The Great Big Tech Purge on Trumpism
Only a few days ago Big Tech, the vast social media networks that cover and provide for major discourse across the internet banned the infamous and long controversial Twitter account of Donald Trump permanently, despite him still remaining President until 20th January (with impeachment unlikely to remove him by that time), the reasons were over concerns that further violence could be stoked from rhetoric posted on the account over the US election.
This ban was followed by a mass purging of other Trump supporting accounts who have spread election misinformation and also accounts that were affiliated with the Qanon conspiracy movement. Numerous other social media platforms have also taken action as well, including banning Trump’s main accounts. But Twitter by far appears to have taken the widest and most severe action of cracking down on the wider movement. Many users on Twitter also expressed a noticeable drop in their follower counts during the purge.
Further from there Parler, a controversial clone of Twitter that promotes freedom of speech and is much more lax on moderation, allowing more offensive and controversial content, and of which many Trump supporters and others on the Right have picked up as an alternative, especially as of late, has been chucked off of the Google Play and Apple App stores, and Parler has also now gone offline from the Web after it was chucked off the Amazon web hosting service, with the website expected to be down for at least a week as it rebuilds and attempts to find a new way to host – although it could be the website shuts down for good as they may be unable to find a new host provider.
Many opponents of Trump and of the dangerous rhetoric over election rigging and the wider Qanon conspiracy movement have applauded the moves by the major social media platforms, although others have brought up the question of free speech and censorship, seeing how easy it is for the major Tech monopolies to almost wipe out an entire political movement from its platforms. Some stress that such can one day come back to bite them as well. Many ask if it is responsibile to allow Big Tech to have such powers over political discourse and expression on the internet.
And as such with Parler some have brought up whether its major removal from the hosting and platforms of the Big Tech companies could turn into an anti-trust issue, as Parler is a competitor platform.
Latest BREXIT Impacts
Freight firm DFDS has warned drivers that vehicles are being turned away or held up in Dover as well as in Calais and Dunkirk in France due to incorrect paperwork, it comes as part of some of the bumpiness from BREXIT and new rules of trade that businesses may not have been fully prepared for yet. Businesses have been warned to prepare for additional disruption that could be signficant over the coming weeks.
The UK Government has said it will step up communication with businesses in the coming days to make sure they know the new requirements.
The effects of delays and hold-ups have already had a particularly significant effect on fresh food businesses such as seafood as customers based in Europe have begun pulling out as such cannot be relied on to be delivered fresh. Other businesses have explained that the increased cost of new paperwork that is required is also having a hard knock-on effect on profits.
Ireland’s tax authority have temporarily eased customs arrangements in an attempt to try and enable business some more time to be ready without incurring further financial hit.
Further, businesses have warned that they may have to pay tariffs on the re-exporting of goods due to regulations not covered by the zero-tariffs and zero-quota access to the single market in the BREXIT Deal.
UK Today in Coronavirus
The UK Government has decided to launch a mass advert campaign telling people to act like they have coronavirus and observe lockdown rules. It comes as fears grow that many people may be ignoring the latest lockdown rules and therefore cases of the virus as such may not begin to trend downwards despite the current national lockdown being in place. The advert includes making people aware that they may be asymptomatic, meaning they have the virus but would not be aware of it, but may still be spreading it to others.
Due to people flouting the rules the government is reportedly planning to strengthen current national lockdown rules even further, such as by banning outside exercise with someone who does not live in the same household as them, as people have been abusing it to do activities outside other than just exercise.
The NHS is also still continuing to struggle with handling cases of the coronavirus with those that require hospital treatment, with patients having to be held up in ambulances as they wait for places to open up within hospitals. Some areas such as in Surrey have also had to hold up bodies of those who died to the virus in a temporary storage facility as morturies have reached capacity.
In other coronavirus related news the government has said that so far 200,000 vaccines have been administered so far and that we are still on track to meet the goal of 13 million by the middle of February, that should allow the beginning of a gradual reducing of coronavirus restrictions. Seven mass vaccination centers have been opened in England from today (Monday 11th January) and so 1000s more should now start being called up to get the jab, further speeding up the process in a bid to meet the goal of 13 million.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also said that every adult should be offered the vaccine by the Autumn.
Kim-Joung-Un Goes Nuclear
It what could be a challenge to the upcoming Biden administration, Kim-Joung-Un, leader of North Korea, has threatened to create more and new nuclear weapons to combat what he calls US hostility, unless such hostility is ended. The leader specfically wants to see missiles outfitted with multiple nuclear warheads, nuclear missiles that can be lauched from submersibles, and also nuclear-powered submarines. Kim Joung-Un also called for the creation of spy satellites.
This is despite the leader earlier admitting that his economic plans had failed the country, it is without much doubt that these latests demands to up the country’s nuclear capabilities will put further strain on its struggling economy.
It will to be seen what the Biden administration may do in response. Biden has previously said during the 2020 election campaign that Kim Joung-Un is a “thug” and further rebuked him by saying that the days of cozying up to dictators was over. Biden has also said he would only meet Kim Joung-Un if the country decommisioned its nuclear weapons, saying that he thinks the Korean peninsula should be a “nuclear free zone”.
It could be in the near-future we see a return to further more frequent ballistic missile tests and nuclear weapon tests within North Korea, that will likely further strain relations between North Korea and the United States.
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