Media Criticism
-
FAIR: TikTok Law Is an Attempt to Censor, Not a Warning to Big Tech
fair.org TikTok Law Is an Attempt to Censor, Not a Warning to Big TechIt’s not a good-faith regulation to protect the populace, but an effort to either seize or severely weaken TikTok in the name of US interests.
Emphasis original: >[NYT’s Cecilia] Kang’s thesis [link] was premised on years’ worth of media and policymaker fearmongering that TikTok user data was susceptible to surveillance by the Chinese government (BuzzFeed News, 6/17/22; Forbes, 10/20/22; Guardian, 11/7/22). According to Kang’s colleagues, the law’s enactment was prompted by “concerns that the Chinese government could access sensitive user data” (New York Times, 4/26/24). In 2023, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte sought to prohibit TikTok throughout his state on the grounds that “the Chinese Communist Party” was “collecting US users’ personal, private and sensitive information” (Montana Free Press, 5/17/23). (Gianforte’s attempt was later thwarted by a federal judge.) > >If such fears were officials’ genuine motivation, one could hope that broader data-privacy regulation might follow. Yet, as the Times neglected to mention, the spying accusations are tenuous—and deeply cynical. As even US intelligence officials concede, apprehensions about China’s access to TikTok user data are strictly hypothetical (Intercept, 3/16/24). And, despite its bombshell headline “Analysis: There Is Now Some Public Evidence That China Viewed TikTok Data,” CNN (6/8/23) cautioned that said evidence—a sworn statement from a former ByteDance employee—“remains rather thin.” > >Given their dubious nature, it’s hard to see these data-privacy claims as anything other than a pretext for the US to throttle TikTok. By forcing either divestment or a ban, the US, at least in theory, wins: It transfers a tremendously lucrative and influential company into its own hands, or it prevents that company from serving as a platform—albeit one with plenty of problems—on which people can engage in and learn from discourses that are critical of US empire.
-
Prof. Hans-Georg Moeller’s YouTube series on media theory
>Hans-Georg Moeller is a professor at the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at the University of Macau, and, with Paul D'Ambrosio, author of "You and Your Profile: Identity After Authenticity".
https://fah.um.edu.mo/hans-georg-moeller/ >My research focuses on Chinese and Comparative Philosophy (specifically Daoism) and on Social and Political Thought (specifically Social Systems Theory).
-
Philosophy Tube's content partially funded by The Royal Institution
thegrayzone.com Leaked files expose Syria psyops veteran astroturfing BreadTube star to counter Covid restriction critics - The GrayzoneBy covertly recruiting popular YouTube influencer Abigail Thorn to counter growing opposition to UK gov’t Covid restrictions, psy-ops pros are bringing home the tactics they honed in the Syrian dirty war. Leaked documents have revealed a state-sponsored influence operation designed to undermine crit...
-
Texas student gives up entire college savings to help her mom pay rent. Wow! How heartwarming and definitely not a sign of a broken system!
abc7news.com Texas student gives up entire college savings to help her mom pay rentAlondra Carmona just found out her mom hasn't had a job in three months due to a recent injury and is behind on rent. So, she's stepping in.
-
A Bill Gates 'Interview'
YouTube Video
Click to view this content.
This is so on-the-noose promotional in tone, more obviously a PR than many other interviews. I am not sure who can take is as an interview, and not a documentary :-)