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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opinion
13 People, Outlets Censored by Twitter for Questioning Gender Ideology
Editor’s note: This commentary, originally published March 23, has been modified to reflect Twitter’s suspensions of psychologist Jordan Peterson and commentator Dave Rubin for their tweets, and to update certain details. Of the many topics the radical left has tried to make verboten, there is none more contentious than gender ideology. At the mere suggestion… -
news
New York Attorney General Demands Google Scrub Crisis Pregnancy Centers From Search Results
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, demanded in a Tuesday letter that Google exclude crisis pregnancy centers from search results about abortion. “A search through Google Maps seeking ‘abortion’ and a location will provide a local listing of both those health care providers who offer abortion services and organizations that… -
opinion
Justices’ Home Addresses Blasted on Social Media With Zero Consequences
Following the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, at least two social media sites hosted content revealing the home addresses of the Supreme Court justices. Some posts directly called for people to go to the home addresses and protest, an act that is illegal according to federal law. Popular social media… -
news
Hawley Unloads on Biden Administration’s Calls for Censorship
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley criticized the Biden administration for promoting censorship on environmental issues by technology companies during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday. “Laura, this is the most recent example of the most anti-First Amendment administration in American history,” Hawley told host Laura Ingraham of “The Ingraham Angle.” The Missouri senator responded to a… -
news
Republican AGs Set to Speak at Gathering Sponsored by Arabella, Amazon, Facebook
At a time when many Republicans are expressing frustration with what they consider a liberal tilt by one national group that represents state attorneys general, several GOP officials are participating in another coalition of attorneys general with liberal sponsors. The annual meeting of the AG Alliance convened Monday in Sun Valley, Idaho, and is scheduled… -
opinion
Soros-Backed Media Consortium Is Buying, to Censor, Conservative Radio Stations
Wait until Americans with origins in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and other lands demolished by communism find out that their favorite conservative radio stations are being bought by a media consortium headed by a longtime henchman of the Marxist founder of Black Lives Matter, Alicia Garza. And wait until Mexican Americans, with roots in this country… -
opinion
What’s the Metaverse? 3 Things to Know
If the metaverse sounds like something from a science fiction novel, that’s because it is. Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel “Snow Crash” tells the story of a young man who delivers pizzas in the real world, but is a warrior prince in the virtual metaverse. But 30 years later, the metaverse is moving from the pages… -
opinion
Unchecked by Courts, Government Censorship of Social Media Platforms Will Prove Fatal to Free Speech in Digital Age
The Biden administration’s increasingly aggressive efforts to combat so-called misinformation, along with the prospective acquisition of Twitter by free speech advocate Elon Musk, have sparked a national debate about what role, if any, the government should play in censoring social media. While some have applauded the administration’s campaign to police online “misinformation” about COVID-19 and… -
opinion
Social Media Is Hurting Kids, but a Fix May Be on Horizon
The Big Tech problem is a moral crisis first. As Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts wrote last month: Big Tech is the enemy of the people not merely because they have taken advantage of our free-market principles. They have earned this untoward distinction because of what Big Tech does to us in our relationships with… -
news
Biden ‘Disinformation’ Board Gives Ammo to Court Action on Big Tech Censorship, Louisiana AG Says
The Biden administration’s formation of a “disinformation” board has sparked momentum for two states to sue the U.S. government, alleging pressure and collusion with Big Tech corporations to censor political content that challenges the government line. “If we would’ve tried to bring this lawsuit two or three months ago, I think they would’ve laughed us… -
news
What Should Be Done About Big Tech Censorship? Panelists Disagree
Panelists at a discussion of censorship by Big Tech agreed it was a grave threat to the American republic, but they clashed over what to do about it. “What these platforms are doing is not right,” said Niam Yaraghi, an assistant professor of business technology at the University of Miami and a Brookings Institution senior… -
opinion
‘Misinformation’: YouTube Censors Donald Trump Speech
Once again, YouTube is trying to affect Americans’ access to the news. Former President Donald Trump spoke at The Heritage Foundation’s Annual Leadership Conference in Florida on April 21. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) Trump discussed “rising inflation, disruptions in the supply chain, a southern border overrun by ‘millions’… -
opinion
The Conservative Surge in Twitter Followers—the Elon Musk Effect?
In January, I wrote about a USA Today article centered around a New York University study that supposedly disproved the claim that social media platforms, like Twitter, discriminate against conservatives. USA Today said, “Despite repeated charges of anti-conservative bias from former President Donald Trump and other GOP critics, Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube are not… -
opinion
Reddit Censors Forum That Makes Leftists Look Like Nazis
The radical left is driven purely by hate. They don’t try to hide it as they openly scorn straight white men for merely existing. When one forum on Reddit sought to expose that vile hatred from the left, it found itself censored by the platform. The forum, Men Kampf, was temporarily banned from the platform before it was quietly… -
opinion
YouTube U-Turn: Censors Strike Again for No Good Reason, Just as Inexplicably Reverse Course
YouTube’s censors have struck again, removing a podcast discussing election integrity that it claims violates its “misinformation policy.” The podcast, hosted by Jacob Kersey, was an interview of me at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, in February 2021 and had been on YouTube for more than a year before it was suddenly… -
opinion
Questions Elon Musk Must Answer to Assure Us He Can Reform Twitter
The impending acquisition of Twitter by the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, is one of the most improbable developments out of the business world—and, indeed, the political world—in decades. Though a fairly modest percentage of adult Americans use Twitter, at least when compared with more popular social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, the platform… -
opinion
Under Biden, Government Forces Social Media Companies to Censor Americans
The Biden administration began a public, coordinated campaign last May to combat dissemination of “health misinformation” related to COVID-19, especially across social media platforms. Administration officials, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and President Joe Biden himself, often through White House press secretary Jen Psaki, made clear that they blame Big Tech for American deaths from… -
opinion
Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Reveals the Left for What It Is
This week, in one of the most shocking business moves in recent memory, Twitter reversed itself and decided to sell itself after all to Elon Musk, who paid some $44 billion for the privilege. The move was made, at least in part, for ideological reasons; Musk has been vocally critical of Twitter’s management of information… -
news
Elon Musk Buys Twitter. Will He Bring Back Banned Users?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is buying Twitter. News broke Monday afternoon that the social media platform had accepted Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy it. Musk, who also runs the rocket company SpaceX, previously had expressed frustration at Twitter’s perceived anti-free speech policies. The billionaire began seriously implying that he might buy Twitter following the… -
opinion
Elon Musk Could End Twitter’s Suppression of Conservatives
The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, recently purchased a 9% stake in Twitter, the social media platform that permanently banned former President Donald Trump and that conservatives accuse of suppressing their content. Musk’s purchase made him Twitter’s largest shareholder, and he vowed to take it over, possibly to turn it into a private…