Twitter Africa Employees Accuse Elon Musk Of Discrimination Over Severance Terms

BY LARRY MADOWO

ACCRA, GHANA (CNN BUSINESS) -- Laid-off employees at Twitter’s Africa headquarters are accusing Twitter of “deliberately and recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana” and trying to “silence and intimidate” them after they were fired.

The team has hired a lawyer and sent a letter to the company demanding it comply with the West African nation’s labor laws, provide them with additional severance pay and other relevant benefits, in line with what other Twitter employees will receive.

They have also petitioned the Ghanaian government to compel Twitter to “adhere to the laws of Ghana on redundancy and offer the employees a fair and just negotiation and redundancy pay,” according to a letter to the country’s Chief Labour Officer obtained by CNN.

“It is clear that Twitter, Inc. under Mr Elon Musk is either deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally thrown at them,” the letter states.

Twitter laid off all but one of the African employees just four days after the company opened a physical office in the capital Accra following Musk’s takeover. But the staff of about a dozen were not offered severance pay, which they say is required by Ghana’s labor laws, based on their employment contracts. They also claim they were not informed about the next steps — unlike employees in the United States and Europe — until a day after CNN reported on their situation.

In the letter to Twitter Ghana Ltd, obtained by CNN, the African employees rejected a “Ghana Mutual Separation Agreement” from Twitter, which they say was sent to their personal emails offering final pay that the company claims to have been arrived at after a negotiation.

Several members of the team and their lawyer told CNN that there was no such negotiation on severance pay. They claim it was below what is required by law and contradicts what Musk tweeted that departing employees would receive.

“Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required,” Musk tweeted. Twitter informed the Ghana-based employees in early November that they would be paid until their last day of employment — December 4. And they will continue to receive full pay and benefits during the 30-day notice period.

“It was very vague, did not talk about outstanding leave or paid time off, and just asked us to sign if we agree. I never bothered to go back to the document because it is rubbish and is still in violation of labor laws here,” one former employee told CNN on condition of anonymity.

The Accra-based team accuses Twitter of dealing with them in bad faith, not being transparent, and discriminating against them compared to laid-off employees in other jurisdictions.

“The employees are distressed, humiliated, and intimidated by this turn of events. There are non-Ghanaian employees, some with young families, who moved here to take up jobs and have now been left unceremoniously in the lurch, with no provision for repatriation expenses and no way to communicate with Twitter, Inc. and discuss or plead their case,” the notice to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer says.

Their attorney, Carla Olympio, says the sudden termination of almost the whole team violated Ghanaian employment law because it is considered a “redundancy” which requires three-month notice to authorities and a negotiation on redundancy pay.

“In stark contrast to internal company assurances given to Twitter employees worldwide prior to the takeover, it seems that little attempt was made to comply with Ghana’s labor laws, and the protections enshrined therein for workers in circumstances where companies are undertaking mass layoffs due to a restructuring or reorganization,” she wrote in a statement to CNN.

The employees said in their appeal to Ghana’s Chief Labour Officer that Twitter’s formal entry into the continent started with “great fanfare and with the support of the government,” and they expect similar attention to their plight now.

They are demanding 3 months’ gross salary as severance pay, repatriation expenses for non-Ghanaian staff, vesting of stock options provided in their contracts, and other benefits such as healthcare continuation that were offered to staff worldwide.

CNN has reached out to Ghana’s Employment and Labor Relations ministry for comment.

Elon Musk uses Twitter to push Pelosi attack conspiracy theory that’s quickly debunked by police

SALON

Elon Musk

BY IGOR DERYSH

N ew Twitter owner Elon Musk shared and later deleted a link to a site notorious for pushing misinformation to suggest there may be "more" to the story of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband being assaulted during a break-in at their home.

Musk, who officially took over the social platform on Friday, tweeted a link to an article claiming that Paul Pelosi was drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute to his 112 million followers. The tweet was deleted hours later and police have said that Pelosi did not know his attacker before he broke into the home.

Paul Pelosi was attacked inside his home with a hammer after the suspect, identified as David DePape, broke in through a backdoor, according to police. Police have said that DePape assaulted Pelosi with a hammer. Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and injuries to his hands and right arm and underwent surgery following the attack, the House speaker's office said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Twitter criticized Republicans for spreading conspiracy theories, linking to an article describing DePape's writings about QAnon and other far-right and racist conspiracy theories.

"The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories," Clinton wrote. "It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow."

Musk, who has increasingly aligned himself with far-right figures, responded to the tweet by pushing another conspiracy theory.

"There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," Musk wrote in a reply to Clinton, linking to an article from the Santa Monica Observer that baselessly claimed the suspect was a male prostitute. The link was deleted about six hours later.

NBC News reporter Ben Collins noted that police have said on the record that Pelosi and his attacker did not know each other before the attack, which "directly contradicts conspiracy theories pushed by (and since deleted by) Twitter owner Elon Musk."

Police have said that DePape broke into the home and shouted "Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?"

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told The New York Times that she had seen nothing to support the idea that Pelosi and his attacker knew each other.

The Santa Monica Observer is one of a growing number of websites that "masquerade as legitimate newspapers," The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board warned last year. The website, which is owned by former City Council candidate David Ganezer, is "notorious for publishing false news," the outlet reported, noting that the site once claimed that Hillary Clinton had died in 2016 and a body double was sent to debate Donald Trump. It later reported that Trump had named Kanye West to a senior position in the Interior Department, among other false claims.

Musk, who paid about $44 billion for the social network and immediately fired its top executives, has suggested that the social network would become more "free" and floated the idea of reinstating the account of Trump, who was indefinitely suspended after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Musk sought to reassure nervous advertisers ahead of the purchase, vowing that Twitter "obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences." He later said that a content moderation council would meet to decide any "account reinstatements."

Trolls emboldened by Musk's takeover quickly filled their feeds with racist, antisemitic and conspiratorial tweets. The Network Contagion Research Institute, which analyzes social media messages, found that use of the N-word on the platform spiked nearly 500% in the 12 hours after Musk's purchase was finalized.

"The new standard bearer of the company is setting the tone that Twitter will be a place where misinformation and targeted rumors can circulate with the approval of the man behind the curtain," Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State Bernardino, told the Los Angeles Times after Musk's tweet over the weekend.

Los Angeles Times columnist Anita Chabria called out Musk for pushing a "vicious and false conspiracy theory" and "ugly, anti-LGBTQ garbage" on his own feed, noting that the conspiracy theory quickly spread from his account to other social channels.

"When the rich, powerful and influential become peddlers of antidemocratic ammunition, they become dangerous to democracy," Chabria wrote, warning that if "we don't hold Musk and others like him accountable now, we may not have the chance."

Professor Uju Anya's Comments On Twitter September 8, 2022

Professor Uju Anya. Image: Carnegie Mellon University

"I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating." She added, "If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star. That wretched woman and her bloodthirsty throne have f**king generations of my ancestors on both sides of the family, and she supervised a government that sponsored the genocide my parents and siblings survived. May she die in agony."

Twitter, Facebook Ban Fake Users; Some Had AI-created Photos

Image: IFTTT

BY MAE ANDERSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter has identified and removed nearly 6,000 accounts that it said were part of a coordinated effort by Saudi government agencies and individuals to advance the country’s geopolitical interests.

Separately, Facebook said it removed hundreds of Facebook accounts, groups and pages linked to inauthentic behavior from two separate groups, one originating in the country of Georgia and one in Vietnam, which targeted people both in Vietnam and in the U.S.

Facebook said some of the accounts used profile photos generated by artificial intelligence and masqueraded as Americans. It is one of the first such misinformation efforts to use material generated by AI.

Tech companies have stepped up efforts to tackle misinformation on their services ahead of next year’s U.S. presidential elections. The efforts followed revelations that Russians bankrolled thousands of fake political ads during the 2016 elections to sow dissent among Americans.

Twitter’s and Facebook’s announcements underscore the fact that misinformation concerns aren’t limited to the U.S. and Russia.

In a blog post Friday, Twitter said the removed Saudi accounts were amplifying messages favorable to Saudi authorities, mainly through “aggressive liking, retweeting and replying.” While the majority of the content was in Arabic, Twitter said the tweets also amplified discussions about sanctions in Iran and appearances by Saudi government officials in Western media.

“Governments have started to launch influence campaigns the same ways commercial enterprises launch campaigns to sell detergent or cars,” said James Ludes, a national defense expert who teaches international relations and public policy at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island.

He said the Russian efforts in 2016 showed it was possible to “actually change public attitudes through the targeted use of social media.”

While the attempts to root out the campaigns may seem like a game of whack-a-mole, he said companies have at least shown progress in taking steps to identify and root out manipulation campaigns run by foreign powers.

Twitter began archiving tweets and media it deems to be associated with known state-backed information operations in 2018. It shut 200,000 Chinese accounts that targeted Hong Kong protests in August.

The 5,929 accounts removed and added to the archives are part of a larger group of 88,000 accounts engaged in “spammy behavior” across a wide range of topics. But Twitter isn’t disclosing all of them because some might be legitimate accounts taken over through hacking.

The Twitter accounts were linked to a social media marketing firm in Saudi Arabia called Smaat that managed many government departments in Saudi Arabia. The accounts used third-party automated tools to amplify non-political content at high volumes. Twitter said that activity was used to mask the political maneuverings of the same accounts.

Samuel Woolley, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies disinformation, said that while the Saudi campaign used basic manipulation techniques, including the use of likes and retweets to give the illusion of popularity, the campaign’s size and scale were unusual. The existence of a thousands-strong army of Saudi accounts also show that social media companies still don’t have a good solution, he said, despite the progress they have made at identifying state-backed accounts.

“It’s really clear we have to do something about it,” he said. “It can’t just be after the fact. We have to get better about detecting in real time.”

Messages left with Saudi officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the country’s embassy in Washington were not immediately returned.

The Saudi government has used different tactics to control speech and keep reformers and others from organizing, including employing troll armies to harass and intimidate users online. It has also arrested and imprisoned Twitter users.

In September, Twitter suspended the account of the crown prince’s former top adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who also served as director of the cyber security federation. As with Friday’s announcement, Twitter said that account had violated the company’s platform manipulation policy.

Last month, two former Twitter employees were charged with acting as agents of Saudi Arabia without registering with the U.S. government. The complaint details a coordinated effort by Saudi government officials to recruit employees at the social media giant to look up the private data of Twitter accounts, including email addresses linked to the accounts and internet protocol addresses that can give up a user’s location.

In terms of Facebook’s actions, Facebook said the Georgia group targeted domestic audiences and the Vietnam group focused mainly in the U.S., as well as Vietnamese-, Spanish- and Chinese-speaking audiences around the world.

The company said they created networks of accounts to mislead others about who they were and what they were doing. To evade detection, they used a combination of fake and real accounts of people in the U.S. to manage pages and groups, the company said.

“We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing challenge,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, said in a blog post.

AP writers David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, and Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Twitter Bans Political Ads Ahead Of 2020 Election

In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington. "While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions," Dorsey said Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, in a series of tweets announcing Twitters new policy of banning all political advertising from its service. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

BY RACHEL LERMAN, BARBARA ORTUTAY

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter, reacting to growing concern about misinformation spread on social media, is banning all political advertising from its service. Its move strikes a sharp contrast with Facebook, which continues to defend running paid political ads, even false ones, as a free speech priority.

“While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Wednesday in a series of tweets announcing the new policy.

Facebook has taken fire since it reiterated in September that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress in October that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.

Zuckerberg wasted no time responding to Twitter’s move. During Facebook’s conference call for earnings, which began less than an hour after Dorsey’s tweet, the Facebook chief offered an impassioned monologue about what he called his company’s deep belief “that political speech is important.”

Zuckerberg stood by the company’s decision to run unchecked political ads and denied that the choice is financially motivated, saying such ads make up less than half of a percent of Facebook revenue.

Facebook’s recent $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations was more than 10 times what it makes from political ads, he said.

“This is complex stuff. Anyone who says the answer is simple hasn’t thought about the nuances and downstream challenges,” he said. “I don’t think anyone can say that we are not doing what we believe or we haven’t thought hard about these issues.”

Google did not have an immediate comment on Twitter’s policy change.

Trump’s campaign manager called Twitter’s change a “very dumb decision” in a statement Wednesday.

“This is yet another attempt to silence conservatives, since Twitter knows President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever,” campaign manager Brad Parscale said.

The presidential campaign for former Vice President Joe Biden said it was “unfortunate” that companies would think the only option was to completely ban political ads.

“When faced with a choice between ad dollars and the integrity of our democracy, it is encouraging that, for once, revenue did not win out,” Bill Russo, the deputy communications director for Biden’s campaign said in a statement.

Political advertising makes up a small sliver of Twitter’s overall revenue. The company does not break out specific figures each quarter, but said political ad spending for the 2018 midterm election was less than $3 million. It reported $824 million in third-quarter revenue.

Candidates spend significantly more purchasing ads on Facebook than on Twitter, company records show.

The issue suddenly arose in September when Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, refused to remove a misleading video ad from President Donald Trump’s campaign that targeted Biden.

In response, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another presidential hopeful, ran her own ad on Facebook taking aim at Zuckerberg. The ad falsely claimed that Zuckerberg endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election, acknowledging the deliberate falsehood as necessary to make a point.

Critics have called on Facebook to ban all political ads. These include CNN chief Jeff Zucker, who recently called the company’s policy of allowing lies “absolutely ludicrous” and advised the social media giant to sit out the 2020 election until it can figure out something better.

Misleading political ads on social media played a major role in Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 presidential election.

Dorsey said the company is recognizing that advertising on social media offers an unfair level of targeting compared to other mediums. It is not about free expression, he asserted.

“This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle,” he tweeted. “It’s worth stepping back in order to address.”

Twitter currently only allows certified campaigns and organizations to run political ads for candidates and issues. The latter tend to advocate on broader issues such as climate change, abortion rights and immigration.

The company said it will make some exceptions, such as allowing ads that encourage voter turnout. It will describe those in a detailed policy it plans to release on Nov. 15.

It will also still allow politicians to freely tweet their thoughts and opinions, which can then be shared and spread. Trump’s Twitter feed in particular is known for his often bombastic and controversial tweets that are shared widely.

Matt Shupe, a Republican political strategist whose public relations firm has won awards for its use of ads on Facebook, called Twitter’s decision “incredibly dumb.” He said there’s no reason to eliminate all political advertising just to stop the relatively small number of bogus or misleading ads.

“You can’t abolish television advertising because cigarette makers bought ads once,” he said.

The decision will hurt political challengers the most, Shupe said, as they don’t have the name recognition or wide reach of incumbents and need ads to get their message out.

“If you’re a challenger, advertising allows you to make up that difference,” he said. “It’s very hard to organically grow an audience for a state assemblyman campaign.”

Ethan Porter, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, echoed the concerns and called Twitter’s decision disappointing. He said it will deprive voters of one way to learn about those standing for election.

“That loss of information about candidates in an election — I don’t think that should be taken lightly,” he said. “Voters should know who the candidates in an election are and twitter is an important platform.”

Twitter said in June that political figures and world leaders who tweet abusive or threatening messages might get slapped with a warning label, but the tweets would remain on the site. Twitter has not yet used this warning label.

Federal campaigns are expected to spend the majority of advertising dollars on broadcast and cable channels during the 2020 election, according to advertising research firm Kantar, and about 20% of the total $6 billion in spending on digital ads.

Twitter’s policy will start on Nov. 22.

AP reporters David Klepper in Providence, Rhode Island, Amanda Seitz in Chicago, Will Weissert in Washington, Mae Anderson in Atlanta and Tali Arbel in New York contributed to this article.

As Biafra Berths At EU

Lanre Adewole. Image: Twitter

BY LANRE ADEWOLE

Let’s assume there were accruable deficits from the Nuremberg attack of Senator Ike Ekweremadu to Igbo separatist movement IPOB, the glorious (yes, glorious) appearance of its leader Maxi Nnamdi Kanu at the European Union congregation of September 10, at its Brussels’ conclave, must have restored the movement’s balance to solid green, from any shade of red, aftermath the Ike’s show. Without doubt, majority of my Yoruba brethren is still anti-Ndigbo, despite the confidence-building rapprochement between the genuine leaders of the two ethnic blocs and there could be justification for the grassroots’ anger, if the commercial conducts and a times, the away-politics of Ndigbo in the South-West, particularly in Lagos, come into play, as the balance for trust, reliability, trade-truth, shared humility and abiding neighbourliness.

Yes, it could be frustrating loving an average Igbo trader, businessman or even politician, operating around one’s neighbourhood. For a race with scarred sensibility and warrior mentality, and some may add, damaged conscience, unconditional understanding is required to understand such a people.

If Ndigbo still feel till today that it can only thrive in togetherness strictly with its own, it is pertinent to see beyond the parochialism of One Nigeria, One Nation that has only existed in the greed of those with controlling levers of power to understand why Ndigbo are insistently desirous of becoming a big fish in a small ocean of their landlocked domain, when it could still be a big fish, growing fatter, in the bigger Nigeria ocean of orisirisi (odds and ends).

For sure, Ndigbo didn’t become an agony neighbour overnight. Like the cantankerous Never-Trump US Rep. Ilhan Oman said, some people did something, in describing the monstrosity of 9/11 bombing, a nation did something to one of her own between July 6, 1967 and January 15, 1970 and still doing something to the hurting one and funny enough not expecting the beaten one, not to cry. The beaten one, will cry mana, (pardon my code-mixing) and unlike the rest of America which has continuously raged at the Somali-naturalized American, the rest of Nigeria, in reverse gear, is taunting the one, that needed reassurances that forcing the race to stay in the Nigeria space, was a genuine effort at everyone, becoming family again.

If such a fellow wants out, why force and forcing him in?

To force her way out of Nigeria, where she feels treated as surplus to requirement, Ndigbo has over time, become brash, proud and loud, almost insufferable, a racial trait I feel, was deliberately developed for the rest of Nigeria to just cast her out. As if in a game of wit, the rest of Nigeria (Hausa and Yoruba precisely) has refused to let go, without an overt silver lining the edginess to the diagonal relationships, would ever be smoothened. So what is the way out, for the unloveable and the seeming unstoppable?

Except for public display of political correctness, the soul of an average Ndigbo is already severed from the soulless nation called Nigeria. You ask if I share the race’s sentiment. I’m for new things and the simple argument that won me over was from Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams, SAN, the unsung brilliant scion of Timi the Law. “If UK that wedged us into a country is renegotiating its future, why must we hold on forever to what such a Kingdom gave us. Why cant we look at what they gave us again after almost 60 years”. Brilliant, isn’t it?

I’m for a renegotiated Nigeria. Thankfully, it is the song everywhere. Even Buhari’s Aso Rock said it was for it, though before the 2019 poll. Hope nothing has changed after the exercise. Two Octobers would make it 60 years of the borrowed nationhood, governance structure and deliberately-skewed political power distribution, to heavily favour the North, which has been unabashedly garrulous in “victory”.

Whatever you want to say about Kanu, his overseas advocacy is pumping the debate on togetherness and the forms it should take. The Nigerian government may pretend for all it can, that he’s just a pest that would be blown away with time, if ignored. Unfortunately for the current operators of the Nigerian state, this guy and his message are perching dangerously on where he could not be left alone for too long and can’t be smashed anyhow, for precious things, not to go into smithereens with the blast.

I like the phase Mr. Kanu has moved his secessionist message. Guess he had read Madiba’s Long Walk To Freedom. There is no point wasting precious lives in the name of confrontation with security agencies. Buratai and his men are trained to kill, only intellectualism can maim them. Yes, blood is always required to uproot status quo, but Biafra has shed enough. Fortunately for IPOB, save for a couple of dramatis personae, the current administration is headed and loaded to the hilt, with provincial fellows. If Kanu could keep his head and continuously tap into foreign influences, contacts and platforms, soon, he would be seated side-by-side with the Nigerian delegation at the United Nations, possibly including his tormentors-in-power. Someday, the ear of the world, would arch to the real Nigerian story and nobody would be able to stand in the way of the debate on the future of our togetherness.

You ask where is Yoruba in all of these. After Gani Adams’ local activism landed him the prestigious Iba title, the gap has been yawning for genuine emancipators. Though the pretenders around are just into the bokoto (cow) politics of 2023, the usual fire-brigade approach, well known with our sporting activities, may still work for Yoruba next year when Nigeria @60, would be entering a crucial phase, regarding her future. Somehow, everyone would be ready and I will personally be praying for Nnamdi Kanu.

SOURCE: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Rosanna Arquette Says FBI Told Her To 'Lock' Twitter Account After Blowback From White 'Shame' Tweet (Exclusive)

Rosanna Arquette. Image: The WRAP

BY SEAN BURCH, SHARON WAXMAN

THE WRAP
Actress Rosanna Arquette said Thursday the FBI advised her to make her Twitter account private after online critics lambasted her on Wednesday for tweeting that she was ashamed of being "white and privileged."

Arquette, in an exclusive response to TheWrap, expanded on her comments and explained why she is now hiding tweets from anyone that is not among her 90,000 followers. "Yes I'm locked to protect myself -- I was told by FBI to lock it up," she said, declining to expand to requests for more detail on the FBI's role in her decision.

Several reps for the FBI did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment. A Twitter rep did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment on if any users had been punished for comments directed at Arquette.

In her statement to TheWrap, Arquette detailed the "threatening and cruel" online response to her Wednesday tweet.

"There are toxic and very vicious people on social media. Threatening and cruel," Arquette said. "I said yesterday the I am ashamed of the color of my skin. I am privileged just because I'm white. I feel shame. Because of all the violence that is happening in America and other racist countries."

The "Pulp Fiction" actress, the oldest of a family of actors that also includes "Boyhood" star Patricia Arquette and "Scream" actor David Arquette, added, "I was not raised to be racist. In fact my mother took me to Harlem to integrate and all black nursery school when I was 4. I feel truly desolate at the bigotry. and severe racism that we are witnessing in 2019."

Rosanna Arquette, who was one of the first prominent individuals to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, pointed to the disgraced mogul and a sinister "Boy's Club" that she said she needed to be protected from. The FBI, Arquette said, compelled her to take her account private.

"On top of being one of the women who came out about [Harvey] Weinstein. The Boy's Club is bigger than it ever [has been], so the attacks are really actually dangerous right now. But that's what they want to put me in a state of fear. And I say no. I will not be afraid so I will protect myself and I do have people around me who are ready to protect me if someone goes after me. Don't f— with me is where I'm at."

In her statement, she also referenced disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges (he has pleaded not guilty). "We are witnessing the light being shed in the darkest parts of a hidden sick society [–] the selling of children for sex. Epstein is just the beginning. These sick f—- are going down."

On Wednesday, the "Pulp Fiction" and "Crash" actress tweeted she was "sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame."

That tweet provoked a severe response from Twitter users, many of whom sardonically suggested Arquette give away her money to atone for her privilege. Others said it was a textbook case of self-hatred and Hollywood "wokeness" run amok.

"What a patronizing, self-important person," one user said, replying to Arquette's tweet. "Supposedly carrying so much shame [and] guilt that no one should think of her as an overall well-off person. Well, give it all to charity if you're so guilt-ridden?"

Arquette has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his administration on Twitter, saying on Thursday he "incites racist violence. The end." She also tweeted earlier this week that she planned to "never stand for the flag again."

Election Crackdown Runs Into Speed-Tweeting Human ‘Bots’

This October 26, 2016 file photo shows a Twitter sign outside of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. Some political die-hards are getting caught up in an expanded effort by Twitter and other social media companies to crack down on nefarious tactics suspected of interfering in the 2016 election. They have been flagged as “bots,” or robot-like automated accounts, because they tweet prolifically. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

BY SARA BURNETT

CHICAGO (AP) — Nina Tomasieski logs on to Twitter before the sun rises. Seated at her dining room table with a nearby TV constantly tuned to Fox News, the 70-year-old grandmother spends up to 14 hours a day tweeting the praises of President Trump and his political allies, particularly those on the ballot this fall, and deriding their opponents.

She’s part of a dedicated band of Trump supporters who tweet and retweet Keep America Great messages thousands of times a day.

“Time to walk away Dems and vote RED in the primaries,” she declared in one of her voluminous tweets, adding, “Say NO to socialism & hate.”

While her goal is simply to advance the agenda of a president she adores, she and her friends have been swept up in an expanded effort by Twitter and other social media companies to crack down on nefarious tactics used to meddle in the 2016 election.

And without meaning to, the tweeters have demonstrated the difficulty such crackdowns face — particularly when it comes to telling a political die-hard from a surreptitious computer robot.

Last week, Facebook said it had removed 32 fake accounts apparently created to manipulate U.S. politics — efforts that may be linked to Russia.

Twitter and other sites also have targeted automated or robot-like accounts known as bots, which authorities say were used to cloak efforts by foreign governments and political bad actors in the 2016 elections.

But the screening has repeatedly and erroneously flagged Tomasieski and users like her.

Their accounts have been suspended or frozen for “suspicious” behavior — apparently because of the frequency and relentlessness of their messages. When they started tweeting support for a conservative lawmaker in the GOP primary for Illinois governor this spring, news stories warned that right-wing “propaganda bots” were trying to influence the election.

“Almost all of us are considered a bot,” says Tomasieski, who lives in Tennessee but is tweeting for GOP candidates across the U.S.

Cynthia Smith has been locked out of her account and “shadow banned,” meaning tweets aren’t as visible to others, because of suspected “automated behavior.”

“I’m a gal in Southern California,” Smith said. “I am no bot.”

The actions have drawn criticism from conservatives, who have accused Twitter, Facebook and other companies of having a liberal bias and censorship. It also raises a question: Can the companies outsmart the ever-evolving tactics of U.S. adversaries if they can’t be sure who’s a robot and who’s Nina?

“It’s going to take a really long time, I think years, before Twitter and Facebook and other platforms are able to deal with a lot of these issues,” said Timothy Carone, who teaches technology at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

The core problem is that people are coming up with new ways to use the platforms faster than the companies can manage them, he said.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. But the company has said it identified and challenged close to 10 million suspected bot or spam accounts in May, up from 3.2 million last September. It’s also trying to weed out “trolls,” or accounts that harass other users, pick fights or tweet material that’s considered inflammatory.

Twitter acknowledges that there will be some “false positives.”

“Our goal is to learn fast and make our processes and tools smarter,” Twitter executives said in a blog post earlier this year.

Tomasieski and her conservative friends use so-called Twitter “rooms” — which operate using the group messaging function — to amplify their voices.

She participates in about 10 rooms, each with 50 members who are invited in once they hit a certain number of followers. That number varies, but “newbies” might have around 3,000, Tomasieski says. Some have far more.

Everyone in the room tweets their own material and also retweets everyone else’s. So a tweet that Tomasieski sends may be seen by her roughly 51,000 followers, but then be retweeted by dozens more people, each of whom may have 50,000 or more followers.

She says she’s learned some tricks to avoid trouble with Twitter. She’s careful not to exceed limits of roughly 100 tweets or retweets an hour. She doesn’t use profanity and she tries to mix up her subjects to appear more human and less bot-like.

During a recent afternoon, Tomasieski retweeted messages criticizing immigrants in the U.S. illegally, Democratic socialists and the media. One noted an Associated Press story about an increase in the number of Muslims running for public office — news the user described as “alarming.”

Tomasieski says she loves to write. But most important is helping “my guy.”

“There is as much enthusiasm today as there was when Trump was elected. It’s very quiet, but it’s there. My job is to get them to the polls,” she said. “That’s rewarding. I go to bed feeling like I have accomplished something.”

Follow Sara Burnett on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sara_burnett

Judge: President Can't Block Critics On Twitter

U.S. President Donald Trump's Twitter feed on a computer screen in Washington. President Donald Trump violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment when he blocks critics on Twitter for political speech, a judge ruled Wednesday, May 23, 2018.

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump is violating the First Amendment when he blocks critics on Twitter because of their political views. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan stopped short in her written decision of ordering Trump or a subordinate to stop the practice of blocking critics from viewing his Twitter account, saying it was enough to point out that it was unconstitutional.

"A declaratory judgment should be sufficient, as no government official — including the President — is above the law, and all government officials are presumed to follow the law as has been declared," Buchwald wrote.

The judge did not issue an order against Trump, and the plaintiffs did not ask for one. But in cases like this, plaintiffs can, in theory, go back and ask for such an order, and if it is not obeyed, the violator can be held in contempt.

Buchwald said she rejected the assertion that an injunction can never be lodged against the president but "nonetheless conclude that it is unnecessary to enter that legal thicket at this time." The case was brought last July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and seven individuals blocked by Trump after criticizing the Republican president.

Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said in an email: "We respectfully disagree with the court's decision and are considering our next steps." Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute's executive director, said in a release that his organization was pleased.

"The president's practice of blocking critics on Twitter is pernicious and unconstitutional, and we hope this ruling will bring it to an end," he said. The lawsuit was filed after Trump blocked some individuals from @realDonaldTrump, a 9-year-old Twitter account with over 50 million followers, after each of them tweeted a message critical of Trump or his policies in reply to a tweet he had sent.

Justice Department lawyers had argued it was Trump's prerogative to block followers, no different from the president deciding in a room filled with people not to listen to some. Buchwald ruled that the tweets were "governmental in nature."

"The President presents the @realDonaldTrump account as being a presidential account as opposed to a personal account and, more importantly, uses the account to take actions that can be taken only by the President as President," the judge said.

The judge noted that another defendant, Daniel Scavino — the White House's social media director and an assistant to the president — can unblock those followers without the president needing to do it himself. The judge dismissed Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a defendant in the case after it was established she does not have access to Trump's account.

Buchwald also said she recognized the impact on the individuals by Trump's action was not "of the highest magnitude." She said the First Amendment protects people even from trivial harm. After a hearing this year, the judge had suggested that Trump mute rather than block some of his critics. At the time, a Justice Department attorney agreed that muting would enable Trump to avoid a tweet he doesn't want to read.

Twitter users can block people, which prevents them from seeing the user's feed while logged in. Or they can mute the person, which keeps the user from seeing that person's tweets and reply messages in their feed.

Could Twitter Stop The Next Terrorist Attack?

 Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during an interview with The Associated about the CIA torture report, in her Capitol Hill office in Washington. Social media giants including Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook and Google are pushing back against Senate legislation that would require them to alert federal authorities of any terrorist activity. The Senate Intelligence Committee has included the requirement in a broader intelligence bill. The House didn’t include a similar provision in its bill. (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social media giants including Twitter, Yahoo, Facebook and Google are pushing back against Senate legislation that would require them to alert federal authorities of any terrorist activity, according to industry and government officials.

In private meetings on Capitol Hill, industry officials have told lawmakers and congressional staff that they already ban grisly content like beheadings and alert law enforcement if they suspect someone might get hurt, as soon as they are aware of a threat.

But tech officials also said they worry that the proposed legislation is too broad and would potentially put companies on the hook legally if they miss a tweet, video or blog that hints of an attack. They said the result would probably be a deluge of tips to law enforcement, making it tougher for the government to find more valuable information.

Those interviewed by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing debate over the legislation. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is backing the legislation, says requiring social media companies to tip off law enforcement to a pending terrorist attack makes sense

"The FBI and the intelligence community have made it abundantly clear that the terrorist threat is severe and increasing, and that those directing, inspiring and carrying out attacks make heavy use of social media sites," Feinstein told the AP in an emailed statement. "This provision will help get potentially actionable information to the agencies responsible for preventing attacks, without requiring companies to take any steps to monitor their sites they aren't already taking."

The tech industry in 2013 faced a public relations nightmare after former government analyst Edward Snowden leaked details of a massive government surveillance program that relied on their cooperation. Company officials said the law gave them no choice but to supply consumer data and comply with gag orders that prevented companies from talking about it. Still, many consumers and Internet activists were furious that U.S. businesses had enabled the government to spy on their customers, in some cases even charging the government administrative fees to do it.

Since then, the tech industry has led an aggressive public push to limit surveillance requests and increase transparency, adopting more sophisticated encryption techniques despite opposition from the Justice Department. Their primary argument has been that consumers won't use technology they don't trust, and that unnecessary surveillance would hurt the industry.

At the same time, popular social media sites have become instrumental in helping terrorist groups expand their influence, despite widespread industry policies against posting or promoting terrorist-related content.

The Islamic State group and similar groups have relied heavily on Twitter and Facebook to recruit followers, while militants post beheading videos on sites like Google's YouTube, giving an image the chance to go viral before being shut down. In 2013, al-Shabab live tweeted its Westgate shopping mall massacre, opening up new feeds even after Twitter shut others down.

"This is not your grandfather's al-Qaida," FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee this month. "This is a group of people using social media to reach thousands and thousands of followers, find the ones who might be interested in committing acts of violence, and then moving them to an (end-to-end) encrypted messaging app."

The same week as Comey's testimony, the Senate Intelligence Committee endorsed Feinstein's proposal that would require companies that spot terrorist activity on their networks to alert law enforcement.

Feinstein's provision, part of the intelligence authorization bill that still has to be approved by the Senate, is almost identical to the law requiring companies to report child pornography. One exception is that Feinstein's provision doesn't say whether or how a company would be penalized if it fails to report terrorist activity, whereas a tech company can be fined for "knowingly and willfully" failing to report an image of child pornography.

Tech officials say determining what constitutes child pornography is easier to do because the process is more objective. A criminal photograph can be digitally analyzed and assigned a unique identifier that be used to find similar images across networks.

But oftentimes, determining terrorist activity requires more context. The image of an Islamic State flag, for example, could appear in a news article or video clip as well as terrorist propaganda. Monika Bickert, head of policy management at Facebook, said the social media site shares the government's goal of keeping terrorist content off the site.

"Our policies on this are crystal clear: We do not permit terrorist groups to use Facebook, and people are not allowed to promote or support these groups on Facebook," she said. "We remove this terrorist content as soon as we become aware of it."

The House didn't include a similar provision in its version of the intelligence bill. A spokesman for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., declined to comment on the issue. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, said there's "no question" the Islamic State group uses social media to disseminate propoganda and recruit fighters. Schiff, D-Calif., said Congress should work with the tech industry "to determine the most effective response."

__ Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter at https://twitter.com/annekflaherty

Microsoft CEO Apologizes For Comments On Women

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella speaks to students in New Delhi. On Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, Nadella spoke at an event for women in computing held in Phoenix, saying women don't need to ask for a raise. They should just trust the system. He was asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise.

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well.

Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men.

He had been asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise. His response: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." Not asking for raise, he added, is "good karma" that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.

But his comments caused an uproar online, and Microsoft posted a memo from him on its website. In it, Nadella said he answered the question "completely wrong" and that he thinks "men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it's deserved, Maria's advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask."

His interviewer at the event, Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, had told him she disagreed, which drew cheers from the audience. She suggested women do their homework on salary information and first practice asking with people they trust.

Still, his comments at the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, underscored why many see technology companies as workplaces that are difficult to navigate or even unfriendly for women and minorities. Tech companies, particularly the engineering ranks, are overwhelmingly male, white and Asian.

Criticized for their lack of diversity, major companies say they are trying to address the problem with programs such as employee training sessions and by participating in initiatives meant to introduce girls to coding.

Twenty-nine percent of Microsoft's employees are women, according to figures the Redmond, Washington-based company released earlier this month. Its technical and engineering staff and its management are just 17 percent female.

That's roughly comparable to diversity data released by other big tech companies this year. "Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap," Nadella wrote in his memo to employees.

Online:

http://gracehopper.org/2014-grace-hopper-celebration-thursday-livestream/ (The question about raises comes up at about 1:34.)

Political Messages Penned For Cuba Twitter Program

A book street vendor passes the time on her smart phone as she waits for customers in Havana, Cuba. The administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Tuesday begins a series of appearances Tuesday, April 8, 2014, before lawmakers asking questions about his agency’s secret “Cuban Twitter,” a social media network built to stir unrest in the communist island. First up in the questioning of administrator Rajiv Shah is Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who publicly called the social media program “dumb, dumb, dumb.”

WASHINGTON (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Draft messages produced for a Twitter-like social media network that the U.S. government secretly built in Cuba were overtly political and some taunted the Castro family.

The Associated Press obtained the messages in internal documents from the program. The new disclosures came as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development told Congress on Tuesday that the program was never intended to stir unrest within Cuba's government.

At a hearing, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont told USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah that the social media program was "cockamamie." An AP investigation last week found the program evaded Cuba's Internet restrictions by creating a text-messaging service that could be used to organize political demonstrations. It drew tens of thousands of subscribers who were unaware it was backed by the Obama administration.

Feds Want Cars To Be Able To Talk To Each Other

A side mirror warning signal in a Ford Taurus at an automobile testing area in Oxon Hill, Md. Federal officials are planning to announce Monday whether automakers should be required to equip new cars and light trucks with technology that enables vehicles to communicate with each other to prevent collisions. Such vehicle-to-vehicle communication could eventually transform traffic safety.

WASHINGTON (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Raising hopes of preventing many deadly collisions, transportation officials said Monday they plan to propose requiring automakers to equip new cars and light trucks with technology that lets vehicles communicate with each other.

A radio beacon would continually transmit a vehicle's position, heading, speed and other information. Cars would receive the same information back from other vehicles, and a vehicle's computer would alert the driver to an impending collision. Some systems may automatically brake to avoid an accident if manufacturers choose to include that option.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has been working with automakers on the technology for the past decade, estimates vehicle-to-vehicle communications could prevent up to 80 percent of accidents that don't involve drunken drivers or mechanical failure.

The technology holds the "game-changing" potential to prevent crashes in the first place, while the government's focus until now has been on ensuring accidents are survivable, David Friedman, the head of the safety administration, said at a news conference.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the Obama administration decided to announce its intention to require the technology in new vehicles in order to "send a strong signal to the (automotive industry) that we believe the wave of the future is vehicle-to-vehicle technology."

However, it will still be a least several years and perhaps longer before manufacturers would have to put the technology in vehicles, officials said. The safety administration plans to issue a report later this month on the results of its research, and then the public and automakers will have 90 days to comment. After that, regulators will begin drafting a proposal to require automakers to equip new vehicles with the technology. That process could take months to years to complete, but Foxx said it is his intention to issue the proposal before President Barack Obama leaves office.

"It will change driving as we know it over time," said Scott Belcher, president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. "Over time, we'll see a reduction in crashes.

Automobile makers will rethink how they design and construct cars because they will no longer be constructing cars to survive a crash, but building them to avoid a crash."

Government officials declined to give an estimate for how much the technology would increase the price of a new car, but the transportation society estimate it would cost about $100 to $200 per vehicle.

Automakers are enthusiastic about vehicle-to-vehicle technology, but feel there are important technical, security and privacy questions that need to be worked out first, said Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Vehicle-to-vehicle "may well play a larger role in future road safety, but many pieces of a large puzzle still need to fit together," she said. The safety benefits can't be achieved until there is a critical mass of cars and trucks on the road using the technology, and it's not clear what that level of market penetration is. It takes many years to turn over the nation's entire vehicle fleet, but the technology could start preventing accidents long before that. Research indicates safety benefits can be seen with as few at 7 percent to 10 percent of vehicles in a given area similarly equipped, said Paul Feenstra, a spokesman for the transportation society, an umbrella organization for the research and development of new transportation technologies.

Once automakers start adding the technology to all new cars, it would take 15 years or more for half the cars on the nation's roads to be equipped, according to the communications technology company Qualcomm. There are about 5 million to 6 million new cars sold each year.

There may be a way to speed things up. About 45 percent of Americans use smartphones, and that share is growing. The average lifetime of a smartphone is two years. If smartphones, which already have GPS, came equipped with a radio chip they could be used to retrofit vehicles already on the road so that they can talk to each other. The phone would be put in a cradle to sync with the car's computers. That would help make it possible to achieve a 50 percent market penetration in less than five years, according to Qualcomm.

Using cellphones could also extend the safety benefits of connected-car technology to pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, Belcher said. Drivers would be alerted to a possible collision with a pedestrian carrying a smartphone that continually sends out information to cars in the vicinity, even if it's too dark to see the person or if the pedestrian darts suddenly into traffic. More than 4,700 pedestrians were killed by vehicles and 76,000 injured in 2012.

But there are significant technical and standardization hurdles to using cellphones to support connected car technology. Cellphone batteries typically last only about three hours if used continually. They would need antennas, there are issues with what radio frequencies would be used and their GPS functions may not be as precise as those in a vehicle manufactured with connected car technology, for example.

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

Followers and the Following

My readers, the ones I bump into in the hood, on the streets of Los Angeles and at events, have complained about the abandonment of my thorough political commentaries and Igbo-related cultural analysis I have been known for, wondering what brought about such a swift change. No. Nothing changed. It's just that I have been caught up in a cross road tweeting and having fun for the moment; and I am quite sure my followers and the ones I follow are watching with keen interest with what is about to resurface in my files. And besides that, there is absolutely politics in every game which means we are all political junkies by tweeting, feeding the world with the goings on, whether it's politics, pub-crawling, hanging out, poking around and stuff like that.

Summer just arrived, and seriously, I'm just having fun and loving every moment of it. But the real deal is social networking these days, and no one could tell how far that's going to last. So far, it seems like kinda trend that will be around for a long, long time to come.

Remember when it took days or weeks, or months, or longer than that to reach a loved one, a family member, a brother, a sister, a cousin or an uncle via the telegram, word of mouth, post office, courier service and other wire-related services? Remember? Not anymore. Things have changed. Technology has made communication much easier and has drawn the world very close. Thanks to the internet age. Just like Twitter made its followers and the following fishers of the "New Dawn" as new ideas pops up with a following.

It is really amazing how each of these social networks operates, and how it becomes addictive at any given time the moment one is hooked. I have tried to stay away from these networks which I did some many years ago, limiting myself to just few, precisely the discussion groups and messageboards I was either the owner or moderator, and which, of course, had to do with news items like NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, BNW News, the print media and other news-related outlets does to keep their listeners, readers and followers informed.

What has erupted in recent times is beyond imagination based on the rate these social networks are growing, creating an era seen to be heading a direction seemingly to have placed the entire universe into one bucket, otu uwa, one world.

I keep wondering how these networks pops up uniquely in their own respective rights even though all appear to be the same whether a one-liner as in Twitter, or wordy as in Yahoogroups, Messageboards, Facebook and the rest. Over the past ten years or so, and when the listserve, E Group, had a bigger audience, a whole lot did change from the way social networking operates on the net.

Think about My Space and what it does with Generation X an K. Or Facebook that is not leaving the web arena anytime soon. Blogged, like the crab-like cancer is doing the same thing as Twitter in the pattern of following and followers. Just like if you follow me I will follow you. Or thanks for the follow and I will follow you which has generated a huge amount of business-related conferences.

Interestingly, these social networks have their own set of rules accompanied by how money is generated to keep these links afloat, meaning every social network in today's economy aggressively pursues its own highly localized interest.

The interests, like in Facebook which has gone local with the advertisers as they encourage Facebookers to indulge in taking advantage of promoting their accounts from around which they subscribe, and as it implies, one might be smiling all the way to the bank, if at all it's not a gimmick and one of those easy money deceptive stuff that has bombarded cyberspace. Web-bloggers and web-designers are equally engaging, too. It works hand-in-hand to a level of convincing, in order to attract readers to your site and the products that you market, and how different patterns of money making opportunities could be achieved through a wide variety of techniques--tele-conferencing, tele-marketing, social networking, business-related workshops, conventions and things like that.

I, for one, have been in a couple of these "money making" opportunities, and it boils down to getting things done by way of that fast money which is indeed a good thing. It does not work like that. Somebody is playing smart and another one playing dumb, and it all leads to greed. Other than that, social networking is a kind of counseling in many ways. It helps alleviate depressed-anxiety-related problems most faced in today's society. It is a terrific workshop for many things in life including the opportunity door knockers who would try to convince their victims that a bag full of money to the brim would be theirs in a couple of weeks if only they take a simple step. There are other schemes also that encourages the application of doing some little, little stuff for enrollment on the block of new millionaires. It's all about following and whom you follow.

The irony of all these gimmicks and a recession riddled population is that the doers and schemers are all smiling, allegedly to the bank because whatever idea they created to gun down a panicking public due to a never seen before austerity measures, works effectively. And no one is giving away these "ideas" for free, no matter what.

All in all, the Twitter nation is now prospering in the game of social networking with its 140-character post at a time, and tweeting is the name of the game. It has become an institution of its own developing and enhancing its library with vocabularies such as "We Follow" meaning a direction of interesting Twitter accounts; "Trazz-ler Buzz," meaning tracking popular travel destination via Twitter; "Tweets on tees," meaning awesome crowdsourced shirts by "Threadless", "Twitterific," a fur mac application for twittering; "Stock Twits," meaning an investment idea and information service, and it goes on and on.

If Time Magazine gave the Twitter guys, Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, a thumbs up why shouldn't we who have found a home where there is love, affection and caring? Talk about Twitter, how about my own creative word Ohuzo and its meaning? It's a "New Dawn," people, and let's keep following and be the fishers of humankind.

Gist Around Da Hood

The magnificent Ivorian Didier Drogba celebrates in style after scoring that amazing first goal beating Everton 2-1 in the season finale of Road to Wembley. He will be negotiating a new paycheck to effect his contract extension with Chelsea. A three year contract and bonuses draws him closer to Europe's highest earning players and sits on the elite role of African football players.

Staples Center, 1111 Figuroa Street, Los Angeles, California 90015
Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, she will be the first Latino, according to some sources, to be on the Supreme Court. Her parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York. A feminine radical in the 70s and had always defended the underdog but her critics say that's not enough to be confirmed though the overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress is in her favor.

In this world there's much confusion.

And I've tasted the city life and it's not for me

Now I do dream of distant places

Where I do not know but is destiny

If it's the rich life I don't want it

Happiness ain't always material things

I want destiny ...

Neverland Ranch was a rich life. Oh, by the way, the king of pop is about to rise like a phoenix. I have followed this legendary performer all my life and I do think I have every of his recorded album throughout the many phases of his career -- Jackson Five, The Jacksons and the solo acts -- and my favorite tune of all time, Destiny, besides the jams, Shake Your Body Down To The Ground, Thriller, Off The Wall, Enjoy Yourself, ABC, The Girl Is Mine and many other stimulating tracks.

The gist now is billionaire Tom Barrack and AEG Live owner Philip Anshutz are coming to the king of pop's rescue. They want a rebirth of the Thriller years and from media sources, Michael will be heading to the studios soon because his backers -- Barrack and Anshutz have confidence in him and had envisioned a thoroughly remade Michael when the entire deal is struck which would include a three year world tour, series of singles coupled with packages of a museum, casino and movies. Barrack who said Michael could make $500 million a year once he puts his mind into it acknowledged Michael 'is' one of very few artists who could reach that mark in showbizness and at any given time.

But Michael is not done. His 50 concert series at the O2 Arena in London kicks off July 13 and tickets are already sold out. One other thing, though is can Michael do fifty gigs without getting exhausted? We'll see how it plays out starting July 13. Michael in his own words regarding the 50 shows in London: "Thank you for your love and support, I want you guys to know I love you very much," ... "I don't know how I'm going to do 50 shows. I'm not a big eater - I need to put some weight on"


Also, around the block, came some political talks about President Barrack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, whom I haven't followed until she was nominated by Obama, last week. And now following her like a tweeter, I know she was one of 70s feminine radicals on campus at Princeton University. She did not like the way Princeton was run and had always defended the underdog. From Princeton to Yale, and as a prosecutor in New York to corporate lawyer and serving on the federal bench for seventeen years, methink the new Democratic controlled congress should let her walk in without much ado so she could start punching the badass Clarence Thomas in his face, and his "high-tech lynching of an uppity black man."

And if confirmed which I expect she would be, overwhelmingly, making her the second Latino on the Supreme Court, although the political blogosphere on Sotomayor's side claims she'd be the first Latina on the Supreme Court, if confirmed, which would nullify the claim from other circles of Justice Benjamin Cardozo whose parents were of Portuguese descent, in the 30s, as first Latino on the Supreme Court. Enough.

Down the street in da hood, talks are popping up on soccer. Obviously, the soccer moms have taken it to a whole new heights which is quite engaging with kids. We called it football until the Yankee's crazy sports began to blow up our minds. I mean, too many in the mix and soccer got to be. The world's most watched sport and we won't erase soccer and permanently keep its original logo? Come on, now, there's tennis not lawn tennis; there's basketball not netball; there's ping pong not table tennis; there's baseball, not cricket and there's football not rugby, whatever that is.

So as it happened, the English FA Cup gathered storm. Ivorian and Chelsea striker, Didier Drogba and his colleagues lifted the FA Cup amid 85,400 and something soccer freaks in Wembley Stadium beating Everton 2-1 which ended the season's crazy-dubby Road to Wembley. Drogba's contract has been extended to another three years and expect the field dynamo's pocket to surpass the 80,000 British Pounds Sterling a week paycheck.

The World Cup is fast approaching and all that Brazillian influence is still hanging on. The quality of play, pattern of play, dribbling style, the celebration, jubilation and the samba has entirely nothing to do with what is going on at USC. Am I perturbed by all the scandals that is now hitting the sports program walls of Pete Carroll saying he knew nothing about Houses and gifts given to the parents of Reggie Bush, the running back for the New Orleans Saints? Nope! There's always something and that's just the way it is. As Bush' investigation continues, popped up another accusation. This time on Tim Floyd, the school's basketball coach, on payments made to O.J. Mayo's associates. And now that NCAA has cut in, we probably would get to know about all the scandals of gifts and cash exchanging hands by the time it's through with its own independent investigation.

In my little political alley, the behind closed doors pundits at Yahooligans, the talk now is why would Obama make Ghana his second point of call and not the sleeping giant, Nigeria. Citing Obama as a second generation immigrant who had adopted Abraham Lincoln's style of approach and politics, and bringing about a "New Dawn" of the internet age in "change has come to America" platform, the economy is still biting and the "Stimulus Package" hasn't been able to subdue the Bush-Cheney made meanspirited economy yet, in my own assessment because the people, I mean, the American people are still talking and complaining.

Well, it's showtime on Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles where Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers sits comfortably with Hotel Figueroa, Nokia Center and the Convention Center as neigbors. Tonight, the Lakers will be tested by the hungry Orlando Magic in Game 1 of 2-3-2 series. "All road leads to downtown and it's Lakers all the way," says one Lakers accessories hawker. "We gonna get them, baby!"

I know I have gunned for Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Mickael Pietrus when they whooped Lebron James and his Cavaliers. I have already neutralized the firepower of the magic, and hey, this is my hood and my Lakers ain't taking that for granted. It is Lakers all the way and with all the pubs full to the brim, hell will surely get loose if...

We want destiny!

Adios and enjoy the finals.

Relieved

"Don't think the Los Angeles Lakers will make it. With Yao Ming out and the way they've been struggling with the Houston Rockets, I mean, think about it."

"Think about what? You mean if Yao Ming had not been injured that it would have been an easy victory for the Rockets?"

"Oh, yeah! Can't you tell from the way Rockets are playing, giving the Lakers a run for their money?"

"Well, I think the Lakers are the best in the NBA, and I do not care about what you think on how they play. Look, man, this is Hollywood. It's not easy combining both together. Don't you see Jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Stephen Spielberg, Ron Howard, Jammie Foxx, and all the heavyweights in da hood cheering for a Lakers victory?"

"Really?"

"Yep!"

That's how it flowed even though I have not been paying much attention to the NBA Finals. Every now and then, I tend to check it out even when I'm making some noise tweeting with my fellow tweeters out there who've got nothing else to do but tweet, tell the whole world about their problems and brag about it all day, and then talk about Hollywood driving Angelenos nuts. No biggie!

Yes, Lakers is tweeting and tweeting is Lakers. They tweet about Kobe Bryant for not carrying the game on his shoulders. They tweet about Derek Fisher being worn out ... "couldn't do a damn thing to save the Lakers," even when Andrew Bynum had problems defending Denver Nugget's Nene. Lakers have raised their fans' blood pressure since the semi-finals of the Western Conference. Mine has been going up and down, reason why I've not been watching the games as I'm suppose to. Sometimes I make calls to ask "what's the score?" If Lakers happen to be behind, I won't even bother turning on the television, that is, if I'm home.

I had called my brother and talked about the Lakers. This was Game 5 of the Western Conference semi-finals between Lakers and the Houston Rockets. My brother had predicted Lakers will be beaten by the Denver Nuggets, that is, if they clear the Rockets hurdle. I had called my childhood buddy, Teddy, and we spoke about it. He wasn't sure. I had called my friend and partner in crime, Basil Nwonwu, and he had persistently said "it's Lakers all the way. This is their year and no team can stop them." I stopped going to pubs where Lakers had been the subject-matter even though I still had faith my Lakers will come out smoking, eventually.

But somehow, I got sickened of the dream Kobe Bryant-Lebron James showdown. The sensationalized media had blown everything out of proportion. The hype had been overwhelmingly disturbing it became obvious a deal had been struck. Those Bryant-James inflated commercials. It's a set up.

No, it wasn't. It's the magic of Orlando Magics. Call it what you want. It's magic not darkness. It's the magic of power play. It's the magic of outplaying and outscoring the Cavaliers. The magic that has befallen Madison Avenue. The magic that dethroned the overrated king. It's the magic of Dwight Howard. The magic of Mickael Pietrus. The magic of Rashard Lewis and the standing ovations of Tiger Woods and Tim Teblow of the Florida Gators quarterback that did it.

King james, another season gone by; no ring, it's winding down.

I'm relieved.

I had wondered if Lakers will ever make it. The struggle. The injuries. The inconsistencies. The uncertainties. Denver Nuggets: Chauncey Billups. Carmello Anthony. Lakers made it.

I'm relieved.

There's been talks about the powerful kingdom. James Kingdom. The Cleveland Cavaliers and King James Castle in Ohio. The best record in the NBA. The team to beat. And there was magic not kingdom. And the magic worked. And the king was toppled.

I'm relieved.

I had diverted my attention regarding the NBA Playoffs. The Lakers had caused me a "heart attack." It's not fair. They had done it to me deliberately, and I had wondered why they would do that. I'd rather watch other sports than the Lakers. They have made my heart bleed. It's not fair and I'm losing my mind. How could that be?

I had gone to the Irish Pub in Santa Monica to watch the European Champions League Final between Barcelona and Manchester United just to erase the Lakers from my memory. Yes, I watched Lionel Messi and his Barcelonaian boys whoop the robust playing Manchester United in a duel three Barcelona fans were slain in Nigeria, immediately upon Man. U defeat. I had gunned for Barcelona. Messi is my man. He's fast. He's taken soccer to another level. Now, Man. U. beer on tap drinking fans wants me dead for following Messi. Again, it's not fair. But who cares. I'm only worried about my Lakers and the showdown. They have the Magics not the Kingdom.

I'm relieved.

Kobe has been compared to Michael Jordan, Dr. J and Bill Russell. It doesn't matter. We are talking about NBA Finals in the year of Our Lord 2009, and I want it over with before I suffer another "heart attack." I'm not saying Orlando Magic will be a walkover. It's the NBA Finals, remember? It's anybody's game, remember?

So Kobe, my Lakers, please, do not let me suffer another heart attack. I've had enough and I will be there on Thursday, in my neck of the woods, Staples Center, to cheer you up in Game 1 of a 2-3-2 series against the Orlando Magic. We are the victor and don't disappoint me and your million fans who've had a minor stroke ever since the playoffs began.

Thanks!