onfocus

Representatives from AWS spoke with Parler executive leadership on both January 8 and 9 about the platform's “content moderation policies, processes, and tools,” Amazon said. In response, Parler allegedly offered steps that would rely on “volunteer”moderation, and Parler CEO John Matze allegedly told AWS that “Parler had a backlog of 26,000 reports of content that violated its community standards and remained on its service.”

It’s starting to look like Amazon didn’t move fast enough.

"Recriminations were swift, with more than a dozen corporate giants — including AT&T, Nike, Comcast, Dow, Marriott, Walmart and Verizon — pledging to withhold donations to Republican lawmakers who voted to reject the outcome of the election in Arizona or Pennsylvania."

I think this is the responsible thing for them to do. It’s one important lever for ending the big lie but we shouldn’t rely on corporations alone to continue to do the right thing. Their track record isn’t great.

"The new survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Jan. 8-12 among 5,360 U.S. adults, including 4,040 who say they voted in the presidential election, finds that a sizable majority of Americans do not want Trump to remain a major political figure after he leaves office. About two-thirds (68%) say Trump should not continue to be a major national political figure for many years to come; just 29% say he should remain a major figure in U.S. politics."

The public isn't as evenly divided as we think.

"Throwing out an election isn’t like disagreeing on tax policy or stimulus checks. It’s not something to move on from or forget. If no line is drawn, the attempt will surely be repeated, quite likely without the mob, by the polite legislators in suits and ties insisting that they want fair elections as they vote to gut what remains of our democracy."

The election was fair as every legal challenge showed. Yet 66% of Republicans in Congress voted to overturn the results and continue to lie about it. We need consequences for officials who continue to spread this lie. (A few corporations are starting to suspend donations to these Republicans.)

"Our big lie is typically American, wrapped in our odd electoral system, depending upon our particular traditions of racism. Yet our big lie is also structurally fascist, with its extreme mendacity, its conspiratorial thinking, its reversal of perpetrators and victims and its implication that the world is divided into us and them. To keep it going for four years courts terrorism and assassination."

Excellent analysis of our present moment by a Yale professor of history.

"Popular Information contacted 144 corporations that, through their corporate PACs, donated to one or more of these eight Senators in the 2020 election cycle. Popular Information asked if they would continue to support these Senators in the future. In response, three major companies said they would stop donating to any member of Congress who objected to the certification of the Electoral College vote."

More corporate responsibility like this please. Voting against our Democracy should have consequences.

"We have laws that criminalize the solicitation of violence and conspiracy to overthrow or seriously interfere with the operations of government. Pursuing them should be the immediate priority of law enforcement."

It does feel like there’s no clear direction right now. They’re rounding up some participants but what about the organizers and leaders?

If you think the Capitol attack was kind of funny with the cosplay, milling about, and casual looting, take another look.

See also: Now it's sinking in: Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot was even more violent than it first appeared

See also: Inside the Capitol siege: How barricaded lawmakers and aides sounded urgent pleas for help as police lost control

See also: These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off "Racist-Ass Terrorists"

See also: A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege

"Mr. Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term and will be the first since Andrew Johnson to boycott his successor’s inauguration. That hasn’t yet fazed the Republican rank and file."

It is an entire party sickness. This meeting is after the attack at the Capitol and they’re still saying things like this:

David Bossie, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers and the Maryland committeeman, insisted that the party’s losses had been on the margins. “You don’t have to throw out everybody when there’s nothing fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Bossie said.

No conscience or shame.

"The business choices of internet platforms have enabled an explosion not only of white supremacy but also of Covid denial and antivax extremism, which have variously undermined the nation’s pandemic response, nearly sabotaged the presidential election, and played a foundational role in the violence at the Capitol. A huge industry has evolved on the platform giants to raise money from and sell products to people in the thrall of extreme ideologies."

Also, their monopoly power means no meaningful alternatives can exist for businesses who want to advertise or people who want to socialize on platforms that act ethically.

"Americans voted Trump out of office, but instead of accepting that result, he has sought to overturn it. By inciting the violent occupation of the US Capitol, Trump has given up any legitimate claim to power. In 14 days, barring catastrophe, he will be out of office. The only question is how much damage he will do in the meantime — and we know, based on long experience, that his Twitter and Facebook accounts will be among his primary weapons."

Taking away some ability to incite violence would be a good step.

Update (1/7): Facebook bans Trump for his remaining time in office right after congress confirmed the electoral college votes and the Georgia election determined Democrats would control Congress.

Update (1/9): Twitter permanently bans Trump. And all attempts to use related accounts.

"The employees were scared and frustrated, and some came to the realization that the platform they had helped build and operate had contributed to the wave of fear, disinformation, and chaos that flooded Congress."

Facebook had to stop their employees from discussing the coup attempt today.