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Posted by Miriam Elman on June 17, 2016 14 Comments
Several media watch dog groups (see here and here) have blasted reports published in The Independent, International Business Times, Times of London, and other news outlets for falsely accusing Israel of cutting off drinking water to Palestinians in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Each of these news outlets picked up a blatantly incorrect Al Jazeera report that initially included no response from Israel. They ran their own stories with it, accompanied by headlines denunciating Israel for maliciously working to deprive Palestinians of water. https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/742968004686778368

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 10, 2016 4 Comments
Over 200 people attended WWII veteran Serina Vine's funeral after word spread on social media she did not have any living relatives. Vine passed away on May 21 at the Community Living Center in DC. Only a few people planned to attend the funeral, but that changed when Army Mj. Jaspen Boothe received a message on Facebook and retired Marine William Jones organized the funeral:
Army Maj. Jaspen Boothe, who addressed the crowd in a dress and combat boots, said she received a Facebook message Friday stating just four people had RSVP’d for the funeral. So she reached out to various organizations to tell them about the woman she described as homeless but not hopeless. She said Vine was her sister because both swore to defend the Constitution. “We are all a testament to what we do when we are called to honor our fellow brothers and sisters,” said Boothe. She is president of the nonprofit Final Salute Inc., which assists homeless female veterans. Boothe, who is now in the Army Reserve, said she was homeless for about a year in 2006.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 01, 2016 6 Comments
Twitter has lost one of the funniest accounts in a long time due to possible pressure from the thin-skinned officials in Russia. The social media platform suspended five accounts that parodied Russian officials, including the popular @DarthPutinKGB, who regularly mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin. They have reinstated a few, but the Putin one remains suspended. Good news: The famous @DarthPutinKGB has returned, but showed much displeasure: Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 11.26.24 AM Unfortunately, this is only one of many cases over the past four years that have shown the Kremlin will unleash its power across the world to silence its critics.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 31, 2016 24 Comments
Gee. What could possibly go wrong? Vera Jourova, head of the European Commission's Committee for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality announced Tuesday that internet behemoths have joined forces to combat "hate speech" in Europe.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 23, 2016 2 Comments
What's the key to viral video-making? An appreciation for the small things in life, a talking Chewbacca mask, and an infectious belly laugh. Or it was in Candace Payne's case. After buying a talking Star Wars mask at Kohl's as a belated birthday present to herself Thursday, Candace Payne sat in her car, flipped on her phone, and recorded what would be the single most watched Facebook Live video in the history of Facebook Live videos. More than 130 million people watched Payne's video which was posted with the caption, "it's the simple joys in life." The previous Facebook Live record holder was Buzzfeed's watermelon smashing video, which had about 10 million views. If you haven't seen her video, it's four minutes of your time well spent:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 18, 2016 25 Comments
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, released a short-list of potential SCOTUS nominees Wednesday. Senate Republicans have thus far, made good on their promise to block President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. Should that hold, the task of replacing the late Justice Scalia will fall to the next Oval Office occupant. According to ABC News, Trump's SCOTUS list includes:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 12, 2016 6 Comments
As part of the Israeli Independence Day celebrations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted a live question and answer session on Twitter. Respondents tweeted questions using the #AskNetanyahu hashtag. Typical of most hashtag events, ne'er do wellers loaded up #AskNetanyahu with all kinds of silly questions. Unlike most hashtag events, Netanyahu responded.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 09, 2016 25 Comments
Former Facebook employees have told Gizmodo that the company regularly told them to stamp out conservative news even if it trended on the website. From Gizmodo:
Several former Facebook “news curators,” as they were known internally, also told Gizmodo that they were instructed to artificially “inject” selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all. The former curators, all of whom worked as contractors, also said they were directed not to include news about Facebook itself in the trending module. In other words, Facebook’s news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing—but it is in stark contrast to the company’s claims that the trending module simply lists “topics that have recently become popular on Facebook.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 27, 2016 20 Comments
Florida might be a tax friendly state, but it's not very privacy friendly -- at least not for the kiddos. Orange County (home to Orlando) schools recently re-upped a partnership with SnapTrends, a software that monitors student social media activity. Karen Turner writes at the Washington Post:
SnapTrends collects data from public posts on students' social media accounts by scanning for keywords that signify cases of cyberbullying, suicide threats, or criminal activity. School security staff then comb through flagged posts and alert police when they see fit. Research suggests that 23 percent of children and teens have been cyberbullied. Studies connecting social media and suicide have not shown definitive results, but there has been research that suggests that cyberbullying leads to suicide ideation more than traditional bullying.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 27, 2016 7 Comments
Earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported David Brock, Hillary fanboi and head of pro-Hillary Correct The Record Super PAC, has dropped around $1 million to pay trolls to attack Clinton naysayers. These so-called "Barrier Breakers" attack anyone who expresses unfavorable criticism of Hillary -- all online of course.
As head of the Correct The Record Super PAC for Hillary Clinton, David Brock has launched something called Barrier Breakers — an online mob of paid trolls designed to attack any and every person who says one cross word about Hillary Clinton on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, or elsewhere.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 08, 2016 88 Comments
If you've spent any time on social media, particularly in the politicalsphere, chances are you've encountered an internet troll or two. This election cycle has been er, um... interesting. I never thought I'd long for the days the so-called Paulbots would troll my feeds lecturing me about liberty and the Constitution and Dr. Paul. At least most of those accounts were real. Alas... Not so in 2016. The Trumpbots, or accounts that seem to exist solely to attack those with unfavorable views of The Donald, are a special breed of vicious. I've learned it's best to ignore, block, and move on. Why waste time on people, or bots rather, not interested in positive engagement, I say. I've also suspected there was a concerted effort to derail conversation on social media and to attempt to fluster influencers. It all reeked of some kind of psychological web warfare. Turns out, I might have been right.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 21, 2016 4 Comments
It all began with a single tweet: And ten years later, Twitter has changed the way we interact, connect, share news, funnies, and failures.

Posted by Taryn O'Neill on March 17, 2016 5 Comments
As the nation watches the FBI battle Apple in court over access to a terrorist's iPhone data, a conflict with another Silicon Valley company simmers in the background. With over a billion users, the Facebook-owned mobile app WhatsApp is one of the world's largest messaging platforms and allows users to send text messages and make phone calls abroad without incurring the international data costs associated with traditional text and voice communication. Similar to Telegram, an app popular with ISIS members, WhatsApp offers end-to-end encrypted text messaging and, according to the Guardian, will in the coming weeks be offering encrypted voice and group messaging. At present, the Department of Justice is unsure how to proceed in an ongoing criminal investigation in which a federal judge ordered a wiretap, as the department is unable to get access the ordered data thanks to WhatsApp's encryption.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2016 47 Comments
I'm so old I remember when conservative blogs and websites used to communicate with each other on email lists and by frequent linking to each other. When Legal Insurrection started in October 2008, that was how we let the world know we existed and what we were writing. So-called "blog whoring," whereby smaller blogs clogged the inboxes of people at larger websites hoping for a link, was how it was done. This website would not have thrived without the appreciated links from Instapundit, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and dozens of other blogs. Our Twitter page says we joined in December 2008, but I think it was another year or so before Twitter became a central communication focus for conservatives. In those "early" days I remember conservatives dominating Twitter -- the common wisdom was that liberals ruled on Facebook and conservatives ruled on Twitter. That has changed over time, and liberals are just as if not more influential on Twitter.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 28, 2016 8 Comments
With the recent wave of terrorism unleashed on Israeli civilians, Prime Minister Netanyahu's government is investing in technology to pre-empt “lone wolf” attacks. Since September 2015, more than 100 stabbings attacks have taken place and 29 Israelis have died, including an American teenager. The terror attacks in Israel are not limited to knife attacks alone, about 40 shootings and 20 car ramming incidents have also taken place during the same period. Hamas and PLO-affiliated terrorist group are increasingly using Facebook and other social media platforms to recruit and direct attacks against unsuspecting Israeli civilians. And Israel is doing what Israel does best -- using cutting-edge technology to fight back terrorism. Speaking at a Cyber Technology conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said that the country is studying the modus operandi of these “lone wolf” terrorists, and devising tools to monitor social media and pre-empt such attacks. Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel will invest more in technology enabling it to gather intelligence on social media about potential “lone wolf” terrorists, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Wednesday.  (…)
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