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Media Executive Warns Big Tech Is Secretively Seizing “All The Power” Over Information

Testifies that Google and Facebook are trying to have a monopoly on news with ‘black box’ algorithms.

Published

2 years ago

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Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images

Newspaper executive Peter Wright has slammed big tech for secretively developing and changing algorithms for news distribution without giving the industry any indication whatsoever of what they are doing.

Wright of DMG Media, which is the parent company of The Daily Mail, was testifying before the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee Tuesday.

He accused companies like Google and Facebook of ‘monopoly behaviour’ as they seek to seize ‘all the power’ in online news and advertising.

Wright claims that the Mail’s online daily traffic from Google searches has been diminished by 50 per cent in just one year after the company changed the algorithm for news content in 2019.

“Google and Facebook in our view are market dominant companies and they behave in the way that market dominant companies do,” Wright stated, noting that it is significantly impacting journalism.

“Google and Facebook both distribute our content via algorithm. Those algorithms are what is known in the digital world as a ‘black box’ – they are secret, you have no idea how they work. But we can see and measure the results,” Wright said.

Wright also implied that the Mail’s pro Brexit stance led to it being targeted by big tech for diminished online distribution.

He noted that last June “over the space of three days, our search visibility, which is the measure of how often your content is appearing against a basket of search terms, dropped by 50 per cent, and it was particularly marked against some particular terms. One of them for instance was ‘Brexit’.”

Wright noted that after his group protested, normality eventually returned.

“But this is monopoly behaviour. You can’t do this if you’re in a business relationship with someone where there’s any semblance of equality of power,” he urged.

Wright noted that Google and Facebook are not regulated and so they are getting away with a secretive takeover of content.

“As far as the commercial relationship between news publishers and the platforms is concerned, it’s a business relationship between two partners in which one partner has all the power,” Wright declared.

He described Google as “completely dominant” in search and digital marketing, the two main avenues for distributing news content, and Facebook (which also owns instagram) as “dominant in social media”, pointing out that they make “more money out of advertising than our newspapers do.”

Despite the vast power that these companies have in such areas, Wright noted that their terms of service are completely “opaque”.

“Even the contracts that we sign to use their services are often presented to us on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. So what we’re asking for here is for regulation, and the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) are about to report on a massive piece of work they’ve been doing, to address the complete imbalance in the business relationship,” Wright asserted.

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Science & Tech

Every Single Senate Democrat Just Voted Against Defining Pregnancy As A Biologically Female Process

The party of science!

Published

3 days ago

on

8 August, 2022

Steve Watson

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During the passage of Joe Biden’s ‘Inflation Increasing Reduction Act’ in the Senate Sunday, all 50 Democrats voted against an amendment that sought to define pregnancy as a uniquely biologically female process.

The amendment was introduced by GOP Senator Marco Rubio, who noted “The only people capable of being pregnant are biological females, and therefore, I think federal pregnancy programs should be limited to biological females, and that’s what this would do.”

“A few minutes ago, I looked back across 5,500 years of human history, and so far, every single human pregnancy has been biological female,” Rubio continued.

The Senator further stated “And therefore, the only thing I’m trying to do is make sure that federal law is clear, since every pregnancy that’s ever existed has been in a biological females, and that our federal laws reflect that pregnancy programs are available to the only people who are capable of getting pregnant: biological females.”

Democratic Senator Patty Murray responded to Rubio, stating “it’s actually outrageous that Republicans are trying to talk about pregnancy when in this country right now, they are forcing women to stay pregnant no matter their circumstances, pushing cruel and extreme abortion bans.”

Watch:

While all 50 Republicans voted in favour, all 50 Democrats voted against.

Which one is the ‘party of science‘ again?

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    Rand Paul Calls For “Restrictions On Exporting DNA Technology To Communist China”

    Says he has assembled “an elite group of scientists” to testify at gain of function hearing

    Published

    1 week ago

    on

    3 August, 2022

    Steve Watson

    Screenshot

    Senator Rand Paul has called for restricting the exporting of DNA technology to China in the same way nuclear technology to the Communist regime is restricted.

    Speaking on Fox News Tuesday, Paul was explaining the intentions of his Senate Health Committee Gain of Function hearing, which begins today.

    “Before we even get whether the virus came from a lab we have to explore, were they doing gain-of-function research?” Paul said.

    The Senator continued, “Were they taking viruses, mixing them with unknown viruses and creating more lethal viruses or viruses that were more infectious or transmissible. I say without question they were doing this. Anthony Fauci says they weren’t.”

    Paul further noted, “Tomorrow we will have the first gain-of-function hearing on Capitol Hill, the first exploration of this topic in two years. A million Americans died and we have not had one single hearing.”

    “Tomorrow we have the first hearing and I’ll ask three scientists, very esteemed scientists, scientists with hundreds of peer-reviewed papers, editors of journals. This is an elite group of scientists that will be there tomorrow,” Paul asserted.

    “I’m going to ask them was it gain-of-function research that was going on in Wuhan. That doesn’t prove it came from a lab but it proves that dangerous research was happening there and that it could have come from a lab,” the Senator vowed.

    “My question is even if we don’t know for certain, let’s say it is 50/50, that’s still a big probability that it came from a lab. At that point, wouldn’t we want to make sure we’re controlling [it]?” Paul further urged.

    He further explained “We have restrictions on exporting nuclear technology. Should we have restrictions on exporting DNA technology to Communist China? I think yes.”

    Watch:

    As we highlighted earlier this week, Anthony Fauci is complaining that Americans are refusing to “adhere” to COVID restrictions, while asserting that everyone should STILL be wearing masks indoors.

    Last week Fauci told Paul that he could “go ahead” and investigate all he wants.

    “If they’re going to investigate me, I’d like to ask ‘investigate me for what’?” Fauci said, adding “For telling people to get vaccinated? For telling people to wear a mask? For telling people to abide by common sense, good public health practices?”

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    China Researching Creepy AI Face Recognition Technology Which Detects ‘Party Loyalty’

    Technocrats in the west licking their lips.

    Published

    1 month ago

    on

    11 July, 2022

    Reclaim the Net

    Researchers in China are developing technology that uses AI face recognition to determine a citizen’s loyalty to the ‘party’ and their subservience to state brainwashing.

    Yes, really.

    A video posted by the Hefei Comprehensive Science Center which was subsequently deleted showed researchers using such technology to “discern the level of acceptance for ideological and political education.”

    “Communist Party members can then be assessed in the levels of “determination to be grateful to the party, listen to the party and follow the party,” reports the Telegraph.

    After receiving negative attention, the video was removed from the institute’s website and Chinese censors began scrubbing all mention of it from social media sites.

    “The video showed a researcher viewing content extolling the CCP on a TV screen as his face biometrics data, skin electrical responses, and brain signal information is collected by the AI program,” writes Will Henney.

    The data collected by the program then ranks a person’s “learning attentiveness” and “emotional identification,” thereby determining if they need to be further re-educated in order to display the proper level of support for the government.

    As ever, technocrats in the west will be licking their lips at the prospect of one day launching similar programs under the guise of a new social credit score.

    The program bring flashbacks of the Department of Homeland’s Security’s ludicrous post-9/11 “gait analysis” program, which proclaimed to be able to detect future terrorists and criminals by the way they walked.

    As we document in the video below, millions of Chinese people are already prevented from engaging in basic lifestyle activities, such as buying plane and train tickets, due to their political opinions.

    As we highlighted earlier, mirroring China’s social credit system, an MP in the UK is trying to pass a law that would force social media platforms to assign users a ‘truth score’ which would then determine the veracity of their posts.

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