Big Tech
July 27, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Rep. Jim Jordan’s House committee has been trying for some time to extract documents from Facebook relating to the Biden administration’s leaning on that platform to censor content. Jordan eventually threatened to hold Mark Zuckerberg in contempt, and Facebook finally produced the files. Jordan has now released some highlights on Twitter. These documents, similar to the Twitter files, clearly show the administration’s effort to use the social media companies to
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July 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
As Scott noted this morning, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has granted plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, barring various Biden administration officials from communicating with social media companies for the purpose of suppressing free speech. This is a massively important case. Plaintiffs included the states of Missouri and Louisiana and several individuals. Plaintiffs alleged that various agencies of the Biden
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January 20, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Has FBI Director Christopher Wray said word one about the supervisory role played by the FBI with Twitter under the old regime? Not to my knowledge. We have sought to highlight it in our Notes on the Twitter Files. Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum jamboree in Davos yesterday, Wray seemed to allude to the FBI’s supervision of Big Tech: I think the sophistication of the private sector is
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December 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Adam Goldman was one of the national security establishment’s go-to reporters for promotion of the Russia hoax. Indeed, Goldman “was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for national reporting on Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.” That’s the way the Times puts it. Those of us who don’t only get our news from the Times now know that it was the FBI more than any
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November 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I started this series to document our movement toward the world of 1984. Big Tech has featured prominently in it. In Department of Homeland Security documents reviewed by the Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein and Lee Fang, we see the Biden administration going full Big Brother. Their story reporting on the DHS documents — some leaked, some obtained via Missouri v. Biden, some public — is “Truth Cops.” DHS has gone into
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October 22, 2022 — John Hinderaker
People in the industry refer to your email list as your “owned audience,” but it turns out you might not own it after all. The companies that run the major email systems tend to be on the left. My own organization moved away from MailChimp on account of apparent political bias that obstructed our ability to send emails, without restriction, to tens of thousands of email subscribers. Now, the Republican
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July 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The New York Post continues to mine the contents of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. Via Miranda Devine’s Twitter feed we are alerted to Jon Levine’s story “Hunter Biden’s laptop had contacts for Google execs, US officials for China policy.” I would have missed it otherwise and want to bring it to the attention of interested readers. It is an excellent story. New bombshells from Hunter Biden’s #laptopfromhell delivered by @nypost
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June 30, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Lawrence Franklin’s Gatestone column discusses recently leaked documents further revealing the enormities committed by China’s regime in its Xinjiang province. It also provides a useful review of the situation to date. What is to be done? Franklin modestly conclude: “Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with
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June 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Project Veritas has posted excerpts of yesterday’s internal Twitter all-hands meeting with Elon Musk (video below, also posted here on YouTube). Addressing Twitter’s employees for the first time since news broke of his plans to acquire the company — let it be — Project Veritas highlighted the following points : • “I think it’s essential to have free speech,” Musk said on the call after describing his affinity for Twitter.
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June 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
For some reason, we haven’t heard much about the “whistleblower” who has stepped forward with documents that belie the Biden administration’s line about its Orwellian Disinformation Governance Board. Senators Grassley and Hawley append documents provided by the “whistleblower” to their letter addressed to DHS Secretary Mayorkas (embedded below via Scribd). Chuck Ross covers the story for the Washington Free Beacon in “Homeland Security Solicited Twitter To ‘Become Involved’ in Disinfo
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April 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Axelrod/Atlantic conference on “Disinformation and the erosion of democracy” held at the University of Chicago earlier this month included a rogue’s gallery of purveyors of disinformation. We covered the conference in some detail as renegade students at the Chicago Thinker “staged a media regime takedown,” as the editors put it. The Axelrod/Atlantic conference on “disinformation” was followed by Barack Obama’s April 21 contribution at Stanford University. Obama gave his
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April 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
At FOX Business Bradford Betz takes up the concern expressed by Jeff Bezos about Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter. Given Tesla’s reliance on China’s for car sales and lithium batteries, Bezos worries that China may influence (i.e, “gain a bit of leverage”) on Twitter. Betz gives us this tu quoque: Bezos’ commentary on Tesla’s relationship with China is peculiar given a Reuters investigation in December [accessible online here] that found
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April 27, 2022 — Scott Johnson
In the immediate aftermath of the Twitter board’s acceptance of Elon Musk’s buyout offer, Twitter management held a company-wide call that lasted around 45 minutes yesterday. Project Veritas has posted an edited version of a leaked recording (below). During the call Twitter employees questioned board member Bret Taylor and CEO Parag Agrawal about the company’s direction and about Musk’s motives for buying the platform. One can sense the heartbreak and
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April 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
MSNBC hosts will remain free to reveal themselves as fools and tools on Twitter, but Ari Melber is exercised about the threat posed by Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. Melber explains: “If you own all of Twitter or Facebook or what have you, you don’t have to explain yourself, you don’t even have to be transparent, you could secretly ban one party’s candidate or all of its candidates, all
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April 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Reuters’ Greg Roumeliotis has reported within the past few minutes: Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash, the price the chief executive of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) has called his “best and final” offer for the social media company, people familiar with the matter said. Twitter may announce the $54.20-per-share deal later on Monday once its board has met to
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January 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
New York Post columnist Miranda Devine has committed the story of the laptop from hell to book form. Published on November 30, the book is Laptop from Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide. The story is familiar to Power Line readers, yet in Devine’s telling it comes infuriatingly to life — an almost unbelievable story of censorship and suppression in the land
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October 27, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The cultural transformation of the United States proceeds at an astonishing pace. It is assisted by the titans of Big Tech, of course, against whom a president and lowly congressman are powerless. In what should be another installment of my Shapes of things series, Rep. Jim Banks has been suspended by Twitter for allegedly “misgendering [Biden administration] trans health official” Rachel Levine (per the CBS News tweet below). The AP
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