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☆ Musk Censors the Press
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Elon Musk is no free speech warrior. Will news and media organizations remain on the platform, while Musk hastily bans their reporters without explanation? Musk has touted that he is a free speech maximalist and repeatedly said he would like to permit all legal speech. “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk once tweeted. As Harwell told me, “Elon says he is a free speech champion and he is banning journalists for exercising free speech.

☆ Germany heavily criticizes Elon Musk's Twitter for suspending journalists, saying the free press 'must not be switched on and off at will'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The German Foreign Office has warned Twitter about suspending journalists' accounts. Multiple journalists who reported on Elon Musk have been unable to post on the platform. On Thursday, Twitter suspended the accounts of multiple journalists that reported on the platform's new owner, Elon Musk. Wolfgang Buechner, the country's deputy government spokesperson, said in a separate tweet: "Arbitrary locking of journalists' accounts is unacceptable. On Friday, a top European Union official warned Elon Musk about possible Twitter sanctions, following what it described as the platform's "arbitrary suspension of journalists."

☆ The 'Twitter Files' part 2 claimed to 'reveal' that the platform limited some accounts' reach, but that was already public knowledge — and in line with Elon Musk's new 'freedom of speech, not freedom
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | Erin Snodgrass | Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Twitter first announced in 2018 it would effectively hide some tweets from conversations and search results, according to The Washington Post's Will Oremus. Critics, and there were many, especially as prominent Republicans were impacted, referred to Twitter's practice of limiting certain tweets' visibility as "shadowbanning." In her thread, Weiss said Twitter's Strategic Response Team - Global Escalation Team, known as SRT-GET, was the body tasked with deciding which users were marked for "visibility filtering." The description outlined by Weiss of Twitter's internal moderation policy appears to fall in line with Musk's own recently-announced approach to content moderation on the site: "Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of reach. But Weiss, a former New York Times columnist, is not thought to be a current employee at Twitter.

☆ Trolls, propaganda & fear stoke Bukele's media machine in El Salvador
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

In examining Bukele’s media operation, Reuters interviewed more than 70 people, including former media operatives and social media researchers. It showed Bukele with an 86% approval rating in El Salvador, making him the most popular leader in the region. “The threat in El Salvador used to be from the gangs, now it's from the state,” said Angelica Carcamo, the organization's president. “I found a lot more manipulation in El Salvador than in Mexico,” Escorcia said. A native of Guatemala, Torres has been critical of the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for creating conditions that spur migration.

☆ Secret clause in Putin's mobilization decree may allow him to draft up to 1 million reservists, an independent Russian outlet reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A secret clause in Putin's mobilization decree allows one million to be called up, a new report says. The Kremlin denied the report, maintaining that 300,000 reservists will be drafted. The West says Putin's partial mobilization shows he's failing in Ukraine. The Pentagon in August said the US estimates the Russian military has seen up to 80,000 casualties in the war so far. Western leaders and officials said Putin's decision to announce a partial mobilization stood as an acknowledge that Russia is "losing" or "failing" in Ukraine.

☆ Casino jackpot winner alleges Michigan bank wouldn’t cash her prize check because she’s Black
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Antonio Planas | Antonio Planas Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A Black woman from Michigan says she was racially discriminated against when three employees at a Fifth Third Bank told her a casino jackpot check she was trying to deposit was fraudulent, according to a recently filed federal lawsuit. Pugh’s attorney, Deborah Gordon, said Wednesday that the check was for about $12,000 after the casino deducted taxes from the $20,000 jackpot. Pugh, according to the lawsuit, was raised in Alabama during the Jim Crow era and retired from Detroit Public Schools after 36 years. Pugh ended up depositing the check at another corporate bank, Gordon said. And then they took her check,” Gordon said.

☆ Сборная Молдовы сыграла вничью с Россией
▼ + stars: | 2020-11-13 | by ( ) www.ipn.md time to read: 1 min