The San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has looked at the idea of Twitter operating as a state actor – as the social platform went ahead and censored an account previously flagged by the elections cybersecurity office of the California Secretary of State.Today, we break down the case that could have many future implications.
We explore this today.
Become a supporter here.
Get the post here. |  | During a recent House Committee hearing, Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell was grilled on "Operation Choke Point 2.0" — an alleged Biden administration effort that Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) described as being "particularly focused on debanking people that are disfavored by...the current...executive branch."
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told Powell that he'd spoken with multiple bankers who said "they've never seen a higher degree of regulatory burden, steering guidance, shaping activities in the market from regulators."
He attributed this heightened scrutiny to Operation Choke Point 2.0 — a reference to an alleged extension of Operation Choke Point 1.0. The first Operation Choke Point was an Obama-era debanking effort that began in 2013 and attempted to prevent gun dealers, payday lenders, and other companies that were deemed to be "high risk" from accessing banking services. Some people in the cryptocurrency industry claim that Operation Choke Point 2.0 is now being carried out by the Biden adminsitration and is primarily focused on deterring banks from doing business with cryptocurrency firms.
"When people really feel like some third party is going to steer or shape their money, they don't trust it," Davidson added. "I mean the unbanked and the underbanked fundamentally that's lack of trust is part of why they don't use our banking system today. In fact, that's part of the appeal of the digital asset space...the permissionless nature of it."
Davidson continued by suggesting that lots of people working in the financial services space "feel threatened by the prospect of change" and are attempting to restrict access to services such as cryptocurrency.
"They've maybe reluctantly concluded that you can't ban crypto," Davidson said. "They at least want to keep it account based so some third party can actually control the assets which is a polite way of saying, 'We don't actually trust our citizens to control their money or their assets, we'll let somebody else do it for them because we can control those third parties.'"
Davidson then pressed Powell on whether financial regulators use their powers to control third parties.
"If you don't comply with the regulatory regime, you don't get to operate a financial services business, right?" Davidson asked Powell.
"That's right," Powell confirmed.
Davidson followed up by quizzing Powell on his recent remarks about digital assets posing a systemic risk to the financial system.
Powell defended the comments by insisting that "we don't want regulation to oppose innovation and thus entrench incumbents" but arguing that "permissionless blockchains...have been vehicles for fraud."
Davidson pushed back by noting that the Federal Reserve's own report on fraud claimed that blockchain-based fraud was 0.24% — a stat that Davidson said represents "a fraction of what it is with the US dollar."Watch the video here.Related: How governments plan to extend financial surveillance to cryptocurrencies
Davidson's questioning of Powell follows several examples of the financial system being weaponized against people under the Biden regime. Some card companies have started surveilling their customers and the Biden administration is working on a digital dollar that has been described as "authoritarian" by critics. Powell himself has confirmed that, unlike cash, the digital dollar will not be anonymous. | If you support free speech, the eradication of cancel culture, and restoring privacy and civil liberties, please become a supporter. As a thank you for your support, you'll also get exclusive content multiple times per week and access to guides and tutorials. | In February 2022, texts exchanged between two senior advisers in the Canadian Prime Minister's Office (PMO) revealed that they were putting pressure on banks to seize assets belonging to the Freedom Convoy protesters.
As reported by Rebel, the texts between Ben Chin and Tyler Meredith were entered as evidence at the Public Order Emergency Commission, and they showed that the Liberal party was encouraging financial institutions to take action against customers who supported or participated in the weeks-long peaceful protest against COVID-19 mandates in Ottawa. |  | "But we are talking with banks and insurance companies about how they can act on their own and what helpful signals we might able to send," and "One thing I should add- from what we hear most of the big banks are actually doing a lot of work already within the terms and conditions of existing account agreements to manage flow of funds if they suspect someone or something. That's an angle we are looking at," were two of the related text messages.
Just a week after the texts were sent, the Liberals invoked the Emergencies Act to allow for the freezing of bank accounts and seizure of assets belonging to those who supported the Freedom Convoy. The PMO's office was struggling to deal with the negative publicity the convoy was generating for the Liberal party, as well as the damage it was causing to Justin Trudeau's international reputation.
Despite the Liberals' efforts, Canadian banks and insurers resisted acting against their customers for political reasons, and the seizure of assets did not occur on a large scale. Meanwhile, Commissioner Paul Rouleau ruled that the use of the counter-terrorism law was justified.
The PMO's attempt to seize assets belonging to protesters who were exercising their democratic right to peaceful protest sparked criticism and condemnation from civil liberties groups. The incident served as a reminder of the importance of protecting citizens' rights to free speech and assembly, even in the face of government pressure. | A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? | According to recent reports from Tech Crunch, Twitter is currently experimenting with a new verification process for its subscribers of Twitter Blue. This process entails the submission of a government-issued identification document.
The system's technical details reveal that users would need to provide a photo of their ID's front and back, as well as a selfie, to authenticate their Twitter accounts.
This feature is exclusively available to Twitter Blue subscribers, who also have access to other paid subscription perks, such as tweet editing, longer video uploads, and longer posts. | | A product intelligence company, Watchful.ai, recently discovered this ID upload feature in Twitter's code. However, it is still unclear whether it is undergoing external testing. Watchful.ai reported that the feature appears to be in testing in the United States, as it was discovered in the Android version of Twitter's app. Nonetheless, it is uncertain whether any Twitter users are currently using this feature.
|  | There has been a growing debate among politicians about the calls for social media platforms to require users to verify their identity using government-issued identification documents.
Supporters of this proposal argue that it would help combat online abuse and misinformation by making it easier to identify and hold accountable individuals who engage in harmful behavior online.
However, opponents have raised concerns about potential privacy violations and the potential for such requirements to disproportionately affect marginalized communities who may not have access to such documentation. As the debate continues, it remains to be seen whether social media platforms will adopt this verification process and what the implications may be for their users. | Digital ID company World ID, created by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, claims to offer a "privacy-first" solution to the problem of verifiable identification. The project was created by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman.
However, many remain skeptical about the overall idea of digital ID, and therefore about World ID as well.
The company claims that more than half of the global population lacks legally verifiable identification and wants to be the provider of that. |  | World ID describes itself as a self-sovereign and decentralized protocol that provides "proof of personhood" without putting any sensitive information of the holder at risk of being compromised.
The platform says it's powered by zero-knowledge cryptography, an open protocol that provides developers with a software developer kit (SDK) to leverage the innovative digital identity solution.
Moreover, World ID claims it will become the largest network of authentic humans on the internet.
While World ID's self-sovereign and decentralized protocol may appear innovative, it is unclear how much privacy users can truly expect as many of those pushing for the introduction actively want to remove the aspect of privacy and anonymous internet use.
Politicians around the world are already advocating for the end of anonymity so they can target dissent. | | Thanks for reading,
Reclaim The Net
| | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment