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QAnon has been named one of the largest extremism networks in the United States. The conspiracy theory, which began as a claim that President Trump (and Robert Mueller) were saving the world from cannibal pedophiles, grew out of 4chan message boards. Now its gone mainstream and its reaching moms and Instagram health gurus.

The group is reportedly led by Q, a so-called Trump insider who makes anonymous online postings. Followers of QAnon believe a lot of things but it boils down to a central message: Trump controls everything. Its been embraced by the president and numerous politicians, but it has faced growing criticism about its presence online.

Boasting millions of devoted followers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, theres been little oversight by tech companies on regulating QAnon. The theory is also a major driver in misinformation, particularly about the 2020 election. Members of Congress have condemned the movement on Capitol Hill and in legislation, saying more needs to be done to address moderating its internet reach.

Facebook announced in October that it was banning the group from its platform, but its unclear how well the social networking site will enforce its new rules. Some civil rights groups claim Facebooks actions compromise free speech; government agencies, meanwhile, have shown QAnon has been linked to real-world violence.

Social media algorithms, like Facebooks, make QAnon-related content easily accessible for people who are dedicated followers or just simply curious. Before people know it, users can find themselves down a rabbit hole. All it takes is one click.

Follow this storystream for all of Voxs QAnon coverage and updates.

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What is QAnon? The conspiracy theory, explained. - Vox.com

World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10 to increase awareness about mental health issues. So, here are the positive and adverse effects of social media on our mind explained by psychiatrist Sonal Anand from Wockhardt Hospital.

World Mental Health Day is celebrated on October 10 annually to increase awareness amongst people globally against mental health problems. So, on this day, Dr Sonal Anand, Psychiatrist at Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road, shares some positive and negative impacts of social media on our cognitive health.

The influence of social media is such that there is rarely anyone who hasnt been able to form a view and judgement of it whether positive or negative. Internet and social media usage have definitely changed brain cognition. Whereas on the positive side, we have seen better means of expression, positive changes in social acceptance, new skill development and overall progress and on the negative many perils and problems.

World Mental Health Day 2020: What are the impacts of social media on our mental health?

Positive impacts of social media

Research is still going on as to how the brain is changing in structure and cognition due to the usage of screens. We know for sure that the brain is adaptable to continuous external stimuli and learning new experiences so it wont come as a surprise that our mindset and behaviour is influenced by social media and social networking usage. The number of likes and positive comments that we get activate the reward centre of the brain and hence addiction becomes highly likely.

Social media for our development

Communication is the key area in which social media has exerted a very heavy and positive influence. With just a tap, you can join a community with similar and sometimes revolutionary views. This can be an advantage for introverts or people with lesser opportunities and marginalised individuals. Having a platform to express oneself without any boundaries can open whole new ways of thinking and creativity. Learning new skills and the variety of choices promotes self-worth and development.

Social media for sharing emotional problems

Social media makes it easy to find new friends, easy means of connectivity and new ways of social development. Sharing emotional problems online has helped many individuals who were otherwise cocooned into their own shells. A wave of change in some redundant and unfair social patterns has been seen because of the positive influence of social media. Taking part in such movements gives the individual a feeling of being an integral part of social change. Social media movements like MeToo, BlackLivesMatter have been successful in reaching out to the masses and touching the right chords.

Negative sides of social media

While the positive influences of social media on societal change cannot be doubted, the negative effects are what is bothering research scientists. The social media deprives a face-to-face interaction which is critical as non-verbal cues because body language has been an integral part of our evolution.

Habit of comparing

The virtual image and real image become two parts of the individual and the resultant conflicts arising from the disbalance of the two is what mainly brings about negative changes. The impact of seeing perfect lives and photographs of others and comparing them with oneself can become quite traumatising and difficult to express. One forgets that only one dimension is seen in these pictures and that reality could be different. People tend to post mostly the best versions of themselves and hence comparisons cannot be relied on.

Severe mental health issues

Cognition is definitely affected by higher use of social media in the form of attention, memory and prioritisation problems. Sleep pattern could get dysregulated due to the blue light from screens leading to further problems. Cyberbullying, hate spread, negative comments, lies, misinformation, FOMO (fear of missing out) can hurt young minds and leave deep emotional scars. Growing minds are yet to hone their rationalisation and problem-solving skills. Such negative incidences lead to a variety of mental health problems like anxiety, panic, depression, insomnia, problems of self-esteem and hopelessness leading to self-harm behaviour and suicide.

Addiction to social media is what most people and parents fear. Living in a virtual world and forgetting to live in the real world can take out the meaning of life as we know it.

NOTE:

We cannot deny that social media is here to stay and so moulding oneself to use its positive influences and striking the right balance can make life better. One must not be isolated with problems and social media pressure but instead open up to seeking help from family, loved ones and mental health professionals.

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World Mental Health Day: Impacts of social media on our cognitive health explained by Psychiatrist Sonal Anand - PINKVILLA

After being banned, some militant pages returned with different names. We are back! the leader of one such organization said after relaunching on the platform last month. Help us rebuild share and invite friends.

Posted on October 9, 2020, at 8:53 p.m. ET

A day after the FBI disclosed that organized armed extremists coordinated on Facebook to hatch a terrorist plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, multiple pages that encourage political violence were still active on the social network.

An examination by BuzzFeed News and the Tech Transparency Project, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found at least five such pages on the platform as of Friday morning. Those pages, which in some cases appear to be simply rebranded versions of previously banned organizations, use Facebook to recruit and to promote objectives that at times call for violent uprising.

Facebook announced in August that it was banning right-wing militant, anarchist, and QAnon groups after a series of violent crimes were tied to organizations that used the platform. Since then, the company has removed thousands of groups, and this week announced it had banned all accounts, pages, and groups tied to QAnon, the collective delusion that alleges that a secretive government cabal is kidnapping children.

Despite Facebooks efforts, some of those pages have escaped removal despite incorporating words such as militia or minutemen in their names or web addresses; others were created after Facebook removed their original groups or pages and appear to have avoided detection by making small changes to their names.

The Michigan Liberty Militia, for example, was banned from Facebook in August. On Sept. 11, it reappeared under a page with new, slightly altered moniker MLM Michigan liberty minutemen and marked its return with a picture of a flag bearing two hatchets, the Liberty Bell, and two assault rifles.

We are back! read a post on the page posted at 8:59 a.m. and signed by the groups leader, Phil Robinson. Help us rebuild share and invite friends.

A Facebook spokesperson said Friday that its work to remove violent content and extremist organization pages is ongoing.

We remove content, disable accounts, and immediately report to law enforcement when there is a credible threat of imminent harm to people or public safety, the spokesperson said.

That person added that the company had removed three pages identified to it by BuzzFeed News because they violate its policies, but noted that some of them had not been active recently.

While Facebook has taken a harder stance against violent organizations that have used the platform for years to organize and grow, the continued existence of Michigan extremist groups underscores the difficulty the social networking company is having in moderating content. And even as it attempts to show that it is doing more ahead of a contentious 2020 presidential election, Facebook is still falling short, according to its critics.

This is yet another example of Facebook's ongoing moderation failures despite ample warnings from researchers and journalists, making clear that the company is either unable or unwilling to remove militia and extremist movements from their platform, said TTP Director Katie Paul, whose organization was able to locate three Michigan extremist pages still on Facebook as of Friday morning. This comes after months of highly publicized statements from Facebook that it is removing these groups, yet we are still able to identify them with basic searches.

Since August, Facebook said it has removed more than 6,500 Pages and Groups tied to more than 300 Militarized Social Movements.

Although there are other social networks that prove more welcoming to such organizations, none have anything remotely close to the enormous reach of Facebook. For that reason, many organizations, reluctant to abandon the platform, have found ways around the ban, creating new pages with different names to avoid being linked to previously removed pages and groups.

In other cases, Facebook has been slow to remove pages that have clear links to calls for violence.

In late August, for example, members of a militant group called the Kenosha Guard used the platform to organize a confrontation with protesters demonstrating against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. During that event, a 17-year-old gunman allegedly shot and killed two protesters and injured another.

The Kenosha Guard event page, which had been flagged by users 455 times prior to the events of Aug. 25, was not removed from Facebook until after the shooting.

And although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially took credit for removing the event page, BuzzFeed News later revealed it had been deleted by the events organizer.

On Thursday, unsealed federal and state charging documents detailed how a right-wing militant group in Michigan known as the Wolverine Watchmen used the platform to connect with one another and help plot to kidnap and possibly kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over what the conspirators believed was government overreach in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

An FBI affidavit filed this week indicates that the group, separately identified by the Michigan attorney general, had been attempting to obtain the addresses of local law-enforcement officers, and a member of the Wolverine Watchmen at the time expressed concern to the bureau that the group planned to target and kill police officers.

Facebook said Friday that it began proactively communicating with law enforcement about the Wolverine Watchmen at least six months ago, and the group was removed from the platform on June 30 as part of a sweep to ban what it called a violent US-based anti-government network.

Yet despite this work, not only are Michigan extremist pages still active on the platform, according to TTPs Paul, but Facebooks recommendation algorithm appears to continue directing users to like other pages if they are already following one.

On Friday morning, for example, the platforms algorithm recommended multiple pages for militant groups to a reporter examining a different organizations page, including one for an organization called West Michigan Guardians, which describes itself as a constitutional militia.

TTP found three other pages, including Michigan Minuteman Platoon, which had not posted since last year. Another, Great Lakes Light Infantry, identified itself as a militia group and used photos of children in camouflage clothing to promote its cause.

A fifth page, MCM Standing Together, Defending Together, which had its original page removed in a purge over the summer, returned to Facebook on Sept. 21. The new pages URL features the phrase MichigansConstitutionalMilitia and is liked and followed by 50 people.

Originally we were not going to rebuild the page on FB however YOLO, a page administrator posted on the date it was created.

The pages most recent post, a meme of a soldier and the Statue of Liberty holding a gun, appeared on Sept. 24.

Its been a tough year, the text on the meme reads. But our way of life is worth fighting for.

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Even After The Plot To Kidnap Gov. Whitmer, Michigan Militant Groups Continue To Thrive On Facebook - BuzzFeed News

With help from Eric Geller, John Hendel, Nancy Scola and Carmen Paun

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PROGRAMMING NOTE: Morning Tech will not publish Monday, Oct. 12. We'll return to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Oct. 13. In the meantime, please continue to follow Pro Technology.

DNC CTO talks disinformation: The DNCs chief technology officer said the party is seeing as much disinformation from domestic sources as from foreign ones, which she called deeply troubling.

Meanwhile, on the RNC: The Trump campaign and Republican National Committee are sourcing Americans answers on whether social media companies are trying to help Joe Biden win the election and whether Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is out to make the president lose.

5G experimentation: The Defense Department is doling out another $600 million in grants to test 5G applications, with the help of private telecoms like AT&T and Nokia, at military bases across the country.

AAAAAND EXHALE. ITS FRIDAY; WELCOME TO MORNING TECH! Im your host, Alexandra Levine.

Got a news tip? Write to Alexandra at [emailprotected], or follow along @Ali_Lev and @alexandra.levine. An event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected]. Anything else? Full team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

A message from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

Critically important but commonly misunderstood: Todays antitrust laws are comprehensive, vigilantly guarding against anti-competitive conduct and problematic mergers. These laws, designed to root out misconduct, have cultivated economic growth since their enactment. WATCH: Antitrust Explained in 60 seconds.

DNC CTO: THE LIES ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE COUNTRY Nellwyn Thomas has a lot on her plate. As chief technology officer for the Democratic National Committee, shes responsible for improving its tech workflow, protecting it from hackers, countering disinformation operations, and providing IT and security advice to dozens of state parties and hundreds of campaigns. But what worries her the most right now, my colleagues at Morning Cybersecurity report, is the rise of domestic disinformation operations that rival or exceed the scope and efficacy of foreign activities, such as Russias infamous 2016 interference. The threats were seeing at this point are just as much domestic as they are foreign, and that is deeply troubling, Thomas said on Thursday during an Institute for Security and Technology webinar.

President Donald Trump and members of his administration and reelection campaign have relentlessly pushed false claims about the security of mail-in voting, the extent of voter fraud and the overall integrity of the 2020 election. That is incredibly difficult to combat, when its not just about China or Russia or Iran, but about other Americans, Thomas said. And so that is certainly an area that we're very focused on and very concerned about.

Because a major goal of disinformation campaigns is to discourage participation in the democratic process, voter suppression goes hand-in-hand with more traditional election security issues such as cyberattacks and social media propaganda. Thomas has directed the DNCs tech team to document instances of potential voter suppression at polling places in order to make sure that we can track those, remediate them and in some cases litigate them after the fact. These things are related, she said, and all part of a common thread of outside actors, foreign and domestic, trying to undermine trust in our electoral processes and trust in our democratic politicians.

TRUMP HQS TWITTER ACCOUNTABILITY SURVEY The Trump camp has launched a survey to take American voters temperature on alleged GOP bias by Twitter. The Official Twitter Accountability Survey poses (somewhat repetitive) questions about whether the platform purposefully silences conservatives; fact-checking posts amounts to free speech violations; social media companies are trying to help Joe Biden win the election; and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants Trump to lose.

All about that consent: While the survey seeks to reaffirm Trumps longstanding accusations that tech platforms discriminate against conservatives, another goal seems to be getting the greenlight to robocall voters. Survey participants consent to receiving autodialed and automated calls and texts from groups affiliated with the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and the Republican National Committee.

Sound familiar? The White House similarly created an online tipline last year where people could share stories of suspected political bias by social media companies, an effort that raised privacy advocates hackles by requesting a host of personal information.

PENTAGON ANNOUNCES MORE 5G TESTING AT MILITARY BASES The Defense Department on Thursday announced another $600 million in grants set to test next-generation wireless applications at five U.S. military bases in Utah, Washington, Georgia, California and Nevada, which the department calls the largest full-scale 5G tests for dual-use applications in the world. This is part of its ongoing 5G experimentation.

The testing will focus on a range of 5G uses including augmented and virtual reality applications as well as how to develop systems that will let the military dynamically share its 3.1-3.45 GHz band airwaves, now used for airborne radar systems, with the commercial sector. (Thats under study at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.) Companies like AT&T and Nokia are helping with efforts at the bases. The Pentagon holds a vast store of 5G-friendly airwaves, which the wireless industry has long sought to tap in some fashion.

Looking ahead, the department will begin testing on seven more military bases in the coming year, Michael Kratsios, the Pentagons acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, told reporters.

FACEBOOK: WE WORKED WITH THE FEDS ON MICHIGAN KIDNAP PLOT The social network helped tip off federal law enforcement to six militia activists alleged kidnapping conspiracy targeting Michigan's Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the company said Thursday. "We proactively reached out and cooperated with the FBI early in this ongoing investigation," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, adding that Facebooks outreach to the feds here started more than six months back.

The social network is named three times in the unsealed FBI affidavit, which said the suspects communicated via private Facebook pages and encrypted group chats about their planned attack on the governor, whose pandemic-related shutdowns had angered right-wing activists. (Its unclear whether the encrypted communications occurred on any Facebook platforms.)

One July 28 post to a private Facebook group read, in part, "We about to be busy ladies and gentlemen... This is where the Patriot shows up." That was particularly ominous because, the feds say, the suspect had earlier that day been heard on a phone call narrowing down attack sites to Whitmer's western Michigan vacation home and official summer residence.

WITH TECHS HELP, MONEY POT FOR VACCINES FOR POOR COUNTRIES GROWS Leading tech and media companies are among the contributors to a global fund set up to pay for lower- and middle-income countries coronavirus vaccines when they become available. The Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment has secured about $1.8 billion of its initial fundraising goal of $2 billion by the end of the year, Gavi said. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, gave $30 million, while the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok contributed $5 million, which were matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with $5 million. (The Gates Foundation had separately put in $106 million.)

The recipients: The funding will support the procurement of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for 92 countries eligible for the AMC. Those include all economies with gross national income per capita under $4,000, plus other World Bank International Development Association-eligible economies, among them countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, Gavi said. At least $5 billion more will be needed next year to procure doses as they become available.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was named board chairman for The Business Council, a learning, networking and best-practice sharing organization of top global CEOs, succeeding Nike President and CEO John Donahoe. The Competitive Carriers Association has welcomed several new members in 2020, including SpaceX, Cisco, Fujitsu, Rakuten and Samsung; more here.

A message from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

In recent years, some politicians have pushed for changes to antitrust laws that seek to break up companies across industries simply because of their size; essentially penalizing success. Such changes would leave government enforcers with too much control, allowing them to pick winners and losers in our economy. This would strip away consumers power in the market, cripple innovation, and undermine job creation and economic growth. WATCH: 60 second explainer on Americas antitrust laws.

ICYMI: Facebook has banned the U.S. marketing firm that was behind a campaign to disseminate deceptive political content on behalf of Turning Point Action, a political advocacy group for young conservatives with ties to President Donald Trump, Steven reports.

Becoming an ex-Bezos: The Inside Story of MacKenzie Scott, the Mysterious 60-Billion-Dollar Woman, by Stephanie Clifford.

Twitter trouble: A federal judge in California has ordered that Twitter reveal the identity of an anonymous user who allegedly fabricated an FBI document to spread a conspiracy theory about the killing of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who died in 2016, NPR reports.

Trump vs. World, the Sequel: What would four more years of Trump look like for China, trade, democracy and other issues? Read POLITICOs special report on how a second term could reshape the globe.

New privacy controls floated as CCPA improvement for consumers: Privacy-minded companies and consumer groups are testing a new, simpler way for people to exercise their rights under Californias landmark Privacy Act, Katy Murphy reports. They hope [it] will eventually be widely used, honored by companies and enforced by the attorney general.

QAnon and on: A Facebook Ban Won't Stop QAnon, WIRED reports.

M&A freeze?: While much remains uncertain about the federal governments ambitious case against big tech, at least one outcome seems highly likely: Tech giants wont be able to buy their way to growth anytime soon, WSJ reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King ([emailprotected], @bkingdc), Heidi Vogt ([emailprotected], @HeidiVogt), Nancy Scola ([emailprotected], @nancyscola), Steven Overly ([emailprotected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([emailprotected], @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima ([emailprotected], @viaCristiano), Alexandra S. Levine ([emailprotected], @Ali_Lev), and Leah Nylen ([emailprotected], @leah_nylen).

TTYL.

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What's top of mind for the DNC's chief technology officer? - Politico

KARACHI: In sharp reaction to the governments decision of banning TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service, social media celebrity Hareem Shah on Saturday slammed the restriction and called it a move to divert the publics attention from real issues, such as wheat flour crisis.

As you all know that TikTok has been banned and the reason thats been given for it is behayai (vulgarity or indecent content). I think thats not a solid reason. Its an entertainment app. If theres criminal content on it then the administrators [those who run it] of the app block it themselves, the popular TikToker said.

Instead of banning it, they [the government] should identify those who are involved in criminal or vulgar acts so that they could be punished and behayai is eliminated. In the US they banned the app by giving a solid reason, which was their national security. If there is a national security issue in Pakistan, then its right. But vulgarity is not a reason. I will give you an example: when your fingernails grow big you cut your nails, not the entire hand, she maintained.

Calls for imposition of Islamic system if vulgarity needs to be controlled

Ms Shah received a volley of questions from journalists and answered all of them with poise and understanding at a press conference on Saturday held at the Karachi Press Club to elicit her opinion on the governments ban on TikTok app.

There are different institutions such as the Censor Board in Pakistan who can do this job well. You will find people with a positive attitude to life as well as those with a negative one everywhere. If you look at it, then there is material on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram too which is not good for the countrys reputation. India and the US had issues with China so they banned the app. If you are out to put an end to vulgarity you need to enforce the Islamic system (Islami qanoon nafiz karein) in the country.

In reply to a question, she said TikTok brought out talents of people; how could one snatch that from them. According to her, behayai is something that makes a person move away from imaan. Behayai contains many things.

Answering a question, she said behayai committed by man or woman, either way, was condemnable. Women compared to men have become the focus of attention more if something bad happens. Who is raping women? Men. This is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and [yet] a woman cant go out with her children. Why cant you talk about that? What recently happened on Motorway, when a woman was raped, was done by men.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2020

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TikTok star terms ban move to divert public attention from issues - DAWN.com