Tech Media Archives - Page 11 of 11

Twitter Bans Ads Contradicting U.N. Climate Science

April 24, 2022April 23, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

Twitter will no longer sell ads with messaging that contradicts the United Nations’ (UN) scientists, according to a statement from the Silicon Valley tech giant.

“To better serve these conversations, misleading advertisements on Twitter that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change are prohibited, in line with our inappropriate content policy,” the statement says. “We believe that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis. This approach is informed by authoritative sources, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports.”

Elon Musk Named to Twitter Board of Directors

April 5, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

In a move that has sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who became Twitter’s largest shareholder Monday, will now be a member of the company’s board of directors.

“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing [Musk] to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said Tuesday.

Biden Administration Endorses Transgender Hormones and Surgeries in Children

April 2, 2022April 1, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

The Biden administration released documents Thursday that endorse children and adolescents with claims of gender dysphoria to experience “gender-affirming care,” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and body-mutilating transgender surgeries, including elective double mastectomies and castrations.

Biden appeared in a video endorsing transgender treatments and surgeries for children.

Republican Report: CDC Official Confirms Teachers’ Unions Given ‘Unprecedented’ Status on Whether to Reopen Schools While Parents Not Consulted

April 1, 2022March 31, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used “political science” and not “medical science” to collaborate with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create guidance on the issue of reopening the nation’s government schools.

Appearing as a guest on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle, Scalise referred to a report released by Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that revealed a CDC official’s testimony confirming the nation’s top health agency coordinated with teachers’ unions at an “unprecedented” level to craft school reopening guidance, despite the CDC’s earlier claims that their coordination with the unions was routine.

Biden’s Next COVID Czar an Academic Who Considers Anthony Fauci to Be a Personal Role Model

March 28, 2022March 27, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

President Joe Biden participates in a Q&A townhall with Chief Medical Adviser to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, May 17, 2021, in the Blue Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 response coordinator is an academic physician who has mocked early treatment of the virus and has said he considers Dr. Anthony Fauci to be a personal role model.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, is a familiar face to those who get their news about the coronavirus from CNN and other cable and network news shows.

Senator Rand Paul Introduces Amendment to Eliminate ‘Dictator-in-Chief’ Anthony Fauci’s Position as NIAID Director

March 16, 2022March 15, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment Monday that would eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and decentralize it in an effort to ensure no one person can act as “dictator-in-chief” and make public health decisions for millions of Americans.

Paul’s office said in a press release the amendment seeks to replace the NIAID director’s position with three separate national research institutes.

Report: Mother’s Death Chicago Teachers’ Union Claimed Was Due to COVID-19 Was from Alcoholism

March 12, 2022March 12, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A Cook County Medical Examiner’s toxicology report states a parent the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) claimed died due to the spread of COVID-19 from the classroom to her home, actually died from chronic alcoholism.

Chicago City Wire said it obtained the report from the medical examiner that stated Denisha Henry, 32, died in September at Stroger Hospital in Chicago of “chronic ethanolism.”

Texas Attorney General Declares Puberty Blockers and Gender Transition Surgeries ‘Child Abuse’

February 23, 2022February 22, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

The performance of surgical and chemical procedures on children for the purpose of gender transition “can legally constitute child abuse” under Texas law, declared Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Friday in a formal attorney general opinion.

Paxton responded to questions from State Representative Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth), chair of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating, who asked whether “sex change” surgeries performed on children, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty, mastectomies, and removal of otherwise healthy body parts, constitute child abuse.

Biden Quietly Extends National COVID Emergency Indefinitely

February 22, 2022February 21, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

In a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President Friday, President Joe Biden extended the national COVID-19 emergency pandemic indefinitely.

“There remains a need to continue this national emergency,” Biden wrote.

Biden Appoints Former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins to Serve as Top Science Advisor

February 19, 2022February 18, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

President Joe Biden has tapped former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins to serve as his top science advisor, several months after allegations that Collins and White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci were untruthful in their assertions that NIH did not fund gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.

Biden announced Wednesday Collins will serve as Science Advisor to the President and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology “until permanent leadership is nominated and confirmed.”

Twitter Reverses Ban on Account That Highlighted Left-Wing Hypocrisy

February 17, 2022February 16, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

Twitter Tuesday evening banned a well-known Twitter account called @DefiantLs, which posted screenshots pointing out left-wing hypocrisy.

The owner of the account, who has always been anonymous and remains so, said the account was banned for an alleged “ban evasion,” despite the fact that the account owner says he or she has “never had an account suspended so I’ve never had a ban to evade.”

FDA Announces Postponement of Approval of COVID Vaccine for Babies and Young Children

February 15, 2022February 14, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Young girl with a blue shirt on getting a vaccine

Pfizer and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday they are delaying their plan for Pfizer’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its coronavirus vaccine for children under five years old due to insufficient data on the efficacy of a third dose.

Pfizer announced February 1 FDA had asked the drug company, and its partner BioNTech, to submit data on a COVID vaccine series for babies as young as six months old and young children up until age five.

Pfizer Plan for COVID Vaccine Series for Babies of 6 Months Draws Fierce Controversy

February 8, 2022February 7, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Pfizer announced last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had asked the drug company, and its partner BioNTech, to submit data on a COVID vaccine series for babies as young as 6 months old.

Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said in the statement:

As hospitalizations of children under 5 due to COVID-19 have soared, our mutual goal with the FDA is to prepare for future variant surges and provide parents with an option to help protect their children from this virus. Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants. If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.

Rumble Offers Joe Rogan $100 Million to Use Their Platform Amid Spotify Controversy

February 8, 2022February 7, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

Amid controversy over podcaster Joe Rogan’s controversial COVID-19 episodes and some past episodes that contained racial slurs, one video streaming platform is lending Rogan their support.

“We stand with you, your guests, and you legion of fans in desire for real conversation,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a letter addressed to Rogan. “So we’d like to offer you 100 million reasons to make the world a better place.”

Freedom Convoy Switches to CloutHub After GoFundMe Ban

February 5, 2022 Peter D'Abrosca

After GoFundMe banned Canada’s Freedom Convoy of truckers from using its service, CloutHub has stepped in to fill the void.

“There is no more important movement for freedom across the American continent right now than the Freedom Convoy 2022,” CloutHub founder Jeff Brain said in a press release. “We are proud to support the Canadian Truckers and will help support the other Trucker movements popping up around the world to fight against unlawful mandates. CloutHub is where the world connects and organizes to take on the issues they care about, including defending liberty and freedom.”

Child Psychiatrist: Toll on Children’s Mental Health During Government Response to Pandemic Is ‘Utterly Devastating’

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 Admin

Though children are least likely to experience severe illness from COVID-19, the level of mental health distress many are exhibiting during the government’s response to the pandemic is “utterly devastating,” child psychiatrist Dr. Mark McDonald said in a recent interview.

The Los Angeles-based clinician expressed his concern during a late November podcast for the Unity Project, an organization working to end COVID-19 vaccine mandates for healthy children in grades K-12.

CCP Expert Says Apple CEO Tim Cook Currying Favor with Chinese Government

December 9, 2021December 8, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

An expert on the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) who chronicles China’s current affairs reacted Wednesday to a damning report that Apple CEO Tim Cook paid the Chinese government $275 billion to curry favor with President Xi Jinping.

Simone Gao is a Chinese-born filmmaker and an award-winning reporter.

New Twitter CEO: ‘Why Should I Distinguish Between White People and Racists’

November 30, 2021November 29, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down Monday, only to be replaced by a new chief who immediately found himself in hot water for, of all things, an inflammatory tweet.

“‘If they are not gonna make a distinction between muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists,'” Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal said in 2010 tweet.

Despite Evidence to the Contrary, GoFundMe Says it Doesn’t Host Legal Fundraisers for Alleged Violent Criminals

November 23, 2021November 22, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Person receiving large cardboard check from GoFundMe.

After Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges Friday stemming from his self-defense killing of two rioters and the injury of a third in August of 2020, a crowdfunding platform explained its decision to ban him raising money for his legal defense.

“GoFundMe’s Terms of Service prohibit raising money for the legal defense of an alleged violent crime,” GoFundMe, a popular online crowdfunding tool, said.

GETTR CEO Jason Miller Welcomes Trump to Social Media World

October 22, 2021October 21, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Despite former President Donald J. Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) announcing plans to become a rival of newly-launched social media site GETTR, the CEO of the latter firm welcomed Trump into the social media space.

“Congratulations to President Trump for re-entering the social media fray! Now Facebook and Twitter will lose even more market share. President Trump has always been a great deal-maker, but we just couldn’t come to terms on a deal,” Miller said in a Wednesday statement. “And get ready for the new platform features GETTR has on the way: live-streaming, GVision short videos and our GETTR Pay payments system capabilities. Exciting new additions that will provide our global customer base an even better user experience. Let the downloads begin!”

Facebook Fined Nearly $70 Million After Ignoring UK Government Orders

October 21, 2021October 20, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Facebook’s seemingly-unending stream of bad publicity continued this week, when it was fined nearly $70 million by the United Kingdom for what is being described as a deliberate lack of compliance into an anti-trust investigation.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy for nearly a year, and ordered the company to produce information “required information related to an initial enforcement order (IEO) placed on it by the watchdog, despite repeated requests for it to do so,” according to TechCrunch.

Commentary: Four Scientific Questions We May Never Know the Answers To

September 12, 2021September 11, 2021 RealClearWire

Questions set the scientific method in motion. Without that initial curiosity, that “I wonder…”, that “What if…”, we would not have the technology, the medicine, nor the knowledge that we have today.

But not all questions have readily attainable answers. Despite our formidable advances in probing reality over the years, there are some things we are still incapable of concretely knowing. One day, that could change, but for these topics it’s currently hard to fathom how. Here are four questions that humans may never know the answers to:

Do You See Red Like I See Red?

Chinese-Owned TikTok Overtakes YouTube in US

September 7, 2021September 6, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

After former President Donald J. Trump attempted to ban TikTok, a popular video streaming social network, the Chinese-owned company has overtaken Google-owned YouTube in popularity in the United States.

“App users in the UK and US are spending more time on TikTok than on YouTube, a new report suggests,” BBC reported. “Data from app monitoring firm App Annie indicates that average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, indicating high levels of engagement.”

Mother of Slain Marine Suspended from Facebook, Instagram After Criticizing Joe Biden

September 1, 2021August 31, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

The mother of a U.S. Marine who died during the ISIS-affiliated attack on Kabul’s airport has been suspended from Facebook and its subsidiary, Instagram.

“Shana Chappell, mother of Marine Kareem Nikoui who was killed in Kabul, had her FB and Instagram accounts suspended for posts she made about her son and her feelings about the President and Vice President,” Lynn Afendoulis, former Michigan State Representative, said on Facebook. “This is horrifying. Her son GAVE HIS LIFE FOR OUR COUNTRY. She can say what she wants. Her FB account is back up. For now. God be with her.”

Psaki Doubles Down on White House’s Support for Tech Censorship

July 18, 2021July 17, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

Just a day after White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted that the Biden administration is colluding with Facebook to censor “misinformation,” Psaki advocated for even more online censorship.

During a Friday press briefing, she advised social media companies to “create robust enforcement strategies that bridge their properties and provide transparency about rules.”

Facebook Working with White House to Censor Content

July 17, 2021July 16, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

In a Thursday press conference, Press Secretary to President Joe Biden admitted that the White House is colluding with Facebook to censor content on the social media platform.

“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,” Psaki reportedly said

CloutHub Founder Jeff Brain Reacts to Trump’s Big Tech Lawsuit

July 8, 2021July 7, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

The founder of CloutHub, a free speech social media network, has responded to former President Donald J. Trump’s class action lawsuit against several Silicon Valley titans, which the forty-fifth president announced Wednesday.

“I am pleased that President Trump is fighting back against Big Tech corporations after enduring months of blatant injustices,” Jeff Brain said in press release. “His lawsuit is based on the infringement of his fundamental free speech rights that powerful companies such as Facebook and Twitter imposed based on their own political bias; a bias that has no place with such important keepers of our national public square online.”

War Room: Steve Bannon Gab CEO Andrew Torba Discuss Building a Christian-Centric Economy and Silicon Valley’s ‘Transhumanism Agenda’

February 22, 2021February 21, 2021 JCarr

Stephen K. Bannon talks to Gab CEO Andrew Torba on War Room: Pandemic radio show about the enslavement agenda of Silicon Valley, transhumanism, and de-coupling with companies that don’t share Judeo Christian values.

CDC Report Indicates Masks May Increase Chance of Infection with COVID or Other Respiratory Illnesses

October 16, 2020October 15, 2020 Corinne Murdock

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report last month in which the nearly 71 percent of individuals infected with COVID-19 reported “always” wearing their mask. This opposed to the 4 percent of infected individuals who “never” wore masks.
The number of individuals infected with COVID-19 positively correlated with the consistency of mask-wearing. The report didn’t address the possible correlation between face mask hygiene and COVID-19 infection, such as proper handling and disposal of masks. It also didn’t differentiate the respondents’ mask types.

West Virginia Site Chosen for High-Speed Hyperloop Travel Facility

October 12, 2020October 11, 2020 The Associated Press

Virgin Hyperloop One will build a certification center in West Virginia for the high-speed transportation concept that uses enclosed pods to zip passengers underground at over 600 mph (960 km/h).

The company had received bids from more than a dozen states in the past year to build a 6-mile (9.7-kilometer) testing track and other safety facilities over hundreds of acres for the electromagnetic levitation transportation technology.

Pentagon Offers Military Airwaves for 5G Wireless Networks

August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 The Associated Press

The Pentagon plans to free up a big chunk of its military airwaves in the U.S. for high-speed internet service, part of a broader push to get ahead of China in the deployment of 5G wireless technology.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it has identified radio spectrum used for radar defense systems that can be shared with commercial telecommunications providers without compromising national security.

Commentary: TikTok is Just the First Chinese App the Trump Admin is Eyeing for Crackdown Over Spying

August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 Michigan Star Staff

Two days after President Trump told reporters that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in an interview with Fox News that executive action may soon be taken against many other apps owned by Chinese firms.

Trump remarked to journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday that he could ban TikTok “with an executive order,” suggesting that the president has made up his mind about the popular short video platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, has been at the center of a months-long debate over whether the data that it collects from American users could be exploited by China’s government.

NASA’s Next Mars Rover Sports Brawn, Brains, and Even a Helicopter

July 28, 2020July 27, 2020 The Associated Press

With eight successful Mars landings, NASA is upping the ante with its newest rover.

The spacecraft Perseverance — set for liftoff this week — is NASA’s biggest and brainiest Martian rover yet.

It sports the latest landing tech, plus the most cameras and microphones ever assembled to capture the sights and sounds of Mars. Its super-sanitized sample return tubes — for rocks that could hold evidence of past Martian life — are the cleanest items ever bound for space. A helicopter is even tagging along for an otherworldly test flight.

Facebook’s Software Kit to Blame for Popular Apps Crashing

July 13, 2020July 12, 2020 The Associated Press

Friday’s widespread crashes of popular apps running on the iPhone’s iOS operating system — including Tinder, Spotify and Pinterest — serve as a reminder that Facebook is still tracking you through your phone using sophisticated software, even if you’re not browsing the social network.

Early Friday, users of the apps reported crashes when they tried to open them up. Facebook attributed the problem, which was quickly fixed, to a bug in its software development kit, or SDK, a tool developers use to integrate their apps with Facebook.

Commentary: Algorithms Are Only as Fair as Their Authors

January 2, 2020January 3, 2020 Admin

Machine and human intelligences bring different strengths to the table. Researchers like me are working to understand how algorithms can complement human skills while at the same time minimizing the liabilities of relying on machine intelligence. As a machine learning expert, I predict there will soon be a new balance between human and machine intelligence, a shift that humanity hasn’t encountered before.

Such changes often elicit fear of the unknown, and in this case, one of the unknowns is how machines make decisions. This is especially so when it comes to fairness. Can machines be fair in a way that people understand?

Category: Tech Media