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Tag: Social media

Red Scare 2016: As Green Party Power Grows, Jill Stein Accused Of Ties To Putin
Presidential Candidate Jill Stein pictured in Moscow’s Red Square during the RT Anniversary Conference. (YouTube Screenshot)
August 10, 2016
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Red Scare 2016: As Green Party Power Grows, Jill Stein Accused Of Ties To Putin

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

As the popularity of the Green Party continues to rise during this divisive election, attacks and smear campaigns against the Greens, and their presidential nominee, Jill Stein, are ramping up.

The latest rumor suggests Stein is under the control of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and it’s based on a deliberately misleading tweet about a video she recorded during a trip to Russia over the winter.

On Saturday, economist Andrew Weiss tweeted a link to a video of Stein posted on Dec. 20. The video, “Anti-War Message in Moscow: Jill Stein, 2016 US-Presidential Candidate (Green Party),” was assembled from various sources — notably, a video posted on Stein’s Facebook page — by German anti-war site AntiKrieg.

Read moreRed Scare 2016: As Green Party Power Grows, Jill Stein Accused Of Ties To Putin
Amid Anti-BDS Pressure, Facebook Israel Appoints Long-Time Netanyahu Advisor To Policy Post
File: A Muslim woman wearing a hijab uses a tablet computer to photograph a fence in Israel. January 6, 2016. (Flickr / U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv)
June 23, 2016
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Amid Anti-BDS Pressure, Facebook Israel Appoints Long-Time Netanyahu Advisor To Policy Post

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

An advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking a top post at Facebook amid calls for increased censorship on the social network.

Facebook recently announced that Jordana Cutler would head policy and communications at the social media giant’s Israel office. Cutler currently works as the chief of staff for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and is a long-time advisor to the prime minister.

“The appointment comes amidst growing Israeli government frenzy concerning incitement allegations and BDS, the global non-violent movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, whose often viral presence online exposes Israeli human rights violations,” wrote Dorgham Abusalim, a foreign policy analyst at Mondoweiss, on Monday.

Read moreAmid Anti-BDS Pressure, Facebook Israel Appoints Long-Time Netanyahu Advisor To Policy Post
Trolling Her Way To The White House?: Clinton-Linked PAC Launches $1M Campaign Against Trump & ‘Bernie Bros’
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking with supporters at a "Get Out the Caucus" rally at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines, Iowa. (Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore)
May 10, 2016
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Trolling Her Way To The White House?: Clinton-Linked PAC Launches $1M Campaign Against Trump & ‘Bernie Bros’

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

Hillary Clinton is taking her battle for the White House to social media, as a new super PAC linked to her campaign prepares to spend big to participate in online flame wars.

Correct the Record will help Clinton’s supporters “push back on online harassment,” according to a statement recently published on the organization’s website. The campaign, which claims to have a budget of over $1 million, will specifically target “attackers on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram.”

Evan Halper, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, suggested the campaign “seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet’s worst instincts.”

Read moreTrolling Her Way To The White House?: Clinton-Linked PAC Launches $1M Campaign Against Trump & ‘Bernie Bros’
ACLU Of Oregon Condemns State’s Surveillance Of Black Lives Matter Activists
In this Nov. 25, 2014 photograph, activists in Portland, Oregon march for Ferguson with a banner reading "The Whole System Is Guilty." (Flickr / Sarah Mirk)
April 21, 2016
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ACLU Of Oregon Condemns State’s Surveillance Of Black Lives Matter Activists

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

An investigation of social media surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists shows a pattern of systemic racism and disregard for the law, according to an Oregon civil rights group.

The comments from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon came in response to a report issued this month by the Oregon Department of Justice on the DOJ’s Criminal Justice Division’s monitoring of the social media use of Black Lives Matter activists.

“The report is damning,” wrote Mat dos Santos, the nonprofit’s legal director. “It paints an abysmal picture of rampant misinformation, beginning with agents and analysts and running all the way up to the deputy attorney general, and it shows how one mistake in judgment can lead to dangerous consequences for the public.”

Last year, a “threat assessment report” issued by an investigator at the state’s DOJ, singled out Facebook and Twitter users that used the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag for surveillance. The investigation became so broad that one of the department’s own attorneys was cited in the report as a possible threat.

Ellen Rosenblum, the state’s attorney general, said she was “shocked and appalled” and called for a full investigation, according to a November article from The Oregonian.

Read moreACLU Of Oregon Condemns State’s Surveillance Of Black Lives Matter Activists
Social Media Ban Could Curb Free Speech Behind Bars
Outside the walls of Huntsville prison. January 26, 2008. (Flickr / Mark)
April 20, 2016
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Social Media Ban Could Curb Free Speech Behind Bars

Posted in Journalism, and The Texas Observer

Prison reform activists are concerned that a new state social media policy could be used to infringe on the free speech rights of both incarcerated people and and those who support them by sharing their stories, thoughts and experiences online.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) “Offender Orientation Manual,” updated in early April, “Offenders are prohibited from maintaining active social media accounts for the purposes of soliciting, updating, or engaging others, through a third party or otherwise.”

Under the updated manual, prisoners can be penalized for infractions in a number of ways, including by receiving extra work duties or being confined to their cells.

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How Glenn Greenwald & Facebook Learned To Stop Worrying & Love Encryption
File: A USB data stick with features from a bank safe, including a combination wheel, added. (Flickr / Stockmonkeys.com)
June 5, 2015
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How Glenn Greenwald & Facebook Learned To Stop Worrying & Love Encryption

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Facebook now offers users the ability to encrypt their notification emails using PGP, a freely available encryption method proven to thwart NSA surveillance. It’s the latest attempt by social media and other Internet providers to offer increased privacy to their users in the wake of the Edward Snowden leaks.

PGP, which stands for “Pretty Good Privacy,” is a freely available encryption standard that’s been available for decades. PGP encryption works through a technique called asymmetric encryption. Users of the software create both a private and a public encryption key. The public key can be shared freely with anyone who wants to send encrypted messages, and those messages can only be read by the person who holds the private key and its associated password.

The new feature, launched Monday, offers users the option to upload a public PGP key to Facebook. With this feature enabled, Facebook notification emails will only be legible to their intended recipient, using the corresponding password and private encryption key. Without encryption, anyone with access to a user’s email (potentially including hackers, police, or government agencies) could read the contents of private messages included in some notification emails.

Read moreHow Glenn Greenwald & Facebook Learned To Stop Worrying & Love Encryption