Government agencies including the FBI, DHS and NSA have their tentacles deep into US society and have amassed huge caches’ of “sensitive and intimate” data on citizens by “flouting the law” according to privacy advocates.
The startling overreach into citizens’ lives was flagged in a report to the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines which has only just been declassified.
You no longer control your home. Amazon does.
They say that a fool and his cloud are easily parted.
We talk a lot about deplatforming, but when a single corporation doesn’t just control a site you use, but controls most of your life, everything from your doorbell to your vacuum, your music and your lightbulbs, and it decides that your politics are bad, you’ve got problems.
… Though the concept seems innocuous—who wouldn’t want everything you need nearby?—plans to adopt it have lately ignited street protests, press denunciations, and social-media warfare, especially in European cities. One spark has been a move by the city of Oxford in England to impose traffic restrictions, including closing off some neighborhoods to cars during the day, to encourage more biking and walking. Protesters hit the streets in February to fight the initiative, with signs reading “NO TO 15-MINUTE CITIES” and complaints that the traffic restrictions recalled the lockdowns. Marchers also objected to the traffic cameras being installed to scan license plates to see if a car had entered a no-go area—deeming it a troubling expansion of the surveillance state.
It’s worse than thought.
A federal court has ruled that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) erred in its decision penalizing Société Radio-Canada (SRC) for broadcasting the N-word.
In a unanimous decision released Thursday, the Federal Court of Appeal said that the broadcast regulator made several mistakes when it ruled against SRC in response to a complaint.
In particular, the court ruled, the CRTC cited sections of the Broadcasting Act which do not give it the authority to regulate speech on the airwaves. The court sent the decision back to the CRTC for reconsideration.
What a stupid country we have become.
This is about criminalizing political dissent.
Disinformation and counter-extremism programs have become little more than tools for suppressing the political opposition. With DHS handing out grants to study extremism, the Media Research Center has information on what may be the single most explicit attempt at using counter-extremism funding to go after the opposition.
Jamie Sarkonak: Is wokeness driving CSIS’s new approach to counter-terrorism?
Half of the country’s counter-terrorism resources are dedicated to ideological threats, says the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). With such a strong focus, it’s worthwhile to ask whether CSIS is a hammer in search of a nail.
… Indeed, COVID misinformation is included as a threat factor to Canada, along with Chinese interference and targeting by ISIL, or DAESH. From a distance, it’s hard to say whether this is actually a rising threat, or whether CSIS is simply expanding the scope of national security to appear more inclusive. It’s a distinction that should be made clear.
Ideological extremism of concern is classified by CSIS into four categories: xenophobia, anti-authority sentiments, anti-identity and anti-gender sentiments, and “other” ideological motivations. The final “other” category would include environmental and typically left-wing motivations like environmentalism, though CSIS has said this does not include actions like Indigenous rail blockades.
No wonder CSIS has a patriotic leaker. It appears that another Canadian institution has been compromised by the Liberal Party.
It’s worth noting that the FBI has been caught out fudging the numbers to amplify the “Right-Wing threat.” To the benefit of the Democratic party of course: Democrats Cook the FBI’s Books on Domestic Terrorism
The UK’s “PREVENT” anti-terrorism program went completely off the rails and classified an appreciation of Shakespeare as an indicator of “Right-Wing Extremism” – Is Shakespeare ‘far-right’ now?
In Germany anti-semitic attacks by Muslims are routinely blamed on the “Far-Right” – Germany is accused of downplaying anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims
In Canada we’ve seen our government media work hand in glove with a hate group supporting “Hate Manufacturer” to demonize any opinion to the right of Antifa as “extremist.”
Am I detecting a trend? Bet that gets my name on a list.
Of course reading this blog will likely land you on a CSIS watch list. Sorry bout that;)
David Duffy, a wildlife geneticist at the University of Florida, just wanted a better way to track disease in sea turtles. Then he started finding human DNA everywhere he looked.
Over the last decade, wildlife researchers have refined techniques for recovering environmental DNA, or eDNA — trace amounts of genetic material that all living things leave behind. A powerful and inexpensive tool for ecologists, eDNA is all over — floating in the air, or lingering in water, snow, honey and even your cup of tea. Researchers have used the method to detect invasive species before they take over, to track vulnerable or secretive wildlife populations and even to rediscover species thought to be extinct. The eDNA technology is also used in wastewater surveillance systems to monitor Covid and other pathogens.
Writing an article claiming that Covid-19 is a Chinese bioweapon.
Wearing a T-shirt that expresses love for Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling.
Not using someone’s preferred pronouns. Posting a Bible verse online critical of homosexuality.
These are all examples of alleged hate that could soon be compiled by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and logged in a new database or registry of bias under a proposal that has already been approved by the state’s Democrat-controlled house and senate.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has long been known as the regulator of Canadian content. However, with the introduction of Bill C-11, the CRTC’s role is expanding to encompass control over the internet and the online activities of Canadians.
Not even two weeks have passed since the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was given expanded powers over the internet, and it’s already labelling valid points of criticism as “myths.”
It’s a bad sign. If the organization tasked with regulating online content is playing rhetorical games in response to critics in the early days, we can hardly trust it to be honest when it builds its regulatory framework.
If you were asked to name the biggest source of misinformation in our country, you might well name the media. Or advertisers. (Does that cream really make the “fine lines of aging” disappear?)
Foreign hackers might get a nod. And social media.
Moves to ban live “Big Brother” real time facial recognition technology from being deployed across the streets of the EU or by border officials will be tested in a key vote at the European parliament on Thursday.
The amendment is part of a package of proposals for the world’s first artificial intelligence laws, which could result in firms being fined up to €10m (£8.7m) or removed from trading within the EU for breaches of the rules.
The Bank of Canada wants to know what Canadians think about the possibility of a digital loonie.
Consultations on what Canadians would like to have included in a digital currency are open online from May 8 until June 19, the Bank of Canada said Monday.
The central bank notes, however, that the decision to launch a digital version of the Canadian dollar remains in the hands of Parliament and physical coins and banknotes aren’t going anywhere.
Ontario’s former privacy commissioner says the current commissioner should launch a province-wide investigation on how police services are using drones, and programs like the one by Hamilton Police Service (HPS) should shut down until that’s done.
“What Hamilton police is doing with these drones is appalling,” Ann Cavoukian told CBC Hamilton.
“I don’t believe the value of it is greater than the harm it introduces.”
A new law that seeks to give Canadian artists a leg up online has left many influencers and tech giants alike seeing red.
They took out subway ads, they posted TikToks, but in the end, the score was Silicon Valley-0, Ottawa-1.
After many twists and turns, and over two-and-a-half years of review, the Canadian government has passed a new law that makes tech giants like YouTube and TikTok support Canadian cultural content.
A pox on both their houses YouTube is Orwellian and Trudeau’s Liberals are Woke Stalinists.
“Content creators” fear both being included in the government’s planned forced diet of CanCon which will relegate them to a digital Ghetto, and to a lesser extent being excluded as not Canadian “enough” by the CRTC’s annointed “God’s Of All CanCon.” I plan to continue ignoring CanCan as I have always done. Let’s face it with rare exceptions most of it is unpalatable government agenda swill.
I will now reveal an ugly personal truth: Overplay due to CanCon destroyed virtually all pleasure derived from listening to Gordon Lightfoot’s music.
