Tom Parker
Tom Parker is a founder and lead editor for Reclaim The Net and provides news and analysis on how we can promote free speech, stop censorship, and protect our personal data online.
Infowars attorney responds to Senator Blumenthal’s calls to censor Alex Jones from YouTube search
This comes after Senator Blumenthal pressed a Google representative on why the company wasn’t doing more to censor Jones and Infowars from YouTube search.
Facebook rep refuses to say whether banned users will be allowed to use its Libra cryptocurrency
He said he doesn’t yet know whether banned Facebook users will be able to use Libra and that the company must be thoughtful about this issue.
F-Droid bans Gab for being a “free speech zone” that will “tolerate all opinions”
Yet another open-source software company has turned its back on the principles that drive free software.
Instagram starts hiding public likes in Ireland
This follows public likes being hidden for Canadian Instagram users in May.
Facebook rep denies under oath that the company devotes any resources to identifying promising tech acquisitions
Perault’s testimony contradicts reports and leaked documents which show that the company used its Onavo VPN app to monitor the popularity of WhatsApp before acquiring it.
Sen. Mazie Hirono calls Social Media Summit guests “social media’s leading racists and conspiracy theorists”
Hirono also claimed that YouTube “dragged its feet” when demonetizing comedian Steven Crowder and suggested that Google isn’t doing enough to censor content on its platforms.
Amazon offers US Prime Day shoppers $10 to install data-harvesting extension
If users interact with the Amazon Assistant extension, their browsing data is connected with their Amazon account.
Lindsay Shepherd permanently suspended from Twitter after argument with transgender person
Shepherd says the argument started after the transgender person sent crude comments to her.
Peter Thiel questions whether Google has been “infiltrated by Chinese intelligence”
Thiel said the decision to work with the Chinese military instead of the US military is “seemingly treasonous.”
Google bans Gab app, gives the decentralized social network an impossible list of demands
Google’s decision means it can now ban ANY app that features what it deems to be user generated content if it decides that content is “objectionable.”
FTC approves Facebook fine of one month’s revenue in privacy settlement
The fine is related to an investigation around the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
YouTube says new “creator-on-creator harassment” rules are coming
This comes after Vox host Carlos Maza claimed that comedian Steven Crowder’s jokes about him constituted “harassment.”