Tag Archives: Big Tech

Apple Bans Gab from App Development After Company Makes Antitrust Case to DOJ

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Apple Bans Gab from App Development After Company Makes Antitrust Case to DOJ

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Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that iPhone sales in the past quarter would be disappointing, amid weakness in China and other emeging markets
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Lucas Nolan17 Jun 2019231 2:44

Tech giant Apple banned the developer account of free speech-focused social media network Gab, preventing the company from creating apps for iPhones and other Apple devices, shortly after the startup submitted a complaint to the Department of Justice about Big Tech’s anti-competitie business practices.

Breitbart News spoke with the CEO of Gab.com, Andrew Torba, about the company’s recent developments. As Torba wrote on Twitter, the free speech social media platform recently submitted a complaint to the DOJ which it hopes will spark an investigation into the business practices of the Masters of the Universe in Silicon Valley. Gab aimed to question if these firms were acting in a deliberately anti-competitive manner against smaller “alt-tech” businesses, and Apple’s recent actions may have proven Gab’s point.

The Gab.com Twitter page made a number of tweets explaining the company’s viewpoint, these can be seen below:

BREAKING: Gab’s attorneys have submitted a complaint to the Department of Justice in hopes of sparking a serious investigation into Big Tech’s business practices to determine if, and how, they are behaving in a deliberately anti-competitive manner against alt-tech businesses.

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 6, 2019

It’s not just us. This is what happens when you try to post a link to @Minds on its main rival, Facebook. pic.twitter.com/XagmbbyVNn

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 6, 2019

Coordinated deplatforming, when done in such a way as to limit competition in the free market, is illegal. Based on our experience, we believe Silicon Valley companies are colluding to exclude challengers to existing social media companies.

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 6, 2019

Big Tech understands that curated walled gardens lose their vibrancy and fail, much as Compuserve and AOL failed.

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 6, 2019

We hope the DOJ will mount a vigorous and thorough investigation into this matter. In particular the duopoly on mobile app distribution that Apple/Google have with 98% marketshare.

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 6, 2019

Shortly after this thread of tweets, Gab found that its new Dissenter Web Browser had been rejected from Apple’s app store. Apple also chose to ban the firm’s developer account entirely, citing “objectionable content,” as the reason. Gab’s Dissenter browser is a web browser that only delivers content that users purposefully visited, like Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari browser, yet Apple believes that the app falls under it’s “objectionable content” label.

BREAKING: Gab’s Dissenter Web Browser was rejected by Apple today. Furthermore, we were banned from our App Store developer account for “objectionable content.” For a web browser.

We have filed this information with the Department of Justice and urge them to investigate. pic.twitter.com/raw8u3cgX2

— Gab.com (@getongab) June 10, 2019

Gab CEO Andrew Torba told Breitbart News that Apple admitted that the app itself did not break the company’s terms of service but rather they were banning it because it was built by Gab. The company has since reported this additional info to the Department of Justice. In a statement, Torba told Breitbart News:

Coordinated deplatforming, when done in such a way as to limit competition in the free market, is illegal. Based on our experience, we believe Silicon Valley companies are colluding to exclude challengers to existing social media companies. Big Tech understands that curated walled gardens lose their vibrancy and fail, much as Compuserve and AOL failed.

Gab is focused on giving The People back their digital sovereignty. We are no longer simply building a free speech social network. We are building the free speech internet. Our free speech web browser, Dissenter, is only the beginning. We will be releasing a full product line of open source free speech software that is decentralized, built, and controlled by The People.

While Gab’s web browser, Dissenter, may not be available in the app store, it can still be downloaded for desktop users here. 

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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PETITION: Demand Big Tech face real consequences for censoring conservatives

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Our pro-life reporting is being attacked. So is the truth. We can’t back down in the fight against abortion!View this email in your browser                                                                                                                                                            Photo Credit: Getty ImagesJames,The outrageous erasing of the White Coat Summit from the internet is only the latest in a long series of brazen acts of censorship against conservatives and all those who support legitimate free speech.

You may agree or disagree with the efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine against the coronavirus, but everyone should agree on this point:

No Big Tech company should have the power to erase from the internet the medical opinions of licensed practicing doctors simply because they do not like what they have to say about the coronavirus or their experience treating it.  Americans and other free peoples do not need leftist computer programmers deciding what the best course of medical treatment is for them.SIGN PETITION

Google/YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and their Big Tech friends want to control what you see, what you read, what you think, and ultimately, how you vote.  Not only do they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying congress and buttering up big Washington DC think tanks, but now they brazenly and directly censor any content they don’t want you to see.

This must stop, but it won’t unless we demand it as forcefully as legally possible.  We believe that we have reached the point were Big Tech must be broken up if legitimate free speech is going to survive and continue to thrive on the internet.

Please CLICK HERE to sign our petition to demand real consequences for Big Tech’s suppression of legitimate free speech.

In an era where almost everything is polarized, there is an overwhelming support for breaking up the Big Tech monopolies.  A recent Pew poll found that 75% of Americans believe that Big Tech companies have too much influence.

It is time to bring serious accountability to Big Tech for their attempts to use their monopolies to kill free speech.It is time to break up Big Tech. 

PLEASE SIGN THIS URGENT PETITION, TODAY!

Yours sincerely,

John-Henry Westen and the entire LifeSite Team

PS – Please SIGN this petition which calls for consequences for Big Tech’s suppression of free speech.

PPS – Please CLICK HERE to find out more about the petition. Then, please SIGN and SHA

Trump’s Executive Order Aims to End Left-Wing Social Media Censorship of Conservatives

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Trump’s Executive Order Aims to End Left-Wing Social Media Censorship of Conservatives

President Donald Trump has had it with the social media behemoths abusing the law by picking sides in the political, social, and cultural issues of our time – usually the side he’s not on.

And he’s particularly keen that the social media platforms wield great power to influence the masses ahead of the November election, so he’s preparing some executive actions to curb their ‘election meddling’ because Democrats in Congress won’t (since their party is benefitted by the censorship of conservatives).
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“If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders,” Trump wrote ahead of a House hearing on big tech Wednesday. “In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!”

Slated to appear before the House Judiciary Committee regarding potential antitrust violations: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

During an interview with the Daily Caller in June, the president expressed his frustration with the repeated examples of Left-wing social media platform censorship of right-leaning opinion.

“It’s really unfair what’s going on with the conservative voice. You’d solve the entire problem of  the various, you know, monopolists, if you ever voided Section 230.”

Trump is referring to a section of the Communications Decency Act which says, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

The section gives platforms immunity for content posted, but over time the same platforms have begun censoring content — like a publisher. 

So what are they? Platforms or publishers? 

In response, Trump issued an executive order Monday aimed at making the distinction that, if they are upheld, will prohibit the kind of censorship taking place.

The Office of the Press Secretary issued this statement:

On Monday, the Department of Commerce, as directed by President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship, filed a petition to clarify the scope of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. The petition requests that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) clarify that Section 230 does not permit social media companies that alter or editorialize users’ speech to escape civil liability. The petition also requests that the FCC clarify when an online platform curates content in “good faith,” and requests transparency requirements on their moderation practices, similar to requirements imposed on broadband service providers under Title I of the Communications Act.  President Trump will continue to fight back against unfair, un-American, and politically biased censorship of Americans online.

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“When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the one who must act on behalf of society at large.  Law enforcement cannot delegate our obligations to protect the safety of the American people purely to the judgment of profit-seeking private firms.  We must shape the incentives for companies to create a safer environment, which is what Section 230 was originally intended to do,” Attorney General William Barr said last month when the Justice Department issued its recommendations for the president. 

“Taken together, these reforms will ensure that Section 230 immunity incentivizes online platforms to be responsible actors.  These reforms are targeted at platforms to make certain they are appropriately addressing illegal and exploitive content while continuing to preserve a vibrant, open, and competitive internet,” he added. 

“These twin objectives of giving online platforms the freedom to grow and innovate while encouraging them to moderate content responsibly were the core objectives of Section 230 at the outset.”