Zuckerberg Denies that Facebook Uses your Phone’s Microphone to Spy on you…Hmm

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress again today to finish off a second day of questioning on Capitol Hill. His appearance was voluntary and came as a result of the recent Cambridge Analytica data breach that saw the loss of 80 million plus Facebook users’ data.

Zuckerberg was questioned on a number of issues challenging Facebook including data usage, selling user data, privacy, the societal value of Facebook, Facebook’s political stance and how they censor outlets based on their political stance.

One of the longest running theories about Facebook was that it would collect information from your verbal conversations via your phone’s microphone while you have your phone on or around you. You likely experienced the following before: You are having a conversation with friends about a very specific brand, specific product and so forth. Then suddenly you hop on Facebook, having not searched for that product or brand at all, now there is an ad for that very product in your newsfeed.

Logically one would think the only way for this to happen would be that they are analyzing trigger words in your conversations. That, or they are somehow tapped into your consciousness and gathering data that way.

Congressman Larry Bucsh asked Zuckerberg on Wednesday whether or not Facebook does in fact mine data via your personal conversations using your phones microphone.

“My understanding is that a lot of these cases that you’re talking about are a coincidence,” Zuckerberg told Congress. This answer did not seem to go over so well based on the look on Bucsh’s face. Not just that, how could this truly explain the frequency and incredible accuracy of this phenomenon.

Zuckerberg was asked the question on both days of questioning as it has been one of the major questions surrounding Facebook spying. Still Zuckerberg stated that it was a “conspiracy theory,” and denied the practice with a flat “no.” He went on to say that he doesn’t know of any company using this tactic. Except for maybe the NSA? We know this tech exists, the question is does Facebook use it and are they willing to admit it?

Was he telling the truth? Does one even need to tell the truth during these types of hearings? While some of us think yes, in fact they don’t. And in many cases people have lied for us only to find out the truth a short time after.

Let’s not forget that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress the NSA does not “wittingly” spy on Americans. And yet only a few months later whistleblower Edward Snowden showed the entire world that the NSA was doing just that.

When it comes to news and information censorship, Facebook routinely does this to protect their own political position. We have seen this first hand when we share content that challenges Facebook’s own ideologies. Regardless of the fact our journalistic process uses facts, sources and proof that are well founded, Facebook views this as threatening information. Censorship has been intense from our perspective.

Reflecting On Why This Is Important

In December of 2017 I released an article stating Facebook would go through a deep awakening in 2018 due to the fact that their platform seems to be in need of a shift. Users are clearly unhappy and the social media giant has been using manipulative psychological tactics to prey on its users in order to keep them using the platform.

During a time where humanity’s consciousness is shifting so dramatically, this type of behaviour from companies won’t go unnoticed and people will begin to figure out what’s going on. Not only that, in a natural course of action companies will in essence ‘be outed’ for the things that aren’t in alignment with humanity truly thriving.

I feel this spotlight on Facebook is actually inspiring to see. While on one hand we can say it’s politics and congress trying to decide if they need to step in and help regulate, and on another hand dirty dealings, lies and deceit are coming to the surface in what is like a great unveiling where humanity can now reflect upon itself and what it does.

Is Facebook still of value to our daily lives when they do only what’s in the best interest of their business and not the user experience? Should we be spending so much time on a platform using tactics to manipulate us?

The barrage of ‘bad press’ for Facebook has been tough as they are losing users in the millions every month. In the end we learn another valuable lesson from this, when we, or companies, do things that don’t benefit the whole, our day or ‘reckoning,’ if you will, comes. What I mean by this is, as humanity we have to learn to do things that truly favor all involved or that do not harm nor take advantage of others simply for our individual benefit. This is a lesson being seen on the macrocosm but applies to the micro as well.

In your day, do you find yourself taking advantage of others? Running your business or your plans to benefit yourself more so than others? Why do you find yourself doing this? I believe we can all turn what we see in the ‘real world’ into an internal reflection for ourselves as well.

The post Zuckerberg Denies that Facebook Uses your Phone’s Microphone to Spy on you…Hmm appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Zuckerberg Admits He’s Developing Artificial Intelligence to Censor Content

(ANTIMEDIA) — This week we were treated to a veritable carnival attraction as Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world, testified before Senate committees about privacy issues related to Facebook’s handling of user data. Besides highlighting the fact that most United States senators — and most people, for that matter — […]

"F**k Zuck 2020" Posters Appear In California As Facebook CEO Hires Hillary Strategist

After news broke of the hiring of Joel Benenson, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama and the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, as a consultant, we noted that the odds of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg running for President in 2020 surged and bookies positioned him as more likely to win than current establishment favorite Kamale Harris.

While many of Silicon Valley"s technorati quietly applaud the move, it seems that not everyone "likes" the idea of him being president...

As AmericanMirror.com reports, Los Angeles street artist Sabo recently posted several Facebook photos showing his latest work: “F*ck Zuck 2020” street art in Pasadena.

The poster features the familiar Facebook hand with the blue cuff, except Sabo modified it with a middle finger:

The signs even appeared over the traffic lights...

As Liberty Blitzkrieg"s Mike Krieger recently concluded, it’s not just Benenson that Zuck is hiring as we saw in the Politico article earlier. He’s hiring a smattering of corporate Democratic strategists and consultants (and even a George W. Bush alum). This tells you so much about who this guy really is and what he believes. He wanders around the country claiming to want to understand “the people” and then he shuffles right over to Clinton/Obama people for wisdom. He doesn’t really want to hear from the rabble or promote genuine populist change, he just wants to be the technocratic leader of another firmly neoliberal American government. That’s all this is.

Much of how Zuckerberg operates focuses on image instead of substance, as we saw throughout his cross-country narcissism tour. Not that this should be a surprise coming from the creator of Facebook, a platform designed so that people can carefully craft a fake public image of themselves for their “friends” to admire.

All of this proves that Mark Zuckerberg has absolutely no creativity or genuine insight when it comes to political thinking. He runs straight to the same neoliberal strategists and corporate Democrats that Americans are sick and tired of, and offers nothing new other than a technocratic face on a failed and expired political class. Ten million cross country road trips to Iowa will never alter this reality.

President Zuck? Facebook CEO Hires Hillary Clinton's Chief Campaign Strategist

Three weeks ago, when the WSJ ran an infomercial of the "down to earth" Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as just the guy next door in "Mark Zuckerberg Hits the Road to Meet Regular Folks" as part of Zuckerberg"s tour of the country...

... the obvious question immediately emerged: is Zuck"s publicity stunt preparation for a presidential run?

The answer increasingly looks like "yes", because as Politico reported on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton’s former pollster, Joel Benenson, the chief strategist in Clinton’s 2016 doomed campaign has been hired to conduct research for Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan’s nonprofit, the Zuckerberg-Chan initiative. Officially Benenson’s work, done through his company Benenson Strategy Group, will focus on the couple’s philanthropy. However, it will give Zuckerberg access to yet another top pollster as rumors of a potential presidential run grow ever louder.

In January, the Zuckerbergs hired another top political advisor - David Plouffe, campaign manager for Obama’s 2008 presidential run - as president of policy and advocacy. Plouffe had previously worked at Uber. Ken Mehlman, who ran President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, also sits on the board. And earlier this year, Politico reports that the couple also brought on Amy Dudley, a former communications adviser to Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine.

In retrospect, Mark Zuckerberg appears to be building an army of presidential advisors.

As part of his tour of the U.S., in June he stopped over in Iowa, a key launchpad for anyone floating a presidential bid. Zuckerberh"s "Year of Travel" has been compared to a grassroots presidential listening tour and fueled speculation he could run for president.

Of course, Zuckerberg denies everything.

"Some of you have asked if this challenge means I"m running for public office. I"m not," he wrote in a Facebook post earlier this year.  "I"m doing it to get a broader perspective to make sure we"re best serving our community of almost 2 billion people at Facebook and doing the best work to promote equal opportunity at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative."

Zuck won"t be the first, or last, politician to lie about not running. Meanwhile, the rumors of a run have persisted as the Facebook founder continues his tour and weighs in on political issues like healthcare.

Soros-funded Media Matters Caught Secretly Plotting with Facebook to Stop Alternative Media

In 2010, George Soros announced he would be giving $1 million to Media Matters to “hold Fox News accountable for the false and misleading information they so often broadcast.” Translation: Soros-funded Media Matters to combat Fox News, something it ostensibly labeled as “fake news,” an apparent smear tactic deployed as a result ostensibly progressive agenda. Fast-forward to 2017, and the billionaire trouble-maker is now using his influence at Media Matters to combat “fake news” on Facebook, except this time they’re trying to keep it secret.

When Facebook announced at the end of 2016 it would be working to eliminate “fake news” stories on its social media platform, many news media organizations, including The Free Thought Project, were understandably nervous, and with good reason. Not long after the announcement was made, TFTP was banned by Facebook for over two weeks, only having their account restored just days before the start of the New Year. The Washington Post also put out a hit piece targeting TFTP and others, which has since been retracted, in a blatant attempt at smearing their critics.

Now, it seems, we know who is behind this Facebook crackdown on alternative media, the George Soros-funded Media Matters.

According to The Free Beacon, it was revealed through internal Media Matters documents that Media Matters was quietly working with Facebook to identify and eliminate fake news and propaganda. “Media Matters told current and prospective donors at a retreat in Florida over the weekend that it has been in discussions with Facebook leadership about their policies on inaccurate and partisan news stories on the website that many liberals blame for political losses last year,” the Beacon writes.

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According to a “briefing book” given to attendees at the Media Matters conference and obtained by the Beacon, the left-wing news organization admitted, “We’ve been engaging with Facebook leadership behind the scenes to share our expertise and offer input on developing meaningful solutions.” Facebook promised that “Media Matters will serve as their partner,” in having a more active role in combating what it will determine is “fake news.” In other words, Facebook, and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are working with the militantly progressive news media organization to silence any organization it deems to be “fake news” which are little more than news sites who challenge the status quo.

If this doesn’t seem fair, that’s because it isn’t. It goes against every principle of journalism, free speech, and freedom of press the country has historically defended tooth and nail. By its own admission, Media Matters is censoring free speech on Facebook, and all with the company’s blessing. The soon to be scandal for Facebook is the latest in a long series of scandals which has targeted the free speech rights of certain individuals, and organizations.

According to the Free Beacon, everything seems to be going as Media Matters planned it. They used a crafty fundraising campaign to put pressure on Facebook to address the newly invented crisis of the proliferation of fake news, forcing an announcement by the company that it would be weeding out purveyors of “fake news.”

Now, Media Matters is confirming what many suspected already, that a Soros-funded organization was attempting to curtail free speech on Facebook. “After Facebook responded to our campaign by acknowledging the problem of fake news and agreeing to do something about it, we began a dialogue,” Media Matters’ brief states. Going further Media Matters confirmed the relationship saying, “It became clear from these conversations that Facebook needed our help in fully understanding the problem and identifying concrete solutions.” Media Matters confirms its goal is to, “adjust its (Facebook) model to stem the flow of damaging fake news on its platform’s pages.”

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Building on their successful relationship with Facebook, Media Matters wrote in their brief that they intend to use their power, money and influence to force Google into following Facebook’s lead on combatting “fake news.” The Soros-funded organization bragged about the success they’re already having at Google. “After Google revised their terms of service in order to prohibit so-called fake news sites from using their advertising network, it was Media Matters that had the information necessary to identify 40 of the worst fake news sites to which this policy applied,” the company wrote promising if they’re successful, “Google will cut off these pages’ accompanying sites’ access to revenue by pulling their access to Google’s ad platform.”

“After Google revised their terms of service in order to prohibit so-called fake news sites from using their advertising network, it was Media Matters that had the information necessary to identify 40 of the worst fake news sites to which this policy applied,” the company wrote. “Google will cut off these pages’ accompanying sites’ access to revenue by pulling their access to Google’s ad platform.”

The pressure to censor free speech on social media platforms is apparently working. The Soros-funded Media Matters not only was successful in getting Facebook and Google to consider “fake news” a problem, but also helped the two companies deprive the targeted organizations from the funding they need to continue publication. The Free Beacon wrote;

Facebook announced on Wednesday that it would change the algorithm behind its popular “trending topics” section, which will now base popularity on the number of Facebook-designated publishers discussing a story, rather than the number of users discussing it. Google also said on Wednesday that it has banned 200 publishers from its advertising network as part of its efforts to combat fake news sites. The company refused to say which sites had been targeted.