Survival of our democracy’ depends on banning sites like InfoWars, Dem senator says. And also about establishing precedents for Trump, who they’ve been warning is Hitler, in case he decides to actually act like Hitler. Though to be honest, I don’t know why Trump would want to shut them up when they’re acting this crazy.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is calling on other tech companies to ban more sites like InfoWars, and says the survival of American democracy depends on it.
“Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it,” Murphy tweeted Monday.
Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 6, 2018
In an earlier tweet, Murphy reasoned that private companies “shouldn’t knowingly spread lies and hate.”
PLANS FOR PACKING THE COURTS, TAKING OVER THE INTERNET — THESE PEOPLE ARE A DISGRACE: Senate Democrats Are Circulating Plans for Government Takeover of the Internet.
A good reason to make sure there aren’t enough Senate Democrats to make it happen.
All your base are belong to us. A leaked memo circulating among Senate Democrats contains a host of bonkers authoritarian proposals for regulating digital platforms, purportedly as a way to get tough on Russian bots and fake news. To save American trust in “our institutions, democracy, free press, and markets,” it suggests, we need unprecedented and undemocratic government intervention into online press and markets, including “comprehensive (GDPR-like) data protection legislation” of the sort enacted in the E.U.
Titled “Potential Policy Proposals for Regulation of Social Media and Technology Firms,” the draft policy paper—penned by Sen. Mark Warner and leaked by an unknown source to Axios—the paper starts out by noting that Russians have long spread disinformation, including when “the Soviets tried to spread ‘fake news’ denigrating Martin Luther King” (here he fails to mention that the Americans in charge at the time did the same). But NOW IT’S DIFFERENT, because technology.
HE’S NOT WRONG: Harvard-Educated Owner of Five Homes and a Private Plane Says Democrats Becoming ‘Too Elitist.’
Tennessee Democrat Phil Bredesen, a Harvard University-educated man worth up to $358 million and the owner of five homes, has diagnosed his party with an “elitist” problem.
Bredesen earned his fortune in the pharmaceutical and health care sectors before entering politics. He is now running for U.S. Senate. He told NPR he hopes his run could offer a blueprint for Democrats on how to recover from becoming “too elitist and too distant from the concerns of the very down to Earth people that have always been the base of the party.”
With reported assets between $88.9 million and $358 million, Bredesen, if elected, would become one of the richest members of Congress. Public records show he is the owner of five homes—twohomes in Nashville, two lakefront properties in upstate New York, and a five-bedroom home in Jackson, Wyoming.
Bredesen is also one of the registered owners of an Embraer Phenom 300 private jet, according to Federal Aviation Association records. The Embraer Phenom 300 goes for $10 million, according to CNBC.
Bredesen has utilized private air travel as he campaigns across Tennessee to show people just how “down to Earth” he can be. He disclosed $16,874 worth of travel on Netjets in February and $16,797on Aura Jets in May and June, according to Federal Election Commission records.
h/t GR