Big Tech
January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
A reader working for a global tech company writes to offer the following speculation on the meaning of “full retro” in Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s comments here: [I]t is possible that Dorsey is referring to a part of the “agile” software development methodology called a retrospective or “retro.” A retro is a meeting or series of meetings that look back on a project or portion of a project in order
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January 15, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Last night Project Veritas gave us a look inside the sausage factory at Twitter with a secretly recorded video of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey talking about his censorship plans beyond President Donald Trump. If I understand Dorsey’s preview of coming attractions correctly — it depends in part on the meaning of “full retro” — we ain’t seen nothing yet. Never go full retro. According to Project Veritas President James O’Keefe,
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January 14, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s obvious that, as Scott has been documenting, Big Tech is engaged in a concerted effort to censor conservatives. It seeks to prevent us from presenting our ideas to the public on an equal basis with liberals, left-liberals, and even the most extreme leftists. How can we counter this? The First Amendment doesn’t forbid censorship by private corporations. The Democratic Congress isn’t going to go to bat for free speech
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January 14, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Classicist and historian Victor Davis Hanson, now of the Hoover Institution, takes up the subject of this series in his column “Assault on the Capitol has let loose the electronic octopus.” Seeking to suss out the new standards, he considers the contradictions: After all, the Vicki Osterweil book “In Defense of Looting,” a justification for theft and property destruction, came out last summer amidst the antifa and Black Lives Matter
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January 13, 2021 — Scott Johnson
I missed David Marcus’s useful New York Post column “The threats and violence Twitter won’t police.” As we have noted, Amazon, Apple, and Google acted in concert to shut Parler down “supposedly because it hosts calls for violence,” as Marcus puts it, “but a simple search of Twitter shows that it regularly allows such calls itself.” For example: Twitter hosts a #KillTrump hashtag. In all of the glorious English language
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January 12, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Parler has gone dark as a result of the combination of Big Tech giants Amazon, Apple, and Google. Parler’s current extinction is an incredibly important sign of our path toward the new dystopia. Parler chief executive officer John Matze appeared to tell his story in media res on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Matze discussed the steps Parler has taken following its suspension by the Big Tech Goliaths. He is an effective
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January 12, 2021 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal seems to have stirred up an interesting and important lawsuit brought by video-sharing service Rumble against the Google/YouTube prong of Big Tech. The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schechner reports on the lawsuit in “Google Sued by YouTube Rival Over Search Rankings.” Subhead: “Video-sharing site Rumble, citing a Wall Street Journal investigation, alleges Google diverted traffic away from it toward YouTube.” Schechner reports: Video-sharing site Rumble Inc.
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January 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Parler is seeking legal recourse against Amazon under the Sherman Antitrust Act for putting it to sleep. That is the latest in the ongoing saga. Evie Fordham’s current story at FOXBusiness is “Parler sues Amazon for suspending app from cloud service, claims antitrust violation and breach of contract.” Parler chief executive officer John Matze offered much more to support his claim and evidence Amazon’s bad faith in his interview with
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January 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Parler is down. The most recent report I am able to find on the state of play is Evie Fordham’s FOXBusiness story “Social media platform Parler goes dark after Amazon cloud suspension.” The story includes video of Maria Bartiromo’s interview with Parler chief executive officer John Matze yesterday morning. Matze is trying to get Parler back up and running online following the termination of hosting services provided by Amazon. The
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January 10, 2021 — Scott Johnson
In what is a continuing story, Apple, Amazon, and Google have booted Parler. Parler may be going offline temporarily. Not the Babylon Bee quotes the CNN story here, thus sparing us the pain of clicking on CNN here. Amazon will remove Parler from its host tonight at midnight (Pacific time), shutting down Parler’s website and app until it can find a new hosting provider. BuzzFeed broke the story here. Tom
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January 9, 2021 — Scott Johnson
With the Democratic takeover of the executive and legislative branches a few days away, Big Tech has swung into action in a big way to suppress conservative speech. The treatment of President Trump is of course the leading indicator. Here is a compilation of the developing stories as of this morning: • Ebony Bowden, New York Post: “Trump permanently suspended from Twitter account” • Salvador Rodriguez, CNBC: “Trump tweets from
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December 18, 2020 — Scott Johnson
We have yet to settle accounts with the Axis of Evil linking Democrats, mainstream media, and big tech. We have yet to settle accounts even with the perpetrators of the Russia hoax (and related hoaxes). In his current New York Post column Glenn Reynolds argues that the Deplorables remember and decline to stand down: Leaving aside charges of voter fraud and vote-rigging, there is the undisputable fact that Big Media
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November 25, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Alex Berenson brings an independent mind and a formidable set of skills to his heterodox coverage of the COVID-19 epidemic. He is a former New York Times investigative reporter and a writer of spy thrillers. He has just released his third pamphlet in the series Unreported Truths About COVID-19 and Lockdowns. When the first pamphlet in his series was published this past June Berenson had a close encounter with Amazon
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November 24, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I wasn’t familiar with the work of Robert Epstein on the impact of big tech on our elections before Tucker Carlson had him on last night to discuss the possible impact of Google on the 2020 elections. I have posted the video below. Epstein is an interesting guy. He is a psychologist by training and is in fact the former editor of Psychology Today. Among his research papers is one
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October 31, 2020 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the film The Plot Against the President here on Power Line this past weekend. Every time I attempt to post my review — most recently, this morning — I receive this notice: I have written twice to Amazon seeking an explanation. Despite the invitation extended to me in the notice, Amazon has rested on its right to remain silent. I am mystified. I can freely post reviews
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July 30, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Is Google jiggering with its search results to disadvantage prominent conservative sites? The answer seems to be yes, but I’m not sure the relevant questions were asked at yesterday’s congressional hearing with the chief executive officers of the big tech giants — questions that follow up on stories such as this one or this one or this one or this one. Below is the clip that Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted
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October 25, 2019 — Steven Hayward
I haven’t been closely following the saga of startup WeWork, which has more or less crashed and burned after being touted as the hot new unicorn of venture capital prestidigitation. The Wall Street Journal today has a long feature article on its decline and fall, and some of the details read like they came from a Tom Wolfe satire of the new rich of our time. Savor a few of
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