Twitter and Freedom of Speech

 


COGwriter

Bowing to European Union pressure, Germany is making more statements criminal:

November 24, 2022

Holocaust denial has long been illegal in Germany. A new amendment aims to criminalize denial of other war crimes and genocides wherever they happen and would apply to denying atrocities committed in Ukraine.  …

The lower chamber of German parliament, the Bundestag, voted for an amendment at the end of October, and on Friday, it is set to pass in the Bundesrat, the upper chamber which represents the state governments. The approval, denial, and “gross trivialization” of war crimes and instances of genocide will now fall under the criminal offense of “incitement of the people” in a newly created Paragraph 5 of Section 130.

“It was about giving law enforcement a stronger guideline about how and what they can investigate,” Michael Kubiciel, a legal scholar at the University of Augsburg, told DW. “But above all, it was about meeting the demands of the European Commission. And that has now been done.”

Berlin forced to act

Indeed, Germany has been in no hurry to pass the measure. An EU directive to combat racism was made in 2008, and the German government was forced to react now because of the threat of EU infringement proceedings.

For Josephine Ballon, chief lawyer for the organization HateAid, which supports victims of online hate, the change comes at the right moment.

“I’m excited to see how the amendment will play out,” Ballon tells DW. “And I definitely see a practical scope for it. Right now, in the context of the Ukraine war, we see some things that could fall under it. I would say the amendment comes at a time when it can be quite relevant.”

If enacted, the amended law would also apply offline. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-to-criminalize-denying-war-crimes-genocide/a-63834791

So, we see that statements made on or offline can be considered criminal acts if you either do not agree with the government narrative or have other views than the government on certain topics.

Notice that it started off with holocaust denial, then expanded.

While we in the CCOG are not holocaust deniers, making that a crime and then other forms of speech a crime, is not good. This is a ‘slippery slope’ that will worsen (cf. Amos 8:11-12).

As far as banning “hate speech” goes, understand that the mainstream media believes that taking biblical stances against the LGBTQ+ agenda is hate speech.

Is there ever a place for censorship?

Well, the Bible teaches that we are not to take God’s name in vain (Exodus 20:6) nor are we to approve of homosexual or lesbian behavior (Romans 1:18-32). On that latter point, Russia has taken another step:

November 24, 2022

Moscow — Russian lawmakers on Thursday gave their final approval to a bill that significantly expands restrictions on activities seen as promoting gay rights in the country, another step in a years-long crackdown on the country’s embattled LGBTQ community.

The new bill expands a ban on what authorities call “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors, established by legislation dubbed the “gay propaganda” law. It was adopted by the Kremlin in 2013 in an effort to promote “traditional values” in Russia.

This year, the lawmakers moved to ban spreading such information to people aged 18 and older.

The bill was approved in the third and final reading on Thursday by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. It will go next to the upper house, the Federation Council, and then to President Vladimir Putin, whose signature will give it legal force.

The new bill outlaws all advertising, media and online resources books, films and theater productions deemed to contain such “propaganda,” a concept loosely defined in the bill. The 2013 ban was often enacted against any depictions of same-sex unions and used as a tool to crack down on LGBTQ rights groups and activists.

Violations are punishable by fines. If committed by non-residents, they can lead to their expulsion from Russia. The fines range from 100,000 to 2 million rubles ($1,660-$33,000). For some violations, foreigners could face 15 days’ detention prior to expulsion.

The bill does not make violations a criminal offense. https://www.voanews.com/a/6848338.html

That said, as the tweet at the beginning of this post shows, Elon Musk is basically taking credit for reducing “hate speech’ from his staff, which also uses software that could be considered to be ‘artificial intelligence’ to remove content Elon Musk and others do not want people to see.

As far as Elon Musk and Twitter goes, Natural News put out the following:

Sell out: Elon Musk says independent media will stay banned on Twitter; only “trusted” media outlets allowed

November 23, 2022

As many expected he would do, Elon Musk has changed his mind and decided to keep Twitter as is with independent media outlets prohibited from posting content.

In a November 18 announcement, Musk announced that Twitter’s new policy under his leadership “is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.” What he means by this is that only “trusted” content will be seen by others using the platform while independent content remains shadow-banned and hidden from view.

“Negative / hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter,” Musk explained. “You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of the Internet.” …

Musk’s seemingly clever little quip about “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach” did not even come from his own brain, of course – because underneath those piles of ill-gotten billions, Musk is just another globalist puppet playing his part on the world stage.

It turns out that Musk stole these words from the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL being a prominent hate group that vilifies white people and constantly denigrates the First Amendment. …

Shadow-banning is the equivalent of locking a person inside a soundproof box and allowing him to speak where nobody else can hear him. This is how conservatives and independents will continue to be treated on Twitter while “authoritative” left-wing sources are free to say and do whatever they wish.

Chris Menahan from Information Liberation put it like this in a tweet that was probably shadow-banned by Musk for containing “hate:”

“You have freedom of speech but if we deem it ‘hate’ we’re going to put you in this box where no one can hear you … Your free speech rights will be fully protected within the box.” https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-11-23-elon-musk-independent-media-still-banned-twitter.html

Google, YouTube, Facebook, and others in Big Tech practice shadow-banning.  Items at COGwriter.com are regular victims of it.

As far as Elon Musk goes many conservatives, however, are pleased he now has control of Twitter. Here is something from an article that would be consistent with that:

November 24, 2022

Billionaire Elon Musk agreed that Twitter should release all internal discussions concerning the censoring of the New York Post’s story that exposed information on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election.

Musk, whose purchase of Twitter was finalized last month, commented on a post that asked followers to “raise your hand if you think @Elonmusk should make public all internal discussions” surrounding the censorship of the Post’s coverage.

“This is necessary to restore public trust,” Musk tweeted late Wednesday night. …

Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion to privatize the company and make it a more free speech platform. https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hunter-biden-laptop-censor/2022/11/24/id/1097823/

What we are now starting to see with Elon Musk is that while he wants Twitter to allow certain matters, he will not actually make it a free speech platform.

By the way, when Twitter first came it claimed it was a true free speech platform. Then it betrayed its founding principles.

Notice that, in the past, Elon Musk expressed concerns that artificial intelligence could become an evil force that will rule the world:

Elon Musk: ‘Immortal’ evil superintelligence could rule world

April 7, 2018

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s biggest fear is a form of artificial intelligence that could create an “immortal dictator,” a “godlike” entity that rules the world and one “from which we can never escape.”

That’s what he says in a new documentary by American filmmaker Chris Paine about the imminent threat of AI, which he believes will be smarter than man and, of course, never die.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer says it could develop within one company – like Google — or among a small group of people.

“The least scary future I can think of is one where we have at least democratized AI because if one company or small group of people manages to develop godlike digital superintelligence, they could take over the world,” Musk said. “At least when there’s an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI, there would be no death. It would live forever. And then you’d have an immortal dictator from which we can never escape.” http://www.wnd.com/2018/04/elon-musk-immortal-evil-superintelligence-could-rule-world/#b0f3rERzXiKHeXE8.99

Yet, his company Twitter does use AI.

Furthermore, while Elon Musk fears the rise of an immortal dictator, the Bible shows that a mortal, European dictator will rise up (Revelation 17:12-13).

He will want to be worshiped as if he were God in the end times:

3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

That said, notice the following:

Artificial Intelligence: A Secular Look At The Digital Antichrist

August 12, 2022

Why do globalists have a deep rooted obsession with Artificial Intelligence (AI)? What is it about the fervent quest for an autonomous digitized brain that sends them into fits of ecstasy? Is it all about what AI can do for them and their agenda, or, is there also a darker “occult” element to the concept that is so appealing?

The World Economic Forum, an organization dedicated to the globalist “Great Reset” agenda, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the “Shared Economy,” dedicates a large portion of every annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland to discussion on AI and the expansion of its influence over daily life.

The United Nations holds extensive policy sessions on AI and has been spending a considerable amount of energy to establish “ethics rules” for the development and use of Artificial Intelligence. At the core of the UN’s efforts is the assertion that only the UN is qualified to dictate and control AI technologies; for the good of all mankind, of course. AI governance is slated to go into full effect by 2030 according to the UN’s own white papers (All globalist institutions have set 2030 as the target date for all of their projects).

Another lesser known but substantial organization is the World Government Summit held every year in Dubai. These summits are attended by many national leaders and representatives as well as corporate CEOs and celebrities. The primary subjects of focus at the WGS are usually climate change propaganda, centralization of the global economy, Transhumanism and AI. …

If we are to look at AI in religious terms for a moment – AI is a kind of antithesis to the figure of Christ. Christ represents an all-knowing form of ultimate love and ultimate self sacrifice according to Christian doctrine. I don’t think there is a word for what AI ultimately represents. The only term that seems to fit is “Antichrist”: The all seeing eye. A rulership of a super-intelligence devoid of humanity.

To be clear, I DO NOT believe in end-of-the-world concepts portrayed by those that adhere to more popular interpretations of Revelations. https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/83116/artificial-intelligence-a-secular-look-at-the-digital.html

So, the above author understands that the UN, WEF, and others are pushing for AI and control over humanity, yet does not believe in how many see this tying in with the Book of Revelation and the end of this age.

But that should be clear to any who truly believe the Bible.

As far as people pushing for AI control, notice also the following:

World Economic Forum Calls For Merging of Human and AI Intel to Censor ‘Hate Speech’ & ‘Misinformation’

August 12, 2022

Despite the fact that no one asked, the World Economic Forum is now advocating for the merger of human and artificial intelligence systems to censor “hate speech” and “misinformation” online before it is even allowed to be posted.

A report published to the official WEF website ominously warns about the peril of “the dark world of online harms.”

But the globalist body, run by comic book Bond villain Klaus Schwab, has a solution.

They want to merge the ‘best’ aspects of human censorship and AI machine learning algorithms to ensure that people’s feelings don’t get hurt and counter-regime opinions are blacklisted.

“By uniquely combining the power of innovative technology, off-platform intelligence collection and the prowess of subject-matter experts who understand how threat actors operate, scaled detection of online abuse can reach near-perfect precision,” … the article concludes by proposing “a new framework: rather than relying on AI to detect at scale and humans to review edge cases, an intelligence-based approach is crucial.” “By bringing human-curated, multi-language, off-platform intelligence into learning sets, AI will then be able to detect nuanced, novel abuses at scale, before they reach mainstream platforms. Supplementing this smarter automated detection with human expertise to review edge cases and identify false positives and negatives and then feeding those findings back into training sets will allow us to create AI with human intelligence baked in,” … the article concludes by proposing “a new framework: rather than relying on AI to detect at scale and humans to review edge cases, an intelligence-based approach is crucial.”

“By bringing human-curated, multi-language, off-platform intelligence into learning sets, AI will then be able to detect nuanced, novel abuses at scale, before they reach mainstream platforms. Supplementing this smarter automated detection with human expertise to review edge cases and identify false positives and negatives and then feeding those findings back into training sets will allow us to create AI with human intelligence baked in,” the article rambles.

In other words, your free speech will probably get censored before you’re even able to post it on social media sites. Some are calling it “preemptive censorship.”

Or as the WEF puts it, “Trust and safety teams can stop threats rising online before they reach users.”

No doubt that a central part of such “misinformation” will be strident denunciation of the WEF itself, given that the organization is notorious for blocking its critics on Twitter.https://www.newswars.com/world-economic-forum-calls-for-merging-of-human-and-ai-intel-to-censor-hate-speech-misinformation/

I warned for years that AI would be used for things like internet censorship. We are now seeing that and much more of that will come (cf. Amos 8:11-12):

11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)

Notice also:

October 19, 2018With machine learning (a process that creates AI), researchers are seeking alternative data sources, such as content structure, keyword use, headline choice, and engagement to rank the validity of news articles. Current results signal more training data is still needed, but as such data increases, so will the accuracy.

Even with that promising progress, there’s a plot twist: AI can also create fake news, meaning AI spotters vs. AI disseminators. We often imagine a robot war being fought on a physical battlefield with Terminator-style creations bringing fire and fury. However, considering the current digital trajectory, the robot “cold war” is likely already here. Twitter’s recent dump of millions of state-sponsored troll bot account tweets is only one of numerous examples of AI’s darker side.  https://www.teslarati.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-future-humanity-current-reality/

Consider that the following scriptures from the Book of Revelation support the view that to some degree advanced computer software, which may or may not be considered as ‘artificial intelligence,’ will be used by the coming European Beast of the Sea dictator (Revelation 13:1-10) as well as his Beast of the Earth (Revelation 13:11) accomplice:

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.

15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.

16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:11-18)

Notice that the Beast of the Earth gets the people who dwell on the earth to worship the other Beast. While he will likely have what will be some type of demonic-superpower (Revelation 16:13), it is possible that something like artificial intelligence will be used to get the image of the Beast to speak and to get those who will not worship the Beast killed.

Additionally, when it comes to controlling buying and selling, that was not possible before this digital age of the 21st century. That is something that computers will be involved in. Computer software is a type of artificial intelligence. And sometimes it is specific programing that is considered AI as well.

Having Elon Musk controlling Twitter will not stop that.

The Bible shows that the world will get to the point of total destruction after the Great Tribulation, but that God will intervene:

21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)

The Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put together the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel related to AI:

Artificial Intelligence and Prophecy

Billionaire Elon Musk declared he was worried that artificial intelligence (AI) may lead to the rise of an “immortal dictator,” a “godlike” entity that could take over the world. Is this accurate, or at least, close in some ways? Does Bible prophecy foretell of the rise of an immoral leader who considers himself above all gods? Will this result in great destruction? What is AI? How might it fit in with various prophecies? Was the increase in technological knowledge we now have prophesied over 2000 years ago? Will 666’s control over buying and selling involve any form of AI? Dr. Thiel goes over many scriptures, including prophetic ones, that involve human knowledge–which is the basis of AI. He also points out that when various prophesies were made, there was no technology capable of fulfilling them, but that because of computers, such ability exists now. Dr. Thiel also points out what Jesus will do about it.

Here is a link: Artificial Intelligence and Prophecy.

Bible prophecy shows that a militaristic European dictator will arise and will apparently use something like AI for his anti-biblical censorship.


For written related articles please see the article titled: NN: Elon Musk says independent media will stay banned on Twitter; only “trusted” media outlets allowed

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