Popular Information

More fundamentally than asking for censorship is holding Facebook accountable for what content they are promoting. They've been caught multiple times allowing Ben Shapiro's page to break the rules that other pages have to follow [0]. They also keep claiming that they don't favor right-leaning content. Maybe this should be regulated or not, but at least we can call them out for lying about it. [0] https://popular.info/p/facebook-admits-ben-shapiro-is-breaking?token=e…

This article is great for context on how/why this happened: https://popular.info/p/the-republican-political-operatives

I think this is one of the more interesting and important debates of our time. As so much moves online, we realize that our speech belongs to these huge companies. On one hand, it's great to see these toxic people kicked off, because deplatforming them works wonders in terms of stopping them from spreading their hate. I think most of us have some doubts as to how it might play out in the future, though, and there are of course questions about how healthy it is for such huge corporations to have that much sway in the first place. There are all kinds of other shenanigans going on with many of these companies too: https://popular.info/p/trump-ad-contagion-spreads-on-facebook

(you're not being censored for your political views, it's because you're posting too many times in one thread. I get the same alert sometimes) Again, my point isn't that there are no Democratic Facebook execs, it's that they play both sides. To whit: > Indeed, the three top leaders of Facebook's DC office all have extensive backgrounds in Republican politics: Vice President for Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan; Vice President for U.S. Public Policy Kevin Martin; and Public Policy Director for Global Elections Katie Harbath. https://popular.info/p/the-republican-political-operatives That article also outlines a number of right-wing friendly moves that Facebook has made in recent years, just as a counterpoint to the example being discussed here. I agree with you that the vast majority of staff at these tech companies are Democrats, but I'm talking about the top-level execs. And once you reach that level you see the top tech companies play both sides of the political aisle as best they can.

Among other information in the original reporting [1]: > This is not the first time that the media has ignored Kushner’s conflicts of interest. > In April, Popular Information reported that in 202 articles published by major outlets about Kushner’s role in negotiations with Iran, only six mentioned his financial connections to Saudi Arabia. The silence continued after it was reported that MBS had pushed Trump to initiate the war with Iran and later to continue attacking. [1] https://popular.info/p/a-nuclear-deal-for-the-saudis-a-media

https://popular.info/p/update-after-sending-billions-to Seems like MSB has pushed for it together with kushner and netanyahu. As we know, kushner received billions of Saudi money for a fund, netanyahu literally stayed at in his house when visiting the US and slept in his bed, yet he somehow is the negotiator the US sends to negotiate with Iran?

Yes, keep this in mind when you see corporations pushing news stories about surging epidemics of shoplifting (https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/former-home-depot-ceo-organized-ret… Shoplifting is not growing, and external theft generally accounts for about a third of retail inventory losses. See for example: https://popular.info/p/lies-damn-lies-and-shoplifting-statistics

To your point, this article¹ recently analyzed records from the Federal Procurement Data System and found that ICE has boosted their weapons spending by 700%: > Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and “guided missile warheads and explosive components.” I'd really like to know why ICE needs guided missile warheads to do their job. (Edit: pointed out below, this is a purchase category that includes distraction devices like smoke grenades – they're thankfully not buying actual warheads.) At this point, I'm confident that ICE could kick down my door and blow my white, midwestern, US Citizen ass away where I sit on this couch, and none of them would ever see the inside of a courtroom. ¹ https://popular.info/p/ice-boosts-weapons-spending-700

https://popular.info/p/what-will-happen-if-the-united-states This is the end of any hope. Iran will now do everything in its power to get one. And it has all the skills it needs. Refinement keeps getting easier.

some different takes: https://www.crisesnotes.com/elon-musk-wants-to-get-operational-control… https://popular.info/p/musk-associates-given-unfettered no matter political affiliation, this should be alarming the level of access these people have been given without security clearances etc. this is a national security issue.

Similar story about hotel price fixing: https://popular.info/p/how-hotels-are-colluding-to-jack

Charities can hide their percentages when they self-deal with people on their board. It's highly unethical. Wreaths Across America is notorious for this. All the money they raise goes to the wreath making company that the board members own. When they put out RFPs, as per legal requirements, Worcester Wreath Company is always sole-source provider. https://popular.info/p/the-truth-about-wreaths-across-america Worcester Wreath Company lost its contract with LL Bean due to their bad busines practices. Wreaths Across America was created by Morril Worcester as a way to sell more wreaths. It's a grift all the way down. https://files.mainelaw.maine.edu/library/SuperiorCourt/decisions/CUMcv…

The Elon era seems to emphasize hypocrisy and censorship at the command of authoritarian regimes, while Elon himself posts disinformation about election laws in the US. https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-orders/ https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/15/once-again-free-speech-absolutist-… https://popular.info/p/musk-uses-megaphone-to-promote-misleading

Seems there are more limits on "Free speech" than I recall, these days, at least according to Florida's attorney general [1].. “In a brief submitted by the State of Florida in support of Escambia, Attorney General Ashley Moody argued that the school board could ban books for any reason because the purpose of public school libraries is to "convey the government’s message," and that can be accomplished through "the removal of speech that the government disapproves." 1: https://popular.info/p/florida-school-district-removes-dictionaries

I wonder, have Facebook ever removed Ben Shapiro's inauthentic accounts?[0] [0] https://popular.info/p/facebook-admits-ben-shapiro-is-breaking

I believe GP was specifically referring to Citadel, nee SAC: https://popular.info/p/the-merry-adventures-of-robinhood

Shout out to Judd Legum from Popular Information for all the lobbying work he has done to get companies to stop supporting insurrectionists https://popular.info/about

Yes. It's a garbage site (regular headlines include things like "LGBT Pride is the worst sin of all" and "Gender Equality is a Leftist Lie") that itself was caught breaking Facebook's rules against sockpuppets and fake accounts but since their founder Ben Shapiro somehow became popular on Youtube for 'owning the libs', they have the ear of politicians who regularly threaten Facebook and so they can escape punishments that other orgs see. https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing

But you're completely wrong. Facebook does have Republicans at senior levels in their company - Republicans as in "Joel Kaplan, vice-president of global public policy at Facebook, manages the company’s relationships with policymakers around the world. A former law clerk to archconservative justice Antonin Scalia on the supreme court, he served as deputy chief of staff for policy under former president George W Bush from 2006 to 2009, joining Facebook two years later." https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/03/facebook-politics-r… https://popular.info/p/the-republican-political-operatives

This article posted to HN yesterday is better IMO: https://popular.info/p/facebooks-top-news-executive-has It points out Brown is friends with Betsy DeVos. It points out that Eric Owens, a far-right regular writer for the Daily Caller, has written 11 articles for The 74. I agree that the part about Warren is grasping at straws a bit. I think it's more interesting that Brown is right leaning, yet she's in charge of FB News. So far, FB News is showing many signs it will be right biased. This just adds more evidence. The other evidence is the inclusion of Breitbart, but no leftist publications. Also, the fact that Zuckerberg has been having dinners with far-right figures, but no leftists.

Moderation is indeed difficult, but automating moderation is a bar we need not even get to yet, when even policies that are relatively easy to enforce keep getting watered down. Just today, for example, it was revealed that Facebook is no longer going to prohibit false factual claims in paid political advertisements -- even if those falsehoods are determined by generally-respected fact checkers. See, e.g., https://popular.info/p/facebook-says-trump-can-lie-in-his (and associated commentary https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21152869).

Things seem to be getting looser, not tighter. Facebook have just changed their policies to make it much harder to challenge false advertising by politicians. This appears to have been done to avoid trouble with Trump. https://popular.info/p/facebook-says-trump-can-lie-in-his

It was recently revealed that 8chan is funded primarily by selling sex tourism-themed audio books on Amazon. To my knowledge, Amazon has still not answered requests for comments, nor have they discontinued funding. Here's the article: https://popular.info/p/exclusive-how-money-flows-from-amazon

This is the story link: https://popular.info/p/exclusive-how-money-flows-from-amazon Can we update this post to reflect please. Thanks.

See also perhaps from November 2024 (post-election), "Drone company's stock soars after it appoints Donald Trump Jr. to advisory board": * https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/drone-company-stock-soa… * https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/donald-trump-jr-drone-… Also, from 2025: > In October, Popular Information reported that the Pentagon awarded a contract to Unusual Machines, an obscure drone company that President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., joined as an advisor in November 2024, despite having no notable experience with drones or military contracting. […] > Now, another small startup funded by 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm where Trump Jr. is a partner, will receive a $620 million loan from the Defense Department, the Financial Times reported. Vulcan Elements, which currently has around 30 employees, produces rare-earth magnets, which can be used in “drones, radar systems and other military applications.” The contract was awarded just three months after 1789 invested in Vulcan. * https://popular.info/p/update-trump-jr-backed-startup-receives

>Regulatory authorities and courts enforce against wage theft. Shoplifting enforcement is mostly up to businesses. Wildly naive and incorrect. Wage theft enforcement is limited by access to government labor rights protection resources and legal counsel, and usually just the first. Even simply filing a claim against shoplifting losses, let alone pursuing criminal prosecution, requires getting law enforcement involved. In all cases, you're waiting on authorities to involve themselves and sign off on outcomes. Time and resources put towards one incident are being kept from being applied to another. >but that doesn't necessarily track the actual data. That's not the actual data. https://popular.info/p/lies-damn-lies-and-shoplifting-statistics The NRF are a notoriously poor and biased source to rely on for this subject. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/07/us-retail-lobbyists-retract-key-claim-…

Thankfully we have another Walgreens executive quote for that: > “Maybe we cried too much last year” about merchandise losses, Walgreens finance chief James Kehoe acknowledged Thursday on an earnings call. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that points to retailers using shoplifting as an excuse to close underperforming stores without drawing scrutiny about poor management or strategy: > For example, data released by the San Francisco Police Department does not support the explanation Walgreens gave that it was closing five stores because of organized retail theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2021. > One of the shuttered stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018, according to the newspaper. Overall, the five stores that closed had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018. But hey, you might say "how come a lot of different retailers all complained at the same time?" There was a huge push by the National Retail Federation, a group that lobbies on behalf of these huge chain retailers: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-12-14/column-retail-lobby-… https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/business/walgreens-shoplifting-retail/i… https://popular.info/p/lies-damn-lies-and-shoplifting-statistics

They were donating more or the same amount to Republican PACs. > Some of the “Blockchain Eight,” as the Prospect termed them in March, have benefited from crypto largesse. Five of the eight members received campaign donations from FTX employees, ranging from $2,900 to $11,600. Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), one of the signatories, received half a million dollars in support from a Super PAC created by FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame. > More consequentially, Emmer was the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm for House Republicans, this year. The NRCC’s associated super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund, received $2.75 million from FTX in the 2022 cycle; $2 million from Salame in late September, and $750,000 from the company’s political action committee. > That money helped House Republicans win the majority in 2022. Though FTX has been portrayed as a Democratic firm, thanks to the high profile of former co-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the company sprinkled around campaign donations fairly evenly, with a shade over 50 percent going directly to congressional Republicans and a shade under 50 percent to Democrats this cycle. > In an email, the SEC declined to comment. Six of the eight congressmembers have yet to respond https://prospect.org/power/congressmembers-tried-to-stop-secs-inquiry-… >No word on if those Democrats or PACs will give back the dirty money Now you're just straight up lying on something that happened 10 days…

> Those people need to be incapacitated from causing further harm to society until such time as they pose no such threat. Who are "those people", though? There is a wildly disproportionate amount of attention focused on a very small sliver of theft. Consider that amount of stolen wages by employers recovered dwarfs retail theft by a factor of 3 to 1 [1]. The total amount taken is likely significantly higher. Walgreens — the very company for which people cite store closures as a consequence of shoplifting — just paid out a $4.5m settlement for stealing from thousands of employees in California from 2000 to 2017 [2]. Consider that over the past 20 years, police have stolen $68 billion from people without due process [3]. Since 2014, they've stolen more money than burglars [4]. As a society, we've actually chosen to make this legal via civil asset forfeiture. And yet no one is calling for crackdowns on employers who steal from their employees. No one is calling for police to be "incapacitated from causing further harm to society". Indeed, the goal of the activists pushing to recall Chesa Boudin want to give the police more power — even though they steal more than shoplifters! [1] https://www.epi.org/publication/wage-theft-bigger-problem-forms-theft-… [2] https://popular.info/p/a-tale-of-two-thefts [3] https://boingboing.net/2020/12/21/us-police-have-stolen-68-billion-in-… [4]…

Is this comment missing a /s? The Daily Wire is actual fake news, with a long track record of misinformation and poor quality content[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]... While not perfect, NYT has a long track record of quality journalism that goes back hundreds of years, winning 130 Pulitzer Prizes. [1] https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-daily-wire/ [2] https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing [3] https://www.thedailybeast.com/shadowy-right-wing-network-behind-ben-sh… [4] https://www.factcheck.org/2017/04/carson-didnt-find-hud-errors/ [5] https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/scientists-we-know-what-really-… [6] https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/global-quackery-earth-not-warme… [7] https://climatefeedback.org/evaluation/daily-wire-article-misunderstan… [8] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/is-mohammed-popular-name-netherlands…