Social Media

Dem Committee Chair Asks FBI To Investigate Parler

NBC News reports: The head of the House oversight committee asked the FBI on Thursday to conduct a review of the social media platform Parler, which advertises itself as an alternative to more mainstream sites that have banned some far-right extremists. The committee’s chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote to FBI Director Chris Wray asking him to look at how …

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Facebook Refers Trump’s Ban To Its “Supreme Court”

Politico reports: Facebook said Thursday it will refer its indefinite suspension of former President Donald Trump’s account to its independent oversight board — the highest-profile test to date for the panel, and a move that could lead to Trump either returning to the platform or facing a permanent suspension. The announcement: Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and …

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Biden Team Takes Over @POTUS And @WhiteHouse

USA Today reports: It’s official. Not only has Joe Biden been sworn in as America’s 46th president but his presidency has been confirmed on one of the nation‘s largest social media networks. Twitter has transferred the @POTUS and @WhiteHouse accounts from Donald Trump to Biden. Last week, Twitter outlined in a blog post how it would transfer the accounts from …

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YouTube Extends Trump’s Ban, Cites Potential Violence

Mediaite reports: YouTube is extending its ban on outgoing President Donald Trump for another week, the company announced Tuesday. Videos already on the account are still visible, but the Google-owned company has prohibited new videos from being uploaded since Jan. 13. It will also continue to ban users from commenting on the videos. “In light of concerns about the ongoing …

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Facebook Blocks Events In DC And State Capitals

Engadget reports: Facebook is cracking down on events in an effort to prevent its users from organizing violence ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration. The social network says it will block all events in areas around Washington D.C. and state capitals through next week’s inauguration. “We are blocking the creation of any new Facebook events happening in close proximity to locations …

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Trump Permanently Banned By Teen Favorite Snapchat

Axios reports: The Trump campaign and digital team relied on Snapchat as a key platform to reach younger audiences before the company started limiting its reach in June. The majority of Snapchat’s users are under 30. “Last week we announced an indefinite suspension of President Trump’s Snapchat account, and have been assessing what long term action is in the best …

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YouTube Suspends Trump’s Channel For Seven Days

The Wall Street Journal reports: YouTube suspended President Trump’s channel on Tuesday night, joining a growing list of tech companies that are ejecting him from their platforms. The Alphabet Inc. video-sharing service said it was locking Mr. Trump’s channel for at least seven days after the company removed videos that it said violated its policies against content it believes could …

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Facebook To Remove All “Stop The Steal” Content

NBC News reports: Facebook said Monday that it will begin removing any content that includes the phrase “stop the steal” from its platforms, expanding its efforts to limit the spread of election misinformation. The company two months ago removed the original group of the same name, which fueled voter fraud misinformation after the election. The move is part of the …

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Parler Sues Amazon Over Alleged Antitrust Violations

Business Insider reports: Parler, the far-right social media service, is suing Amazon over antitrust violations, according to a court filing submitted on Monday. The move comes after Amazon knocked Parler off its cloud-hosting service after it said Parler failed to moderate threats of violence following last week’s deadly siege on the US Capitol. Parler alleges that Amazon’s decision was politically …

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Parler Now Offline After Amazon Drops Hosting

Yahoo News reports: The conservative social network Parler was forced offline Monday, tracking websites showed, after Amazon warned the company would lose access to its servers for its failure to properly police violent content. The site’s popularity soared in recent weeks, becoming the number one free app in Apple’s App Store after the much larger Twitter banned US President Trump …

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Parler CEO: Every Vendor Has Now Dropped Us

Deadline reports: Parler CEO John Matze said today that his social media company has been dropped by virtually all of its business alliances after Amazon, Apple and Google ended their agreements with the social media service. “Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day,” Matze said. Matze conceded …

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Apple Drops Parler, Amazon To Pull Web Hosting

The New York Times reports: Over the past several months, Parler has become one of the fastest-growing apps in the United States. Millions of President Trump’s supporters have flocked to it as Facebook and Twitter increasingly cracked down on posts that spread misinformation and incited violence, including muzzling Mr. Trump by removing his accounts this past week. By Saturday morning, …

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Google Suspends Parler From Google Play App Store

NBC News reports: Google suspended the social media platform Parler on Friday from its Google Play app store until the “Twitter for conservatives” adopts content moderation policies following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump supporters. “In order to protect user safety on Google Play, our longstanding policies require that apps displaying user-generated content …

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YouTube Bans Bannon’s Show After Giuliani Interview

CNET reports: YouTube on Friday said it banned the channel of Steve Bannon’s popular War Room podcast, after it repeatedly violated the Google-owned platform’s rules. The ban came hours after the former White House chief strategist had Rudy Guiliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, on the program following the violent insurgency at the US Capitol earlier this week. “In accordance …

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Rush Limbaugh Quits Twitter After Trump’s Banning

USA Today reports: Radio host Rush Limbaugh’s Twitter account has been deactivated. Twitter confirmed to USA TODAY that the account wasn’t suspended but “deactivated by the owner.” Limbaugh is considered the leading conservative talk radio host and has been on the airwaves for more than three decades. He has been an adamant supporter of President Donald Trump and his Twitter …

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Furious Trump Tries Tweeting From Other Accounts

TechCrunch reports: After Twitter took the major step Friday of permanently banning President Trump’s @realdonaldtrump Twitter account, the President aimed to get the last word in through his government account @POTUS which has a fraction of the Twitter followers but still offered the President a megaphone on the service to send out a few last tweets. The tweets were deleted …

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Apple Threatens To Drop Parler From Its App Store

Buzzfeed News reports: Apple has given Parler, the social network favored by conservatives and extremists, an ultimatum to implement a full moderation plan of its platform within the next 24 hours or face expulsion from the App store. In an email sent this morning and obtained by BuzzFeed News, Apple wrote to Parler’s executives that there had been complaints that …

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Reddit Bans Pro-Trump Board For Inciting Violence

The Verge reports: Reddit has banned r/donaldtrump for encouraging and glorifying violence after Wednesday’s mob attack on the US Capitol. Axios reporter Sara Fischer first reported the news, noting that the unofficial pro-Trump forum had been given multiple warnings. A Reddit splash page says the subreddit was “banned due to a violation of Reddit’s rules against inciting violence.” “Reddit’s site-wide …

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Facebook Blocks Trump For Remainder Of His Term

Via press release from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden. His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his …

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Twitter Sued Over NY Post/Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Yahoo News reports: A Delaware computer repair shop owner sued Twitter, alleging the social network defamed him by effectively labeling him a “hacker” after his business was cited as the source for info obtained from a laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden that served as the basis for several New York Post articles published in October. In the lawsuit, John …

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