Facebook pulls alt-media pages, dismisses as spam ahead of 2018 elections

Facebook is again being called out for purging political accounts too far left and right of center, after it removed more than 800 pages just in time for the 2018 midterm elections. Some had millions of followers.

Many of the affected pages were supposedly sharing links between groups using fake accounts, which then clicked "Like" on the posts, artificially upping their engagement numbers. This "inauthentic behavior" violates Facebook's anti-spam policies and goes against "what people expect" from Facebook, the company said.

While some of the deleted pages have been known to run content of questionable credibility at times, Facebook did not expressly accuse them of spreading "fake news" – or actually provide a list of names or examples of postings at all. However, under the platform's new policies, simply spreading "news" is frowned upon: it has recently tweaked its algorithm to prevent users' feeds from being dominated by news stories.

Twitter was in an uproar this afternoon as many voices on the left and right alike saw their pages removed without cause.

On the Left, AntiMedia and the Free Thought Project were among the victims. AntiMedia's Twitter account was suspended shortly after they posted about their removal from Facebook.

More at

https://www.rt.com/usa/441040-facebook-deplatforms-political-pages/

Global Internet could crash in next 48 hours

Internet users around the world may experience network connection failures on Thursday as the main domain servers and related infrastructure controlling the web will be powered down for some time.

The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names and IP addresses, will be changing the cryptographic key that helps protect the Domain Name System (DNS) or the internet’s address book.

It’s an important measure to ensure a secure, stable, and resilient DNS, according to the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA).

“To further clarify, some internet users might be affected if their network operators or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have not prepared for this change. However, this impact can be avoided by enabling the appropriate system security extensions,” it said.

Analyst from the Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin explained that internet users may face some difficulties within 48 hours. There may be problems with access to some resources, and slow loading of internet pages. Some users may have problems with access to the network if they use an outdated provider.

ICANN has already carried out some preliminary tests that showed the key replacement process would create minimal problems.

Arseny Shcheltsin, a specialist in digital economics, reassured people that there is nothing to fear, since the main software has already been successfully updated.

The procedure for changing cryptographic keys has become necessary as a result of rising threats for the internet infrastructure.

https://www.rt.com/business/440947-global-internet-shutdown-icann/

Entire Middle East’ should look like Israel – Pompeo

Israel is everything the US wishes the Middle East would be, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in a speech, while bashing the Obama administration’s approach to Iran as resembling a “Disney movie.”

Speaking at the annual Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) dinner in Washington on Wednesday, Pompeo argued that Israel“is democratic and prosperous, it desires peace, it is a home to a free press and a thriving economy,” calling it “everything we want the entire Middle East to look like going forward.”

Israel’s enemy number one Iran, meanwhile, has “corrupt leaders” who “assault the human rights of their own people and finance terrorism in every corner of the Middle East,” according to Pompeo.

He went on to habitually bash the Obama administration for trying to solve problems with Iran peacefully.

“President Obama thought that if he made dangerous concessions, removed economic sanctions and flew a plane full of cash to Tehran, he could somehow hug Iran’s leaders into behaving well… but those leaders aren’t from a Disney movie,” Pompeo said, then himself went on to paint Iranian leaders as movie villains: “They’re real. They are murderers and funders of terrorism who lead chants today, still, of ‘Death to America’.”

After decades of US presidents at least maintaining the facade of honest brokers between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the Trump administration went all-out onto Israel’s side. The US embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s claim to the city in violation of UN resolutions and to the outrage of most of the Muslim world.

Washington has also cut funding to UN agencies charged with helping the displaced Palestinians, as well as direct aid to the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed almost 200 and injured over 20,000 Palestinians who have been protesting along the Gaza border fence since March.

In addition to its unapologetic support for Israel, the US under Trump switched gears into open hostility with Iran. In March, Trump left the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration – and praised as effective by all other signatories – and re-imposed a wide range of sanctions on Tehran. US diplomats have gone so far as to threaten other countries daring to do business with Iran that they would be punished for doing so.

https://www.rt.com/usa/441041-pompeo-middle-east-like-israel/

Bolstered by ‘unwavering’ US support, Netanyahu thunders from UNGA dais

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delivered another fiery speech at the UN General Assembly, accusing Iran of nuclear ambitions and regional aggression and branding criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic.

Drawing a sharp contrast to last year, the Israeli PM exuded satisfaction that US President Donald Trump has since unilaterally torn up the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which the previous US administration backed against Netanyahu’s objections.

His message was clear: with Washington on Israel’s side, his government doesn’t care what the UN may think or say.

Netanyahu accused Iran of conducting a “campaign of carnage and conquest throughout the Middle East,” while continuing to harbor nuclear ambitions. As proof of that, he cited his April presentation about a “nuclear archive” Israeli spies raided in Tehran. Then came the bombshell: Iran also had a “secret atomic warehouse,” he claimed, holding up satellite and street photos of the facility, and naming its location: Maher Alley in Tehran’s Turquzabad district.

Radioactive rugs & Amazon Geiger counters

Channeling his April presentation, Netanyahu described the warehouse as being an “innocent-looking compound” next door to a rug-cleaning business, and even made a joke that the rug-cleaners are doing a “fantastic job.”

He accused the Iranians of “scurrying” to clean up the warehouse and spreading 15 kilograms of radioactive material around Tehran in an effort to hide the evidence. It was at this point he made a strange joke about Iranian inflation and commerce with the US, suggesting that Tehran residents buy Geiger counters on Amazon for $30, or about four million rials.

The warehouse might contain up to 300 tons of “nuclear-related equipment and materiel” in 15 “ship containers,” Netanyahu alleged, demanding international inspection “right here, right now.”

Leaving no room for doubt as to how he felt, Netanyahu warned the “tyrants of Tehran” that Israel will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, “Not now, not in 10 years, not ever!”

‘Whenever, wherever’

Another thread running through Netanyahu’s Philippic was that Iran was a regional aggressor -backing Houthis in Yemen, threatening to close the Persian Gulf, attacking Kurds in Iraq, fighting in Syria, and backing groups opposed to Israel, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

“We will act against you in Syria, we will act against you in Lebanon, we will act against you in Iraq, we will act against you in whenever, wherever,”the Israeli PM thundered from the UN dais, to applause from his delegation.

Bringing up Hezbollah, Netanyahu once again resorted to holding up satellite photos, this time of the international airport in Beirut, Lebanon. The Shia militia is upgrading its missiles for better accuracy, he claimed, and has placed three secret conversion sites near the airport, using civilians as human shields.

“Here’s a picture that’s worth a 1,000 missiles,” he said, holding up a satellite photo, and warning Hezbollah that “Israel will not let you get away with it.”

A beautiful friendship

The 2015 Iran nuclear deal did have one positive consequence, Netanyahu said, albeit an unintended one: it brought Israel and Iran’s Gulf Arab enemies closer together in what he described as “intimacy and friendship that I have not seen in my lifetime and that would have been unimaginable a few years before.”

These new friendships may result in formal peace treaties between Israel and Arabs, “including the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said.

Israel forever!

By contrast, the Israeli PM blistered European Union leaders for “appeasement” of Iran, deliberately framing the phrase in the context of WWII and the Holocaust, while blasting the UN for habitually “slandering Israel.”

Though the resolution equating Zionism to racism was repealed 25 years ago, “its foul stench still clings to these halls,” Netanyahu admonished the General Assembly, which had adopted Resolution 3379 in November 1975, and revoked it in December 1991.

Arguing that Israel is and can be both a Jewish iate, and the “same old anti-Semitism with a brand new face,” Netanyahu said.

He had nothing but praise, however, for the Trump administration, name-checking both the US president and his UN envoy Nikki Haley to thank them for “unwavering support” of his country’s cause in the world organization.

Though Netanyahu invoked a line of Biblical figures as proof of his people’s claim to the land of Israel and Jerusalem, it was clear that his confidence on the world stage was based on the backing of a more earthly power: the United States of America.

https://www.rt.com/news/439754-netanyahu-israel-iran-unga/

NY prosecutor drops part of sex assault case against Harvey Weinstein

New York prosecutors have dropped one of the sex crime charges against disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, according to news agencies.

Weinstein appeared before New York Judge James Burke as his lawyers tried to have some or all of the charges he faces dismissed. The basis for the motion filed by Ben Brafman said prosecutors withheld evidence when presenting the case to the grand jury, such as friendly emails that one of Weinstein accusers sent to him. The case includes rape and sexual assault charges.

During the Thursday hearing, the prosecutors agreed to drop charges relating to an alleged sexual assault. They said they could not oppose the dismissal in light of information that they had learned while investigating the case.

According to ABC News, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon dropped count six of the indictment involving Lucia Evans, an actress who accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in 2004. The rest of the counts against him remain.

It reportedly comes after the district attorney's office discovered a previous written account by Evans which could suggest that her sexual encounter with Weinstein was consensual.

Four other charges remain in the case against Weinstein before the Manhattan Criminal Court. The former movie producer pleaded not guilty to all of them and was granted bail at $1 million.

The fall of Weinstein began almost exactly one year ago, when an article by The New York Times reported allegations that Weinstein had sexually harassed multiple women and paid them for their silence. Days later, The New Yorker published the first in a series of articles in which women brought forth allegations of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment against the film executive.

Brafman said the written account from Evans was discovered from a fact-checker at The New Yorker, and that he would subpoena the magazine.

https://www.rt.com/usa/440991-drop-charges-weinstein-sex/

Well that was a good distraction.