FTC sues Facebook: What does it mean for social media users?
Chris Garaffa | liberationnews.org | 2020-12-12
The complaint is not about privacy or speech.
liberationnews.org/ftc-sues-facebook-what-does-it-mean-for-social-media-users/

Yet Another Major Escalation In Establishment Internet Censorship
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-12
YouTube, whose corporate owner Google is arguably the most powerful company on earth, is now deleting user videos which claim the US election was fraudulent. | YouTube's official statement on its decision to do this is very revealing, not so much for what it says as for what it does not say. | At no point does the video publishing platform attempt to argue that it is removing these videos because they jeopardize anyone's health or safety, as it did when it began deleting videos deemed to be spreading misinformation about Covid-19. | At no point does it attempt to argue that these videos are inciting violence, as…
popularresistance.org/yet-another-major-escalation-in-establishment-internet-censorship/

Critics Pan Time's Choice of Biden-Harris for 2020 Person of the Year Award
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2020-12-11
"This is Joe Biden's year. He not only managed to stay alive until the election, he also did other things, presumably." — YouTube creator Shaun…
mintpressnews.com/critics-time-choice-of-joe-biden-kamala-harris-2020-person-of-the-year/273557/

Go Vote Yourself a Raise, Georgia — You've Long Earned It
Ralph Nader | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-11
All political eyes are on Georgia's runoff election on January 5th, 2021. Two Senate seats are up for grabs and will decide whether the evil Trumpster and corporatist Senator Mitch McConnell stays in total control of the U.S. Senate or not. If the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split, 50-50. Vice President…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/11/go-vote-yourself-a-raise-georgia-youve-long-earned-it/

Trustbusters target Facebook, but anti-monopoly effort shores up capitalism
C.J. Atkins | peoplesworld.org | 2020-12-11
Coming on the heels of a Justice Department lawsuit against Google filed in October, social networking giant Facebook is now in the crosshairs of the trustbusters at the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of more than 48 state and territorial governments. Anti-monopoly momentum is picking up as regulators, long regarded as asleep at the …
peoplesworld.org/article/trustbusters-target-facebook-but-anti-monopoly-effort-shores-up-capitalism/

Yuma Hospital Fires ER Doctor For Talking About COVID-19
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-11
Dr. Cleavon Gilman, a well-known emergency-medicine physician, has been asked not to return to his work at Yuma Regional Medical Center for his social media posts about the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, according to him and his staffing agency. | "What I don't understand about this is I have been advocating for Arizona; I have been calling for a mask mandate, the closure of schools and indoor dining," Gilman told The Arizona Republic. "I did all of this because we are seeing an unprecedented number of cases. This is my third surge — I know how this ends."
popularresistance.org/yuma-hospital-fires-er-doctor-for-talking-about-covid-19/

US Federal Trade Commission sues Facebook over monopolistic acquisitions and anticompetitive practices
wsws.org | 2020-12-11
The FTC, along with 48 US attorneys general, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the social media giant Facebook on Wednesday, seeking to split off its popular Instagram and WhatsApp properties and regulate the firm's business practices.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/12/11/face-d11-d11.html

Twitter Acquires Screen-Sharing and Video Chat App Squad
sputniknews.com | 2020-12-11
Squad is a social networking app that allows users to share their screens with friends and family as part of a video call. The app was launched last year.
sputniknews.com/science/202012111081434033-twitter-acquires-screen-sharing-and-video-chat-app-squad/

'Spurious charges': Women's activist Loujain al-Hathloul appears before Saudi terror court
MEE staff | middleeasteye.net | 2020-12-10
'Spurious charges': Women's activist Loujain al-Hathloul appears before Saudi terror court | UN expert following trial says she is 'extremely alarmed' by Hathloul's prosecution in terror court, which she says is based on false charges | MEE staff | Thu, 12/10/2020 – 22: 05 | Undated handout picture released on Facebook page of Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul shows her at beach (AFP/file photo) | Imprisoned Saudi women'…
www.middleeasteye.net/news/spurious-charges-womens-activist-loujain-al-hathloul-appears-terror-court

Al Jazeera anchor files lawsuit against Saudi, UAE rulers over alleged phone hacking
MEE staff | middleeasteye.net | 2020-12-10
Al Jazeera anchor files lawsuit against Saudi, UAE rulers over alleged phone hacking | The lawsuit was brought against Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed over alleged operation against Oueiss because of her reporting on Gulf states | MEE staff | Thu, 12/10/2020 – 12: 25 | Prominent Al Jazeera TV anchor Ghada Oueiss says she was hacked in the operation (Facebook) | Prominent Al Jazeera TV anchor Ghada Oueiss has fi…
www.middleeasteye.net/news/qatar-saudi-arabia-uae-al-jazeera-anchor-lawsuit-hacking

Stop Government Attack On COVID-19 Whistleblower
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-10
Florida state police barged into Jones' home Monday with guns aimed at her and her family. They seized her phone, computer and several hard drives, preventing her from continuing to publish data on COVID-19 outbreaks. After the raid Jones tweeted: "They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids… This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo." | Jones tweeted Friday that she has learned that Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes was appointed by Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in September, and one of his first acts as a judge was to sign the search warrant that led to the seizure of her technology.
popularresistance.org/stop-government-attack-on-covid-19-whistleblower/

Consumer Price Index: Rental Inflation Has Slowed Sharply Since the Pandemic
Karen Conner | cepr.net | 2020-12-10
(This is a compilation of Dean Baker's quick-take analysis over Twitter. Follow @DeanBaker13 on Twitter to get his quick-take analysis of government data immediately upon release.) Overall and core CPI both rose 0.2 percent in November. Overall CPI is up 1.2 percent year-over-year. Core CPI is up 1.6 percent year-over-year. Store bought food prices fell …
cepr.net/prices-2020-12/

Federal and state lawsuits brought against Facebook calls for an end to BigTech's predatory practices
Ashley Curtin | nationofchange.org | 2020-12-10