The Daily 202: Politicians will no longer get a free pass from Facebook Olivier Knox On this day in 1989, Chinese soldiers and tanks crushed pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, with a death toll Western sources put in the hundreds or thousands. In a move with global ramifications for online political speech, Facebook plans to change a policy under which it generally spares toxic speech by major political figures from content-moderation rules it applies to everyone else. At issue is a rule, first unfurled in October 2016, under which the social media giant tolerates inflammatory and untrue posts from influential people on grounds they’re “newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest even if they might otherwise violate our standards.”
Live Updates: Biden Will Again Talk With Republicans Top Negotiator on Infrastructure
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Live Updates: Biden Speaks With Republicans Top Negotiator on Infrastructure
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In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the GOP lawmakers said the move “raises serious concerns about political bias.”
“The Obama-Biden Justice Department weaponized the NSD and our intelligence community to target the Trump campaign. Ms. Hennessey played a large role in promoting and legitimizing these attacks,” the letter states.
“Your decision to hire Ms. Hennessey to a senior position within the NSD suggests that rather than execute the law impartially and without fear or favor, you intend to continue the Obama-Biden Administration’s politicization and weaponization of our national security laws,” the letter says.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s ranking Republican, wrote the letter, which was signed by GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mike Johnson of Louisiana.