Facebook Blames ‘Technical Issues” for Its Broken Promise to the US Congress

Facebook is blaming “technical issues” for its broken promise to the U.S. Congress to stop recommending political groups to its users, reports The Markup: Facebook made the pledge once in October, in the run-up to the presidential election, and then falsely reiterated it had taken the step after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a deadly event partially coordinated…

Tonight is New Year’s Eve in the Julian calendar

Happy Julian New Year! January 13, 2021, marks the last day of the year in the old-style Julian calendar. Why, and what happened when the calendars switched. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/julian-calendar-new-years-eve…

Trump Also Suspended from Snapchat and Twitch, Faces Content Restrictions on Pinterest and…TikTok?

Today MSN published an article listing “Every social media platform Donald Trump is banned from using (so far).” Some excerpts: – Trump was suspended from Snapchat amid the riots on January 6, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill… – On January 7, Twitch, the Amazon-owned video live-streaming platform made popular by gamers, disabled Trump’s account indefinitely… – Though Trump does not…

Discord Bans Pro-Trump Server From Its Platform

Mashable reports:
We’re all judged by the company we keep. With that adage seemingly in mind, Discord moved Friday to ban a pro-Donald Trump server from its platform. TheDonald, as the server was titled, allowed likeminded individuals to digitally gather and was directly linked to the recently banned r/DonaldTrump subreddit and a separate discussion forum… “While there is no evidence of that…

The 50 Years of Crowd Control Research Police Are Ignoring

Thelasko shares an excerpt from FiveThirtyEight: Researchers have spent 50 years studying the way crowds of protesters and crowds of police behave — and what happens when the two interact. One thing they will tell you is that when the police respond by escalating force — wearing riot gear from the start, or using tear gas on protesters — it doesn’t…