Skip to content

Tag: Tech

AT&T-Time Warner Merger: Another Media Consolidation That Puts Profits Over Consumers

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Media analysts warn that a proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner is more likely to enhance corporate bottom lines and pad the pockets of Wall Street investors than benefit consumers.

“Big mergers like this inevitably mean higher prices for real people, to pay down the money borrowed to finance these deals and compensate top executives,” said Matt Wood, policy director at Free Press, an NGO that protects net neutrality and online press freedom, in an Oct. 22 press release.

The media first reported that AT&T was in “informal” talks to merge with Time Warner on Oct. 20. By Oct. 24, AT&T announced that Time Warner had agreed to be bought out by the telecommunications giant for $85.4 billion.

Chomsky On Neoliberalism: ‘Profit Goes To Apple And Microsoft, Not To The Taxpayer’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

According to noted political philosopher and scholar Noam Chomsky, neoliberal politicians are hypocrites who prioritize corporate finances over both taxpayers’ well-being and their own economic principles.

In April, Chomsky sat down with Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement, in a public conversation hosted by the New York Public Library.

Independent media site acTVism Munich released an excerpt from their one-hour dialogue on Tuesday. The first in a series of videos of the dialogue focuses on neoliberalism and how it’s shaped the modern world and global economy.

“One of the paradoxes of neoliberalism is that it’s not new and it’s not liberal,” said Chomsky, a professor of linguistics at MIT who is also well known as a scholar of global politics and economics.

SpaceX Explosion Slows Facebook & Israeli Efforts To Control Online Access

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

When a rocket operated by space startup SpaceX burned up on the launch pad, it was a setback to the prospects of commercial space travel, as well as efforts by Facebook to control the online experiences of millions of rural internet users.

Facebook’s project, Internet.org, is described by founder Mark Zuckerberg in charitable terms, but critics have accused it of spreading “techno-colonialism.”

The Sept. 1 fire in Cape Canaveral, Florida, destroyed a $200 million satellite owned by SpaceCom, an Israeli communications satellite firm, and co-leased by Facebook. The satellite, Amos-6, was built by Israel Aerospace Industries, a government-owned aviation and aerospace manufacturer.

Facebook’s partnership with SpaceCom is another sign of the corporation’s deepening ties with Israel. In June, Facebook appointed Jordana Cutler, a close advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as head of policy and communications at Facebook’s Israeli office.

Interview with Flashpoints Radio: Cell-Jamming Tech Used On Journalists At DNC

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

I covered the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia for MintPress News, where I was disturbed to discover that journalists’ cell-phone signals were routinely jammed at protests near the convention’s security fence. The jamming, which was experienced by both mainstream and independent journalists, was especially clear on the night Pres. Barack Obama spoke.

Secretive Internet ‘Kill Switch’ And Apple Patent Could Stop You From Filming Police & Protests

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As smartphones revolutionize how people interact with breaking news, internet freedom advocates are warning that “kill switch” technology could shut down this newfound form of expression during times of civil unrest.

Viral video footage of the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two black men recently fatally shot by police, triggered nationwide Black Lives Matter protests and renewed a nationwide discussion over the importance of easily accessible video and livestreaming to hold cops accountable.

However, police frequently target those caught filming them, even when courts have repeatedly upheld the right of citizens to do so. Police held Diamond Reynolds, Castille’s fiancee, at gunpoint while she filmed the aftermath of the shooting, and both witnesses to Sterling’s death, Chris LeDay and Abdullah Muflahi, were targeted by police after filming.

But perhaps even more worrisome than police targeting individuals for filming is the idea that the technology which allows witnesses to film and share incidents of brutality could be remotely disabled to stem dissent.

Anti-BDS Website Seeks To Ruin Careers, Reputations Of Those Who Support Palestine

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A website that profiles activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement with the goal of ruining their careers is coming under fire, with some comparing it to McCarthyism.

The Canary Mission features profiles of dozens of activists, students, college professors and journalists which the site’s authors accuse of anti-Semitism and even having ties to terrorism. Among the alphabetical listings on the site is a profile of this journalist, along with over 100 others.

The organization’s goals are clear: It seeks to ruin the careers or future job prospects of its targets, especially students associated with the growth of BDS on American college campuses. “By shining a light on hate group members and their activities, the public will become better informed about those involved in hate movements in their communities,” the Canary Mission explains on its About page. A video on the site warns: “It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees.”