After some of his own videos were pulled by YouTube, progressive reporter Jordan Chariton has had a change of heart about Big Tech's crackdown on extremist content, arguing that it's a pretext to purge all alternative views.

In a series of tweets, the popular pundit and co-founder of Status Coup News revealed that footage of the January 6 Capitol riots had been yanked from his YouTube channel, apparently for violating the platform's policies against "spam and deceptive practices." The video's deletion followed a similar incident in which a livestream of a right-wing rally held several days before Joe Biden's inauguration was taken down by YouTube for alleged policy breaches, Chariton said.

Social media platform Parler has terminated CEO John Matze, according to a memo sent by Matze to staffers and obtained by Fox News.

"On January 29, 2021, the Parler board controlled by Rebekah Mercer decided to immediately terminate my position as CEO of Parler. I did not participate in this decision," the memo read. "I understand that those who now control the company have made some communications to employees and other third parties that have unfortunately created confusion and prompted me to make this public statement."

"Over the past few months, I've met constant resistance to my product vision, my strong belief in free speech and my view of how the Parler site should be managed," Matze continued. "For example, I advocated for more product stability and what I believe is a more effective approach to content moderation."

The Arizona Senate is set to pass a contempt resolution finding that the Maricopa County Board has failed to comply with a subpoena demanding access to elections equipment and ballots cast in the November election, with the potential threat of arrest alluded to in the sure-to-pass resolution.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday:

The Senate introduced the resolution Wednesday afternoon. Timing on a full Senate vote is unclear, but all 16 Republican senators are listed as sponsors, meaning it is virtually certain to pass.

Greta Thunberg accidentally shared a message showing she was getting told what to write on Twitter about the ongoing violent farmers' revolt in India — leading Thursday to her being probed for criminal conspiracy by police there, according to reports.

The 18-year-old left-wing eco-activist shared — and then quickly deleted — a message that detailed a list of "suggested posts" about the ongoing protests, according to the posts that were saved by Breaking 911.

The list gave a series of tips on what to post, asking her to also repost and tag other celebrities tweeting about it, including pop star Rihanna.

An extremist Israeli rabbi was convicted on Monday for inciting violence and hate crime against Palestinians. The maximum sentence for such an offence is five years in prison.

Yosef Elitzur, who lives in the illegal settlement of Yitzhar in the occupied West Bank, was indicted in 2013 for "incitement to violence" in publications condoning the killing of non-Jews. Elitzur was among the authors of a book called Torat HaMelekh, which is said to be a rabbinic instruction manual outlining acceptable scenarios for killing non-Jewish babies, children and adults.

A description of the book's hateful content published by Haaretz explained how, for example, "Thou Shalt Not Murder" applies only "to a Jew who kills a Jew". Non-Jews are considered "uncompassionate by nature" and attacks on them are believed to "curb their evil inclination". Babies and children of Israel's enemies may be killed, it said, since "it is clear that they will grow to harm us."

A recent surge in violence in the Tigray region has left 1,000 dead.

Up to 1,000 people — including priests and other church leaders — have been killed in a series of attacks in Ethiopia culminating in a massacre at a church where the Ark of the Covenant is believed to be kept.

Following reports that 750 people were killed in a raid on the Orthodox Maryam Tsiyon Church in Aksum, thought to contain the Ark of the Covenant, an anonymous source from inside the country spoke to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

The source told ACN the attack was the latest in a long line of fatal assaults against innocent people, as part of the ongoing conflict in the Tigray region of the country.

While the exact practical applications and repercussions of the digital documentation of one's COVID status are still under consideration, its primary purpose is to facilitate the revival of public and business life after a series of lockdowns. Still, many remain sceptical, fearing it will be seen as coercion and bolster vaccine reluctance.

The Danish government has announced it is to introduce so-called "digital corona passports" that will be used to document vaccination.

"In three to four months, the digital corona passport will be ready for use for things like business trips", Taxation Minister Morten Bødskov said, as quoted by Denmark's TV2.

The government and business representatives will decide on the exact consequences and opportunities of the vaccine passport once it has been fully introduced, depending on the situation with the coronavirus at that time, the minister said.

"It will be an extra pass you can have on your mobile phone, which documents your vaccination status", Bødskov said. "This is about us, as a country, making use of the technical advantages we have. We can be amongst the first in the world to have this and show it to the rest of the world", he said.

Jordan Peterson was a relatively unknown clinical psychologist and University of Toronto professor until his brave 2016 challenge to a draconian Canadian law on transgender pronouns drew widespread attention. Millions watched his brilliant, wide-ranging YouTube lectures about life, truth, feelings, personality, and values. For a while there he seemed ubiquitous, giving interviews and lectures around the world and, in the process, becoming the planet's most famous living public intellectual. He published a massive bestseller, 12 Rules for Life.

Then, suddenly, he disappeared. For the last two years he's been in medical hell, experiencing torturous pain and being brought to the brink of death by a puzzling malady that took him, in search of answers, to hospitals, clinics, and rehab centers in Canada, the U.S., Russia, and Serbia. Meanwhile his wife was diagnosed with a rare and deadly cancer from which she now seems, miraculously, to have recovered. On top of everything else, he, his wife, and his deeply devoted adult daughter all contracted the COVID virus.

Emerging from this nightmare and prepared to step back onto the public stage, Peterson agreed to a major interview with Decca Aitkenhead for the Sunday Times of London. The story appeared on January 31; on the same day, Peterson posted on YouTube a recording of the nearly three-hour Zoom conversations that he and his daughter, Mikhaila, had with Aitkenhead. In the recording (which as of Wednesday had accumulated half a million hits), Peterson is friendly and forthcoming, but emotionally fragile as a consequence of his long torment; at one point he breaks into tears and has to step away from the microphone. Mikhaila, for her part, spends an hour and a half telling Aitkenhead the full story of Peterson's illness, complete with vivid particulars. And Aitkenhead poses throughout as entirely sympathetic, sounding more like a compassionate social worker than a journalist.

Irritated by the sweeping use of executive orders during the COVID-19 crisis, state lawmakers around the U.S. are moving to curb the authority of governors and top health officials to impose emergency restrictions such as mask rules and business shutdowns.

The push is underway in such states as Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania, where legislators are seeking a constitutional amendment to strip the governor of many of his emergency powers.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Wayne Langerholc said the amendment would "make it unequivocally clear that our General Assembly is a co-equal branch ... that we are not a monarchy and that our voices matter."

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and some of his counterparts around the country have argued that they need authority to act quickly and decisively against the fast-changing threat.

The coronavirus has killed an estimated 430,000 Americans and is going through its most lethal phase yet, despite the rollout of vaccines, with new and more contagious variants from abroad turning up in the U.S.

All primary and secondary school students in China will, in principle, be barred from bringing mobile phones to school, the Ministry of Education announced on Monday.

The new measure, aimed at protecting students' eyesight, making sure they focus on study and preventing them from becoming addicted to the internet and online games, has sparked heated debate among parents over the practicality of implementation and the need to keep their children up to pace with phone-centered technological advances in everyday life.

When Dai Hanyang was in middle school, his head teacher brought a hammer to school to enforce a cellphone ban.