Ben Collins is a reporter for NBC News who specializes in coverage of disinformation and extremism, particularly on social media. His work has earned him many plaudits, including a 2023 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism.
Collins is treated as an expert in the burgeoning field of countering the spread of misinformation. Yet his error rate is noteworthy.
A TikTok senior executive confirmed that the video sharing app’s Chinese parent company has access to user data, but did not confirm whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can also access this data under its National Intelligence Law.
David Lieber, head of TikTok’s privacy public policy for the Americas, was asked by NDP MP Matthew Green at a House of Commons Ethics Committee on Oct. 18 whether TikTok has “a parent company in China that has access to user data.”
Mr. Lieber responded “yes.” TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which has its headquarters in Beijing.
Hate crime hoaxer and disgraced actor Jussie Smollett has entered a rehab treatment facility nearly five years after he was convicted for staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself and then lying about it to the Chicago police.
Facing calls to clarify his previous comments, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday the Canadian government is working “rapidly” with allies to determine exactly what happened in the Gaza hospital blast that’s become a point of contention amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Calling it “the destruction of the hospital,” Trudeau said Canada is taking the time needed to investigate “carefully” beyond the “preliminary evidence” before reaching any final conclusions.
Amazon is experimenting with a humanoid robot as the technology company increasingly seeks to automate its warehouses.
It has started testing Digit, a two-legged robot that can grasp and lift items, at facilities this week. The device is first being used to shift empty tote boxes.
The company’s ambitious drive to integrate robotics across its sprawling operation has sparked fears about the effect on its workforce of almost 1.5 million humans.
Inevitable.
Canada will legalize medically assisted dying for people who are addicted to drugs next spring, in a move some drug users and activists are calling “eugenics.”
The country’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) law, which first came into effect in 2016, will be expanded next March to give access to people whose sole medical condition is mental illness, which can include substance use disorders. Before the changes take place, however, a special parliamentary committee on MAID will regroup to scrutinize the rollout of the new regulations, according to the Toronto Star.
h/t WV
The White House has apologised for accidentally sharing the identities of elite US forces helping to find and rescue hostages being held by Hamas.
A small group of the Army’s elite counter-terrorism unit is in Israel advising on the hostage situation, with around 200 people, including a dozen Americans, held captive by the terrorists in Gaza.
Many people were surprised at the slaughter, torture and rape inflicted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Israel. Arguably they shouldn’t have been, but at least they’re now waking up. But as Israel braces for the gruesome task of rooting jihadis out of Gaza, we also need to wake up to the poisonous radicalism within academia, from cancel culture, critical race theory and “decolonization” to a shocking amount of support for murderous antisemitic atrocities. And happily it’s easy to root out: just privatize the universities.
Official Palestinian Authority document released today to all Palestinian mosques. In it contains a line calling on all Muslims to kill the Jews. pic.twitter.com/beAG3LGlrd
— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) October 20, 2023
h/t Sweetpea
Iran understandably believes it is riding quite high.
It is flush with cash. It hints it almost has the bomb — and might use it soon.
The Iranians are bragging about their new tyrannical allies like Russia and China.
A former deputy minister of public safety testified on Thursday that it was “not my job” to warn a Conservative MP that he was being targeted by Chinese foreign agents attempting to influence a federal election.
They are still finding bodies in the neighbourhoods near Gaza.
Recovery teams on Wednesday pulled a woman’s body from the rubble in Kibbutz Be’eri. She was naked, her feet bound with metal wire.
One of the team said the bodies of more than 20 children had been found nearby, tied together and burned.
Even experienced workers are struggling: deaths like this are enough to break the living.
The heinous Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel left many Canadians, particularly in the Jewish community, deeply shocked and concerned about the questionable tone coming from our government.
This week, a number of world leaders have visited Israel to show their solidarity with the Jewish state. However, Canada’s response has been marked by efforts to evacuate its citizens from the region and a pledge of $10 million in aid to both sides, reflecting a faulty and shameful desire for neutrality.
“I’ve seen this and I’ve heard this, a lot of people are shocked that the antisemitism is coming from the left because they’ve been spoonfed by the media and by their universities and by the newspapers that antisemitism is a MAGA thing. Antisemitism is people running around in Chicago at night attacking Jusse Smollet with a red hat on. I mean, they’ve been fed a fantasy.”
Take a look at these lower class mouth-breathing right-wing redneck anti-semites:
Citi fires banker over ‘revolting’ Israel remark: ‘No wonder why Hitler wanted to get rid of all of them’
Miami dentist fired for tearing down Israeli hostage posters claims he was promoting ‘peace,’ wants old job back
Ontario doctor suspended from work, doxed after pro-Palestinian social media posts
Homeland Security officer on leave after it was revealed she worked for PLO and wrote ‘F–k Israel’ post
Letter from 2,000 actors and musicians slammed for accusing Israel of ‘war crimes’ while ignoring Hamas terrorist slaughter
London School of Economics – a young woman is filmed tearing down posters of missing Israeli children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists into Gaza.
When asked why she’s destroying them, she answers there is no proof women were raped. pic.twitter.com/5O5VbhGVCJ
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 19, 2023
When ISIS bride Dure Ahmed left Toronto for the caliphate in Syria, she insists she had no clue what her notorious husband was up to, including the kidnapping and savage beheading of American journalist James Foley.
According to a recent interview she gave to the CBC and BBC, Ahmed claims she was “oblivious to what was going on” while her then-British husband El Shafee Elsheikh was committing atrocities as part of the British-accented ISIS terror cell known as “the Beatles.”
