Category Archives: Technology

Will Congress Break Up Big Tech?


Will Congress Break Up Big Tech? – powered by ise.media

U.S. lawmakers are pushing new legislation that would limit the powers of Silicon Valley giants – and Big Tech doesn’t like it. So much so, that Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to complain about it! Ben Swann asks Danish programmer David Heinemeier Hansson if Big Tech is too big.

********

Check out our sponsor, Create Tailwind: https://createtailwind.com

********

Support Truth in Media by visiting our sponsors:

Pulse Cellular: Use code “TRUTH” for 10% every plan for life.
https://truthinmedia.com/phone​

Pure VPN: Military grade vpn protection.
https://truthinmedia.com/vpn​

Brave Browser: Open source and built by a team of privacy focused, performance oriented pioneers of the web.
https://truthinmedia.com/brave​

Elon Musk Wrong About Bitcoin Energy Consumption?


ELON MUSK Wrong About Bitcoin Energy Consumption? – powered by ise.media

Elon Musk and Janet Yellen are suddenly ‘concerned’ about Bitcoin’s environmental impact. But is Bitcoin really that harmful? Our interview with Bob Burnet explains just how wrong their statements are and how Bitcoin is actually paving the way for energy efficiency.

********

Support Truth in Media by visiting our sponsors:

Unstoppable Domains: Buy one domain get one free. https://truthinmedia.com/unstoppable

Pulse Cellular: Use code “TRUTH” for 10% every plan for life.
https://truthinmedia.com/phone​

Pure VPN: Military grade vpn protection.
https://truthinmedia.com/vpn​

Brave Browser: Open source and built by a team of privacy focused, performance oriented pioneers of the web.
https://truthinmedia.com/brave​

Answer to Trump Social Ban and Parler Removal De-centralization?


Answer to Trump Social Ban and Parler Removal Decentralization? – powered by ise.media

Is the answer to the permanent ban from social media to President Trump and the de-platforming of social site Parler to move away from “centralized” technologies to “de-centralized” tech?

********

Learn about our new media platform project, ISE Media: https://ISE.Media

NEW: Avoid big tech censorship and receive reports from me sent to your mobile device. Send a text to: 1-404-467-5809

CEO’s GRILLED over Whistleblower Evidence of De-platforming Collusion Between Big Tech

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri grills Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over reports of the “Tasks” Platform reportedly used by FB, Twitter and Google to coordinate censorship of people, ideas and hashtags.

Support Truth in Media by visiting our sponsors:

Kim Daly, The Daly Coach: https://thedalycoach.com

********

Learn about our new media platform project, ISE Media: https://ISE.Media

Learn how to invest in our project: https://wefunder.com/ise.media

NEW: Avoid big tech censorship and receive reports from me sent to your mobile device. Send a text to: 1-404-467-5809

Rice Report Interview: Truth, Free Speech and ISE Media

I had the pleasure of joining the Rice Report to talk about current events, persistent censorship that is obstructing discussion of these events, and how my recently-launched ISE Media platform can help protect this discussion that is vital in a free society. I was thankful to be able to discuss these issues as well as our plans to expand this platform through our WeFunder equity crowdfund.

Our announcement video explains the ISE Media platform launch in detail and how crowdfund investors can own part of ISE Media, setting us apart from other traditional fundraisers. Click to watch here.

You can also register your ISE Media account now by clicking here.

Learn more and invest in ISE Media by clicking here.

As big tech platforms aim to censor quality content creators challenging certain narratives, we will not let these entities stop us.

Thank you to Rice Crypto and Rice Report for hosting this in-depth discussion!

 

 

Watch: Ben Swann on Media, Politics, and ISE Media on The Ripple Effect Podcast

In my recent interview with Ricky Varandas on The Ripple Effect podcast, I enjoyed a great discussion on current and past events impacting the world and talked about the launch of my new platform, ISE Media. In this interview I was able to share some of my background in my 20 years of journalism and explained how 2012 in particular was an awakening to the way that mainstream media operates.

As we covered a number of topics ranging from issues stemming from the pandemic to widespread corruption in the media, I appreciated the opportunity to talk about the censorship sweeping across every tech platform and how ISE is poised to allow a space where facts and ideas can be freely discussed.

Ricky and I also talked about the equity crowdfund for ISE Media going on now. With the support of investors in this crowdfund our goal is to expand the platform; we launched this crowdfund to not only help our team continue development and building out the platform, but to allow our investors to actually own a part of ISE Media.

Our announcement video explains the platform launch and how crowdfund investors can own part of ISE Media. Click to watch here.

You can also register your ISE Media account right now by clicking here.

Learn more and invest in ISE Media by clicking here.

Content creators like Ricky, myself and many others are publishing and sharing important, quality content. While big tech platforms are determined to stamp out these voices that challenge mainstream narratives, we are fighting back with the ISE Media platform.

Thank you to Ricky and The Ripple Effect Podcast for hosting this in-depth discussion.

 

Former Conan O’Brien Creative Director Joins Isegoria

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sam Eaton

Chief Marketing Officer, Isegoria

sam@isegoria.com

Isegoria, an independently funded blockchain-based news, media, entertainment and educational platform founded by multi-award-winning investigative journalist Ben Swann,  announces that award-winning designer and brand expert Alison Childs has joined the team to direct brand strategy, along with colleague and fellow award-winning designer Bee Elvy. 

“I’m excited to have Alison and Bee join Isegoria. They are exceptional creators with immense award-winning achievements. We’re honored to be attracting such tremendous talent in ISE’s early stages,” said Samuel Eaton, Isegoria’s Chief Marketing Officer. 

“I am absolutely honored to have Alison and Bee join this project,” said Swann. “Their caliber and achievements are extraordinary, and they also clearly share the vision of Isegoria and all that it stands for. We’re all excited to see their work on this project come alive.”

About Dream Team Design

Alison Childs is a Los Angeles-based brand expert, video artist, and graphic designer with an extensive, accomplished career. Childs and Bee Elvy head Dream Team Design, a creative agency with clients including Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, Samsung, SoundCloud, Oracle, Puma, FOX, MTV, and many more. Their work includes their Emmy award-winning branding and digital design for Conan Without Borders, a Conan O’Brien travel series on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and on the Team Coco web properties. 

Dream Team’s other work for Team Coco includes the Webby award-winning Occupy Conan UGC app and microsite design, as well as branding, digital, video, and installation design for Conan’s annual takeover at ComicCon® – including a rooftop AT&T sponsored behind-the-scenes 360° experience which was incorporated into the Team Coco mobile app. They have won 5 Webby’s for their work with Team Coco. Childs and Elvy are also founders of event listing service RSVP.

“We’re excited to work on a project of such importance,” said Childs of joining Isegoria. “In a time when free speech and dissent are suppressed, state propaganda is legalized, habeas corpus is non-existent, and corporate-controlled media distracts us away from both inequalities and commonalities, a platform like Isegoria is vital. Isegoria provides a powerful societal keystone where voices that are otherwise silenced can be heard.”

About Isegoria and founder Ben Swann

Isegoria’s mission is to create an uncensored, blockchain-based, decentralized news and entertainment platform with a funding mechanism for independent media, spearheaded by multi-award winning investigative journalist Ben Swann, whose social following is nearing 1,000,000 subscribers. Isegoria will be a collaboration of independent journalists and entertainers.

Ben has spent 20 years as a journalist in broadcast news behind and in front of the camera spanning multiple states and news stations. He is a two-time Lone Star Emmy Award winner and three-time Edward R. Murrow Award winner, in addition to numerous regional awards received. Ben is one of the most-watched local news anchors in history with hundreds of millions of combined views on his videos. Unlike most news personalities, Ben has an audience with widely diverse political, social and geographic backgrounds, and has been a longstanding advocate of independent content creation.

For more information on Isegoria, visit: https://isegoria.com

Stay updated on Isegoria’s latest news and developments by joining our social channels:

U.S. Government Sues Snowden Over Memoir Release

Note: links in this post include affiliate links.

The U.S. government took swift legal action against famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden after the release of his memoir, “Permanent Record.”

The government’s complaint, filed September 17th, alleges that Snowden, a former CIA employee and former contractor for the NSA, violated non-disclosure agreements with the NSA and CIA by publishing his book without first submitting it for prepublication review “in violation of his express obligations under the agreements he signed.” The government also claims that Snowden has violated NDAs by giving speeches without first providing materials for prepublication review. The book’s publishers are also named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit does not seek a halt in publication, but it argues that all profits from “Permanent Record” belong to the government.

“Intelligence information should protect our nation, not provide personal profit,” G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “This lawsuit will ensure that Edward Snowden receives no monetary benefits from breaching the trust placed in him.”

The ACLU responded to the suit criticizing the prepublication review, claiming that it’s “a process that prohibits millions of former intelligence-agency employees and military personnel from writing or speaking about topics related to their government service without first obtaining government approval.”

“This book contains no government secrets that have not been previously published by respected news organizations. Had Mr. Snowden believed that the government would review his book in good faith, he would have submitted it for review. But the government continues to insist that facts that are known and discussed throughout the world are still somehow classified,” said Ben Wizner, an attorney for Snowden.

Snowden himself responded via Twitter that “It is hard to think of a greater stamp of authenticity than the US government filing a lawsuit claiming your book is so truthful that it was literally against the law to write.”

Snowden also wrote that “the very book the government does not want you to read just became the #1 best-selling book in the world.”

“Permanent Record” is available to purchase by clicking here.

Why SmartCash is “Smart for Business”

If you run a small business or restaurant, you want to be keep your costs low, provide great customer service, and always bring in new clients. The great thing is that you’re perfectly situated to participate in the new global cryptocurrency economy.  Here are two ways that SmartCash could be great for your business.

Accept SmartCash Payments with SmartPay: https://business.smartcash.cc/

SmartCash Makes Payments Simple and Easy: https://youtu.be/blX4TpiHmTc

The Business Benefits of Accepting Cryptocurrency: https://smartcash.cc/the-business-benefits-of-accepting-cryptocurrency/

Find Businesses that Accept SmartCash: https://find.smartcash.cc/

 

Amazon and Microsoft Embrace the Blockchain Future

A new wave of adoption is coming to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, notably from two major tech giants— Microsoft and Amazon— both of which are aiming to apply blockchain within their cloud computing arms.

In the case of Microsoft, the company recently announced Azure Blockchain Workbench. The new tools will be included in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace by aiming to provide developers with tools to implement the ready-to-use infrastructure for blockchain application solutions.

The press announcement discussed the pace in which these blockchain development tools are being embraced, stating that “Engagement in our preview program has been overwhelming. Since September, hundreds of customers and partners have joined the preview and used Workbench to create innovative solutions to shared business problems.”

The announcement also provided some insight into Azure’s future plans for more massive adoption:

“With the release of Azure Blockchain Workbench, we take another step towards making this technology more developer friendly. As we continue to learn with customers and partners, we look forward to extending its capabilities, open-sourcing more of its code and partnering with organizations to expand its usefulness.”

Even though Microsoft is making moves to embrace blockchain, founder Bill Gates has not had positive words for cryptocurrency. According to Cointelegraph, Bill Gates recently shared some critical comments of Bitcoin. “As an asset class, you’re not producing anything and so you shouldn’t expect it to go up. It’s kind of a pure ‘greater fool theory’ type of investment,” Gates said.

However Microsoft, in general, has been witnessing businesses increase their use of blockchain-based solutions and the corporate empire is looking to capitalize on the market opportunity.

Amazon’s recent efforts

Amazon, another major corporation at the forefront of the technology wave, is implementing a similar system to Microsoft’s. Amazon is introducing Amazon Web Services (AWS) blockchain templates, which will “provide a fast and easy way to create and deploy secure blockchain networks using open source frameworks.”

The focus of Amazon’s new tools is to allow developers to focus on building a blockchain application, potentially saving time, energy and resources spent on a manual setup of a blockchain network.

Both seem to have to a focus in mind of streamlining the process for businesses and developers to implement blockchain technology. This is likely to help promote a more massive adoption of the decentralized technology in various industries, such as app development and the financial industry with peer to peer transactions.

AWS vice president Jeff Barr alluded to these various possibilities in a recent post:

Some of the people that I talk to see blockchains as the foundation of a new monetary system and a way to facilitate international payments. Others see blockchains as a distributed ledger and immutable data source that can be applied to logistics, supply chain, land registration, crowdfunding and other use cases. Either way, it’s clear that there are a lot of intriguing possibilities and we are working to help our customers use this technology more effectively.

These recent moves show recognition of blockchain technology’s future. The money and effort being put forward by major corporations offer further supporting evidence that blockchain and cryptocurrencies have lasting potential.

Former NSA Director Says ‘Golden Age Of Electronic Surveillance’ Is Coming To An End, NSA Numbers Show He’s Wrong

(DCNF) Former National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden said in a podcast on Monday that the “golden age of electronic surveillance” is coming to an end, despite reports that indicate the opposite is true.

“Now we might be actually seeing another shift,” Hayden said on the podcast “Recode Decode,” citing the Christopher Steele dossier, adding that the new era will include “all human-sourced” information.

The NSA tripled its collection of American phone calls in 2017, going from 383 million records in 2016 to 534 million records in 2017, according to a U.S. intelligence agency report published on May 4. (RELATED: NSA Tripled The Amount Of Surveillance It Conducted In 2017)

Hayden, who was appointed Director of the NSA by both former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, made clear he was talking about “legitimate targets, and legitimate targeting,” implicitly trying to distant himself from the NSA’s collection of U.S. citizens’ data. “But it was the golden age of that,” he added.

But U.S. agencies also spied on more non-U.S. citizens living abroad in 2017 than in 2016, according to the same report. U.S. authorities spied on more than 129,000 non-U.S. citizens living abroad in 2017, which was 22,000 more than the previous year. The surveillance of foreigners increased about 45 percent in the past five years.

The U.S. government is not the only entity that conducts electronic surveillance — tech giants have come under fire recently for their role in collecting users’ data. Companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have all been scrutinized for either collecting phone calls, messages or even listening to conversations.

A Portland, Ore., family discovered their Amazon Echo listened, recorded and sent a private conversation to a person on their contacts list. Amazon said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation on May 25 that the device allegedly “woke up due to a word in background conversation sounding like (the wake-up word) ‘Alexa.’ Then, the subsequent conversation was heard as a ‘send message’ request. At which point, Alexa said out loud ‘To whom?’ At which point, the background conversation was interpreted as a name in the customer’s contact list.”

Bank of England Releases Working Paper on Central Bank Digital Currency Models

Earlier this month, the Bank of England released a working paper that describes three different central bank digital currency (CBDC) models, providing an outline of how it would operate in the banking industry, as well as possible scenarios of risk and financial stability issues.

The three outlines construct models depending on the sectors with access to CBDC.

The Financial Institutions Model

This model reportedly limits access to banks and non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). This model is described as seemingly similar to reserve assets of the central Bank of England; however, there are differences including “broader access and different functionality and core purpose.”

Financial institutions would “interact directly with the central bank to buy/sell CBDC in exchange for eligible securities.” Regarding this mode, the BoE notes that “it is assumed that there are no institutions that provide an asset to households and firms that is fully backed by central bank money, even though this may be technically feasible, as indeed it is technically feasible today.”

The Economy-Wide Model

This model allows households and firms access to CBDC as well as banks and NBFIs. The paper notes that “CBDC can, therefore, serve as money for all agents in the economy,” although only banks and NBFIs would be authorized to “interact directly with the central bank to buy/sell CBDC; households and firms would be required to use a CBDC Exchange to buy and sell CBDC.

The paper mentions an alternative under this model in which households and firms could trade CBDC directly with the central bank.

The Financial Institutions Plus CBDC-Backed Narrow Bank Model

This model, like the Financial Institutions model, limits access to banks and NBFIs. However, “at least one institutional bank” would provide financial assets to household and firms serving as a “narrow bank” that provides assets to households and firms “fully backed by CBDC” but does not “extend credit.”

This model was put in place to “study the differences between direct and indirect access to CBDC by households and firms.”

Notably, the report concluded that CBDC does not lead to a contraction in bank funding, no adverse effects on private credit or on “total liquidity provision to the economy.” However, the report acknowledges further models and research are necessary for more concrete conclusions.

The Bank of England is not the only central bank exploring the use of CBDCs. ETH News recently reported on the Bank of Korea launching a task force to research CBDCs.

Cointelegraph reported that Norway’s Central Bank has been exploring similar options, noting that a “decline in cash usage” has prompted this exploration. Switzerland was another that recently requested a study on state-backed digital currencies.

The actual implementations of these CBDCs remain to be seen; it is becoming increasingly clear that this is only one of the many uses for cryptocurrency technology.

World’s Largest Diamond Retailer Joins De Beers Blockchain Platform

The world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry is set to join the blockchain program Tracr, according to a press release recently released by De Beers Group. Signet Jewelers joins a project that aims to provide transparency, consumer insight, and efficiency throughout the industry.

According to Cointelegraph, Signet Jewelers is the number one diamond retailer in Canadian, American, and British markets. They made over $3.8 billion in diamond jewelry sales in 2017.

Bruce Cleaver CEO of gem giant De Beers Group, said:

We are delighted to welcome Signet to the Tracr pilot programme. Tracr is focussed on bringing the benefits of blockchain technology to the full diamond value chain – providing consumers with confidence, the trade with increased efficiency and lower costs, and lenders to the industry with greater visibility. Signet has deep insights into the needs of consumers, and our collaboration will ensure that consumers remain the focus of Tracr.

Signet joining the program will allow the Tracr team to complete the first digital link “all the way from diamond production through retail.” Both teams will work alongside each other to ensure jewelry manufacturers’ and retailers’ needs are met. The project will initially focus on “the tracking of diamond jewelry” and provide for smaller-sized goods.

Virginia C. Drosos, CEO of Signet Jewelers, said:

Responsible sourcing of diamonds has always been an integral part of Signet’s corporate ethos, and this will be further strengthened through our cooperation with Tracr. We are joining the Tracr pilot because we believe the project not only has strong potential to facilitate increased transparency and confidence within the industry, but it can also foster much-needed digital transformation.

Tracr provides a digital certificate for each diamond registered on the platform. Storing attributes and transactions aims to give consumers detailed information about their diamonds, allowing them to determine if the product is natural and conflict-free by tracking it across the blockchain.

In early May, De Beers Group announced its success of tracking 100 high-value diamonds along their Tracr blockchain platform, which the company noted is the first time that a diamond’s path has been digitally tracked from the mine to the consumer.

The diamond industries application of blockchain technology affirms the value and potential of the ledger technology, allowing for increased security and peace of mind. However, the diamond industry isn’t the only major sector to take notice.

Walmart has recently filed a patent for a blockchain based digital marketplace. Major banks piloted a successful blockchain-powered cross-border fund transfer that took a matter of seconds. A major fiat powerhouse has also taken notice: the Rockefeller family’s venture-capital arm has recently reported its move into cryptocurrencies.

ACLU: Amazon Is Selling Facial Recognition System To Local Law Enforcement

(DCNF) The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundations of California revealed communications and other documents Tuesday that seem to show Amazon is offering its facial recognition services and products to local law enforcement.

Along with a diverse set of other organizations, the ACLU sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos calling for the tech giant to stop supplying the government with its facial recognition tool called “Rekognition.”

“Rekognition marketing materials read like a user manual for authoritarian surveillance,” Nicole Ozer, technology and civil liberties director for the ACLU of California, said in a statement provided to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Once a dangerous surveillance system like this is turned against the public, the harm can’t be undone. Particularly in the current political climate, we need to stop supercharged surveillance before it is used to track protesters, target immigrants and spy on entire neighborhoods. We’re blowing the whistle before it’s too late.” (RELATED: DHS Seeking Facial Recognition Tech To Scan People’s Faces In Moving Cars)

The documents obtained “through a six-month ACLU investigation” show that Amazon has been trying to assist government agencies in states like Florida and Oregon in deploying the artificially intelligent spying apparatus. The city of Orlando, Fla., for example, has already been using Rekognition to identify people featured in government-deployed surveillance camera recordings, according to the ACLU.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon has reportedly created a mobile application using Rekognition’s unique capabilities, allowing it to scan images through its vast database of personal faces and their measurements. Several other governments have expressed interest in Amazon’s advanced technology, the ACLU alleges.

Facial recognition technology can be used to help nab criminals and arguably make certain processes more convenient. However, many, like the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, have deep-seated concerns with it being utilized for the wrong purposes and by the wrong entities.

The letter is also yet another example that as Amazon grows in power, so too does the larger public’s consternation with the company. (RELATED: There’s A Newfound Hatred Of Silicon Valley)

Concerns of surveillance have now joined other worries relating to antitrustlow wages, and an ostensibly cozy relationship with the Department of Defense.

Written by Eric Lieberman: follow Eric on Twitter.

 

This article was republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Five Years After Snowden, Michigan Set to Be First State to Impede NSA’s Warrantless Surveillance

On the heels of the fifth anniversary of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s disclosure of classified National Security Agency (NSA) documents to journalists, one state legislature has recently taken steps to hold the government agency accountable for its warrantless surveillance programs by making it illegal for state and local governments, including law enforcement and public utilities, to support the NSA’s warrantless spying on American citizens.

According to Michigan’s Fourth Amendment Rights Protection Act, also known as Public Act 71 of 2018, state and local governments can only assist or provide support to the federal government’s collection of data if there is a search warrant or the informed consent of the targeted party. The bill is set to take effect in just a few weeks on June 17th.

While the NSA has no publicly disclosed facility in the state, the bill’s proponents have asserted that it sends a clear message to the federal government regarding the lack of popularity for its warrantless wiretapping of millions of Americans in violation of the legal protections granted to them by the Constitution.

“It hangs up a sign on Michigan’s door saying, ‘No violation of the Fourth Amendment, look elsewhere’,” said Republican state Rep. Martin Howrylak, the bill’s author, according to the Washington Examiner. “Democrats as well as Republicans would certainly stand very strong in our position on what this law means.”

“This new law guarantees no state resources will be used to help the federal government execute mass warrantless surveillance programs that violate the Fourth Amendment protections enshrined in the U.S. Constitution,” Howrylak said soon after the bill was first passed earlier this year in March.

“Michigan will not assist the federal government with any data collection unless it is consistent with the constitution,” he added.

The Michigan law seeking to condemn the NSA’s most controversial program is not the first of its kind. However, it is the first to have been passed successfully without having been  subsequently watered down. For instance, in 2014, state lawmakers in Maryland sought to shut off power and water to NSA headquarters but many of its sponsors dropped their support of the bill after a powerful political backlash. A similar bill was floated in Utah’s state legislature at the same time, but went nowhere after it was rejected by the state’s governor.

“It hangs up a sign on Michigan’s door saying, ‘No violation of the Fourth Amendment, look elsewhere.'”

The only state to have passed a bill similar to Michigan’s is California, which passed the Fourth Amendment Protection Act in 2014. However, that piece of legislation protects the Fourth Amendment in name only as it bans local assistance “in response to a request from a federal agency” and “if the state has actual knowledge that the request constitutes an illegal or unconstitutional collection.”

Despite the efforts being made by state legislatures to restore the Fourth Amendment, such efforts have been largely absent at the national level in recent years. Earlier this year, in January, Congress voted to extend the government’s warrantless surveillance of American citizens for another six years. However, Congress’ reauthorization of the program was more than a mere extension of the program as it actually helped expand the NSA’s authority by codifying some of the more controversial aspects of the program, suggesting that interest in protecting and restoring the Constitution is largely found at the state and local levels of government.

Google Employees Resign In Protest Of Pentagon AI Project

Mountain View, CA — At least a dozen Google employees have resigned in protest over the company collaborating with the Department of Defense by supplying artificial intelligence for a controversial military pilot program for the DoD known as Project Maven, after thousands of employees signed a letter last month asking the company to cancel the Pentagon contract and institute a policy against working for the military.

‘We can no longer ignore our industry’s and our technologies’ harmful biases, large-scale breaches of trust, and lack of ethical safeguards. These are life and death stakes,” the petition read.

[Related: US Army Developing Drones With AI Targeting]

Project Maven, developed to scan images in drone footage and identify targets and classify images of objects and people— was launched in April 2017, and according to a Pentagon memo, aims to “augment or automate Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in support of the Defeat-ISIS campaign” in order to “reduce the human factors burden of [full motion video] analysis, increase actionable intelligence, and enhance military decision-making.”

More than 1,000 academics and researchers penned an open letter in support of the Google employees and calling on the company to cease work on Project Maven. The letter touches on the implications of Google working with the Pentagon:

With Project Maven, Google becomes implicated in the questionable practice of targeted killings. These include so-called signature strikes and pattern-of-life strikes that target people based not on known activities but on probabilities drawn from long range surveillance footage.

While the reports on Project Maven currently emphasize the role of human analysts, these technologies are poised to become a basis for automated target recognition and autonomous weapon systems. As military commanders come to see the object recognition algorithms as reliable, it will be tempting to attenuate or even remove human review and oversight for these systems. According to Defense One, the DoD already plans to install image analysis technologies on-board the drones themselves, including armed drones. We are then just a short step away from authorizing autonomous drones to kill automatically, without human supervision or meaningful human control. If ethical action on the part of tech companies requires consideration of who might benefit from a technology and who might be harmed, then we can say with certainty that no topic deserves more sober reflection – no technology has higher stakes – than algorithms meant to target and kill at a distance and without public accountability.

The DoD contracts under consideration by Google, and similar contracts already in place at Microsoft and Amazon, signal a dangerous alliance between the private tech industry, currently in possession of vast quantities of sensitive personal data collected from people across the globe, and one country’s military. They also signal a failure to engage with global civil society and diplomatic institutions that have already highlighted the ethical stakes of these technologies.

A few of the Google employees that chose to resign in protest spoke to Gizmodo anonymously about the reasoning behind their decision.

“At some point, I realized I could not in good faith recommend anyone join Google, knowing what I knew. I realized if I can’t recommend people join here, then why am I still here?” one resigning Google employee told Gizmodo.

“I tried to remind myself right that Google’s decisions are not my decisions. I’m not personally responsible for everything they do. But I do feel responsibility when I see something that I should escalate it,” another said.

“Actions speak louder than words, and that’s a standard I hold myself to as well. I wasn’t happy just voicing my concerns internally. The strongest possible statement I could take against this was to leave,” a resigning employee added.

Dash Supporting Healthy Communities in Africa

Dash Africa is one of a several grassroots efforts coming from the Dash community. The grassroots efforts in places like Africa take community outreach to the next level while increasing awareness of Dash around the globe.

Dash Africa is supporting the Dash Leopards soccer team; they are working to enable a better life for kids in Africa through sports, education, and social activities. Thanks to Dash, soccer program founder Coach Ricardo— along with the other coaches— use soccer as a tool to help the players achieve comprehensive life skills.

The Dash Leopards program also offers tutoring to help children with their schoolwork. They’re learning about healthy food and nutrition and preparing snacks and smoothies prepared with fresh ingredients.

Dash Africa’s community outreach efforts have brought awareness of Dash to the African continent, a place where Dash can flourish due to Africa’s large numbers of unbanked individuals who could benefit from digital currency.

Cryptocurrencies like Dash are fit particularly well with countries dealing with continuous problems stemming from devaluation and corruption associated with fiat currency. Dash Force News notes that Zimbabwe has been dealing with hyperinflation of their currency since 2009 and at one point destroyed their currency altogether. In developing countries, many would prefer a decentralized, secure, and valuable currency than the insecure fiat alternative.

The Kuva project is another initiative funded by the Dash community; this project is working with Zimbabweans to use Dash as their currency, rather than foreign fiat currencies. With Dash, the people of Zimbabwe can now have a secure place to store value, cheaper transaction costs, and a more reliable way to transact.

Cryptocurrencies like Dash will be needed now more than ever in areas like Zimbabwe. CCN recently reported that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has “banned financial institutions in the country from processing cryptocurrency transactions for cryptocurrency traders and investors despite growing interest in digital monetary assets in the country.”

CCN further reported that “in order to safeguard the integrity, safety, and soundness of the country’s financial system, and to protect the public in general, all financial institutions are hereby required to ensure that they do not use, trade, hold and/or transact in any way in virtual currencies.”

As the central banking attempts to dictate how the people of Zimbabwe secure their money, efforts like Dash Africa, the Dash Leopards and the Kuva Project will be needed to not only raise awareness about alternative options and provide valuable programs for youth, but to help in freeing everyday transactions from centralized banking systems. Given that Zimbabwe has a history of an unstable currency and financial system, this step has become crucial.

Editor’s note: Dash Digital Cash is the exclusive sponsor of Reality Check and the Truth in Media project.

Sen. Ted Cruz: Social Media Censorship “Real and Present Danger”

Washington, D.C. – In an exclusive radio interview with Breitbart News Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sounded the alarm over the power wielded by Silicon Valley, describing the growing control information technology companies possess over the flow of information— in particular social media— as a “real and present danger” to American democracy.

“The nexus of power in media has moved from New York City to Silicon Valley,” Cruz told host Breitbart News Deputy Editor Amanda House, as he recommended that America “looks at all the tools we have to protect free speech and prevent[s] the Internet from becoming a vehicle for censorship.”

In a prior interview on Breitbart News Tonight on April 24, Cruz said:

“I think, number one, the growing power of tech to censor speech is a profound threat. We’re seeing now some two-thirds of Americans are getting their news through social media, and these tech companies are hard-left. They are are partisan Democrats, and what we’re seeing is they’re amplifying the views they agree with, those of liberal Democrats, and they are suppressing the views of conservatives. They are blocking conservatives.”

Cruz added, “The scope of the power is truly unprecedented. You think back to the heights of yellow journalism, when publisher William Randolph Hearst controlled much of media and in fact got America into the Spanish-American War. These tech companies have power William Randolph Hearst could never have imagined. The ability, if there’s a view they dislike, simply to silence it so that if you put a post out there, if you put a tweet out there, it simply goes into the void, into oblivion, and no one sees it. Likewise, they have the ability, if there are views they want to promote, to just have everything on your feed be the views they want to promote. That is invidious. It is invisible, and it is profoundly dangerous.”

During his most recent interview on Sunday, Cruz explained that the power wielded by tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter allow for a level of power that is “staggering” in terms of being able to control societal discourse.

“At this point, a handful of companies enjoy power that famed publisher William Randolph Hearst, at the height of yellow journalism, could never have imagined.”

“We’ve heard reports from whistleblowers of ‘shadowbanning’, where you simply tweet or post something and nobody sees it, it just goes into the void, goes into the ether.”

“Likewise, if there are views that a handful of tech companies like, they can favor those views and direct them to your feed so everything you see is the information they want you to see.”

“That is a level of power that is staggering, and I think it poses a real and present danger to our democratic system, particularly given the extreme left-wing bias of Silicon Valley. What we’ve seen over and over again, they’re acting to muzzle and silence conservative views, views they disagree with. That’s frightening.”

In both interviews Cruz warned that while social media companies currently enjoy protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants them immunity from liability for content posted by their users, if they choose to no longer operate as a neutral public forum they should lose their legal protection.

“It’s a special immunity from liability that nobody else gets,” said Cruz. “The basis for that immunity from liability was that they were neutral public forums, that they were not the ones speaking but rather it was the people speaking and posting on them.”

“Well, if they’re not going to be neutral public forums, if they’re going to be active political speakers, favoring one point of view and disfavoring another, they have a first amendment right to do that, but they have no entitlement to a special congressionally-created immunity from liability that nobody else enjoys.”