Social media

Enjoining Mr. Joe

Featured image It doesn’t quite have the ring of driving Miss Daisy, but on Independence Day a federal judge enjoined the Biden administration’s communications with social media companies. You can tell this is good news by the dyspepsia of the New York Times: A federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday restricted the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms about broad swaths of content online, a ruling that could curtail efforts »

The Issue That Must Not Be Mentioned

Featured image Over the last few years, the establishment, including government agencies like the FBI, the hegemonic tech companies that control social media, and the press generally, has tried hard to suppress information on several topics. These topics include, among others, the effectiveness of anti-covid measures and treatments, the safety of covid vaccines, Joe Biden’s corruption, and the existence and prevalence of voter fraud. Wrongspeak on any of these topics has been »

The disinformation hoax

Featured image In late March Tablet published Jacob Siegel’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.” Subhead accompanied by the profile of a blackbird’s head: “Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation.” (The subhead and graphic allude to the Wallace Stevens poem). It’s a long-form essay that runs to some 13,000 words. The introduction is followed by a table of contents with links to the chapters: I. Russophobia Returns, Unexpectedly: The »

Feeling Blue: The Check(mark) Is Not in the Mail

Featured image It is fun watching celebrities and leftists moaning about losing their cherished blue check marks on Twitter. It is clearly a status symbol for them, and I thinking Musk is once again a genius for exposing the vanity and insecurity of the blue-checkers. Now, I thought leftist hyperbole had already decreed that we’re all dead from repealing net neutrality and the Trump tax cuts, but apparently the newest cause of »

13 ways of looking at disinformation

Featured image Last week Tablet published Jacob Siegel’s “A Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.” Subhead accompanied by the profile of a blackbird’s head: “Thirteen ways of looking at disinformation.” (The subhead and graphic allude to the Wallace Stevens poem). Siegel’s magnum opus runs to some 13,000 words. The introduction is followed by a table of contents with links to the chapters: I. Russophobia Returns, Unexpectedly: The Origins of Contemporary »

Liberal Girls Are Depressed

Featured image That isn’t surprising–social science data have long shown that conservatives are generally happier than liberals. But this study, which sampled 12th graders from 2005 through 2018, documents the deteriorating condition of liberals, and especially liberal girls: Adolescent internalizing symptoms (e.g. depressive affect) have increased over the past decade in the US, particularly among girls. The reasons for these increases are unclear. We hypothesize that increasing exposure to politicized events has »

A Twitter Files footnote (10)

Featured image The Twitter Files lie at the intersection of the law enforcement and national security establishment, the bigfoot press, social media, and the Democratic Party. Reporter Matt Taibbi has immersed himself in the Twitter Files courtesy of Elon Musk. By my rough count, Taibbi has posted 10 or so of the 15 Twitter Files threads so far. Taibbi has also compiled a summary of each of the threads here at his »

Weaponization Under Fire

Featured image Tomorrow the House of Representatives’ Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will hold its first hearing, chaired by Jim Jordan. The existence of this committee illustrates the vital difference between a narrow minority and a narrow majority. Under Democratic rule, “weaponization” of federal agencies was applauded, not investigated. The committee’s name refers in part to the Democrats’ deployment of the FBI and CIA as partisan agents. Donald »

Notes on the Twitter Files (14-A)

Featured image Matt Taibbi has posted a 10-part supplemental thread to the fourteenth installment of the Twitter Files. The supplemental thread can be accessed via the first tweet in the thread (below). Bruce Golding covers the thread for the New York Post here. 1.TWITTER FILES: Supplemental More Adam Schiff Ban Requests, and "Deamplification" — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 13, 2023 In this thread Taibbi devotes special attention to the dogged efforts of »

A Twitter Files footnote (6)

Featured image In following the multiple installments of the Twitter Files written by several hands, it is not easy to grasp the big picture. Lee Smith has formulated a sort of unified field theory of social media penetration by the law enforcement and intelligence agencies of the United States. He makes his case in the Tablet column “How the FBI hacked Twitter.” The Twitter Files themselves make for a part of the »

Notes on the Twitter Files (11)

Featured image Matt Taibbi posted two more Twitter Files threads yesterday afternoon. They are the eleventh and twelfth such threads posted by the journalists to whom Elon Musk has opened the files of old Twitter. Taibbi has taken the lead in documenting The eleventh thread includes 33 tweets that can be accessed via the first (below). 1.THREAD: The Twitter FilesHow Twitter Let the Intelligence Community In — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) January 3, »

A Twitter Files footnote (4)

Featured image 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 »

Notes on the Twitter Files (9)

Featured image Matt Taibbi delivered part 9 of the Twitter Files as a Christmas Eve special last night. Part 9 is an important contribution to the series. I think readers can access the thread beginning with the tweet below, although I can only pull up the first 30 tweets at this point. 1.THREAD: The Twitter FilesTWITTER AND "OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES" — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 24, 2022 When I read the thread »

A Twitter Files preview (1)

Featured image Explaining the disruption of his professional routine, Matt Taibbi explains: “The reason for all this of course is the Twitter Files story.” Responding to the FBI’s drivel, Taibbi adds this preview to what we have seen so far: This last week saw the FBI describe Lee Fang, Michael Shellenberger and me as “conspiracy theorists” whose “sole aim” is to discredit the agency. That statement will look ironic soon, as we »

Notes on the Twitter Files (6)

Featured image Late yesterday afternoon Matt Taibbi posted a Twitter Files Supplemental thread running to 12 substantive tweets. It is accessible here. I urge interested readers to check it out. Here are my notes and comments. • The New York Post covers it here. The Daily Mail covers it here. Mainstream media eyes remain wide shut. The revelations of the Twitter Files suggest that Elon Musk may not be public enemy number »

Notes on the Twitter Files (5)

Featured image Matt Taibbi posted a sixth installment of the Twitter Files in a 45-part Twitter thread yesterday afternoon. The thread is accessible here. This review is occasioned by the posting of Taibbi’s part 6. • I posted previous installments of my notes here (December 6, on Taibbi’s part 1), here (December 11, on part 2 by Bari Weiss, part 3 by Taibbi, and part 4 by Michael Shellenberger), and here (December »

Notes on the Twitter Files (4)

Featured image At her Free Press site Bari Weiss has posted background on the reporting behind the Twitter Files I have noted so far. She calls her backgrounder “Our reporting at Twitter.” (The URL suggests she might have called it “Why we went to Twitter.”) It answers certain of the questions I raised in my previous “Notes on the Twitter Files.” She writes (links omitted): [W]e—the journalist Matt Taibbi; investigative reporters connected »