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Board members Stephanie Kraybill and Stephanie Walker exit the dais after an abrupt recess. (PCD).

NEW HANOVER COUNTY New Hanover County Schools staff are revising recording procedures in place at school board meetings after facing accusations of censorship from the public and one board member.

According to Chief Communications Officer Josh Smith, his team will record meetings without interruption from the time the doors open to the public until equipment is taken down at the end of the meeting.

Previously, recordings began when the meeting was called to order and ended when adjourned. When the board was on a break or in closed session, the video would cut to a different screen or play a district promotional video.

I expect we will still occasionally work through technical issues, especially when guests or speakers are remote, he said. But we will otherwise operate much like a C-Span stream of congressional sessions: cameras rolling, microphones hot.

Since last weeks school board meeting, confusion has circulated regarding a tense exchange and its documentation between two board members.

Almost six hours into the school board meeting on Sept. 6, the board was discussing fees at sports games, nine agenda items away from adjournment. Board member Nelson Beaulieu noted the time.

Its 10:45 at night and I apologize to you, he said, directing his comment toward the audience. This is silly.

On the recording, while Beaulieu was speaking, board member Stephanie Walker can also be heard talking, to which board chair Stephanie Kraybill responded repeatedly and sternly: Stop it.

Walker stood up and leaned over to say something to Kraybill in her ear, which is inaudible on the recording. On Tuesday, Walker told Port City Daily she told the chair to stop yelling in her face.

Kraybill then recessed the meeting and the two women stood and walked to the back room. The livestream video cuts off at this point, transferring to a screen notifying viewers the board is on a break.

Kraybill explained the situation further.

The action caught me off guard, and her words and her tone of delivery were concerning, she wrote in an email Tuesday. I needed to remove myself from the situation, so I called for a recess. I did not ask Ms. Walker to follow me off the dais.

According to Walker, Judy Justice and Beaulieu, Kraybill asked NHCS attorney Colin Shive to come with her upon her exit. Walker told PCD while in the back room with Kraybill, the chair asked the attorney if she could adjourn the meeting.

When the two members returned, Kraybill proceeded: We will pick up the remaining items at our next available opportunity. Meeting over.

No motion to dismiss was presented, nor vote taken, a violation of Roberts Rules of Order, which guide meeting processes. According to NHCS policy, the board chair may adjourn the meeting individually in the event of an emergency.

I made a mistake in adjourning the meeting without a motion and a vote, Kraybill admitted.

To add a touch of irony to the nights events, board member Pete Wildeboer requested earlier in the meeting the board review Roberts Rules of Order in the near future. He could not be reached for comment by press.

Seconds after adjournment, the recordings audio cut, though video shows Shive conversing with Kraybill.

I dont know what the understanding was about adjourning the meeting, but he said, you cant do that, you need a day and a time that youre going to continue, Walker told PCD.

A new video begins five to 10 minutes later, after the meeting was called back to order.

Smith told PCD several minutes passed.

Beaulieu, who was driving home when he was requested to return, said he didnt know how long the video cut out, but estimated he was gone around 6 or 7 minutes.

Walker said during the interim, what the video doesnt show is her asking the board to continue the meeting, as only a few agenda items remained. The video resumes with board member Stephanie Adams making a motion to approve the proposed fee schedule.

The allegations of censorship arose when it was discovered the districts livestream of the event did not catch that entire exchange and resumption of the meeting.

On Sept. 8, board member Judy Justice took to Facebook to call out discrepancies in the recording, claiming the move was censorship. She also emailed Smith on Sept. 9: Whether by intentional omission or by actual cutting of that part of the video, without a doubt this part of our meeting was censored out.

Smith explained when the meeting was initially adjourned, the broadcast coordinator Chase Fulton stopped recording as the audience and senior staff started packing away their things.

After several minutes, when it was evident the meeting was to continue, we the senior staff resumed our seats, and Mr. Fulton began recording/streaming again, Smith said.

He added that everything they recorded was posted to the NHCS YouTube. His response to Justices email informed her the media was reaching out about her social media post.

I humbly ask that prior to publicly calling into question the professionalism or ethics of me or any NHCS staff member, you ask the technical questions before posting, Smith wrote in the email. I am happy to discuss this further at the boards pleasure in an open session.

Justice did not respond back to Smith and explained why to PCD.

I think hes doing his job, and I cant blame him for that, Justice said. The lack of transparency is coming from the very top.

Editors Note: Previous reporting used the districts rules of decorum interchangeably with Roberts Rules of Order. The article has been updated to clarify the difference. PCD regrets the error.

Reach out to Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.

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NHCS addresses accusation of censoring board meeting, chair admits to adjourning improperly - Port City Daily

This morning, I logged onto my main TikTok account, @finnegansache, only to learn that I had received a permanent ban. I had just come off a seven day ban from posting videos, leaving comments, and even sending direct messages to the many friends I have made across the world. I tend to get one of these seven day bans at least once every month.

It goes down like this: Right-wingers target my account, which presently has 26,410 followers, by falsely mass reporting videos that have managed to get through to a sizable audience (quite a few of my TikToks have had viewership in the six figures) and in which I speak out against Republican tyranny (as well as smug Democratic inaction). But because I have racked up enough community guidelines violations largely factitious TikTok hits me with a seven day ban, even when I appeal every single one of these falsely flagged videos and win the vast majority of my petitions.

TikToks ongoing censorship of marginalized voices is nothing new, but it has yet to be rectified. And the companys war on free speech is incredibly dangerous during a time in which we need to hear from those who are denied and restricted from other platforms. In March 2000, The Intercept intercepted internal documents at TikTok that revealed a company edict that ordered the moderators to suppress posts made by the poor, the ugly, and the disabled. Not long after this article dropped, Time reported on Black creators also being suppressed by the shady China-based tech giant. The BBC reported that transgender users were censored. The upshot is that, if you arent a wildly attractive, white cis hetero type who never talks politics and who looks good while twerking, TikTok and its moderators will go out of their way to silence you even when the users enjoy your content.

On my TikTok account, I have spoken out against racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, income inequality, climate change deniers, disinformation, fawning Trump acolytes, anti-choicers, sinister misogynists, white supremacists, political corruption, corporate greed, capitalistic ills, the ongoing war on the homeless, conspiracy theorists, and the lachrymose yahoos who attempted insurrection on January 6th. None of these topics are verboten under TikToks community guidelines. I have always been a man of the left. A godless heathen who stands for empathy and dignity and human understanding and who isnt afraid to tell the truth. And because I cant be bought and because I have always done everything on my own terms (and have won audiences and awards this way), the media ecosystem has gone well out of its way to ignore me or, if they cant do that, they invent false stories about me. Ive been kicking around for more than twenty years at this creative game and theyve never been able to get me on my work. Fragile and talentless egos which would include the TikTok moderators tend to be terrified of anyone who pulls a faster gun.

TikTok, on the other hand, has been a welcoming place for an eccentric outlier like me. On TikTok at least when it works Ive been tremendously humbled and honored to listen to other peoples stories and I do my best to live up to my quite accidental and newfound duties of sticking up for the people. With great power comes great responsibility.

Whenever I synthesize recent news into thoughtful and entertaining 60 second videos all edited in camera with Sam Raimi-style angles to get people to care about increasingly dystopian developments my TikTok videos have proven to be enormously popular. Perhaps because there is no other voice out there who is speaking out against injustice quite like me and because I have a theatrical panache. I honestly dont know. I didnt go onto TikTok to win an audience. It just happened.

Still, Im cognizant enough to recognize that TikTok far more than Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is the public agora. And if I want to persuade people to give a damn about vital issues, even if its only a few dozen, then I have to be on there. And honestly I have enjoyed it.

There are now 1 billion active users on TikTok. If I can get through to at least a small sliver of that vast audience and get them worked up enough to care about social ills or to change things, then, as far as Im concerned, Im doing the bare minimum at preventing (or perhaps postponing) the United State of America from sliding into vile despotism. I feel that it is my moral responsibility to raise hell and to call out bullshit in these troubled times and to do so within the framework of the community guidelines. Will I post a thirst trap or dance ridiculously or pick up my guitar and sing and improvise a silly song in order to give people an additional incentive to stand up for abortion rights? You bet your ass I will.

TikTok has also been a healthy outlet for me to perform creative ablutions (roughly six to nine TikToks each day, most of them recorded in one take) just before I roll up my sleeves every weekday morning and get on with the often difficult but always enjoyable business of writing. And, unlike Twitter, I have found that the good people on TikTok are quite capable of behaving like adults, engaging in civil disagreement, and hashing out ideas without getting involved in some jealousy-fueled character assassination campaign predicated upon lies, libel, and unfounded rumors. On TikTok, the Establishment is on an equal footing with the vox populi. Several celebrities have tried to join TikTok and they have been hilariously and mercilessly shot down by an audience that is increasingly less willing to tolerate their clueless and privileged vapidity. The punchy Gen Zers and the fierce millennials on TikTok have restored my faith in the generations who will follow me long after I drop dead. On TikTok, you cant coast on your fame or your blue checkmark. You actually have to create interesting content that is of the moment. You have to listen to other people. And by simply listening to other people, which I have always done, even a middle-aged punk like me has managed to get through to younger people.

But on TikTok, theres an altogether different Establishment a shadow Establishment that is using a wide variety of facile tactics to muzzle anyone who stands against tyranny. The community guidelines much like the constantly revised rules in George Orwells Animal Farm are subject to the whims of some miserable bastard toiling in a 996 perdition.

I cant win every appeal. Because the TikTok moderators some of which are reputed to be based in red states and who take out their trauma on those who play by the rules and who work for slave wages are complicit in silencing my voice. If you mention the Holocaust even when you are citing specific historical examples you will be flagged for hate speech even when you are speaking against hate. If you speak out against bullies, you will be accused of bullying. The TikTok moderators are quite happy to gaslight you. They have deliberately failed to address at least twelve of my videos that were falsely given the ol CGV treatment, letting these videos rot in appeal purgatory and accumulate artificial community guidelines violations when I have, in fact, not violated any community guidelines in these videos.

While its certainly true that my personality defaults quite naturally to anti-authoritarian rebel and that I have a low bullshit threshold, I still abide by community guidelines. And since I tend to be a creative prankster, I decided to prepare 100 TikToks over the course of a week to upload at one time: at the very moment that my latest seven day ban was lifted. This was a ban that was artificially consummated by conservative snowflakes and their willing executioners over at TikTok. (As I said, I won every goddamned appeal against me. But the ban remained enforced.) By the time I had uploaded 45 of these videos, my account was hit with a permanent ban. I had pulled such a stunt before without retribution.

And even though there is no official TikTok policy limiting how many videos one can upload at one time, I was still targeted by the moderators.

Let me be clear that I have had videos falsely targeted for nudity and sexual activity when I have merely rubbed my belly while wearing a shirt. I have been targeted for bullying and harassment when criticizing the likes of Ron DeSantis and Lauren Boebert for their stupidity and cruelty using objective facts. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old girls are allowed to dance in skimpy thongs without rebuke and white supremacists and misogynists and pedophiles have been allowed to spread their bilious hatred without being silenced.

About twenty minutes after I received the permanent ban, I learned that my account had been restored, although I was hit with another seven day ban. And it is abundantly clear that the TikTok moderators have gone well out of their way to attenuate my voice. Because when you cannot regularly upload videos, your views, followers, comments, and likes take a significant hit. In my case, I have seen up to an 80% drop in engagement every time I am hit with one of these sham timeouts. (You can see from the accompanying image just how much of a hit I took in the last seven days.)

And Im one of the lucky leftists. A wonderful and well-loved user by the name of @mdg650hawk has been forced to create nine separate accounts, six of which have been permanently banned. He now shuffles between his three remaining accounts. He is a voice of progressive sanity. Ive never seen the man do anything untoward. But the TikTok moderators have it in for him. A user named @levantinewitch has also been banned for leftist sentiments. Or how about Savannah Edwards? Banned for being a progressive and smart-as-hell Black woman. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of vital progressives who are either banned or who are, like me, on the cusp of being banned. None of them violated any community guidelines. Or, if they did, it was certainly not frequent enough to merit an outright gag on their vital work. Their only crime was to speak truth to power and get through to a lot of people. This is a noble and peaceful practice as old as politics. But TikTok seems to act as if a principled stand one that is only offensive to the chickenheads too intoxicated by the rapturous voices of a fictitious deity and an orange-tinted megalomaniac is on the level of some creepy guy in a trenchcoat flaunting his junk at a playground.

The optimist in me still believes that TikTok has the potential to be the greatest place that the Internet has ever created. But when such a repugnant autocratic streak pours like some white stripe of paint turning an innocent cat into a skunk for Pepe le Pew to woo, one wonders if theres any hope for democracy. The pungent smell of a corrupt company with corrupt moderators is simply too malodorous for TikToks otherwise promising clime. If TikTok cannot fix this problem and it seems very much that they cant and they wont then its time for some tech entrepreneur to roll the VC dice and beat TikTok at its own game. The panoply is too important for us to settle for anything less.

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How TikTok is Censoring the Left Reluctant Habits - Reluctant Habits

With Russia increasingly cut off from the world following its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, the countrys remaining contemporary art market, facing evident economic and often unspoken ideological pressures, is increasingly looking inward. The tenth Cosmoscow International Art Fair, which runs from 14 to 17 September, was no exception.

Even before the event began, such ideological pressures had apparently been felt by some of the participating dealers. A Telegram channel called Courier of Culture, run by a contemporary art publicist, reported that three unnamed galleries had complained about censorship by the fair, at the application stage, preventing any political works or anything that could in any way be linked to the current state of affairsmeaning the warfrom being exhibited.

One anonymous dealer tells The Art Newspaper: "Cosmoscow asked that we change the design of the stand, the artists, their work and the hanging of it. There was nothingpolitical in the works, nor in the idea of the stand, but it was as if the board was trying to choose works where in the current context definitely no second hidden meanings would be sensed."

They add: "Every year [at Cosmoscow] we show young artists of roughly the same style, and this year there was a feeling that the objections were at the level of 'degenerate art'."

A law signed by President Vladimir Putin just days after the invasion makes it illegal to call the invasion a war and threatens those who spread fakes about the Russian military with up to 15 years in prison.

In April a criminal case was opened against the artist Oleg Kulik on charges of rehabilitation of Nazism for his sculptural installation Big Mother (2015), which was shown at the Art Moscow fair at the Gostiny Dvor centre, just yards from the Kremlin, which is also the venue for Cosmoscow. The work came under fire for allegedly mocking The Motherland Calls, a monument in Volgograd commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. Kulik, who grew up in Kyiv, has said it was meant to depict the pain of his divorce.

Margarita Pushkina, fair director

Photo: Alexander Murashkin

Censorship not allowed

Margarita Pushkina, Cosmoscows founder and director, says: We have never allowed and do not allow internal censorship. Meanwhile, the fairs expert committee is working as usual, selecting the best galleries to participate in the fair.

The most important thing right now, Pushkina adds, is not to multiply contradictions and conflicts, but instead to maintain human and professional relations, continue the dialogue and discuss ways to resolve complex issues. The fair and galleries, she points out, are all directly dependent on the state of the economy.

For a long time there was a question mark over whether the fair would go ahead at all. Simon Rees, the artistic director of the fairs previous edition, resigned immediately after the invasion. Pushkina says a successor has not been appointed because the fairs priorities have shifted.

One of the tasks of the artistic director of the fair has always been to develop international cultural dialogue and to attract galleries from other countries, Pushkina says. In the current situation, we understand that there is emotion involved for international galleries, as well as many difficulties and risks. First of all, there are logistical difficulties, so their participation does not seem simple and obvious.

Indeed, there are no longer any direct flights to Moscow from the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe, except for Turkey and Serbia, and leading shipping companies are boycotting Russia over the invasion.

The only solution, Pushkina says, is to now concentrate on working with Russian gallery owners in order to try to stabilise the situation and continue working on the development of the domestic art market.

The vast majority of the more-than 65 participating galleries at Cosmoscow are Russian, compared with 82 galleries in 2021, when the fair had the broadest geography in its history, and on par with the 62 participants in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ukrainian artists were always an organic and integral part of the Russian art scene, but understandably no Ukrainian galleries applied for stands this year, Pushkina says.

In recognition of the present situation, Cosmoscow is not marking its tenth anniversary with any special events, Pushkina says, though she did not directly mention the war.

All of us in one way or another are influenced by current events and react to what is happening in our country and in the world, she says. In the current situation, it is impossible to remain indifferent. Everyone determines for himself which path to follow, to remain silent or to continue the activity in a modified format.

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First Cosmoscow fair since Russian invasion of Ukraine to open with no foreign galleries and internal complaints of censorship - Art Newspaper

Facing violence in the real world and censorship in the virtual one, anti-abortion groups are asking state attorneys general to do more to keep them from being wiped off the mapGoogle map.

Tension over abortion rights began even before the Supreme Courts Dobbs decision on June 23 overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade opinion that had made abortion a constitutionally protected right for nearly half a century.

In an unprecedented move, a preliminary draft of the decision was leaked, and published by Politico on May 2. It led not just to demonstrationsincluding some outside Supreme Court justices homesbut to acts of violence and vandalism against pregnancy centers that support pregnant women to encourage them to carry their babies to term. An investigation into the leak continues, Justice Neil Gorsuch said recently, adding he hoped it was finished soon.

CompassCare, an upstate New York group whose Buffalo-area center was firebombed on June 7, said it had documented a sustained pro-abortion effort successfully pressuring tech giants Google and Yelp into censoring and ostracizing them. And the effort has some law enforcement officers, notably New York State Attorney General Letitia James, plus the Biden White House, on their side.

Beginning on August 23, despite the threat of chief law enforcement (officers) in 17 different states, both Google and Yelp began the process of defaming and censoring pro-life pregnancy centers through misleading consumer warnings as well as wiping them off the map function so women who think abortion is their only choice could not find them. At the same time, Google raised Planned Parenthood to number 1 in all organic search results for keywords related to abortion, giving them millions of dollars worth of free advertising, CompassCare said in a public statement.

Big tech conspiring with the political elite to silence any who differ with their ideology is a classic fascist move, destroying anyone who gets in their way, CompassCare CEO Rev. Jim Harden said in the statement. Our only objective is to protect all people equally, both mother and child. If a benevolent goal like that is a threat to those in power, what kind of mania is driving them? This is truly the pro-abortion Kristallnacht.

To learn more about the AG antitrust legal strategy to protect a womans ability to choose the support of a pro-life pregnancy center and not just abortion, contact their offices, CompassCare said.

A lengthy timeline provided by CompassCare details when pressure was applied to the tech companies, when they complied, and how effectively anti-abortion groups were made invisible on maps and in searches. Google on Aug. 25 detailed extra layers of verification increasing the likelihood that pregnancy centers would be flagged for allegedly being misleading or inappropriate.

The attorneys general of 17 states warned Google in an open letter on July 21 that the company might, if it continued censoring anti-abortion groups, be held in violation of antitrust laws.

We, the undersigned Attorneys General, are extremely troubled by this gallingly un-American political pressure. We wish to make this very clear to Google and the other market participants that it dwarfs: if you fail to resist this political pressure, we will act swiftly to protect American consumers from this dangerous axis of corporate and government power, the letter said.

We cannot imagine a potential antitrust violation more odious to American ideals than the deployment of monopoly power to suppress the expression of a particular idea, done at the behest of government actors. Because of the fundamental American values at stake here, if you comply with this inappropriate demand to bias your search results against crisis pregnancy centers, our offices will (1) conduct thorough investigations to determine whether this suppression violates the antitrust laws of the United States and our states.

The letter, whose lead authors were Jason Miyares of Virginia and Daniel Cameron of Kentucky, was also signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

The timeline details how government and pro-abortion groups have joined forces to defame and suppress abortion opponents and those working to help women who choose not to have one. And the pressure has continued steadily since and despite the July 21 warning from the state attorneys general.

CompassCare spokesman Isaac Harden said the group and its allies had a team of 30 lawyers and legal experts with various projects in the works. But the attorneys general have the resources. It would be ideal if they pursued this cause.

Here are some excerpts:

On Nov. 4, 2021, Planned Parenthood posted on its website: Crisis pregnancy centers (also called CPCs or fake clinics) look like real health centers, but they have a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health. There are a lot of these CPCs in the U.S exposefakeclinics.com and The Fake Clinic Database can help you figure out which clinics in your area are crisis pregnancy centers. This statement constitutes defamation, CompassCare alleges.

On June 29, 2022, the president of NARAL, Mini Tammaraju, was quoted in a release by the New York attorney generals office: Google is the first place many people will turn to find out what care they have available to them We thank New York State Attorney General (Letitia) James for leading this effort to ensure everybody looking to access care can find that information without being misled by dangerous fake health centers. This constitutes defamation of a competitor, CompassCare alleges.

The government and the press picked up the gauntlet.

On June 13, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Pregnancy Center Investigation Bill to regulate the activities of pro-life pregnancy centers.

On June 22, the New York Times said in a story, For years, abortion rights advocates have called on Google to stop allowing crisis pregnancy centers to run misleading abortion-related ads on the search giants platform In an email, a Google spokesperson said that protecting users from harmful and misleading ads was a top priority.

On June 28 and 29, James office posted two statements pressuring Google to censor pro-life pregnancy centers, CompassCare documents:

CPCs exist solely to intercept and dissuade pregnant people from making fully informed decisions about their health care Including these organizations in a list for an individual seeking abortion services is dangerous and misleading This issue continues to persist in some New York regions, providing misleading information.

And, New Yorkers, and others traveling to the state, should trust that Google Maps will provide accurate information and direct them to real and safe care By relying on Googles search results in these cases, individuals are unknowingly directed towards dangerous situations and harmful experiences Attorney General James warned Google to immediately address the misinformation.

And censorship has taken place:

Beginning in June, pregnancy centers have had their speech rights curtailed by ordinances passed in numerous cities, beginning in June, CompassCare said. Cities including Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis, Austin, and Columbus, Ohio, have deprioritized enforcement of abortion regulations, deregulating abortionists, CompassCare charges.

On July 8, the Biden administration posted an Executive Order Fact Sheet on the White House website which said, The Presidents Executive Order takes additional steps to protect people seeking reproductive health care from inaccurate information, fraudulent schemes or deceptive practices. Thats censorship, CompassCare charges.

On July 12, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the shut down of pregnancy centers: In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination, she told a television reporter. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts, and we need to shut them down all around the country. You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that.

Pregnancy centers have faced more than wars of words or legal procedures. A shadowy group called Janes Revenge, which uses a website based in Italy, took credit in a communique posted June 15 for the Buffalo attack and numerous others on pregnancy centers across the country.

You have seen that we are real and that we are not merely pushing empty words. As we said, we are not one group but many. You have seen us in Madison, WI, Ft. Collins CO, Reisertown MA, Olympia WA, Des Moines IA, Lynwood WA, Washington DC, Asheville NC, Buffalo NY, Hollywood FL, Vancouver WA, Frederick MA, Denton TX, Gresham OR, Eugene OR, Portland OR among others, and we work in countless locations invisibly.

Your thirty days expired yesterday We promised increasingly drastic measures against oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and those measures may not come in the form of something so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti Eventually your insurance companies and your financial backers will realize you are a bad investment.

At least 67 pregnancy resource centers have been attacked since the Dobbs opinion leaked in May, according to CatholicVote.org.

Janes Revenge is emboldened by the inaction of our governor, our attorney general, and our majority Democrat legislature, said New York state Sen. George Borrello, a Republican, at the CompassCare centers defiant reopening on Aug. 1. Someone has to die before the progressives think its violence.

CompassCare detailed how slowly local and federal authorities are investigating the June 7 pregnancy center firebombing in Amherst, a Buffalo suburb. Amherst police that day confiscated the centers computers containing its security footage.

On July 13, more than a month later, they asked the center to sign a release allowing them to share a copy of the security footage with the FBI for forensic analysis. A center executive did so the same day. CompassCare CEO Jim Harden met with police on July 14 to view several printed screen grabs of the footage, but police refused to let him view the security footage itself.

Police didnt make their first public statement on the investigations progress until Aug. 1, nearly two months after the attack. Harden met with the FBI agent assigned to the case on Aug. 17. The agent told him the agency was considering but had not yet begun a height analysis on a suspect captured on video. On Aug. 19, Amherst police once more refused to return CompassCares security footage.

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Anti-Abortion Groups Ask State Attorneys General to Protect Them From Online Censorship - The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump called on Congress to investigate the anti-American practice of censorship rampant across Americas corporations and big tech platforms.

Trumps comments came during Turning Point USAs Student Action Summit on Saturday in Tampa, Florida.Trump said:

But Ill talk about the next critical fight we need is for your energy to be put behind the battle to restore free speech in America. There is no such thing as a democracy that does not have free speech. We dont have free speech anymore. We have canceled culture we have fake news media that reports certain news incorrectly.

He also called out corporate media for its biased coverage of political issues and for being partners with the Democrats:

And if its positive about the other side, they make it much better and if its bad about the other side, they wont even report it. We saw that in the election where they wouldnt report bad news about the other side. Its a disgrace. The media has taken a place in our culture and our history that nobody ever thought would be possible. They are no longer respected.

Trump warned that if censorship continues to grow across the country, America will turn into Venezuela on steroids. He said:

If debate can be silenced, if dissent can be suppressed. If conservative ideas can be systematically shut down, then very simply, we do not have a free country anymor. Thats what happened with communism and various countries. Thats what happened with Venezuela.

Trump added that the next congress and the next president have a civic duty to be ruthless in going after this new censorship regime.

We have to, because if we do not destroy censorship, censorship will destroy America. Our country will rot from the corruption confusion, he urged.

As soon as we have the power. Congress should immediately launch a full scale investigation into the rise of totally anti American practice, Trump declared.

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Trump Calls for Investigation into Anti-American Censorship