We only have so much time to scan the news. So I have done a bit of scanning for you, focusing especially on issues that affect the future of a free society, in these troubled times… Find the latest news on new lows for EU-sponsored censorship, Musk’s purchase of Twitter, bombings in Sweden, vaccine mandates, Florida’s changed guidance on mRNA vaccines, Jacinda Ardern’s crusade against “misinformation,” and a UN official’s claim that “we own the science” on climate change.
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The fate of Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter now comes down to the money
By Clare Duffy, CNN Business
The countdown is now on for Elon Musk and Twitter to close their $44 billion acquisition deal by October 28 or be forced to again prepare for a trial after a judge agreed on Thursday pause the legal proceedings. What everyone is now waiting on: Musk needs to actually have the money to hand over.
How the EU is Forcing Twitter to Censor (and Musk Can’t Stop It)
- Robert Kogon for the Brownstone Institute
Unbeknownst to most Americans,…their 1st Amendment rights are being vitiated…by the European Union. There is a financial gun pointed at Twitter. But it is not the Biden administration, but rather the European Commission, under the leadership of Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, that has its finger on the trigger.
The U.S. Government’s Vast New Privatized Censorship Regime
- Jenin Younes for The Tablet
The Missouri documents, along with some obtained through discovery in Berenson v. Twitter and a FOIA request by America First Legal, expose the extent of the administration’s appropriation of big tech to effect a vast and unprecedented regime of viewpoint-based censorship on the information that most Americans see, hear and otherwise consume. At least 11 federal agencies, and around 80 government officials, have been explicitly directing social media companies to take down posts and remove certain accounts that violate the government’s own preferences and guidelines for coverage on topics ranging from COVID restrictions, to the 2020 election, to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.