Free Republic

The World Economic Forum shared a report last week outlining a plan to mitigate “the dark world of online harm” by using human and artificial intelligence to censor bad actors who produce and promote child abuse, disinformation, and hate speech. Inbal Goldberger, vice president of Trust and Safety at ActiveFence, a company that detects malicious online content, published an op-ed on the global organization’s website, offering a solution to online abuse. Such solutions would enable a blend of AI and so-called “subject matter experts” to “detect nuanced, novel online abuses at scale, before they reach mainstream platforms.” Goldberger said an...

The alleged Buffalo supermarket shooter shared his rambling plans for his deadly racist attack a half-hour before he gunned down 10 people on Saturday, a new report said. Payton Gendron, 18, invited people to a private chat on the Discord app that revealed his white supremacist views and outlined how he’d scouted the Tops Friendly Markets in a crazed plan to kill as many black people as possible, CNN reported.

A Chinese university’s move to shift a swimming test online sparks a wave of mockery on social media. South China Morning Post Shanghai University has become the subject of mockery after it moved a practical swimming examination "online". The dean's office at Shanghai University announced on May 15 that undergraduates finishing their bachelor's degrees due to take a 50-metre swimming test could participate online from home. In China, students at some of the most prestigious universities must learn to swim before they graduate because swimming is considered a survival skill and improves physical fitness. According to the university website, the...

On April 21 former President (at least officially) Barack Obama gave a speech at Stanford University for their Cyber Policy Center called, “Challenges to Democracy in the Digital Information Realm.” In that speech, Obama mentioned “misinformation” about Covid vaccines online and claimed, “People are dying because of misinformation.” Obama was right that misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines is killing people—but he’s totally wrong about what the misinformation is. The government, media, and big corporation lies about the “safety” and “efficacy” of Covid vaccines, and the mandates many cities or companies imposed, have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and adverse events....

**SNIP** And the No. 1 way of contacting would-be victims? Believe it or not, it’s old-fashioned email. Those pesky phishing links were the point of contact resulting in 19,107 fraud reports over that same period. Emails were closely followed by fake websites (17,444), texts (16,742), phone calls (14,156) and social media (10,520). Shopping scams, most of which were online, accounted for losses of more than $47.3 million, the FTC said in a recent report. **SNIP** Don’t be persuaded into paying using bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.38% or Western Union WU, -1.26%. Stick to secure methods of paying like PayPal PYPL, -0.49% and...

CVS Pharmacy announced on Thursday that it would close roughly 900 stores in the next three years. The company said in a statement it was "evaluating changes in population, consumer buying patterns and future health needs to ensure it has the right kinds of stores in the right locations for consumers and for the business." "We remain focused on the competitive advantage provided by our presence in thousands of communities across the country, which complements our rapidly expanding digital presence," CEO Karen S. Lynch said in the statement.

About a month ago the Walmart site went haywire. Can't see half of it at all, can't order anything. Admittedly I'm a dinosaur, running XT-Pro, but no other sites I order from are broken like this. Being mobility handicapped, online ordering is very important for me. Not to mention that the nearest store is an hour away, and last time I was there it was OOS on over half the items on my list. Anybody know anything?

A Missouri man trying to sell a catalytic converter online has been arrested after a huge stash of meth and a syringe were spotted in the background of the photo he used for the advertisement. James Kertz, 38, was taken into custody in Reeds Spring on Wednesday after posting a photo of the catalytic converter on Facebook Marketplace. His bag of meth and drug paraphernalia were clearly visible on the coffee table behind the exhaust emission device he was trying to get rid of. Stone County Sheriff Doug Rader said someone tipped them off to the drug stash soon after...

CALGARY: Mount Royal University (“MRU”) has backed down following a legal warning from the Justice Centre, after initially requiring exclusively online students to disclose their vaccination status or face potential deregistration from their classes. On September 20, 2021, MRU sent an email to a student who attends all his classes online, warning that if he failed to declare his vaccination status by September 21 at 4 p.m., he “may be deregistered from your courses.” The Justice Centre was contacted by other students who received similar emails. On September 22, 2021, the student received a further email from MRU stating that...

Washington, DC – The fence around the U.S. Capitol complex that was erected after the Capitol riot will be put back up ahead of the Sept. 18 rally in support of the rioters who were arrested on Jan. 6, and law enforcement officials have promised lawmakers there will not be another breach of the U.S. Capitol building. The “Justice for J6” protest is in support of the more than 600 people who have been arrested so far for their participation in the Capitol riot, Reuters reported. U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Chief Thomas Manger briefed House and Senate leadership on Monday...

Liberty University this week switched all classes to online instruction due to increasing COVID-19 cases. The Virginia university made the change on Monday, just one week after the school year started, according to The Washington Post. “The campus infection rate is higher than at anytime last year, our only local hospital is reaching capacity for ICU COVID treatment, and we project our Annex quarantine capacity to be reached soon,” officials wrote in a statement on Friday, the Post noted.

Chuck Schumer said federal law enforcement officials need to crack down on fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, which are being sold online. Schumer's announcement Sunday comes after AP previously reported how people are cheating the system and, worrying officials at colleges and universities across the country that are requiring proof students received the vaccine to attend in-person classes. A user on the encrypted messaging app Telegram offered what they described as "COVID-19 Vaccine Cards Certificates," for as much as $200 each, the report said. Schumer is demanding US Customs and Border Protection and the FBI team up with officials from the...

If you ask 10 different people what online banking means to them, don’t be surprised if you get 10 different responses. But in the minority community, there’s a very special meaning. Opportunity. Among some minorities, you may hear online banking called a “second chance,” “lifeline” or even “entry into the real world.” In the black community, which has often been left behind by the “brick and mortar” banks, partnering with online lenders and “cyber banks” have given them a seat at the table they never had in the past. One only need look at the checkered history that the bank...

New York (CNN)Sales of reusable face masks, which had started to cool down earlier in the summer, have reversed course as the Delta variant spreads across the United States. Weekly mask sales in dollars had been declining in June and into July, according to Adobe Analytics' Digital Economy Index, which tracks sales data directly from a majority of the top 100 US web retailers. They've been rising since the week beginning July 21. According to the latest data, mask sales for the week beginning Aug. 4 were up 40% over the prior week.

I am looking to obtain some Ivermectin (non-horse paste version) and have heard that online pharmacies in India are a possible source. Has anyone here had any dealings with these pharmacies and do you have any recommendations? Are there specific ones to avoid? Thanks in advance for your input!

Checking to see if anyone is using an online bank such as Ally or Chime. not for sure if I am putting this in the right place on the site or not.

How far will you go to meet someone you know online? An Indonesian teenager went as far as selling her dad’s motorcycle in order to purchase flight tickets to Jakarta and meet her online crush. Indri, who was from Jambi, had met the boy via an online game Free Fire, and wanted to meet him in Jakarta, Tribun News reported. She then sold her father’s motorcycle for 20 million rupiah (S$1,870) in exchange for flight tickets to the capital. However, the teen’s plan went awry when the boy said that he did not want to meet up with her in...

At NOQ Report, we've been weening ourselves the Big Tech teat for a long time. Our traffic has never been higher. Here are some of the places conservatives can get their news without bowing to Big Tech tyrants.The tyrants of Big Tech and the useful idiots in mainstream media have the market cornered on news. They determine which news stories to promote and which ones to suppress. And while there are strong players moving their way up the ranks in social media such as Gab, Parler (assuming they come back), and Clouthub, they just don’t have the user base of...

In Look to Windward, a science fiction novel from the late Scottish author Iain M. Banks, perfectly clear video and audio can be instantaneously transmitted across vast interstellar distances, yet people still vie to be physically present at a concert. This is something to consider the next time your local school board assures you that the classroom experience can be recreated on Zoom. Last spring, the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic forced schools across the country to adopt “online learning,” a euphemism for teachers yelling impotently at the disembodied heads of 20 students on a flickering video screen. The...

Poland’s national conservative government has detailed a new law protecting free speech online against Big Tech censorship, backed by a new court and big fines.Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has announced the draft ‘Act for the Freedom to Express One’s Views and Obtain and Disseminate Information on the Internet’ will give social media users a statutory right to appeal bans and content removals on social media platforms such as Facebook on Twitter, which they will be able to escalate to a new Court for the Protection of Freedom of Speech in a streamlined, all-digital process.If the new court rules that...