Tag: Trump

New Research Shows Belief of Pandemic’s Origin May Depend on What News Source You Watch

On By Mónica G. RodríguezIn coronavirus, UncategorizedLeave a comment
The research was conducted by the Pew Research Center as part of their Election News Pathways Project.

According to a poll research by the Pew Research Center, American viewers who watch MSNBC are more likely to believe the coronavirus developed naturally in Wuhan, China, while Fox News viewers are more likely to go the conspiracy theory route.

Virologists and researchers have stated that the deadly virus’s origin came from local wildlife, debunking quite a few of Fox News claims. The survey’s data listed that about 66% of the respondents who watch MSNBC believe COVID-19 occurred naturally. Meanwhile, approximately 37% of Fox News viewers think the same.

Back in February, during the early stages of this pandemic arriving in the United States, a Fox correspondent and analyst from Fox Asia, Gordon Chang, stated on the cable television network that the coronavirus may have originated from the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory. This is an incorrect possibility, fact-checked by scientists.

Along these lines, President Trump has often referred to the virus as the “China virus” or the “Chinese virus”. However, he mentioned in a recent interview with Fox News that he will stop using that phrase in spite of his claims that China has attributed the COVID-19’s origin to American soldiers in Wuhan. Whether or not this is true (in my opinion, it’s probably not true, considering the President has lied numerous times before), it has been labeled as “race-baiting” by critics. Others believe Trump’s attempt at pushing the blame towards China is a strategy to improve his declining approval rating. What do you think?

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/04/01/where-did-covid-19-originate-your-answer-may-depend-on-whether-you-watch-fox-news-or-msnbc/#50e0acb57519

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Facebook faces potential $529B fine, By Australia over Cambridge Analytica

On By kashifwIn facebookLeave a comment

An Australian watch dog is suing Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data breach in 2018. An Australian privacy act set out a provision for penalties up to 1.7 million to be levied per infraction. It is believed that there were 311, 074 local Facebook users who’s data was in the cache of 86 million profiles lifted by Cambridge Analytica.

The Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has logged proceeding against Facebook in federal court for the companies repeated privacy interference. Facebook allegedly disclosed personal information to an application called, this is your digital life. This application used user data for purposes other than what the data was collected for. In doing so Facebook breaches an Australian privacy act from 1988. The creator of the app “GSR” was hired by Cambridge Analytica to obtain and process Facebook users’ data for politically targeted ads.

User data was syphoned off from March 2014 to May 2015 by GSR. Under contract with Cambridge Analytica they were working on United States political campaigns of Ted Cruz and later President Trump. Facebook failed to take responsible steps to protect its individuals’ personal information from unauthorized disclosure. Along with the fines, Australian and international regulators want to restrict information available to app developers. Which would imply new protocols for social media. This case is currently before the Federal Court.

Australia sues Facebook over Cambridge Analytica, fine could scale to $529BN

Twitter defends Trump

On By William StroughIn Censorship, Technology, Twitter1 Comment
Image result for trump twitter

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/technology/trump-twitter-account.html

Seemingly the backbone to the political landscape we currently have, Twitter has to defend the president from democrats who look to have the president’s account removed from the platform. President Trump has been locking horns with democrats over the impending impeachment inquiry of Trump. He has not been kind when going to twitter to voice his opinion on the matter, claiming the impeachment was a “coup” intended to strip Americans of their rights. Democrats look to suspend his Twitter account on the basis that his tweets are “blatant threats” that violate Twitter’s policies. 

Twitter has since taken a stand in favor of President Trump saying that Twitter has a right to the people to bend the rules for world leaders. Twitter cites that it is for the best interest of the public to keep world leader’s Twitter accounts active even though they may appear to violate Twitter’s own policies. Twitter has said that they would only take action against Trump or any world leader if they, “used their account to threaten an indiviual, promote terrorism or self-harm, or post private information like a phone number.” Twitter then followed up their defence of the president with another statement, “The accounts of world leaders are not above our policies entirely, presently, direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules.”

This shows that Twitter is taking a stand not towards democrats or any political party but taking a stand protecting the public. We deserve and I think entitled to hear what the president is tweeting no matter what it is. It helps the public know what is going on, not only for the president, but the entire country. Protecting this kind of speech is dangerous but it serves the public by preserving those tweets for all of us.