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Ironic: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki receives Free Expression Award from pro-First Amendment group

The awards ceremony was sponsored by YouTube.

(Reclaim the Net) After an unprecedented year of YouTube censorship, the Freedom Forum Institute, a group which states that its mission is “to foster First Amendment freedoms for all,” has given YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki a Free Expression Award.

The homepage for the 2021 Free Expression Awards and Festival states that it recognizes individuals “for their courageous acts of free and fearless expression” and lists YouTube as a “signature sponsor” of the event.

In a video promoting the award, Wojcicki proposed that removing content only becomes censorship when you go “too far”:

“We’re removing content that violates our policies. You can go too far and that can become censorship, and so we have been working really hard to figure out what’s the right way to balance responsibility with freedom of speech.”

During an interview, she then discussed how censorship impacted her personally when her grandfather stayed in Poland after World War Two and was behind the Iron Curtain – a political boundary that divided Europe for more than 45 years and was infamous for the way open contact with those inside the Iron Curtain was heavily censored.

“I saw how difficult it was to communicate with him,” Wojcicki said. “To be able to worry about what you were saying to him and for him to have concerns about what was said or what was even sent to him.”

She added: “I’ve just seen the real benefits that freedom of speech has as well as representing all people of all different backgrounds and all different perspectives and that the freedoms we have, we really can’t take for granted. That we really have to make sure that we’re protecting them in every way possible. And I feel, because of my family history, a deep connection to those freedoms. And I’m very thankful for the freedoms that I have.”

But after giving her personal testimony on the importance of free speech, Wojcicki then answered a question on “needing to try to balance people’s right to free speech with protecting our [YouTube’s] community from content that can be harmful.”

In her answer, Wojcicki insisted that YouTube wants to “represent as many views as possible” but that it needs to “make sure there are limits.”

She added that as YouTube has grown bigger, it has had to increase its “responsibility work” – a phrase that Wojcicki often uses to describe the way YouTube censors content that breaks its far-reaching rules, suppresses content that doesn’t break the rules, and boosts content from mainstream media outlets.

“We removed nine million videos last quarter and almost all of them – over 90% – we removed with machines, which is good because it means if there’s content that’s violative, we find that really quickly,” Wojcicki said.

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Clubhouse closes new round of funding that would value app at $4 billion: source

Audio-chat app Clubhouse closed a new Series C round of financing, the company said during its weekly town hall on Sunday, without disclosing the amount raised.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the new financing would value the company at $4 billion.

The social media app said the new round of financing was led by Andrew Chen of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz with major investors like DST Global, Tiger Global and Elad Gil.

Clubhouse and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to requests for how much the funding round raised.

The San Francisco-based company, whose app allows people to discuss varied topics in audio chatrooms, has seen its popularity surge after appearances by billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

The success of the invite-only, year-old platform, which recently reported 10 million weekly active users, has demonstrated the potential of audio chat services, particularly as people stay inside homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bloomberg earlier this month said Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) was in discussions to buy audio app at a $4 billion valuation.

Tech website The Information first reported details on the funding on Friday.

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Oregon considers ‘permanent rule’ on face masks, forcing pandemic restrictions indefinitely

Meanwhile, other states are lifting mask mandates altogether

Many states across the United States have rescinded their pandemic-related mandate requiring residents to wear face masks because the COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be highly effective in combatting the virus.

A top Oregon health official is considering a “permanent rule,” according to the Associated Press, mandating social distancing and the use of face masks inside workplaces indefinitely.

Current regulations expire on May 4, but Michael Wood, administrator of the state’s department of Occupational Safety and Health, reportedly wants to alter state regulations to extend the mandate until “revised or repealed.”

The proposal only promises to repeal the permanent rule once officials no longer deem face masks necessary.

Although the rule must be adopted as a permanent rule, its purpose is to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Oregon OSHA intends to repeal the rule when it is no longer necessary to address that pandemic. Because it is not possible to assign a specific time for that decision, Oregon OSHA will consult with the Oregon OSHA Partnership Committee, the Oregon Health Authority, and other stakeholders as circumstances change to determine when all or part of the rule can be appropriately repealed.

“We are not out of the woods yet,” Wood said, the AP reported.

Wood claimed the proposal is “driven by the pandemic, and it will be repealed,” but admitted “it might not need to go away at exactly the same time the state of emergency is lifted.”

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Rep. Taylor Greene Defends ‘America First’ Effort, Pushes Back on Critics

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday that she won’t back down from promoting “America First” policies as she addressed criticism of a caucus she was helping create.

A document outlining Taylor Greene’s “America First Caucus” was published by a media outlet on Friday, with the document drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans for phrases such as, “America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”

Critics said some of the language in the document was hateful and racist.

But Taylor Greene on Saturday in a series of tweets said she did not write or say any of the phrases in the posting.

The media “released a staff level draft proposal from an outside group that I hadn’t read,” she wrote.

“The scum and liars in the media are calling me a racist by taking something out of context. This is just a repeat of Jewish Space Lasers. Another term I never used & the media made up. It’s more proof so-called journalists lie and create false narratives. The media are the ones focused on race & use it to divide the American people with hate through identity politics.”

Greene’s spokesperson had told CNN that she was helping create the “America First Caucus,” but later said she was not. Greene’s office has not returned requests for comment.

“The Congresswoman wants to make clear that she is not launching anything. This was an early planning proposal and nothing was agreed to or approved,” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who was linked to the group, declined to comment.

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Japan Plans to Dump 1.2 Million Tons of Contaminated Fukushima Wastewater Into Pacific Ocean

Greenpeace said Japan’s plan is a violation of international maritime law that “completely disregards the human rights and interests of the people in Fukushima, wider Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.”

In a decision that sparked condemnation from environmental advocates, fisherfolk and neighboring countries, Japan announced Tuesday a plan to dump over 1.2 million tons of stored contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The decision made by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet gives Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) the green light to release Fukushima’s wastewater into the sea just over a decade after one of the worst nuclear disasters in history — discharges won’t begin for two years, as TEPCO prepares for a process that is expected to take decades.

Greenpeace said in a statement that the decision, which has long been contemplated but delayed due to strong public opposition, is a violation of international maritime law that “completely disregards the human rights and interests of the people in Fukushima, wider Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.”

“The Japanese government has once again failed the people of Fukushima,” said Kazue Suzuki, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan. “The government has taken the wholly unjustified decision to deliberately contaminate the Pacific Ocean with radioactive wastes.”

“The Cabinet’s decision failed to protect the environment and neglected the large-scale opposition and concerns of the local Fukushima residents, as well as the neighboring citizens around Japan,” Suzuki added. “Greenpeace stands with the people of Fukushima, including fishing communities, in their efforts to stop these plans.”

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Eritrea: 13 Christians remain imprisoned after 2 raids on prayer meetings

Thirteen Eritrean Christians remain imprisoned after authorities raided two separate prayer meetings last month where 35 people were taken into custody, including several women.

Twenty-two of the 23 Christians who were arrested at a prayer meeting in the capital of Asmara last month, most of whom were women, were released from the Mai Sarawa prison last Sunday, while of all the 12 Christians who were arrested in the city of Assab, 660 miles southeast from Asmara, remain in Assab prison, where conditions are known to be harsh, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported.

The ICC, which released its report based on information received from Release International and Barnabas Fund, said the arrests were carried out by members of the Eritrean Army late last month.

It’s not yet clear why only one of the 23 arrested in Asmara hasn’t been released, the groups said, adding that they’re also working to find out if those who were freed are in good health.

Since last September, at least 160 Christians have been released from prisons in that country, but the latest arrests “dampened hopes that the government was easing its harsh repressive policy against Christians,” Barnabas Fund said.

“In Eritrea, citizens have a duty to report anything untoward happening in their community,” Release International added. “This can turn ordinary neighbors into spies. In some cases, their own family members have reported Christians.”

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki is a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church in Asmara — belonging to the largest among the only three Christian denominations allowed to function in the country.

Afewerki, 75, who’s the leader of the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice Party, also has a reputation of being an alcoholic and a ruthless autocrat. Afewerki’s policy of restrictions is more about his fear that religion will mobilize people as a political force than religion itself.

In February, 70 Christians from evangelical and Orthodox backgrounds, including women, were released from three prisons in Eritrea, some after being held without charge for more than a decade.

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Pompeo: UN Amb. Thomas-Greenfield’s Anti-US Remarks ‘Reprehensible’

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield rebuking the Constitution as having underpinnings of “white supremacy” is “reprehensible” and “disqualifying” for an American diplomat to hold anti-American sentiment, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“America is a noble place,” Pompeo told Sunday’s “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM-N.Y. “I heard our ambassador to the United Nations this week talk about our founding as fundamentally corrupt and flawed and not noble and good. I couldn’t disagree more.”

Pompeo was responding to Thomas-Greenfield saying, “the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents.”

“Quite frankly, I think it’s disqualifying to have a UN ambassador who expresses a moral relativism and doesn’t understand the exceptional nature of the country in which we all live,” Pompeo told host John Catsimatidis.

American exceptionalism is not a racist, nationalist, nor “not a partisan issue” either, Pompeo noted, particularly as masses of migrants rush to come to America.

“You see people wanting to immigrate here,” he said. “You see people attracted to this shining city on the hill. To have our American ambassador to the United Nations denigrate the founding principles of the United States and America the way that she did this week is truly reprehensible, and, in my view, if she truly believes that, she ought to resign and allow someone who believes in the greatness of America to take her place.”

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Critical Race Theory Is Divisive: Researcher

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Editor and filmmaker Christopher Rufo has been focusing his research on critical race theory (CRT) in K–12 schools for the last four months.

Since California announced its ethnic studies curriculum in March, there has been much discussion on CRT, a quasi-Marxist theory that divides people by race into “oppressors” and “oppressed.”

Those who oppose the ideology, such as Rufo, say it is divisive and harmful.

He said he saw how the theory manifests as a curriculum and a teacher training program as well as what its effects are on kids.

“First graders in Cupertino, California … are forced to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities and then rank themselves according to their power and privilege,” Rufo told NTD Television. “I did a story about middle school teachers in Springfield, Missouri, who were forced to locate themselves on an oppression matrix; and white, male, Christian, English-speaking teachers were told that they were inherently oppressors; and other teachers were told that they were inherently oppressed.”

He also wrote a piece about teachers in Philadelphia asking fifth graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate an “Angela Davis Black Power” rally.

He said he believes these examples of CRT in schools illustrate “just how nonsensical, how divisive, how destructive, and how truly manipulative it can be, especially when applied to very young children.”

Rufo said he has seen the theory expand outside schools. He pointed out that Portland, Oregon was one of the first cities to adopt the concept, and he suggested this is partially responsible for the unrest last year.

“We’ve seen it as more than 150 days straight of rioting last year after the death of George Floyd—including the group called the Northwest Youth Liberation Front comprised and led by teenagers, who perhaps, in some cases, absorbed some of the ideology in school,” Rufo said.

Rufo is concerned that over time, this form of instruction will lead to a deformed education system.

On March 18, the California State Board of Education approved the implementation of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum in schools, after four revisions in four years. It is the first in the nation to make the curriculum available to educators.

“Today’s historic action gives schools the opportunity to uplift the histories and voices of marginalized communities in ways that help our state and nation achieve racial justice and create lasting change,” Tony Thurmond, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, stated in an announcement.

According to the announcement, ethnic studies courses can help minority students increase graduation and college admission rates. The curriculum will not be mandatory.

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US Government Caught Buying ‘Fresh’ Aborted Baby Flesh, Alex Jones Proven Right Once More

The report indicates that most purchases are for intact thymuses and livers shipped “Fresh; on wet ice.”

Last week, legal accountability group Judicial Watch released a lengthy report indicating that the U.S. government buys and traffics “fresh” aborted baby parts, according to the Federalist.

“These body parts, purchased by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “humanize” mice and test biologic drugs in scientific experiments, came from babies up to 24-weeks-old gestation, just weeks from being born,” reported Edie Heipel.

It has previously been reported that abortion groups harvested aborted babies for research.

However, this new report has sparked outrage among Americans upon the revelation that the US government is the entity responsible for the trafficking of the aborted babies.

“Recent emails uncovered by Judicial Watch between FDA employees and the California-based Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR) prove the agency spent tens of thousands of dollars buying aborted babies for unethical scientific experiments between 2012 and 2018. In 2018, the Trump administration terminated the contract, halting government fetal tissue research due to concerns the contracts were unlawful. Judicial Watch’s new FOIA Request adds 575 pages of recordsto its existing 2019 lawsuit against the agency,” wrote Heipel.

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Biden Admin Planning to Release 400 Migrant Families Per Day by June

As the spike in migrant families crossing the border illegally grows, the Biden administration is planning to turn loose about 400 families a day by mid-June, according to a new report.

Citing what it said was a planning document from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Washington Examiner said Ice is releasing families because it has no room to hold them.

“The number of individuals enrolled in the ICE Alternatives to Detention program has increased from 50 per day to 200 per day in March 2021,” the report quotes the ICE document as saying.

“Within 90 days, the enrollment is projected to double to 400 per day. It is because of this unusual and compelling urgency that the Government requires the [emergency family reception sites] to meet the critical mission requirements of housing, feeding, transporting, and providing medical attention to these thousands of asylum-seeking families along the southwest border.”

The report said because of the way ICE keeps its data, “the total number of migrants released is at least two times higher than the 400 figure because each family has at least two people.”

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