IT & Technology News
Reporting on information technology, cybersecurity, and tech policy. The Daily Signal includes analysis, commentary, and opinion on technology’s impact.
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news
Ukraine Extends Quarantine on Russian Social Media
KYIV, Ukraine—Although Ukraine began to ease off its national coronavirus lockdown last week, the country’s ongoing quarantine against Russian disinformation remains in full force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved a measure Friday extending for another three years a national ban on Russian social media sites, email services, and internet search engines. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna… -
opinion
What Does Facebook’s New Oversight Board Mean for Conservative Posts?
Facebook recently announced the first 20 members of its new oversight board. The role of the board is to guide Facebook through decisions on what controversial content should be allowed to stay up or be deleted. Michael McConnell, professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and a co-chair of Facebook’s… -
opinion
Sen. Cruz Seeks to Flip the SCRIPT on Hollywood’s Kowtowing to Chinese Censors
A bill proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that seeks to dissuade Hollywood studios from submitting their movies to the censorship of the People’s Republic of China seems to strike the right policy balance. It would limit government interference in businesses decisions, but exposes an outrage that most Americans likely are unaware of. The Stopping… -
opinion
Liberal Media’s Double Standard: Censor Trump’s Briefings, Air China’s Propaganda
The lack of regular White House press briefings used to be decried as the end of democracy. Now it’s daily White House briefings that represent the end of democracy. Actress Jane Lynch demanded on Twitter on Monday that President Donald Trump end his daily press briefings and that the media stop covering them. Lest one… -
news
9th Circuit Rules Facebook, YouTube Not Bound by First Amendment
Facebook, YouTube, and other big tech companies are not bound to abide by the First Amendment of the Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, dealing a blow to conservatives online. The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in a case brought by Prager University, a nonprofit that produces videos promoting… -
opinion
Facebook Isn’t Broken. Government Shouldn’t ‘Fix’ It.
In a divided Washington, hating Facebook has brought the left and right together. It’s a dangerous collaboration. But when you take a closer look at the complaints lodged by each side, you see how thin their arguments really are. Most of the left-wing criticism of Facebook amounts to criticisms of human nature. People lie. People… -
news
Facebook Announces Effort to Clearly Mark Fake News
Facebook announced Monday an effort to “protect the 2020 U.S. elections” by clearly marking fake news posts, offering protections to politicians’ accounts and offering more transparency. The effort comes after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defended the social media site’s new advertisement policies, which will effectively allow political campaigns to release misinformation to voters, in an… -
opinion
What Changed Eric Metaxas’ Mind About Trump
Conservative Christians have been a core constituency for President Donald Trump, and one of the more visible Christians supporting the president is bestselling author and radio host Eric Metaxas. Our Editor-in-Chief Kate Trinko recently got to sit down with Metaxas to discuss why he supports the president, as well as his latest book. Today, we’ll… -
opinion
Conservatives Are Being Censored Online, Warns Dennis Prager
Dennis Prager’s commentary is in high demand. His PragerU videos get millions of views on social media, and his audience is growing. But not everyone likes his message. He’s run into censorship trouble with YouTube, which led him to file a lawsuit. Our colleague Virginia Allen recently sat down with Prager, and today we’ll share… -
news
Trump Jilts Google in Copyright Dispute at Supreme Court
The Trump administration has urged the Supreme Court to stay out of a long-running copyright dispute between Google and Oracle Corp., dealing a considerable blow to Google’s efforts to avoid an $8 billion damages award. At issue in the dispute, billed as the copyright fight of the decade, are software interfaces called API declarations, which… -
opinion
ICE-Hating Groups Used Facebook to Incite Violence
Abolish ICE thugs in Colorado want to see the homes and families of immigration enforcement officials set aflame. Denver communists want alien detention facility employees dead, swinging from nooses with broken necks. Both groups are brazenly using Facebook to spread their inflammatory and violent messages. So, where is Silicon Valley—whose top companies partner with the… -
opinion
The Good News the Mainstream Media Doesn’t Report
I rarely watch cable news anymore. It’s all hysteria, all the time. CNN: “We are destroying the planet.” MSNBC: “The middle class is disappearing!” President Donald Trump says drug trafficking “is worse than ever!” I’m glad my favorite magazine, Reason, cuts through the gloom and tells us the truth: There is less war and more… -
news
Google Defends YouTube Restrictions on PragerU’s Educational Videos in Federal Court
A lawyer representing PragerU in federal court says Google’s reasons for denying some viewers access to videos produced by the conservative education organization on the tech giant’s YouTube subsidiary defy belief. “To suggest that PragerU’s content is obscene, violent, hate speech is an absolute insult to the intelligence of the American public and people like… -
opinion
Exclusive: Jon Kyl Spoke to 133 Conservatives About Facebook Bias. He Reveals the Findings and Rebuts His Critics.
Last year, Facebook hired former Sen. Jon Kyl, senior counsel at the firm Covington & Burling, to investigate allegations of anti-conservative bias at the social media company. In his first interview since its release, Kyl tells The Daily Signal what he discovered and how Facebook should move forward. He also responds to criticism of the… -
opinion
Google’s Secretive Blacklists
I learned last week from a Silicon Valley whistleblower, who spoke with the intrepid investigative team at Project Veritas, that my namesake news and opinion website is on a Google blacklist. Thank goodness the Big Tech giant hasn’t taken over the newspaper syndication business yet. Twenty years of column writing have allowed me to break… -
news
Conservatives ‘Lost Trust’ in Facebook, Independent Report Finds
Facebook has a long way to go in reclaiming the trust of conservatives, according to an interim report on the social media giant’s liberal bias overseen by a former U.S. senator. “Many conservatives lost trust in Facebook, believing it discriminated against them,” former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote in a Tuesday op-ed for The Wall… -
news
Student Group Flags Top 5 Instances of Campus Censorship of Conservatives
Why bother with a liberal arts education? Some students at a Washington university wanted to know, but their school administrators canceled a panel scheduled to debate the question. The cancellation, with no reason given, was one of the five biggest incidents of censorship of conservatives on college campuses in the past 12 months, Charlie Copeland,… -
news
Employee Accuses Google of Discriminating Against Pregnant Women
A former Google employee alleges that the tech giant discriminates against pregnant women. The woman made the accusation in a memo obtained by Motherboard. The unnamed Google employee's memo is titled “I’m Not Returning to Google After Maternity Leave, and Here is Why.” It has been read by over 10,000 current Google employees after going… -
news
Dennis Prager Blames Google for YouTube’s Unexplained Bans of PragerU Videos
Google denies viewers access to educational content on its YouTube subsidiary without explanation, radio host and commentator Dennis Prager testified Tuesday at a Senate hearing. “Google, which owns YouTube, has restricted access to 56 of our 320 five-minute videos and other videos we produce,” Prager, co-founder of Prager University, told the Judiciary subcommittee on the… -
news
2 Senators Call for Investigation Into Big Tech’s Censorship
Two of the country’s staunchest big tech critics are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate social media companies’ perceived censorship practices. Facebook, Google, and Twitter exercise lots of influence on Americans and they also use their tools to censor some content while amplifying others, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri…