Tag Archives: Facebook

Mar 30 2023

Zuckerberg Could Not Buy TikTok So He Wants to Ban It


Armstrong Economics Blog/Censorship Re-Posted Mar 29, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

China banned Facebook in 2009, instantaneously eliminating 700 million users from the platform. Mark Zuckerberg was unwilling to give up a piece of his social media empire without a fight. Zuckerberg actually learned to speak Mandarin and toured mainland China, delivering speeches in their native tongue and attempting to align himself with the Chinese.

There was a popular app called Musical.ly with content reminiscent of the original version of TikTok, and Zuckerberg wanted to incorporate that platform into his empire. After 14 months of tough negotiations, ByteDance outbid Zuckerberg for Musical.ly to the tune of $800 million, and that app later merged with the TikTok we have in the US today.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7213123097396792618?lang=en-US&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.armstrongeconomics.com%2Finternational-news%2Fpolitics%2Fzuckerberg-could-not-buy-tiktok-so-he-wants-to-ban-it%2F

“Until recently, the internet in almost every country outside China has been defined by American platforms with strong free expression values. There’s no guarantee these values will win out,” Zuckerberg said in a speech at Georgetown University. “While our services, like WhatsApp, are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the US.”

Ironically, the feeling is mutual as China has always feared the US collecting its personal data. Zuckerberg mentioned his apps offer “strong free expression values,” but we have seen that lie explode numerous times over. He worked with the FBI to hide damning evidence against Joe Biden before his presidential campaign, de-platformed a sitting president, and wiped out hundreds if not thousands of users from the platform during the pandemic for spreading “fake news.” Zuckerberg used “fact-checkers” to ensure his version of the truth was promoted while silencing everything else. He appeased the NWO by promoting COVID-19 regulations and “the science.”

Facebook attempted to release a service similar to TikTok called Reels but failed miserably. Once he realized he could not reach China, Zuckerberg turned his attention toward banning his competitor entirely. Zuckerberg’s lobbying efforts temporarily paid off when Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok in 2020, primarily to show he was tough on China. TikTok then had an opportunity to be acquired by a US entity to avoid a ban, and Zuckerberg hoped his company would win. Around this time, US lawmakers were considering breaking up the Zuckerberg social media empire for having too much influence. This was when the propaganda against TikTok went into overdrive. He met with countless US senators and politicians to personally push his agenda.

Facebook was caught running a smear campaign against Google. In 2018, Facebook hired PR firm Definers to dig up dirt on its critics, including George Soros. They pinned that debacle on one employee and forced him to resign. Turning its sights to TikTok, the company hired a Republican consulting firm called Targeted Victory to “orchestrate a nationwide campaign” against TikTok. They hired unethical journalists to print op-eds bashing TikTok.

Meta was the largest internet lobbyist last year after spending over $20 million to sway US lawmakers. Zuckerberg hopes that his competition can be eliminated to remain the king of social media. However, the public is not rushing back to Instagram, Meta, or Facebook. In fact, people have begun deleting their accounts on those platforms to show that they will not return in the event of a TikTok ban.

Why do people love TikTok? Free speech. Political ads are banned on the platform but people may speak freely about any topic of their choosing, so long as it does not break obvious laws. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, something sinister is usually at play when both political parties unanimously agree.  Zuckerberg is more than willing to hand over all the data he collects to the US government on a silver platter. The US wants to monopolize your data and control the content you view. They cannot break into the TikTok database as easily and that is the main driving factor behind the proposed ban.

Mar 30 2023

Katie Hobbs Press Secretary Resigns After Sending Threatening Tweet in Support of Transgender Violence


Posted originally on the CTH on March 29, 2023 | Sundance

The press secretary for Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs is a woman named Josselyn Berry.   In response to the Christian school murders by transgender shooter Audrey Hale, Ms. Josselyn Berry sent a twitter message seemingly showing support for the mass killing.

The message was subsequently removed by Twitter for advocating violence, a violation of their platform rules.

Today, Ms. Berry resigned from her role as press secretary for the Arizona governor: “The Governor does not condone violence in any form. This administration holds mutual respect at the forefront of how we engage with one another. The post by the Press Secretary is not reflective of the values of the administration. The Governor has received and accepted the resignation of the Press Secretary.” (read more)

There are a lot of increasingly unstable people in the world, and for some reason many of them choose to showcase themselves on social media.

Mar 28 2023

The Tech Industry


Armstrong Economics Blog/AI Computers Re-Posted Mar 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: The tech industry has been shedding jobs like it’s no tomorrow. Are you still hiring when everyone else is firing?

GH

ANSWER: Yes, but only experienced people in Machine Learning/AI. We are in a different field with completely different end goals. Not a start-up company and not trying to create an AI that will know the name of Lady Gaga’s dog.

The layoffs are because they are focused on consumer spending. We are not directed at that. In fact, the worse the economy gets, the greater our demand becomes. We have always been counter-trend in that regard.

Mar 28 2023

Kamala Harris Travels to Africa to Introduce the Intellect of the Biden Presidency to the Continent


Posted originally on the CTH on March 27, 2023 | Sundance

There comes a time in international politics where we look at what is presented to represent our nation.

Kamala Harris travels to Africa and to deliver remarks and reestablish herself as the international champion of word salad makers.  Soundbites and examples below:

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Mar 28 2023

Staffer for Senator Rand Paul Stabbed in DC During Daylight, 42-Year-Old Suspect Arrested Who Was Just Released from Prison


Posted originally on the CTH on March 27, 2023 | Sundance 

Earlier today Senator Rand Paul released a statement: “This past weekend a member of my staff was brutally attacked in broad daylight in Washington, D.C. I ask you to join Kelley and me in praying for a speedy and complete recovery, and thanking the first responders, hospital staff, and police for their diligent actions. We are relieved to hear the suspect has been arrested. At this time we would ask for privacy so everyone can focus on healing and recovery.”

Fox5DC has details, including the attacker was a 42-year-old man named Glynn Neal.  Apparently, the attacker was just released from prison Friday night before he attacked the member of Rand Paul’s staff.

[…] Federal Bureau of Prisons records show Neal was released from prison on Friday – the day before the stabbing.   He spent nearly 12 Years behind bars for compelling two North Carolina women to engage in prostitution through the use of threats. (read more)

DC Police released a statement [SEE HERE]  “Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s First District announce an arrest has been made in reference to an Assault with Intent to Kill (Knife) offense that occurred on Saturday, March 25, 2023, in the 1300 block of H Street, Northeast.”

“At approximately 5:17 pm, members of the First District were dispatched to the listed location for the report of a stabbing. Upon arrival, members located an adult male stabbing victim. The victim was transported to a local hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries.

On Saturday, March 25, 2023, as a result of the detectives’ investigation, 42-year-old Glynn Neal, of Southeast, DC, was arrested and charged with Assault with Intent to Kill (Knife).” (LINK)

Mar 28 2023

Police Confirm Nashville School Shooting Suspect is 28-Year-Old Female Who Identifies as Trans-male With He/Him Pronouns


Posted originally on the CTH on March 27, 2023 | Sundance 

On March 3rd, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a law “prohibiting gender care for minors” according to CNN.

On March 24th, three days ago, a biological woman who identifies as a man (trans-male) named Audrey Hale had his 28th birthday in Tennessee.

On March 27th, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, (pictured left) the biological woman who identifies as a man, opened fire in at a private Christian school in Nashville, The Covenant School, killing three adults and three children before being shot and killed by police. [LINK]

Likely because the gender identity as well as instability played a role in the motive, all of the social media and online profiles of Audrey Hale were scrubbed before she/he was identified as the shooter.

(NBC) – A heavily armed woman who gunned down three children and three staff members at a Nashville school on Monday appears to be a former student of the private Christian campus, police said.

Nashville police initially described the shooter at The Covenant School as a teenager before, minutes later, calling her a 28-year-old woman who lives in the city.

The shooter was identified as Audrey Hale, a Nashville resident, three law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.  There were no answers on Monday afternoon at multiple phone numbers listed for Hale’s mother and brother.

According to police, the shooter was armed with two “assault-style rifles and a handgun” when she was confronted by five officers. Two of those opened fire and killed her, police said. (read more)

The secretive and quasi-constitutional DOJ-CRS (Community Relations Service) will now take control and give all instructions to local, state and federal officials on what may be said from this moment forth.  The DOJ-CRS is now in control.

Mar 19 2023

WOKE Culture is Destroying the Economy & our Nation


Armstrong Economics Blog/WOKE Re-Posted Mar 19, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The collapse of Credit Swiss as well as SVB, Signature, and more to come, have a common theme – the FAILURE of Risk Management. When we look closer at the staff involved, they were not what you would consider at the top of their class. They filled spots based on race and gender.  In our company, we have every race, creed, and gender. However, they have been hired because they were all good in their particular field. NEVER have I ever hired someone because I needed to fill some agenda. That is no different from the days of hiring stunning personal assistants based on looks in hopes of getting some action on the side. Nevertheless, the qualification of those in Risk Management in all of these cases was certainly not up to the job.

Even in the White House, they are bragging about having 7 aids to Biden based on their sexual orientation. No wonder the Neocons have seized control of the White House. There is nobody there who even understands what their agenda has been for decades and how they are determined to wage war against Russia. They have seized control of the United Nations as well as the International Criminal Court. All they care about is destroying Russia and they are desperate to get Putin to do something so they can have Congress declare war on Russia and start sending American troops to their death all for their endless agenda of war.

We are in serious trouble. This WOKE Agenda has superseded everything. The companies that are WOKE you better put on your list of DO NOT INVEST for the management skills are now secondary.

Mar 19 2023

LT. GOV. SAYS “BELIEVE ALL TRANS KIDS”: ELON MUSK DESTROYS HER W/ LOGIC | ROUNDTABLE | RUBIN REPOR..


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Rubin Report By Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Peter Lloyd and Savanah Hernandez about Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota Peggy Flanagan doubling down on protecting gender reassignment surgery for transgender kids and Elon Musk’s reaction.

Mar 15 2023

Censoring Social Media to Prevent Bank Runs


Armstrong Economics Blog/Censorship Re-Posted Mar 15, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

They censored social media to prevent the public from learning the truth about COVID, vaccines, and accompanying mandates. They censored social media to prevent the public from learning about Hunter Biden’s laptop before his dad could be installed at the POTUS. They censored anyone who questioned the election or Biden’s crime family and deliberately leaked Republican voter information. The extreme censorship on social media by biased fact-checkers expanded beyond the US. So it comes as no surprise that the government would like to censor “misinformation” that could lead to a bank run.

The people within the system know when a bank is failing, as we saw with SVB’s recent collapse.  Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) asked the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp (FDIC) if it would be possible to censor information that could lead to future bank runs. Kelly is denying the claims despite people on both sides confirming his question.

The government implements bots on social media to support its agenda. Elon Musk exposed Twitter prior to the takeover. Twitter admitted when filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that around 5% of its 300 million users are in fact fake accounts. Once Musk began to crack down on fake accounts, members of the Democratic Party saw sharp declines in followers.

Twitter quietly began to crack down on bots in April 2022, and some of the most followed accounts saw a significant drop in followers. Former President Obama once held the record for being the most followed man on Twitter with 131.7 million followers. After the algorithm changed, Obama lost 300,000 followers instantly. Pop singer Katy Perry, the third-most-followed account and an outspoken Democrat, lost 200,000 of her 108.8 million followers. Half of President Joe Biden’s 22.2 million followers are fake accounts. Based on the 2020 US Presidential Election, Biden should be the most popular president in history after securing more votes than any other president. “My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all,” Musk said in April of 2022.

So Kelly’s proposal is not merely a method to avoid bank runs. This is infringing on our Constitutional right to the freedom of speech to control the masses via media. Let us not forget that nearly all social media platforms heavily lean left and support the same message.

Mar 10 2023

AI Surveillance Defiant Clothing


Armstrong Economics Blog/Police State Re-Posted Mar 10, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Fashion trends change to reflect new societal norms and self-expression. Today’s societal norm is constant government spying and mass data collection under the premise that we are all criminals who may defy our failing governments. One may first think of China and its vast array of CCTV cameras that are analyzed by Artificial Intelligence software to compile individual behavioral data that can be used to control the population. “Whoever owns enough data and computing ability can predict problems, predict the future, and judge the future,” Alibaba’s Jack Ma was quoted as saying. As the desire for privacy becomes a cultural norm across the West, fashion designers are finding a way to produce clothing that fulfills this need.

They say fashion in Milan always makes its way to the Americas. An Italian startup company called  Cap_able has developed a clothing line to prevent AI technology from accurately identifying individuals. The company would like to “educate the population on the importance of privacy and human rights by addressing the problem of misuse of facial recognition technology.” There are similar clothing brands that celebrities notoriously use to prevent the paparazzi from taking their photograph. However, this new genre of clothing is designed to confuse sophisticated AI software. This is not an attempt to shield criminals, as AI spying software is intended to target the entire population. The ethical question arises of whether the state has the right to track its citizens. “The protection of one’s privacy or the community: what comes first? However, isn’t the protection of the community born from the necessity to protect the rights of the individual?” the company questioned.

Researchers at Harvard and MIT published an article in Brookings entitled “Exporting the surveillance state via trade in AI.” Once the government or companies collect this data, they can freely export it. The study found that China is currently the world leader in facial recognition technology and has exported over 201 deals to use its programs. The US is second behind China with 128 deals to export facial recognition technology. The published study noted that AI recognition software could “undermine democracies, enhance autocrats’ aims of social control, and empower “surveillance capitalists.”’

The government can recognize your daily whereabouts and behavioral patterns to predict what you may do or where you may go. Social scores, as seen in China, seem far-fetched in the West, but look what happened during the power grab that was COVID when countless countries imposed QR codes to restrict the freedom of movement. Credit scores were not developed in the US until 1958 and were intended to predict whether a borrower could repay their loan. The idea of a credit score would seem far-fetched to people living just a few years prior, and now that same score can vary due to simply purchasing a car or looking up your score.

So AI defiant clothing may serve a purpose in the not-so-distant future if it actually works. It would come to the surprise of none if governments outlawed this clothing or simply updated their software to bypass the designs. There’s a chance that this could simply be a gimmick, as advanced AI can learn to detect and counteract patterns. You cannot hide from Big Brother.