At the Google hearing, Congress proves they still have no idea how the internet works

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s long-awaited Congressional hearing took place on Tuesday.

Pichai testified before Congress on Google+ data breaches, the controversial Chinese-censorship friendly search product, and perceived anti-conservative bias. But, there was one more pressing concern that took center stage to those watching the hearing: Several members of Congress, at least on the House Judiciary Committee, have no idea what they’re talking about when it comes to technology.

At the #GoogleHearing, Rep. Smith is bringing up debunked claims that have been pushed by President Trump. Here, @LamarSmithTX21: “No, 96% of Google news stories on Trump AREN’T from left-wing outlets.” https://t.co/bRHn5zPPjR

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 11, 2018 Read more…

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Starved for attention, banned Twitter troll handcuffs herself to the company’s NY office doors

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Twitter is facing the unforeseen consequence of banning a right-wing troll from its platform.

Laura Loomer, a known conspiracy theorist,  handcuffed herself to the front door of Twitter’s New York headquarters on Thursday. The stunt was in protest of her ban from the platform last week.

Once handcuffed to the company’s doors, Loomer used a supporter’s Periscope account to broadcast her protest online. She then shouted unsubstantiated claims about the suppression of conservative viewpoints on Twitter using a megaphone.

laura loomer has handcuffed herself to the front door of Twitter HQ in protest of her ban and she’s livestreaming it https://t.co/VcwJuxoZ3I

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) November 29, 2018 Read more…

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Google CEO set to testify in front of Congress on Dec. 5

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is headed to Washington to testify before Congress.

According to the Washington Post, Pichai’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee is set for Dec. 5. The topic of the hearing will be Google’s alleged bias against conservatives.

In August, President Donald Trump hurled accusations of bias at Google in a series of tweets. Trump claimed that certain Google search queries like “Trump news” returned results from critical news organizations like CNN rather than conservative-leaning outfits. The issue at hand here — as with other online platforms accused of political favoritism — isn’t bias but rather misunderstanding of how the technology works. Read more…

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Trump supporters think their ‘election night meltdown’ videos are being deleted

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Is YouTube deleting those popular pro-Trump video compilations mocking Democrats and liberals “melting down” over Donald Trump’s 2016 election night win?

No, but a conspiracy theory is gaining traction on Reddit alleging just that.

On /r/The_Donald, Reddit’s main Trump community consisting of more than 650,000 members, a post detailing yet another manufactured case of tech’s “anti-conservative bias” has taken off. “HAPPENING: YouTube is CURRENTLY mass censoring and deleting videos of the 2016 election night meltdown,” the post, which currently has more than 5,000 upvotes, states. “Take a look yourself. What was previously filled with compilations and clips of Democrats losing their minds has been replaced with MSM outlets. Find what you can and save.”  Read more…

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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s hearing on conservative shadowbanning was a mess

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It was round two of a doubleheader for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill this afternoon.

After providing testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg earlier in the day, Dorsey steeled himself for another hearing — one just for him and Twitter in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The second hearing was a little different than the first — whereas the Senate Intelligence Committee dealt with the very serious issue of foreign interference in U.S. elections and the proliferation of fake news and misinformation on social media, the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing was called to discuss the inaccurate reports that Twitter has an anti-conservative bias and shadowbans Republicans. Read more…

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Trump claims his loss of Twitter followers proves anti-conservative bias

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Just a day after taking to Twitter to complain that Google search results are biased against him, President Donald Trump is once again going after the search engine, as well as Twitter and Facebook.

This time, he’s citing his very personal experience of having lost followers on social media as evidence of a broad scale anti-conservative bias.

While talking to reporters at the White House today, President Trump was asked a question concerning his tweets from Monday. He’d accused Google of offering “RIGGED” search engine results to anyone looking up the phrase “Trump News.” The president complained that Google was deliberately censoring “Republican/Conservative media” and showing search results that were critical of him from what he called the “Fake News Media.”  Read more…

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Russian hackers target Republican think tanks critical of Moscow, Microsoft says

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Russia’s intelligence agency is ramping up its hacking attempts on U.S. political targets as the Midterm elections get nearer. The hackers’ latest target: conservative think tanks which have broken from President Donald Trump and are seeking continued sanctions against Moscow.

In a report posted on Microsoft’s website by company president Brad Smith, Microsoft announced they had taken control of 6 domains via court order that were being set up by Russian hackers to deploy in a spearphishing attack. The company pointed out that it “currently [has] no evidence these domains were used in any successful attacks.” Read more…

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Troll gets trolled with some quality sign Photoshopping

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In a well-deserved twist, a guy just looking to argue was turned into this week’s most contentious memes. 

Steven Crowder, a conservative podcaster and professional troll set up a booth at Texas Christian University with a sign that said “Male privilege is a myth.” The sign prompted students discuss whether or not he was right with “Change my mind,” an ongoing segment he has on YouTube.  

Hello @TCU. Come one come all#ChangeMyMind pic.twitter.com/r4U4WaFFtm

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) February 16, 2018

His tweet got a considerable amount of criticism — people pointed out that his booth wasn’t really an  effort to engage in discussion and that he just wanted to incite anger for his YouTube channel.  Read more…

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