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Researchers at New York University have released a new study that dispels the allegations made repeatedly by conservative lawmakers and members of the conservative media that Big Tech companies intentionally censor their viewpoints.

Why it matters: For years, Republicans have used unproven allegations of censorship as a threat to regulate tech companies or demonize them as enemies of conservatives.

Details: The report shows evidence that conservative politicians and media outlets received just as much, if not more, interaction on social platforms than their liberal counterparts.

By the numbers: The report points out how Trump dominated Biden in Facebook engagement from Sept. 3 to Nov. 3 of last year, with Trump having 87% of 307 million total interactions and Biden having only 13%.

Be smart: The mainstream press and tech companies have long tried to assure everyday consumers that these allegations are unsubstantiated, but conservatives have thus far been successful in planting that narrative.

The big picture: "Silencing" and censorship will be to the modern Republican Party what Big Government was in the '90s "an all-purpose target designed to inflame feelings of victimhood," Axios' Mike Allen noted last week.

The bottom line: The claim of anti-conservative animus [on the part of social media companies] is itself a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it," the NYU researchers write.

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Study calls conservative claims of tech censorship "a form of disinformation" - Axios

Two social media influencers who managed to make the Hollywood sign read Hollyboob before being arrested on suspicion of trespassing Monday said they did so to challenge censorship on Instagram. One of them, they said, lost millions of followers and part of her livelihood when her accounts were shuttered for nudity.

That their stunt also raised awareness for breast cancer and brought smiles to faces around the world, they said, were bonuses.

Its awesome, said Julia Rose, 27, of L.A., whose Shagmag company brands itself as a modern rival to Playboy. All of it combined together has been really, really great.

Rose previously gained notoriety, along with a friend, for flashing her breasts during the World Series in 2019. For that stunt, she received a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball.

Rose said in an interview with The Times that she first conceptualized Mondays stunt last year after being warned about nudity on her personal and company Instagram accounts, which had about 6 million followers combined.

Rose said she knew she was pushing the boundaries of censorship on those accounts by featuring fellow influencers barely covering up, but she also felt Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, censored accounts unfairly, targeting influencers more than established brands such as Playboy.

Rose knew she couldnt get to the Hollywood sign and alter it alone, so she looked for someone wild enough to help, she said, and landed on friend and fellow influencer Jack Tenney, 26, whose adventure"-focused joogsquad channel on YouTube also touts millions of followers.

Everybody loves a good prank, Tenney said. Its always good to make people laugh and make people smile.

The pair said they attempted to get to the sign multiple times late last year but failed, in part because the two big B tarps they had created to cover the iconic signs W and D were too heavy.

Beginning in late December, Roses personal Instagram account and then her business account were disabled. A Facebook spokeswoman said Tuesday the company did not allow nudity on Instagram and removed Roses accounts for repeatedly breaking those rules.

After the accounts removal, Rose and Tenney decided to try once more to get to the sign and this time with a better plan.

Instead of two tarps, they would only bring one, for the W. Theyd achieve the second B by pulling a much smaller piece of material through the middle of the existing D.

They then got a double stroller to wheel the one tarp up an established trail that takes hikers above the sign, pretending to be husband and wife, Tenney said with a laugh. We just kind of went for it, knowing that we could get caught.

Two of Tenneys friends from Florida came along, as did two of Roses friends. At the top of the mountain, they skirted a fence and climbed down the hill. At the sign, five of them focused on getting the tarp over the W, using ropes to help lift it, and one got the material across the D.

Rose and Tenney estimated they were at the sign for 15 to 20 minutes, and no more than half an hour. They then hiked down the hill to Mulholland Highway, where they expected to be and were arrested, for misdemeanor trespassing. They were released Monday night.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said the group was not charged with vandalism because there was no damage to the sign but that they were breaking the law by trespassing and on terrain that is dangerous.

Mark Panatier, chairman of the Hollywood Sign Trust, which maintains the site in Griffith Park, said Monday that it was unfortunate that such an important icon for the city of L.A. is not being appreciated.

This is an icon thats there for visual reinforcement of the importance of Hollywood, not just for the city of L.A. but to the world, Panatier said. It needs to be upheld; it doesnt need to be demeaned.

Rose and Tenney took a different view. They said they hadnt hurt anyone and had received positive comments from people around the world who thought their efforts were hilarious, or who welcomed the focus on breast cancer.

They said they each would have a court hearing on June 3. Tenney said he hoped the judge took the prank as many on the internet had: as a harmless bit of fun that did some good along the way.

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Mad at Instagram, they decided to make it the 'Hollyboob' sign - Los Angeles Times

There is an old, hoary saying among lawyers: Hard cases make bad law. This maxim has been drilled into the heads of law students for generations.

The pursuit of Donald Trump, reminiscent of the mob carrying pitchforks and torches while chasing the monster in Frankenstein, readily comes to mind while following the efforts by virtually all Democratic federal officeholders, a few Republicans, and the major politically liberal news outlets to impeach-and-convict Donald Trump for a second time.

This current impeachment effort is exceedingly unwise, even if Trumps conduct during and after the recent presidential election rightly horrifies all Americans devoted to the tenets of our democracy and to our assumptions about the peaceful transfer of power. One needs to recall that Joseph Biden was decidedly lukewarm, if not outright opposed, to a second impeachment, even though he was the one most directly affected by Trumps effort to reverse Bidens electoral victory. Biden will turn out to be viewed by history as wise, in contrast to House Speaker Nancy Pelosis and now-Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumers pitchfork-and-torch-laden pursuit of the Trump monster.

The story needs no detailed retelling. Anyone who was not comatose during the weeks between the election, the meeting of the electoral college, and the aftermath, knows the tale.

But the profoundly important question remains whether Trump, who stands impeached for a second time by the House vote taken on January 13, 2021, should be convicted when the Senate tries him on the impeachment. (Trumps trial in the Senate is scheduled to begin the week of February 8.)

The Democrats goal in this second impeachment-and-trial is quite clear: To prevent Donald Trump from occupying the White House again. The goal is not, of course, the usual goal of an impeachment to remove an errant public official from office since the American electorate accomplished that this past November. Put more bluntly, those who wish to impeach-and-convict Trump this time around are looking not only to punish our sociopathic ex-president for his conduct while in office, but to prevent the American electorate from ever putting him back into the White House, even if a majority of them would like to see him re-take the presidency.

They are also seeking to punish him for his speech that some claim incited the crowd to attack the Capitol building. These critics are simply wrong. Trumps speech lies within the definition of free speech, rather than unlawful incitement, as the Supreme Court has drawn the distinction in the famous 1969 case of Brandenburg v. Ohio.

The bottom line is that this second impeachment attempt is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is also very foolish, which is likely why President Biden has tried to discourage the move. Biden has stated that, if we were six months out, we should be doing everything to get him out of office. Impeaching him again, trying to invoke the 25th Amendment, whatever it took. But I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president on the 20th and to get our agenda moving as quickly as we can."

As if the Democrats attack upon democracy were not bad enough, the social media gurus in the private sector are acting in an equally worrisome fashion. While the Democrats seek to weaken the electoral system by barring Trump from subjecting his candidacy to democratic choice, the major actors in the social media world Facebook and Twitter have kept Trump from communicating to the American people on the two social networks with the broadest reach.

Due to Trumps inaccurate posts on election fraud and the sympathetic posts he shared for those who attended the Capitol riots, Facebook and Twitter decided to ban him from their platforms. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg contended that, "the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. While Facebook and Twitter have the right to do what they are doing they are, after all, private companies, even though each arguably has a near-monopoly it is doubtful that they are exercising their near-monopolistic power wisely. (In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed anti-trust lawsuits against Facebook previously for engaging in anti-competitive practices where Facebook acquired, or attempted to, weaker companies before they became serious competitors.)

It is one thing to have defeated Trump at the polls via democratic means, and thereby to force him into luxurious self-exile at his Florida estate. But it is quite another to cut him off from the major avenues of mass communication, through which he otherwise would be expected to make his case for re-election. Trump has often used Twitter to make posts about policy changes, his support and disapproval of certain officials, election fraud, the Capitol riots, and any other events that influenced his presidency. In short, Trump relied on social media to spread his views and maintain his connection with his supporters.

The life of our republic has relied upon the fundamental belief that the Supreme Court has dubbed the free marketplace of ideas - the most trusted, and surely the most peaceful, way of determining truth and of making political decisions via democratic rather than autocratic methods. The current move aiming to remove Donald Trump from this marketplace is not only anti-democratic, but verges on being authoritarian if not totalitarian. At the very least, it is incompatible with liberal democracy and the ban deprives us of knowing what is on the autocrats mind.

It would be healthier for American democracy, and for our political system, as well as for avoiding dangerous social and political unrest, for cooler heads to prevail. Trump should be acquitted at his upcoming impeachment trial, and Twitter and Facebook should re-think the burdens that their censorship of Donald Trump casts upon the concept of democratic engagement in the free marketplace of ideas.

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Bad Precedents: Impeachment For The Exercise Of Free Speech, And Censorship By Social Media - wgbh.org

Rachel Chiu, Opinion contributor Published 7:00 a.m. ET Feb. 3, 2021

Hong Kong activists and Uighur minorities are under assault from Chinese President Xi Jinping's old communist playbook. America can come to their aid.

Seventy-one years ago, my grandmother was beaten, enslavedand nearly killed by the Chinese Communist Party. China continues to do the same thing today and America should offer its new victimsrefuge.

Tension is already brewing between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. During last month's Davos Agenda conference, Xi condemnedthe arrogant isolationism of the Trump era and cautioned that a cold war, hot war, trade war, or tech war would lead to division and even confrontation. This is the oldest play in Chinas Communist handbook, which values economic and social power above all else.

Bidens next move should be a decisive one a warm welcome for Hong Kongers, Uighurs, and Chinese political dissidents.

At its core, communism involves socio-economic restructuring.But the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always wanted morethan command of resources and capital and, to that end, continues to pay a high price for fear and respect. Despite their best efforts, Xi and his predecessors have never been able to buy complete compliance from other nations nor its own people.

Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published these words in 1848;100 years later, Mao Zedong, the leader of the CCP, put this belief into practice. In the late 1940s and 50s, Mao and the early Chinese communists galvanized working class tenants with the promise of social equality and property rights.

This massive and deadly disinformation operation, known as the Land Reform Campaign, mobilized the working class to pillage and seize property owned by their landlords.But it didnt end there. Controlling the infrastructure wasnt enough, so rebels humiliated, torturedand killed the ruling class.

Hong Kong activists: We're protesting for our freedom from brutal Chinese authoritarianism

By the time the uprising reached Sun Wui, my grandmothers hometown in southeast China,the landlords had already fled. Their wives, many of whom were originally from the working class, were left behind to care for their children and home. They committed no transgressions against the tenants, yet were persecuted as if they did. My grandmother was sent to a hard-labor campin 1950, where she was forced to tear down her neighbors homes during the day and endure beatings by her captors in the night.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden on Sept. 24, 2015, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.(Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

During her four years of torture, my grandmother's infant son died from starvation and illness and shetried to escape repeatedly, failing three times. Her town was overrun by the Communists, but they needed the wives and children to remain as slave labor before they were executed. They took all of her belongings and broke her bones, but they could not destroy her dream of living safe, freeand happy. On her fourth escape attempt in 1954, she succeeded.

Incredibly, she was able tobringherself andthree of her young children to freedom, she finally made it to the United States in 1968.My family now calls Americaour home.

Xi and the CCP are not as strong as they portray themselves. The CCPs ascent to power required the deaths of millions during the Land Reform Campaign and subsequent Cultural Revolution, yet they continue to struggle for social control. Chinas communist handbook contains only authoritarian solutions their go-to response to opposition is to resort to violence, arbitrary detention, imprisonmentand disappearances.Similar to the Land Reform Campaign, the government uses disinformation and arrests to silence political activists in Hong Kong, and they use surveillance and "re-education" camps to torture the Uighurs.

But like my grandmother, the CCPs political opponents do not yield.

The United States should follow the United Kingdoms lead and provide special visas for qualifiedHong Kongers. Since a new national security law went into effect last summer, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested,and many more are at risk, even those no longer on Hong Kong soil.

Hong Kong national security law: Hong Kong freedom lovers deserve global support against Chinese Communist Party's new Red Terror

Last summer, the UK government quickly provided Hong Kongs British National (Overseas) passport holders the opportunity to apply for special visas, which allow for prolonged visits and provide a pathway to citizenship. Such visas from the United States, in addition to refugee and asylee admission, would send a powerful signal to the CCP and all those suffering under its rule.

Rachel Chiu in Ithaca, New York, in 2016.(Photo: Family handout)

The United States has direct interests in the region, including 85,000 U.S. citizens living in Hong Kong and a trade surplus of $26 billion.The Hong Kongpro-democracy demonstrations in 2019 pushed back on authoritarian encroachment from Beijing, championing the freedoms and liberties that the United States believes are central, inalienable rights.

Furthermore, the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 states that Support for democratization is a fundamental principle of United States foreign policy. As such, it naturally applies to United States policy toward Hong Kong. The United States should honor these social and economic ties by protecting those who similarly champion a free society.

The inability to garner absolute obedience, from the 1940s to present day, is the CCPs mortal wound. If Biden wants to get tough on China, he needs to save its people.

Rachel Chiu is a Young Voices Contributor and public policy researcher at the Cato Institute. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect her employer's. Follow her on Twitter @rachelhchiu.

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My grandmother stood up to the Chinese Communist Party. President Joe Biden should too. - USA TODAY

Leaders on the right and centre of Bulgarias political spectrum honoured the victims of the countrys communist era in annual commemorations on February 1 2021.

On this date in 1945, the communist Peoples Court handed down death penalties to a large number of figures from the former royal regime, including three regents, 67 members of Parliament, 22 Cabinet ministers, 47 generals and other senior officers and eight royal counsellors.

The executions were carried out on the night of February 1. Apart from the death sentences, there were a large number of imprisonments. Ahead of the Peoples Court process, there were numerous extra-judicial killings amid the communist takeover of Bulgaria.

The first Boiko Borissov government decreed the day of commemoration in 2011, acting on the recommendation of former presidents Zhelyu Zhelev and Petar Stoyanov, two of the democratically-elected presidents in Bulgarias post-communist era.

The reformist Democratic Bulgaria, which held a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument in Sofia to the victims of communism, said in a statement that despite our desire to look to the future and not to dig into old crimes, the truths about the communist regime must remain alive in the memory and the lessons must not be forgotten, as well as the national betrayal committed by the Bulgarian Communist Party that handed over Bulgarian independence and sovereignty to the Soviet Union.

Prime Minister Borissov, in a post on Facebook, said that the so-called Peoples Court which was neither a peoples institution nor a court marked the beginning of one of the darkest trials in our history.

Illegitimate, primitive and politically controlled, it physically liquidated much of the nations elite, Borissov said.

Unfortunately, there are still voices that this criminal act was necessary and unavoidable justice. There are still politicians who speak too timidly on the subject and claim to be democrats, he said.

That is why I am glad that our efforts have paid off and the tenth graders are already studying the history of communism in Bulgaria. Only an objective knowledge of the past can give us the necessary lessons for the future.

Today our country is a respected member of the EU, which is a guarantor of respect for human rights and democratic principles. Undoubtedly, the thousands of victims are the most painful, but not the only, consequence of the communist regime. The damage to the economy that the communists and their successors left, we are repairing to this day, Borissov said.

Tsveta Karayancheva, Speaker of the National Assembly and a senior member of Borissovs GERB party, said: We bow our heads in pain to the memory of the representatives of Bulgarias intellectual, spiritual and economic elite destroyed by totalitarian repression. But also to all those ordinary Bulgarians whose dreams, dignity, future were brutally trampled by an arrogant elite that came to power with a coup and lies.

Karayancheva said that even today, there were attempts to justify the Peoples Court and even calls for its example to be repeated. Because only a few months ago we witnessed attacks on political opponents in the form of coffins, black sacks and erected gallows. This was a reference to the anti-government street protests in the second half of 2020.

One of the greatest fears of the regime, whose victims we honour today, was the fear of protests. Thats why it crushed everything that even remotely resembled a protest from the length of the skirt to the length of the hair, she said.

Karayancheva said that one of the great advantages of democracy is the right to protest.

When protesting, let us not use images from a dark past and techniques reminiscent of times of reckless political repressionlet us continue together to defend democratic values and human dignity, regardless of the differences between us, she said.

(Photos from the Facebook page of Democratic Bulgaria)

The Sofia Globe has no connection whatsoever to any Bulgarian government or state institution, nor to any Bulgarian political, business or media grouping. If you would like to support independent coverage of Bulgaria, please consider supporting The Sofia Globe via its Patreon account, for as little as three euro a month, or the equivalent in other major currencies:

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Victims of communism commemorated in Bulgaria - The Sofia Globe