Tag Archives: social media

TWITTER: Social Media Site Now Only Valued At 1/3 Of What Elon Musk Paid For It.

May 31, 2023Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The Globeblood diamonds, Elon Musk, hate monger, idiot, loser, social media, twitterWill Kohler

Seems that hate speech doesn’t pay. Eh, Elon?

According to Fidelity: Twitter is now worth just one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social-media platform.

Twitter is now worth just one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social-media platform, according to Fidelity, which recently marked down the value of its equity stake in the company.

Musk has acknowledged he overpaid for Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion, including $33.5 billion in equity. More recently, he said Twitter is worth less than half what he paid for it.

It’s unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new, lower valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company. Fidelity first reduced the value of its Twitter stake in November, to 44% of the purchase price. That was followed by further markdowns in December and February.
Yahoo FINANCE

Twitter in reality was never “worth” $40 billion. Elon Musk grossly overpaid for a company that had no long-term strategy for making a profit except to allow hate speech and the expectation of millions of former right-wing hate mongers to return.

SOME came back. But only enough to make the social media site a dangerous place and forced more to leave than return.

*Beginning today, Back2Stonewall will no longer link to any Twitter posts unless it’s a last resort to verify a story.

RUSSIA Fines GOOGLE Over $38,000 For Failing To Remove “LGBT Propaganda”.

May 11, 2023Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The Globeanti-LGBT laws, gay hate, Google, Moscow, Russia, social mediaWill Kohler

A Moscow court has fined Alphabet’s Google <GOOGL.O> 3 million roubles ($38,600) on Thursday for failing to delete YouTube videos it said promoted “LGBT propaganda” and “false information”

Over the last year Moscow has levied dozens of fines against Western tech companies as part of a drive to ramp up control over what Russian internet users see online.

Under the new expanded law, which widens Russia’s interpretation of what qualifies as “LGBT propaganda” and has been heavily criticized by independent human rights groups, any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books or advertising, could incur a heavy fine.

Russian prosecutors said Google had refused to remove several videos posted on YouTube, including one from a blogger deemed a “foreign agent” by Moscow about how same-sex couples raise children and about the LGBT community in St. Petersburg.

Alphabet’s Google filed for bankruptcy last year after authorities seized its bank accounts following a December 2021 fine of 7.2 billion roubles ($92.6 million) over what Russian authorities said was the company’s “repeated failure” to delete content.

Homeland Security Committee Issues Report Warning LGBT Community To Beware of Violence

February 26, 2023Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Gay News From Around The GlobeDomestic Terrorism, Extremist, Facebook, FBI, social media, twitter, white supremacistsWill Kohler

Reports major social media platforms and the FBI and are not doing enough to address the threat of domestic terrorism from white supremacists and anti-government extremists.

In a 128-page report, the Senate Homeland Security Committee alleged that federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the major social media platforms, are not doing enough to address the threat of domestic terrorism from white supremacists and anti-government extremists.

The FBI itself has come under scrutiny when it came out that they had the Colorado Springs gunman on their radar just weeks before that shooting, when he had been arrested for threatening to kill family members. Agents closed out the case just a few weeks later.

On the social media front, each of the major platforms such as Meta (formerly known as Facebook), TikTok, and YouTube have all released their own statements. While a Meta spokesperson talked about the company’s Community Standards Enforcement Report, which showed a low prevalence of terror and organized hate content, Nick Clegg, a top executive, had a different opinion. Last year, Clegg stated, “The reality is, it’s not in Facebook’s interest — financially or reputationally — to continually turn up the temperature and push users towards ever more extreme content.”

“These companies point to the voluminous amount of violative content they remove from their platforms, but the investigation found that their own recommendations, algorithms and other features and products play in the proliferation of that content in the first place,” the report said. “Absent new incentives or regulation, extremist content will continue to proliferate on these platforms and companies’ content moderation efforts will continue to be inadequate to stop its spread.”

The Committee’s investigation also found that the four major social media companies —use the same model, maximizing user engagement, growth, and profits, basically incentivizing extremists and their content and entered algorithms that pushed users into so-called rabbit holes. The algorithms suggest groups and people that could lead to the radicalization of users.

Please be careful.

You can read the entire report by CLICKING HERE

ATLANTIS EVENTS Gay Circuit Party Cruises Change Social Media Policy to Ban “Sexually Explicit Pics.

February 7, 2023Featured, Gay News Domestic & U.S. PoliticsAtlantis Gay Cruise, circut party, death, drugs, social mediaWill Kohler

Atlantis Events is having it’s “Largest Gay Cruise in History” aboard the “incredible Harmony of the Seas“. Scheduled for February 4th to 12th, the cruise promises “8 fabulous nights packed full of awe-inspiring parties, superstar performers, great friends, and endless surprises.” (Other than the usual surprises of people going overboard, drug OD’s and COVID.)

Last year, the New York Times published an article by Ceylan Yeginsu quoting an Atlantis Events’ partygoer saying “this is going to be the wildest party for our community in two years. I’m talking dirty dancing, sex, drugs, raves, orgies . . . ” But this year, Atlantis has a new rule. In an email recently sent to the over 5,000 guests who are booked on the cruise, it claims that it will disembark (without refund) any guest who publishes any photos or videos of “anything explicitly sexual on social media.”

Why? They don’t want more incriminating pictures especially with the cruises’ past histories.

The email reads: “Important – New Social Media Policy – While we want everyone to have fun, there are limits and so we ask that you be respectful of all guests and our cruise partners. Please do not post anything explicitly sexual on social media in a public forum or other online space. Any guest who posts or publishes an explicit and publicly visible photo or video will be asked to leave the ship with no refund. This also applies to any private media posts (whether or not behind a paywall) that identify or could identify either Atlantis, our vendor brands, their properties, or any other guests with or without permission. We take this seriously and have a team of volunteers monitoring most sites. Thank you for understanding and keeping Atlantis friendly!”:

The last fourteen years Atlantis Events cruises have ended numerous overdoses, arrests and at least five drug-related deaths on Royal Caribbean cruises chartered to Atlantis:

Last year, a guest attending the Atlantis Events cruise aboard the Oasis of the Sea died as the Royal Caribbean cruise ship was heading to Mexico due to drug use complicated by inadequate medical care. Medical care which is supplied by Atlantis not Royal Caribbean

In February 2019, federal agents arrested two men trying to board the Allure of the Seas at PortMiami for possession of a large quantity of drugs which they were intending to sell on the cruise ship which had been chartered by Atlantis Events.

In January 2018, Storm Chasers’ star Joel Taylor died of a overdose on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, which had been chartered by Atlantis Events. ” .

There were more drug deaths in the following years going all the way back all the way to 2009, a passenger died after he reportedly took drugs during a cruise aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship which had been chartered for the use of Atlantis Events. Spencer Yu, an attorney for Warner Brothers and a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (“GLAAD”), died on the Mariner of the Seas. The medical care was described by party goers as delayed and haphazard.

The question is not just why Atlantis Events thought that it should try to prevent posting of sexually explicit photos and video while Atlantis Events has not made an attempt to prevent the use of recreational party drugs which have claimed so many lives during these type of cruises.

HELP KEEP US GOING!

Facebook Denies Demands of Anti-LGBT “Christians” Requests For a Cross Emoji

July 2, 2017Featured, Religious Morons and Anti-Gay IdiotsAlt-Right, bigots, Christian Conservatives, emoji, Facebook, homophobes, social mediaWill Kohler

Earlier this month, Facebook rolled out a special rainbow flag reaction emoji, allowing users to honor the LGBT community when responding to friends’ photos, statuses and other posts. Facebook officials said they created the reaction in an effort to “celebrate love and diversity” while reaffirming the company’s stance as “a platform that supports all communities.”

The move did not sit well with some extremist right-wing “Christians”

On June 24, Facebook user Hikmat Hanna posted an image asking the social network to create a cross reaction emoji. The next day, Hanna’s post was shared by Arizona-based anti-LGBT evangelist Joshua Feuerstein, who shared the image with his more than two million bigoted Facebook followers.

Feuerstein’s post had racked up more than 19,000 likes, and had been shared more than 9,000 times. “You can’t cheat nature. God cannot create people of the same sex to ever fall in love with one another,” one person commented. “He can’t.” Added another: “People took a symbol like the rainbow which means beauty and a non-destructive action and turned it into a destructive sinful symbol.”

Despite the many requests from Feuerstein and his ~~lemmings~~ followers Facebook won’t give in. “This reaction is not actually available on Facebook, and is not something we’re working on.”

Feuerstein’s anti-gay alt-right conservative views are well-known. In 2015, he unsuccessfully tried to order a cake that read, “We do not support gay marriage,” from a Florida bakery. Later that year, he made headlines when he recorded a video blasting Starbucks for using minimalist red cups without any direct reference to Christmas during the holiday season.

Feuerstein also uploaded a video onto the video-sharing website Vimeo.com in which he is shown saying, “I say, tonight, we punish Planned Parenthood. I think it’s time that abortion doctors should have to run and hide and be afraid for their life.” [sic] The original video was taken down on November 30, 2015 in the aftermath of the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting but it was saved and reposted onto YouTube by many of his followers.

Source: HuffPo

House Democrats Introduce “The COVFEFE Act” (REALLY!)

June 12, 2017Featured, Of InterestConfefe, Confefe Act, Democrats, Donald Trump, OMFG, social media, twitterWill Kohler

Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Transparency Caucus, introduced the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement or “COVFEFE” Act.

This bill codifies vital guidance from the National Archives by amending the Presidential Records Act to include the term “social media” as a documentary material, ensuring additional preservation of presidential communication and statements while promoting government accountability and transparency.

“In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets,” said Rep. Quigley. “President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented.

If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post.”

In 2014, the National Archives released guidance stating its belief that social media merits historical recording. President Trump’s unprecedented use of Twitter calls particular attention to this concern.

When referencing the use of social media, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said, “The president is president of the United States so they are considered official statements by the president of the United States.”

President Trump’s tweets frequently make national news and are a topic of everyday conversation, including deciphering the meaning behind his tweet using the previously unheard of term, “covfefe.”

While his personal account has become the de facto account for government business, it is unclear as to whether or not it would be archived in the same manner as the official @POTUS account under the Presidential Records Act.

Another concern relates to President Trump’s frequent deletion of tweets. Including social media in the Presidential Records Act ensures that deleted tweets are documented for archival purposes, and makes deleting tweets a violation of the Presidential Records Act, subject to disciplinary action. – Vis Press Release

Man Accused Of Making PULSE Style Massacre Threats Against Gay Community To Be Arraigned Today On Federal Terrorist Charges

September 6, 2016Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politicsanti-gay, Man Accused Of Making PULSE Style Masscre Threats Against Gay Community To Be Arraigned Today On Federal Terrorist Charges, social media, terrorist, Violence, Wilton ManorsWill Kohler

Craig Jungwirth who made social media posts threatening a Pulse-style attack against the LGBT community over Labor Day weekend in South Florida was arrested Saturday by the Florida Highway Patrol.

Orlando’s NBC affiliate reports:

On Wednesday, FBI agents identified the address of Jungwirth’s mother, and found Craig Jungwirth walking on the street in the area of Citrus Chase Drive in the Bay Hill area. FBI and Orlando Police detectives talked to Jungwirth, who refused to read the printed Facebook statements, and denied making the threats. He would not speak further, and referred detectives to his lawyer.

The FBI subpoenaed Facebook, which identified Jungwirth as the user of the Facebook account that posted the threats, and traced the internet account with Brighthouse Networks to Jungwirth’s address. Jungwirth was arrested Saturday. The FBI has charged him with one count of “threatening communications.”

He is in federal custody at the Seminole County Jail and is expected to have his initial appearance before a judge on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Orlando. Numerous law agencies are continuing to work the case, including FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Miami and Tampa, along with the Orlando Police Department, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

Sources tell Back2Stonewall that Jungwirth is very well known in the Wilton Manors community and that he is a constant nuisance and trouble maker

Jungwirth faces up to five years in federal prison.

Facebook Being Sued for $1 Billion for Alleged Use of Medium as Platform for Terrorism

July 11, 2016Gay News From Around The GlobeFacebook, Facebook Being Sued for $1 Billion for Alleged Use of Medium as Platform for Terrorism, Hamas, social media, terrorismWill Kohler

Israeli lawyers have filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Facebook Inc., alleging it allowed the Palestinian militant Hamas group to use the platform to plot attacks that killed four Americans and wounded one in Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem.

“Facebook has knowingly provided material support and resources to Hamas in the form of Facebook’s online social network platform and communication services,” making it liable for the violence against the five Americans, according to the lawsuit sent to Bloomberg by the office of the Israeli lawyer on the case, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

The suit was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 10. Plaintiffs include the families of Yaakov Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old abducted and murdered in June 2014 after hitching a ride in the West Bank, and 3-year-old Chaya Braun, whose stroller was struck intentionally by a Palestinian driver in October 2014 at a train station in Jerusalem.

The lawsuit alleges that Hamas used Facebook to share operational and tactical information with members and followers, posting notices of upcoming demonstrations, road closures, Israeli military actions and instructions to operatives to carry out the attacks.

Facebook in March took down a page promoting a new Palestinian uprising against Israel because it made “direct calls for violence,” in violation of company polices.

Mushir al-Masri, a senior Hamas leader, said by phone that “suing Facebook clearly shows the American policy of fighting freedom of the press and expression” and is evidence of U.S. prejudice against the group and “its just cause.”

Source: Bloomberg.com

Seems that hate speech doesn’t pay. Eh, Elon?

Twitter is now worth just one-third of what Elon Musk paid for the social-media platform, according to Fidelity, which recently marked down the value of its equity stake in the company.

Musk has acknowledged he overpaid for Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion, including $33.5 billion in equity. More recently, he said Twitter is worth less than half what he paid for it.

It’s unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new, lower valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company. Fidelity first reduced the value of its Twitter stake in November, to 44% of the purchase price. That was followed by further markdowns in December and February.

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Reports major social media platforms and the FBI and are not doing enough to address the threat of domestic terrorism from white supremacists and anti-government extremists.

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