a panel on cybersecurity on Thursday.

However, the main culprit here is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (1996). It shields internet companies from any legal liability arising from content on their platforms. By definition, prosecutors cannot hold any internet company social media platforms, online news outlets and forums responsible for any comment.

While President Trump has been a vocal critic of the act and has urged Republican lawmakers to scrap it completely, his motives are different. He has accused Facebook and Twitter of silencing conservative voices and "shadow banning" their posts. Trump even vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act after lawmakers failed to address revoking Section 230. But the House bypassed the veto with two-thirds of majority.

He is not alone among Republicans, though. Texas Senator Ted Cruz also spoke about repealing Section 230 in the wake of Facebook and Twitter limiting the reach of Hunter Biden's story by the New York Post.

But after the Capitol Hill attack, repealing or at least amending Section 230 may become a possibility with bipartisan support. President-elect Joe Biden also hasn't been in the favor of the act. "The idea is that Section 230 should be revoked immediately for Zuckerberg and other platforms. It should be revoked because it is not merely an internet company. It is propagating falsehoods they know to be false," Biden said.

Now with House and Senate majority besides the presidency, Democrats could find Bipartisan support to repeal Section 230 completely, holding the platforms, including right-wing news outlets and forums like thedonald.win, responsible for spreading hate speech, conspiracy theories and violence.

"I still don't see platforms taking this seriously. It will be interesting to see if in the wake of this Democrats find a spine and do something to break up the centralized power of the platforms," said Dr Daniel Angus, a misinformation expert at the Queensland University of Technology, told ABC Australia.

While repealing it would be a good initiative, there could be repercussions too. Politicians could take advantage of it by forcing platforms to keep any content. For example, gun rights groups or white supremacy groups could continue to thrive if they do not spread hate speech with political support. Even though both are problematic, they may not necessarily violate hate speech rules.

1 of 5

Furthermore, governments can take advantage of that by silencing dissent. During the Hong Kong protests, Arab Spring and recent Belarus protests, social media platforms played a key role in the mass mobilization against government suppression. If other countries decide to follow the US, they may find a weapon against social media platforms, banning them from hosting any content that is anti-government, like China does.

See the original post:

Section 230: After US Capitol Riots, It Is Time to Hold Social Media Platforms Responsible - International Business Times, Singapore Edition

US President Donald Trumps new executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese apps, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, marks the latest escalation of the US-China tech war and will be a problem the incoming Biden administration will need to manage, analysts said.

President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office in two weeks and it is not clear whether he plans to implement this order, which is meant to take effect in 45 days.

However, the direct financial impact on the targeted apps and their operators is likely to be limited due to uncertainties over the orders implementation and the limited exposure of the apps to the US market, analysts said.

The latest executive order from the White House cited national security concerns, saying the Chinese programs could provide the personal data of American citizens to the Chinese government. If the order goes into effect, the US Commerce Department will be responsible for deciding which transactions are prohibited.

The order covers Ant Groups Alipay as well as Tencent Holdings financial arm WeChat Pay and its QQ Wallet and messaging app QQ. Other apps on the blacklist include scanning app CamScanner, cross platform sharing tool SHAREit, video sharing app VMate, and Beijing Kingsoft Office Softwares WPS Office.

Wang Yong, a professor at the Peking University School of International Studies, said Trumps latest move was an attempt to set obstacles in Bidens policy towards China just before his administration leaves office.

[President Trump] dug a lot of holes. The Biden administration will need to pay a higher price, especially in political capital, [if they want to] improve the Sino-US relationship, Wang said.

The ban comes five months after a similar move against TikTok and WeChat, although that executive action has since stalled amid a series of legal challenges. Beijing-based ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, failed to meet a US-imposed deadline of December 4 for it to divest its short video platform as its subsequent deal with Oracle to take partial ownership is still being scrutinised by both sides. Meanwhile, TikTok has yet to be hit with any further action from Washington.

Several US courts have temporarily blocked the implementation of TikToks US ban after the legality of the executive order was challenged by ByteDance. In a ruling in September, District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols blocked the phase one ban, saying the US president had overstepped his authority in invoking a national emergency as the reason for the action.

With the latest action, Ant Group which halted dual initial public offerings in Shanghai and Hong Kong in November after Chinese regulators stepped in now finds a shadow cast over its overseas business despite having a limited presence in the US.

Ant revealed in its prospectus that Alipay had more than one billion users and 80 million merchants in China, but cited figures from research firm Sensor Tower showing that the app was only downloaded 207,000 times in the US last year from Apples App Store and Google Play.

Ant is affiliated with Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Ant declined to comment. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that the executive order was another example of the US abusing its national power and unreasonably suppressing foreign companies.

Sensor Tower data showed Tencents QQ was downloaded 296,000 times from US app stores in 2020 compared with 40.7 million in China in the same year. Camscanner, the image scanner, was the most popular of the banned apps with 4.4 million US downloads last year.

China is still the priority market for most of these apps, including Alipay and WeChat Pay, said Nick Marro, global trade lead at The Economist Intelligence Unit. These moves might frustrate international expansion plans, but they wont dent the main revenue sources or user bases for these companies.

Jim Fitzsimmons, head of the cybersecurity practice in Asia-Pacific for risk consultancy Control Risks, said the impact of the executive order on US companies working with the Chinese businesses would be minimal because theres very few people who really use those applications inside the US.

At the same time, it remains unclear how Biden will respond to Trumps executive orders.

All executive orders signed by one president can be easily reversed by a later president with a new executive order. So Biden can just revoke it with a new executive order he can write within a few hours and then sign it, said Dov Levin, a professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Likewise, given the [vague] way this executive order is written, Bidens new secretary of commerce could define the ban to be effectively meaningless, he said.

In any case, Biden may not be in a rush to reverse Trumps executive orders targeting China because his top priority will be controlling the coronavirus pandemic, some analysts said. South China Morning Post

Continue reading here:

China-US tech war: Trump's ban on Alipay and WeChat Pay another problem for Biden to deal with - The Star Online

When you join the lobbying profession, you know immediately you become Public Enemy No. 1. Frankly, you can't blame the public for feeling this way.

As a profession we let Washington, D.C., define who we are and how we operate. We don't have a bully pulpit the way candidates, members of Congress and presidents do. We do not have a public forum where the people can hear us.

When attacks come, we bury our heads in the sand and don't stand up for ourselves and what we do. We simply hide and wait for the onslaught to pass. It's easy for elected officials to blame lobbyists for the dysfunction in Washington, the alternative being for them to look in the mirror and point the finger at themselves for their direct failures on behalf of those who elected them. When in doubt, create a boogeyman the public hates or distrusts more than you.

When you become a lobbyist, you know that every election year you will become the scapegoat for all the failures of both Congress and the incumbent president's administration. You know that in one breath members of Congress and the president will blame you for a policy stalemate and then in the next breath call you and ask you for a campaign contribution. These same elected leaders will tell their constituents how they need to halt the influence that lobbyists have in Washington. But when they leave their campaign rallies, they will call us asking for help on their campaign.

The reality is that it's good politics to trash a profession the public does not know much about. It's good business to spread lies, and only then to turn to us and use us to get you elected. Frankly, shame on people in our business for allowing it.

Joe Biden campaigned on improving ethics in the capital, but now that he's been elected that seems like it was just a tagline to get votes. He is imposing restrictions on lobbyists serving in his administration and on government boards, yet his transition team is filled with big-name lobbyists. His team has said that not all lobbyists will be banned. Some will be given waivers to serve.

My questions for the president-elect are: Why some and not all? If our profession is the problem in Washington, as you claim, then why does your team include lobbyists? Why the need for waivers? Why not simply ban all of us, not just some of us?

The answer is simple. You have been in elected politics for more than 40 years and you know the true value of what we do and the information and expertise we will offer you and your new administration. So, while it may get you a good public reception to claim you are banning lobbyists, then quietly you will enlist us. It is the Washington way.

But while Biden's policy discriminates against a class of people because of what they do, it makes exceptions for people close to you or who have been big donors to you over the years. The American people deserve better than this. Frankly, our profession deserves to be treated better than this.

The next president campaigned on the promise to create a diverse administration. Some will say he is doing just that. I take a different view. The policies he is putting in place not only discriminate against a whole class of professionals, but they also tell lobbyists of color they are not welcome to serve in the new administration. At a time when we should be celebrating public service and are asking corporate America to be more inclusive, Biden is doing the exact opposite. His bans limit lobbyists of color from creating opportunities to be selected to top positions in government and their chosen fields. That is exactly what the president-elect has criticized corporate America for doing.

As his new administration begins, I would urge Biden to reconsider his lobbyist ban for the reasons here. Barack Obama did much the same after he was elected president a dozen years ago and it turned into a black eye for his administration, which relaxed its rules six years later in the aftermath of an unfavorable federal appeals court ruling.

Since 2009 we have seen a growing trend of people taking themselves off the lists of registered federal lobbyists so they could serve in the Obama and Trump administrations. We suspect that will continue under a Biden administration unless he changes course.

Such shadow lobbying is a real problem and one our profession is fighting against. The new president should work with us on creating policies that create more transparency, not less. But an outright ban is going to continue the rise of shadow lobbyists at a time when the American people are tired of corruption in government.

Please, Mr. President-elect: Work with us and not against us. I would urge you to be honest in your policies. If you ban lobbyists, you need to ban all lobbyists, not just some. You need to return the campaign donations you have taken during your campaign to every lobbyist or political action committee. You need to stop taking money from lobbyists or corporate America for your inauguration. And you need a universal diversity and inclusion policy that is inclusive of all, not just some.

As a profession, we want to work with you on transparency. We want to work with you on ethics reform. This is only possible if your administration is open and honest about your policies and does not create carve-outs for big donors or close friends. You cannot hold the rest of us accountable if you are not going to follow your own lead.

Leadership starts at the top with one policy for all, not just some well-connected Washington insiders.

Paul A. Miller is board chairman of the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics, the advocacy profession's trade association, and principal of the lobbying firm Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies. The Fulcrum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news platform covering efforts to fix our governing systems. It is a project of, but editorially independent from, Issue One.

Excerpt from:

OPINION EXCHANGE | Biden's ban on lobbyists in his administration would be unwise and discriminatory - Minneapolis Star Tribune