The Soros Working Group Spreadsheet

Posted on October 10, 2018October 10, 2018 by Denise Simon

This is quite the research product and will demonstrate just how pervasive chaos and activism really is. Asra Nomani of the Wall Street Journal performed intensive investigations and her work was published by the WSJ with the title ‘George Soros’s March on Washington. Now the question becomes, does this information get some cultivation by the FBI, the IRS or the Justice Department to see what laws were broken or consequence should apply? No answer at this point.

But let’s check out just one of the Soros organizations shall we? Not only is money spread around in grant form but people are too….sheesh

Anti government, anti Trump activism is here to stay. It is political insurgency…maybe even terrorism. At least those like Senator Paul and Congresman Scalise are victims of physical harm. Hillary, what about that civility thing again?

How about Ultra Violet?

Kat Barr

Chief Operating Officer

Kat is the Chief Operating Officer at UltraViolet, overseeing the organization’s internal strategy and operations. Prior to UltraViolet, Kat worked as a Campaign Director at MoveOn.org, running efforts around health care reform, women’s rights, civil liberties, and LGBTQ equality. In addition, she helped launch MoveOn’s first text message organizing program and played a role in recruiting progressives interested in running for office. Before MoveOn, Kat was the Communications Director and then the Director of Political Outreach at Rock the Vote, where she helped increase young voter turnout to record levels in 2006 and 2008. After nine years in DC, Kat relocated to Colorado, where she lives with her husband and two dogs in a beautiful small town in the Rocky Mountains. Aside from work, most of her time is spent mountain biking, doing yoga, volunteering with a local dog rescue, and taking hundreds of photographs of the amazing local wilderness.

Emma Boorboor

Deputy Organizing Director

Emma Boorboor is the Deputy Organizing Director at UltraViolet. She works closely with the Chief Campaigns Officer to manage the day to day operations of UV’s campaigns team. Emma also leads UltraViolet’s campaigns related to ending violence against women.

Prior to joining the team, Emma ran national and state level campaigns for voting rights and campaign finance reform with U.S. PIRG. She has been hooked on organizing since her first job as a field organizer with Green Corps, the Field School for Environmental Organizing. She currently lives in Philadelphia where she enjoys lots of live music and biking around the city.

Lindsay Budzynski

Executive Administrator

Lindsay is the Executive Administrator at UltraViolet. She is a long-time clinic escort and serves on the board of directors of Chicago Abortion Fund. Prior to joining the UV team she spent over eight years in fund administration. In her free time Lindsay can be found working in her art studio, hassling her cats, and poking around flea markets.

Nita Chaudhary

Co-Founder

Nita Chaudhary is a co-founder of UltraViolet. Before founding UltraViolet, Nita was the National Campaigns and Organizing Director at MoveOn.org Political Action. As a part of that role she oversaw and managed MoveOn’s national campaigns department, including the organization’s work on health care reform, the economy and Social Security, and she supervised MoveOn’s team of Campaign Directors. During her tenure at MoveOn, Nita oversaw the fundraising program for the 2008 election, and led some of the organization’s largest campaigns including MoveOn’s work to end the Iraq war, protect constitutional liberties, and address climate change. Prior to that she was the Democratic National Committee’s first Director of Online during the 2004 cycle. She started her career at People for the American Way where she held several positions, including Media Research Analyst, Web Editor, and Online Organizer. Nita’s a native New Yorker who loves the Yankees, the Knicks and cooking Indian food.

Anathea Chino

Advancement Director

Anathea Chino is the Advancement Director at UltraViolet and leads the development team for the organization. Anathea has more than 13 years of experience in politics and fundraising at the state and national level. In Washington, D.C., she served as an Investment Advisor at Democracy Alliance and prior to that, she was the Development Director at NARAL New Mexico and a Regional Field Director for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of New Mexico. Anathea currently serves on the Board of Directors and Advisory Boards of Inclusv, Americans for Indian Opportunity, and PowerPac+. She is also a co-founder of Indigenous Women Rise and a senior advisor to a Women Donors Network-funded reflective democracy project called Advance Native Political Leaders. She was also a founding board member and President of Emerge New Mexico. Anathea is an enrolled tribal member of Acoma Pueblo, NM and divides her time between Texas and New Mexico.

Pam Bradshaw Fujii

Senior Grant Writer

Pam is the Senior Grant Writer at UltraViolet. Prior to joining the team at UV, she was the Grant Writer at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Pam has a decade of experience working in human rights and social justice, where she’s done everything from fundraising to video advocacy to media relations. Pam holds a MA in Media Studies from The New School and a BA in English Literature and Film Studies from Mount Holyoke College. If Pam could be anywhere, you’d find her by the ocean with her partner, their spirited toddler and teenage dachshund.

Natalie Green

Communications Manager and Spokesperson

Natalie Green is the Communications Manager and Spokesperson at UltraViolet. Prior to joining UltraViolet, Natalie was a campaigner at Change.org where she worked with petition starters to develop national campaigns around police accountability, human rights, and political prisoners. Natalie previously worked on digital rights and technology policy issues at Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute.

Natalie is a New Jersey native and currently lives in Washington DC.

Susan Hildebrand

National Field Director

Susan Hildebrand is the National Field Director at UltraViolet. Prior to joining the team they acted as a consultant to Thoughtwork Inc. where they worked with developers and organizers to build tech for campaigns. Susan cut their teeth in online to offline organizing as a National Field Organizer at MoveOn.org where they built teams of activists across the Midwest to take action on issues from the election to fair taxes to stopping the foreclosure crisis. They have a B.A. in Political Science from Grinnell College and are a graduate of Green Corps: The Field School for Environmental Organizing. Outside of work, Susan enjoys rock climbing and circus arts. They are based in Chicago.

Pilar Martinez

Director of Finance

Pilar Martinez is the Director of Finance at UltraViolet, managing daily accounting functions and staff. Pilar has more than 23 years of progressive experience in finance and management, including 20 years in the non-profit sector. She has been with Media Matters for America since 2008 and is the Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Media Matters for America, Pilar worked as the Finance and Administrative Director at the Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP), served as the Controller at the National Park Foundation, and worked as the Revenue Accountant at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her accounting educational background includes M.A. from George Washington University, B.A. from Strayer University, and A.A.S from Northern Virginia Community College.

Kathy Plate

Senior Online Communications Director

Kathy is the Senior Online Communications Director at Ultraviolet. Prior to joining the team, she was Digital Strategies Director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. While at the Task Force, Kathy grew and strengthened the organization’s online presence around issues including marriage equality, workplace discrimination, and access to healthcare. Kathy helped revolutionize online participation with the organization’s largest annual event, the National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change by introducing livestreaming, developing a conference mobile app and facilitating more robust conversations on social media. Kathy previously managed online communications for Alliance for Justice, where she worked to engage progressives in the fight for a fair judiciary. She currently lives in Southern California where she loves to take advantage of the mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking opportunities.

Ryan Rastegar

Associate Field Director

Ryan is the Associate Field Director at UltraViolet. He engages, trains, and mobilizes UltraViolet members to take offline action on our most pressing campaigns. Throughout his career, Ryan has worked on many different progressive issues – climate change, ecological restoration, eliminating nuclear weapons, LGBTQ rights, and more – always with a concentration on grassroots organizing and mobilization. He has dedicated his professional life to helping individuals to realize their political might and training them to take collective action in ways that shifts the balance of power from the very few to many. He also sits on the advisory board of UnKoch My Campus, a national campaign to end the Koch Brothers’ unethical corporate influence within academia, where he provides mentorship and strategic digital organizing guidance. He got his start as a field organizer in Green Corps in 2008 and has been organizing ever since.

Karin Roland

Chief Campaigns Officer

Karin Roland is the Chief Campaigns Officer at UltraViolet, a powerful and rapidly growing community of people who work to expand women’s rights. She oversees campaigns and programs on issues including economic security, preventing violence against women, and women’s reproductive rights and access to health care.

Previously, Karin spent a decade working in progressive politics and campaigns. She helped fight the Iraq war and advocate for the Affordable Care Act at MoveOn.org, campaigned for marriage equality in Maine, and used online tools to help Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) make her Congressional office transparent and responsive, among other endeavors. Throughout her career, she has focused on using digital media and tools to advance progressive causes.

Audine Tayag

Campaign Director

Audine is a Campaign Director at UltraViolet. Audine leads campaigns related to economic security and immigration.

Prior to joining the team, she worked for the Alliance for Citizenship in its 2013 and 2014 Comprehensive Immigration Reform campaign. As a Communications Organizer for the Alliance, she helped organizers build a year’s worth of online and offline actions and worked on high-profile campaign, “Fast for Families: A Call for Immigration Reform and Citizenship.” Audine currently lives in Los Angeles where she also spends her time organizing for Filipino migrant rights.

Shaunna Thomas

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Shaunna Thomas is co-founder and Executive Director of UltraViolet. Shaunna has had a fifteen year career in progressive organizing, building progressive infrastructure projects and winning critical policy fights at the national level. Shaunna has appeared numerous times on network and cable TV including NBC, MSNBC, CNN, and CNBC as a political commentator. Before founding UltraViolet, Shaunna was the Executive Director of the P Street Project, a 501c4 nonprofit dedicated to organizing progressive members of Congress and connecting federal legislative strategy with online grassroots mobilization efforts. Prior to that, Shaunna was the COO of Progressive Congress, a nonprofit supporting the policy and organizing work of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Shaunna was introduced to organizing and advocacy through the 2004 presidential election, which inspired the next five years of her work at Young People For, a Project of People For the American Way Foundation dedicated to identifying, engaging and empowering the next generation of progressive leaders. Shaunna–originally from Los Angeles–is a resident of Washington, D.C.

Melody Varjavand

Senior Accountant

Melody has over 13 years of progressive experience in finance and accounting, including over 6 years in the non-profit sector. She has worked as an auditor in public accounting, and has worked on the accounting teams of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. She has successfully led initiatives to develop financial processes and improve financial reporting to end users. Melody is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and is a CPA. In her free time, she enjoys seeking out great restaurants, biking, crafting, and travel, with a goal of visiting all the national parks someday.

Holly Witherington

Director of Human Resources & Organizational Development

Holly oversees organizational operations at UltraViolet, with a primary focus on human resources, organizational culture, and staff training and development.

Prior to working at UltraViolet, Holly worked at MoveOn.org as a lead organizer on the field team. She managed staff and created programs that trained MoveOn members across the country as organizers and helped them build council structures to carry out various strategies in the field. Before MoveOn, Holly was an internal organizer with the Service Employees International Union in San Francisco, CA and Portland, OR. Holly began her organizing career in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, working with communities living on the fence line of oil refineries and chemical plants.

Google Doc Notes Tech Media Censorship

Posted on October 10, 2018October 10, 2018 by Denise Simon

The Good Censor – GOOGLE LEAK by on Scribd

The other cyber war…censorship.

Primer:

Google should refuse to develop a censored search engine for China, Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday while criticizing the Communist regime.

“Google should immediately end development of the ‘Dragonfly’ app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers,” Pence said at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.

Pence’s recommendation came amid a broad criticism of China’s domestic repression and international aggression. But his turn towards Google attests to how U.S. leaders also see Beijing’s relationship with American institutions as a source of unwarranted strength for Chinese leaders, even as President Trump takes a more confrontational posture towards the rising Asian power. More here.

Summary background on the 85 page document authored by Google and published by Breitbart:

Leaked Google documents suggest the tech giant wants increased censorship of the internet and believes other internet firms should police debate online.

The 85-page paper, leaked by a Google employee, claims that cyber harassment, racism and people venting their frustrations are ‘eroding’ free speech online.

It says that the ability to post anonymously has ’empowered’ online commenters to express their views ‘recklessly’ and ‘with abandon’.

Censoring the internet could make comment sections safer and more civil for everyone, the report concludes.

The report reads: ‘When they’re angry, people vent their frustrations.

‘But whereas people used to tell friends and family about bad experiences, the internet now provides a limitless audience for our gripes.’

Anonymity of users is also earmarked as a potential danger online, claiming that people were more likely to share abhorrent or radical views due to the lack of accountability.

Racism, hate speech, trolling and harassment are also mentioned in the extensive report, which was leaked to Breitbart.

It adds: ‘Although people have long been racist, sexist and hateful in many other ways, they weren’t empowered by the internet to recklessly express their views with abandon.’

Groups which were once minority have been emboldened to discuss their radical views online as the internet provides them with a safe space to communicate, the report suggests.

In response to the leak, Google insisted the document was not company policy, though it admitted the research was something being considered by top bosses.

Internet rights advocates said that censoring online debate risks hampering free speech and creating an environment in which the views of some groups are not tolerated by big technology firms.

Of harassment, Google says: ‘From petty name-calling to more threatening behaviour, harassment is an unwelcome component of life online for all too many users.’

It goes on to suggest that Google should monitor the tone of what is said as opposed to the content, and that the firm should not adopt a political standpoint in arguments.

‘Shifting with the times’, depending on the mood around censorship, is also not ruled out.

***

Google intends to launch a controversial censored version of its Search app for China by July 2019.

‘Dragonfly’ is a rumoured effort inside Google to develop a search engine for China that would censor certain terms and news outlets, among other things.

Outside of high-profile leaks, few details have emerged on what the search engine entails as Google has kept tight-lipped on the project.

A former Google employee warned in August of the web giant’s ‘disturbing’ plans in a letter to the US’s senate’s commerce committee.

Jack Poulson said the proposed Dragonfly website was ‘tailored to the censorship and surveillance demands of the Chinese government’.

In his letter he also claimed that discussion of the plans among Google employees had been ‘increasingly stifled’.

Mr Poulson was a senior research scientist at Google until he resigned last month in protest at the Dragonfly proposals. Read more here from DailyMail.

Iran Using Same ‘Active Measure’ Tactics Against the U.S.

Posted on August 24, 2018August 24, 2018 by Denise Simon

When traveling internet sites, social media accounts and various news aggregator services, one needs to be even more suspect of what information is out there. Russia has been applying propaganda ‘active measure’ tactics for decades and due to the global internet system, the volume has gone beyond measure.

With all things Russia going on in Washington DC and in media, the success of active measures has been noticed by both China and Iran. Both have launched robust propaganda operations forcing the West and citizens to question authenticity of sites, articles and posts of all forms.

Watch out for those hashtags….influencing voters and fake/false news goes back to at least 2016. The operations are so effective that even big media has been duped and corrections are printed or made often when recognized. Some items are never corrected.

Iran’s Anti-US Propaganda Reflects regime’s instability photo

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Thursday it had identified and terminated 39 YouTube channels linked to state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.

Google has also removed 39 YouTube channels and six blogs on Blogger and 13 Google+ accounts.

“Our investigations on these topics are ongoing and we will continue to share our findings with law enforcement and other relevant government entities in the U.S. and elsewhere,” Google said in a blog post here

On Tuesday, Facebook Inc (FB.O), Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) collectively removed hundreds of accounts tied to an alleged Iranian propaganda operation.

Google, which had engaged cyber-security firm FireEye Inc (FEYE.O) to provide the company with intelligence, said it has detected and blocked attempts by “state-sponsored actors” in recent months.

FireEye said here it has suspected “influence operation” that appears to originate from Iran, aimed at audiences in the United States, the U.K., Latin America, and the Middle East.

Shares of FireEye rose as much as 10 percent to $16.38 after Google identified the company as a consultant.

***

The Daily Beast went for a deeper dive on the tactics by Iran and explained a few cases.

An Iranian propaganda campaign created fake Bernie Sanders supporters online, Facebook disclosed Tuesday.

In a press release, the social-media giant said it had removed 652 pages associated with political-influence campaigns traced to Iran, including coordinated inauthentic behavior that originated in Iran and targeted people across multiple internet services in the Middle East, Latin America, U.K., and U.S.”

The cybersecurity company FireEye, which first alerted Facebook to the influence campaign months ago, wrote in a separate posting on its site that it had traced the campaign—including posts from supposed “American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders”—to Iran through email addresses and phone numbers associated with the “inauthentic” accounts.

The investigation began with FireEye’s discovery of a fake U.S. news outlet called Liberty Front Press, which Facebook says was created in 2013. The actors behind that site over time branched out into different personas intended to appeal to different audiences including “anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes.” Examples included accounts like The British Left, which published content in support of U.K. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and the pro-Palestinian Patriotic Palestinian Front. FireEye also says it “identified multiple Arabic-language, Middle East-focused sites” as part of the effort.

Unlike the Russian cyberinfluence campaign in 2016, FireEye didn’t find a complementary hacking campaign attached to the propaganda activity. Iran has spent big on developing its offensive online capabilities, but FireEye said it found no links to APT35—a hacking group that has targeted U.S. defense companies and Saudi energy firms. Instead, the security firm found links between the campaign and Iran’s state-run TV propaganda channel, PressTV.

The Iranian actors behind the campaign expanded beyond Facebook and Instagram and onto Twitter, according to FireEye. In a separate statement late Tuesday, Twitter announced it had suspended 284 accounts for what it said was “coordinated manipulation” and that “it appears many of these accounts originated from Iran.”

The Daily Beast recovered tweets from what appears to be an account associated with the campaign. @libertyfrontpr has since been deleted, but Google cache results show it linked back to the LibertyFrontPress.com website FireEye attributed to be part of the propaganda effort. The account was active as of at least Tuesday and is not listed as suspended on the platform.

The account used hashtags like “#Resist” and #NotMyPresident when tweeting out anti-Trump sentiments. It also weighed in against the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. “The #Senate has a responsibility to reject any nominee who would fail to be a fair-minded constitutionalist. That is #BrettKavanaugh. We must #StopKavanaugh.”

In a rare move for Holocaust-denying Iranian propaganda, @libertypr slammed the Republican Party for allowing anti-Semite and Holocaust denier John Fitzgerald to run for a seat in the California legislature.

In addition to the U.S. themes, Liberty’s Twitter account also targeted opponents of the Iranian government, including the Mujahedeen Khalq exile group, or MEK, which advocates the overthrow of Iran’s clerical government, with hashtags like “#BanTerrorOrg.”

The takedown marks the second time since the 2016 election that Facebook has appeared to act without U.S. government pressure to stop an alleged political-influence campaign. In late July, Facebook took down a handful of sock-puppet accounts purporting to be black, Hispanic, and #Resistance activists. Facebook didn’t attribute that campaign to a specific country or group, but it did note that some of the accounts had links to the infamous Russian Internet Research Agency troll farm.

Facebook said Tuesday that it had taken down the new batch of pages only after waiting “many months” after being alerted to the campaign by FireEye. The delay allowed the company to further investigate the campaign and improve its defenses against future efforts.

What About those 3 Dead Russian Journalists?

Posted on August 9, 2018August 9, 2018 by Denise Simon

Rather interesting that fellow journalists are not outrages and there is not full reporting on these murders. Jim Acosta? April Ryan? CNN? (snarky)

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian exile and Putin foe has a news organization called Investigation Control Center. Three investigative journalists were dispatched to (CAR) Central African Republic to determine why a Putin connected militant group Wagner is operating there. Sadly, it did not end well.

On the 31st of July news broke about the murder of the Russian journalists Orkhan Djemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirril Radchenko. They were working in the Rental African Republic on a joint project with Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Investigation Control Center. In particular, they intended to visit the grounds of Berengo estate, where, it is alleged, the base of the mercenaries of the private military organisation “Wenger” is situated.

The journalists arrived in Bangi, the capital of CAR, on Saturday. The next day they went to Berengo’s estate. However, they were denied access, requiring accreditation from CAR’s Ministry of Defense. Their details were noted down and they were promised that they would be given a pass after five days.

On Monday the group had to meet the fixer (a journalism consultant) from a UN delegation called Martin (he was the one who recommended the driver to the journalists). The journey ought to have taken about a day and a half because of roadblocks and poor-quality roads.

On Sunday evening the journalists were ambushed and shot in their vehicle at around 22:00 local time.

French media reported that the murders were motivated by theft – the journalists were carrying roughly 9,000 dollars and their equipment. Mikhail Khodorkovsky has promised to help find and identify the journalists’ killers.

***

Photographs of journalists Orkhan Dzhemal (right), Kirill Radchenko (center) and Aleksandr Rastorguyev are seen at a small memorial to the slain jounalists outside the Central House of Journalists in Moscow.

Russian investigators said they have opened a criminal case to look into the deaths of the journalists. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on August 1 that the stated purpose of their visit to the CAR was tourism, seeming to take them to task for allegedly misstating the intent of the trip.

That remark drew rare criticism of the ministry from a senior pro-Kremlin lawmaker. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, wrote on Telegram that issues such as the purpose of the trip were “not very important now.”

“What is important is that Russian citizens have been killed,” he wrote. “Here we should follow the example of our ‘strategic friends’ from across the ocean: the United States does not leave the death of any of its citizens without consequences. No matter what country they were in and what political views they adhered to.”

Henri Depele, the mayor of the town of Sibut, around 200 kilometers northeast of the capital, Bangui, said the journalists were killed late on July 30. Their driver survived the attack.

***

The investigative media outlet the journalists worked for is financed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon who spent 10 years in prison following convictions in financial-crimes trials supporters contend were a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to seize his company’s production assets and punish him for challenges to President Vladimir Putin.

He was pardoned by Putin, released, and flown out of Russia in 2010, and now lives in Europe, where he is one of Putin’s most vehement critics.

TsUR has published a number of investigations alleging corruption by senior members of Putin’s entourage.

Khodorkovsky called the three journalists who were killed “brave men who were not prepared simply to collect documentary material, but wanted to ‘feel’ it in the palms of their hands…. Rest in peace.”

Dzhemal, 51, was a respected Russian military correspondent who covered conflicts around the world. He was seriously injured in Libya in 2011 and published a book in 2008 giving a firsthand account of the five-day Russia-Georgia war.

Rastorguyev, 47, was a prominent documentary filmmaker and a contributor to RFE/RL. He was among the three directors of an award-winning 2013 film about leaders of the Russian opposition.

Radchenko, 33, started his career as a projectionist, but had become a cameraman in recent years. He served as an election observer in Chechnya in March.

The Central African Republic has been riddled by violence, often fought along religious lines between predominantly Christian and Muslim militias, since a 2013 rebellion overthrew then-President Francois Bozize.

Most of the country is beyond the control of the Bangui government, and a 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission has struggled to keep a lid on the violence.

As Facebook Continues to Stray From a Social Media Platform

Posted on August 6, 2018August 6, 2018 by Denise Simon

Angry Emoticon Facebook | www.imgkid.com - The Image Kid ...

What the heck Facebook? Perhaps it is just time to terminate relationships with Facebook. Zuckerberg thought in his early conception and launch of Facebook it was a global means to connect people together, you know expand friendships so we can all like each other worldwide.

Ahem, that is hardly where he and Sheryl Sandberg have has take the company in recent years.

FACEBOOK ROLLS OUT REACTIONS | iNexxus

Let’s begin here:

The aggressive push by Democrats and left-wing activists for social media companies to combat Russian bots and trolls may have backfired, exposing potential foreign efforts to whip up political passions on their side.

Facebook announced last week that it had yanked 32 pages from Facebook and Instagram because they were “involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior,” potentially tied to Russia.

Facebook said that “inauthentic” administrators of a page called “Resisters” were connected with those from other, legitimate pages who worked to drum up support for the protest. “The most followed Facebook Pages were ‘Aztlan Warriors,’ ‘Black Elevation,’ ‘Mindful Being,’ and ‘Resisters.’ The remaining Pages had between zero and 10 followers, and the Instagram accounts had zero followers,” Facebook said. Read more here.

So, beyond selling access to the Facebook databases and user profiles to companies such as Cambridge Analytica, something else is afoot and it too is far beyond the scope of social media.

Ready?

Facebook in talks with banks to add your financial information to Messenger

Facebook is considering a Messenger feature that would incorporate a user’s bank information.

The feature, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, applies only to Messenger and not the larger Facebook platform.

It comes at a sensitive time for Facebook, as it continues to battle privacy concerns and adjust company policy regarding user data.

The feature, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, applies only to Messenger and not the larger Facebook platform. It comes at a sensitive time for Facebook, as it continues to battle privacy concerns and adjust company policy regarding user data.

Facebook’s stock was up about 2.5 percent Monday following the initial Wall Street Journal report.

“Like many online companies, we routinely talk to financial institutions about how we can improve people’s commerce experiences, like enabling better customer service. An essential part of these efforts is keeping people’s information safe and secure,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC. “We don’t use purchase data from banks or credit card companies for ads.”

Incorporating a user’s financial information into Messenger would allow banks to offer customer service through the platform, as some credit card companies already do, Facebook said. The Wall Street Journal reported the feature could also offer fraud alerts and help users track their account balances.

Isn’t this getting a little creepy? Would Facebook sell banking data also to outside corporations without your knowledge, consent or compensation? Would your bank be part of this new feature and relationship also without your knowledge or consent?

As we are finding, Facebook is clearly in the business of censorship which often violates the First Amendment yet they claim their scrutiny and termination is in violation of terms of service where it has been proven more than once it is just selective censorship. Just ask Diamond and Silk.

Thanks to TechRepublic: In part –

What is the timeline of the Facebook data privacy scandal?

Facebook has more than a decade-long track record of incidents highlighting inadequate and insufficient measures to protect data privacy. While the severity of these individual cases varies, the sequence of repeated failures paints a larger picture of systemic problems.

In 2005, researchers at MIT created a script that downloaded publicly posted information of over 70,000 users from four schools. (Facebook only began to allow search engines to crawl profiles in September 2007.)

In 2007, activities that users engaged in on other websites was automatically added to Facebook user profiles as part of Beacon, one of Facebook’s first attempts to monetize user profiles. As an example, Beacon indicated on the Facebook News Feed the titles of videos that users rented from Blockbuster Video, which was a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. A class action suit was filed, for which Facebook paid $9.5 million to a fund for privacy and security as part of a settlement agreement.

In 2011, following an FTC investigation, the company entered into a consent decree, promising to address concerns about how user data was tracked and shared. That investigation was prompted by an incident in December 2009 in which information thought private by users was being shared publicly, according to contemporaneous reporting by The New York Times.

In 2013, Facebook disclosed details of a bug that exposed the personal details of six million accounts over approximately a year. When users downloaded their own Facebook history, that user would obtain in the same action not just their own address book, but also the email addresses and phone numbers of their friends that other people had stored in their address books. The data that Facebook exposed had not been given to Facebook by users to begin with—it had been vacuumed from the contact lists of other Facebook users who happen to know that person. This phenomenon has since been described as “shadow profiles.”

The Cambridge Analytica portion of the data privacy scandal starts in February 2014. A spate of reviews on the Turkopticon website—a third-party review website for users of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk—detail a task requested by Aleksandr Kogan asking users to complete a survey in exchange for money. The survey required users to add the thisisyourdigitiallife app to their Facebook account, which is in violation of Mechanical Turk’s terms of service. One review quotes the request as requiring users to “provide our app access to your Facebook so we can download some of your data—some demographic data, your likes, your friends list, whether your friends know one another, and some of your private messages.”

In December 2015, Facebook learned for the first time that the data set Kogan generated with the app was shared with Cambridge Analytica. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims “we immediately banned Kogan’s app from our platform, and demanded that Kogan and Cambridge Analytica formally certify that they had deleted all improperly acquired data. They provided these certifications.”