The great big tech/corporate 2020 election interference thread

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

This thread will be dedicated to the litany of big tech and corporate efforts to interfere in the election and suppress things involving Trump. Since we're seeing it ramped up, it will be nice to have one centralized place for it.

 

Found this fitting to kick off the thread with:

 

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Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile Shut Down Trump Campaign Texting Program

 

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile temporarily shut down President Donald Trump’s campaign texting program, which serves as a cornerstone of the president’s digital platform.

Politico reported on Monday that Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T flagged “potential regulatory problems” with the Trump campaign’s messaging operation. Within “Trump’s orbit,” many continue to speculate that big tech companies “are looking to influence the election” against the president.

Trump recently accused Twitter and Facebook of censoring conservatives, and Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, contended that Google’s Gmail platform is sending Trump campaign emails to voters’ spam folders.

Republican operatives have said that email and text messaging lists are some of the most vital parts of a campaign apparatus.

Eric Wilson, a GOP digital strategist who worked for the Marco Rubio 2016 presidential campaign, said, “A campaign’s email and text messaging list are some of the most important assets they have in 2020.”

He added that it was “really very concerning to see that such a significant issue happened and to see that it wasn’t resolved in a timely manner.”

 

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/07/20/verizon-att-t-mobile-shut-down-trump-campaign-texting-program/

 

Google Appears To Blacklist Non-Mainstream News Sites, Calls It ‘Technical Issue’

https://thenationalpulse.com/news/google-axes-conservative-media/

(Google testing election season thoughtpolicing)

 

As always, just like Twitter testbeds censors before applying them, it's a pre-emptive measure to ensure it works again down the road.

 

There's no doubt this will get much worse around election time.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,317]

I love me a theme thread. Makes it easy.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

 

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Twitter Censors Videos of Doctors’ Capitol Hill Coronavirus Press Conference, Locks Breitbart Account

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Breitbart News recently reported that the Masters of the Universe quickly censored a live stream published by Breitbart News of a press conference held in Washington D.C. by the group America’s Frontline Doctors and organized and sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was featured at the event and doctors at the event shared their views on the coronavirus pandemic and the medical community’s treatment of the virus.

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Twitter also removed multiple posts from President Donald Trump’s account sharing the video and statements from the doctors at the press conference.

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Shortly after removing posts by President Trump, Twitter suspended the President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., for sharing video footage from the event:

 

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/07/28/twitter-censors-videos-of-doctors-capitol-hill-coronavirus-press-conference-locks-breitbart-account/

 

Test run.

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Saw that.  A group of doctors who disagree with the status quo who get their videos taken down?  How many times has that happened now?

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

A few days after the 2016 election, at an internal meeting later leaked to Breitbart News, top Google executives, including Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, and Kent Walker lamented Trump’s victory, comparing Trump voters to “extremists,” and discussing their desire to make the Trump’s election and the populist movement a “blip” in history.”

True to their word, four years later, Google is deliberately working to interfere with the reelection of President Trump in 2020.

 

 

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/07/28/election-interference-google-purges-breitbart-from-search-results

 

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

As expected, election interference ramping up:

 

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Axios-NewsWhip 2020 attention tracker: Right-wing media defanged as anti-Biden storylines disintegrate

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By the numbers: The data shows that for articles published about Biden since last fall by Fox News, Breitbart, Daily Wire, Daily Caller and Western Journal, articles about Biden's mental acuity, Hunter Biden and Burisma, and Tara Reade's sexual assault accusations have generated the most interactions on social media (likes, comments, shares).

But in recent months, that interest has dissipated:

• Engagement on pieces about Biden's mental sharpness peaked in March and then even higher in June, but has decreased since then. Of the three topics, this has gotten the least combined interest.
• Chatter about Hunter Biden serving on the board of a Ukrainian gas company peaked in October, then disappeared by March with a brief spurt in May.
• Interactions on coverage about Tara Reade's allegations against Biden hit a crescendo in late April and early May — reaching a higher peak than any other storyline — before falling away by June.

Overall among these publishers, engagement on all stories about Biden peaked in April and May and has fallen 31% in June and July.

Between the lines: Unlike other storylines that right-wing publishers have feasted on in the past — where new morsels of information reinvigorated news cycles — there have been no new revelations in the Burisma story, and Tara Reade stopped giving press interviews.

https://www.axios.com/2020-election-candidates-social-media-63fd3617-3d17-4790-8180-b35bc7aca51f.html

Edited August 8, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Cyberfx1024 7,978]

So can Biden get his people to stop sending me texts? I signed up to see what they were saying but they text me almost twice a day asking for money. 

[TBoneTX 43,176]

What do you expect?  Insist on removal from their lists (and report on how long THAT takes).

[Dashinka 23,283]

On 8/8/2020 at 9:06 PM, Cyberfx1024 said:

So can Biden get his people to stop sending me texts? I signed up to see what they were saying but they text me almost twice a day asking for money. 

Btw, how was the earthquake?  Maybe Biden can stop those too!

Edited August 10, 2020 by Dashinka

[TBoneTX 43,176]

2 hours ago, Dashinka said:

how was the earthquake?

It made Guam tip over in the ocean.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

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Comcast Says It Will Fix ‘Technical’ Glitch that Halted Laura Loomer Emails

In a video shared on social media on Monday evening, Republican congressional candidate Laura Loomer of Palm Beach County, Florida, claimed that Comcast Xfinity had banned her from sending campaign emails and text messages.

“In an incredible turn of events, Comcast Xfinity just banned my campaign from sending out fundraising emails and text messages. Comcast here in Palm Beach County is one of the only internet service providers and sometimes the only one you have available,” Loomer claimed.

“As the Republican frontrunner in my congressional race, I have now been banned. We are getting messages from Comcast saying that my messages are being undelivered because it is ‘dangerous content,'” Loomer added.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/08/11/comcast-says-it-will-fix-technical-glitch-that-halted-laura-loomer-emails/

 

Hint: Not a technical glitch.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Burnt Reynolds

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,317]

1 minute ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/08/11/comcast-says-it-will-fix-technical-glitch-that-halted-laura-loomer-emails/

 

Hint: Not a technical glitch.

Is she a rooskie? I been watching the news and they are a threat

 

[Ban Hammer 12,853]

39 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/08/11/comcast-says-it-will-fix-technical-glitch-that-halted-laura-loomer-emails/

 

Hint: Not a technical glitch.

"Her democrat opponent Lois Frankel is one of the only members of Congress who owns shares of Comcast stock"

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

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CONFIRMED: Twitter Official Who Announced Trump Campaign Account Suspension Is Former Kamala Harris Press Secretary

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Twitter on Wednesday banned President Trump’s campaign from tweeting until they delete a tweet about the Coronavirus that the tech company says violates its “rules against misinformation.”

This is happening in an election year during a pandemic. Where is the DOJ? Where are the Republican lawmakers?

The Washington Post corrected its report that Twitter banned President Trump over his tweet of a video clip of a Fox News interview in which he said children are “almost immune” from Covid-19.

Twitter banned Trump’s campaign, not the President’s account.

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/confirmed-twitter-official-suspended-trump-campaign-account-former-kamala-harris-press-secretary/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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President Trump: Would Be ‘Very Dangerous’ if Twitter Tried to Shut Down My Account Before Election

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“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said when asked if he was concerned that Twitter might try to shutter his account and what he would do in response. “It would be a very dangerous thing to do, especially since I’m very careful with what I write.”

Trump’s comments came during a nearly 30-minute Oval Office exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Monday afternoon. Trump’s comments are particularly newsworthy given that former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democrat presidential nominee, selected Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his running mate on Tuesday afternoon. Harris has sought previously to ban Trump’s Twitter account.

 

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“The tech companies are very dishonest about that and about free speech,” Trump told Breitbart News. “It could be a big problem for them at the appropriate time.”

What’s also notable is that Twitter has banned political advertising entirely on its platform. “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said in the fall of 2019, as Breitbart News reported at the time.

 

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/11/exclusive-president-trump-would-be-very-dangerous-if-twitter-tried-to-shut-down-my-account-before-election/

 

"Ban advertising", promote preferred narratives, ban opposing ones, which is effectively advertising. The same boring authoritarian methodology of platform control to exclusively promote one's narrative because they clearly feel they can't win any other way.

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

Twitter Will Censor Trump If He Claims ‘Early Victory’ on Election Night

 

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/09/10/twitter-will-censor-trump-if-he-claims-early-victory-on-election-night/

 

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/civic-integrity-policy-update.html

 

 

Thankfully Twitter will contextualize elections for Americans, to the point where if Twitter isn't satisfied with the outcome or an elected official's tweets, they'll work to interfere with the peaceful transition of power under the guise of protecting the peaceful transition of power. Always nice to see social media companies ordain themselves election arbiters. 

 

 

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Starting next week, we will label or remove false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election or other civic process. This includes but is not limited to:

1. False or misleading information that causes confusion about the laws and regulations of a civic process, or officials and institutions executing those civic processes.
2. Disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself, e.g. unverified information about election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or certification of election results.
3. Misleading claims about the results or outcome of a civic process which calls for or could lead to interference with the implementation of the results of the process, e.g. claiming victory before election results have been certified, inciting unlawful conduct to prevent a peaceful transfer of power or orderly succession.

 

 

We've already seen how these policies in enforcement play out. As you'd expect, they go one way and one way only.