December 10, 2020

"YouTube to Forbid Videos Claiming Widespread Election Fraud."

The NYT reports. 

The company said it was making the change because [this past] Tuesday was the so-called safe harbor deadline — the date by which all state-level election challenges, such as recounts and audits, are supposed to be completed.

Why does reaching the "safe harbor" deadline make any difference? Is there no free-speech interest in talking about something you think is going wrong because it might be too late to do anything? 

YouTube’s announcement is a reversal of a much-criticized company policy on election videos. Throughout the election cycle, YouTube, which is owned by Google, has allowed videos spreading false claims of widespread election fraud under a policy that permits videos that comment on the outcome of an election.

That makes it sound as though YouTube wanted to change the policy and is using the "safe harbor" date as an excuse, to make it seem as though they didn't think their policy was wrong or that they wanted to appease critics without needing to say that the critics were right all along. 

They're not, however, taking down videos uploaded before the "safe harbor" date, which makes me think the motivation is to appease critics. People can still watch the already-uploaded videos. What's the point of preventing more of the same? All I can think is that there's a concern that as the legal options for challenging the election become closed off, there will be a new and more desperate expressions about what possibly could be done.

Here's YouTube's statement, which went up on Wednesday. It says its policy was violated all along by misleading allegations of "widespread fraud or errors" that "changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election," but that they are going to "begin enforcing" the policy now. The "safe harbor" date just seems to work as a milestone. It seems as though it might work to make some people believe that YouTube didn't change anything, but that date arrived.

Here's YouTube's last paragraph — projecting friendly corporate responsibility while repelling any effort to actually read it:

We understand the need for intense scrutiny on our elections-related work. Our teams work hard to ensure we are striking a balance between allowing for a broad range of political speech and making sure our platform isn't abused to incite real-world harm or broadly spread harmful misinformation. We welcome ongoing debate and discussion and will keep engaging with experts, researchers and organizations to ensure that our policies and products are meeting that goal. And as always, we'll apply learnings from this election to our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of elections around the world.

I have tried 10 times to read that and still cannot read straight through it. It's the Teflon of writing. Your eyes roll right off it. 

IN THE COMMENTS: Quayle said:

After 30 years in business, I speak the PR language of business and would be happy to translate:

"We understand the need for intense scrutiny on our elections-related work."

Translation: Oh, boy! We're getting a lot of unwanted attention.

"Our teams work hard to ensure we are striking a balance between allowing for a broad range of political speech and making sure our platform isn't abused to incite real-world harm or broadly spread harmful misinformation."

Translation: We're having very intense and sometimes heated conversations about how we should respond to the unwanted attention, and a lot of us are worried that if we get this wrong, we'll be shut out of social circles. The CFO also gave the directive to find the path that keeps the topline healthy, and doesn't impact the financials.

"We welcome ongoing debate and discussion and will keep engaging with experts, researchers and organizations to ensure that our policies and products are meeting that goal."

Translation: Some of our entry level employees who are reviewing the content don't know what to tag and not tag, but a lot of them are just tagging anything that even comes close to the topic. The discrepancy in standards from one entry-level employee to another, and with how our algorithms are tagging, creates a risk of looking inconsistent and shoddy. We need to create the appearance that this is a very considered and deliberate balancing by august experts, rather than just whim by minimum wage workers. Let's bring in the "experts" and diffuse some of the heat.

"And as always, we'll apply learnings from this election to our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of elections around the world."

Translation: This is getting exhausting trying to balance the message that we are just a friendly, benign, helpful enabler of human contact and social good will throughout the world, with the glaring fact that we are a massive, global, unchecked capitalist monster with more power than any for-profit monopoly has ever amassed in the history of mankind. Must not let the mask slip.

245 comments:

1 – 200 of 245   Newer›   Newest»
Russell said...

But they won't ban erroneous claims that Russia helped Trump steal 2016. How are the activities of Youtube, Facebook, Google, et al not considered a contribution to the Democratic party?

Marshall Rose said...

Tyrants.

Russell said...

Ditto claims that Bush stole 2004.

David Begley said...

Althouse blog next to be banned. Too much wrongthink.

Mr. O. Possum said...

So if the governor of one of the 17 states that has filed suit in the Supreme Court about it wants to post a video on YouTube talking about, he will be silenced.

jaydub said...

Break Google up!

Temujin said...

You gotta love our MegaTech Masters. First Google spends years prioritizing hits on Trump/Russia Collusion, Trump/Taxes, Trump/Bad, then they completely censor anything at all about Hunter Biden/Joe Biden/Laptop/Payoffs, and now they censor everything about election fraud.

They'd have to include themselves in the articles. I guess they're not up to the confession stage yet.

Screw them. I seriously hate Google. And I can live without much of it. But I love gmail. Is there another email that is even close to the quality of gmail? If so, let me know...please.

Laslo Spatula said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laslo Spatula said...

To paraphrase an old TV show that was INTENDED to be creepy:

"There is nothing wrong with your internet. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume... We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical... sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear."

Awaiting a plot twist, please.

I am Laslo.

hawkeyedjb said...

The people at Google/Youtube don't like living in a free society, and they don't think you should be allowed to.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"Our teams work hard to ensure we are striking a balance between allowing for a broad range of political speech and making sure our platform isn't abused to incite real-world harm or broadly spread harmful misinformation."

Well, they are a publisher engaged in an editorial process then, aren't they?
Burn them down. Remove CDA Section 230, and Facebook & other social media corporations will be buried in libel lawsuits or will be buried in spam and porno.
The business model of Facebook, twitter, youtube, etc., cannot survive without CDA section 230.
Restore the internet to what it was a decade ago.

Temujin said...

Yes...Blogger is a Google product. Enjoy this while it lasts. Althouse might have to ban some of us to keep her spot alive. I can see Google approaching her now...

"Nice little blog you have there, Ann. Sure would be a shame to lose it. Know what we mean?"

gilbar said...

what's that expression? Democracy Dies in Darkness?

Like 1984, an instruction plan, not a warning

Unknown said...

Is YouTube taking down videos from flat earthers, 9/11 Truthers, chemtrail advocates, or those who think we're being controlled by lizard people?

Oh.

That explains a lot.

stevew said...

"And as always, we'll apply learnings from this election to our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of elections around the world."

Who declared them in charge of this effort "to protect the integrity of elections arounds the world."? Not me.

As Lewis Wetzel says, they are a publisher engaged in an editorial process. I say they are also a political actor advocating for partisan advantage and outcomes.

rehajm said...

Althouse might have to ban some of us to keep her spot alive.

They'll just kill Blogger.

Chris N said...

What we don’t see is discussion of the intellectual ideas and players which have led to the capture within institutions and the consequences for all of us, including our politics.

Meanwhile I’ll play whichever small part I can to help build post-60’s institutions for high liberals to step over from the chaos they’ve wittingly and unwittingly helped create on their side....offering relatively safety from the radical Left.

But there’s no freedom without responsibilities, now.

gilbar said...

oh oh!
what was it that Galileo said? E pur si frode ??

RMc said...

Why does reaching the "safe harbor" deadline make any difference?

It doesn't, of course. (Especially since the "safe harbor deadline" doesn't really exist.)

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

How long will it be before Blogger decides it will no longer allow posts that conflict with Democrat narratives?

Tom said...

The best way to convince me something is likely true is to censor it.

Bob Boyd said...

Google knows best.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Can we get more foreign tech oligarchs from unfree cultures please? Are we having fun yet?

Howard said...

Blogger Temujin said...
Is there another email that is even close to the quality of gmail? If so, let me know...please.


I still have an AOL account. The best thing about it is my tech savvy millennial children make fun of me for still having it. It's like saying fuck you to okay Boomer.

I find the functionality of it in the ease of use is far superior to Gmail.

wendybar said...

Censorship. All the Russian Hoax lies are still up. China and Russia are very proud of our media who has done more to divide America than they EVER could.

boatbuilder said...

Remember how they blocked any content claiming that Tank Abrams won the GA gubernatorial election?

I don’t either.

Kate said...

Our farthest Right politicians are only now trying to confront the Tech Oligarchy. Four years ago they could've made a difference. The moment passed us by. We're left with our mewling outrage.

gilbar said...

Come On Man!
it's NOT like they stopped Newspapers from reporting stories that might have swayed voters
it's NOT like they manipulated search algorithms to hide things that showed dems in a bad light
They are Being FAIR to All Sides.... It's Just That SOME SIDES are Fairer Than Others

wendybar said...

FASCISTS, FASCISTS, WE ALL FALL DOWN!!!

Fernandinande said...

Is YouTube taking down videos from flat earthers,

No.

9/11 Truthers

No.

chemtrail advocates

No.

lizard people?

No.

Wilbur said...

Since the election, the local news in Miami has labeled any assertion by Trump as "a false claim".

Just brazen, they are. Do they wonder why half of the country despises them?

Biotrekker said...

It's clear that Google/Youtube are acting as editors and therefore should have all the responsibilities and legal liabilities of editors.

gilbar said...

wendybar said...
China and Russia are very proud of our media, who they have Bought and Paid For
fify!

Rusty said...

That didn't take Xi long.
Tom is, of course, correct. What is the CCP,... er,.. I mean our betters afraid of? Free speech?

Howard said...

Math is hard for anti-education anti-intellectual anti-elite people who live in the opioid Haze of flyover rust belt myocardio infarction-land don't want to do work and make deplorable versions of Google Facebook Twitter Instagram tictok youtube Spotify amazon yada yada yada.

I thought you people were experts on bootstrapping the world. Apparently not You are instead extremely dependent on Lily livered squishy libtard coastal elite free market capitalist who dominate successful technology free enterprise businesses. And that makes you feel helpless because you are so many levels removed from the modern world.

You people are essentially flea market capitalists. I think your major beef is that you've been kicked out of the white privilege club and are being treated by your betters in the same way that you treat people of color.

The only thing you have left now are pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence.

How ironic. Que up Alanis Morissette and get back to your pity party.

Bob Boyd said...

All your food is soft food now. Experts agree there's really no justification for you to keep your teeth. Research has shown, extraction can can be an important part of preventing real world harm.

Jersey Fled said...

Get ready for four more years of this.

iowan2 said...

Howard has been reduced to bigoted ad hominems.

Not that any substance exited in his past posts, just now he cant hide his crazy anymore.

Jeff Brokaw said...

The line between nutty and “just seeing the reality before everyone else” these days is so thin as to be nonexistent.

The list of cray-cray government plots supporting this viewpoint is too long — just from 2015 to now — to list.

Right Man said...

Fernandinande -
Those are all the corporate approved debunking videos.
The original kooky "proof" videos are all gone.
I used to think they were just silly fun.
Youtube's heavy handed oppression makes me wonder.

Gusty Winds said...

If the Supreme Court takes the Texas case, supported by 17 other states, all of a sudden Biden's incontrovertible "victory" becomes controvertible, doesn't it?

It no mystery what is going on here. We are being censored and becoming subservient to our Big Tech masters. They love ChiComm money. As do Democrats, along with banging Chinese Spies.

Remember, all of this is approved and condoned by the administration and faculty at the University of Wisconsin, and the residents of Madison. University communities like Chinese money too.

Pretty simple stuff.

mezzrow said...

"Spontaneous combustion of oily rags occurs when rag or cloth is slowly heated to its ignition point through oxidation. A substance will begin to release heat as it oxidizes. ... A clean work area can prevent a fire from spreading and getting bigger by not allowing the fire fuel to burn."

https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/Public-Education/Resources/Safety-tip-sheets/OilyRagsSafetyTips.ashx

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Big Tech is anti-American and needs to be broken up. Public debate is a hallmark of open societies and free people. Censorship is a fascist move and proves again that when corporations join with politicians to oppose The People then fascism is in full flower. Corporatism is fascism. That 48 states have joined the suit to break up Fakebook gives me hope. But this hideous censoring of OPINION will have the opposite effect than intended, even if the backlash seems weak or delayed, it is building and the frustration at this complete orwellization of public discourse is accelerating the conversion of normal Americans into anti-counter-revolutionaries. If all your servers burn Google then where is thy power?

320Busdriver said...

Well Howard, maybe you can explain why someone like Elon decided to abandon utopia for a place as deplorable as TX. Your pitch is perfect though. Your Mom wanted to raise a coastal elite and well sonofabitch, wouldn’t ya know, she succeeded. Congrats. At least you made her proud.

rhhardin said...

Teams means young college activists.

rhhardin said...

There's no mention of beneficial misinformation.

Qwinn said...

Remember how the entire narrative before the election was that any link between Hunter Biden and China was Russian disinformation?

And how Google, Twitter and Facebook all aided that effort, by censoring the laptop story?

Now turns out it was all legit... and there's no apology, no correction, not even an acknowledgment.

Make them pay.

No justice, no peace.

rhhardin said...

2+2=5 isn't always harmful. It could work out in your favor.

Hey Skipper said...

“ And as always, we'll apply learnings from this election ...”

“Learn” is a verb. The word you PR cretins are looking for is “lessons”. It’s a common word, surely you’ve heard it.

Todd said...

Temujin said...

Screw them. I seriously hate Google. And I can live without much of it. But I love gmail. Is there another email that is even close to the quality of gmail? If so, let me know...please.

12/10/20, 6:57 AM


I have a gmail account, who doesn't but I don't use it for anything but accessing things like this blog.

I use protonmail for email and duckduckgo for searches, happy with both...

320Busdriver said...

Yes Qwinn, now the Hunter story is permissible. Well, today it’s permissible, tomorrow, we’ll, that’s another story.

rhhardin said...

I wish I could find Thurber's New Yorker article explaining the operations of The New Yorker, in which every fact was wrong. It's in one of those books [indicates shelf] over there.

Tom said...

It’s time for the Google and FB empires to be broken up

Hey Skipper said...

Howard, thank you.

Your comment reinforced my gratitude for the power of the scroll bar.

Inga said...

“The only thing you have left now are pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence.

How ironic. Que up Alanis Morissette and get back to your pity party.”

It really is all they have left. Or they could deprogram themselves and rejoin the free world. YouTube is part of a private company has a responsibility to not be a platform for content that promote violence by feeding conspiracy theory and the rage it manufactures. From plots of kidnapping and killing governors to marching in front of various elected officials houses with guns, we are seeing what feeding cultists does. Doesn't Parler allow videos?

Jeff Brokaw said...

One thing that helps blogs like this one avoid viewpoint suppression, I suspect, is the fact that Althouse cages her arguments in legalese ... and the 30-something Silicon Valley Thought Police Who Don’t Really Know Anything are too confused by it to even understand it much less suppress it LOL

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Also an impartial observer may easily come to the conclusion that the side asserting they “won” and inventing the silly Office of the Potential Potentate seem to be in more of a panic than the side that was supposed to lose. If they are winning and have such a mandate why all the suppression of speech? Why stop the “losers” from embarrassing themselves? This raw power assertion indicates a weakness, an uneasy bravado to hide the fear they have truly lost and lost big. Even Howard is babbling incoherently unlike his usual confident snark. Yes. Fear of The People is what drives censorship and brings out the worst antiliberal impulses of proggies.

Howard said...

320 bus driver: Texas is being californicated as we speak. Apparently you people haven't gotten the message that the Domino theory is very effective. Let's see we got Oregon Washington Arizona New Mexico Colorado Arizona now we're working on Texas

boatbuilder said...

I wonder whether this applies to their number one traffic provider, the current President of the United States of America?

This ought to get serious in a hurry. Of course it should have gotten serious long ago.

Howard said...

Hey skipper I'm glad you're able to preserve your safe space. I appreciate the endorsement.

Sally327 said...

Sunshine is supposed to the best disinfectant. I guess we've learned through this COVID-19 pandemic that's not always true? Anyway, this sort of move helps the conspiracy theorists and anyone else who is predisposed to believe that absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.

No worries, though, there is plenty of other enlightening, uplifting, life-affirming content on YouRube.

boatbuilder said...

If the Supreme Court decides in favor of Texas, will YouTube publish it?

Francisco D said...

The new meme from the Left that contrary opinions must be banned because are LITERALLY VIOLENCE!

The dumb sheep (like Inga) love it because they don't have to struggle to understand opinions contrary to the leftist narrative. The college kids love it because they have been taught to regurgitate whatever their professors tell them to think. Our betters in the DNC love it because it allows them to exert more control over our minds.

There is one solution:

Make Orwell Fiction Again

Birkel said...

The techno-fascist State is upon us and Althouse works diligently around the edges.
The PTB wish us to be serfs instead of freemen.
All that Althouse supported was built in service to this end.

Now what?

Howard said...

Yeah Google and YouTuber private companies Inga but I still think that they're making a huge mistake by prohibiting the publication of batshit crazy conspiracy theories. Like our wonderful great orange man bad president said sunlight is one of the best disinfectants for disease.

The voices of the crazy people should be amplified all over the internet so people know who we're actually dealing with.

Qwinn said...

The Attorneys General of Texas + 18 states have all signed on to the lawsuit contesting this election.

Let me guess, there can be no appeals to *their* authority. YouTube can now cancel 19 US Attorney Generals because... they want to.

Make them pay.

No justice, no peace.

Howard said...

However Inga I do enjoy the schadenfreude of seeing the super macho bootstrapping men wine and complain and gesticulate. they're like a maternity Ward when one baby cries then they all start crying for no reason

rhhardin said...

Sheep follow other sheep, not leaders. Clean up the metaphor.

CJinPA said...

Your daily reminder that *two-thirds of registered Democrats believed Russia hacked the 2016 vote count to aid Trump.*

Was that permitted to fester on YouTube because the folks who run it are leftists? No. The double standard exists because the left can harm YouTube, and the right cannot.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

MOFA

Browndog said...

Youtube took action after 3 democrat Senators wrote a letter to Google claiming the widespread sharing of election misinformation was "unsafe" for democracy. I don't remember who they were, but one was Amy Klobuchar. You know, the "moderate" one Althouse liked.

Like I said before, when you see the government use the words safe/unsafe, you're rights are about to get taken away....for your own good.

Fernandinande said...

2+2=5 isn't always harmful. It could work out in your favor.

Well sure, if you're a member of the Inner Party.

Fernandinande -
Those are all the corporate approved debunking videos.


Most, but not all.

Lizard people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsAzZGfSDvE

Chem trails:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6MLwtkv3eY

9-11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRKawaGWlDw

Flat earth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkwGb_NCeQ0

MayBee said...

On Instagram, they had stalled the posting of anything to any hashtag to "combat" the spread of election fraud disinformation. Now they tag anything from Donald Trump or the White House, even just the posts memorializing things like Pearl Harbor day.

In the meantime, Eric Swallwell (intel committee) was palling around with a Chinese spy (won't deny boffing her) and it turns out Hunter Biden IS under investigation as James Rosen (remember him?) had reported and as Facebook and Twitter supressed.

So this seems like it all merits some serious discussion.

Qwinn said...

I can smell your flop sweat from here, Howard. Clean up.

Your side has been stealing elections for so long (including all the places you're bragging that you turned blue) without resistance that you never dreamed there'd be this much resistance this time.

Or that your side could screw up so badly as to leave so many mountains of evidence. So much so that every social media outlet is actively suppressing it to help your side.

You couldn't look weaker or more panicked if you tried.

Mr. Majestyk said...

So no more videos about the hotly disputed 1876 election, since the Electoral College has spoken on that one? No more videos about the 1960 election where some claim Kennedy stole Illinois?

Inga said...

Howard, what happens when a tragedy happens because some cultist kills members of some public officials family? Or the public official themselves. The company has a responsibility to shareholders to be a responsible company. If someone gets killed because of the content they allow on their company’s platforms, it harms the company if people start selling off their stock. The violent content that these cultists are putting out really doesn’t need amplification anymore.

rhhardin said...

It's an "Okay, how crazy are they?" moment.

Krumhorn said...

It’s ok. If there is one thing that we have observed well, the lefties have no problem with enraged feasting on their own. They’ll inevitably tear into the tech masters just as they do each other who wrongthink. We have learnings to support that.

- Krumhorn

c365 said...

It's as much the long game as anything else. You are free to think what you want, but your thoughts will die with you. No persuading of others aloud.

sterlingblue said...

"Chinese Democracy". Axl Rose was right.

Except the democracy didn't come to China; instead, Chinese censorship came here. Really sad.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

batshit crazy conspiracy theories

This type is still allowed. Discussion of the ONGOING actual election fight is censored. So worry not Howard, your batshit crazy theories about magical Biden voters and virtuous crack addicts and Russia Russia Russia are still allowed. Tech just wants to do for their own reputation what the partisan press has done to journOlism’s in the exact same way. What can go wrong when no source is trusted?

Fernandinande said...

Here's YouTube's last paragraph

At least google/youtube is honest about making sure their "platform isn't abused to incite real-world harm" to their business.

rhhardin said...

The Virtual Railfan La Plata stream is very nice, just to point out positive features of youtube. Better than any radio or podcast sound background for working through the day.

I think an automatic TV volume control is necessary though, to accommodate both crickets and train horns, to let it run unattended.

Iman said...

Poor howard. Cursed since the day he ran down the mottled leg of his drunken, syphilitic mother and collected in a muddy, brown puddle in the dirty alley.

Qwinn said...

Inga was similarly worried about false narratives about Michael Brown, George Floyd and Trayvon Martin that did in fact result in innocent people, including many police,, being killed, and billions of dollars of property damage.

Actually no, she didn't care at all about those real deaths, only imaginary ones from the right.

Well, imaginary for now.

Make them pay.

No justice, no peace.

rhhardin said...

Chinese democracy is modelled after the Chinese finger trap.

tim maguire said...

Howard said...Math is hard for anti-education anti-intellectual anti-elite people who live in the opioid Haze of flyover rust belt myocardio infarction-land don't want to do work and make deplorable versions of Google Facebook Twitter Instagram tictok youtube Spotify amazon yada yada yada.

Yo! readering! You want to be on the receiving end of some top-level A-Team-strength dislike from the peeps here, Howard's your man. He'll show you how it's done.

Quayle said...

After 30 years in business, I speak the PR language of business and would be happy to translate:

"We understand the need for intense scrutiny on our elections-related work."

Translation: Oh, boy! We're getting a lot of unwanted attention.

Our teams work hard to ensure we are striking a balance between allowing for a broad range of political speech and making sure our platform isn't abused to incite real-world harm or broadly spread harmful misinformation."

Translation: We're having very intense and sometimes heated conversations about how we should respond to the unwanted attention, and a lot of us are worried that if we get this wrong, we'll be shut out of social circles. The CFO also gave the directive to find the path that keeps the topline healthy, and doesn't impact the financials. We're under a lot of pressure here.

"We welcome ongoing debate and discussion and will keep engaging with experts, researchers and organizations to ensure that our policies and products are meeting that goal."

Translation: Some of our entry level employees who are reviewing the content don't know what to tag and not tag, but a lot of them are just tagging anything that even comes close to the topic. The discrepancy in standards from one entry-level employee to another, and with how our algorithms are tagging, creates a risk of looking inconsistent and shoddy. We need to create the appearance that this is a very considered and deliberate balancing by august experts, rather than just whim by minimum wage workers. Let's bring in the "experts" and diffuse some of the heat.

"And as always, we'll apply learnings from this election to our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of elections around the world."

Translation: This is getting exhausting trying to balance the message that we are just a friendly, benign, helpful enabler of human contact and social good will throughout the world, with the glaring fact that we are a massive, global, unchecked capitalist monster with more power than any for-profit monopoly has ever amassed in the history of mankind. Must not let the mask slip.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Can you post about The Great Reset on YouTube or is that a verboten conspiracy theory too? Is it true their slogan is also “Build Back Better”? Is tech censorship key to The Great Reset’s success?

Sebastian said...

"Is there no free-speech interest"

Well, yeah. But as well all know, that is a secondary interest. Prog power comes first.

Inga said...

The violent content that these cultists are putting out really doesn’t need amplification anymore. Or content that instigates violence.

Trump said that the tech companies engaged in “violence”, huh? So what is he trying to say?

Browndog said...

If it seems like communist China is writing the rules for American society.....

narciso said...


Btw this flak is what drove douthat to close down his blog at the atlantic



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yCbua2lkd-Q

Howard said...

Iman: you don't realize how close to the truth your post is. my mother was an older woman working on a second marriage she already had three kids and my dad was desperate to have offspring. She had several late term miscarriages at home before and after me. My brothers recall with horror finding expelled fetuses in the trash.

I'm the one that made it.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Youtube is an accessory after the fact for election fraud. Flacking for Dems 24/7/365.

Krumhorn said...

One thing that impresses me is how well the interwebs work in those nasty, dope-hazed autonomous zones from which Howard and Inga regale us with their learnings. Right on, little Hitlers!! Aim higher!!

- Krumhorn

narciso said...

Hes outlined a whole cluster of narratives



https://apelbaum.wordpress.com/

Mike Sylwester said...

My new blog article:

The Scanners' Long, Covered Table

Howard said...

Tim McGuire I find it helpful to get along in this world to have thick skin and a rye sarcastic sense of humor. I find it quite ironic that you right-wing Republican gun nuts who pride yourself on being high testosterone manly men are in actuality sensitive snowflakes helpless and wine about people that have power over you rather than do something about it.

I actually agree that Google is making a mistake here but they are perfectly within their rights. Also I think they are setting themselves up for being regulated as a public utility which I'm not sure would be a good thing either.

320Busdriver said...

SCOTUS is not going to do squat.

Libruls run this nation.

Freder Frederson said...

Or that your side could screw up so badly as to leave so many mountains of evidence.

Apparently, the evidence does not stand up to the scrutiny of the courts.

Inga said...

Trump is concerned about the tech companies “violence”.

“Maybe he just slipped and got his "v" words mixed up. He said "vicious" and maybe he was reaching for another alliterative adjective, but he said "violent."

From the transcript, here's the jumbled context:

And by the way, tell our senators end Section 230. End Section 230. Put it in. We put it in. I want it in the defense bill. Put it in because it’s a national security problem. It’s a big national security. So hopefully, Mitch and the senators will put it in. But it’s the one chance we have to bring big tech, who are vicious and violent and untruthful, to bring big tech … It’s the only thing they fear is that we’re going to end Section 230. So hopefully, we will do it. It happens to be a politically very popular thing to do, by the way.
Here's a NY Post article on the issue, "Trump doubles down on veto threat for defense bill over Section 230."

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/12/at-last-nights-rally-in-georgia-trump.html

I just wanted to call attention to the strange allegation that the big tech companies are violent.”

Anonymous said...

I think the DOJ should step in and force Google to get rid of youtube. Big tech monopolies are dangerous, particularly when they have no regards for free speech. Hit them in the financials. That may or may not results in a more libertarian youtube, but at least it signals a punishment for big tech for all their overt hostility to the Republican party, free speech, and free elections. The DOJ has already filed suit against Facebook. They should do Google, too.

Jack Klompus said...

Your Mom wanted to raise a coastal elite and well sonofabitch, wouldn’t ya know, she succeeded. Congrats. At least you made her proud.

Nobody as quite as elite like Nitschke scholar, Howard and his dingbat tag team partner Inga the Retard, the airhead who bleated Russia Russia Russia for years.

"Cultists" haha you're really rich, you vapid cunt. Your side literally genuflects anytime your angry black masters yell "Down whitey!" and willfully kowtow to mental patient dudes in dresses and wigs issuing threats if you dare "misgender" them. You turn a blind eye to meth addled losers dressing like costume-shop ninjas tossing molotov cocktails and snivel and nod in agreement with trust-funded college children who claim "words are violence".

You're a real piece of work, you maladjusted bitch.

Krumhorn said...

Chinese democracy is modelled after the Chinese finger trap.

Hahahaha...rhhardin at his best.

- Krumhorn

I'm Full of Soup said...

Can they be so unaware and fail to understand that their information embargo will lead to a massacre like Charlie Hebdo?

Jack Klompus said...

"I'm the one that made it."

That's debatable.

Night Owl said...

We're not allowed to question Biden's "win", but the left , with the mainstream media leading the way, pushed conspiracies about Trump's win through his whole presidency, even though intelligence communities knew there was nothin to the allegations.

I'll ask again: If you are a Biden supporter ask yourself how you would feel if Trump "won" under the conditions that Biden "won".

Why stop counting and then restart with no observers, why the blocking of observers, why the threats, why bogus stories about burst pipes?

This is just ugly and shameful. Take away people's right to verbal expression and beware what comes next.

Howard said...

Jesus Inga, just give Jack his pen back. I know he keeps telling you to keep it but he really really really wants it back.

Breezy said...

There is collusion between the big tech companies. Extricating YouTube from Google won’t solve the problem. The companies themselves need to have equi-numbered ideologically diverse employees in these monitoring roles. I don’t see that happening.

sterlingblue said...

Here comes Inga to say it's all Trump's fault.

How is the left going to survive when they don't have Trump to blame for everything?

I suppose Obama and the media did blame Bush for everything bad for about 8 years...

narciso said...


Heh

https://mobile.twitter.com/davereaboi/status/1337026260590080004

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

censorship... but don't call the democrat google party - communistic or authoritarian.

there will be no mind crime!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Google-Democrat

Democrat-Google.

Time for an update.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narciso said...



Remember this

https://mobile.twitter.com/NPRpubliceditor/status/1319281101223940096

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

jaydub said...

Break Google up!

It may happen sooner than you think!

U.S. government and 48 states and districts sue Facebook to force split of Instagram and WhatsApp

Browndog said...

I'll just plop this down here and be on my way:

The American Prospect
@TheProspect

One of the measures being crammed into the omnibus is a proposal from Sen. Thom Tillis to turn unauthorized commercial streaming of copyrighted material like an album on YouTube, a video clip on Twitch, or a song in an Instagram post into a felony.

Rusty said...

Blogger iowan2 said...
"Howard has been reduced to bigoted ad hominems.

Not that any substance exited in his past posts, just now he cant hide his crazy anymore."
I like how he denigrates those of us that live in the hinterlands. He lives in fuckin' Vermont. The hotbed of New England interbreeding.
That would explain things.

Achilles said...

Why does reaching the "safe harbor" deadline make any difference?

This is a wonderful post to make my return isn't it Ann.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Youtube is owned by google. Google is democrat party.


Google-Democrat-Party-Youtube already censor and remove videos that do not shed a positive light on The Party.

One small but notable example: Try searching for the videos that show Bernie saying "MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES" over and over. They vanished quite some time ago. Now you're lucky to find videos of Bernie saying "BILLIONAIRES".

Yeah - that's not creepy at all.

narciso said...


Hmm

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/12/joe_biden_the_manchurian_president.html

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Google hid Biden family corruption so millions of people know nothing about it.

Google put their thumb on the election scale. Google is a media outlet.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The entire dominate progressive democrat media establishment ignored Biden corruption and Antifa violence and arson.

For... The Party.

320Busdriver said...

“Nobody as quite as elite like Nitschke scholar, Howard and his dingbat tag team partner Inga the Retard, the airhead who bleated Russia Russia Russia for years. “

Ironic their “elite” education didn’t teach them how to spell. But they sure do know how to whine.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Google slaps creepy "warning labels" on anything not properly Pro-Democrat.

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...
Tim McGuire I find it helpful to get along in this world to have thick skin and a rye sarcastic sense of humor. I find it quite ironic that you right-wing Republican gun nuts who pride yourself on being high testosterone manly men are in actuality sensitive snowflakes helpless and wine about people that have power over you rather than do something about it.


I agree that Howard has a thick skin and the rye he uses as an anesthetic probably helps his "sense of humor." Howard is on a roll with the booze comments because now
"you right-wing Republican gun nuts who pride yourself on being high testosterone manly men are in actuality sensitive snowflakes helpless and wine about people that have power over you rather than do something about it."

Wine and rye in the same comment, Howard. Is your subconscious trying to tell you something ?

narciso said...


What are they hiding

https://mobile.twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1336854953579646976

Achilles said...

Inga said...

The violent content that these cultists are putting out really doesn’t need amplification anymore. Or content that instigates violence.

Trump said that the tech companies engaged in “violence”, huh? So what is he trying to say?


That all democrats and the democrat party as a whole are demonstrably violent. Tech and BLM/Antifa are all part of the package.

You have been sending your Jackboots out for months to loot and burn and attack innocent people who were just trying to make a living.

Hodgkinson was just the first Democrat to go openly shooting. Now murders and violent crime are spiking due directly to radical intervention into our justice system by democrats at various levels.

And now you are all on video celebrating the violent removal and open hostility to republican poll observers.

It isn't going to fly. We are not going to kneel to your bullshit.

Prepare to fight.

Jack Klompus said...

"Inga- do f off and take your bloody arsonist antifa brown shirts with you."

Oh no, didn't you get the message that we're all supposed to come together and unify and be one big happy complacent family under the enlightened leadership of our rightful progressive masters. And all those years being called Nazis and racists, being physically attacked on the street for wearing a hat, having your livelihoods threatened...well you know that was for your own good until you understood the wickedness of your ways. So you should learn your lesson from that and get in line, fascist!

Iman said...

Blogger Howard said...
Iman: you don't realize how close to the truth your post is. my mother was an older woman working on a second marriage she already had three kids and my dad was desperate to have offspring. She had several late term miscarriages at home before and after me. My brothers recall with horror finding expelled fetuses in the trash.

I'm the one that made it.


Not so fast. Made what, Howard?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Jack Klompus

Heil Biden! Heil Corrupt democrat party superiaors! Heil non-existent Antifa brownshirts!

You are right - we should obey our google-democrat party masters.

narciso said...



Still chasing his tail

http://patterico.com/2020/12/09/texas-files-shamefully-meritless-lawsuit-to-toss-out-election-results-in-four-other-states/#comment-2473567

Achilles said...

Blogger Howard said...
Tim McGuire I find it helpful to get along in this world to have thick skin and a rye sarcastic sense of humor. I find it quite ironic that you right-wing Republican gun nuts who pride yourself on being high testosterone manly men are in actuality sensitive snowflakes helpless and wine about people that have power over you rather than do something about it.

You are such a piece of shit Howard.

People don't want to crush you. They really do not want to.

But when it starts they wont stop when you beg.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Why are leftwing totalitarian progressive communist-democrat Googlists so afraid of free speech?

Can't take a joke?

Big Tech Is Crushing Conservative Comedy
Right-leaning comics already face industry discrimination. Now, it's getting worse


Wince said...

Inga said...

Maybe he just slipped and got his "v" words mixed up. He said "vicious" and maybe he was reaching for another alliterative adjective, but he said "violent."

Previously, I suggested the word "vile".

I just wanted to call attention to the strange allegation that the big tech companies are violent.”

Yet, you just finished saying YouTube has an obligation to ban certain content because it could instigate violence.

YouTube is part of a private company has a responsibility to not be a platform for content that promote violence by feeding conspiracy theory and the rage it manufactures.

Maybe the "violence" Trump alluded is the inflammatory content that big tech didn't ban that, in reality, actually did result in street violence?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If you are so confident in your ideals and your ideological superiority - why the need to crush opposing view points?

Does the collective mind-crime left have a tiny penis problem?

daskol said...

I thought FB took a relatively solid stance on this issue as compared to Twitter and others when FB refused to shut down political ads or to police them this cycle. But as I thought at the time, it's hardly a principled stand: they fall together, this cartel of newfound public utilities, so he was good cop (for the Trump admin) to Dorsey and co.'s bad cop. But now that the political winds have changed, I suspect this is little more than trying to get into better graces of the incoming admin, preempting the attacks that will come to enforce tighter conformity to the narrative in 2021. This is the likeliest explanation, although my favorite would be that this is battleground prep, that they do this on behalf of their new masters to prevent any momentum gathering behind Trump and co's election challenges.

Howard can glibly use complaints about this move to call the complainers whiners, and mock the masculinity of his political opponents. In his arrogance he seems to forget the pattern for American "action" over time: we do nothing as long as possible, but can be fearsome when awakened. I suppose that applies to all kinds of Americans, but I think it applies in particular to the generally rule-following more conservative ones even more. If Trump supporters are prevented from directing their efforts into effective information and political operations using contemporary public square, I suppose it's possible that energy could just dissipate. I think it's likelier that just as striking down Trump by expanding the margin of electoral fraud to ridiculous proportions, this is no longer how you get more Trump, rather it's how you get something a lot scarier (to coastal elite types) than Trump. As a parent of young children and a populist inclined NYC dweller, I'd rather not see the shit hit the fan this way, so I don't find these measures by Youtube and Twitter and others to be so amusing. They ratchet things up a notch or two, just as the psephologically miraculous Biden victory does to those who can see the improbability of the 2020 election narrative.

Krumhorn said...

I’ve never really thought that using the muscle of gub’ment to break up monopolies was a good idea. Over the longer haul, the private markets are far more adept at dealing with these problems than the shiny-pants’d Howard types in some agency who emerge from the third stall on the left after rubbing up a chubby and then leave their sticky goo on the levers of power.

But it’s tempting to do a Bell Telephone/Standard Oil/Clayton Act Marsellus Wallace pipe-hittin medieval number on their asses just to hear them squeal.

- Krumhorn

Unknown said...

Google will "apply learnings from this election to our ongoing efforts to protect the integrity of elections around the world".


What could go wrong with Google nudging our perceptions and policing our data feeds, as long as their hearts in the right place I'm good with it.

Rick said...

they wanted to appease critics without needing to say that the critics were right all along.

This is wrong. They're doing it because they are allies, and allies figure out how they can support the cause. "Critics" implies an oppositional relationship which doesn't exist.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Not too long ago it was the left chanting "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

What happened?
You know who else crushes dissent?

Dictators and authoritarian fuckwads.

Mikey NTH said...

Althouse, if you have not done so already, you better start cutting-and-pasting your posts to some storage medium that is not Blogger.

Howard said...

POS works, however I prefer to think of myself as the all singing all dancing crap of the world.

Rick said...

How are the activities of Youtube, Facebook, Google, et al not considered a contribution to the Democratic party?

See how important it is for people who "interpret" the rules to be your allies? No left winger is ever going to understand this any more than they understand the right to bear arms includes a right to bear arms.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Youtube feels that it is responsible for "curating" a video someone posts, claiming that Biden won PA due to fraud.
But if that person makes a video claiming that his/her ex is a criminal & kidnapper, Youtube sez "Safe harbor! We're just a comms service with no control over content, like and unmoderated BBS or the phone company!"
Screw 'em. A child can see that this allows Youtube to censor when it wishes, how it wishes, and NOT censor when it wishes & how it wishes.
This is not a matter of a 'private company engaged in voluntary commerce with willing customers" anymore than it would be if your local newspaper published an untrue headline defaming you in the most vile, malicious terms.

Known Unknown said...

Howard is like Trump. Too many commenters take him both literally and seriously.

Howard said...

Look at that... Krumhorn agrees with me. I guess bits and pieces of socialism are helpful tools to control the negative externalities of a purely free market. Your wife must be sneaking some soy into your diet

Oh wait we don't want to have a nuanced conversation let's keep to the polemics.

sterlingblue said...

"The devil made me do it"

"Trump made me censor political content"

daskol said...

Not that many have read it too carefully, but November 2020 rewrites the whole book of American psephology in the modern era. All the rules were broken, all the bellwethers incorrect: such an electoral feat as the Biden campaign pulled off should be discussed and studied for generations, this being the strangest looking, unlikeliest electoral victory in our history. But it's going to be hard to re-write that book of American psephology if people aren't permitted free and fair debate of all the different explanations for this unlikeliest of outcomes. Not only is there a conventional, American free speech interest here, but there's a more general public interest in collecting and "platforming" any and all info, no matter how wacky, around election 2020. If Howard has a point about creation of alternative platforms, now would be a good time for venture capital to start getting behind some new ones. Newsmax has shown just how quickly you can build an audience and create the network effect in traditional media with their TV venture. Parler is a new media example that's done well. It would be a pariah in the community, but for this stuff to take off, the right needs to get beyond foundations/think tanks and mobilize for-profit capital to take advantage of the opportunity presented by our elite's preference in pleasing their peers over their own customers. These tech platform companies can grow at dizzying speeds, but with their valuations depending on blue space unencumbered by other players, some of them will collapse just as quickly (looking at you Twitter).

sterlingblue said...

Don't forget, Google also erased Christine Blasey Ford's online history before her name became public.

The internet is not what you think it is.

TrespassersW said...

Google delenda est.

Rick said...

Howard said...
Oh wait we don't want to have a nuanced conversation let's keep to the polemics.


It's always amusing when people only here to insult others whine about a lack of nuance. But since their indoctrination denied them any interesting knowledge I suppose we shouldn't hold against them that they have nothing better to say any more than we criticize toddlers for not knowing history.

narciso said...

When credit card companies effectively demonetize you, when you cant get effective distribution tell me another one.

Bill said...

seems legit if you're confident in the results you want...

Owen said...

Daskol @ 8:53: How long have you been waiting to drop “psephologically” into the discourse? That is an instant threadwinner.

Also: agree with the substance of your remarks. This festering mess will not go away of its own accord, nor will FB bans and de-platforming do much except piss people off. The entire trajectory of this coup, the identity and intent of the actors, is now obvious. They have gone fir broke. And 75 million people are feeling cheated out of their core Constitutional right. Worse: they feel “disrespected” —one of the words that, early on, signaled to me how this game would be played.

Achilles said...

daskol said...

I think it's likelier that just as striking down Trump by expanding the margin of electoral fraud to ridiculous proportions, this is no longer how you get more Trump, rather it's how you get something a lot scarier (to coastal elite types) than Trump.

Trump is Georges Danton.

Democrats better hope he is in charge when crisis comes.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Apparently, the evidence does not stand up to the scrutiny of the courts.”

The censorship seems to be working, at least on leftists like Freder.

No, the cases aren’t being dismissed on the merits, but on technicalities.

I will make the same challenge I made yesterday - give us a link to a PDF of a decision you think was on the merits. I, at least will read te case, and either agree, or show why it wasn’t.

I'm Not Sure said...

"No, the cases aren’t being dismissed on the merits, but on technicalities."

"Appeal to authority" is quite popular with many these days. Actually examining evidence? Not so much.

Mary Beth said...

YouTube says it will remove videos claiming "widespread" election fraud, but the argument isn't that it was widespread, it's that it was targeted and localized in key areas that could alter the results for the whole country.

Speech about the US election must be the greatest threat to the world since forever. They're really moving fast on this. It took them three years to come up with a statement about how they were going to handle ISIS propaganda videos. I don't know the thinking inside Google, but it seemed like their crackdown on ISIS videos was more to please advertisers who were unhappy when the algorithm put their ad on one of the videos than it was about complaints from users.

Michael said...

They are going to apply “learnings”. Wow.

Oso Negro said...

Inga said...
“The only thing you have left now are pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence.

How ironic. Que up Alanis Morissette and get back to your pity party.”

It really is all they have left.


Shorter version of Howard and Inga this morning "Let the little people blow! Sauron will deal with them later."

Greg The Class Traitor said...

"YouTube’s announcement is a reversal of a much-criticized company policy on election videos. Throughout the election cycle, YouTube, which is owned by Google, has allowed videos spreading false claims of widespread election fraud under a policy that permits videos that comment on the outcome of an election."

So, according to the NYT these are all "false claims of widespread election fraud". Let's look at the elements:

1: Widespread: From Las Vegas to Maricopa, to Atlanta, Philly, Detroit, Milwaukee is 3900 miles (Google maps driving distance). I couldn't find a shorter route. 3900 miles is pretty widespread

2: Election fraud:
Voting in two different States is election fraud. There are thousands of cases of that in NV.
Registering as someone you're not, and voting for them, is election fraud. In AZ they presented evidence of thousands of cases of that
Accepting illegally cast ballots (ballots that did not meet the requirements for a legal ballot) is election fraud. That happened in WI, MI, PA, and GA.

So, we have widespread election fraud. The NYT is clearly lying.

Let me know when "social media" decides to ban the NYT from their sites, for its dishonesty. Until then?

They are political hacks, destroying free speech to advance their dishonest political agenda. Nothing better

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Inga said...
“The only thing you have left now are pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence.


No, Inga, what we have left is a Supreme Court case of Texas (and 17 other States, last I checked) against the executive and judicial branches of 4 other States, and those branches usurping the Constitutionally granted powers of the State Legislatures of those States, creating a fraudulent election where the rights of the people who voted for the winner (Donald Trump, in case you haven't been following along) were violated by the unconstitutional actions of those officials.

The Defendants have until 3 PM EST today to respond.

Oh, and when it comes to "pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence", that would be the former Obama drone who twitted that the Texas lawsuit was "step 1 of the new civil war."

First: The so far "steps of the new civil war" were:
1: Democrats using judicial and executive orders to change election laws to make vote fraud easier
2: Democrat election officials stoping vote counts, so they could figure out how many ballots they had to create to steal the election (note: there is never the slightest legitimate reason to stop counting on election night, absent fire, flood, or massive electrical failure. None of which happened)
3: Democrat election officials fighting to keep Trump campaign election observers from being able to monitor everything those officials are doing. This one is like police body cams: if you turn it off then something questionable happens, you are presumed guilty. Because you personally took away your ability to prove your innocence

The Texas lawsuit is the last gasp attempt to keep Democrats from pushing us into another civil war. I advise you all to take it

mandrewa said...

"Youtube took action after 3 democrat Senators wrote a letter to Google claiming the widespread sharing of election misinformation was "unsafe" for democracy. I don't remember who they were, but one was Amy Klobuchar. You know, the "moderate" one Althouse liked."

That catches my attention. So moderate Amy Klobuchar is a full-blown anti-American, anti-free speech, and anti-human rights fascist piece-of-shit, to put it technically. And she is a good fit for your average Democratic voter, seemingly.

The timing of all this was planned long ago, I think. YouTube started banning right-wing and libertarian voices at a rapidly increasing rate as the election approached. And the reason that they didn't do this two years ago is that would have given time for an alternative media to have developed under a Trump administration.

But instead an alternative to YouTube will have to form under a federal government that will try to suppress it with all the power of the executive branch and the corrupt justices it has at its command.

Although everyone is blaming Google here, I have a sneaking suspicion Google is being forced to do this by powers that we don't see. I suspect the deep state, the institutional left-wing, is behind this. I think we are being taken over by our government.

Our elections are becoming and will become more and more like EU elections, which are a hollow pretense of democracy, with the EU's elected representatives having only symbolic power. And where everything important, including even the political and religious slant of the media, being decided by hidden and unaccountable bureaucrats.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

But the good news is that they will still allow all posts on any debunked or unproven narrative as long as it’s against Trump or Republicans.

Iman said...

That catches my attention. So moderate Amy Klobuchar is a full-blown anti-American, anti-free speech, and anti-human rights fascist piece-of-shit, to put it technically. And she is a good fit for your average Democratic voter, seemingly.

Fit for fellow utilizers of hair combs to eat salads.

Qwinn said...

Strange how this morning Newsmax (on Comcast) is suffering from what appears to be massive technical difficulties. Only getting a snippet here and there, black screen and no audio 80% of the time. So Giuliani presenting the GA videos of fraud won't be seen.

It's mostly okay on PlutoTV.

I'm sure Comcast will get right on fixing that.

Rick said...

the argument isn't that it was widespread, it's that it was targeted and localized in key areas that could alter the results for the whole country.

Since they will change the policy to cover whatever Dems want suppressed the details don't matter much.

Bruce Hayden said...

What I see here is that Google, FB, and Twitter have crossed into territory, where they stand to lose billions upon billions if Trump is re-elected. It may have started as being woke, because so many of their employees were woke. But by doing what they did this election, and by taking sides so visibly, they essentially burned any bridges they ever had with Trump and much of the Republican Party. No doubt, one of the first things that a President Biden would do if inaugurated, would be to rescind the orders that Trump gave about their § 230 safe harbor. Moreover, there have been recent attempts recently to strip it legislatively. That might succeed, even with a toke Dem majority in the House, but is going nowhere in a Biden Administration. And, because of their heavy handed attempts to tilt the balance away from Trump, they also now face under him, Sherman § 2 (Monopolization) scrutiny. And, of course, scrutiny for their massive, illegal, in-kind, campaign contributions to Biden and the Dems. Replace Bob Barr with a woke warrior, and all of these DOJ issues will magically, probably faster than those of Hunter Biden, with the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Their CDA §230 vulnerability may ultimately be more vulnerable to civil suit than DOJ scrutiny, because it is primarily a defense for these companies in civil litigation. Think of how many times a day, malicious, defamatory, falsehoods are spread on Twitter (as well as FB, Blogger, etc). There is just too much potential money involved anymore, that a bunch of plaintiffs’ attorneys, no matter how liberal they usually are, won’t push the issue. And these companies are the deep pockets that make suing for Internet defamation cost effective. They may claim previous court decisions as a defense, but plaintiffs can now respond that that was then, when these companies actually tried to be neutral, and thus more like a common carrier than a publisher, but this is now, after they were including warnings about whatever President Trump said was false, and that you can no longer claim on their platforms that a Biden win was through illegal election fraud. That sounds a lot more like letters to the editors section in papers, where the letters are edited and curated before publication.

They also have civil antitrust exposure. Sure, it is easier if you can get the DOJ on board. But all three companies are acting as monopolists in their editorial role. They have deplatformed, and thus financially harmed, entity after entity, over the last year, and are likely to completely deplatform the Trump family the day after Biden would take office. Maybe the payoff for single suits is not as high as with §230 defamation suits, but there is plenty of exposure if/when plaintiffs are aggregated in class action lawsuits. They just have to lose once, and there will likely be a feeding frenzy for being named class action counsel.

If Trump ultimately loses here, it is going to be interesting whether he takes on Fox News or Twitter first as a civilian again. I am thinking that Fox News is easier pickings. But an outspoken, uncensored, Twitter alternative could be even more lucrative. Ditto for YouTube - a URL to a video is a URL, regardless of the platform it is hosted on. (I am essentially arguing that the network effects are weaker there, due to the technology).

Rick said...

YouTube is part of a private company has a responsibility to not be a platform for content that promote violence by feeding conspiracy theory and the rage it manufactures.

Our "education" system promotes rage and violence by feeding conspiracy theories. Rather than criticize that process Inga and other left wingers support it.

Speaking of antifa isn't it interesting they've gone away since the election? People on the right asserted this would happen and left wingers universally called that crazy. But as usual whose understanding of reality turned out to be true?

Naturally those left wingers will refuse to recognize they scoffed at reality in favor of their fantasies. Nothing will ever break into their ideologically driven world. They are usually wrong, but never in doubt.

narciso said...

https://rsbnetwork.com/2020/12/live-georgia-house-of-representatives-hearing-on-election-irregularaties-12-9-20/

Not Sure said...

At least YT hasn't yet censored historical documents essential to all Nitschke scholars

Michael K said...

I will make the same challenge I made yesterday - give us a link to a PDF of a decision you think was on the merits. I, at least will read te case, and either agree, or show why it wasn’t.

Law Professor Freder, like Field Marshal Freder, does not stoop to defend his pronouncements with just anyone.

Rick said...

Oh no, didn't you get the message that we're all supposed to come together and unify and be one big happy complacent family under the enlightened leadership of our rightful progressive masters. And all those years being called Nazis and racists,

I certainly never expected to have anything in common with the racist Joe Biden.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Rick said...

Speaking of antifa isn't it interesting they've gone away since the election? People on the right asserted this would happen and left wingers universally called that crazy. But as usual whose understanding of reality turned out to be true?

Did you forget the sarc tag or am I missing something? Antifa hasn't gone away.

Setting Up a Siege? Antifa Has Armed Guards, Stockpiled Weapons at Portland Autonomous Zone

Rick said...

Inga said...
Howard, what happens when a tragedy happens because some cultist kills members of some public officials family?


Judging from how BLM's hatred drove an unbalanced supporter to murder 5 people left wingers insist fomenting hatred has not relationship to murderous acts in an organization's name. So it's pretty insane to believe a third party could be held responsible for disseminating the hatred when then the organization creating the hatred bears no responsibility.

Joe Smith said...

These tech/media companies need to be broken up and/or sued out of existence.

And I say that as a libertarian.

The stranglehold they have on information is a huge danger to the country.

At this point, our media is no better than the damn Chinese...we only get the liberal, globalist party line.

Douglas B. Levene said...

I wonder if the Tech Monopolists are now going to start allowing postings about Hunter Biden's misadventures, given the election is over and that he announced yesterday he's under investigation by the FBI and other federal authorities.

Big Mike said...

I use protonmail for email and duckduckgo for searches, happy with both...

I never left AOL for mail. Why have to tell everyone I know that I have changed? I had to use gmail for campus mail when I was an adjunct and preferred AOL’s interface. Possibly a preference for what I am used to. Also I have reason to believe that Google spies on its gmail users.

Back in the day I ran some side by side tests and preferred the search results from DuckDuckGo over the results from Google. I still sometimes use Google Map and Google translate.

Rick said...

Antifa hasn't gone away.

Of course, but now they're being treated as they should have been all along rather than lionized as folk heroes who have the right idea about governance.

On Tuesday, Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) announced he was “authorizing the Portland Police to use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation on North Mississippi Avenue and to hold those violating our community’s laws accountable. There will be no autonomous zone in Portland.”

Appropriate police action and the lack of supportive media mean they'll be treated as the cranks they always were. As such a few people will be jailed and the rest will go home rather than have nightly arson sessions for the next 6 months.

JML said...

Howard is correct about the domino effect and New Mexico. NM is now very near shit-hole status. Woke and Broke it is, and it is getting worse by the day.

Joe Smith said...

"...now we're working on Texas..."

Like the little hive-mind Borg that you are.

Liberals are like a virus, a disease.

You invade your host (the states you mentioned) and eventually kill it off before moving on to your next victim.

You are a cancer, with all due respect to cancer.

Tomcc said...

"We call it YouTube, but it's really OurTube."

Jack Klompus said...

"...now we're working on Texas..."

"We". As if a malignant simpleton like Howard is some active participant in any act of consequence other than taking a half decent shit once a week. Oh and for being a Nitschke scholar as well.
Boring useless crank. At least Florida Man Robert Cookie is somewhat amusing when he chimes in with his "super duper radical guy" act while name dropping some d-lister he passed by on the Lower East Side in 1978 to remind you he lives in NYC.

Achilles said...

Qwinn said...

Strange how this morning Newsmax (on Comcast) is suffering from what appears to be massive technical difficulties. Only getting a snippet here and there, black screen and no audio 80% of the time. So Giuliani presenting the GA videos of fraud won't be seen.

It's mostly okay on PlutoTV.

I'm sure Comcast will get right on fixing that.


Comcast is right up there with Google Facebook and twitter.

They fight about net neutrality but not about higher order things.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Margot Cleveland’s analysis if that Texas suit is pretty damned persuasive. Odds are the SCOTUS’s spine will be insufficiently up to the task, but over a third of the States have joined, as befits the seriousness of the charge that those dour states violated the Constitution when their courts changed election laws this year. Equal protection is at issue.

Rick said...

"We". As if a malignant simpleton like Howard is some active participant in any act of consequence other than taking a half decent shit once a week.

The reveal is his self-identification. They pretend to be independent of the far left when that's politically convenient but sometimes they slip and admit they're all just "we".

Rusty said...

Blogger I'm Full of Soup said...
"Can they be so unaware and fail to understand that their information embargo will lead to a massacre like Charlie Hebdo?"
Charlie Hebdo was just the opposite. They published forbidden cartoons of a certain religious figure.

Achilles said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Margot Cleveland’s analysis if that Texas suit is pretty damned persuasive. Odds are the SCOTUS’s spine will be insufficiently up to the task, but over a third of the States have joined, as befits the seriousness of the charge that those dour states violated the Constitution when their courts changed election laws this year. Equal protection is at issue.

I agree. The USSC will punt and cower.

Achilles said...

Rick said...

Appropriate police action and the lack of supportive media mean they'll be treated as the cranks they always were. As such a few people will be jailed and the rest will go home rather than have nightly arson sessions for the next 6 months.

Well.

A lot of people are starting to think they weren't wrong. Just a little misguided and inept.

The next time they go to burn down and loot Portland and Seattle and New York and DC they might have some help.

Nichevo said...

Why does reaching the "safe harbor" deadline make any difference?


And you, a law professor!

That is to say, if you had ever had anything to say about that, we would have been interested to hear it, but zip from you. Or did I miss your delivery of legal expertise on this point?

traditionalguy said...

Deciding suits involving conflicts between the States is the job description of the SCOTUS. All that judicial Review and Commerce Clause crap was a later add on. So how do they duck this one. it is their Raison D'etre.

Achilles said...

traditionalguy said...

Deciding suits involving conflicts between the States is the job description of the SCOTUS. All that judicial Review and Commerce Clause crap was a later add on. So how do they duck this one. it is their Raison D'etre.

The same way they said Obamacare was constitutional and the right to have an abortion is hidden in the 4th amendment.

Achilles said...

Their Kelo Decision was demonstrative as well.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I'm with Howard (7:13 -- not anything else he said on this thread) and Big Mike (11:08): I still use AOL. Got it waaaay back in the days of dialup when I was playing a summer music festival from a different house each year, and there had to be several local dialup numbers. We had a CRL account for a while, too, but CRL died and AOL didn't. Like Big Mike said: It's free, and why change it?

mockturtle said...

JML observes: NM is now very near shit-hole status.

I think it reached that status a few years ago.

mockturtle said...

Big Mike: I also still use AOL, at least for general use. I use a gmail account for personal email. Yes, I'd prefer not to have anything to do with Google.

mockturtle said...

“The only thing you have left now are pathetic weak ass empty threats of violence.

Maybe I**a hasn't seen this: Michigan Dem Congresswoman Threatens Trump Supporters

Joe Smith said...

"Big Mike: I also still use AOL, at least for general use."

Having an AOL account is retro-cool now. As is still having a flip-phone.

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