The program, known as “cross check” or “XCheck,” was initially intended as a quality-control measure for actions taken against high-profile accounts, including celebrities, politicians and journalists. Today, it shields millions of VIP users from the company’s normal enforcement process, the documents show. Some users are “whitelisted”—rendered immune from enforcement actions—while others are allowed to post rule-violating material pending Facebook employee reviews that often never come.
At times, the documents show, XCheck has protected public figures whose posts contain harassment or incitement to violence, violations that would typically lead to sanctions for regular users. In 2019, it allowed international soccer star Neymar to show nude photos of a woman, who had accused him of rape, to tens of millions of his fans before the content was removed by Facebook. Whitelisted accounts shared inflammatory claims that Facebook’s fact checkers deemed false, including that vaccines are deadly, that Hillary Clinton had covered up “pedophile rings,” and that then-President Donald Trump had called all refugees seeking asylum “animals,” according to the documents.
A 2019 internal review of Facebook’s whitelisting practices, marked attorney-client privileged, found favoritism to those users to be both widespread and “not publicly defensible.”
“We are not actually doing what we say we do publicly,” said the confidential review. It called the company’s actions “a breach of trust” and added: “Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences.”
It’s their platform. They can do whatever they like. Act accordingly.
The author after a debate tournament in October 2019.
I’m a first generation, 17-year-old Black American who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn neighborhood made famous by Jay-Z.
Given that brief biography, perhaps you’d assume that I’m a Black Lives Matter slogan-chanting, capitalism-chastising teen activist. Or that I’m an at-risk youth, destined for dropping out or incarceration.
You’d be wrong on both counts.
I'm a religious Christian and political conservative with an after-school job as a dishwasher at Panera: three things that, if we’re to believe the statistics about Gen Z, make me an outlier.
One thing the studies definitely get right: my peers and I are online all the time. I’ve had a cellphone since I was 11 years old and immediately downloaded Instagram. While there had always been references to social justice, they didn’t dominate. Until the past two years. Suddenly, they were everywhere I clicked and, often, at the centerpiece of our lesson plans at school. As classes moved from the classroom to bedroom, I began to notice my classmates denouncing their “white privilege” in Instagram posts, updating their bios with their gender pronouns, and posting links to various social justice causes.
Even though I find myself in similar circles as my activist counterparts, I did none of those things. I’m a proponent of equality and pluralism. But I don’t believe in the kind of self-aggrandizing, virtue signaling that accompanies so much of “woke” politics.
My inoculation — against woke politics and the social accreditation thereof — was given to me in stages.
The first shot came early, care of my parents, who run a Baptist church in our Brooklyn neighborhood. My mom and my dad, both immigrants from Haiti, have always been devout. Before they had a space for their church, they held services in the living room of our Bed-Stuy apartment.
They were strict. Way stricter, I now realize, than the parents of any of my friends. I was treated to death stares if I was fidgety at a church or at a family friend’s house. The television could not be turned on until the weekend. And even then, I had only two hours after I’d finished my homework. I was not allowed to play sports because they wanted me to focus on education. (As I grew up, they loosened up: I could watch TV at any time and I played soccer from 7th to 11th grade.)
In 2016, when I was 12 years old, we traveled to Haiti to build a church, this one high upon a hill in the village of Tavern, an hour away from Les Cayes. I remember the gleaming pews we installed there, the lightbulbs we screwed in, and the brand new piano keyboard we bought for the community. You cannot deny the privileges of being American when you see Haitian children weep over new shoes we deem uncool.
My parents lived by the values they instilled in me — charity, civility, responsibility, and tenacity — and their moral code follows me whenever I step out my door. I have plenty of Manhattanite friends whose families are wealthier than mine, but as my mother says my greatest inheritance is her belief in the Word.
I got my next layer of protection from Leadership Prep Ocean Hill Charter School, which I attended from first until eighth grade. Our dismissals there did not end at the school door. Instead, it was at the end of the block, with teachers escorting us and pleading us to walk directly home so as to avoid the gang violence that plagues the surrounding streets of Brownsville, Brooklyn.
We left school later than other public-school children. We had to wear uniforms, fold our hands, sit up straight, and track the speaker with our gaze. Essays were assigned every week. We took regular quizzes to ensure we read the books in our logs. There are those who admonish charter schools for their hardcore discipline — and my friends and I had plenty of complaints. In retrospect, I realize how lucky we were.
In the beginning of eighth grade, I started studying for the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test to enroll in New York’s set of schools for high-performing students. Now, I had two hours of free test prep in addition to eight hours of school. One night at the dinner table, as I fell asleep with my head in my arms, I felt my mom gently tap me. “Li fatige,” I heard her tell my father as they continued their prayer.
When I finally did take the test, I got into Brooklyn Tech, which has an 8% acceptance rate.
Most assume I sing the tune of those who want to remove the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test in the name of diversity. Wouldn’t I like to see more faces similar to mine? Woke progressives accuse the test of filtering in wealthier students who have the family means to get tutored.
I find that argument puzzling, considering over half Brooklyn Tech’s student body (58.6%) are eligible for free or reduced lunch. That is also true for Brooklyn Latin (58.1%) and Queens High School for the Sciences at York College (61.9%). Just below half of Bronx Science (43.4%) and Staten Island Tech (42.8%) attendees are eligible. For context: In 2019-20, a family of four had to earn less than $3,970 monthly to qualify for free or reduced lunch.
In Intellectuals and Society, my favorite thinker, Thomas Sowell, notes that “it may be surprising . . . to discover large intergroup disparities” when viewing students as “abstract beings.” The conventional wisdom among liberals these days is that different admission rates along racial lines must necessarily be the result of systemic oppression. I think the truth is simpler: those who prioritize education will get in.
I got my next booster shot during my junior year. One history teacher’s office hours — usually a throw-away 20-minute period after class — became an antidote to woke politics for those who attended. This was a genuine “safe space” where we could debate unpopular ideas that didn’t fit neatly into social media posts. Beneficiaries of “white privilege” shared stories of their parents’ struggles when immigrating to the United States. One of them is my friend Julia, who talked of the abject poverty her parents endured upon their arrival from the Soviet Union.
When COVID hit and Black Lives Matter protests swept the country, I tried to understand why so many of my peers were so immersed in groupthink. I spoke to that history teacher, and I also found books like Stephen Hicks’ Explaining Postmodernism and Richard Tarnas’ Passion of the Western Mind. On YouTube I discovered Jordan Peterson’s lectures, Peter Robinson’s Uncommon Knowledge at the Hoover Institution, Ben Shapiro’s show, and more. I ultimately started a channel of my own. (There is a lot of pressure to think the same on social media, but if you look hard enough you can find content online that deepens and enriches you.)
Here is the main thing I have learned:
When acceptance is the highest value, when avoiding condemnation online is worth more than the truth, the truth will be swiftly discarded. Online likes, followers and reputation — weak, empty values — dominate the teenage world because teenagers are not being taught alternative ones by the culture or, often, by the adults in their lives. They — we — are not being given the tools to answer the questions that really matter: What is truth? What is justice? And what is the purpose of life?
My generation’s been told that truth or justice are merely assertions of power. Except here’s the thing: The square root of 64 is 8, the Moon is nearly 239,000 miles from the Earth, and you do not need to believe in God to see that goodwill is a force for positive change. Believing in that is the ultimate immunization against nihilism.
What happens when a billionaire gives a small, liberal arts college $12 million, no strings attached? Peter Savodnik reports on the unintended consequences of MacKenzie Scott’s largesse.
Homeschooling is exploding in America. Suzy Weiss meets the parents yanking their kids from schools they say aren’t cutting it.
If you appreciate our work — and our first back-to-school week! — please help support us. And have a wonderful weekend.
Under the CDC Myths and Facts about the 'rona, they answer the much debated question: "Can CDC mandate that I get a COVID-19 vaccine?" with an emphatic no.
“Back in the Dark Ages, when I was in high school, the school got a trampoline. It was big but completely unenclosed and therefore dangerous. The first person to use it promptly bounced off onto the floor and broke her arm. The school overreacted by getting rid of it. Most of us never got a chance to try it. Probably instruction and equipment have both improved since then.”
-People growing up now don’t realize how wild school used to be, Skeezix.
Widefield School District 3 handed the apology letter last month to the parents of 13-year-old Isaiah Elliott. CPR News obtained a copy.
It says, in part, “The District deeply regrets the impact this incident had on the Elliotts, and apologizes to Isaiah for any embarrassment or discomfort he may have experienced.”
On Aug. 27, 2020, as students, educators and parents across the state adjusted to pandemic remote learning, an art teacher spotted what she believed to be a toy gun on Isaiah Elliott’s screen.
The incident led to his suspension — which has since been reversed — and to school leaders sending two school resource officers to the boy’s home.
Just in case you didn’t catch that, they called the cops for what they “believed to be a toy gun.”
“[E]ven viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, no rational jury could conclude that defendant acted with a scheme to defraud NASA” in failing to disclose his affiliation with the Beijing University of Technology to UTK, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan wrote in the decision.
The judge added “there was no evidence presented that defendant ever collaborated with a Chinese university in conducting his NASA-funded research, or used facilities, equipment, or funds from a Chinese university in the course of such research.”
She has millions of adoring fans. She’s worth billions of dollars. But Beijing has all but erased actress Zhao Wei from history. And they won’t say why.
Zhao’s name won’t be immortal. Her entire internet existence has been scrubbed.
All serials and chat shows featuring her have vanished from major Chinese online streaming sites. She no longer even appears in the online credits for the movies she appears in.
In an astonishing and unprecedented power grab that will overturn 200 years of case law and prior precedents, Democrats on the state Supreme Court are preparing to disqualify and remove two duly-elected Republican Supreme Court justices from a case so they can nullify voters’ decision to amend the Constitution.
The case is NAACP v. Moore and the state Supreme Court’s Democrats are trying to remove two Republican members from the bench, so a new temporary four-to-one Democrat majority can erase two constitutional amendments – the cap on income tax, and the voter I.D. requirement – which were overwhelmingly passed by more than four million votes.
In a plan already underway, Democrats Anita Earls, Robin Hudson, and Mike Morgan would conspire to remove the justices while allowing Associate Justice Jimmy Ervin to vote AGAINST the move because he is the one Democrat currently on the court who will face re-election in 2022.
Our “democracy” is sacred to Democrats except when it isn’t.
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Michael Wynne, retired Gen. John Keane, Meaghan Mobbs, David Urban, Heidi Stirrup, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, and John Coale were also asked to submit their resignations.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the suspension of all military academy oversight boards in February while they conducted a review following a flurry of last-second appointments by the previous administration.
Vought, in response to the letter, said, “No. It’s a three year term,” while Mobbs said in a statement , “Frankly, I find this whole act unconscionable and not all in the spirit by which this Administration promised to govern. President Biden ran on a supposed platform of unity but his actions speak directly to the contrary. Apparently, unity is only for those who conform.”
“When I joined the Board under the Trump Administration, there were holdovers from the Obama Administration,” she added. “They were not terminated but instead served alongside Trump appointees. This mix of perspective, experience, and belief systems ensured there was diversity — a value the Democratic party purports to hold above all else.”
Meanwhile, “Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who is currently member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Air Force Academy, received from Biden’s office one of those resignation demands. Conway had a different suggestion:”
“Jonathan Hiler, a Navy academy alumnus who served as director of legislative affairs for Vice President Mike Pence, [also] said he was ‘not resigning:'”
Because when people are talking about gun control, they’re not talking about Obama’s many failures, ranging from the failures of vetting and counterterrorism that may have led to the San Bernardino attacks themselves, to Obama’s foreign policy debacles in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, to how the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign against Boko Haram accomplished nothing, to how Putin is running wild in Eastern Europe, to Obama’s plans to import more poorly-vetted refugees from Muslim countries that foment terror or the still-anemic economy that has left far too many Americans unemployed or underemployed despite years of “recovery.”
* * * * * * * *
This approach — basically, trolling the public — is a variation on a tactic that Obama advisor David Plouffe calls ”stray voltage,” about which CBS’s John Dickerson commented, “The tactic represents one more step in the embrace of cynicism that has characterized President Obama’s journey in office.”
Getting stories involving loads of former Trump officials is certainly one way to distract the media for a few days during yet another dreadful news cycle for team Biden.
LOCKDOWN CASUALTIES, I SUSPECT: COVID doesn’t account for troubling trend of unexplained US deaths. “Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths attributed to many other health conditions have spiked in the U.S.: Alzheimer’s, heart disease, cancer and diabetes, for example, have killed far more Americans than would be expected in a pre-pandemic year.”
I’m pretty sure we’re going to find that the pandemic response killed more people than the pandemic did. That would look bad, though, so the obvious solution — hinted at in this article — is just to call deaths from pandemic responses Covid deaths too. Problem solved!
Research of the Week
