Rubio, Consumer Advocate Want Chinese Online Retailers Investigated

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio

Lawmakers and consumer advocates are calling for a federal investigation into online Chinese retailers Temu and Shein.

The companies have spent billions of dollars in online American advertising with social media companies such as Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and Google. The probe is warranted, critics say, because of anti-competitive practices skirting U.S. trade and public safety regulations; alleged use of slave laborers to make products sold at cut-rate prices; and advertising targeting children, low-income families and older Americans.

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Emails Show Facebook Chafed at Biden White House Pressure to Suppress COVID-19 Lab Leak Story

Facebook on a smartphone

The preliminary staff report is the result of a months-long investigation into the alleged coercion, where President Joe Biden’s White House reportedly pushed social media platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube, to censor books, videos, and posts.

Emails released Wednesday show Facebook officials chafed at the Biden White House pressure campaign to censor reports that the COVID-19 pandemic came from a lab leak in China.

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Facebook Interfered with U.S. Elections Almost 40 Times Since 2008: Study

Facebook has interfered with U.S. elections almost 40 times since 2008, according to a study conducted by the Media Research Center.

Among the group’s findings are Facebook censuring 2024 presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 2022 Senate and House candidates on their platform. For example, the company removed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase’s account. The company also “shuttered political advertising one week before the election” in 2020, according to the MRC’s analysis.

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White House Pressure to Censor Social Media No Worse than Yelling at Journalists, SCOTUS Suggests

Federal officials privately scold reporters and attempt to shape or even stop their coverage on a regular basis, without getting sued for First Amendment violations.

How close is that to White House aides privately and repeatedly badgering their counterparts at social media companies and President Biden publicly accusing Facebook of “killing people,” for insufficient censorship of disfavored narratives on COVID-19?

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Commentary: Big Tech Needs the First Amendment to Censor You

Smart Phone Filled with Apps

Big Tech is back at the Supreme Court.

Appealing from a big loss they suffered at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, social media platforms are challenging Texas’ social media law that prohibits those companies from engaging in viewpoint discrimination when curating their platforms.

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