Wednesday, April 24, 2019

More Gov’t Hooks in Social Media: Facebook Hires Patriot Act Co-Author While Trump Jawbones Twitter CEO

by Whitney Webb from MintPress News

The U.S. government-social media nexus appears to be tightening. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump held a closed-door meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Just days prior, the other top social-media network, Facebook, hired Jennifer Newstead, a former legal adviser to Trump’s state department who had previously co-authored the controversial Patriot Act, known for its role in eroding American civil liberties following the September 11 attacks. 
 
Newstead’s hire was announced on Monday and she will now serve as Facebook’s general counsel. Newstead’s hire was announced in tandem with the hire of John Pinette, formerly of Google, Microsoft and Bill Gates’ “private innovation lab,” as Facebook’s new vice president of global communications.

Newstead mostly recently served as a legal adviser to the Trump administration’s state department, where she was involved in “overseeing work on all domestic and international legal issues affecting the conduct of U.S. foreign policy,” according to Facebook’s announcement. This included defending the U.S.’ unilateral imposition of sanctions on Iran in pursuit of regime change in Tehran at the International Criminal Court (ICC)...

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1 comment:

  1. As an aside, may the sociopathic bastards supporting sanctions on Cuba, Iran, and other opposing states rot in hell. Without an honestly dickish economic embargo aimed at torturing peoples for not groveling before capitalist oligarchs, places like Cuba in particular would be indubitably superior for the economic hoi polloi to Washington and its clients. Why don't the BRICS, UNASUR, Malaysia, or even the EU under Merkel countersanction Mnuchin, Pompeo, Newstead or these other pieces of shite?
    Mass abandonment of these social networks would be the smart thing to do. As long as they have one billion users and a several galaxies' worth of content submitted to them, you basically have to continue feeding the Silicon Valley beast by using them at one point if you want to do many things online.

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