Symphony

Encore of Revival: America, May 10, 2021

Social media and elections approach their days of reckoning.

Facebook banned President Trump, supposedly for life, but they aren’t sure, and they have no standards. This is not any problem particular to Facebook, but to software developers at large. They have the power to play judge and jury with their customers—and in many situations they need to. But in their judging, they never took the time to research one of the most basic matters of justice: standards. Facebook seems to think that because they are a company that their customers don’t have any rights unless Facebook gives those rights. China says the same about Xinjiang, and Facebook gets ever closer to being declared a utility, especially with claims like this.

As for the elections, local governments continue to recount, but there was little to no dispute on counting. The disputes were about certifying elections—either at a metaphoric gunpoint like happened with threats in Michigan, or at polling stations with overt rule-breaking. Those are the issues not being addressed, suggesting this is some kind of grand-scale manipulation technique.

Nation-wide reform is inevitable, from government to the private sector.

Trump

Judge orders release of DOJ memo justifying not prosecuting Trump // Politico

Election

The Arizona GOP’s Maricopa County audit: What to know about it // CBS News

Law

Supreme Court Weighs Crack Cocaine Sentencing Disparity // NPR

Soc Media, Cybersecurity & Tech

“so he has no first amendment rights”
Co-chair of Facebook Oversight Board defends decision to uphold Trump ban // CNN

Mark Zuckerberg can no longer deflect blame for Trump’s Facebook suspension // CNBC

The Isles

Scottish nationalists vow independence vote after election win // Yahoo India

NATO Focus

U.S., Russia, China poke each other at U.N. Security Council // Yahoo India

Standard