Search This Blog

Saturday, September 4, 2021

SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
SATURDAY
 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS

CONGRESS IS ON THE MOVE CONCERNING THE SHAMEFUL EVENTS OF JANUARY 6, 2021 AT THE U.S. CAPITOL. US REP. PAUL GOSAR IS IN THE HOT SEAT IN THE MATTER. HE WAS ALSO IN THE NEWS ON JUNE 29, 2021, OVER HIS FUNDRAISER WITH WHITE NATIONALIST NICK FUENTES. FOR DETAILS, SEE:  https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2021/06/29/rep-paul-gosar-full-white-nationalist-no-republican-condemnation/7798458002/. 

RACHEL MADDOW’S REPORT FROM AUGUST 30, 2021, SHE DISCUSSES THE DEMANDS FOR TELEPHONE RECORDS ON SOME INDIVIDUALS INCLUDING TRUMP HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. 

LOCATED ON THE FOLLOWING VIDEO AT: MARKERS 00:00 TO 02:36 

JIM JORDAN ON HIS CONVERSATIONS WITH EX-PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SURROUNDING THE INSURRECTION OF JANUARY 6, 2021. A HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE EVENTS SEEK MATERIAL ON “INDIVIDUALS WHO MAY HAVE RELEVANT INFORMATION...” THE JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE HAS ISSUED DEMANDS TO SOME GOVERNMENT SOURCES, TRUMP, HIS FAMILY & OTHER GROUPS “TO PRESERVE” PHONE RECORDS CONCERNING TRUMP CONVERSATIONS. THE CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS WHOM RACHEL MADDOW NAMES ARE LAUREN BOBERT, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, JIM JORDAN, ANDY BIGGS, PAUL GOSAR, MO BROOKS, MADISON CAWTHORNE, MATT GAETZ, LOUIE GOHMERT, JODY HICE, & SCOTT PERRY. 

AT MARKERS 2:36 TO 04:58 

IN THE SAME PODCAST, RACHEL MADDOW’S GUEST REP. ELAINE LURIA, D VA, TALKS ABOUT THE ACTIONS OF THE INVESTIGATORY COMMITTEE, OF WHICH SHE IS A MEMBER. FOR DETAILS ON THE GROUP, SEE: 

“THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE THE JAN 6 ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL.” [NOTE: FOR DAILY UPDATES ON PRESS RELEASES ABOUT THE INVESTIGATORY COMMITTEE, GO TO “LATEST NEWS,” AT https://january6th.house.gov/] 

AT MARKERS 05:00 TO 07:30 

PHONE RECORDS HAVE ALREADY BEEN DEMANDED FROM “A TOTAL OF 35 ENTITIES” ON TRUMP RELATING TO THE JAN 6 EVENTS, FROM THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND 7 OTHER GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES, GIVING THEM A 2 WEEK DEADLINE TO PRODUCE RECORDS. FOLLOWING THAT, SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES WERE GIVEN THE SAME DEMAND, INCLUDING FACEBOOK, 4CHAN & OTHERS FAVORED BY RIGHTISTS. IN ADDITION, A NUMBER OF TELECOM COMPANIES HAVE BEEN WARNED TO PRESERVE THEIR RECORDS ON SOME REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE AS WELL RE THEIR PARTICIPATION IN THE “STOP THE STEAL RALLY” THAT PRECEDED THE INSURRECTION. 

FOR MADDOW'S ANALYSIS, GO TO:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ytLlCbigeg    
Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: August 30th | MSNBC
368,499 views  Aug 31, 2021
UPS   7K    DOWNS   423 

 

A FULLER REPORT ON THIS STORY IS FOUND AT AZCENTRAL.COM, WEBSITE FOR PHOENIX, AZ DAILY PAPER THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC. 

 https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/08/30/house-jan-6-us-capitol-riot-panel-wants-arizona-andy-biggs-paul-gosar-phone-records-report-says/5652204001/  
Phone records sought for Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, others in Jan. 6 probe, report says
Ronald J. Hansen
Arizona Republic
Published 11:51 am MT, august 30, 2021; updated 8:20 pm MT, august 30, 2021
 
PHOTOGRAPH – Rep Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar. Jacquelyn Martin/AP and Patrick Breen/The Republic 

The special House committee examining the Jan. 6 riot is reportedly planning to seek phone records from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans involved in the "Stop the Steal" rallies, including Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona. 

The Democrat-led investigation hopes to examine the records of 11 GOP members, as well as those of Trump and his adult children, according to CNN. 

Neither Biggs nor Gosar were immediately available for comment. 

Both men opposed the creation of the special committee and have cast it as a partisan attack on Republicans. 

It isn't surprising that Biggs and Gosar would receive scrutiny from the committee. 

Ali Alexander, a Texas man viewed as the lead organizer in the "Stop the Steal" rallies, singled out Biggs and Gosar, along with Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., for their assistance in a video published before the deadly melee. Brooks is among those whose phone records may be sought. 

Alexander called Gosar the "spirit animal" of the effort. Gosar attended at least one rally in Phoenix and referenced "Stop the Steal" dozens of times on social media before Jan. 6. 

Biggs has maintained he had no role in it and never contacted Alexander. He did provide an audio message played by Alexander at a rally in Phoenix that he has said Gosar's aides requested. 

Both Biggs and Gosar were part of a report of social media posts by those who voted against certifying the election compiled earlier this year by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who is a member of the special committee. 

The committee, headed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., already has made records requests for communications involving Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials, as well as White House visitor and call logs. 

Citing unnamed sources, CNN reported the panel now wants to review records for lawmakers who "either attended, spoke, actively planned or encouraged people to attend" rallies for "Stop the Steal." 

In addition to Biggs, Brooks and Gosar, the panel reportedly wants to review phone records for Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jody Hice of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. 

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen. 

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. 
Subscribe to our free political podcast, The Gaggle.

 

WHITE NATIONALIST NICK FUENTES HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PRO-TRUMP RALLIES AND ONLINE PUBLICITY. SEE THE FOLLOWING FROM CHICAGOTRIBUNE. 

 https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-nick-fuentes-deplatforming-internet-trump-20210329-phpu7a2dgbaflnnxhuyxi3cp7y-story.html
Cancel proof? Activists are trying to get Nick Fuentes, a far-right video streamer from the western suburbs, kicked off the internet. It might be impossible.
By JOHN KEILMAN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE |
MAR 29, 2021 AT 5:00 AM 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Nick Fuentes, center, speaks at a pro-Trump rally in Washington on Nov. 14, 2020. His group calls itself the Groypers after a cartoon associated with the alt-right. (Zach D. Roberts/NurPhoto) 

For someone who has been deplatformed as thoroughly as anyone this side of Donald Trump, Nick Fuentes is still easy to find online. 

The FBI has called the far-right streamer from Chicago’s western suburbs a white supremacist in a court document, and nearly every major social media platform has banished him for hate speech violations. Many technical service providers and consumer apps won’t work with him, either. 

Yet Fuentes has a verified Twitter account with 125,000 followers. Hundreds of his video clips continue to circulate on YouTube, a platform that terminated his channel a year ago. And despite being expelled from a livestreaming site after the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, which he cheered from nearby, he has built what he calls a “cancel-proof” website to host his nightly show. 

Fuentes’ continuing visibility shows the difficulty of erasing someone from the internet, no matter how scorned. Social media platforms have varying standards about impermissible speech, banned content is easily recirculated and plenty of tech companies are willing to support intolerant websites. 

“Conventionally, it’s over for people (if they are removed) from two or three of their major platforms,” Fuentes told the Tribune. “But you know, I’m 22. I’m a Zoomer. I know about how the internet works. … It’s not doing as much damage as they think.” 

Deplatforming has become a hot issue after Facebook, Twitter and other services suspended Trump in the wake of the Capitol siege, saying he condoned or glorified violence. Trump, who has hinted he’s developing his own social platform, has accused them of trying to “silence conservative voices.” 

Republican legislators around the country have drafted bills meant to limit social media companies’ ability to evict users. Meanwhile, some Democrats want to establish a federal agency that would address hate speech, disinformation and other social media issues. 

But Elon University computer scientist Megan Squire, one of Fuentes’ most dedicated adversaries, said extremists are already venturing beyond established social networks. 

“A lot of them will just find some kind of (website) host that will put up with them and take their money and then hope the media pressure dies down, which it usually does,” she said. “(Fuentes) will figure it out, I’m sure, and I’ll still pressure whatever company he decides to go with to take him down. So it’s cat and mouse.” 

To the extreme

Fuentes attended Lyons Township High School, where he was student council president and a member of the speech and Model U.N. teams. One former classmate recalled him as a talented public speaker with seemingly mainstream conservative views. 

But after his graduation in 2016, he embraced the extreme right. In a speech before an anti-immigration group, he said he had grown convinced immigrants were taking jobs from Americans and dooming the Republican Party to irrelevance (Fuentes, incidentally, says he is descended from Mexican immigrants and sometimes refers to himself as Latino). 

In 2017, Fuentes attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a young woman named Heather Heyer was run over and killed by an avowed neo-Nazi. Fuentes pronounced the event “incredible” in a Facebook post, adding that “a tidal wave of white identity is coming … once the word gets out, they will not be able to stop us.” 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Nick Fuentes hangs a green screen while preparing to shoot his online show "America First" in a friend's dorm room at Boston University on March 3, 2017. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe) 

PHOTOGRAPH -- Linda Jenkins talks with Boston University student Nick Fuentes, a young conservative and host of a nightly, hourlong web video show titled "America First," during a rally in front of the Marsh Chapel in Boston on Mar. 1, 2017. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe) 

Fuentes went on to broadcast his “America First” message through a YouTube show. He says he is not a white supremacist or white nationalist, but he speaks in dire terms about immigration eroding what he calls America’s “white demographic core.” 

He has also made numerous racist comments online, frequently employs homophobic invective and in one video, cast doubt on the Holocaust (he later said he was joking). 

Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which issued a report about Fuentes last year, said despite Fuentes’ ability to “present different guises to different audiences,” his white nationalist views are clear. 

“Fuentes very much strikes me as the Zoomer generation’s David Duke in terms of moving this stuff to a large audience and making it more politically viable — which, given the racism and anti-Semitism and genocidal fantasies that come along with it, is utterly terrifying,” he said. 

Shrinking footprint

In 2019, Fuentes’ digital footprint started to shrink. Twitch, a streaming platform used mostly by gamers, banned his content for hate speech. Reddit did likewise a few months later. 

Fuentes said he also lost access to Facebook, Instagram, Apple’s podcast app, TikTok, Discord, Clubhouse, Spotify and DLive, along with business and consumer services like PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, Airbnb, Shopify, Amazon Web Services, Stripe, Streamlabs and Coinbase. 

Most significantly, Fuentes was kicked off YouTube for repeatedly violating the service’s guidelines against “content that encourages hatred of another person or a group of people.” 

The termination, however, was not the end of his YouTube presence: Other YouTubers featured him as a guest on their shows, and his followers continued to share his content on the platform. 

YouTube said it removes videos that come from banned channels, but otherwise makes decisions based on the content of a video, not who appears in it. After the Tribune inquired about a copy of Fuentes’ Holocaust video, YouTube took it down, but other versions remain. 

Twitter is now Fuentes’ biggest platform. It has its own policies on hate speech and has expelled many of his followers, but Fuentes said he’s careful his tweets don’t cross the line. 

A Twitter spokesperson told the Tribune that Fuentes has not violated its rules. Michael Edison Hayden, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who has argued with the company about Fuentes’ account, disagreed. 

“He’s playing a very careful game,” Hayden said. “With a verified handle on Twitter, it’s given him a great deal of legitimacy. … If Twitter chose to stop having a relationship with him, his audience will dissipate pretty quickly.” 

Dark web future?

Genevieve Lakier, a law professor at the University of Chicago who specializes in First Amendment issues, said social media platforms are within their rights to ban whomever they want, and she doubted the legal remedies envisioned by conservatives will pass constitutional muster. 

Still, she was alarmed at the idea that companies providing the basic tools to run a website — things like hosting or credit card processing — could be pressured to withhold their services. She said those calling for someone’s digital exile today could become tomorrow’s targets. 

“Would we be so happy about that?” she said. 

Fuentes still has accounts on the social networks Telegram and Gab, which take a relaxed approach to moderation and have been accused of harboring extremists. Still, he said, he anticipates the day when content gets pushed off the open internet to the dark web, where it would be funded by cryptocurrency (his merch store already accepts Litecoin) and available only to those with specialized browsers. 

That should be a troubling scenario for all, he said. 

“Deplatforming is radicalizing people,” he said. 

Jared Holt, who studies extremism for the Digital Forensic Research Lab, said that reasoning is backward. People like Fuentes get deplatformed, he said, because “their ideas are toxic and harmful. ... Pushing them to the fringes destroys their ability to build massive political power.” 

Holt said Fuentes has clear designs on gaining real world influence. He was an integral part of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rallies, has created a foundation to raise financial support for his movement and last month put on a political conference that featured a sitting congressman, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, as a speaker. 

He also recently launched a website to recruit congressional candidates. Among the screening questions is whether the prospective office seeker is comfortable being associated with Fuentes and would “willingly and publicly defend and support him if confronted on your connection.” 

For all his confidence about his digital prowess, Fuentes appears to fear losing what remains of his social media presence. He has fretted about the possibility of being kicked off Twitter, and when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas denounced Gab as an “anti-Semitic platform,” he ranted on his livestream that Abbott was an enemy of free speech. 

“If we don’t have access to the internet and social media, it’s over,” Fuentes said. “We’re done.” 

jkeilman@chicagotribune.com 
Twitter @JohnKeilman

John Keilman is a general assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune, based in the suburbs. He writes about sports, education, health, drug abuse and many other subjects. Before joining the Tribune in 2001, he worked as a reporter in Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. Tips about strange occurrences, public outrages and inspiring people always welcome.

 

END OF SEPTEMBER 4, SATURDAY
 
****    ****    ****    ****   

 

No comments:

Post a Comment