News

YouTube has a plan to remove and suppress some content, and boost what it decides are “authoritative” sources.

“Responsibility” is a good word. It’s even better as an actual thing. But even just as a word, it’s a positive one. It signals that reliable people/entities are behind some project, or policy.

So no wonder then, that the thoroughly disgraced Google/YouTube – as far as censorship and biased political approach – are trying to use the word “responsibility” as a narrative fig leaf to cover what the giant platform is actually up to – and has been, for a long while.

Enter, YouTube’s newest chief product officer, Johanna Voolich. What are the priorities here? It could be summed up as, four R’s and One C – namely, YouTube’s “remove, raise, reward, reduce” content approach – that’s as per a blog post published by YouTube itself.

And then, C would be speculative, for “censorship” – which is what these supposedly fair and “uplifting” actions in reality end up achieving.

If you thought any of this could be achieved by YouTube without “boosting authoritative content” – think again. That is still a solid pledge, regurgitated by Voolich.

And if you thought somebody would finally come out and clearly spell out how, and according to whose definition, content gets to be dubbed “authoritative” or otherwise – just don’t hold your breath.

The sum total is that YouTube has a new product manager, but that nothing has changed.

Certainly not in this year of election.

And while Voolich made perfunctory references to creators benefiting from new features, and even being heard (via feedback), they also learn that when that’s convenient, AI is advertised as a tool to “empower creativity.” (Otherwise, AI is denounced as a scourge to democracy itself.)

But when all that’s said, there’s the overarching issue of YouTube’s “responsibility.” To do what, you might wonder – give its users/creators the best tools and opportunities – or act as proxy campaigner for a certain political and ideological option, in the US, but also, elsewhere in the world?

YouTube’s self-professed “4 R’s of responsibility” may or may not provide some insight into what the answer to that serious question might be.

R1 – “Remove content that violates our policy as quickly as possible.”

R2 – “Raise up authoritative voices when people are looking for breaking news and information.”

R3 – “Reward trusted, eligible creators and artists.”

R4 – “Reduce the spread of content that brushes right up against our policy line.”

And that, right there, is a solid foundation for continued, effective “C” – Censorship.

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Youngsters will do anything for those clicks…

A YouTube and Twitch star known as “YourFellowArab” was reportedly kidnapped by a ruthless Haitian gang. The Gen-Zer attempted to interview gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier earlier this month amid the Caribbean nation’s descent into civil war. 

Local media outlet Haiti24 reports Addison Pierre Maalouf traveled from his home in Atlanta to interview Barbecue, the leader of the G9 Family and Allies, abbreviated as “G9” or “FRG9”, a coalition of over a dozen Haitian gangs based in Port-au-Prince. 

But on March 14, the YouTuber was kidnapped by a group of armed men from the “400 Mawozo” gang. 

Haiti24 reports: 

The incident took place when he was returning from Cap-Haïtien, accompanied by his Haitian colleague, Sacra Sean. Adisson Pierre Maalouf went to Delmas 6 to do an interview with Jimmy Cerisier, aka “Barbecue,” a spokesperson for Viv Ansanm.

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The outlet continued: 

According to information, the kidnappers, acting under the orders of the fearsome gang leader “Lanmò 100 jou”, member of the “Viv Ansanm” coalition, demanded an exorbitant ransom of $600,000 for the journalist’s release. Despite the payment of an initial tranche of $40,000, the kidnappers demanded a much larger sum for his complete release.

Addison makes videos about his experiences with gangsters all over the world. In one recent video, he lived with the Mexican cartel for days. He’s hunted pirates in the Red Sea and toured the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. 

Earlier this month, the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged all American citizens still in the country to “leave as soon as possible” while other embassies restricted services. The US State Department placed the nation on the “Do not travel” list for Americans. 

Another Twitch streamer, Lalem, said on X, “Tried keeping it [kidnapping] private for 2 weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now. Yes Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti, and we’re working on getting him out. Love ya’ll, he’ll be out soon.”

Here are some of the YouTuber’s last posts on X:

Youngsters will do anything for those clicks… 

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The US Navy “did not have adequate internal controls to prevent overexecution” of allocated funds, the department’s watchdog has said

The US Navy has overspent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine due to recurring accounting errors, according to a Pentagon watchdog’s report that warned the service branch may not have the funds to cover the shortfall next time.

The report released on Tuesday by the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (OIG) stated that “the Navy overexecuted its funding three times during fiscal year 2022” when it came to Ukraine supplemental assistance.

While the US Navy appropriated around $1.7 billion in funds to Ukraine, the watchdog found that the branch “overexecuted its allotment of Ukraine assistance funds… totaling $398.9 million.” The overspending was due to the Navy’s failure to address long-standing problems with its automated accounting system.

As a result, accounting errors had to be corrected manually on several occasions, leading the OIG to stress that “the Navy did not have adequate internal controls to prevent over-execution of funds from reoccurring.” It added that the military branch also focused on identifying errors after they had already taken place, rather than preventing them.

The OIG warned that while the Navy had resources to cover the difference, “such funds may not be available in the future.”

While the US has become one of Ukraine’s most prominent donors, with Washington allocating around $113 billion to the embattled nation since the start of the conflict, major concerns have arisen about misuse of the funds.

An OIG report in January found that the Pentagon did not properly track $1 billion worth of weapons and other military equipment. This came amid the White House’s long-standing assurances that there was no evidence that weapons had been stolen, despite Ukraine’s reputation for rampant corruption.

Moreover, the Pentagon watchdog announced last month that it had opened more than 50 cases into possible “theft, fraud or corruption, and diversion” of military aid to Ukraine. One of the cases highlighted by Robert Storch, the OIG head, involved items arriving in Poland before disappearing from a shipping manifest once they were sent across the border into Ukraine.

Russia has consistently denounced the arms shipments and repeatedly warned of weapons spillover, alleging that the equipment finds its way onto the black market and into the hands of organized crime and terrorists.

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“At the same time, I want to tell athletes from Ukraine that we will support them with all our might,” says Mayor Anne Hidalgo

Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be welcome at the Summer Olympics in Paris, the mayor of the city, Anne Hidalgo, said.

This week, Hidalgo visited Kiev and held talks with the head of the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee, Vadym Guttsait, and the mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, as well as with Ukrainian athletes.

“I want to tell Russian and Belarusian athletes that they will not be welcome in Paris. At the same time, I want to tell athletes from Ukraine that we will support them with all our might,” Hidalgo was quoted as saying by Le Monde newspaper on Saturday.

Many sports organizations across the globe have banned Russian athletes from participating in their competitions in response to Moscow’s ongoing operation in Ukraine. The athletes have also been barred from competing under the national flag and using the national anthem at major international sports events, including the Olympics.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin pointed out that “Russia has been and remains committed to traditional Olympic values. We oppose the politicization of sport, attempts to use it as an instrument of pressure, unfair competition and discrimination.”

The International Olympic Committee has allowed participation of Russian and Belarus athletes in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but only under individual neutral status and on condition of complying with a number of criteria. The athletes are, in particular, required not to be affiliated with the armies and not to have supported Russia’s operation in Ukraine.

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A barge damaged the supports of a bridge over the Arkansas River less than a week after a deadly incident in Baltimore

The Oklahoma State Patrol has completely closed a highway after a barge struck the US-59 Bridge over the Arkansas River on Saturday.

Law enforcement is diverting traffic away from the area, to the south of Sallisaw, until inspections of the structure can be made, the state highway service wrote on X (formerly Twitter). There were no reports of injuries on the road or the barge, AP news agency quoted patrol spokesperson Sarah Stewart as saying. 

It was not immediately known what led to the collision. Video circulating on X shows the moment the barge impacted the bridge supports.

The incident comes less than a week after the cargo hauler MV Dali struck and completely collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, killing six people. The freighter struck a support of the 1.6-mile (2.6 km) long structure in the early hours of Tuesday, causing it to topple into the river, taking vehicles and people with it.

Operations to clear the bridge rubble weighing down the MV Dali are currently ongoing. While the cargo hauler and bridge rubble are blocking the way, the port city of Baltimore is unable to resume marine traffic, a key industry for the area. Crews have been working to cut up portions of the metal bridge, with the first section being lifted on Saturday.

By some estimates, the repair bill could end up running upward of $1 billion if a whole new bridge needs to be erected, the Washington Post wrote on Thursday.

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“Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime” gather in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss the dangers of crime across the US

The “Black Mayors’ Coalition on Crime” gathered this week in Memphis, Tennessee to discuss the dangers of crime across the US, as well as apparent solutions to the growing threat.  The question is, was the meeting really about stopping crime, or, was it all about maintaining optics and making the public believe crime is going down when it’s not?

It’s difficult to say because public and media access to the event was strictly limited.  In many states private meetings between public officials related to policy are illegal.  However, in Tennessee the regulations are a bit more lax in terms of what constitutes a “meeting subject to law.”  

The Tennessee Open Meetings Act defines a “meeting” as “the convening of a governing body of a public body for which a quorum is required to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision.” A “governing body” is “any public body [consisting] of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.” 

In other words, a quorum is required, which means Tennessee was very carefully chosen by the Black Mayor’s Coalition (the vast majority of them Democrats) because it allowed them more legal room to hold closed door meetings.  But why not include the press and the public in this discourse?  

Perhaps because the event is in itself an admission that crime is rising; a reality which Democrat representatives have tried to deny for the past few years.  Another reason may be because the solutions being discussed are not something the voting population would agree with. 

In the interview below the Mayor of St. Louis, Tishaura Jones, mentions that gas stations and convenience stores attract a high rate of crime and asks how the business owners can be ‘held accountable’ for this, rather than how they can be protected from it? 

“We have a lot of violence around convenience stores and gas stations…So how can we hold those business owners accountable and also bring down crime? Some of the things are already doing, we’re finding other mayors are doing as well.”

In other words, how can these mayors blame businesses for the crime rate instead of taking responsibility as elected representatives?   

There are the obvious ironies to mention here, including the fact that many of these mayors supported far-left measures to defund police departments, only to quietly remove those measures a few years later.  Then there’s the plethora of statistical tricks used by city politicians to hide real crime data. 

This includes greatly reduced prosecution and conviction rates; in many Democrat controlled cities the conviction rate is less than 5 out of every 100 arrests.  From 2018 to 2023, conviction rates dropped over 58%, and convictions sharply declined specifically from 2020 onward.  From 2011 to 2021 prison populations dropped over 22%, despite the fact that criminal activity increased over the same period.     

The less prosecutions, the less convictions, the lower the crime stats.  It’s that simple.  Democrats have also taken advantage of a change in the FBI criminal reporting policies which was conveniently initiated in 2020.  Because of this change, numerous US cities will not be reporting full numbers to the FBI until 2025.  This is why the FBI recently reported a “drop” in violent crime nationally – Because they don’t have complete statistics. 

Then of course there’s the disproportionate number of crimes committed by minorities in these same cities.  Black on black crime rates in places like St. Louis are stunning.  Studies from 2022 show that 92% of homicide suspects and 86% of victims in St. Louis and St. Louis County were black.  Around 84% of them were repeat offenders.  Blacks make up 43% of the population in that region.     

Leftist mayors have long suggested that public perception of crime deviates from the reality of crime; yet, here they are holding closed-door meetings to discuss the growing crime problem in their own towns.  Perhaps the issue is not public perception mismatching reality,  maybe the issue is political spin mismatching reality.  The populace deals with these crimes on a daily basis; it’s going to be hard to gaslight people into thinking criminal activity isn’t a problem. 

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