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Twitter’s legacy checkmark is going away. Here are 5 Musk-made changes.

March 31, 2023

It’s been less than six months since Elon Musk closed on Twitter for $44 billion after backing out and facing litigation over the matter. There’s still a question as to whether it’s better or worse under the world’s second wealthiest person’s leadership. But, it’s certainly different. Here are the ways he’s changed the platform in this week’s Five For Friday.

#5: Twitter Blue

Before Musk, Twitter’s verified check signified an elite group of users. Just ask anyone with a legacy verified account, and they’ll tell you how important the checks are. But Twitter Blue made it so anyone willing to pay $8 on the web could procure the highly coveted check mark. It’s $11 if you sign up from an iOS or Android device so the company can make up the respective app store fees of 30%. Twitter Blue subscribers can edit tweets, get early access to new features and eventually see fewer ads. Musk said the platform will start taking away the old guard’s checks in April. Full disclosure: At the time of writing, Simone Del Rosario has a legacy verified account, although it provides the caveat that she “may or may not be notable.”

#4: Verified ‘For You’

It seems the idea of verified accounts is important to the Twitter ecosystem. Musk announced this week that only verified accounts will show up in the platform’s ‘For You’ section, which uses its algorithm to recommend content from people you don’t follow. He claims it’s the only way to combat bots taking over the platform, something he was concerned about amid negotiations to buy the company. Users will also need a blue check to take part in Twitter polls too, a feature Musk himself has used quite a bit since taking over.

#3: Account reinstatement

Over the years, Twitter has banned a whole host of controversial figures including Alex Jones, Tila Tequila and ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli. When Musk took over, he wanted a fresh start and reinstated folks like kickboxer Andrew Tate, who apparently has a massive following for being a misogynist. He was later roasted by climate activist Greta Thunberg before being arrested in Romania on sex trafficking charges. Former President Donald Trump was also reinstated after being banned following the events of Jan. 6, 2021. But he never returned, opting to stick to his own platform Truth Social. Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, also made a brief return before getting banned again. Jones, Tequila, and Shkreli have yet to get a Twitter reprieve.

#2: No more Trust and Safety

Shortly after taking over, Musk disbanded the platform’s Trust and Safety Council. It was a group of 100 independent advisors created in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation and self-harm, among other issues on Twitter. Prior to doing away with the council, studies showed hate speech had already spiked on the platform since Musk’s takeover. But for his part, Musk claims he defeated the hate bots. Independent analyses say otherwise.

#1: Twitter Files

Musk’s Twitter, or Twitter 2.0, has been more transparent than previous leadership. He tapped independent journalists like Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss to report on the Twitter Files, a series of select internal documents from the company. The Twitter Files have covered issues like the platform’s moderation of the Hunter Biden laptop story from the New York Post, Jan. 6, COVID-19 and Twitter’s dealings with the U.S. government, just to name a few. He also said he will make Twitter’s recommendation algorithm open source as of March 31. Parts of Twitter’s source code have apparently already been leaked, according to court filings.
WSJ poll finds Americans’ core values are changing: Media Miss

March 28, 2023
According to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll published Monday, March 27, what many consider to be Americans’ core values appear to be changing. The poll found things like patriotism and religion have all become significantly less important to Americans in the last 25 years.

The survey polled more than 1,000 people in early March 2023. There was a margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. Here are some of the changes when it comes to what percentage of Americans said certain core values were “very important”:
- Patriotism: 70% in 1998, 61% in 2019, 38% in 2023.
- Religion: 62% in 1998, 48% in 2019, 39% in 2023.
- Having children: 59% in 1998, 43% in 2019, 30% in 2023.
- Community involvement: 47% in 1998, 62% in 2019, 27% in 2023.
“These differences are so dramatic, it paints a new and surprising portrait of a changing America,” pollster Bill McInturff said. “Perhaps the toll of our political division, COVID and the lowest economic confidence in decades is having a startling effect on our core values.’’

One value that saw an increase in Americans rating it as “very important” is money. 31% of Americans rated money as very important in 1998. 43% did the same in 2023.

Straight Arrow News aims to identify when stories are being underreported on either side of the political aisle and media landscape. This story is a Media Miss for left-leaning outlets, with most sources reporting it being right-leaning outlets, according to Ground.News.
Stanford Law to hold mandatory ‘free speech’ session after protest: Media Miss

March 23, 2023

Stanford Law School students will be required to participate in a half-day session in the spring quarter to educate them on freedom of speech and the “norms of the legal profession.” Dean Jenny S. Martinez announced the move in an open letter on Wednesday, weeks after students and an associate dean disrupted a federal judge’s address earlier this month.

The school’s chapter of the conservative Federalist Society hosted the disrupted event and invited Stuart Kyle Duncan, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, as a guest speaker. Kyle Duncan was appointed by former President Trump. In 2022, Kyle Duncan joined an unsigned opinion stating that the COVID-19 vaccine requirement violated Navy service members’ religious liberties.

When he attempted to speak at Stanford Law School, students interrupted him, and the school’s associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Tirien Steinbach, took the microphone to voice her thoughts.

“For many people in this law school who work here, who study here and who live here, your advocacy, your opinions from the bench, land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights,” Steinbach said in video of the incident.

In the open letter, Martinez said Steinbach is now on leave and that “commitment to diversity and inclusion means that we must protect the expression of all views.” Martinez acknowledged the school’s policy that “protest is allowed but disruption is not,” and said faculty will receive additional training.

Straight Arrow News aims to identify when stories are being underreported on either side of the political aisle and media landscape. This story is a Media Miss for left-leaning outlets, with most sources reporting it being either right-leaning or center-oriented outlets, according to Ground.News.
TikTok CEO to testify, defend app security amid bans: March 23 rundown

March 23, 2023

TikTok’s CEO testifies on Capitol Hill; Wyoming’s abortion ban blocked; and the latest on former President Donald Trump’s indictment. These stories and more highlight the Straight Arrow News daily rundown for Thursday morning, March 23, 2023.

TikTok CEO to testify on Capitol Hill

TikTok’s CEO will testify before a House committee today, March 23, defending his app amid growing calls from Congress to enact a nationwide ban. Shou Zi Chew is expected to be questioned over security concerns related to the app. According to prepared testimony, he will tout that the U.S. has 150 million users and insist their information is stored on American soil and overseen by an American company.

Trump lawyer to testify in docs probe

A federal appeals court has ruled against an attorney for former President Donald Trump, ordering him to comply with a federal grand jury subpoena in its Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation. Evan Corcoran’s testimony in the probe could come as early as Friday. Corcoran is being asked to provide information about his communications with Trump, something the attorney and trump have argued is protected under attorney-client privilege.

This comes as the nation awaits whether or not Trump will be charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. The grand jury is expected to reconvene today, March 23.

Moderna CEO faces Senate questioning

The Senate Health Committee held a hearing Wednesday, March 22, to speak with the Moderna CEO Stephanie Bancel about proposed price hikes for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna said it will drastically raise the price once its contract with the government ends in the coming months, going from $26 per dose to $130 per dose. That’s a price increase of 400%. Despite pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Moderna’s Bancel defended the company’s price hike, predicting a 90% drop in demand for the vaccine.

Judge blocks Wyoming abortion ban

Abortions have gone from legal to illegal and back to legal again in the state of Wyoming. A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday, March 22, temporarily blocked a statewide abortion ban that came into effect over the weekend of March 18-19.

The state’s new law prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, or to save the woman’s life.

The new law had to define an abortion as “a procedure that is not health care” because the state’s constitution states people have the right to make their own health care decisions.

SEC charges Lohan and other celebrities

U.S. regulators have charged eight celebrities, including actress Lindsay Lohan and social media personality Jake Paul, with participating in an illegal crypto scheme. The stars allegedly used their social platforms to boost two crypto tokens without disclosing they were paid to promote them.

Lohan has more than 8 million followers on Instagram where she called for her followers to invest. The charges were announced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Lohan and Paul have paid to settle the charges without admitting guilt.
Here’s what the US government will declassify about COVID-19’s origins

March 21, 2023
President Biden signed the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023 into law, which requires the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify information related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. The bill was introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Braun, R-Ind., and passed both the House and Senate unanimously.

The bill officially states the information should be released so the United States can identify COVID’s origins and stop a similar pandemic from occurring again. But lawmakers also want the American people to have answers.

“There’s increasing speculation, and indeed increasing numbers of statements from government officials saying that perhaps this virus originated in a Chinese lab, in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Sen. Hawley said. “Well I think it’s time that the American people got to decide for themselves, it’s time that they actually got to see the evidence that the United States government has collected on this issue.”

The bill requires the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify information related to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID’s origins.

That includes:
- Activities at the institute on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army.
- Coronavirus research or other related activities at the lab.
The director must also declassify information about individual researchers at the institute who got sick in the fall of 2019, including:
- Their name.
- Symptoms.
- Whether they were hospitalized.
- Whether they were involved in, or exposed to coronavirus research.
The information must be released by the June 18 deadline. The director will submit a declassified report to Congress which can only have redactions that protect intelligence gathering sources and methods.
New data links raccoon dogs to early spread of COVID-19

March 17, 2023

As the world marks three years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, reports and theories about the origins of the virus continue to garner international attention. A new report suggests that raccoon dogs, a fox-like creature native to East Asia, may have played a role in the early spread of the virus.

According to a summary of findings first reported by The Atlantic, an international team of virus experts collected swab samples from and around the Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market at the start of the pandemic in early 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market.

The samples contained genetic traces of raccoon dogs, leading researchers to suspect that the animals may have been “carrying and possibly shedding the virus” as early as the end of 2019.

While the findings did not definitively conclude that raccoon dogs carried the virus or passed it on to humans, they did not rule out the possibility that other animals at the wet market could have been infected.

In February, various U.S. agencies concluded with “low confidence” that COVID-19 originated in a lab. The Chinese government continues to deny the claims.
Women are binge drinking more than men on college campuses

March 14, 2023

For the first time in history, women are binge drinking more often than men on college campuses, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Doctors with the institute say isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic is a major contributing factor to the increase in substance abuse. They attribute the rise in women’s binge-drinking to what they call a “rebound effect.”

In 2020, bars were closed and social gatherings were limited. But once bars and restaurants opened back up, more women wanted to go out and drink. So they did, and more often than before, outpacing men.

Doctors who were part of the study cautioned that binge drinking can be deadly. They said too much alcohol in a person’s body can be poisonous.

In 2021, deaths associated with alcohol were up 25% year-over-year.
Sen. Rubio to release COVID-19 origins report with new documents

March 14, 2023

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., announced that he will soon release a report revealing new information about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to his office, the report will include previously undisclosed documents and a mountain of circumstantial evidence that the virus likely began after a lab accident in Wuhan.

“We have enough pieces put together to really change the entire narrative. There is no limit to what they are willing to do to make sure the full story is never known,” Rubio said of the Chinese Communist Party in a trailer teasing the report’s release.

According to a statement, the report will explore what was happening in China during the years and months leading up to the known outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This report uncovered and will reveal evidence that was either previously unknown or otherwise ignored by the U.S. government,” Rubio’s statement said.

The Senator’s office isn’t sharing the exact release date.

Last week, both FBI Director Christopher Wray and former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told Congress that they believe the pandemic began after a lab leak incident in Wuhan.

“This conclusion is based primarily on the biology of the virus itself. Including the rapid, high infectivity for human to human transmission,” Redfield said.

Redfield explained that he doesn’t believe it is scientifically plausible that COVID-19 jumped from a bat to humans and became so infectious so quickly.

“All viruses are not the same. So when you look at coronaviruses for SARS and MERS, for example, when they entered the human species, which they did through an intermediate, they never learned how to go human to human. Even to this day they don’t know how to go human to human,” Redfield said.

Director Wray told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that the FBI has assessed since the summer of 2021 that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was likely a lab incident in Wuhan.
‘Red flags’: DOJ sues Rite Aid over opioid crisis

March 14, 2023

The Department of Justice is suing Rite Aid, accusing one of the largest pharmaceutical companies of contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis. In its complaint, the Justice Department claims Rite Aid filled thousands of unlawful prescriptions and intentionally deleted internal memos from employees warning about suspicious prescribers. Rite Aid is accused of ignoring red flags and dispensing an excess of opioids such as oxycodone and fentanyl.

Two pharmacists and a pharmacy technician at Rite Aid came forward as whistleblowers, accusing the company of filling illegitimate prescriptions.

Rite Aid has not commented on the lawsuit, and it is not the only big pharma company targeted by the DOJ as a contributor to the opioid crisis. Walmart and drug distributor AmerisourceBergen have also been sued.

500,000 drug overdoses have unfolded in the United States over the last 21 years. Nearly 1/5 of those overdoses happened in 2020 alone, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from the CDC, 90,000 people died that year from opioids.
Congressmen want to give Americans the right to sue China over COVID-19

March 13, 2023

Two Congressional Republicans introduced a bill that would give Americans the right to sue the Chinese Communist Party for what they call a “large-scale misrepresentation campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic.” If passed, the bill would waive the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and allow U.S. citizens to sue the Chinese government for monetary damages.

Reps. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said their legislation is aimed at getting access to more information about the pandemic, and providing relief to those who lost loved ones and suffered severe economic hardship.

“The Chinese Communist Party refusal to provide real time information killed Americans,” Burgess said. “The American people lost loved ones and suffered a multitude of losses during the Coronavirus pandemic. They deserve the ability to get answers from the CCP.”

The legislation was introduced after the former head of the CDC testified that he believes the pandemic began because of a lab leak.

“This conclusion is based primarily on the biology of the virus itself. Including the rapid, high infectivity for human to human transmission,” Dr. Robert Redfield said. “As a clinical virologist, I felt it was not scientifically plausible that this virus went from a bat to humans and became one of the most infectious viruses that we have in humans.”

But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he still thinks the pandemic began with a natural occurrence. He cited a peer-reviewed paper in Science Magazine that said it likely began with a zoonotic jump from animals to humans.

“There has never been a situation where a virus escaped from a lab, that’s a brand new virus that no one has ever seen before, that led to a pandemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.

Some of the speculation may be over soon. On Friday, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would require the Biden administration to declassify intelligence regarding links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill had already been unanimously approved by the Senate. Now, it’s up to President Biden to sign it.

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