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The UK says it will campaign for NATO spending for all members to increase, pushing member states to contribute more to collective defence.
The post Echoing Trump UK Calls on NATO Allies to Boost Defence Spending, Announces Own Budget Increase appeared first on Breitbart.
A group of senior clinical psychologists apologised for the role their profession played in promoting transgender treatments to children.
The post ‘We Are Ashamed’ — UK Psychologists Apologise for Role in Promoting Transgender ‘Medicine’ to Children appeared first on Breitbart.
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UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest health insurance providers in the United States, recently disclosed that a ransomware attack on its subsidiary, Change Healthcare, has led to a significant theft of private healthcare data belonging to a "substantial proportion of people in America."
The post UnitedHealth Confirms Massive Ransomware Hack Affects ‘Substantial Proportion’ of Americans appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is lighting up President Joe Biden for only accepting an invitation to give the commencement address at Atlanta’s Morehouse College because it’s in the same neighborhood Trump visited when he made an iconic stop at a Chick-fil-A recently.
The post Exclusive: Trump Campaign Rips Biden for Morehouse College Address in Same Atlanta Neighborhood as Chick-Fil-A Visit appeared first on Breitbart.
The UK government committed Tuesday to deliver more military hardware and another £500 million to Ukraine in its largest ever aid package.
The post UK Announces Largest-Ever Ukraine Aid Package, Warns Putin ‘Won’t Stop at Polish Border’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Poland is in talks with the United States about hosting nuclear weapons and has been for some time, the country's President has said.
The post Poland Fears It Would be Buffer State ‘Sacrificed’ by the United States, Wants Nuclear Weapons to Guarantee Safety appeared first on Breitbart.
The once prestigious Lancet medical journal is galloping onward in its woke agenda, insisting on an “inextricable” link between climate change and immigration.
The post Lancet: Migration Is ‘Inextricably Linked to Climate Change’ appeared first on Breitbart.
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Syrian dictator Bashar Assad claims his regime has meetings “from time to time” with officials from the Biden administration.
The post Syrian Dictator Bashar Assad Claims Meeting with Biden Administration ‘from Time to Time’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The Democrats' foreign aid bill pushed by House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) includes no curbs on the White House's many migration programs — but does offer at least $481 million to help Democrats pull more economic migrants into American communities and workplaces.
The post Ukraine Bill Funds More Migration to U.S. appeared first on Breitbart.
Pope Francis commemorated Earth Day Monday by warning that the planet is “falling into ruin” thanks to humanity’s failure to protect it.
The post Pope Francis on Earth Day: Planet Is ‘Falling into Ruin’ appeared first on Breitbart.
U.S. President Joe Biden's claim his uncle — an American World War II pilot — had been eaten by “cannibals” in Papua New Guinea after crashing on the Melanesia island chain was firmly rejected Sunday by Prime Minister James Marape.
The post Papua New Guinea PM Angrily Slams Joe Biden over ‘Cannibals’ Claim appeared first on Breitbart.
Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” co-starring Alan Ritchson, debuted with $9 million in 2,845 theaters.
The post MAGA-Hating Alan Ritchson Bombs at Box Office: ‘Ungentlemanly Warfare’ Debuts in 4th with $9 Million appeared first on Breitbart.
Pope Francis received Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in a private audience Saturday, the Vatican Press Office reported.
The post Pope Francis Receives Pro-Abortion Senator Raphael Warnock in Private Audience appeared first on Breitbart.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said Republicans who voted against the $61 billion to fund the war in Ukraine are "traitors".
The post Top Eurocrat Verhofstadt Brands Republicans Who Voted Against Ukraine Aid as ‘Traitors’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Alexander Vindman, the former National Security Council staffer and Army officer who sparked the impeachment of former President Donald Trump over Ukraine aid, celebrated Congress's passage of a bill to send $60 billion more to Ukraine on Saturday.
The post Alexander Vindman Celebrates Sending Ukraine $60B in Aid from House Floor appeared first on Breitbart.
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Ukraine launched a barrage of drones across Russia overnight, Moscow's Defense Ministry said, in apparnet attacks on energy infrastructure.
The post Moscow Says 50 Ukrainian Drones Shot Down During Attacks on Russian Power Stations appeared first on Breitbart.
Intelligence operation between Poland and Ukraine has led to the arrest of a Polish citizen allegedly conducting hostile reconnaissance.
The post Plot to Assassinate Ukraine’s President Zelensky at European Airport Foiled by Polish Security Services, They Say appeared first on Breitbart.
Zelenskyy said it is no secret Russia wants to take the region, but Ukraine´s military intelligence calls rumors a "psychological operation".
The post Anticipating Russian Spring Offensive, Kharkiv Residents Start to Flee appeared first on Breitbart.
Distributor A24 is facing public backlash after it apparently used AI technology to generate promotional artwork for the movie "Civil War."
The post A24 Facing Backlash over ‘Civil War’ Promotional Artwork Apparently Generated by AI appeared first on Breitbart.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav just got a whole lot richer, receiving a nearly 27 percent pay raise last year while overseeing mass layoffs at the media conglomerate.
The post Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Gets Huge Pay Raise Following Mass Layoffs appeared first on Breitbart.
FBI director Chris Wray said at a security conference on Thursday that China’s legion of state-sponsored hackers “considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate on the world stage.”
The post FBI Director: China Considers Vital U.S. Infrastructure ‘Fair Game’ for Cyberattacks appeared first on Breitbart.
Harry Potter star Warwick Davis, who played Professor Flitwick in the film franchise, is mourning the death of his wife Samantha Davis, who also appeared in the film series.
The post ‘Harry Potter’ Star Warwick Davis’s Wife Samantha Davis Dead at 53 appeared first on Breitbart.
Russian state media asserts the country's armed forces shot down at least eight "Ukrainian balloons" in three days this week.
The post Spy Balloons Are Back: Russia Says it is Shooting Down Ukrainian ‘Terrorism’ Balloons appeared first on Breitbart.
Ukraine´s air force claimed Friday it shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed due to a malfunction.
The post Ukraine Says it has Shot Down Russian Strategic Bomber: Moscow Denies appeared first on Breitbart.
April 19, 1775, marked the beginning of an epic journey for a band of brothers who risked EVERYTHING for a nation yet to be born.
The post Exclusive–O’Donnell: General Gage’s Gun Grab; Lexington and Concord and Captain Samuel Whittemore’s Last Stand appeared first on Breitbart.
Two German-Russian dual citizens accused of membership of a pro-Kremlin terrorist organisation and planning bombings have been arrested.
The post Alleged Russian Spies Accused of Preparing Bombing Attacks Against U.S. Base in in Germany Arrested appeared first on Breitbart.
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The House on Wednesday passed legislation to ban the government from purchasing Americans' private data from data brokers, which is considered a run around the Fourth Amendment.
The post House Passes Bill to End ‘Unconstitutional Sale’ of American Data to Intel Agencies appeared first on Breitbart.
Proposals for a new law in Scotland against "misogyny", which will cover biologically male transgenders, was critisised by J.K. Rowling.
The post J.K. Rowling Says Scottish Leader Humza Yousaf Has ‘Contempt for Women’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Tesla is set to ask its shareholders to once again vote on approving the controversial 2018 pay package for CEO Elon Musk, which was recently thrown out by a Delaware judge.
The post Tesla to Seek Shareholder Re-Approval for Elon Musk’s Massive Pay Package appeared first on Breitbart.
The exact cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains opaque and hard to assess. Still, claims continue to vary wildly, from as little as 31,000 Ukrainian dead according to Kyiv, to as many as half a million Russian “casualties”. There
The post Report: 50,000 Russian Soldiers ‘Confirmed Dead’ in Ukraine, While Kyiv Claims Nearly Half a Million Casualties appeared first on Breitbart.
Per Forbes, "the total net profits from Disney's five Star Wars movies [is] $1.2 billion which is $2.8 billion short of the purchase price of Lucasfilm."
The post Nolte: Disney Still Billions in Hole 12 Years After Lucasfilm Purchase appeared first on Breitbart.
According to the corporate media, Climate Change has slowed the Earth’s rotation — no wait! — the Earth is spinning faster than ever before.
The post Nolte: Earth Rotation Faster or Slower? Corporate Media Can’t Get Fear Porn Straight appeared first on Breitbart.
Argentina signed a deal Tuesday worth about 2.1 billion kroner ($300 million) to buy 24 of Denmark´s aging F-16 fighter jets.
The post Denmark Selling 24 F-16s to Argentina, Will Give Others to Ukraine appeared first on Breitbart.
I understood from the Star Tribune headline over the AP story yesterday that the IDF had massacred some 100 Gazans seeking food and water. As of this morning, the AP is sticking with the story with a Rafah dateline. It leads with this observation: “Israeli troops fired on a crowd of Palestinians racing to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza City on Thursday, witnesses said.”
I’m not sure about the massacre. Deep into the story we hear from the ever reliable “Gaza Health Ministry.” The AP reports: “At least 112 people were killed, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said. The ministry described it as a ‘massacre’ and said more than 700 others were injured.” The AP raises no warning about the record of the “Gaza Health Ministry” on such matters.
The IDF spokesmen have a better record than the AP on these IDF alleged massacres. I take it that the IDF denies that’s what happened, although it is investigating. [See update below.] The Times of Israel reports, per the IDF, that troops opened fire on several Gazans who moved toward soldiers and a tank at an IDF checkpoint, endangering soldiers, after they had rushed the last truck in the convoy further south. The Times of Israel story quotes IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari:
This morning, the IDF coordinated a convoy of 38 trucks to provide additional humanitarian assistance to the residents of northern Gaza. This humanitarian aid came from Egypt, went through a security screening at the Kerem Shalom humanitarian crossing in Israel, and then entered Gaza, for distribution by private contractors. As these vital humanitarian supplies made their way toward Gazans in need, thousands of Gazans [rushed] the trucks, some began violently pushing and trampling other Gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies.
Here are the facts: At 4:40 a.m., the first aid truck in the humanitarian convoy started making its way through the humanitarian corridor that we were securing. Our tanks were there to secure the humanitarian corridor for the aid convoy. Our UAVs were there in the air to give our forces a clear picture from above. At 4:45 a.m., a mob ambushed the aid trucks, bringing the convoy to a halt.
Hagari also showed a new video of the incident that is included in the Times of Israel story. Hagari’s statement continues:
In this video, the tanks that were there to secure the convoy saw the Gazans being trampled and cautiously tried to disperse the mob with a few warning shots. When the hundreds became thousands and things got out of hand, the tank commander decided to retreat to avoid harm to the thousands of Gazans that were there.
You can see how cautious they were when they were backing up. They were backing up securely, risking their own lives, not shooting at the mob.” he continued…No IDF strike was conducted toward the aid convoy. On the contrary, the IDF was there carrying out a humanitarian aid operation, to secure the humanitarian corridor, and allow the aid convoy to reach its distribution point, so that the humanitarian aid could reach Gazan civilians in the north who are in need.
The IDF posted Hagari’s statement below on X. Video is included with his statement.
“We recognize the suffering of the innocent people of Gaza. This is why we are seeking ways to expand our humanitarian efforts.”
Watch the full statement by IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari on the incident regarding the humanitarian aid convoy the IDF facilitated. pic.twitter.com/m6Pve3Odqw
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 29, 2024
“And yet the lie will be repeated as fact over and over and over by those who are ignorant, and those who are not ignorant but are evil, and those who are Susan Sarandon,” comments Cliff Asness. Add the detestable Senator Elizabeth Warren to the list. Query into which category the AP falls.
Netanyahu & his right-wing government have created a catastrophe in Gaza. Today Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians desperate for aid.
The U.S. must push for a cease-fire, hostage releases, & condition military support on pursuing a two-state solution for a lasting peace. pic.twitter.com/igeEpeFRC8
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) February 29, 2024
I can’t wait for the United States Air Force to show us how it’s to be done. If this goes down as advertised, we can resupply Hamas directly.
The U.S. Air Force is reportedly preparing for an Operation beginning next week that will see the Mass Airdropping of Humanitarian Aid including Food, Water, and Medicine into the Gaza Strip, with Flights utilizing C-130 and C-17 Transport Aircraft being launched from Airbases in… pic.twitter.com/ZH7Es0vvoj
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 1, 2024
UPDATE: The Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff includes this account in today’s edition.
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Check out my latest article at the American Thinker:
I was banned from LinkedIn for telling the truth
By Pamela Geller Amerian Thinker, March 18, 2023:On Thursday, I got yet another notice from the LinkedIn’s “Trust & Safety Team”: “Your post goes against our policy on misinformation. It has been removed and only you can access it.” The post that LinkedIn found objectionable was from my website, the Geller Report, and was entitled“CORPORATE STATE: Domestic Terror Group Black Lives Matter Received Nearly $83 Billion from Corporations.”
My post consisted of an excerpt from a Breitbart article plus three lines of my own commentary. LinkedIn didn’t dispute the accuracy of anything in my post or its source; it just doesn’t want it said. This comes after LinkedIn had banned me from their platform for nearly three years for posting accurate and well-sourced information that goes against the leftist narrative.
Who is giving these orders?
Read my latest over at The American Thinker. We are seeing an unprecedented erosion in our First Amendment rights, increasingly prohibiting the flow of ideas and free expression in the public square (social media). Run by left-wing self-possessed snowflakes, social media giants are indulging their worst autocratic impulses. And because they can, it is getting worse. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Having grown up in the 1970s, I can tell you it was a vastly different country then. It was free. But we aren’t any no longer, and it is time we took back what is ours — our unalienable freedoms.
January 30, 2018
The Urgent Case for Legislation against Facebook and Google
By Pamela Geller, American Thinker
Having been one of the early targets of social media censorship on Facebook, YouTube et al, I have advocated for anti-trust action against these bullying behemoths. It is good to see establishment outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and National Review coming to the same conclusion, or at least asking the same questions.
Just this week, Facebook launched its latest of many attacks on my news site, the Geller Report. It labeled my site as “spam” and removed every Geller Report post — thousands upon thousands of them, going back years – from Facebook. It also blocked any Facebook member from sharing links to the Geller Report. The ramping up of the shutting-down of sites like mine is neither random nor personal. The timing is telling. The left is gearing up for the 2018 midterm elections, and they mean to shut down whatever outlet or voice that helped elect President Trump, the greatest upset in left-wing history.
In fighting this shutdown, we had to go back to the drawing board in our lawsuit against these social media giants. The basis of our suit was challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) under the First Amendment, which provides immunity from lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, thereby permitting these social media giants to engage in government-sanctioned censorship and discriminatory business practices free from legal challenge.
[the_ad id=”104820″]
Facebook and Google take in roughly half of all Internet ad revenue. According to the Wall Street Journal:
In the U.S., Alphabet Inc.’s Google drives 89% of internet search; 95% of young adults on the internet use a Facebook Inc. product; and Amazon.com Inc. now accounts for 75% of electronic book sales. Those firms that aren’t monopolists are duopolists: Google and Facebook absorbed 63% of online ad spending last year; Google and Apple Inc. provide 99% of mobile phone operating systems; while Apple and Microsoft Corp. supply 95% of desktop operating systems.
Both companies routinely censor and spy on their customers, “massaging everything from the daily news to what we should buy.” In the last century, the telephone was our “computer,” and Ma Bell was how we communicated. That said, would the American people (or the government) have tolerated AT&T spying on our phone calls and then pulling our communication privileges if we expressed dissenting opinions? That is exactly what we are suffering today.
Ma Bell was broken up by the government, albeit for different reasons. But it can and should be done.
It’s not a little ironic that, according to Breitbart:
AT&T has called for an “Internet Bill of Rights” and argued that Facebook and Google should also be subjected to rules that would prevent unfair censorship on their platforms.
AT&T, one of the largest telecommunications companies, called for Congress to enact an “Internet Bill of Rights” which would subject Facebook, Google, and other content providers to rules that would prevent unfair censorship on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast or AT&T as well as content providers such as Facebook and Google.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson wrote, “Congressional action is needed to establish an ‘Internet Bill of Rights’ that applies to all internet companies and guarantees neutrality, transparency, openness, non-discrimination and privacy protection for all internet users.”
Stephenson posted the ad in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other national news outlets on Wednesday.
We must get behind this — all of us — and fast. Because what is happening is being engineered at the government level. A chief officer from a major American communications company went to the terror state of Pakistan to assure the Pakistani government that Facebook would adhere to the sharia. The commitment was given by Vice President of Facebook Joel Kaplan, who called on Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. “Facebook has reiterated its commitment to keep the platform safe and promote values that are in congruence with its community standards.”
Why the block? Because under Islamic law, you cannot criticize Islam. Facebook adhering to the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth should trouble all of us, because Mark Zuckerberg has immense power. He controls the flow of information.
Early last year, I wrote: “The US government has used anti-trust laws to break up monopolies. They ought to break up Facebook. Section 2 of the Sherman Act highlights particular results deemed anticompetitive by nature and prohibits actions that ‘shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.’ Couldn’t the same be applied to information? The United States government took down Standard Oil, Alcoa, Northern Securities, the American Tobacco Company and many others without nearly the power that Facebook has.”
NRO has come to that same conclusion:
Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are also utilities of sorts that provide essential services. They depend on the free use of public airwaves. Yet they are subject to little oversight; they simply make up their own rules as they go along. Antitrust laws prohibit one corporation from unfairly devouring its competition, capturing most of its market, and then price-gouging as it sees fit without fear of competition. Google has all but destroyed its search-engine competitors in the same manner that Facebook has driven out competing social media.
Clearly Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos are contemporary “robber barons.” So why are they not smeared, defamed, and reviled like the robber barons of yesteryear? Says NRO:
Why are huge tech companies seemingly exempt from the rules that older corporations must follow? First, their CEOs wisely cultivate the image of hipsters. The public sees them more as aging teenagers in T-shirts, turtlenecks, and flip-flops than as updated versions of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, or other robber barons of the past. Second, the tech industry’s hierarchy is politically progressive.
In brilliant marketing fashion, the Internet, laptops, tablets, and smartphones have meshed with the hip youth culture of music, television, the movies, universities, and fashion. Think Woodstock rather than Wall Street. Corporate spokesmen at companies such as Twitter and YouTube brag about their social awareness, especially on issues such as radical environmentalism, identity politics, and feminism. Given that the regulatory deep state is mostly a liberal enterprise, the tech industry is seen as an ally of federal bureaucrats and regulators. Think more of Hollywood, the media, and universities than Exxon, General Motors, Koch Industries, and Philip Morris.
The groovy t-shirt-turtleneck vibe may keep the great unwashed under their spell, but it’s the shared political ideology with the left that keeps these corporate managers free from accountability. The WSJ writes that antitrust regulators have a narrow test: Does their size leave consumers worse off? Surmising that if that’s the test, “there isn’t a clear case for going after big tech.”
I disagree. The consumer is far worse off. If we are not free to speak and think in what is today’s Gutenberg press, than we could not be worse off.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of The Geller Report and author of the bestselling book, FATWA: Hunted in America, as well as The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.
Read my latest over at The American Thinker. We are seeing an unprecedented erosion in our First Amendment rights, increasingly prohibiting the flow of ideas and free expression in the public square (social media). Run by left-wing self-possessed snowflakes, social media giants are indulging their worst autocratic impulses. And because they can, it is getting worse. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Having grown up in the 1970s, I can tell you it was a vastly different country then. It was free. But we aren’t any no longer, and it is time we took back what is ours — our unalienable freedoms.
January 30, 2018
The Urgent Case for Legislation against Facebook and Google
By Pamela Geller, American Thinker
Having been one of the early targets of social media censorship on Facebook, YouTube et al, I have advocated for anti-trust action against these bullying behemoths. It is good to see establishment outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and National Review coming to the same conclusion, or at least asking the same questions.
Just this week, Facebook launched its latest of many attacks on my news site, the Geller Report. It labeled my site as “spam” and removed every Geller Report post — thousands upon thousands of them, going back years – from Facebook. It also blocked any Facebook member from sharing links to the Geller Report. The ramping up of the shutting-down of sites like mine is neither random nor personal. The timing is telling. The left is gearing up for the 2018 midterm elections, and they mean to shut down whatever outlet or voice that helped elect President Trump, the greatest upset in left-wing history.
In fighting this shutdown, we had to go back to the drawing board in our lawsuit against these social media giants. The basis of our suit was challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) under the First Amendment, which provides immunity from lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, thereby permitting these social media giants to engage in government-sanctioned censorship and discriminatory business practices free from legal challenge.
Facebook and Google take in roughly half of all Internet ad revenue. According to the Wall Street Journal:
In the U.S., Alphabet Inc.’s Google drives 89% of internet search; 95% of young adults on the internet use a Facebook Inc. product; and Amazon.com Inc. now accounts for 75% of electronic book sales. Those firms that aren’t monopolists are duopolists: Google and Facebook absorbed 63% of online ad spending last year; Google and Apple Inc. provide 99% of mobile phone operating systems; while Apple and Microsoft Corp. supply 95% of desktop operating systems.
Both companies routinely censor and spy on their customers, “massaging everything from the daily news to what we should buy.” In the last century, the telephone was our “computer,” and Ma Bell was how we communicated. That said, would the American people (or the government) have tolerated AT&T spying on our phone calls and then pulling our communication privileges if we expressed dissenting opinions? That is exactly what we are suffering today.
Ma Bell was broken up by the government, albeit for different reasons. But it can and should be done.
It’s not a little ironic that, according to Breitbart:
AT&T has called for an “Internet Bill of Rights” and argued that Facebook and Google should also be subjected to rules that would prevent unfair censorship on their platforms.
AT&T, one of the largest telecommunications companies, called for Congress to enact an “Internet Bill of Rights” which would subject Facebook, Google, and other content providers to rules that would prevent unfair censorship on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast or AT&T as well as content providers such as Facebook and Google.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson wrote, “Congressional action is needed to establish an ‘Internet Bill of Rights’ that applies to all internet companies and guarantees neutrality, transparency, openness, non-discrimination and privacy protection for all internet users.”
Stephenson posted the ad in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other national news outlets on Wednesday.
We must get behind this — all of us — and fast. Because what is happening is being engineered at the government level. A chief officer from a major American communications company went to the terror state of Pakistan to assure the Pakistani government that Facebook would adhere to the sharia. The commitment was given by Vice President of Facebook Joel Kaplan, who called on Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. “Facebook has reiterated its commitment to keep the platform safe and promote values that are in congruence with its community standards.”
Why the block? Because under Islamic law, you cannot criticize Islam. Facebook adhering to the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth should trouble all of us, because Mark Zuckerberg has immense power. He controls the flow of information.
Early last year, I wrote: “The US government has used anti-trust laws to break up monopolies. They ought to break up Facebook. Section 2 of the Sherman Act highlights particular results deemed anticompetitive by nature and prohibits actions that ‘shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.’ Couldn’t the same be applied to information? The United States government took down Standard Oil, Alcoa, Northern Securities, the American Tobacco Company and many others without nearly the power that Facebook has.”
NRO has come to that same conclusion:
Tech companies such as Google and Facebook are also utilities of sorts that provide essential services. They depend on the free use of public airwaves. Yet they are subject to little oversight; they simply make up their own rules as they go along. Antitrust laws prohibit one corporation from unfairly devouring its competition, capturing most of its market, and then price-gouging as it sees fit without fear of competition. Google has all but destroyed its search-engine competitors in the same manner that Facebook has driven out competing social media.
Clearly Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos are contemporary “robber barons.” So why are they not smeared, defamed, and reviled like the robber barons of yesteryear? Says NRO:
Why are huge tech companies seemingly exempt from the rules that older corporations must follow? First, their CEOs wisely cultivate the image of hipsters. The public sees them more as aging teenagers in T-shirts, turtlenecks, and flip-flops than as updated versions of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, or other robber barons of the past. Second, the tech industry’s hierarchy is politically progressive.
In brilliant marketing fashion, the Internet, laptops, tablets, and smartphones have meshed with the hip youth culture of music, television, the movies, universities, and fashion. Think Woodstock rather than Wall Street. Corporate spokesmen at companies such as Twitter and YouTube brag about their social awareness, especially on issues such as radical environmentalism, identity politics, and feminism. Given that the regulatory deep state is mostly a liberal enterprise, the tech industry is seen as an ally of federal bureaucrats and regulators. Think more of Hollywood, the media, and universities than Exxon, General Motors, Koch Industries, and Philip Morris.
The groovy t-shirt-turtleneck vibe may keep the great unwashed under their spell, but it’s the shared political ideology with the left that keeps these corporate managers free from accountability. The WSJ writes that antitrust regulators have a narrow test: Does their size leave consumers worse off? Surmising that if that’s the test, “there isn’t a clear case for going after big tech.”
I disagree. The consumer is far worse off. If we are not free to speak and think in what is today’s Gutenberg press, than we could not be worse off.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of The Geller Report and author of the bestselling book, FATWA: Hunted in America, as well as The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.
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