Tech
Facebook Under Criminal Investigation for Data Dealings
The tech giant has another scandal on its hands.
Facebook is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors for data dealings with some of the world’s largest technology companies, according to a Wednesday report.
“A grand jury in New York has subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices, according to two people who were familiar with the requests and who insisted on anonymity to discuss confidential legal matters,” the New York Times said. “Both companies had entered into partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of its users.”
The report said that the Facebook partners subpoenaed are among 150 or so companies that purchased data from Facebook. The social network, better thought of as a data mine, allowed these companies access to private information of its users, sometimes without the consent of the users.
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“It is not clear when the grand jury inquiry, overseen by prosecutors with the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, began or exactly what it is focusing on,” the report said. “Facebook was already facing scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Facebook is reportedly cooperating with investigators.
The tech giant is trying to shake off an abysmal 2018, which was riddled with scandals.
The company was outed for allowing Netflix and Spotify to read users’ “private messages,” and leaked millions of users’ photographs to third parties without the knowledge of the users. Facebook also allowed a third party to lift information from 87 million accounts in the most serious scandal in the company’s history.
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Tech
MeWe Goes Big Tech Authoritarian, Opts for Political Censorship
This is no different than a Big Tech platform.
Supposed Big Tech alternative MeWe is opting for the path of political censorship and repression, caving to demands of media leftists to censor right-leaning political content.
MeWe’s administrators confirmed they would close so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ groups and purge their content from its platform earlier this month.
MeWe styles itself as somewhat of a Facebook alternative, advertising user privacy and independence from a data surveillance business model. MeWe’s administrators have taken to signalling against real free speech social media platforms such as Parler and Gab, a thumb in the face of their largely anti-establishment user base, many of whom joined the service to begin with in pursuit of a Facebook alternative that doesn’t censor.
MeWe is NOT an "anything goes" site like Parler or Gab. MeWe's TOS is strict & clear (https://t.co/oJP1JvrxiZ)- haters, lawbreakers, violence inciters etc. are not welcome. We have an outstanding Trust & Safety team that works hard every day to investigate & remove TOS-violators
— MeWe (@mewe) January 10, 2021
An overwhelming majority of Americans who attended ‘Stop the Steal’ protests are peaceful and non-violent, with only a handful getting out of control during the January 6th raucous US Capitol riot. MeWe’s decision to implement political censorship en masse makes it no different than the worst Big Tech authoritarians, except for the deceptive marketing of a free speech social media platform.
In any event, a social media platform that bans arbitrarily defined “haters” is almost assured to have draconian anti-free speech policies. MeWe has opted for the path of a minuscule Big Tech clone in a betrayal of its own user base. Gab offers a wide range of social services without the politically correct censorship, and MeWe’s users should embrace it as the real home of free speech online.
Follow me on Gab @WildmanAZ, Twitter @Wildman_AZ, and on Parler @Moorhead.
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