Dr Eric Crampton: Hard trade-offs with social media age limits

The government is worried about the harms some youths experience on social media.

The Prime Minister has announced his support for age limits. Social media platforms would face penalties if those under 16 made it onto their sites. Parliament is now holding a broader inquiry.

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Grownups don't need to use social media

I've got a life tip for you - Grownups should not post their opinions on social media. Case in point, Gary Lineker.

Now, Gary is about to announce that he's leaving his job at the BBC because of a social media post. This, in the UK, is very big news.

John Klar: Is Social Media Fueling Crime and Violence?

Burning, vandalizing, and even defecating on Tesla EVs have become commonplace despite cameras that capture culprits in the act. Such brazen behaviors are endorsed and encouraged, embracing lawlessness as a moral good. Vietnam War protesters were not this extreme, and their goal was more visible and less self-destructive. Social media algorithms seem to be fueling terrible side effects.

Musk Derangement Syndrome and TDS

Professor Robert MacCulloch: A Plea to the Leaders of National, ACT and NZ First....

A Plea to the Leaders of National, ACT and NZ First -  Shaft the Main Stream Media & give most of your interviews to Podcasters, Bloggers (yes us) & Alternative Platforms.

I spoke with Radio NZ today - their Morning Report staff - who told me that ACT Leader David Seymour has instructed his Members of Parliament not to give interviews with them. The reason is that he feels they are biased against the party and made it look bad in past interviews. The Main Stream Media, of course, do regard this government as illegitimate and believes that it should choose it, not the people.

Geoff Parker: New Zealand is being ruled by fear

Activist agenda driven Maori have virtually taken full control of New Zealand by utilising the vehicle of fear.

New Zealanders are frightened to speak out against this seditionist agenda, on social media, at meetings and/or social gatherings for fear of being labelled ‘racist’ or confrontation. In the case of social media the pack attacks can be very vitriolic.

Joanne Orlando: Young people need education, not unrealistic bans

The federal government has committed to a national plan to ban children from social media.

Details are still scarce. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged that “no government is going to be able to protect every child from every threat, but we have to do all we can”.

Barry Soper: What's the point of the David Seymour Snapchat story?

It's not often that you would feel the need to jump to the defence of a politician, they're usually more than capable of looking after themselves, with a few exceptions.

One politician who isn't an exception, in terms of looking after himself that is, is the straight as a die David Seymour, ACT's leader. What you see is what you get.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: There's a strong case for regulating social media for kids

I'm fascinated by the fact that around the world, there seems to be a growing acceptance from parents that we have got to limit kids’ access to social media.

There's a poll out of Australia today showing more than two thirds of voters over there support raising the minimum age of social media from 13 to 16.

And this comes off the back of the Australian Government and the UK Government and various states in the US all trying to figure out how to force the social media companies to stick to the rules and make sure there are no under-13s using the platforms.

Suze: Trying to Avoid the Facts

If someone won’t say who the bad guys are, what does it say about them?

A crisis brings out the best and the worst in us, and Christopher-Get-Boosted-Bishop is an excellent example: he was completely wrong about Covid vaccinations and boosters but is spot on about Hamas being a terrorist organisation.

Election 2023: Voters told to steer clear of posting on social media

PLEASE NOTE: It is against the law to comment on blogs, websites, and social media about voting or the election on Election Day until voting ends at 7pm - then the free-for-all can resume!

Here are extracts from a Radio NZ article:  

Election 2023: Voters told to steer clear of posting on social media

"Social media users are being warned not to make posts on voting or any aspect of political campaigns come election day.

The Electoral Commission which oversees the election keeps an eye on social media and follows up on any complaints.

Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne has this advice: "We just advise everyone don't broadcast on social media about voting or campaigning on election day."

The full article can be read HERE. 

Professor Richard Epstein: “Disinformation” Campaign Vs. Open Debate

The Biden administration should be forbidden to pressure social-media companies to manipulate COVID discussion.

On July 4, in Missouri v. Biden, judge Terry A. Doughty issued a broad injunction whose primary function is to prevent the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, and multiple other federal agencies from speaking to or meeting with social-media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” The government has insisted throughout the litigation that its active cooperation with these companies is part of a vital public campaign to stop the spread of “disinformation” on social media, including its efforts to prevent what the Biden administration termed “vaccine hesitancy” on the part of the public.

Chris Trotter: Restoring The Narrative: The Political Logic Behind The Campaign Against Disinformation.

Perhaps Jim Morrison's hostility toward Establishment America was born out of his father’s role in the notorious Tonkin Gulf Incident. Not many people know that The Doors’ lead-singer’s father, George S. Morrison, was an admiral in the United States Navy. Even fewer realise that he was one of those commanding the US naval force patrolling off the North Vietnamese coast in 1964. The very same naval force that was “attacked” by non-existent North Vietnamese gunboats in an “incident” that never happened, but which served as the pretext for Congress’ “Tonkin Gulf Resolution”. The very same resolution that gave President Lyndon Johnson the authority to escalate American involvement in South Vietnam to the level of full-scale war.

Elijah Gullett: How the Supreme Court Could Break the Internet

Section 230 has been the key to our free and open Internet. Eliminating it now would be a deeply dangerous move.

Online free speech has been under fire from Congress, past presidents, and pundits from both sides of the political aisle. Now, it faces a new threat: the Supreme Court.

Jeffrey A. Tucker: Facebook Is Dead Unless You Post Something that Does Not Matter

Since Elon Musk has taken over Twitter, it’s been quite a wild ride. Thousands of doctors and scientists have been unbanned and are now speaking. Same with journalists. Accounts that posted against Covid restrictions and mandates are now unthrottled. Brownstone’s account is now at 31K and my own personal reach is up some 175 percent.

Of course, this is also infuriating. When we needed these voices the most was during the biggest attacks on liberty in our lifetime. Now that the powers that be have been forced by public opinion to dial back their oppressions, these voices can speak again. It’s good that the truth is getting out there but imagine the kind of difference it would have made for these 33 months if there had been no blocks on information from the start?

Jeffrey A. Tucker: How an Occupied Twitter Ruined Countless Lives

From the beginning of the Covid panic, it felt that something was very wrong. Never had a pandemic, much less a seasonal pathogenic wave, been treated as a quasi-military emergency requiring the upending of all freedoms and rights.

What made it more bizarre was how alone those of us who objected felt until very recently when Elon Musk finally bought the platform Twitter, fired all the embedded federal agents, and has started to release the files.

As Elon said, every conspiracy theory about Twitter was true and then some. And what applies at Twitter pertains equally to Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all platforms associated with those companies (YouTube, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp).

Bronwyn Howell: Can international social media censorship succeed?

Twenty four years ago, New Zealand’s Prime Minister David Lange strode the world stage as the symbolic face of the international antinuclear movement. 

In 2019, his political descendent Jacinda Ardern now similarly stands, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, as the face of a new international moral campaign against the use of social media to organize and promote terrorism and violent extremism. 

The pair will host a summit of global leaders and tech industry executives on May 15 seeking a pledge to eliminate (i.e., censor) terrorist and violent extremist content on social media platforms.

Richard Epstein: A Frontal Assault on Social Media

To all appearances, the folks in charge of privacy regulation within the European Union are unfamiliar with that old cliché, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” 

Last week, the EU parliament passed a long-anticipated and much-dreaded privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a lengthy and convoluted document that is replete with vague substantive commands accompanied by hefty penalties for violation. 

The implicit assumption behind the regulation is that all individuals are entitled to control data about themselves, so that various firms that acquire this information not only have to hold it secure against outsiders, but are also limited in how they can use the data, while granting individual users extensive rights to access, control, and remove their personal data. 

Karl du Fresne: The truly scary thing about Barraco Barner

Heard of Barraco Barner? Possibly not. But according to a 20-year-old English beautician, he’s the president of Britain and he really shouldn’t be getting involved in Ukraine’s problems. Here, starkly laid bare, is the one of the downsides of social media and the digital information revolution. Instant opinion, zero knowledge.

Gemma Worrall from Blackpool wrote on Twitter that it was “scary” that “our president Barraco Barner” was tangling with Russia. But the truly scary thing is that someone who thought that Britain had a president, and that his name was Barraco Barner, could so innocently display their rank ignorance for the world to see.