Twitter Agrees to Allow Vladimir Putin to Censor Russian Content

March 30, 2013 | Filed Under Communism, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Liberty, Progressives, Regulation, Rights, Russia, Socialism, Technology, The Law, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Twitter has bowed to pressure from Russian Czar Vladimir Putin to block all content blacklisted by Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in Telecommunications, Information Technology and Mass Communications.

Putin’s government reports that since early March, Twitter has “actively been engaged in cooperation” with Russian authorities already. Twitter has already deleted pinpointed accounts and is restricting access on the basis of “five information materials” as determined by Russian authorities.

In a statement from the Kremlin, Twitter’s cooperation with the massive censorship policy was praised.
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Bait and Switch: Law Goes From Protecting Your Email to Allowing Gov’t Into Your Email

November 20, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Blogging, Computers, Congress, Constitution, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, DOJ, Email, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom, Google, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Liberty, Nanny State, Net Neutrality, Patriot Act, Progressives, Regulation, Security/Safety, Technology, The Law, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new law that was originally meant to strengthen the privacy of your email was recently re-written to allow government more access to your private emails and other digital files.

When H.R. 2471 went to the Senate, Democrat Senator Pat Leahy quickly rewrote the whole thing to allow federal policing agencies to have the power to search your digital files without a warrant.

As CNET reports it,

Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

This is, of course, an example of the government going too far for security. And you know the old saying so often attributed to Ben Franklin, “Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither.”

Also, I can’t stress more, here, that is the Democrats doing this. This is not a GOP effort.
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Study: Most Social Media Users Into Politics

October 23, 2012 | Filed Under Blogging, Computers, Conservatives, Democrats/Leftists, Facebook, Google, Inernet, New Media, Republicans, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that two thirds of social media users are also active in politics.

The study found that 66 percent of adult social media users (which is 39 percent of all U.S. adults) had promoted political or socio-political issues and one third used their social media to post their own opinions and to share content about political matters.

35 percent used their social media to urge others to vote and 28 percent have used tools to to post links to stories or articles on politics. Pew found that the conservative and liberal social media users were most apt to do the latter.
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Conventions a Hit on Social Media, Not TV

September 7, 2012 | Filed Under Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Facebook, GOP, Inernet, Journalism, Liberals, Media, President, Republicans, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

TV viewing of the GOP convention dropped sharply over its 2008 counterpart and there is little reason to expect that the Democrat convention will fare any better this year. But the Republican’s affair was a big hit on social media and that will likely be mirrored this week for the Democrats.

According to Nielson, TV ratings for the GOP convention tallied to about 30.3 million viewers this year. Compared to 2008′s convention ratings of 39 million viewers, that is a 23 percent drop in viewership.

But online, the GOP convention saw an uptick from the 2008 events. The Republican National Committee reported some 2.8 million viewers via its live streaming video on its Youtube page and, while viewing numbers aren’t known, there were many, many other outlets that offered a live stream of the convention.

Twitter, too, saw a deluge in communications of the event.
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Paul Ryan: Most Talked About Pol on Facebook

August 16, 2012 | Filed Under Blogging, CNN, Computers, Conservatives, Elections, Facebook, GOP, Government, Inernet, Journalism, Media, Mitt Romney, New Media, Paul Ryan, President, Republicans, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN reported this week that Rep. Paul Ryan has become the king of Facebook by knocking President Obama off “the most talked about” list of US politicians.

CNN recently entered into a partnership with Facebook to track things political on the social sharing network and according to the new “Facebook-CNN Election Talk Meter,” in the 54 hours after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney introduced Rep. Paul Ryan as his choice for the vice presidency, Paul Ryan became the star of social media.

Facebook-CNN talk meter scores

Rep. Paul Ryan 5.21
President Barack Obama 4.84
Vice President Joe Biden 4.01
Gov. Mitt Romney 3.74

In fact, Ryan became such a hot topic on social media that he almost matched Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps on the Talk Meter and that is pretty impressive considering how badly politics typically shows up on Internet “top” lists compared to pop culture and sports. As CNN measured it, in the days after he won all his most recent Olympic medals Phelps rated a 6.51 to Ryan’s 5.21 on the 1-10 scale.
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Most Dishonest Democrat Party Tweet EVAH!

July 12, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, President, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama has been blaming every problem he’s faced in the last three years on Bush. Obama also spent four years blaming Bush before being elected President. Every other phrase out of Obama’s mouth is “the mess we inherited,” or “the previous administration.”

So, what is the Democrat National Committee’s latest tweet? Why, what else but to say that Romney blaming others for anything “isn’t very Presidential.”

If this isn’t the biggest, most glaring example of hypocrisy, what is?

And the fact that the DNC is quoting a “journalist” is even worse. Liars stick together and these liars are incredibly brazen, aren’t they?
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Chirpify: A New Twitter Political Fundraising Tool Debuts Today

June 19, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Campaign Finance, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Inernet, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Senate, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new Twitter-based fundraising tool debuts today and the new service already has the two biggest names in the Politics biz signed up as clients: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Chirpify begins at the top of the heap client-wise as it not only has teams Obama and Romney signed up as clients but it also has some 25 House and Senate candidates.

Click to see larger image

The new Twitter-based fundraising tool will incorporate Paypal into its payment system and will feature an easy, one-click interface that will make it easy to donate to political candidates, non-profit organizations, and presumably anyone that signs up to use the service. It’s seems to be a very easy transaction for the donor, too.

We all know that politicians and candidates are using Twitter more than ever. But what many wondered is what the social networking tool could do for the campaign’s bottom line?
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Politico Gives Team Obama Pass on Its Twitter-tastrophies

June 12, 2012 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Blogging, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Ethics, Government, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, New Media, Politico, President, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

[Note: A shorter version of this article appears on BigJournalism.com]

One cannot help but feel that Politico is once again giving cover to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign with its latest love letter of an article. This time Politico is sure that Obama is king of the Internet. But it seems that at least one Internet-based area has been a disaster for Obama of late: Twitter. Not that Politico mentions any of that, of course.

Politico’s piece lauds Obama’s data advantage, sure that the President’s highly paid “techies” housed on the sixth floor of his Chicago HQ are sweeping away all before them on the Internet. In fact, Politico is so impressed with Obama’s “techie” effort that they proclaimed that this year’s organization makes the 2008 campaign’s “look like cavemen with stone tablets.”

That’s pretty definitive, isn’t it?
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Google’s Poor & Defiant Settlement Record

May 15, 2012 | Filed Under Dr. Don Boys, Google, Inernet, New Media, Scott Cleland, Technology, Twitter | Comments Off

-By Scott Cleland

Google’s poor and defiant track record in respecting government agreements and settlements is likely one of the reasons the FTC hired an undefeated former Federal prosecutor and litigator to lead their Google antitrust probe and potential litigation against Google. The EU and the FTC are naturally exceptionally skeptical about negotiating an antitrust settlement with Google, given the substantial evidence that shows Google is consistently less-than-trustworthy in abiding by its agreements with Governments.

Specifically, the evidence shows that Google has not abided by either of its privacy agreements with the FTC concerning Street-View WiSpy or Google-Buzz, nor has Google fully-abided by its criminal Non-Prosecution-Agreement with the DOJ concerning its advertising of illegal prescription drug imports. In addition, Google attempted to broadly game the justice system in negotiating a Google Book Settlement that would have rewarded it with a partial monopoly for its mass copyright infringement.
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Tweet and Facebook Activism! Stop Congress From Destroying the Internet

November 15, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Blogging, Budget, Business, Capitalism, Computers, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, Net Neutrality, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

The End of the Internet as We Know It

Tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee will hold their first hearing on E-PARASITE, a bill written by Hollywood lobbyists that could end the Internet as we know it. They’ve had their say, now it’s our turn.

Act now to protect Internet freedom by contacting the members of the House Judiciary Committee over the phone, and on Twitter and Facebook. Then, spread the word about Social Media #LobbyDay as we use the Internet to save the Internet.

What is PROTECT IP and E-PARASITE?

The PROTECT IP Act (S. 968) and the E-PARASITE Act (part of the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, H.R. 3261) would devastate job-creating American technology companies and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in the name of protecting Hollywood copyrights. These bills would create a “Great Firewall of America” by embracing the same Internet censorship tactics as the world’s worst human rights abusers, including regimes like communist China, Iran, Syria, and Burma. A number of technology experts have concluded that these bills would mean “the end of the Internet as we know it.”

What does it do?…
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Twitter Screws Me For The GOP Debate

September 12, 2011 | Filed Under Elections, Google, GOP, Government, Inernet, New Media, Republicans, Technology, Twitter, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Well, I don’t know about you, but I never knew that Twitter shut people down if they make a bunch of Tweets in a row! I just found that out tonight. I was half way through the Live Tweeting the GOP debate and Twitter shut me down telling me that I went over the Twitter limit!

So, tonight the initials of my name really do mean What The Heck?

Yours, Warner Todd Huston

Twitter Townhall: Another Case of Obama’s ‘For Thee But Not For Me’ Events

July 6, 2011 | Filed Under AFL-CIO, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Blogging, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Inernet, Liberals, President, Richard Trumka, Twitter, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

It was hailed as a technological first. President Obama was to hold the first “Twitter Townhall.” The truth is more like it was a desperate attempt by the Obama administration to appeal to the youth vote in which nearly every poll shows him losing ground.

The idea was that questions could be submitted by any American citizen via the Internet social media website Twitter. If you are not aware of what Twitter is, it is sort of like a phone texting service — but Internet-based. But on Twitter users are limited to 140 characters (including spaces) per message.

Anyway, getting to Obama’s “for thee but not for meism,” his first answer during the Twitter Townhall was 1,484 WORDS! So much for 140 characters! I guess cramped limitations are only good for the lowly people while he can indulge volumes of words when he wants to.

In fact, this is sort of an allegory for the way Obama treats the nation. He allows himself all sorts of luxuries, but the lowly people need to “sacrifice” and to be hampered and limited.

Amusingly, Obama probably didn’t expect one of his closest allies, Richard Trumka’s AFL-CIO, to needle him via Twitter, either.

Trumka’s AFL-CIO Twitter feed pointedly asked the prez, “Where are the jobs?”

Ouch.
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