Tag: Facebook

Surveillance Starts With a G

Front Seat Cat
Front Seat Cat
1613
 

Lately, I keep getting a request to leave a rating for a service or product … for everything. Window cleaning, dryer repair, ordered a candle, ordered some olive oil, clothing, dentist visit, eye exam, routine doctor visit, drugstore purchase, etc. Immediately on the same day, I am asked to complete a survey … for everything I am doing or wherever I have made a purchase.

If the experience was exceptional, I want to do it. But when I click on “take the survey,” I am asked to log in with my email address and on everything, it says ‘powered by Google’! So I back out. I have Gmail, like millions of others. I have noticed the speed has picked up and my phone is anxious to fill in more words that I don’t choose, in both email and text. I have had emails disappear from my phone of a religious nature by magic. I set my phone down to take a sip of coffee or water, and the story is gone. It’s not in my trash — just disappears.

I had Dish before our current move. I was pleased with them. The tech arrived just as Covid was unfolding. He set it up and pulled out a long speaker system to lay in front of my TV. I said I don’t want that. He said I know, but I have to show that I offered it and take a picture. He packed it up. He showed me all the features. I said I don’t want voice activation on my TV or from remote, so he disabled it. He said you will get a survey. They ask you to rate my performance from 1 to 10. If you don’t rate me a ten on all answers I fail. I get a bad review. This is Google’s policy. I gave him a 10 and made a mental note.

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Meet FBI Agent Steve Friend

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
9145663
 

This week, you may have missed this blockbuster story by Miranda Devine in the New York Post. It’s labeled as “opinion,” but it reads more like a report from an investigative reporter, which she is. If half of what former FBI agent Steven Friend alleges is true, the top of the FBI is indeed a corrupt place, and its cancer has spread to field offices.

After Miranda, author of “Laptop from Hell,” originally broke the Hunter Biden laptop story in October 2020 – just before the election – fifty former intelligence agency heads and experts rushed to exclaim, “Russian disinformation.” Facebook, other social media sites, and major news outlets rushed to censor it. Twitter suspended the New York Post’s account. Each signatory has jettisoned their credibility, if not their integrity.

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Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
16203
 

I received an email early Thursday from Toby Young, the editor of a blog site I follow, the Daily Sceptic, published in the United Kingdom. It’s posted at the end and builds on his excellent post here at Ricochet today. He mentions the demonetization of another site I follow and have contributed to, the Free […]
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Who Needs a KGB When We Have Facebook?

Sisyphus
Sisyphus
29181571
 

Quick virtue signal: I quit Facebook over their brutal lack of integrity long before the Trumpian Age, but wow. I am amazed at the churches and whatnot that still maintain a presence there, luring their flocks into the Big Tech abattoir. But I digress even prior to making any progress.

From the New York Post:

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We Are Watching, Citizen…

GeezerBob
GeezerBob
1611
 

It started innocently enough. A Facebook friend (and an actual friend) given to occasionally posting memes of a political nature, chose to post one I have seen countless times before. I am sure you have as well. It is the one that makes light of the “fact” that the federal government took over operation of the Mustang Ranch for back taxes and failed in the process. This time, however, Facebook was offended, blocking the view because “independent fact checkers” had declared it false.

Well, maybe. This particular meme has circulated for some time. It is amusing and innocuous whatever the accuracy. One more posting will not push civilization off a cliff. Nor is it the fact that Facebook chose to block it this time around. One can hardly criticize them for wanting to keep false claims off their website. No, it is the matter in which this meme, and one has to assume many other such items, was handled.

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Three Martini Lunch

‘Red Wave of Cash,’ Fed Predicts More ‘Pain,’ FBI’s Election Meddling

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Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome the news that badly outspent GOP candidates are getting an infusion of $160 million from Mitch McConnell’s Super PAC for the final push to November. They also shudder as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says he will be acting aggressively to rein in inflation but that many people will feel “pain” in the meantime. And they hammer the FBI after Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan how the Bureau told Facebook to be on the lookout to confront expected Russian disinformation. That led Facebook to limit the reach of posts related to the Hunter Biden laptop story.

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Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
83242
 

Congratulations to the nation’s richest and perhaps its most interesting man, Elon Musk, for his $44 billion purchase of the social media site, Twitter. Launched around 2008 (when I joined) along with Facebook and other “big tech” initiatives, it has transmogrified from a “town hall” to that church scene in the first Kingsman movie, where […]
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The Learning Curve #74

Emory Uni. Prof. Mark Bauerlein on “The Dumbest Generation” & the Digital Age

11
Hosted by Cara Candal
With guest Mark Bauerlein

This week on “The Learning Curve,” co-host Cara Candal and guest co-host Prof. Robert Maranto talk with Dr. Mark Bauerlein, Senior Editor at First Things, Professor of English Emeritus at Emory University, and the author of The Dumbest Generation Grows Up. Dr. Bauerlein shares his views about the kinds of content American K-12 students should be reading for preparation for college and meaningful lives. He describes the main findings of his books, including how overuse of technology, excessive screen time, and social media have prevented our youth from pursuing more elevated intellectual endeavors and delayed their maturation into adulthood. He draws linkages between the narcissism of these habits and an illiberal and closeminded outlook on society among too many Millennials and follow-on generations. Dr. Bauerlein offers thoughts on how teachers, parents, and leaders can use higher academic-quality education as a counterbalance to this trend.

Stories of the Week: In Pennsylvania and other states, school districts have filed lawsuits forcing legislatures to allocate equitable funding for K-12 public education. A new book by Larry Cuban, former Virginia teacher and school superintendent, offers some sobering realities about our K-12 education system, as well as reasons for optimism.
Guest:

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Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
01270
 

This is the last installment of New Year’s Resolutions for others. Find the first chapters here and here.  I’m happy to offer a final few resolutions for our beloved social media giants, especially Facebook (now Meta), Twitter, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, and the growing legion of alternatives. Stay for a few more resolutions for all American […]
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Member Post

David Foster
David Foster
87267
 

Given the overweening arrogance and obvious bias of the major social media platforms, it is of first importance to introduce people to alternative sites for information and discussion.  Ricochet can play a major role here—so how do we attract more members? One approach that I think would be effective is the creation of Gift Certificates, […]
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What’s the Social Credit Score in Your Wallet?

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
3017
 

You are excused if you missed this story. “PayPal Partners With ADL (Anti-Defamation League) To ‘Fight Extremism And Hate’ By Researching, Disrupting Payments,” screamed the headline from Daily Caller, a conservative news site created by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson (he no longer controls it).

Perhaps you ignored it or drew a yawn from you. After all, you may have a Pay Pal account that has never had a problem and aren’t aware of ADL’s hard-left political activism. You may want to pay attention, especially if you’re a conservative who uses credit cards for certain contributions (such as the NRA) or purchases (like, purchasing a weapon for self-defense. And a lot of people are).

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Three Martini Lunch

Bad Baltimore Schools, WH Telling Facebook What to Flag, Harris Office Horrors

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Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Jim & Greg have nothing but crazy martinis to serve today. They shudder as 41 percent of high school students in Baltimore have a 1.0 GPA or worse. They also recoil as White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admits the government is telling Facebook which posts to flag as “misinformation”. And they discuss new revelations about how horrible Kamala Harris is as a boss and how her former lefty staffers don’t want her to be president.

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Three Martini Lunch

Crist Runs Again, Insane CDC Summer Camp Rules, Trump & Facebook

11
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they serve up three crazy martinis! First, they shake their heads as Charlie Crist runs for governor in Florida for the third time, the second time as a Democrat. They also unload on the CDC’s absurd mask and distancing guidelines for outdoor summer camps for kids. And they react to Facebook’s convoluted decision to keep Donald Trump off its platform.

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Member Post

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
67342
 

One of the more distasteful aspects of the 2020 election was local election boards accepting substantial private donations for “official” election operations. My now-former home of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, was one, accepting a $2.2 million private donation to fund the placement of 32 dropboxes and to promote voting by mail, on a narrow 2-1 vote by […]
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How Close Are Conservatives to Civil Disobedience?

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
4616
 

How close are we to experiencing real civil disobedience? Not from the left, since we’ve always had that. Violent protests, including placing bombs in the US Capitol, have long been a feature of the left and almost ubiquitous since the Vietnam War. We saw it last summer during the George Floyd-inspired riots – over 500 violent incidents in more than 200 cities across the United States. The days of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s exhortations to “non-violence” now look quaint. But this time, from conservatives? What might disobedience from conservative Americans look like?

This is not an academic question. It may be closer to reality than you realize. And it will look nothing like the violent Antifa and BLM protests that have maimed dozens of police officers and destroyed thousands of businesses and a few federal buildings.

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In Latest Facebook Scandal, Sheryl Sandberg Leans Backward

Michael S. Malone
Michael S. Malone
35
 

Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook is in the news again, this time facing allegations in a lawsuit that she knew the company was overestimating and misrepresenting its projected advertising numbers — and failed to disclose that fact to clients for years.

It’s amazing the downward trajectory Sandberg’s reputation has taken in just a few years. Here in Silicon Valley, she was initially seen as supremely competent, the real architect of Facebook’s explosive success, and — most of all — the lone adult at the company who kept Mark Zuckerberg in check. Then, in 2013, she published Lean In and became a national phenomenon, the heroine and role model to millions of young women struggling to make it in the business world. There seemed no limit to her career; there were even whispers of her becoming the first woman POTUS.

But then, especially after her Congressional testimony and some other comments that made her sound less like a paragon of character and more just a shill for her company, the attitude in tech was modified to: “Well, she’s just doing what she has to do in her job. But she’s still a person of character.” You know, kind of like a mob lawyer: defending bad behavior, but not participating in it.

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