DoJ and State AGs Prepare Antitrust Case Against Google, but Search Bias Is Missing

State attorneys general met with the Justice Department on Friday to make preparations for an anticipated antitrust case against Google. However, sources say that search bias — which is crucial to Google’s ability to sway elections and control the flow of political information — is not yet a major part of the DoJ’s case.

Politico reported on the gathering of state AGs and the Justice Department ahead of the meeting on Friday. Politico’s report suggests that the focus is currently on the criticisms of Google from its corporate competitors, namely its dominance of the digital ads market and its alleged tendency to favor its own products and services.

Unlike previous probes into the tech company, prosecutors started by analyzing Google’s control over the technology used to serve, buy and sell the online advertising that funds many websites. News publishers and other advertisers have complained about Google’s dominance in the “ad tech” market.

— Search 2.0: Investigators have also looked into areas where Google faced a previous investigation by the FTC and European authorities over giving advantages to its own products and exclusive contracts that require Google as the default browser on smartphones that use Android. At Friday’s meeting, prosecutors are expected to debate how broad or narrow the case against Google could be and what allegations they might include in a complaint.

According to a later piece on Politico, prosecutors are “still discussing whether to include other aspects of Google’s conduct related to search.” As it currently stands, the case is expected to include an investigation of Google’s dominance in ads and allegations that it has attempted to forge a search monopoly through contracts with smartphone manufacturers.

According to a source familiar with the discussions between the DoJ and the state AGs, if the antitrust case were filed today, it would not include any significant focus on search bias.

This is likely to anger companies like TripAdvisor and lastminute.com, which have been accusing Google of biasing its search results to favor its own travel services for many years.

It also means that Google’s political search bias — which has the potential to massively sway the outcome of democratic elections — would also not come under scrutiny.

Attorney General William Barr has yet to make his final decision on whether or not to file a DOJ case against Google, meaning that search bias could still be added to the case. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has said he has called on Barr to include search within the investigation’s scope.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/06/29/doj-prepares-antitrust-case-against-google-but-search-bias-is-missing/

WashPost: Mark Zuckerberg Rewrote Facebook’s Rules Around Donald Trump

The Washington Post alleges that social media giant Facebook began to develop policies as early as 2015 that made exceptions for Donald Trump in the event that he posted content that could violate Facebook’s guidelines.

The Washington Post reports in an article titled “Zuckerberg Once Wanted to Sanction Trump. Then Facebook Wrote Rules That Accommodated Him,” that last month when President Trump made a post on Facebook and Twitter about sending the military to shut down protests and riots in Minnesota, the post was hidden by Twitter for violating its guidelines, an act which caused outrage amongst many of the President’s supporters and appeared to definitively show that Twitter was willing to censor conservative voices — even if the voice is that of the President of the United States. Facebook, in comparison, chose not to censor the President’s post.

The Post claims that in recent years, Facebook has altered a number of policies in order to accommodate President Trump. The Post reports:

Facebook has constrained its efforts against false and misleading news, adopted a policy explicitly allowing politicians to lie, and even altered its news feed algorithm to neutralize claims that it was biased against conservative publishers, according to more than a dozen former and current employees and previously unreported documents obtained by The Washington Post. One of the documents shows it began as far back as 2015, when as a candidate Trump posted a video calling for a ban of Muslims entering the United States. Facebook’s executives declined to remove it, setting in motion an exception for political discourse.

The concessions to Trump have led to a transformation of the world’s information battlefield. They paved the way for a growing list of digitally savvy politicians to repeatedly push out misinformation and incendiary political language to billions of people. It has complicated the public understanding of major events such as the pandemic and the protest movement, as well as contributed to polarization.

Internally, Facebook’s policy decisions were reportedly causing issues amongst staff who were becoming increasingly bothered by Facebook’s decisions. One Facebook security engineer, David Thiel, reportedly quit in disgust over:

Two months before Trump’s “looting, shooting” post, the Brazilian president posted about the country’s indigenous population, saying, “Indians are undoubtedly changing. They are increasingly becoming human beings just like us.”

Thiel, the security engineer, and other employees argued internally that it violated the company’s internal guidelines against “dehumanizing speech.” They were referring to Zuckerberg’s own words while testifying before Congress in October in which he said dehumanizing speech “is the first step toward inciting” violence. In internal correspondence, Thiel was told that it didn’t qualify as racism — and may have even been a positive reference to integration. Thiel quit in disgust.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/06/29/washpost-mark-zuckerberg-rewrote-facebooks-rules-around-donald-trump/

Ron Paul: The Media Is Lying About The "Second Wave"

For months, the Washington Post and the rest of the mainstream media kept a morbid Covid-19 “death count” on their front pages and at the top of their news broadcasts. The coronavirus outbreak was all about the number of dead. The narrative was intended to boost governors like Cuomo in New York and Whitmer in Michigan, who turned their states authoritarian under the false notion that destroying people’s jobs, freedom, and lives would somehow keep a virus from doing what viruses always do: spread through a population until eventually losing strength and dying out.

The “death count” was always the headline.

For months, the Washington Post and the rest of the mainstream media kept a morbid Covid-19 “death count” on their front pages and at the top of their news broadcasts. The coronavirus outbreak was all about the number of dead. The narrative was intended to boost governors like Cuomo in New York and Whitmer in Michigan, who turned their states authoritarian under the false notion that destroying people’s jobs, freedom, and lives would somehow keep a virus from doing what viruses always do: spread through a population until eventually losing strength and dying out.

The “death count” was always the headline.

But then all of a sudden early in June the mainstream media did a George Orwell and lectured us that it is all about “cases” and has always been all about “cases.” Death, and especially infection fatality rate, were irrelevant. Why? Because from the peak in April, deaths had decreased by 90 percent and were continuing to crash. That was not terrifying enough so the media pretended this good news did not exist.

With massive increases in testing, the “case” numbers climbed. This is not rocket science: the more people you test the more “cases” you discover.

Unfortunately our mainstream media is only interested in pushing the “party line.” So the good news that millions more have been exposed while the fatality rate continues to decline - meaning the virus is getting weaker - is buried under hysterical false reporting of “new cases.”

Unfortunately many governors, including our own here in Texas, are incapable of resisting the endless lies of the mainstream media. They are putting Americans again through the nightmare of forced business closures, mandated face masks, and restrictions of Constitutional liberties based on false propaganda.

In Texas the “second wave” propaganda has gotten so bad that the leaders of the four major hospitals in Houston took the extraordinary step late last week of holding a joint press conference to clarify that the scare stories of Houston hospitals being overwhelmed with Covid cases are simply untrue. Dr. Marc Boom of Houston Methodist said the reporting on hospital capacity is misleading. He said, “quite frankly, we’re concerned that there is a level of alarm in the community that is unwarranted right now.”

In fact, there has been much reporting that the “spike” in Texas cases is not due to a resurgence of the virus but to hospital practices of Covid-testing every patient coming in for any procedure at all. If it’s a positive, well that counts as a “Covid hospitalization.” Why would hospitals be so dishonest in their diagnoses? Billions of appropriated Federal dollars are being funneled to facilities based on the number of “Covid cases” they can produce. As I’ve always said, if you subsidize something you get more of it. And that’s why we are getting more Covid cases.

http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2020/june/29/the-media-is-lying-about-the-second-wave/

Bill de Blasio Confirms $1 Billion Cut from NYPD Budget

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) confirmed Monday that he will slash $1 billion from the budget of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), despite a surge in shootings in the wake of protests and violent unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd.

“I am excited to say that we have a plan that can achieve real reform, that can achieve real redistribution, and at the same time ensure that we keep our city safe,” De Blasio told reporters, according to Politico.

“Everything was with an eye to safety, so we will be able to ensure the patrol strength we need. We will be able to ensure that school safety can do its job. The school safety issue would be addressed over several years,” the mayor continued.

“I was skeptical at first, and wanted to see how it could all come together,” he added. “A lot of painstaking work occurred to figure out the right way to do things.”

De Blasio’s remarks come after Politico reported Sunday that night the mayor’s office greenlighted the cuts, which were proposed by New York City City Council members:

“The deal involves moving school safety agents, who are unarmed but wear police uniforms, into the Department of Education, canceling a July class of roughly 1,100 police recruits, and shifting certain homeless outreach operations away from police control,” the news outlet detailed.

The city’s budget must be approved by midnight Tuesday.

Anthonine Pierre, a press representative for Communities United for Police Reform, slammed De Blasio’s plan to cut funding for the NYPD: “Mayor de Blasio and Speaker [Corey] Johnson are using funny math and budget tricks to try to mislead New Yorkers into thinking that they plan to meet the movement’s demands for at least $1B in direct cuts”

“This is a lie,” Pierre added.

Plans to slash funding come after the New York Post reported that shootings in New York City surged following the NYPD’s recent decision to dismantle its plainclothes anti-crime unit. In the last nine days, 110 people have reportedly been shot in the Big Apple.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/29/bill-de-blasio-confirms-1-billion-cut-from-nypd-budget/

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Threatens to Take Action Against Couple Who Protected Home Against Protest Mob on Private Street

On Sunday night several hundred Black Lives Matter protesters gathered in the Central West End neighborhood in St. Louis City. Then in the evening they hundreds of protesters crossed Kingshighway and entered Portland Place, a private gated community inside the city limits.

The broke through this gate.

A couple in the neighborhood were having dinner outside at the time when they heard the commotion. The husband and wife were scared to death at the commotion and went out in their front yard with guns. The Second Amendment is alive and well in St. Louis.

The protesters continued over to Lake Avenue to protest St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson. The Black Lives Matter mob wants her to resign.

The couple was outside in their yard after hearing the protest mob break down the gate.

The protesters were chanting, “Our streets!”

The couple said, “We were in fear for our lives.”

On Monday morning far left Soros-funded Circuit Attorney did not condemn the lawless protest mob.

Instead Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner sent out a statement threatening the couple!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/st-louis-circuit-attorney-threatens-take-action-couple-protected-home-protest-mob-private-street/

Adidas, Reebok, Ford, HP, Microsoft Pause Advertisements With Facebook As Boycott Builds

Update (15:18ET): The list of companies pausing advertisements on Facebook continues to grow by the hour.

CNBC reported moments ago that Adidas and Reebok had suspended advertisements on Facebook and Instagram through July.

A separate report via Axios indicates Microsoft has also paused advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

Reuters notes that Ford Motor Co is planning to halt advertising on the social media platform for the next 30 days.

And now, HP Inc. has said it will pause advertising on Facebook, as it must review its social media strategy.

CNBC provides a snapshot of some of the companies "unfriending Facebook" as a mass exodus of advertisers has been seen in the last several days.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/facebook-pummeled-pre-market-boycott-builds-liberal-media-takes-aim-zuck

ABC’s Hostin: Trump ‘Traffics in Racism Regularly’

Monday on ABC’s “The View,” co-host and network legal analyst Sunny Hostin said she did not believe President Donald Trump did not hear the “white power” chant on a video he shared on Twitter because “he traffics in racism regularly.”

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg said, “Another weekend, another uproar that started from you know whose Twitter account. What a shocker. He retweeted a video of people counter-protesting an anti-you know who demonstration in Florida, and it featured a reoccurring theme in his presidency.”

She continued, “The ended up deleting the Tweet, which is a shocker in itself, but not before it reached his 80 million-plus followers. Now the White House says he didn’t hear the white power chant, but all he noticed was the enthusiastic supporters. Now, I don’t know how. Everybody and their mama heard that chant, but maybe, Sunny, I’m wrong. Are you buying he didn’t hear it? He didn’t know what he was retweeting?”

Hostin said, “I mean this is a president who traffics in racism. He started his campaign trafficking in racism, calling Mexicans, you know, rapists, and we know that what he called African countries. He traffics in racism regularly. There’s, you know, good on both sides, that kind of thing. And the notion that the White House talked about this tweet and didn’t condemn what was said on the video is remarkable to me. I think the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the president — she didn’t take the opportunity to in any way condemn that phrase, and the White House press secretary Judd Deere said he the president didn’t hear the statement made on the video. The statement was made over and over again. I just can’t imagine that that’s what this country has come to. That we’re being led by this kind of man.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/06/29/abcs-hostin-trump-traffics-in-racism-regularly/

Twitch suspends Donald Trump's account as Reddit bans his supporters' biggest community

On the same day streaming platform Twitch suspended Donald Trump's account for violating their hateful conduct policy, social networking site Reddit has shut down its largest group supportive of the president.

The subreddit 'The_Donald' was the most popular community devoted to supporters of the president and included more than 790,000 users, who often used the space to post political memes and videos. Reddit executives have accused the group of targeting and harassing individuals and consistently breaking its conduct rules.“Reddit is a place for community and belonging, not for attacking people,” the company’s Chief Executive Steve Huffman told reporters on Monday.

Reddit also banned multiple other accounts for violating their policies, though some have accused the company of using a mass ban to cover up a bias against the Trump community. "Reddit's ban [of] a bunch of mostly irrelevant subreddits (apart from ChapoTrapHouse) is just cover to ban r/The_Donald, which was the largest pro-MAGA community on the Internet," tweeted YouTuber and Human Events Managing Editor Ian Miles Cheong.

https://www.rt.com/usa/493282-twitch-reddit-suspend-ban-trump/

Pompeo: US Condemns China Over Reports of Forced Sterilization Against Uighurs

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling on China to "cease its campaign of repression" against "Uyghur and other minority women."

The Trump administration official took to Twitter on Monday to issue Washington's condemnation of the reported sterilization, forced abortions and intrauterine devices (IUDs) forced on Uighurs.

This comes hours after the Associated Press, citing an advanced copy of research conducted by China scholar Adrian Zenz, reported that the Chinese government has been carrying out practices of forced birth control in order to curb the Muslim population in Xinjiang, China.

“This kind of drop is unprecedented….there’s a ruthlessness to it,” the researcher asserted. “This is part of a wider control campaign to subjugate the Uighurs.”

"The world received disturbing reports today that the Chinese Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion, and coercive family planning against Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, as part of a continuing campaign of repression," Pompeo said in a statement posted by department's website on Monday.

"German researcher Adrian Zenz’s shocking revelations are sadly consistent with decades of CCP practices that demonstrate an utter disregard for the sanctity of human life and basic human dignity. We call on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately end these horrific practices and ask all nations to join the United States in demanding an end to these dehumanizing abuses."

The report noted that despite the nationwide decrease in sterilization and IUDs, their use has increased "sharply" Xinjiang.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson slammed the report as "fake news" and told the AP that all those in the country, "regardless of whether they’re an ethnic minority or Han Chinese, must follow and act in accordance with the law.”

https://sputniknews.com/us/202006291079751284-pompeo-us-condemns-china-over-reports-of-forced-sterilization-against-uighurs/