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Walmart Inc. and Brazil-Based Subsidiary Agree to Pay $137 Million to Resolve Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Case
Walmart Inc. (Walmart), a U.S.-based multinational retailer and its wholly owned Brazilian subsidiary, WMT Brasilia S.a.r.l. (WMT Brasilia), have agreed to pay a combined criminal penalty of $137 million to resolve the government's investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). WMT Brasilia pleaded guilty today in connection with the resolution.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director Robert Johnson of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division and Special Agent in Charge Kelly Jackson of IRS Criminal Investigation's (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. office made the announcement.
"Walmart profited from rapid international expansion, but in doing so chose not to take necessary steps to avoid corruption," said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. "In numerous instances, senior Walmart employees knew of failures of its anti-corruption-related internal controls involving foreign subsidiaries, and yet Walmart failed for years to implement sufficient controls comporting with U.S. criminal laws. As today's resolution shows, even the largest of U.S. companies operating abroad are bound by U.S. laws, and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute foreign corruption."
"Walmart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because it failed to implement the internal controls necessary to ferret out corrupt conduct," said U.S. Attorney Terwilliger. "For more than a decade, Walmart experienced exponential international growth but failed to create safeguards to protect against corruption risks in various countries. This resolution is the result of several years of steadfast work by the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners at the FBI and IRS-CI."
"The FBI will hold corporations responsible when they turn a blind eye to corruption," said FBI Assistant Director Johnson. "If there is evidence of violations of FCPA, we will investigate. No corporation, no matter how large, is above the law."
"Walmart's guilty plea is another step in IRS-CI's ongoing effort to pursue corporations that engage in corruption that prevents fair competition around the world," said IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Jackson. "Through our efforts, we delved through layers of transactions and uncovered the bribery of foreign officials. Today's announcement is a statement that no company, even one as large as Walmart, is above the law."
More at link
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/walmart-inc-and-brazil-based-subsidiary-agree-pay-137-million-resolve-foreign-corrupt
Wednesday night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson highlighted how the Koch brothers are working against the interests of the average Republican voter and are actively partnering with groups like the Anti-Defamation League to censor the internet.
Transcript via Breitbart:
Charles and David Koch are two of the richest men in the world. Each is worth tens of billions of dollars. Some of their money is inherited. Much they made themselves. But the Kochs have never been content merely to get richer. They're engaged intellectuals, with a sincere desire to change the world. For years, the brothers have been the single most important funders of Republican politics in Washington.
The Koch network of donors spends hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle. Virtually every major conservative non-profit in DC takes Koch money. Koch organizations train political organizers and candidates. Many Republican lawmakers owe their careers to the Kochs. For people whose main business is making fertilizer and paper towels, the Kochs have been remarkably effective in politics. Not surprisingly, the left hates them for it. Both the Koch brothers and their families, who by the way are very nice people, have been repeatedly and grotesquely maligned by the media. This, in turn, has convinced many conservatives that the Kochs much be on their side. Anyone who's been slandered by the New York Times has got to be doing something right. That's the idea. It's not a bad standard.
But in the case of the Kochs, conservatives might want to pause and rethink the relationship. As it turns out, the Kochs don't have much in common with conservatives. They are totally opposed to most conservative policy goals. The Kochs are libertarian ideologues, passionate and inflexible. America first? The Kochs find the very notion absurd, if not fascist. An economic policy that seeks to strengthen families? The Kochs denounce that as "crony capitalism," or "picking winners and losers." They think it's immoral. Controlling our borders? The Kochs consider that racist. A few years ago, Bernie Sanders noted that the Koch brothers are far to the left of him on immigration. Open borders? Quote: "That's a Koch brothers proposal," he said.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=60370
1,000 Quakes In 3 Weeks In Key SoCal Seismic Zone: "We're Watching This Actvity Closely"
And what makes this even more concerning is that all of these earthquakes are happening in a location that is very close to the San Andreas Fault. Could it be possible that the San Andreas Fault is about to wake up in a major way? I don't know about you, but if I was living in southern California right now I would find this sort of news to be extremely unsettling…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-20/1000-quakes-3-weeks-key-socal-seismic-zone-were-watching-actvity-closely
https://www.opp.ca/news/#/viewnews/5d0a5a8c58303
Police Take Down 'Big Box Store' of Child Pornography
At a news conference, Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Detective Inspector David MacDonald - major case Manager from the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch and Inspector Tina Chalk - Manager of the OPP Counter Exploitation and Missing Person Section were joined by Toronto Police Service Staff Superintendent Donald Campbell and Daniel B. Hittner representing the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations to conclude two investigations.
Beginning in October of 2012 with a complaint to the Toronto Police Service, Project Greenwell became a complex, multi-national criminal investigation that first looked at those who uploaded and downloaded images and video files to what could be called a 'big box store' of child pornography, with users in at least 116 different countries. The servers were housed at a business in Toronto known as YesUp Media. A subsequent investigation - Project Blackheath - targeted the operators of the business who knowingly facilitated the sharing of these images for profit. There were 60,000 registered users in at least 116 different countries and at least 19,013 users purchased 30-day premium memberships.
https://ktla.com/2019/06/19/effort-underway-to-recall-mayor-garcetti-over-l-a-s-homeless-crisis/
"The low-key mayor who in 2016 helped convince voters to borrow $1.2 billion to construct housing for the homeless has found himself in an awkward position — explaining why the problems have only gotten worse."
Oregon Senate Republicans Flee State In Protest Of Cap and Trade Bill, Denying Dems Quorum, Governor Dispatches Police to Arrest Them
A state version of cap and trade has been making its way through the Oregon legislature this year. The bill passed the House last week, with two democrats joining the republicans in a futile effort to oppose it. Now that the bill is in the state Senate, all 11 republicans who make up the minority have apparently fled the state in order to deny the democrats a quorum so that no business can take place on the Senate floor.
After pleading with republicans to return, the democrats have asked Governor Kate Brown to exercise her authority to dispatch the state police to arrest the missing republicans and forcibly drag them to the capitol building.
The Oregonian reports:
Oregon's Democratic governor, Kate Brown, has dispatched state troopers to find missing Republican senators and bring them back to Salem to legislate.
All 11 Republican senators are in hiding, at least some of them out of state, in order to prevent the Senate from having the quorum it needs to operate. They can't abide the Democrat-backed carbon cap and spend bill that is up for a Senate vote today.
When Republicans failed to show up on the Senate floor for today's 11 a.m. session, Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem, a Democrat, asked the sergeant at arms to search the Capitol for the missing lawmakers. That search proved fruitless.
In response to the walkout, Courtney formally requested that Brown dispatch Oregon State Police troopers to round up the missing Republicans.
Brown quickly granted that request. "It is absolutely unacceptable that the Senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building," she said in a statement. "They need to return and do the jobs they were elected to do."
Speaking on the partially vacant Senate floor, Courtney said, "I apologize to the citizens for taking (state troopers) off the streets to look for (missing lawmakers)."
Oregon's constitution allows the majority party to "compel" the attendance of absent members of the legislature. The process is rarely used, though.
In 2001, Oregon Senate Democrats walked out and hid to stop a vote on a Republican legislative redistricting bill. They stayed away, bringing Senate business to a halt, for almost a week.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/oregon-senate-republicans-flee-state-in-protest-of-cap-and-trade-bill-denying-dems-quorum-governor-dispatches-police-to-arrest-them/
Hundreds of Protesters Arrested in India After Water Runs Dry
Drought and a deadly heat wave caused reservoirs to dry up in the country's sixth-largest city.
More than 550 people have been arrested in mass protests in India as some 11 million people in the country's sixth-largest city ran out of clean drinking water. The four reservoirs that supply Chennai in southern India dried up amid a severe drought, reportedly forcing the city's water authority to slash its water output by 40%. Hotels and restaurants were shuttered, some offices instructed workers to remain home to help conserve water, and the city's subway system was forced to shut off air conditioning, despite a deadly heat wave that's caused nearly 200 deaths across southern and eastern India, with temperatures in some regions soaring past 122 degrees.
As water resources ran dry, some residents in the region reportedly began turning to dirty wells and other sources. Authorities were trucking in tankers and bottles of water, but demand led to hundreds of thousands of people to wait in line. Anger and impatience over the situation reportedly erupted in sporadic violence. One man was arrested last week for allegedly stabbing a neighbor in a fight over water. Elsewhere in southern India, water scarcity fueled protests that led to the mass arrests Wednesday.
The crisis comes as climate scientists have issued increasingly dire warnings about global warming and its impact on water supplies around the world, but especially in Southeast Asia. Satellite images have revealed that glaciers and snowpack in the Himalayas are melting at a rapid rate, imperiling water supplies for about a quarter of the world's population. Rainfall in Chennai on Thursday provided a mild reprieve for the city's water crisis. The precipitation exceeded all the rainfall from the last six months, underscoring the infrequency of recent rainstorms and the severity of the region's weekslong water crisis.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2019-06-20/hundreds-of-protesters-arrested-in-india-after-water-runs-dry
Judicial Watch: New Strzok-Page Emails Reveal FBI Efforts to Muddle Comey Testimony on Clinton Emails; FBI-Media Collusion
Snippets
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 345 pages of records from the Department of Justice that show FBI top officials scrambling to write a letter to Congress to supplement then-Director James Comey's Senate testimony in an apparent attempt to muddle his message.
In an email thread starting at 6:34 a.m. on May 9, 2017, with the subject line "Comey's Testimony on Huma Abedin Forwarding Emails Was Inaccurate – ProPublica" nearly a dozen top FBI officials scrambled to draft a letter to Congress about Comey's May 3 Senate testimony.
''
This email thread was concerned with a May 8, 2017, ProPublica report stating that, "Comey's most surprising revelation was that Huma Abedin — [Anthony] Weiner's wife and a top Clinton deputy — had made 'a regular practice' of forwarding 'hundreds and thousands' of Clinton messages to her husband, 'some of which contain classified information.' Comey testified that Abedin had done this so that the disgraced former congressman could print them out for her boss.… FBI officials have privately acknowledged that Comey misstated what Abedin did and what the FBI investigators found." After a flurry of emails, by 8:56 a.m. Comey's chief of staff, Jim Rybicki, sent the group a draft letter for Congress, saying, "Below is a draft that has been reviewed by the Director. Please let me know your thoughts." At 2:02PM, Asst. Director for Congressional Affairs, Greg Brower, asked his colleagues to review the latest iteration of the draft letter to the Senate.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-strzok-page-emails-reveal-fbi-efforts-to-muddle-comey-testimony-on-clinton-emails-fbi-media-collusion/
Senator Hawley Plans to Strip Big Tech of Legal Immunity
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley is taking Silicon Valley to task with new legislation to hold social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter accountable for their political bias by stripping them of existing Section 230 protections.
The introduction of a new bill follows widespread allegations and evidence that social media platforms treat conservatives and Trump supporters with contempt. The Missouri Republican wants tech companies to demonstrate they are politically neutral in their moderation of user content or be subject to lawsuits they are currently immune to.
The bill he proposes will strip companies of legal immunity for user-generated content provided under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unless they can prove their moderation practices are not politically motivated.
"With Section 230, tech companies get a sweetheart deal that no other industry enjoys: complete exemption from traditional publisher liability in exchange for providing a forum free of political censorship," said Senator Hawley. "Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, big tech has failed to hold up its end of the bargain."
"There's a growing list of evidence that shows big tech companies making editorial decisions to censor viewpoints they disagree with," he added.
"Even worse, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy because these companies refuse to make their protocols public. This legislation simply states that if the tech giants want to keep their government-granted immunity, they must bring transparency and accountability to their editorial processes and prove that they don't discriminate."
The Communications Decency Act currently protects tech companies from liability for illegal content posted on their platforms. It was created during the nascent stages of the Internet to protect their growth and allow the proliferation of free speech online.
The Internet has long passed its infancy. Tech companies that enjoyed this government subsidy now possess the resources to moderate content. It's clear platforms like Facebook and Twitter no longer need these protections and are instead abusing the carve out to protect themselves from liability for their political practices.
"Something is happening with those groups of folks that are running Facebook, Google and Twitter," said President Donald Trump in March. "I do think we have to get to the bottom of it … It's collusive and it's very, very fair to say that we have to do something about it."
The President's comments came in the wake of a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter over allegations of shadow banning conservatives. Shadow banning is the practice of making the posts invisible to anyone but the original poster.
Big Tech has fought back against charges of bias.
Twitter and Google argue that conservatives removed from the platforms were banned for violating their rules against hate speech and harassment.
Senator Hawley's bill will remove automatic immunity under Section 230 from big tech companies. It will provide platforms the ability to earn immunity through external audits. They would have to prove to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by "clear and convincing evidence" that their algorithms and content-removal practices are politically neutral.
Furthermore, the FTC will not be able to certify Big Tech companies for immunity except by a supermajority vote. These companies would be responsible for the auditing costs, and only allowed to reapply for immunity every two years.
The Senator's office added that the legislation does not apply to small and medium-sized tech companies. The bill only applies to companies with more than 30 million active monthly users in the United States, or more than 300 million active monthly users worldwide, or who earn more than $500 million in global annual revenue.
In other words, Twitter, Google, and Facebook would be subject to it.
As Hawley's office writes, "Because these companies control the very information we receive, we must ensure that they moderate content in a politically neutral manner. Today's most powerful companies must not be allowed to interfere with the policy Congress established, when passing the CDA, to ensure "a forum for a true diversity of political discourse." 47 U.S.C. § 230(a)(3)."
"It is time to shine light onto what big tech companies do and force them to provide transparency about their content moderation practices."
https://humanevents.com/2019/06/19/senator-social-media-twitter-facebook-section-230-immunity/
Walmart Inc. (Walmart), a U.S.-based multinational retailer and its wholly owned Brazilian subsidiary, WMT Brasilia S.a.r.l. (WMT Brasilia), have agreed to pay a combined criminal penalty of $137 million to resolve the government's investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). WMT Brasilia pleaded guilty today in connection with the resolution.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director Robert Johnson of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division and Special Agent in Charge Kelly Jackson of IRS Criminal Investigation's (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C. office made the announcement.
"Walmart profited from rapid international expansion, but in doing so chose not to take necessary steps to avoid corruption," said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski. "In numerous instances, senior Walmart employees knew of failures of its anti-corruption-related internal controls involving foreign subsidiaries, and yet Walmart failed for years to implement sufficient controls comporting with U.S. criminal laws. As today's resolution shows, even the largest of U.S. companies operating abroad are bound by U.S. laws, and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute foreign corruption."
"Walmart violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because it failed to implement the internal controls necessary to ferret out corrupt conduct," said U.S. Attorney Terwilliger. "For more than a decade, Walmart experienced exponential international growth but failed to create safeguards to protect against corruption risks in various countries. This resolution is the result of several years of steadfast work by the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners at the FBI and IRS-CI."
"The FBI will hold corporations responsible when they turn a blind eye to corruption," said FBI Assistant Director Johnson. "If there is evidence of violations of FCPA, we will investigate. No corporation, no matter how large, is above the law."
"Walmart's guilty plea is another step in IRS-CI's ongoing effort to pursue corporations that engage in corruption that prevents fair competition around the world," said IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Jackson. "Through our efforts, we delved through layers of transactions and uncovered the bribery of foreign officials. Today's announcement is a statement that no company, even one as large as Walmart, is above the law."
More at link
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/walmart-inc-and-brazil-based-subsidiary-agree-pay-137-million-resolve-foreign-corrupt
Wednesday night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson highlighted how the Koch brothers are working against the interests of the average Republican voter and are actively partnering with groups like the Anti-Defamation League to censor the internet.
Transcript via Breitbart:
Charles and David Koch are two of the richest men in the world. Each is worth tens of billions of dollars. Some of their money is inherited. Much they made themselves. But the Kochs have never been content merely to get richer. They're engaged intellectuals, with a sincere desire to change the world. For years, the brothers have been the single most important funders of Republican politics in Washington.
The Koch network of donors spends hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle. Virtually every major conservative non-profit in DC takes Koch money. Koch organizations train political organizers and candidates. Many Republican lawmakers owe their careers to the Kochs. For people whose main business is making fertilizer and paper towels, the Kochs have been remarkably effective in politics. Not surprisingly, the left hates them for it. Both the Koch brothers and their families, who by the way are very nice people, have been repeatedly and grotesquely maligned by the media. This, in turn, has convinced many conservatives that the Kochs much be on their side. Anyone who's been slandered by the New York Times has got to be doing something right. That's the idea. It's not a bad standard.
But in the case of the Kochs, conservatives might want to pause and rethink the relationship. As it turns out, the Kochs don't have much in common with conservatives. They are totally opposed to most conservative policy goals. The Kochs are libertarian ideologues, passionate and inflexible. America first? The Kochs find the very notion absurd, if not fascist. An economic policy that seeks to strengthen families? The Kochs denounce that as "crony capitalism," or "picking winners and losers." They think it's immoral. Controlling our borders? The Kochs consider that racist. A few years ago, Bernie Sanders noted that the Koch brothers are far to the left of him on immigration. Open borders? Quote: "That's a Koch brothers proposal," he said.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=60370
1,000 Quakes In 3 Weeks In Key SoCal Seismic Zone: "We're Watching This Actvity Closely"
And what makes this even more concerning is that all of these earthquakes are happening in a location that is very close to the San Andreas Fault. Could it be possible that the San Andreas Fault is about to wake up in a major way? I don't know about you, but if I was living in southern California right now I would find this sort of news to be extremely unsettling…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-20/1000-quakes-3-weeks-key-socal-seismic-zone-were-watching-actvity-closely
https://www.opp.ca/news/#/viewnews/5d0a5a8c58303
Police Take Down 'Big Box Store' of Child Pornography
At a news conference, Commissioner Thomas Carrique, Detective Inspector David MacDonald - major case Manager from the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch and Inspector Tina Chalk - Manager of the OPP Counter Exploitation and Missing Person Section were joined by Toronto Police Service Staff Superintendent Donald Campbell and Daniel B. Hittner representing the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations to conclude two investigations.
Beginning in October of 2012 with a complaint to the Toronto Police Service, Project Greenwell became a complex, multi-national criminal investigation that first looked at those who uploaded and downloaded images and video files to what could be called a 'big box store' of child pornography, with users in at least 116 different countries. The servers were housed at a business in Toronto known as YesUp Media. A subsequent investigation - Project Blackheath - targeted the operators of the business who knowingly facilitated the sharing of these images for profit. There were 60,000 registered users in at least 116 different countries and at least 19,013 users purchased 30-day premium memberships.
https://ktla.com/2019/06/19/effort-underway-to-recall-mayor-garcetti-over-l-a-s-homeless-crisis/
"The low-key mayor who in 2016 helped convince voters to borrow $1.2 billion to construct housing for the homeless has found himself in an awkward position — explaining why the problems have only gotten worse."
Oregon Senate Republicans Flee State In Protest Of Cap and Trade Bill, Denying Dems Quorum, Governor Dispatches Police to Arrest Them
A state version of cap and trade has been making its way through the Oregon legislature this year. The bill passed the House last week, with two democrats joining the republicans in a futile effort to oppose it. Now that the bill is in the state Senate, all 11 republicans who make up the minority have apparently fled the state in order to deny the democrats a quorum so that no business can take place on the Senate floor.
After pleading with republicans to return, the democrats have asked Governor Kate Brown to exercise her authority to dispatch the state police to arrest the missing republicans and forcibly drag them to the capitol building.
The Oregonian reports:
Oregon's Democratic governor, Kate Brown, has dispatched state troopers to find missing Republican senators and bring them back to Salem to legislate.
All 11 Republican senators are in hiding, at least some of them out of state, in order to prevent the Senate from having the quorum it needs to operate. They can't abide the Democrat-backed carbon cap and spend bill that is up for a Senate vote today.
When Republicans failed to show up on the Senate floor for today's 11 a.m. session, Senate President Peter Courtney of Salem, a Democrat, asked the sergeant at arms to search the Capitol for the missing lawmakers. That search proved fruitless.
In response to the walkout, Courtney formally requested that Brown dispatch Oregon State Police troopers to round up the missing Republicans.
Brown quickly granted that request. "It is absolutely unacceptable that the Senate Republicans would turn their back on their constituents who they are honor-bound to represent here in this building," she said in a statement. "They need to return and do the jobs they were elected to do."
Speaking on the partially vacant Senate floor, Courtney said, "I apologize to the citizens for taking (state troopers) off the streets to look for (missing lawmakers)."
Oregon's constitution allows the majority party to "compel" the attendance of absent members of the legislature. The process is rarely used, though.
In 2001, Oregon Senate Democrats walked out and hid to stop a vote on a Republican legislative redistricting bill. They stayed away, bringing Senate business to a halt, for almost a week.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/oregon-senate-republicans-flee-state-in-protest-of-cap-and-trade-bill-denying-dems-quorum-governor-dispatches-police-to-arrest-them/
Hundreds of Protesters Arrested in India After Water Runs Dry
Drought and a deadly heat wave caused reservoirs to dry up in the country's sixth-largest city.
More than 550 people have been arrested in mass protests in India as some 11 million people in the country's sixth-largest city ran out of clean drinking water. The four reservoirs that supply Chennai in southern India dried up amid a severe drought, reportedly forcing the city's water authority to slash its water output by 40%. Hotels and restaurants were shuttered, some offices instructed workers to remain home to help conserve water, and the city's subway system was forced to shut off air conditioning, despite a deadly heat wave that's caused nearly 200 deaths across southern and eastern India, with temperatures in some regions soaring past 122 degrees.
As water resources ran dry, some residents in the region reportedly began turning to dirty wells and other sources. Authorities were trucking in tankers and bottles of water, but demand led to hundreds of thousands of people to wait in line. Anger and impatience over the situation reportedly erupted in sporadic violence. One man was arrested last week for allegedly stabbing a neighbor in a fight over water. Elsewhere in southern India, water scarcity fueled protests that led to the mass arrests Wednesday.
The crisis comes as climate scientists have issued increasingly dire warnings about global warming and its impact on water supplies around the world, but especially in Southeast Asia. Satellite images have revealed that glaciers and snowpack in the Himalayas are melting at a rapid rate, imperiling water supplies for about a quarter of the world's population. Rainfall in Chennai on Thursday provided a mild reprieve for the city's water crisis. The precipitation exceeded all the rainfall from the last six months, underscoring the infrequency of recent rainstorms and the severity of the region's weekslong water crisis.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2019-06-20/hundreds-of-protesters-arrested-in-india-after-water-runs-dry
Judicial Watch: New Strzok-Page Emails Reveal FBI Efforts to Muddle Comey Testimony on Clinton Emails; FBI-Media Collusion
Snippets
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 345 pages of records from the Department of Justice that show FBI top officials scrambling to write a letter to Congress to supplement then-Director James Comey's Senate testimony in an apparent attempt to muddle his message.
In an email thread starting at 6:34 a.m. on May 9, 2017, with the subject line "Comey's Testimony on Huma Abedin Forwarding Emails Was Inaccurate – ProPublica" nearly a dozen top FBI officials scrambled to draft a letter to Congress about Comey's May 3 Senate testimony.
''
This email thread was concerned with a May 8, 2017, ProPublica report stating that, "Comey's most surprising revelation was that Huma Abedin — [Anthony] Weiner's wife and a top Clinton deputy — had made 'a regular practice' of forwarding 'hundreds and thousands' of Clinton messages to her husband, 'some of which contain classified information.' Comey testified that Abedin had done this so that the disgraced former congressman could print them out for her boss.… FBI officials have privately acknowledged that Comey misstated what Abedin did and what the FBI investigators found." After a flurry of emails, by 8:56 a.m. Comey's chief of staff, Jim Rybicki, sent the group a draft letter for Congress, saying, "Below is a draft that has been reviewed by the Director. Please let me know your thoughts." At 2:02PM, Asst. Director for Congressional Affairs, Greg Brower, asked his colleagues to review the latest iteration of the draft letter to the Senate.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-new-strzok-page-emails-reveal-fbi-efforts-to-muddle-comey-testimony-on-clinton-emails-fbi-media-collusion/
Senator Hawley Plans to Strip Big Tech of Legal Immunity
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley is taking Silicon Valley to task with new legislation to hold social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter accountable for their political bias by stripping them of existing Section 230 protections.
The introduction of a new bill follows widespread allegations and evidence that social media platforms treat conservatives and Trump supporters with contempt. The Missouri Republican wants tech companies to demonstrate they are politically neutral in their moderation of user content or be subject to lawsuits they are currently immune to.
The bill he proposes will strip companies of legal immunity for user-generated content provided under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act unless they can prove their moderation practices are not politically motivated.
"With Section 230, tech companies get a sweetheart deal that no other industry enjoys: complete exemption from traditional publisher liability in exchange for providing a forum free of political censorship," said Senator Hawley. "Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, big tech has failed to hold up its end of the bargain."
"There's a growing list of evidence that shows big tech companies making editorial decisions to censor viewpoints they disagree with," he added.
"Even worse, the entire process is shrouded in secrecy because these companies refuse to make their protocols public. This legislation simply states that if the tech giants want to keep their government-granted immunity, they must bring transparency and accountability to their editorial processes and prove that they don't discriminate."
The Communications Decency Act currently protects tech companies from liability for illegal content posted on their platforms. It was created during the nascent stages of the Internet to protect their growth and allow the proliferation of free speech online.
The Internet has long passed its infancy. Tech companies that enjoyed this government subsidy now possess the resources to moderate content. It's clear platforms like Facebook and Twitter no longer need these protections and are instead abusing the carve out to protect themselves from liability for their political practices.
"Something is happening with those groups of folks that are running Facebook, Google and Twitter," said President Donald Trump in March. "I do think we have to get to the bottom of it … It's collusive and it's very, very fair to say that we have to do something about it."
The President's comments came in the wake of a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter over allegations of shadow banning conservatives. Shadow banning is the practice of making the posts invisible to anyone but the original poster.
Big Tech has fought back against charges of bias.
Twitter and Google argue that conservatives removed from the platforms were banned for violating their rules against hate speech and harassment.
Senator Hawley's bill will remove automatic immunity under Section 230 from big tech companies. It will provide platforms the ability to earn immunity through external audits. They would have to prove to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by "clear and convincing evidence" that their algorithms and content-removal practices are politically neutral.
Furthermore, the FTC will not be able to certify Big Tech companies for immunity except by a supermajority vote. These companies would be responsible for the auditing costs, and only allowed to reapply for immunity every two years.
The Senator's office added that the legislation does not apply to small and medium-sized tech companies. The bill only applies to companies with more than 30 million active monthly users in the United States, or more than 300 million active monthly users worldwide, or who earn more than $500 million in global annual revenue.
In other words, Twitter, Google, and Facebook would be subject to it.
As Hawley's office writes, "Because these companies control the very information we receive, we must ensure that they moderate content in a politically neutral manner. Today's most powerful companies must not be allowed to interfere with the policy Congress established, when passing the CDA, to ensure "a forum for a true diversity of political discourse." 47 U.S.C. § 230(a)(3)."
"It is time to shine light onto what big tech companies do and force them to provide transparency about their content moderation practices."
https://humanevents.com/2019/06/19/senator-social-media-twitter-facebook-section-230-immunity/
