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Tuesday’s legislative elections in Virginia will provide key tests for both parties’ messaging ahead of 2024, as well as the state’s GOP governor. “I think they’re the most important elections in America because these issues that are so important to Virginians are also the ones that are going to be so important to Americans next year,” Virginia GOP Gov. The battles for the state House of Delegates, which Republicans control, and the state Senate, which Democrats control, could come down to a handful of districts. And they’ll test Youngkin’s own political power as he’s brushed off questions about his presidential ambitions. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s paid private speeches, noting that she did not keep records of what she said to the groups.

Persons: “, Glenn Youngkin, ABC’s, NBC’s Gary Grumbach, Katherine Koretski, Sen, Siobhan Dunnavant, Democrat Schuyler Van, Youngkin, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez, Julia Jester, Megan Lebowitz, ’, Biden, Alex Seitz, Wald, Ron DeSantis, ”, NBC’s Matt Dixon, Jonathan Allen, Ali Vitali, Nikki Haley’s, Peter Nicholas, Carol E, Lee, South Carolina Sen, Tim Scott’s, Robert F, Kennedy, Jr, Brandy Zadrozny, He’s, Peter Meijer, who’s, Brandon Presley, Tate Reeves Organizations: GOP, Virginians, ”, ” Virginia GOP Gov, Delegates, District, Democrat, NBC News, Democratic, Biden, Israel, Hamas, Democrats, Republican National Committee, New York Times, Florida Republican Party, Florida GOP Gov, Florida GOP, South, Public Service, GOP Gov Locations: Virginia, America, ” Virginia, Democrat Schuyler Van Valkenburg, Youngkin, Michigan, Florida, South Carolina, Black, Michigan’s, Mississippi

☆ RFK Jr. pledges to gut agencies that regulate vaccines and order the DOJ to investigate medical journals if he becomes president
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Robert F. Kennedy Jr pledged to gut funding for federal health agencies if he's elected president. The long-shot Democratic presidential hopeful told NBC News that he would not make his anti-vaccine stance the focal point of his campaign. In an interview with NBC, Kennedy said that he would not be "leading with" vaccines as a presidential candidate. "Let me address that, because first of all, I'm not anti-vax," Kucinich told NBC. Kennedy told NBC — and has touted for years — of a conspiracy that aspires to defend vaccines and silence people such as himself, even as the studies he points to are corrected or retracted.

Persons: Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kennedy, —, Brandy Zadrozny, Robert Kennedy, John F, Dennis Kucinich, Kucinich, Zadrozny, NBC —, Cheryl Hines Organizations: NBC News, DOJ, Service, Democratic, and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, Justice Department, NBC, Rep, RFK Jr, Facebook

The notion that powerful forces control the world in part with the careful deployment of body doubles is a long-standing conspiracy theory. As a medical team worked on him, anti-vaccine activists flooded social media sites with unfounded claims that a vaccine was somehow to blame. Hamlin’s injury came during a surge in anti-vaccine misinformation that attributes any recent death, without evidence, to vaccines. Much of the misinformation came from a handful of serial misinformers, including longtime anti-vaccine activists, conspiracy theorists and podcasters. While still recovering, Hamlin has tweeted a photo of himself in front of a mural painted in his honor., seemingly winking at the conspiracy theory.

☆ A fake tweet spurred an anti-vaccine harassment campaign against a doctor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Brandy Zadrozny | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

When Dr. Natalia Solenkova woke up Monday morning, she was greeted with a flood of Twitter notifications on her phone. It was what misinformation researchers call a “cheap fake,” a term for a piece of fake media such as an image or video that takes little effort to produce. Someone had clumsily altered one of Solenkova’s posts to portray a blind, even deadly, zealotry for Covid vaccines and a vilification of anti-vaccine activists. “And then disinformation became rampant.”Despite the overwhelming success of the covid vaccines — which have prevented millions of severe infections and deaths — an aggressive and politicized anti-vaccine community has persevered. There were obvious tells that the tweet attributed to Solenkova was a fake, likely fabricated with what’s known as a tweet generator.

The Pennsylvania man charged in the killing of four University of Idaho students was a doctoral student at nearby Washington State University studying in the criminal justice and criminology department. Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was booked into custody on an arrest warrant out of Moscow, Idaho, charging him with first-degree murder, court records show. He was listed as a Ph.D. student in the department of criminal justice and criminology at Washington State University (WSU), which is 10 miles west and just across the state line from the University of Idaho. Kohberger graduated from nearby DeSales University in 2020 with a degree in psychology and earned a master of arts in criminal justice from DeSales in the spring, DeSales University said in a statement Friday. At the time, the person identified himself a "student investigator" at DeSales University and was using a school-issued email address.

Meanwhile, Twitter’s resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Child sexual exploitation content has remained a problem for Twitter, though most major social media platforms continue to deal with it in some form or another. Moderation of this content usually relies on a combination of automated detection systems and specialized internal teams and external contractors to identify child abuse content and remove it. “So, I mean, that is disheartening.”It’s unclear how many Twitter employees remain to work on child safety issues. A search on LinkedIn for current Twitter employees who say they work on child safety turned up only a few accounts.

Less than a month after taking control of Twitter , Elon Musk said addressing child sexual exploitation content on the social media platform was "Priority #1." "It is a crime that they refused to take action on child exploitation for years!" Meanwhile, Twitter's resources to fight child sexual exploitation content online (and what is sometimes called child pornography or child sexual abuse materials) are thin, following layoffs, mass-firings and resignations from the company. Twitter's imperfect efforts fighting child sexual exploitation content were well documented. Stroppa said he felt Twitter's previous efforts were lacking and that it now moves quickly to find and suspend accounts that post child sexual exploitation content.

☆ Alex Jones, who mocked Sandy Hook families and swore they'd never be paid, says he has less than 1% of what he owes them
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Alex Jones owes families of the Sandy Hook shooting nearly $1.5 billion after two trials. Jones was ordered to pay the damages to the families of the Sandy Hook victims following a series of defamation trials this year. InfoWars' parent company, Free Speech Systems, declared bankruptcy over the summer, and Jones declared personal bankruptcy in a Texas court filing last month. In the first hearing of Jones' bankruptcy in the court on Wednesday, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families questioned whether Jones was lying about his finances. The conspiracy theorist spent years pushing false theories about the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, in which 20 first graders and six adults were killed.

☆ Elon Musk's 'amnesty' pledge brings back QAnon, far-right Twitter accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Brandy Zadrozny | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

A “general amnesty” has restored hundreds of accounts of right-wing activists and QAnon adherents, according to data reviewed by NBC News. The reinstatement of far-right accounts has coincided with a series of bans of left-wing accounts, leaving users unsure of how the company is now applying its rules. It’s a dangerous combination.”The reinstatements and bans come as researchers continue to monitor an uptick in hate speech, and high-profile users leave the platform. Among the spammers, copyright rule-breakers, adult-content creators and high-profile accounts, Twitter has reopened the door to a growing and emboldened community of trolls, white nationalists, conspiracy theorists and extreme right-wing activists. Those reinstatements also come after Twitter dramatically reduced its staff, including those dedicated to dealing with abuse and hate speech.

☆ Midterm elections live updates: Pennsylvania races, New Hampshire Senate race too early to call
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Brandy Zadrozny | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Sahil-Kapur-Headshot.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +109 min

Share this -Link copiedWisconsin Senate and governor's races too early to call It is too early to call the Senate and gubernatorial races in Wisconsin, according to NBC News. Share this -Link copiedNew Hampshire Senate race too early to call The Senate race in New Hampshire is too early to call, according to NBC News. Share this -Link copiedPennsylvania Senate and governor races are too early to call After polls closed at 8 p.m. While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a “hiccup,” it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said.

While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a “hiccup,” it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. According to the poll, 46% of voters said their family’s financial situation is worse than it was two years ago. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, filed a similar complaint Friday against state election officials. The app and portal had been down for part of the morning and the state's election hotline also briefly experienced issues. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said.

While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a "hiccup," it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. An adjucation board reviews ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Tuesday in Phoenix. John Moore / Getty ImagesIn 2020, Joe Biden won Maricopa County by about 6,000 of the more than 2 million votes cast there. When Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema won her seat in 2018, she did so with 50% of the statewide vote, including the 51% she took in Maricopa County. Maricopa County election officials responded that the tweet was inaccurate and "all voters are being served."

☆ Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Ben Collins | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Musk has said the company won’t allow anyone back on Twitter who was previously banned for at least a few more weeks. One current and two former employees were also concerned about a planned product that would allow Twitter users to buy verification badges. “Twitter isn’t prepared for that scale,” said one Twitter employee who survived Friday’s layoffs and asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal company projects. The Twitter employee said that, as of the layoffs, the plan was that “there’s not going to be any verification of ID” to acquire a verification badge. “Now they’ve taken the brakes off the car.”One laid-off Twitter employee told NBC News that “the only saving grace is that he changes his mind on things all the time.”“There were some incredibly talented people who didn’t deserve this,” said a current Twitter employee.

Elon Musk set the tone for his first full day as head of Twitter with a response to @catturd2. “I will be digging in more today,” Musk tweeted in response Friday morning. As of Friday morning, Trump’s account was still suspended, and trending topics included everything from the news of the day (Paul Pelosi) to culture (#FridayFeeling, Rihanna). “Elon” was one of the top trending topics of the morning, and many conservative influencers who had been critical of Twitter’s moderation were already celebrating what they saw as a tectonic shift. Those downloads, however, are still less than 5,000 per day, while Twitter often still sees hundreds of thousands of downloads per day, according to Adam Blacker, vice president of insights at Apptopia.

There is no evidence that any school has deployed litter boxes for students to use because they identify as cats. The rumor of litter boxes in schools appears to have begun among parents on social media, and one of the first schools to confront the falsehood was in Canada last fall. Catalina Lauf, a Republican congressional nominee in Illinois, tweeted this month that schoolchildren were using litter boxes in her state. Some say litter boxes are located in “transgender bathrooms” in schools. Meanwhile on TikTok, one video claiming “kids are now requesting litter boxes at school” collected 3 million views on the platform.

☆ Satanic panic is making a comeback, fueled by QAnon believers and GOP influencers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Brandy Zadrozny | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +23 min

Utah County Attorney David O. Leavitt speaks on July 31, 2019, in Provo. The accusations were part of a new case from Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith. Discussion about satanism and satanic abuse has increased in recent years, according to data provided to NBC News by Zignal Labs, which analyzes social media conversations. Popular culture and social media have also ferried ideas about satanism and widespread child abuse from fringe to the mainstream. (Anti-LGBTQ politicians and activists have equated LGBTQ people with predators who abuse children as part of a “gay agenda,” the well-worn panic that the gay rights movement’s true motivation is recruitment.

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