Orwellian

Bitcoin Adoption Rate In Iran Surges Despite Censorship And Protests

"The government has blocked popular messaging services like Telegram and Signal, in addition to several internet networks. Yet despite censorship and civil unrest, the Iranian bitcoin community is growing rapidly. Iranian customers protested outside local branches in 2017, demanding deposits because they worry some of the country’s largest credit institutions are on the verge of collapse. Meanwhile, Iranians remain politically ostracized from most international businesses and financial institutions. Part of the inspiration behind the Iranian revolution in 1979 was a belief that the Shah’s regime perpetuated economic inequality."

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French president announces ‘fake news’ law

"French President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans for a new law to combat so-called fake news. He said that during elections social media would face tougher rules over the content that they put online. Speaking at a new year reception for the media, Mr Macron said it was possible now at a cost of just a few thousand euros to propagate untruths over social media. In response, he proposed imposing tougher rules on social media about revealing the sources of apparent news content."

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New German hate speech law tested as Twitter blocks satire account

"A German satirical magazine’s Twitter account was blocked after it parodied anti-Muslim comments, the publication said on Wednesday, in what the national journalists association said showed the downside of a new law against online hate speech. Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms are scrambling to adapt to the law, and its implementation is being closely watched after warnings that the threat of fines could prompt websites to block more content than necessary."

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Facebook Deleting Accounts at the Direction of the U.S. and Israeli Governments

"As is always true of censorship, there is one, and only one, principle driving all of this: power. Facebook will submit to and obey the censorship demands of governments and officials who actually wield power over it, while ignoring those who do not. That’s why declared enemies of the U.S. and Israeli governments are vulnerable to censorship measures by Facebook, whereas U.S and Israeli officials (and their most tyrannical and repressive allies) are not."

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‘Swatting’ prank results in police killing of unrelated Kansas man

"A 28-year-old Kansas man was shot and killed by police after a fraudulent SWAT team call sent a small army of police officers to the man’s private home. One player allegedly provided a fake address to another, who proceeded to embroil the innocent stranger in the feud without thinking of the consequences."

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Privacy Complaints Mount Over Phone Searches at U.S. Border Since 2011

"Smartphones and other personal electronics contain vastly more private information than suitcases. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have filed a lawsuit in Boston arguing that a warrant should be required to search such devices at the border. Last week, the Trump administration asked a judge to dismiss the case. The lawsuit comes amid a surge in agents looking through — and sometimes copying data from — cellphones and laptops. Midway through fiscal year 2017, Customs and Border Protection was on pace to search 30,000 travelers’ electronics — more than tripling the annual number by that agency since 2015."

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Trump bans CDC from using words like “transgender” and “fetus”

"The Trump administration’s foray into linguistic decrees is not a new phenomenon among the American Right. One recent comparable instance of state-decreed censorship: John Ashcroft, a Christian fundamentalist and the first attorney general under George W. Bush, insisted on covering the breasts of a marble statue of the 'Spirit of Justice' that stood in the main Justice building. This act of modesty reportedly cost $8,000 of taxpayer money."

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The Deep State’s Christmas Present to America: Surveillance That Never Ends

"The Trump Administration has been actively lobbying Congress to reauthorize Section 702 in its entirety. Now, according to The Intercept, Trump is actively considering a proposal to establish his own global, private spy network that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies and answer directly to the White House. If approved, this would be yet another secret government agency carrying out secret surveillance and counterintelligence, funded by a secret black ops budget that by its very nature does away with transparency, bypasses accountability and completely eludes any form of constitutionality."

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