Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 25, 2020

Hasher Jallal Taheb has been sentenced for attempting an attack upon the White House. Taheb also planned attacks on the Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and a synagogue.

Taheb painstakingly planned an attack on the White House that potentially jeopardized the lives of White House employees and visitors, said U.S. Attorney Byung J. BJay Pak. We are thankful to members of our community and our federal and state law enforcement partners who identified Tahebs scheme and worked cooperatively to bring him to justice.

Taheb planned to conduct a terrorist attack on the White House as part of what he claimed was his obligation to engage in jihad, said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. And that was just one of the iconic American landmarks he wanted to target. Thanks to a tip from a member of the community and the work of the agents, analysts, and prosecutors responsible for this case, the threat posed by the defendant was neutralized and the defendant has now been sentenced for his planned terrorist attack.

Because of a tip from the public, the FBI Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force and our law enforcement partners began a year-long investigation that resulted in Tahebs arrest and potentially saved many lives, said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. The phrase If you see something, say something may seem trite, but our citizens are our eyes and ears in our communities, one of our most important weapons in fighting terrorism, and this case exemplifies that.

According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other information presented in court: In March 2018, a member of the Atlanta community reported concerns about Taheb to a local law enforcement agency, which then contacted the FBI. The community member reported that Taheb had become radicalized and was making plans to travel abroad. During an undercover operation conducted by the FBI, federal investigators learned that Taheb, in fact, applied for a passport and planned to travel overseas. At the same time, Taheb had begun planning domestic attacks in the United States. His targets initially included the White House and the Statue of Liberty. In December 2018, Taheb broadened his prospective targets in the Washington, D.C. area, to include the Washington Monument, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and a synagogue.

During undercover meetings with Taheb in January 2019, Taheb provided sketches of the White House and described the types of weapons and explosives he intended to use in the attacks, including semi-automatic weapons, improvised explosive devices, an anti-tank weapon, and hand grenades. FBI special agents arrested Taheb on January 16, 2019, after Taheb arrived at a pre-arranged location where he expected to obtain semi-automatic assault rifles, explosive devices, and an anti-tank weapon.

Federal investigators searched Tahebs computer following his arrest and found a video that he made. In the video, Taheb addressed . . . America, its allies, its president, and its people. He recounted his grievances with American policy and proclaimed that America would not see peace unless it changed its foreign policy, as he was a man who loved death more than Americans love life. He also encouraged other Muslims to fight. After entering his guilty plea, Taheb said that he intended to carry out a martyrdom operation as a tactic of jihad against America.

Hasher Jallal Taheb, 23, of Cumming, Georgia, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen to 15 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Taheb pleaded guilty to these charges on April 1, 2020.

This case was investigated by the FBI Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force. Investigators included the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Army, Cobb County Police Department, Gwinnett County Police Department, and the FBI. The Forsyth County Sheriffs Office also provided assistance.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ryan K. Buchanan, Deputy Chief of the Violent Crime and National Security Section, and Matthew Carrico, Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime and Gangs Section, and Trial Attorneys Danielle Rosborough and B. Celeste Corlett of the Department of Justice National Security Division.

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Man living in Ga sentenced for attempted attack on the White House - All On Georgia

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

With help from John Hendel and Cristiano Lima

Programming announcement: Our newsletters are evolving. Morning Tech will continue to publish daily for POLITICO Pro subscribers, but starting in fall 2020 will consolidate to a weekly newsletter for all others. There will be no changes to the policy newsletters available to POLITICO Pro subscribers. To continue to receive Morning Tech daily, as well as access POLITICO Pros full suite of policy tools and trackers, get in touch about a Pro subscription. Already a Pro subscriber? Learn more here.

Airwaves in the air: Senators will dive in today on ways to get the U.S. ready for 5G, a debate coming right as a long-awaited FCC spectrum auction kicks off.

Surveillance fight continues: More Democrats are backing bicameral legislation banning the federal governments use of facial recognition, including former presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Ten points for Twitter: Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, one of the civil rights leaders spearheading the #StopHateforProfit advertising boycott against Facebook, commended Twitter for doing what he thinks Facebook wont.

ITS THURSDAY; WELCOME TO MORNING TECH! Im your host, Alexandra Levine.

Got a news tip? Write Alex at [emailprotected], or follow along @Ali_Lev and @alexandra.levine. An event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected] Anything else? Full team info below. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

TODAY: 5G AIRWAVES IN THE SPOTLIGHT Wireless spectrum will take center stage across a number of fronts today. At 10 a.m., the Senate Commerce telecom subcommittee will hear from a slate of industry and analyst witnesses about how the FCC and administration have managed the airwaves in the wake of a series of high-profile 5G spats.

If wireless companies dont have enough airwaves, rural areas will fall behind in getting 5G, subcommittee chair John Thune (R-S.D.) plans to warn in opening remarks. Hell call for the federal government to focus on making more efficient use of its own federally held airwaves and to better use the Spectrum Relocation Fund, a federal pot of money that helps cover the cost of agencies moving to new spectrum bands. We need to make sure the interagency process when making these decisions is transparent, the GOP whip will say.

Tom Power, general counsel for wireless trade group CTIA, plans to warn of global implications surrounding limited availability of prime mid-band spectrum. Other nations are beating us to the punch, Power will testify. Hell recommend the lower 3 MHz band, currently held by the Pentagon, as the next best target.

And watch for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who just introduced new spectrum legislation, S. 4234 (116), with fellow GOP Texan Sen. John Cornyn. The Ensuring Public Safetys Access to Airwaves Act would safeguard public safety spectrum known as the T-band while also imposing deadlines on the Commerce Department to identify government-held airwaves to reallocate for the private sector.

One timely hook: The FCC is today kicking off its first auction of this prized mid-band spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band. If given my choice, I would have started it three years ago, Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who has long advocated for freeing such mid-band spectrum, said during an event Wednesday. In todays auction, 271 applicants won the right to bid, including big carriers like T-Mobile.

FACIAL RECOGNITION BAN BILL: WHOS IN, AND WHOS OUT? Digital rights group Fight for the Future and members of the Ban Facial Recognition coalition are pressuring members of Congress to come out for or against recent legislation that is one of the most ambitious Capitol Hill crackdowns to date on facial recognition technology. The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act would stop the federal governments use of facial recognition in the U.S., but the bill still has no GOP backers.

Even so, support among Democrats is growing: In addition to Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who jointly introduced the legislation in late June, the bill has picked up about a dozen new co-sponsors across both chambers of Congress, most notably former 2020 hopefuls Warren and Sanders. At a time when Americans are demanding that we address systemic racism in law enforcement, the use of facial recognition technology is a step in the wrong direction, Merkley said Wednesday. The federal government must ban facial recognition until we have confidence that it doesnt exacerbate racism.

An online congressional scorecard launched by the advocacy groups on Wednesday is keeping tabs on who has and has not formally gotten on board.

Jim Jordan. | Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP

JORDANS LATEST BIG TECH HEARING ASK Top House Judiciary Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio on Wednesday called for the committees Democratic leaders to invite Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to the upcoming blockbuster hearing with the Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon chiefs. Jordan wrote in a letter that he wants to hear from Twitter about its power in the marketplace, its role in moderating content on its platform, and the causes for its recent highly publicized security breaches. Twitter, which is dwarfed by rivals like Facebook, has not been a target of antitrust scrutiny. But Republicans have accused it of stifling conservative viewpoints.

Some big tech critics said adding Twitter would divert from the sessions focus: allegations of anticompetitive behavior by the four tech giants. Republicans concerned by Google & other Big Tech companies (i.e. not Twitter, which is less than 1/20th the size of Facebook) should be alarmed by this strange demand, said Luther Lowe, SVP of public policy at Google competitor Yelp. Its only effect would be diluting the substance of a historic hearing with the 4 CEOs.

Dont expect to see @Jack on the (virtual) dais: Its the third such letter by Jordan calling for changes to the hearing format, and thus far, Judiciary Democrats havent indicated any interest in following through on his demands. He has not been invited, a spokesperson for Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), chair of the antitrust subcommittee hosting the hearing, tweeted Wednesday in response to a post about Republicans call for Dorsey to testify. Twitter declined comment. (More on how groups and lawmakers are jockeying to shape the hearing here.)

Plus: Do tech companies have too much power to shape politics? A majority of Americans think so, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. 72% of U.S. adults say social media companies have too much power and influence in politics today, and just one-fifth feel the tech giants have the right amount of political power, per the study. About half of Americans would like to see more regulation of these companies.

THUMBS UP FOR TWITTER, DOWN FOR FACEBOOK One of the civil rights leaders behind the ongoing Facebook advertising boycott jabbed the social network Wednesday as he praised one of its rivals. Twitter that day announced a clarification on its treatment of Jewish symbols on the platform, characterizing the 'yellow star' or yellow badge symbol [as] being used by those seeking to target Jewish people and as a violation of the Twitter Rules. Twitter declared that the Star of David, on the other hand, should not be classified as a hateful symbol, despite some accounts being incorrectly flagged over those images.

Greenblatt praised Twitter for clarifying the difference between images used to harass and when used to express identity and empathy, adding that the league had reached out to the company to help it understand and fix the issue. Notable that they moved swiftly to correct this problem, Greenblatt said, taking a subtle swing at Facebook: While we can't expect social media platforms to be perfect, we can expect them to correct problems when they learn of them. #StopHateForProfit.

The ADL is also out with a new video this morning accusing Mark Zuckerberg of still giving hate groups the biggest platform theyve ever had, profiting from hate, and keeping intact a business model that rewards division. It continues: Are you finally going to listen to us, Mark? Are you willing to stop profiting from hate?

Julie Elmer, a former trial lawyer with the Justice Departments antitrust division, has joined the law firm Freshfields as a partner. Matthew Haskins, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for legislative affairs, is now working for the new public policy practice of Amazon Web Services. Jack Wilmer, the Pentagon's top cybersecurity official, is slated to leave his post at the end of July, POLITICO reports.

Lobbying latest, via POLITICO Influence: Twitter has added TwinLogic Strategies to its lineup of outside lobbying firms, which also includes the Integrated Solutions Group and the Joseph Group. And T-Mobile has hired BL Partners Group to lobby on telecommunications, financial services and tax reform issues, according to a disclosure filing. The company also recently brought on Howard Symons of Jenner & Block and retains about 30 other Washington lobbying firms.

Setting a precedent: After Twitter did so first, other Silicon Valley companies, including Facebook and YouTube, said they were also considering crackdowns on QAnon, WaPo reports.

Opinion: Europe must not rush Google-Fitbit deal, a group of academics and antitrust and privacy experts in Europe write in POLITICO.

ICYMI: A Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill to ban federal employees from downloading or using video-sharing app TikTok on government devices, a proposal gaining broad momentum across Washington, Cristiano reports.

Eyeballs watching emoji: A group of U.S. tech investors has launched an ambitious plan to buy TikTok from its Chinese owner, as the popular short-video app tries to escape being banned by the White House, Ars Technica reports.

A message from Facebook:

Facebook launches Global State of Small Business Report. At Facebook, we are committed to helping small businesses succeed. We partnered with the World Bank and the OECD to survey businesses in 50+ countries and regions to understand the challenges they face and ways we can better support them. Go further: Read the first report

View from the West Coast: These California privacy initiative opponents might surprise you, via POLITICOs Katy Murphy in Sacramento.

Reality check: Elon Musks controversial comments about the pandemic had little effect on Teslas bottom line, WaPo reports.

Funny seeing you here: The DoD recently gave a slice of cash from the CARES Act to U.S. drone companies, POLITICO reports, hoping it would juice the domestic market in the Trump administration's latest gambit to try to undercut Chinese dominance in the drone marketplace.

New on the competition scene: Slack is accusing Microsoft, which has long escaped antitrust allegations, of corporate bullying taking the complaint to European regulators, WaPo reports.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King ([emailprotected], @bkingdc), Heidi Vogt ([emailprotected], @HeidiVogt), Nancy Scola ([emailprotected], @nancyscola), Steven Overly ([emailprotected], @stevenoverly), John Hendel ([emailprotected], @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima ([emailprotected], @viaCristiano), Alexandra S. Levine ([emailprotected], @Ali_Lev), and Leah Nylen ([emailprotected], @leah_nylen).

A message from Facebook:

Facebook helps small businesses with the Summer of Support Program

As many storefronts remain closed, Boost with Facebook's Summer of Support program is helping millions of people and small business owners gain skills and find resources they need to grow and transition online.

Learn more about the program

TTYL.

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5G takes the Senate stage - Politico

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

The news: Facebook says it is setting up new internal teams to look for racial bias in the algorithms that drive its main social network and Instagram, according to the Wall Street Journal. In particular, the investigations will address the adverse effects of machine learningwhich can encode implicit racism in training dataon Black, Hispanic, and other minority groups.

Why it matters: In the last few years, increasing numbers of researchers and activists have highlighted the problem of bias in AI and the disproportionate impact it has on minorities. Facebook, which uses machine learning to curate the daily experience of its 2.5 billion users, is well overdue for an internal assessment of this kind. There is already evidence that Facebooks ad-serving algorithms discriminate by race and allow advertisers to stop specific racial groups from seeing their ads, for example.

Under pressure: Facebook has a history of dodging accusations of bias in its systems. It has taken several years of bad press and pressure from civil rights groups to get to this point. Facebook has set up these teams after a month-long advertising boycott organized by civil rights groupsincluding the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the NAACPthat led big spenders like Coca-Cola, Disney, McDonalds, and Starbucks to suspend their campaigns.

The move is welcome. But launching an investigation is a far cry from actually fixing the problem of racial bias, especially when nobody really knows how to fix it. In most cases, bias exists in the training data and there are no good agreed-on ways to remove it. And adjusting that dataa form of algorithmic affirmative actionis controversial. Machine-learning bias is also just one of social medias problems around race. If Facebook is going to look at its algorithms, it should be part of a wider overhaul that also grapples with policies that give platforms to racist politicians, white-supremacist groups, and Holocaust deniers.

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Facebook says it will look for racial bias in its algorithms - MIT Technology Review

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

Facebook is forming new internal teams dedicated to studying its main social network and Instagram for racial bias, in particular for whether its algorithms trained using artificial intelligence adversely affect Black, Hispanic, and other underrepresented groups. The team will be tasked with ensuring fairness and equitable product development are present in everything we do, a Facebook spokesperson tells The Verge. We will continue to work closely with Facebooks Responsible AI team to ensure we are looking at potential biases across our respective platforms.

The new equity team as its called within Instagram (a similar team is being formed to study Facebooks main app and website) marks a departure for the company, which has historically resisted efforts within the company to study effects of racial bias. The news of Facebooks new research teams was first reported on Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.

The racial justice movement is a moment of real significance for our company. Any bias in our systems and policies runs counter to providing a platform for everyone to express themselves, Vishal Shah, the vice president of product for Instagram, said in a statement given to The Verge. While were always working to create a more equitable experience, we are setting up additional efforts to continue this progress from establishing the Instagram Equity Team to Facebooks Inclusive Product Council.

The companys decisions today arrive as protests against racism and policy brutality continue daily in American cities following George Floyds death in late May. Facebook is also enduring the final stages of a month-long advertising boycott under the #StopHateForProfit movement organized by the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, the NAACP, and other civil rights groups. The boycott has included large spenders like Coca-Cola, Disney, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Walmart, among dozens of others, although CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called disappointing and accused of offering shallow excuses when meeting with boycott organizers earlier this month.

Last month, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri pledged to overhaul how the company tries to solve problems that Black and other underrepresented groups face on the platform. It starts with accounting for the experiences and challenges that underrepresented groups, such as our Black community, face when they use Instagram, Mosseri wrote. Weve done a lot of work to better understand the impact our platform has on different groups, and thats helped us get to where we are today. But I think theres more to do across some key areas, which fit into our broader company commitments. Mosseri specifically called out harassment, account verification, distribution, and algorithmic bias as areas he thinks Instagram needs to improve on to better serve Black users.

Facebook has a rocky history with racial bias. The company was found to have been allowing advertisers to exclude certain minority groups when advertising within federally regulated markets like housing and jobs. Facebook often sidestepped the concerns using technicalities, such as classifying users not by race but by so-called ethnic or multicultural affinities, or self-selecting identity groups consistent with what a majority of Black, Hispanic, or other minorities might statistically like on the platform. Only after rigorous coverage from media outlets, most prominently ProPublica, did Facebook eventually disable ad targeting options for housing, job, and credit ads as part of a legal settlement with civil rights groups.

The company is also comprised of less than 4 percent Black employees, and last year company officials barred employees from studying the racial effects of its platform without approval from the most senior leaders, according to the WSJ. As a result, Facebook software that automates moderation like account suspensions on Instagram has been found to disproportionately affect users the platform suspects are Black, the WSJ reports.

Facebook has pledged to donate $200 million to support black-owned businesses in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around the country. The company also said last month it plans to boost the percentage of Black and other underrepresented minorities composing ts leadership team by 30 percent over the next five years, as well as trying to double the number of Black and Hispanic employees by 2023.

An 89-page civil rights audit conducted bylaw firm Relman Colfax over the course of two years and released on July 8th called for Facebook to study and eliminate racial bias in its AI-trained software and systems, although those conducting the audit were not permitted to study internal company research and AI models.

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Facebook will study whether its algorithms are racially biased - The Verge

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

As TikTok is pulled into politics and faces bans by countries over privacy issues, it is in an unusual situation whereby it could have its meteoric rise stunted, for different reasons than any other platform before it.

There was a time when trouble for social networks simply meant not gaining sufficient user engagement, as the likes of Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, Google+ can attest. However, as a Chinese-owned social network, TikTok's future has been thrown into doubt by an altogether more modern problem geopolitical privacy concerns.

Indias Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has placed a blanket ban on 59 mobile apps from Chinese companies that it said were engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order.

In the United States, Donald Trumps government is threatening to ban TikTok after accusing the platform of sharing information with the Chinese government. Then, following Chinas establishment of a sweeping new national security law for Hong Kong, the platform announced it would exit the Hong Kong market within days.

Banning digital things in an analog way does one thing makes the digital thing bigger," David Mayo, the chief operating officer at ADNA Global tells The Drum. "TikTok may face some immediate fall off purely due to access, but over time it will continue to rise, at least until the next thing arrives.

It would take more than people to see it as a Chinese thing for it to fail in the short-term to its users; it doesnt matter the nationality of the brand. In fact I would call TikTok a global brand from China. To its users, they do not like the people who are doubling down on TikTok."

Trevor Long, the editor of EFTM.com and a technology commentator, notes app developers like TikTok can do little to control how governments react to its usage or availability in any country, other than to attempt to influence the thinking of governments about the relative privacy and security of the app.

But, very few governments in the world exercise restrictions on their constituents relating to what apps they can and cannot use," he adds. "As such, TikTok's users won't change what they are doing, [its] staggering growth won't likely slow at all."

Not everyone is convinced. Jasper Hamill, a senior account manager at Grammatik Agency, recalls that when he first encountered TikTok he used to joke that it was a Chinese psyop designed to rot the minds of western kids.

But now, he points out serious issues have emerged around this wildly popular app as critics claim it invades users' privacy in various concerning ways and everyone from parents to politicians have been asking if it is linked to China's surveillance state.

I don't think it faces a bright future due to the growing geopolitical tensions between China and countries which are key TikTok markets," Hamill says. "It's already banned in India which is a huge market and looks set to be banned in the US too."

With the rise of nationalistic sentiments, countries are taking a closer look at potential national security threats posed by data leaks, and are subjecting foreign tech companies like Facebook and TikTok to comply with stricter checks, norms and policies.

Concerns about national security and privacy issues with TikTok should be taken seriously, believes Paul Spain, the chief operating officer at Gorilla Technology, because Chinese companies are legally required to share information with the government when requested. This makes any app that collects a lot of personal data a security risk.

Add to that concerns about the amount of data TikTok is collecting and storing and it makes sense countries would choose to ban TikTok in much the same way Huawei has been hit with bans," he continues. "This doesnt mean TikTok will disappear immediately or at all, however it is possible that bans would ultimately lead to the death of TikTok."

If proven, Long says any link to national security issues should certainly result in governments and large businesses banning the use of TikTok on government or corporate devices.

However, there has been no direct link between the claims of Chinese Government interaction with user data and proof of this happening. The company claims they do not hand over data to governments anywhere in the world - who do we believe?

TikTok has denied inappropriate data collection on several occasions previously. The Drum reached out to the platform for further comment for this story but at the time of writing, it had no further statement to add.

Mayo argues there are numbers to support the growth of TikTok on other platforms. As well as the content itself, it has become very cool for people to share TikTok in intimate spaces such as WhatsApp.

TikTok is still new enough to be a novelty and trying to stop a growth trajectory like this is virtually impossible without just turning the app itself off, he adds.

For Facebook, it is facing a boycott campaign globally, with 1,032 brands joining the #StopHateForProfit, which first launched on 17 June, backed by civil rights groups including the NAACP, Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League.

The coalition has been calling on major corporations to put a pause on advertising on Facebook, citing the company's "repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms". Global brands like Starbucks, Diageo, Verizon, The North Face and Ben & Jerrys have heeded the call.

The initiative launched in the wake of Facebook's decision not to take action on incendiary posts from President Trump and amid widespread protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in the US. It also comes ahead of the 2020 elections in the US.

In the recent Singapore general elections, Facebook has been keen to demonstrate it wants to prevent "inauthentic behaviour" on its platform in the interest of elections integrity by removing pages like Fabrications About The Peoples Action Party (PAP is the ruling party of Singapore), Critical Spectator and Factually Singapore, for violating its policies, because the administrators of these pages misrepresent themselves, used fake accounts, or engage in behaviour designed to enable other violations of its community standards.

We have taken action on several accounts and Pages in Singapore for violating our policies. This is based on the violating behaviour of these accounts and Pages and not based on the content they posted, a Facebook spokesperson tells The Drum.

Facebook also has to legally abide by the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) Act in Singapore, which the government claims will help it fight fake news to incite racial and religious disharmony, and act swiftly to halt the viral spread of falsehoods. It has been ordered to block access to pages and issue correction notices on multiple occasions.

While there is some resistance to Indias ban of TikTok and to the USs proposal of a ban, with Vice describing it as a 'human rights issue', Hamill believes we are unlikely to see protests about the bans in the streets.

He says millennials and members of Generation Z will probably "huff and puff a little" about any ban, but then move to rival platforms like Snapchat, Byte and Dubsmash. After all, he notes it is the content, not necessarily the platform itself, which really got people hooked on TikTok.

"I think it's highly likely that TikTok will be banned in democracies across the world. If that happens, it's worth asking ourselves if we're comfortable letting any social media platform snoop on our private lives. Because let's face it, TikTok's US competitors aren't exactly famed for protecting their users' privacy, he says.

On the other hand, Long predicts users will keep creating accounts, will keep making videos, and will keep spending hours and hours on the app watching videos.

As we've seen with the Cambridge Analytica controversy that rocked Facebook, people are outraged, but rarely follow through with the idea of deleting their accounts and walking away from the platform. The same applies to TikTok, he adds.

Agreeing, Mayo believes if anything, the bans will fuel the growth. He says it is "a superb story of David vs Goliath" or "brand vs the world" and for now, in a world where the leadership is so divorced from the people that TikTok is designed for, it gives a mouthpiece for Gen Z and millennials.

Following this target, the app hopes to grow with them as they grow. If TikTok can hold on to them, work and grow with them, there is no holding it back, he adds.

It is hard to predict exactly what will happen with TikTok until we gain clarity on further countries banning the app. If there are further bans, then TikToks future will be much dimmer than previously anticipated. The upcoming Instagram Reels along with competing apps such as Snapchat, Byte and Dubsmash are likely to benefit if TikToks woes continue.

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Facing geopolitical conflicts and bans, does TikTok still have a future? - The Drum

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

FORT LEE, N.J., July 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --GoodEarth Products, Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-quality, products for cleaning and maintaining facilities, is proud to announce the appointment of veteran sales and marketing executive Rick Albuck to the position of Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Reporting directly to GoodEarth CEO Steward Mandler, Rick will be responsible for all direct and channel sales efforts with a focus on expanding adoption of GoodEarth's products, as well as overseeing all of GoodEarth's marketing operations, facilitating and initiating the company's core strategic goals across all product areas.

Rick is a proven visionary and strategic thinker with a long record of success in strategic marketing, sales and development. He served in a wide variety of executive positions at NAPCO Media from 1994 to 2014, beginning as Sales Development Manager for Dealerscope Magazine and eventually rising to the position of Senior Vice President. At NAPCO, Rick demonstrated exceptional ability to conceive and develop creative sales and marketing strategies and implement a customer-focused culture through critical training and customer support initiatives. In 2014 he joined Fort Worth, TX-based 2020 Companies as Vice President of Business Development, where he provided strategic leadership and orchestrated all bottom-line factors which include new business development and executing strategic business plans. At 2020 Companies, Rick conducted business analysis, managed day-to-day operations, and led project teams to ensure all organizational objectives were met in the market and to the highest satisfaction of the company's Fortune 500 clients.

"Rick is a seasoned leader with significant experience accelerating sales in public markets, providing strategic leadership and operating efficiently at scale. He will quickly create momentum for GoodEarth as well as deliver value for our customers," notes Stewart Mandler, Founder and CEO, GoodEarth.

"Rick joins GoodEarth at an ideal time because he can quickly build deeper relationships with our customers and distributors. He is a strong leader who can accelerate our Company objectives and realize GoodEarth and our partners' sales goals," adds Artin Ghazarian, COO, GoodEarth.

A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, Rick is a Professional Associations Executive Board Member, as well as a longstanding member of the Anti-Defamation League Consumer Technology Division. He is the recipient of the S. David Feir Humanitarian Award, Anti-Defamation League, a prestigious award that honors leaders in the business and professional world who have attached the pinnacle of success in their chosen field of endeavor.

About GoodEarth Products GoodEarth Products, founded in 1996, manufactures and distributes products used to clean, maintain, and operate facilities. GoodEarth is a fast-growing manufacturer of cleaning supplies, Maintenance, Repair & Operations products (MRO), Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) products & personal care amenities. http://www.goodearthproducts.com

Media Contact:Sara Trujillo[emailprotected]917-295-5491

SOURCE GoodEarth Products

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Rick Albuck Joins the GoodEarth Products Executive Team as Vice President of Sales & Marketing - PRNewswire

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

The formal Facebook advertising boycott didnt kick off until the beginning of July but advertisers in the United States were already starting to pull back in June.

Ad spend decreased by 31.6% across North America during the last two weeks of June, according to data released Tuesday by social media metrics company Socialbakers.

That means that Facebooks Q2 earnings, set to be announced next week on Wednesday, July 29, will already reflect the beginnings of the widespread advertiser pullback. Although far from a perfect comp considering the ongoing pandemic, Facebooks total ad revenue in Q2 2019 was $16.6 billion.

The aim of the boycott, spearheaded by civil rights groups such as Color of Change, the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, is to force Facebook to address hate speech and divisiveness on its platform.

Facebook has tightened a few of its policies on hate speech in recent weeks, including instituting a ban on ads that promote discrimination against people based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or immigration status.

Facebook is also considering blocking political advertising in the lead-up to the 2020 US presidential election, which would be a major about-face for Mark Zuckerberg, whos been doggedly defending Facebooks decision to allow politicians to include falsehoods in their ads as a free speech issue.

But neither move has been or will likely be enough to satisfy the boycotts organizers, who are looking for systemic changes to deal with what they see as a systemic problem. Policy tweaks here and there wont cut it.

As of Tuesday, 435 companies have pledged to pull their spending on Facebook for at least the month of July. But numerous big brands, including Unilever, Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Bayer, are pausing spend without signing their name to the official list of boycotters.

Disney, which dropped around $210 million on Facebook over the past six months to promote Disney Plus subscriptions, is the latest major advertiser to cut Facebook ad spend over concerns about hate speech on the platform, but without joining the official boycott.

Although ad demand and ad prices on Facebook were down significantly in Q1, representative of the early economic effects of the coronavirus in March, ad revenue still grew 17% year over year in the quarter, which was better than expected.

At the time, Facebook also reported that ad revenue was approximately flat YoY, which investors took as a good sign of coming stability despite the pandemic. And by the end of May, CPMs on Facebook were starting to shoot back up.

But that was before the boycott, which could run beyond July. The efforts organizers are also pushing participating brands to pause their spending globally, rather than just in North America.

Facebooks third quarter results, which wont come until late October, will tell the full story of the boycotts impact.

As of the third week of July, brands shared 72.05% fewer new ads on Facebook and Instagram compared with this time last year, according to social analytics company ListenFirst.

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Ad Spend On Facebook Down More Than 31% In Late June Due To The Boycott - AdExchanger

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

Tech Analyst Shana Glenzer discusses how Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are handling the ad boycott which could have potentially large economic impact.

Hundreds of advertisers, non-profit organizations and people began boycotting Facebook for not doing enough to stop hate speech on the social media platform startingon July 1.

A campaign backed by the NAACP, Anti-Defamation League,Sleeping Giants and other activist organizations, called Stop Hate for Profit, called on businesses to stop advertising on the site in June after the death of George Floyd.

"We know what Facebook did," the campaign's website reads. "Theyallowed incitement to violence against protesters fighting for racial justice in America in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, TonyMcDade,AhmaudArbery, RashardBrooks and so many others."

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Facebook users won't see any ads from these big brands on the platform any time soon:

A full list of brands can be viewed on the campaign's website.

FACEBOOK IS CONSIDERING A BAN ON POLITICAL ADS: REPORT

Major nonprofit organizationsthat stopped advertising on Facebook include Black Lives Matter, Boston Children's Hospital, DoSomething.org, Main Street Alliance, The Catholic University of America and others.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told employees during a town hall that his "guess is that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough," according to a transcript obtained by The Information.

HOW FACEBOOK FACT CHECKS WORK

A Facebook spokesperson previously told FOX Business that the company only makes "policy changes based on principles, not revenue pressures."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the Paley Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

"We take these matters very seriously and respect the feedback from our partners. Were making real progress keeping hate speech off our platform, and we don't benefit from this kind of content," the spokesperson said. "But as we've said, we make policy changes based on principles, not revenue pressures."

Civil rights auditors hired by Facebook to analyze the company's efforts to make the platform safe and remove hate speech criticized the platform for not taking down President Trump's posts about mail-in ballot fraud. Twitter labeled the same posts from Trump posted to its platform with fact-check information.

FACEBOOK PUTS DISCLAIMER ON TRUMP POST ON MAIL-IN VOTING

"Facebook's failure to remove the Trump voting-related posts and close enforcement gaps seems to reflect a statement of values that protecting free expression is more important than other stated company values," the auditors wrote.

Facebookpreviously had a policy that said the website would not fact-check politicians in an effort to give users the opportunity to make their own conclusions about a politician's posts. The platform has updated those policies so that it will start labelingcontent it previously would not have flagged if they were deemed "newsworthy," including posts from politicians.

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Brands that pulled Facebook ads with #StopHateForProfit campaign - Fox Business

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Posted By admin on July 23, 2020

Last month, USC President Carol Folt announced that the school would remove former university President Rufus von KleinSmids name from a campus building, citing his leadership role in the racist eugenics movement and his refusal to admit Japanese American students to the university after World War II. In explaining the decision, Folt cited Von KleinSmids actions as being at direct odds with USCs multicultural community and our mission of diversity and inclusion. What Folt did not mention was Von KleinSmids ties to Nazism and anti-Semites.

Von KleinSmid led the university from 1921 until 1947, but it was during the 1930s and early 1940s that his tolerance of anti-Semitism was most evident. We know this in part through reports sent to Leon Lewis between 1933 and 1941 from a network of spies he recruited. Beginning in August 1933, Lewis, founding executive secretary of the Anti-Defamation League, coordinated a group of men and women who went undercover and joined every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to positions of leadership, they detailed the activities of local Nazis and their supporters, including faculty and students at USC.

According to their reports, Von KleinSmid tolerated and supported pro-Nazi faculty such as Erwin Mohme, the chairman of USCs German department. Mohme, was a frequent speaker at Nazi rallies in Hindenburg Park in La Crescenta, north of Los Angeles, according to Lewis spies. He worked closely with the Friends of New Germany (predecessor of the German American Bund) and was awarded the Order of the Eagle from Los Angeles German Consul Georg Gyssling in 1938, the only Southern Californian to receive such an honor. Yet Von KleinSmid kept him in his position as head of a department.

In the summer of 1933, Von KleinSmid was part of a delegation of American university presidents who visited Germany. According to documents I obtained from Germany while researching my book Hitler in Los Angeles, the German Foreign Office was ordered to extend a warm welcome to USCs head, who had requested a personal meeting with Joseph Goebbels. The Germans believed Von KleinSmid was sympathetic to their cause even if he could not say so in public. Upon his return to the U.S. in September 1933, Von KleinSmid denounced German anti-Semitism; but he took no steps to stamp it out at USC.

The USC president also appeared on podiums with his fellow eugenics enthusiast Baron Ernst Ulrich von Buelow, who was, as I documented in my book, head of Nazi spy operations in Southern California. Von KleinSmid also, according to Lewis spies, lent a hand to Von Buelows protege, Kurt Bernhard, Prince Zur Lippe, a German undergraduate who enrolled at USC in 1933 claiming he wanted to learn more about the United States. In fact, Bernhard was a secret German agent who recruited Nazi supporters at USC. According to Lewis spies, Bernhard bragged about his good relationship with Von KleinSmid, and while on campus founded a Nazi-sympathizing fraternity and wrote for an anti-Semitic student newspaper, the Owl. He also boasted of his ability to pass out Nazi propaganda with no blowback from university administrators. In 1938, Bernhard was finally forced to register with the U.S. government as a German foreign agent.

USCs Nomenclature Task Force is currently looking at Cromwell Field, which bears the name of former USC coach and assistant Olympic track coach Dean Cromwell. During the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Cromwell prevented two Jewish runners, Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, from competing, something Glickman and many others believed was done in order not to embarrass Hitler by having Jews on the winners podium. After the Olympics, Cromwell spoke at a Nazi-organized German Day celebration at La Crescentas Hindenburg Park, which was filled with swastika flags and storm troopers, according to a report in the American Jewish World. Anti-Nazi groups were outraged by his speech, in which he talked about how few U.S.-born people lived in New York and quipped, Oh boy, if I could only be that handsome boy Adolf [Hitler] in New York for an hour.

Cromwell also marveled that while in Berlin he did not see a single colored man, woman or children. They have all chosen to leave for some reason or other, and I for one certainly dont object to that. Following the speech, the audience gave three shouted Heil Hitlers, the Nazi salute, and a singing of the Horst Wessel song.

When newspaper reporters queried Von KleinSmid about the incident, noting how much it had disturbed the citys Jewish community, USCs leader dismissed reports of Cromwells anti-Semitism and racism as a tempest in a teapot. Cromwells remarks, he insisted, were only facetious. An unrepentant Cromwell responded that the criticism comes from a group of people [New York Jews] that raised a big slush fund to keep our team out of the Olympics.

The USC faculty were silent, but not the Los Angeles community. On September 15, 1936, 1,500 people met at the Knickerbocker Hotel to demand that USC fire Cromwell for his anti-Semitic and anti-Negro remarks. More than 100 telegrams were sent to Von KleinSmid. No action was taken.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Von KleinSmid strongly supported the American war effort to defeat Germany. He built barracks for U.S. troops on campus, and in his 1942 commencement address he asked students to dedicate themselves toward all that we are and must be after victory to the end that righteousness may again reign in the world. But it was too little and too late to undo the anti-Semitic damage he had allowed to happen at USC.

I first began hearing about Von KleinSmid when I left New York to take a job at USC in January 1979. I was told by older Angelenos that Jews didnt go to USC, they went to UCLA. I asked why, and was told about the legacy of Von KleinSmid and a belief that USC was not friendly to Jews. Things have changed dramatically since then, and now President Folt has taken steps to renounce the mistakes of the past. This moment is our Call to Action, Folt wrote, a call to confront anti-Blackness and systemic racism, and unite as a diverse, equal, and inclusive university. You have asked for actions, not rhetoric, and actions, now.

A name change is a step in the right direction, but what happens after those names are changed? What happens to that ugly history? This is a rare moment of reckoning at USC and across the nation to fully air all kinds of past prejudice, including anti-Semitism, and to excise the demons of our collective past. As we have learned from history, silence is never the answer.

Steven J. Ross is a professor of history at USC and author of Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America.

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Op-Ed: USC's reckoning with its past needs to include how anti-Semitism was allowed to flourish there - Los Angeles Times

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Conservative

AGUDATH BNAI ISRAEL: Meister Road at Pole Ave., Lorain. Mark Jaffee, Ritual Director. 440-282-3307. abitemplelorain.com

BETH EL CONGREGATION: 750 White Pond Dr., Akron. Rabbi Elyssa Austerklein, Hazzan Matthew Austerklein. 330-864-2105. bethelakron.com.

BNAI JESHURUN-Temple on the Heights: 27501 Fairmount Blvd., Pepper Pike. Rabbis Stephen Weiss and Hal Rudin-Luria; Stanley J. Schachter, Rabbi Emeritus; Cantor Aaron Shifman. Services can be streamed online at bnaijeshurun.org/streaming. 216-831-6555. bnaijeshurun.org.

PARK SYNAGOGUE-Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo Cong.: Park MAIN 3300 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights; Park EAST 27500 Shaker Blvd., Pepper Pike. Rabbi Joshua Hoffer Skoff, Rabbi Sharon Y. Marcus, Milton B. Rube, Rabbi-in-Residence, Cantor Misha Pisman. 216-371-2244; TDD# 216-371-8579. parksynagogue.org.

SHAAREY TIKVAH: 26811 Fairmount Blvd., Beachwood. Rabbi Scott B. Roland; Gary Paller, Cantor Emeritus. 216-765-8300. shaareytikvah.org.

BETH EL-The Heights Synagogue, an Independent Minyan: 3246 Desota Ave., Cleveland Heights. Rabbi Michael Ungar; Rabbi Moshe Adler, Rabbi Emeritus. 216-320-9667. bethelheights.org.

MONTEFIORE: One David N. Myers Parkway., Beachwood. Services in Montefiore Maltz Chapel. Rabbi Akiva Feinstein; Cantor Gary Paller. 216-360-9080.

THE SHUL-An Innovative Center for Jewish Outreach: 30799 Pinetree Road, #401, Pepper Pike. Rabbi Eddie Sukol. See website or call for Shabbat and holiday service dates, times and details. 216-509-9969. rabbieddie@theshul.us. theshul.us.

AHAVAS YISROEL: 1700 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights. Rabbi Boruch Hirschfeld. 216-932-6064.

BEACHWOOD KEHILLA: 25400 Fairmount Blvd., Beachwood. Rabbi Ari Spiegler, Rabbi Emeritus David S. Zlatin. 216-556-0010.

FROMOVITZ CHABAD CENTER: 21625 Chagrin Blvd. #210, Beachwood. Rabbi Moshe Gancz. 216-647.4884, clevelandjewishlearning.com

GREEN ROAD SYNAGOGUE: 2437 S. Green Road, Beachwood. Rabbi Binyamin Blau; Melvin Granatstein, Rabbi Emeritus. 216-381-4757. GreenRoadSynagogue.org.

HEIGHTS JEWISH CENTER SYNAGOGUE: 14270 Cedar Road, University Heights. Rabbi Raphael Davidovich. 216-382-1958, hjcs.org.

KHAL YEREIM: 1771 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights. Rabbi Yehuda Blum. 216-321-5855.

MENORAH PARK: 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood. Rabbi Howard Kutner; Associate Rabbi Joseph Kirsch. 216-831-6500.

OHEB ZEDEK CEDAR SINAI SYNAGOGUE: 23749 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst. Rabbi Noah Leavitt. 216-382-6566. office@oz-cedarsinai.org. oz-cedarsinai.org.

SEMACH SEDEK: 2004 S. Green Road, South Euclid. Rabbi Yossi Marozov. 216-235-6498.

SOLON CHABAD: 5570 Harper Road, Solon. Rabbi Zushe Greenberg. 440-498-9533. office@solonchabad.com. solonchabad.com.

TAYLOR ROAD SYNAGOGUE: 1970 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights. 216-321-4875.

WAXMAN CHABAD CENTER: 2479 S. Green Road, Beachwood. Rabbis Shalom Ber Chaikin and Shmuli Friedman. 216-282-0112. FRI. Minchah 7:10 p.m.; SAT. Shacharit 10 a.m., Minchah 8:45 p.m.; WEEKDAYS Shacharit 7 a.m., Minchah 8:45 p.m. info@ChabadofCleveland.com, wccrabbi@gmail.com.

YOUNG ISRAEL OF GREATER CLEVELAND: Hebrew Academy (HAC), 1860 S. Taylor Road; Beachwood (Stone), 2463 Green Road. Rabbis Naphtali Burnstein and Aharon Dovid Lebovics. 216-382-5740. office@yigc.org.

ZICHRON CHAIM: 2203 S. Green Road, Beachwood. Rabbi Moshe Garfunkel. 216-291-5000.

KOL HALEV (Clevelands Reconstructionist Community): The Ratner School. 27575 Shaker Blvd., Pepper Pike. Rabbi Steve Segar. 216-320-1498. kolhalev.net.

AM SHALOM of Lake County: 7599 Center St., Mentor. Spiritual Director Renee Blau; Assistant Spiritual Director Elise Aitken. 440-255-1544.

ANSHE CHESED FAIRMOUNT TEMPLE: 23737 Fairmount Blvd., Beachwood. Rabbis Robert Nosanchuk and Joshua Caruso; Cantor Vladimir Lapin; Cantor Laureate Sarah J. Sager; and Educational Directors Diane Lavin, Staci Cohen and Rabbi Elle Muhlbaum. FRI. Shabbat Evening Service via livestream only at fairmounttemple.org 6:15 p.m. 216-464-1330. fairmounttemple.org. FRI. Shabbat Evening Service via livestream ONLY at fairmounttemple.org 6:15 p.m. 216-464-1330. fairmounttemple.org.

BETH ISRAEL-The West Temple: 14308 Triskett Road, Cleveland. Rabbi Enid Lader. Alan Lettofsky, Rabbi Emeritus. 216-941-8882. thewesttemple.com.

BETH SHALOM: 50 Division St., Hudson. Rabbi Michael Ross. 330-656-1800. tbshudson.org

BNAI ABRAHAM-The Elyria Temple: 530 Gulf Road, Elyria. Rabbi Lauren Werber. 440-366-1171. tbaelyria.org

SUBURBAN TEMPLE-KOL AMI: 22401 Chagrin Blvd., Beachwood. Rabbi Allison Bergman Vann. 216-991-0700. suburbantemple.org.

TEMPLE EMANU EL: 4545 Brainard Road, Orange. Rabbi Steven L. Denker; Cantor David R. Malecki; Daniel A. Roberts, Rabbi Emeritus. 216-454-1300. teecleve.org.

TEMPLE ISRAEL: 91 Springside Drive, Akron. Rabbi Josh Brown. Cantor Kathy Fromson. 330-665-2000 templeisraelakron.org.

TEMPLE ISRAEL NER TAMID: 1732 Lander Road, Mayfield Heights. Rabbi Matthew J. Eisenberg, D.D.; Frederick A. Eisenberg, D.D., Founding Rabbi Emeritus; Cantorial Soloist Rachel Eisenberg. 440-473-5120. tintcleveland.org.

THE TEMPLE-TIFERETH ISRAEL: 26000 Shaker Blvd., Beachwood. Senior Rabbi Jonathan Cohen; Rabbis Yael Dadoun, Roger C. Klein and Stacy Schlein; Cantor Kathryn Wolfe Sebo. 216-831-3233. ttti.org.

JEWISH SECULAR COMMUNITY: Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland, 21600 Shaker Blvd., Shaker Heights. jewishsecularcommunity.org.

THE CHARLOTTE GOLDBERG COMMUNITY MIKVAH: Park Synagogue, 3300 Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights. By appointment only: 216-371-2244, ext. 135.

THE STANLEY AND ESTHER WAXMAN COMMUNITY MIKVAH: Waxman Chabad House, 2479 South Green Road, Beachwood. 216-381-3170.

This is a paid listing with information provided by congregations.

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Synagogue service times: Week of July 24 | Synagogues - Cleveland Jewish News

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