The issue of infertility caused by the Covid-19 vaccine has been in the rise, especially being shared across social media – google, facebook, etc. Scientists say there’s no evidence that supports the claim. Seems this is same as being shared before about the Flu shot that causes same level of uncertainty. Public health officials though are trying to help the public to feel more comfortable in getting the vaccine in order to reach herd immunity.
The Influence of Social Media in Politics — Monday Matters Blog by Ragan
In the article, “The Power of Social Media in Politics continues in 2021”, Arika Ho reviews the many ways that social media has influenced politics not only in the United States but all over the world. Ho argues that social media media has created a lot of momentum and awareness to many political campaigns and […]
The Influence of Social Media in Politics — Monday Matters Blog by Ragan
Amazon countersuits Parler
The attempted coup on the US Capitol on January 6th forced several tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to ban US President Donald Trump for its failure to comply with its policies inciting an insurrection, which caused deaths, damages, and theft. Parler, a “free speech” social media app used by pro-Trump members was also shut down filed a breach of contract against Amazon. On Tuesday January 12th however, Amazon submitted a new filing in Federal court in response to Parler’s claims (see snapshot of the case below)
This case is not about suppressing speech or stifling viewpoints. It is not about a conspiracy to restrain trade. Instead, this case is about Parler’s demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) content that threatens the public safety, such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens. There is no legal basis in AWS’s customer agreements or otherwise to compel AWS to host content of this nature. AWS notified Parler repeatedly that its content violated the parties’ agreement, requested removal, and reviewed Parler’s plan to address the problem, only to determine that Parler was both unwilling and unable to do so. AWS suspended Parler’s account as a last resort to prevent further access to such content, including plans for violence to disrupt the impending Presidential transition.
Despite Parler’s rhetoric, its lawsuit is no more than a meritless claim for breach of contract. But the facts are unequivocal: If there is any breach, it is Parler’s demonstrated failure and inability to identify and remove such content. AWS was well within its rights to suspend Parler immediately for those failures. Parler also cannot hold AWS liable in tort for enforcing the agreement’s express terms. And there is no antitrust claim where, as here, Parler cannot plausibly plead an agreement to cause it harm and the complained-of conduct is undeniably compatible with a legitimate purpose.
Compelling AWS to host content that plans, encourages, and incites violence would be unprecedented. Parler has no likelihood of prevailing on the merits, and the balance of equities and public interest strongly tip against an injunction. The motion for a temporary restraining order should be denied.
Read the full story from [gizmodo.com]
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram Blocks Trump
Everyone knows that US President Donald Trump have been an eager Twitter user – he would use this tool to express his thoughts, hire and fire people, and unfortunately have used the tool to incite division in a day when the US Congress was set to certify elections results. The mob that descended to the US Capitol today forced their way in the building, triggered violence, rampage and even a death of a woman.
Twitter finally took a stand and locked Trump’s account out for 12 hours due to his three tweets for violations of their “Civic Integrity policy”. Twitter further mentioned the @realDonaldTrump account will be locked for good if the tweets were not removed.
On a similar note, both Facebook and Instagram has blocked Trump from posting on the site for 24 hours, this came after the company already removed posts he made in support of the pro-Trump mob that attacked the US Capitol on Wednesday.
Fed Up With Tech Platforms’ Censorship? Here Are 3 Free Speech Upstarts. — PA Pundits – International
By Nathalie Voit ~ The social media platform Parler is gaining favor among political conservatives, who claim their voices are being stifled by the Silicon Valley giants. (Photo: Olivier Douliery/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images) Traditional social media networks are experiencing a backlash from users as they continue to “cancel” or otherwise censor conservative views. As a result, […]
Fed Up With Tech Platforms’ Censorship? Here Are 3 Free Speech Upstarts. — PA Pundits – International
How to help Philippine Super Typhoon Victims
the Philippines once again got visited by the strongest typhoon of the year – Goni (locally named “Rolly”) and a week later Vamco (locally referred to as “Ulysses”) struck leaving the country in waste. it was reminiscent of 2013 when super typhoon Yolanda caused loss of life, injuries and damages affecting millions. for those who like to donate, you can do so via the following:
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Disney’s Christmas ad bring Filipinos back home
Christmas is almost upon us and for Filipinos this is the most awaited event of the year as families and loved ones come together. It’s just fitting Disney’s latest Christmas ad depicted Filipino values during this time. For everyone to know, Philippine Christmas is unique, it’s genuinely and surprisingly warm. Pure joy is in the air, you can smell and feel it. People are all smiles, families and friends come together to celebrate. It’s just different, and anyone should experience it for themselves.
Check out this heart-warming story #FromOurFamilyToYours of Lola (”grandmother” in Filipino), it brings back the nostalgia of the past and how lanterns and old Mickey could bring back beauty, warmth, love in families.
Share a family festive memory on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the following hashtag: #LoveFromDisney and Disney will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish® (up to $100,000 US) on your behalf.
See more [Disney Ireland]
Trivia: Philippines start Christmas celebrations at the start of the “BER” months (September) probably the longest in the world.
tech companies take a stand on #blacklivesmatter
We are certainly in dire times, but one good thing that came out of the recent protests over the death of George Floyd, is how technology and social media played its role to enforce awareness of police violence and the long-running systemic racism against black people in America. This has also caught the eye of the world and lately, several tech companies showed where they stand.
Mark Zuckerberg – “Facebook also has more work to do to keep people safe and ensure our systems don’t amplify bias.“ However, he also declined to take down President Trump’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” message.
Jeff Bezos – “You’re the kind of customer I’m happy to lose” referring to a man who has hateful messages even using the n-word when Amazon last weekend showed “Black Lives Matter” banner on its site. He further pledges $10M to organizations fighting systemic racism against black Americans.
Twitter, Reddit, Google, and Airbnb are among the other companies that have endorsed Black Lives Matter and committed to anti-racism (see more via axios.com)
Want to know more about how systemic racism works? See this video by act.tv
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Faces Congress
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg faced the senate judiciary and commerce committees today, in light of the recent data breach impacting over 87 million of its users.
on march-21 addressing the cambridge analytica situation, “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you. I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it,” mark posted.
here’s a background of events;
- as early as 2007 facebook envisioned that apps should be “social” enabling people to log into apps and share who their friends were and some of their information (birthdays, where they live, photos).
- in 2013, a cambridge university researcher named aleksandr kogan created a personality quiz app and was installed by about 300k users, this enabled kogan access to the those who installed the app and their friends’ data.
- in 2014 facebook required developers to get approval first before they request information from people.
- in 2015, facebook learned from the guardian that kogan had shared the data gathered from his app with cambridge analytica, and they were demanded to delete all their acquired data
- about same year, the guardian also reported that cambridge analytica was helping US presidential candidate, ted cruz, to use this as psychological data for its campaign against its political rivals
- in 2016, trump’s team was said to have invested heavily on facebook ads and involved help from cambridge analytica
- on march 2018, facebook CEO acknowledged that cambridge analytica may not have deleted all the data
the facebook breakup letter
dear facebook,
today marks our 10th year together, i must say it has been a sweet journey. unfortunately, time has come for me to walk away.
i had high hopes for us when we started, especially at the time when my heart still beat for… what was her name again? ahh friendster (may she rest in peace). but you were all smile and poised, a neatly uniformed college girl full of hopes and overflowing with excitement. you had me at one poke!
through you i bravely opened up my thoughts to the world. i was able to connect with old and new friends. you bridged time, the longitudes and the latitudes. i got found and new relatives were discovered. once a year you even make me famous sending out birthday reminders. with you, i was a kid in a playground, swiping up or down till the wee hours, unconditionally tagging anyone and gleefully enjoying your games.
know that i am glad to have witnessed you grow – your fun emojis, crazy virals, and live videos i will sorely miss. oh i always thought it’s cool you instantly recognized faces in photos (cool but creepy) and i thought its cute you knew what i’ve been searching and offering them up as ads on my wall (cute but creepy). but you’ve also shown great heart organizing fundraising events and ways for me to know my loved ones were safe during crisis.
but like others, you had moments of insecurities – you surely changed your wardrobe a lot! how many times i’ve seen you moved your timelines and feeds around (when i felt the last time looked fine)? you were understandably demanding asking me to always checkin and share photos/vids of where i’ve been. and oh, you just couldn’t forget things do you – old memories keep popping up!
as i’ve come to know you more, i’ve learned you carry baggages too. you were quite a nag, you’ve let everyone post just literally anything they wanted – things that’s sometimes need not be shared nor really mattered. instead of mature talk, you’ve let people berate others in a faceless wall! trolls and bullies abound. i hated the violent graphic posts, but i hated the spoilers most! you’ve let fake news take over the gullible. and just this week i learned data of your 87 million users have been breached! being with you have become sadly toxic.
i’ve tried to quit you many times before and wondered what’s with you that i keep going back? nope, not this time though. know that it’s not you, it’s me.. and my need to live in the moment and declutter my life.
so i guess this is it! my final post. this is where we part ways. i genuinely wish you the best. thank you and you will always have a piece of my heart (and data) forever.
sincerely logging off,
set.it.good
imapinoy.tech 