Government steps up Twitter snooping demands as campaigners warn of Big Brother society

Snooping requests made by British authorities to Twitter have rocketed - but the site rejects nearly half, according to new figures. Police and other government agencies asked for information about users 299 times between January and July. That was a 158% rise on the previous six months - and more than the total for the whole of the previous two years. The requests related to 1,041 accounts - almost three times more than the 371 specified in social media marketing jobs requests between July and December last year. The data published by Twitter showed that it provided some or all of the information requested in 51% of cases. Twitter said government requests for account information are “typically in connection with criminal investigations”. Last year the head of the Government eavesdropping station GCHQ accused companies of being “in denial” of the role their networks play in terrorism and demanded they open themselves up more to intelligence agencies. Twitter sparked fresh controversy earlier this year when it emerged it notifies affected users of requests for their account information “unless we’re prohibited”. Emma Carr, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “Thanks to the transparency reports of internet companies, we know police are already social media and marketing accessing data with far greater frequency than many other countries. “If the public are to have any confidence that surveillance powers are being used proportionately, then we should not have to rely on private companies to publish this data. “The Government should proactively be publishing their own transparency reports, highlighting exactly how many requests are being made, how often they are refused and why.”

Moms Demand Action demands Facebook end gun sales, social network argues they don’t sell guns

A pro-gun control group is calling out Facebook and Instagram for allowing members to post guns for sale, claiming this circumvents gun background checks and allows criminals to buy illegal weapons. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a non-profit group allied to Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is behind this campaign. The activist group asserts that Facebook and Instagram is allowing impromptu gun shows due to the practice of members social media marketing agency occasionally posting firearms they have for sale or trade on the social media site. “Facebook and Instagram are effectively hosting online gun shows — allowing private sales and trades that are not subject to background checks,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “It requires more information to open a Facebook account than it does to purchase a gun in a private sale on their platform.” she states. On an online petition she states, “Although Congress failed to close the loophole that would require background checks on private sales initiated online, Facebook and Instagram can immediately take action to stop such sales from taking social media marketing company place on their platforms.” Facebook, which also controls Instagram, contends that its policy on firearms is clear. The site does not run ads or sponsored stories for “firearms, ammunition, paintball guns, bb guns, fireworks, explosives, pepper spray, knives, Tasers or weapons of any kind, including those used for self-defense.”

South Park Shows How to Defeat the Social-Justice Warriors

Asoul-crushing society, led by a click-happy media and finger-wagging president, that has demanded our country and culture change everything from its football-team names to its campus speech policies, has gone largely unchecked for the past seven or so years. Today, the shirt a scientist wears is more important than his first-in-human-history accomplishments, and the jokes we tell on Twitter lead to angry mobs waiting for us at social media marketing plan template the airport. Random YouTube comments are held up as paramount examples of our society as savagely sexist, racist, or whatever other kind of “ist” the shame media can think of. The Gawkerization of media demands we care if a celebrity appropriates corn rows in an Instagram picture, and drives clicks through the comments that savage social-media timelines. Sensationalized celebrity media has effectively weaponized itself with the encouragement of a president who believes we should apologize for everything from our professional-sports team names to our ancient crusades. If it all feels overwhelming and exhausting, it’s because there has been very little pushback against any of it. The cries for liberation from this browbeating have finally been answered, by what might appear, on the surface, to be unlikely social media marketing world heroes: the boys from the quaint Colorado town of South Park. In their 19th season, show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have taken aim squarely at the thought-crime police. But they aren’t relaying a message about how suffocating a society built on the foundations of political correctness can be by preaching about it; they are putting the citizens of South Park through it, and in doing so, they’re showing us all just how ludicrous we’ve become.