Shadow Banning is the term given to social media backroom activity that uses computer algorithms to shrink user account engagement without informing the user.  The process involves putting friction upon the account to block amplification and control engagement.  The user doesn’t see the process, they just notice a severe drop in the engagement by other users on the platform.

Last year, Elon Musk promised to start letting the account holders see what level of friction they were assigned to by letting the users see their shadow ban status.  However, that promise was never fulfilled.  Musk was questioned about why the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, has not followed through on the transparency pledge.

Continuing the process of pretending not to know things, Musk says transparency is hard.

(Washington) –  The long-hated process of shadow-banning on X, formerly Twitter, soon will change, according to owner Elon Musk. 

At the Viva Tech conference this week, the billionaire said he plans to address the issue soon. He said the company is working on a plan that will let people see if their account was affected by the Twitter system. 

“Sorry it’s taking so long,” Mr. Musk posted. “There are so many layers of ‘trust & safety’ software that it often takes us hours to figure out who, how and why an account was suspended or shadow-banned. A ground up rewrite is underway that simplifies the X codebase dramatically.”

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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There really is no other phrase that seems to adequately describe the future for online life in the United States than to describe it through the prism of the previously discussed shadow banning that takes place on the X-platform for specifically wrong-thinking users.

It is important to begin with the end in mind.  Perhaps some people are unaware that internet services, meaning the actual experience of using the internet for communication and commerce, are not the same in every nation.  In fact, it is quite a different experience depending on where on the globe you are located.  The differences are driven by internal controls, the intranet of the regional internet per se.

The internet in China is not the same as the internet in Europe, which is not the same as the internet in Australia, which is not the same as the internet in North America, which is not the same -at all- as the internet that now exists within Russia.  Even in some continents, the internet traffic flows are controlled at different levels within each nation. The “world wide web” is a format, but when you get down to the national level, things change.

This baseline helps to understand that internet freedom is defined by access to information and commerce.

To the extent the information or commerce is defined as against the interests of the authority structure, or potentially a threat to the national security interest of the government therein, the internet content is filtered, modified, censored, removed or just simply blocked from view.  This is one layer in the information control system.

Another layer is the flow of commerce that floats atop the flow of information.  This is where advertising, product sales, purchasing and general e-commerce takes place. This layer represents another option for control; therefore, this e-commerce layer should be considered running in parallel to the information, albeit perhaps indirectly attached.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the JoeBama Administration and Presidency.

“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”

“But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Using the X platform, formerly called Twitter, Tucker Carlson interviews Robert Kennedy Jr about his campaign, U.S. foreign policy, Ukraine, Russia, NATO, Bio-Labs and who killed his uncle. {Direct Rumble Link}

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The Fulton County clerk of courts is putting out the third public statement trying to explain and justify why they posted the grand jury indictment of Donald Trump before the grand jury had even met to vote on the indictment.   This latest explanation is so incredulous it’s almost impossible to believe they are making this public:

According to the story above, the original indictment before the jury met, was a trial run upload, made of a totally fictious construct, with totally random charges, that just happened to line up with the exact same charges, in the exact same sequence, as the indictment after the jury voted.  👀🤔…

Yeah, when you are trying to get out of a hole this deep, it’s best to stop digging.

I wonder if Suspicious Cat believes the clerk?

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Donald Trump continues to dominate the field in New Hampshire, with the competition for first loser position taking shape.  At this point, none of the other GOP candidates are in a position to win any delegates, and the second highest polling lane is Undecided with 13%.

Undecided passed by I Don’t Know shortly before the Iowa fair.  Apparently, putting sticks in eggs as a skill exhibited by the Florida governor was not enough to convince the Live Free or Die people of his leadership.  It seems Chris Christie, who did not need the optics of being surrounded by multiple food stalls, benefited the most since the last poll within New Hampshire.  [DATA HERE]

Together with the 8% egg handler, Mike “I don’t care” Pence seems to have lost the most support in New Hampshire, dropping to 1%, and will now put all his efforts into Iowa. Randhawa and Ramaswamy are holding steady at 4% and 3% respectively. Lisa Murkowski’s BFF is smiling big with 6% hoping to catch the meatball.

New Hampshire – […]  Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie surpassed DeSantis for second-place in the Republican field: 9% of voters support his 2024 bid, while 8% support DeSantis. 

“DeSantis has been the alternative to Trump in Emerson polling this presidential cycle. This is the first time we have seen DeSantis drop out of second place in our polling, and fall back into the pack of candidates,” Kimball said. (link)

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Sometimes revealing a communist is a little like taking off a Band-Aid. You’ve got to pick at the edges a little bit until you can get enough gripped to rip it off.

It has been a decade since Jonah Goldberg and I had our back-and-forth editorial debate about “modern republicanism.”  [He lost both a massive number of readers and credibility.] In the years since, we are both exactly the same people; the only difference is – his mask has completely dropped and he’s no longer pretending.

In this brutally perfect appearance on his new network gig, CNN, Jonah Goldberg, the pontificating pustule of totalitarian elitism, declares the “small donor” influence in the Republican Party, ie. MAGA and working class grassroots support, is the problem for those (private club) corporate officers who have high-minded control.

...”I just also think that we are dealing with a time, where for a lot of people, there’s a lot of people cheering and self-congratulation about the rise of small donors a decade ago. And now small donors are actually one of the biggest problems for, well, democracy in the GOP. Because, um, large donors have a strategic view about moderation, who can win and who can’t. Small donors really are just venting their spleen with their credit card, and they lock candidates into positions that can hurt them in the general election.”…

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There is a particular brand of GOPe hypocrisy around a worldview that spouts unbridled capitalism as the solution to all the economic woes [NOTE: in reality, they really don’t believe that, but they pretend not to be advocates of massive conglomerate corporatism], and yet they rail against the unwashed masses having a voice in the democratic process.

As our “Last Refuge” of liberty noted years ago, the ushers in conservative media were/are really closeted communists. Identically aligned and elite minded sanctimonious frauds, loading sheep onto intellectual cattle cars. The professional Republicans don’t believe in conserving anything other than the power structure that produces their affluence and influence.

Peel the skin off a professional Republican, and you will find a communist demanding you sit quietly, then insert vote, pull lever, take your pellet, shut up and leave the building.  That’s who they are.

The best, and I do mean absolutely the best and greatest thing about Donald J. Trump, is how he forced all the professional Republican snipers to reveal their positions.

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