Posts Tagged technology

Censoring The Second Amendment

From America’s First Freedom:

Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy did recently issue an advisory calling for a “whole-of-society” effort to combat the “urgent threat to public health” posed by “health misinformation.” He was referring to COVID-19, but this same administration is
also fond of claiming that guns are a “public-health crisis.” Also, many anti-Second Amendment politicians closed gun stores during the beginning of the pandemic. Could they then work with Big Tech to further censor pro-Second Amendment content as part of “public-health” policy?

“We don’t take anything down. We don’t block anything,” said Psaki when Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy pushed for answers. Rather, she said, the administration is merely “flagging problematic posts” and suggesting “additional steps” that Facebook and other social-media companies should take.

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The Message Apps The FBI Can’t Read

From Reason:

The bottom line: of the most popular apps, iMessage and WhatsApp are particularly susceptible to FBI snooping. Telegram and Signal score far better according to the FBI documents. (Line and Viber are also relatively bad picks, and my formerly favored Threema likewise fares more poorly than I’d have expected, but since they aren’t as popular this probably isn’t relevant for you.)

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Apple Backs Down On Phone Scanning Plans

From Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Since August, EFF and others have been telling Apple to cancel its new child safety plans. Apple is now changing its tune about one component of its plans: the Messages app will no longer send notifications to parent accounts.

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Data Scientist Warns of Election Meddling By Google

From Newsbusters:

Psychologist and researcher Dr. Robert Epstein, PhD exclusively explained the worrisome implications of the Axios-Google Trends project to MRC Free Speech America. “The more you know about people, the easier it is to manipulate them,” Dr. Epstein warned.

Dr. Epstein explained the implications of Google having this knowledge. “Among other things, this allows Google to keep a close eye on voters who are undecided and whose opinions can still be changed,” he said. “The detailed information they have about each and every one of us allows them to effectively shift opinions with biased search results, search suggestions, answer boxes, answers on personal assistants (Google Home and the Google Assistant on Android phones), YouTube videos, targeted messages, and more.” 

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Official Resigns Over Pentagon’s Weak Cybersecurity Plans

From SOFREP:

But Chaillan quit on September 2. In his departing LinkedIn post, he cited the Pentagon’s reluctance to make cybersecurity and AI a priority as a reason for his resignation.

Speaking to the Financial Times in his first interview since leaving, Chaillan said China is streets ahead of the United States.

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Big Tech Trying To Censor Babylon Bee

From Tucker Carlson:

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Fight For The Future Discusses Apple Petition Against Phone Scanning

From Fight For The Future:

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US Government Conspires With Big Tech To Spy On Americans

From The Federalist:

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan demanded records and a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday over the agency’s proposed use of third-party firms to spy on Americans.

“The Obama-Biden FBI spied on President Trump’s campaign in 2016, and now the Biden-Harris DHS is looking to use third-party contractors to circumvent the Constitution and spy on American citizens,” Jordan told The Federalist. “Every American, regardless of their political affiliation, should be weary of these types of attacks on our civil liberties.”

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Delaware Wants To Ban Speech Of Gun Owners

From En Bloc Press:

The 151st Delaware General Assembly passed House Bill 125 on Tuesday. HB125 seeks to ban 3D printed firearms and other “untraceable” guns. Alarmingly, HB125 also makes it illegal to share instructions in the form of computer aided design models over the internet. This prohibition effectively eliminates the free speech rights of gun enthusiasts seeking to share or view the computer code of such designs.

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Pushing Back Against Surveillance Tech

From Electronic Frontier Foundation:

At work, employee-monitoring “bossware” puts workers’ privacy and security at risk with invasive time-tracking and “productivity” features that go far beyond what is necessary and proportionate to manage a workforce. At school, programs like remote proctoring and social media monitoring follow students home and into other parts of their online lives. And at home, stalkerware, parental monitoring “kidware” apps, home monitoring systems, and other consumer tech monitor and control intimate partners, household members, and even neighbors. In all of these settings, subjects and victims often do not know they are being surveilled, or are coerced into it by bosses, administrators, partners, or others with power over them.

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Gun Writer Starts New Website: The Reload

From The Washingtonian:

That’s why the Washington Free Beacon reporter is putting his livelihood on the line—his last day at the conservative outlet was Friday. As of today, he’s started the Reload, an independent publication based on the Substack model, where people subscribe directly to his reporting. But Gutowski, who’s a certified firearms instructor and who has been one of the best reporters to follow about the NRA’s turmoil, isn’t leaving the Beacon for Substack. He’s built the Reload himself for a couple thousand bucks—his biggest expense was buying the URL—and living on money he saved during the pandemic while he sees whether readers will follow him as he “explains the politics and the guns,” as he says.

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3D Printing And DRM

From Ammoland:

If companies get into 3D printing, you can be sure they will do everything in their power to shut down sites that violate their patents on their IP. It will destroy the 3D printing community. Corporations would usurp the small tight knit group of designs like CTRL Pew and Ivan The Troll.

Another drawback of DRM is that a lot of it is going to an “online-only” model. This model is standard with video games. The game reaches out to a remote server to validate the copy of the software. If a gamer wants to play a single-player game offline, they can’t. The game requires an internet connection to run.

With gun files, this means every time to print something a server knows, and it isn’t too much of a jump to assume the government knows as well. This situation would defeat the whole purpose of 3D printing gun files. Using 3D printers to print gun files is to defeat gun control and not feed into it.

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Facebook Bans Virginia Citizens Defense League Of Of Nowhere

From The Washington Free Beacon:

A top Virginia gun-rights group was booted from Facebook without explanation on Tuesday, a move the tech giant confirmed but refused to explain.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told the Washington Free Beacon that the group’s page disappeared without explanation. The company said the decision to remove the page is final—but did not provide further details.

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The Fight Against Financial Censorship

From The Electronic Frontier Foundation:

On Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency finalized its Fair Access to Financial Services rule, which will prevent banks from refusing to serve entire classes of customers that they find politically or morally unsavory. The rule is a huge win for civil liberties, and for the many sectors who have found themselves in the bad graces of corporate financial services, like cryptocurrency projects, marijuana businesses, sex worker advocacy groups, and others.

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The Trace Attacks Free Speech About Guns

From The Truth About Guns:

The Trace, which is nothing but a gun control megaphone disguising itself as pseudo-journalism, sent out a “name-and-shame” email last week putting companies on notice. They listed 13 specific firearm personalities with large social media followings. That was followed by leading questions that left little room for doubt what they were really after.

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