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Social Media Policing: WhatsApp vows to sue users for 'abuse' - even if evidence of the offence is found on another app, website or social network

whatsapp
© Getty
People who fail to obey the messaging app’s rules could find themselves hauled into court
WhatsApp has promised to take legal action against people or companies who break its rules - even if the 'abuse' took place on another platform.

The messaging app has strict guidelines governing its own users' behaviour and anyone who breaks the terms of service can already be hit by a ban. But now the Facebook-owned company wants to take things a bit further by hauling users into court.

And you don't need to break the rules on WhatsApp itself to find yourself in trouble, because its enforcers will strike even they find 'off platform-evidence of abuse'.

Comment: Is it the time to ditch Whatsapp? See also:


Bad Guys

Leftist Policing on Social Media: Pro-life group kicked off Pinterest for 'misinformation' after flagged as porn site

choose Life pinterest
© Reuters / Lawrence Bryant(L),Eric Thayer(R)
Pro-life outfit Live Action has had quite the week on social media. After appealing Pinterest's decision to flag the group's website as porn, the platform hit back and banned the group altogether, citing "medical misinformation."

Live Action's director of external affairs, Alison Centofante, took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the suspension.

"Your account was permanently suspended because its contents went against our policies on misinformation," Pinterest informed the organization. "We don't allow harmful misinformation on Pinterest," including "medical misinformation and conspiracies that turn individuals ... into targets for harassment or violence."

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Chess

Trump's G20 tariff threat to China sinks US diplomacy to 'new low'

Trump G20 China
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
US President Donald Trump's threat of more tariffs if Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn't show up to the G20 summit is a "new low" for US diplomacy, crossing the line and threatening to unravel global trade, analysts tell RT.

China will agree to a trade deal with the US "because they have to," Trump said on Monday, adding that new tariffs on Chinese goods will go into effect immediately if Xi does not attend the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan later this month. Washington and Beijing have been negotiating a new trade deal for months, without results.

"This is a new low in American diplomacy," Sourabh Gupta, senior policy specialist at the Institute for China America Studies, told RT. "That an American president would advance and impose tariffs on a counterpart country if that country's president did not consent to a sit-down bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a multilateral summit is absurd, to the point of being almost comical."

Arrow Up

Bolton: US has expanded 'offensive cyber operations' against state actors; 'they will pay a price'

bolton
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
US National Security Advisor John Bolton
The United States is ramping up cyber operations targeting Russia and other so-called adversaries, in what US National Security Advisor John Bolton says is a response to election meddling.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's CFO Network conference on Tuesday, Bolton said Washington had taken steps to create "structures of deterrence" in cyberspace in order to stop interference in US elections, but what he described sounded a lot like launching a cyber war.

Under a new presidential directive, the administration has "fundamentally changed the way the United States government makes decisions about offensive cyber operations," Bolton said, adding that the new approach has improved "capabilities across the board to engage in more offensive cyber activities."

Comment: See also:


Stop

China invites India to join in warding off US 'bullying' trade practices

ModiTrumpXi
© pandaily.com
Prime Minister Modi • President Trump • President Xi
Chinese authorities have invited the Indian government to join efforts to effectively offset the potential impact of "protectionist" and "unilateral" trade practices implemented by the US across the world over recent months.

According to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui, "trade frictions between China and the US and the specter of trade frictions between the US and India" may become a crucial subject for talks between the two states, bullied by Washington.

"Trade protectionism and unilateralism are very much on the rise. How to respond to the bullying practices of the United States ... its practices of trade protectionism is an important question," Zhang said.

The comment comes ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which is to kick off in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek later this week. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet with his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the event.

The top official stressed that the heads of state would reach deeper understanding on the issue of "upholding justice and opposing trade protectionism" in global trade. Moreover, Zhang expressed hopes that the neighboring nations would agree on bilateral trade.

Comment: See also:


Attention

CNN's Acosta warns 'conservative media': 'There's no guarantee you get to stay in power'

Jim Acosta WH intern
© Screenshot
CNN's Jim Acosta tussles with WH intern during press conference
CNN White House correspondent and professional Donald Trump antagonist Jim Acosta warned his "friends" in the conservative media that they could face the same treatment the liberal press now gets if the other side takes power.

"To our friends in conservative media, I say this: It is no guarantee that you get to stay in power forever," Acosta said during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday.

Acosta suggested that while conservative news groups have been favored by the current administration, they might not be so lucky the next time a Democrat takes the White House, given the dangerous precedent.

His comments came alongside the release of his new book The Enemy of the People which covers Trump's troubled relationship with the press.


Comment: See also:


Wine n Glass

Corking the bottle: Trump threatens to tariff French wine

French wine
© Reuters/Charles Platiau
US President Donald Trump has once again accused France of creating trade barriers to US wine exports. He promised that he would work to open the European market to 'great' American wine.

"France charges us a lot for the wine. And yet we charge them very little for French wine," Trump told CNBC during an interview. He said that California winemakers have complained to him about the EU tariffs.

"So the wineries come to me and say 'Sir, we're paying a lot of money to put our product into France, and you're letting' - meaning, this country is allowing - 'these French wines, which are great wines, but we have great wines too - allowing it to come in for nothing. It's not fair,'" said Trump.

He continued: "And you know what? It's not fair. We'll do something about it."

Jet4

Pentagon: Turkish pilots grounded from F-35 training in retaliation for Ankara's refusal to ditch S-400

Arizona-56th Fighter Wing
© Facebook / Luke AFB
Arizona-56th Fighter Wing
Turkish pilots have been banned from training on F-35s at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, the Pentagon confirmed, as Washington steps up pressure on Ankara to force it out of S-400 air defense deal with Russia.

"The department is aware that the Turkish pilots ... are not flying," Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, told Reuters. "Without a change in Turkish policy, we will continue to work closely with our Turkish ally on winding down their participation in the F-35 program."

Four Turkish pilots and 47 personnel were undergoing training at the facility in Arizona, where they were instructed by the US Air Force on how to maintain the fifth-generation jets - four of which have already been ceremonially transferred to Turkey, without leaving the US soil though. Turkey planned to deploy the first batch of fighters by November, alongside the Russian S-400 air defense systems that are due for delivery in summer.

While Ankara argues it has a sovereign right to diversify its defense suppliers, Washington demands full obedience and insists that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should only purchase NATO-approved weapons systems.

Comment: See also:
Still whining: US to stop training Turkish F-35 pilots, gives deadline to cancel S-400 deal


Light Saber

BIG: Nearly 1,700 child predators behind bars in massive operation by Trump's DOJ

trump william barr
© Reuters / Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr
Attorney General Barr's leadership appears to be crippling those who exploit children.

Today the Department of Justice announced that nearly 1,700 child predators were arrested in the two month duration of operation "Broken Heart", resulting in 357 who were exploited being identified.

In total, the Internet Crimes Against Children "investigated more than 18,500 complaints of technology-facilitated crimes targeting children" between April and May, resulting in the nearly 1,700 arrests.

In the agency's press release, Attorney General William Barr said that "The sexual abuse of children is repugnant, and it victimizes the most innocent and vulnerable of all," and went on to say that "Over the span of just two months, our ICAC task forces investigated more than 18,000 complaints of internet-related abuse and helped arrest 1,700 alleged abusers.

"We must bring the full force of the law against sexual predators, and with the help of our Internet Crimes Against Children program, we will." Barr added, "We are committed to bringing the defendants in these cases to justice and protecting every American child."

Propaganda

In The Western Media Narrative, Terrorist-Run Prisons And Underground Bunkers Become "Hospitals"

makeshift hospitals in Syria
© Vanessa Beeley
After liberation of East Aleppo from Nusra Front-led occupation, Russian medical teams established makeshift hospitals in Jibreen to treat civilians, the majority of whom had received no medical care during the five-year occupation.
In recently liberated Qalaat Al Madiq - 500 meters from As Suqaylabiyah, a predominantly Christian town near Syria's embattled Idlib province - the White Helmets, a controversial rescue group financed primarily by the U.K. Foreign Office, was found to have an established presence in a network of tunnels. The tunnels zigzagged under a former wheat factory that had since been converted into a headquarters of Nusra Front/HTS - Al Qaeda in Syria.


This has been a pattern repeated in many of the areas liberated from extremist groups in Syria: a White Helmets presence alongside the Nusra Front, or whichever extremist group happens to dominate specific districts of the occupied territories. Invariably, the majority of the White Helmet operatives departed upon the seemingly endless stream of green buses that carried the various cadres of armed groups from liberated regions of Syria into Idlib.