New York’s attorney general has declared it’s illegal to sell fake social media engagement in order to inflate one’s online influence, ruling against one “fake like” merchant in a landmark decision in the battle against bots.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the settlement with social media influence peddler Devumi LLC and its subsidiaries in a first-of-its-kind ruling barring the companies from engaging in the sale of fake social media engagement going forward. The settlement includes a $50,000 fine that owner German Calas Jr. has agreed to pay after pleading no contest to the charges.
Devumi and its affiliates made $15 million selling fake followers, “likes,” views, and other social media engagement from 2015 to 2017, activity that was generated by a stable of 3.5 million bots and “sock puppets” – one person operating multiple accounts. Some of the fake accounts copied the identities of real people, including their photos, and may have deceived Devumi’s customers into believing they were buying engagement with actual humans, the decision said.
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https://www.rt.com/usa/450382-fake-social-media-engagement-illegal/
The epidemic of typhus in Los Angeles, California has spread from homeless encampments to City Hall. Local authorities say they are trying to address the problem, but critics point to mountains of trash lining the streets.
Deputy City Attorney Liz Greenwood was diagnosed with typhus in November, after complaining about having headaches and high fever, she told KNBC on Friday.
“It felt like somebody was driving railroad stakes through my eyes and out the back of my neck,” Greenwood said. “Who gets typhus? It's a medieval disease that's caused by trash.”
Last year the Los Angeles County registered a record 124 cases of typhus, KNBC reported citing the California Department of Public Health. One of them was Greenwood, who believes she caught the disease from fleas that made their way into her office.
“There are rats in City Hall and City Hall East,” she said. “There are enormous rats and their tails are as long as their bodies.”
Rats often carry fleas, and tend to live in garbage piles that have accumulated across Los Angeles as the city’s homeless population continues to grow uncontrollably.
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https://www.rt.com/usa/450379-los-angeles-typhus-epidemic/
The people behind a fundraiser in support of President Donald Trump’s border wall have been touring South Texas, trying to get local farmers on board with their private project to erect a barrier on the US-Mexico border.
The scouting party is led by Brian Coflage, the man behind the ambitious December 2018 fundraiser that aimed at giving Trump’s southern border wall a boost through private financing. The effort racked up over $20 million in donations and has since been transformed into a non-profit, which pledges to invest the money into a wall-building effort. Coflage, an Iraq War veteran and triple amputee, and his associates have been touting their plan before local landowners this week, AP reported.
Regardless of who wants to build the wall to stop illegal immigration, the project faces environmental and legal challenges, considering that much of the land needed for it is private. WeBuildtheWall activists can’t use eminent domain powers like the government does, so diplomacy is their only option.
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https://www.rt.com/usa/450378-border-wall-fundraiser-farmers/
“Nobody Died at Sandy Hook”
The Pozner vs Fetzer Lawsuit is On!
Posted on January 11, 2019 Author Preston James, Ph.DComments(3)
Well-known US Marine Officer Vet, former CIA Officer and Intel expert, web host, frequent talk show guest, and noted intelligence reformer, Robert David Steele reports on the Pozner vs. Fetzer lawsuit.
Professor James Fetzer is the Editor of the Amazon-banned book “Nobody Died at Sandy Hook”. Pozner is suing Fetzer over Fetzer’s published conclusion that the death certificate Pozner provided to researcher Kelley Watt is a fabrication for which he adduced multiple reasons in Chapter 11 of this well-known book, which anyone can download for free as a .pdf.
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https://www.veteranstoday.com/2019/01/11/the-pozner-vs-fetzer-lawsuit-is-on/
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