Free Republic

On Tuesday, Twitter announced a massive change to the way its conversations will work, evaluating not just the content of individual tweets, but the way users behave more broadly on the service. Twitter will now use thousands of behavioral signals when filtering search, replies, and algorithmic recommendations. If it believes you are trying to game its system, or simply acting like a jerk, it will push your tweets lower down. It’s the biggest update so far in the company’s push to create healthier conversations, an initiative announced by its CEO Jack Dorsey in March. Among the signals Twitter will use:...

The Sentencing Council for England and Wales has drafted new guidelines proposing prison sentences of between 26 weeks and six years for social media posts deemed hostile toward a race, religion or sexual identity. The proposals have been made in relation to the Public Order Act, which prohibits all activities “intended or likely to stir up hatred” against minority groups, including transgender people.

Throughout 2015, and until April 28th, 2016, there were unknown “outside government” contractors with access to the FBI/NSA database. Those outside government agents were conducting unlawful searches of the FISA database. The 99-page FISA Court opinion by presiding justice Rosemary Collyer proves this with absolute certainty. CTH has long suspected those outside agents were doing political opposition research; and were allowed to do so as part of the political misuse of the intelligence apparatus. Pg 83. “FBI gave raw Section 702–acquired information to a private entity that was not a federal agency and whose personnel were not sufficiently supervised by...

IMPORTANT: For live updates on the Alfie Evans case, click here. LIVERPOOL, England, April 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Liverpool police are warning that social media posts about “Alder Hey Hospital and the ongoing situation involving Alfie Evans” are “being monitored” and what they deem as “malicious communications” will be investigated. “Merseyside Police has been made aware of a number of social media posts which have been made with reference to Alder Hey Hospital and the ongoing situation involving Alfie Evans,” Merseyside Police Chief Inspector Chris Gibson said. “I would like to make people aware that these posts are being monitored and remind social...

*China has created Big Brother* In some of China's largest cities, a high-tech effort is underway to bust low-level offenders like jaywalkers. Cameras record them going through intersections, zero in on their face and publicly shame them on nearby video screens. It's all part of the Chinese government's new social credit system where people's daily behavior is monitored and rated."I think it's a good thing," one woman said. "It makes people more honest." But this social credit rating goes far beyond a traditional credit score which is based on your finances. China's version factors in everything from jaywalking, to smoking...

Senate confirms new director for spy agency, cyber command WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate confirmed on Tuesday President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency, Army Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone. Nakasone has an extensive background in cyber issues, having held positions including serving as chief of the U.S. Army’s cyber command since late 2016. Nakasone, 54, replaces Admiral Mike Rogers, who is retiring after nearly four years in the “dual-hat” position leading the NSA, the country’s largest spy agency, and the military’s cyber warfare division. During his confirmation hearing, Nakasone said he did...

NEW hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing and automatically issues fines could soon change everything. -- DISTRACTION is one of the leading causes of fatal road crashes in Australia but new hi-tech cameras that detect drivers using their mobile phones without them even knowing could soon change everything. A New South Wales Police spokesman told news.com.au that officers currently "use a variety of methods to detect drivers using their phones while driving". "Line-of-site, by trained officers is the primary method of detection, however, long-ranged cameras have been used with success, and helmet cameras...

The hilarious duo of Diamond and Silk is a danger to society. That’s according to Facebook. The pro-Trump pair posted on the embattled social media platform on Friday night, saying after months of correspondence, they were deemed to be “unsafe to the community.”

Top U.S. intelligence officials gathered in the White House Situation Room in March to debate a controversial proposal. Counterterrorism officials wanted to create a government dragnet, sweeping up millions of records about U.S. citizens—even people suspected of no crime. ~ snip ~ The rules now allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an...

China's ruling Chinese Communist Party appears to be stepping up its monitoring of citizens with overseas links following a massive restructuring of state agencies earlier this month to bring them under direct party control. Among the changes are an expanded and more visible role for the party's formerly secretive United Front Work Department, which works to ensure cooperation from groups outside the party and government apparatus. The department has absorbed the functions of the state bureau managing "overseas Chinese affairs," and is charged with the "investigation and study of overseas Chinese affairs at home and abroad," the official news agency...

Find out what @Facebook thinks you are politically: Open your FB account “Settings.”Select “Ads” Click “Your Information”Click "Your Categories.” They had me down as "very conservative" which is right on the money and downright creepy because I don't post about politics on Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christoper Wylie, appearing before a committee of British MPs on Tuesday, said that Facebook has the ability to spy on users in their homes and offices. The British parliament is investigating Cambridge Analytica's involvement in the Brexit election. MP Damian Collins, who chaired the committee, asked Wyle whether Facebook has the ability to listen to what people are talking about in order to better target them with ads. "There's been various speculation about the fact that Facebook can, through the Facebook app on your smartphone, listen in to what people are talking about and discussing and using...

In an interview with Wired magazine, Mark Zuckerberg revealed Facebook’s political agenda — he wants to curb free speech and free expression on the platform in exchange for “safety.” From the Wired interview: I think at the heart of a lot of these issues we face are tradeoffs between real values that people care about. You know, when you think about issues like fake news or hate speech, right, it’s a tradeoff between free speech and free expression and safety and having an informed community. These are all the challenging situations that I think we are working to try to...

Former top FBI official Andrew McCabe, who was fired late Friday night by Attorney General Jeff Sessions two days before becoming eligible for full pension benefits, said in an extraordinary statement that he was targeted because President Donald Trump wants to destroy him as part of his "war" against special counsel Robert Mueller. "This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement and intelligence professionals more generally," McCabe said in a statement released shortly after Sessions announced his decision. "It is part of this...

Owners of Amazon Echo devices with the voice-enabled assistant Alexa have been pretty much creeped out of their damn minds recently. People are reporting that the bot sometimes spontaneously starts laughing — which is basically a bloodcurdling nightmare.

VICTOR — Sean Martineck...(spoke to) the government class of Victor Senior High School teacher Mike Myers ... on ... the ...serious topic of gun violence, the Second Amendment and getting illegal guns off the streets — something that takes up a great deal of his time as a special agent for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, assigned to the Violent Crime Task Force in the Rochester satellite office. Martineck read (the Second Amendment), noting it was passed in 1791. “What did our Founding Fathers mean by that?” he asked. “Do you think our Founding Fathers envisioned...

MENLO PARK, CA—Giving his arms and legs a nice little stretch while reclining in his office chair Friday afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, confirmed that he had successfully completed another long day of deciding what people around the world should believe. The tech titan, worth $71 billion, went on to describe the weight that comes along with being the arbiter of moral fitness and objective truth, able to make or break nearly any website on the internet by lowering the organic reach of their posts or outright banning them, based upon Facebook’s opinion of the views expressed in their...

...Marketers spent $16 billion on location-targeted ads served to mobile devices like smartphones and tablet computers in 2017... .The data required to serve you any single ad might pass through many companies’ systems in milliseconds—from data broker to ad marketplace to an agency’s custom system... There are plenty of ways to track you without getting your permission. Some of the most intrusive are the easiest to implement... The spy in your pocket... Your telco knows where you are at all times, because it knows which cell towers your phone is near. In the U.S., how much data service providers sell...

Former CIA chief John Brennan on Friday predicted "rough waters ahead," particularly on international issues, because President Trump is "unstable, inept, inexperienced, and also unethical." In an interview with MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," Brennan told host Nicole Wallace that the president was "ill prepared" to take on the duties of commander-in-chief, particularly growing military aggression from Russia and North Korea. "It is no secret to anybody that Donald Trump was very ill prepared and unexperienced in terms of dealing with matters that a head of state needs to deal with, head of government, and I think this is now coming...

Stratumseind in Eindhoven is one of the busiest nightlife streets in the Netherlands. On a Saturday night, bars are packed, music blares through the street, laughter and drunken shouting bounces off the walls. As the night progresses, the ground becomes littered with empty shot bottles, energy drink cans, cigarette butts and broken glass. It’s no surprise that the place is also known for its frequent fights. To change that image, Stratumseind has become one of the “smartest” streets in the Netherlands. Lamp-posts have been fitted with wifi-trackers, cameras and 64 microphones that can detect aggressive behaviour and alert police officers...