Judge Hands Elon Musk’s X A Win In Lawsuit Against California’s Content-Moderation Law
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A federal appeals court has granted X Corp.’s request to block part of a California state law that requires social media platforms to disclose their content moderation and anti-hate speech policies.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an order on Sept. 4 that grants X Corp.’s request for a preliminary injunction and reverses a district court’s ruling against the Elon Musk-owned social media company in a legal challenge to California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 587.
The court said the bill’s content-moderation provisions are not narrowly tailored to serve California’s purported goal of requiring social media companies to be transparent about their content-related practices, and may amount to unconstitutionally compelled speech.
“The panel held that X Corp. was likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that the Content Category Report provisions facially violate the First Amendment,” the appeals court judges wrote in their opinion.
AB 587 requires large social media companies to post their terms of service and to submit periodic reports to the California Attorney General’s office about their content-moderation practices and policies.
A key provision of the bill requires a semiannual report detailing how the platforms define six categories of content: hate speech or racism; extremism or radicalization; disinformation and misinformation; harassment; foreign political interference; and controlled substance distribution.
X Corp. argued in its lawsuit, which named California Attorney General Robert Bonta as defendant, that the law intends to pressure social media companies to censor content that the government deems objectionable and improperly compels speech in violation of the First Amendment.
“The legislative record is crystal clear that one of the main purposes of AB 587—if not the main purpose—is to pressure social media companies to eliminate or minimize content that the government has deemed objectionable,” X Corp. attorneys argued in their complaint.
In December 2023, a district court handed X Corp. a loss, denying the company’s request for a preliminary injunction. U.S. District Judge William Shubb found that the Content Category Report provisions aren’t “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.”
Shubb acknowledged in his order that compliance with the provisions may carry a significant burden on social media companies, but he concluded that the periodic reports that include the mandated content policy and practice disclosures are merely factual and “uncontroversial.”
“The mere fact that the reports may be ‘tied in some way to a controversial issue’ does not make the reports themselves controversial,” the judge wrote in his eight-page opinion.
The district court judge determined that X Corp. was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim and that the bill’s provisions are reasonably related to the state’s interest in transparency.
X Corp. appealed, leading to the Sept. 4 ruling, holding that the Content Category Report provisions likely compel noncommercial speech and probably fail the strict scrutiny standard because they are not narrowly tailored to serve the state’s transparency interest.
In reversing the lower court’s decision to deny X Corp.’s request for a preliminary injunction, the 9th Circuit instructed the district court to issue one in line with the panel’s opinion. In addition, the lower court must determine if the Content Category Report provisions can be separated from the rest of AB 587 and, if so, to determine whether any other challenged provisions should also be blocked.
A spokesperson for the California Attorney General’s office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that it’s reviewing the opinion and “will respond appropriately in court.”
The legal battle between X Corp. and the state of California over AB 587 is part of a broader trend where social media platforms and industry groups have pushed back against laws around content moderation on First Amendment grounds.
Recently, the 9th Circuit appeals court issued a ruling that upheld the data privacy-related provisions of California’s online child safety laws, while striking down those that required social media platforms to assess and mitigate risks of harmful content. The appeals court found that the blocked provisions likely violate free speech rights.
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Originally Posted at; https://www.zerohedge.com//
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HE’S BACK! Talking Potato Brian Stelter Announces Return to CNN and the Responses Are Hilarious
by Cristina Laila, The Gateway Pundit:
The talking potato is back!
Brian Stelter on Tuesday announced he is returning to CNN after he got canned from the network in 2022.
“I’m returning to CNN in a brand new role as Chief Media Analyst. I’ll be appearing on TV, developing digital content, and once again helming the Reliable Sources newsletter,” Brian Stelter announced on X.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
I’m returning to @CNN in a brand new role as Chief Media Analyst. I’ll be appearing on TV, developing digital content, and once again helming the Reliable Sources newsletter.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 3, 2024
Brian Stelter sent out a newsletter to Reliable Sources readers.
We wanted Reliable Sources readers to find out first. So I wrote them a letter: https://t.co/UPSopYHRbA pic.twitter.com/7xBWp4dcno
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 3, 2024
The Reliable Sources newsletter will relaunch next Monday.
Read More @ TheGatewayPundit.com
Originally Posted at https://www.sgtreport.com
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Survey: At Least 35% Struggle to Make Ends Meet in Key Swing States
At least 35 percent of Americans in more than half of all states, including five key swing states, reported that they had difficulty covering household expenses in a June and July survey published Wednesday. The data is backdropped by the U.S. presidential race, where voters have regularly tabbed the economy and inflation as the top issues.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse survey of 70,429 U.S. households finds that at least 35 percent of Americans in a whopping 33 states between June 25 and July 22 said it was “somewhat or very difficult to pay for typical expenses.” Axios notes. Five essential swing states and Virginia, where the presidential election could be close, are among locations where folks are financially reeling to such a high degree.
For example, in Pennsylvania, 35.1 percent of respondents reported having trouble covering their expenses in an economy that was ravaged by 40-year-high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration.
In a separate CNN/SSRS poll also published on Wednesday, Keystone State voters overwhelmingly selected the economy (40 percent) as their most important issue when choosing a candidate for president. The next most popular issue, “protecting democracy,” was 13 points back at 27 percent.
In Georgia, where fomrer President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are polling closely together, an even larger share of respondents said they are having trouble meeting their budgets. Over four in ten Georgians say this is the case, making it one of the ten states with the highest shares of citizens financially struggling.
This is reflected in the CNN/SSRS poll, where 43 percent of Georgia voters say the economy is top of mind heading into the election.
The Household Pulse survey further reveals that 39.4 percent of Arizonans, 36 percent of Michiganders, and 38.5 percent of Nevadans also find it challenging to cover household expenses.
The CNN/SSRS poll found a plurality of voters in each of these states categorized the economy as the number one issue. In Arizona, 39 percent of voters said it is the top issue, while 38 percent of Michiganders said the same. Four in ten Nevadans chose the economy as the preeminent issue in this cycle.
What is more, in Virginia, a typically blue state that the Harris campaign is now defending, 35 percent of respondents are having trouble making ends meet, per the Household Pulse Survey. Virginia was not a state sampled in the CNN/SSRS poll.
The CNN/SSRS poll further found that voters in each state trust Trump more on the economy, as Breitbart News reported:
- Arizona: (Trump+15) – Harris 37%, Trump 52%, Neither 11%
- Georgia: (Trump+4) – Harris 44%, Trump 48%, Neither 8%
- Michigan: (Trump+5) – Harris 44%, Trump 49%, Neither 7%
- Nevada: (Trump+16) – Harris 37%, Trump 53%, Neither 9%
- Pennsylvania: (Trump+8) – Harris 42%, Trump 50%, Neither 8%
- Wisconsin: (Trump+2) – Harris 45%, Trump 47%, Neither 8%
The poll sampled 682 voters in Arizona, 617 in Georgia, 708 in Michigan, 626 in Nevada, 789 in Pennsylvania, and 976 in Wisconsin from August 23-29, 2024. The margin of sampling error in each state was up to ±4.9 percentage points.
The surveys follow a CBS News report in late August titled “More Americans are having to choose between food and energy bills.”
One woman, Stacey Freeman, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, told the outlet she often has to weigh paying her electric bill versus other essential needs.
“Sometimes I have to choose whether I’m going to pay the light bill,” Freeman told the outlet, “or do I pay all the rent or buy food or not let my son do a sport?”
Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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Breitbart Business Digest: Inflation Leaves the Middle Class Too Poor to Shop at Dollar Stores
Inflation Chops Down Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree’s latest earnings report offers a grim reflection on the state of the American economy. What we are witnessing is not just a minor fluctuation in retail performance, but a broader indictment of an economy that, under the stewardship of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, has manifestly lost its way.
For those unacquainted with Dollar Tree’s dual audience, its Family Dollar stores cater to lower-income households seeking everyday necessities, while its namesake brand draws in middle- and upper-income shoppers for affordable party supplies and seasonal goods. What makes this earnings report notable is the revelation that even households earning over $125,000 per year—once thought immune to such cutbacks—are now tightening their belts and shifting from “buying for want” to “buying for need.”
This is not a blip, nor should it be dismissed as a mere casualty of transient economic forces. Rather, it is the logical outcome of economic policies that have imposed inflationary burdens on all classes of Americans. The Biden-Harris administration, with its reckless fiscal expansions and ideological hubris, has forced consumers into a corner. It was inevitable that even the affluent would feel the blow; and now, with Dollar Tree’s stock plunging nearly 25 percent, the axe has finally bitten into the grain.
Dollar General Is Losing the Battle Against Inflation Too
The malaise is hardly confined to this one retailer. Dollar General, Dollar Tree’s main competitor, saw a similar fate recently, with its shares shedding one-third of their value. The discount chains—once considered havens during economic downturns—are now emblematic of something more troubling: the weakening of consumer confidence across the board. The administration has promised economic recovery, but these results suggest a fundamental fracture at the heart of their policies.
“Inflation has continued to negatively impact these households, with more than 60 percent claiming they have had to sacrifice on purchasing basic necessities due to the higher cost of those items,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said on an analyst call.
Vasos pointed out that with customers paying more for expenses such as rent, utilities, and health care, there’s not much left over for retail goods.
The executives at Dollar Tree are clear-eyed about the situation. Mike Creedon, the company’s chief operating officer, remarked that the business is navigating through “one of the most challenging macro environments” in recent memory. No doubt. The retailer’s same-store sales grew a paltry 1.3 percent last quarter, far below the expectations of Wall Street, and Family Dollar’s sales dipped as well. Dollar Tree’s net income has fallen by one-third, a far cry from the 14 percent increase analysts were predicting. These numbers are not signs of poor management or shifting consumer tastes. They mostly reflect the economic reality under Biden and Harris.
Why is this happening? Because when inflation eats away at household budgets, even middle-class and wealthier families have to reconsider their spending. The people who used to shop at Dollar Tree for party favors are now skipping the party altogether.
If the Consumer Falters, So Does the Economy
The health of the consumer is particularly important at this moment because household spending has been one of the few sources of growth in the economy. In the second quarter, it contributed around two percentage points of the three percent growth rate. The manufacturing sector has contracted in 21 out of the the last 22 months, according to the Institute for Supply Management (ISM). As we were reminded in yesterday’s weaker than expected construction spending figures, the housing market is teetering on a recession despite sky-high prices. The labor market is weakening, as the larger-than-expected decline in job openings showed on Wednesday.
Closely linked to consumer spending is business inventories. Last quarter, the growth in inventories were responsible for roughly 80 basis points—or eight-tenths of a percentage point—of growth. But if the consumer is weakening, businesses are likely to find themselves with unwanted inventories. This would lead to even further weakness in the manufacturing sector as retailers pulled back from new orders, a process that the soft ISM and S&P Global purchasing managers survey reports for August suggest may already be underway.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks on the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act on August 15, 2023, in Seattle. (Official White House Photo by Polly Irungu via Flickr)
The Biden-Harris administration may continue to trumpet its economic successes, but the facts on the ground tell a different story. The American consumer is voting with their dollars, or rather with their lack thereof. And no amount of political posturing can obscure the reality that inflation has badly eroded the purchasing power of families across the country. The administration’s policies, driven by a combination of ill-considered fiscal expansion and an unending regulatory attack on business, have produced an environment in which even dollar stores struggle to maintain growth.
To watch Dollar Tree’s stock plunge is to watch, in real time, the unraveling of the economic mythology which Biden and Harris have been preaching for the past four years. The consumer economy, long thought to be resilient, is fraying under the weight of inflation and uncertainty. The middle class, once the engine of American prosperity, is now forced to cut back on even the simplest of purchases.
In the latest survey by YouGov for the Economist, taken between September 1 and 3, just 21 percent of the public said they think the economy is getting better, and just 14 percent said they are better off today than a year ago. Forty-eight percent said the economy is worsening and 43 percent said they are personally worse off.
This is not the robust recovery that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden tout on the campaign trail—it is the slow but steady erosion of confidence in their leadership.
Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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JACK POSOBIEC: ‘Joe Biden never would have dropped out if that shot hit’ Trump
On Wednesday’s episode of Human Events Daily, host Jack Posobiec discussed the “shadow over our republic” following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Posobiec contemplated that had the assassination attempt been successful, Nikki Haley may have been named the Republican nominee moving into the 2024 election. He also considered Donald Trump Jr. may have been inclined to run. The other implication, in his opinion, is that Joe Biden would not have needed to drop out of the race and force a Kamala Harris nomination for the Democrats because the left would have been fine with Biden losing to “a Nikki Haley type.”
“To understand the true nature of our system you have to understand that Joe Biden never would have dropped out had that shot hit,” Posobiec said.
His guest, Darren Beattie agreed completely, emphasizing the fact that Trump had not yet named a VP at the time of the Butler rally and it would have been easy for Nikki Haley to step into the nomination. “The regime, they’re totally fine with Nikki Haley, and all the better that she can present herself as Trump-aligned ’cause she worked for Trump, all the better that she’s Republican so that if they let her win they can say ‘see, the system isn’t rigged after all’,” Beattie said. “The most elegant solution in the world and they came within millimeters of effectuating that solution.
Beattie questioned whether because of this, there were in fact sinister and purposeful forces at play in Butler, as so many have wondered due to the amount of security “failures” that took place that day.
In fact, in Posobiec and Joshua Lisec’s new book, Bulletproof: How a Shot Meant for Donald Trump Took Out Joe Biden, they placed the 12 security failures that took place that day into a probability matrix and ChatGPT revealed there was a 1 in 1 septillionth chance of all of those independently taking place.
Watch the full episode below.
This Story originally came from humanevents.com
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US school shooter was 14-year-old student, dead include two pupils: police
The perpetrator of a shooting at a US high school on Wednesday was a 14-year-old student and two of the four people killed were fellow pupils, authorities said.
“Of those that are deceased, two were students and two were teachers here at the school,” said Chris Hosey, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “The shooter is in custody… He is a fourteen year old student here at the high school.”
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Trump calls Georgia school shooter ‘sick and deranged monster’
Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday the perpetrator of a high school shooting in Georgia that killed at least four people was a “sick and deranged monster.”
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Live Review: PLUS Acolyte Cancellation Backlash and Minecraft Trailer Mayhem
Originally Posted At WDW Pro YouTube Channel
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Venezuela’s Maduro declares ‘an early Christmas for October 1’
Christmas has come early in Venezeula whether the people want it to or not.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared Monday that this year’s Christmas will start on October 1. The announcement was made at a time of extreme political escalation following the highly-contested July presidential election, in which both Maduro’s regime and the opposition party declared victory.
“It’s September, and it already smells like Christmas,” Maduro said during a television interview, according to the AP. “That’s why this year, as a way of paving tribute to you all, and in gratitude to you all, I’m going to decree an early Christmas for October 1.”
Not all are on board with the president’s declaration.
Jose Ernesto Ruiz, a 57-year-old officer worker, told the Associated Press: “Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, family reunions, parties, presents. But without money, and with this political crisis, who can believe that there will be an early Christmas?”
Maduro claimed the season would come “with peace, happiness, and security,” but the political climate has citizens fearful and living on edge.
Ruling party-loyal electoral officials declared Maduro, who first became president in 2013, the winner on election night without providing election data results to back up Maduro’s reported win. The United States recognized Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, as the winner of the election in August, rejecting Maduro’s claim of victory. This, after Gonzalez’s faction supplied electronic copies of electoral tallies that showed Gonzalez had won the most votes.
Mass protests erupted in opposition to Maduro after the election, which has since resulted in the arrest of roughly 2,000 people including politicians, journalists, and aid workers.
Just moments before Maduro’s holiday announcement, a judge ordered the arrest of Gonzalez on charges of usurpation of powers, conspiracy, and falsifying documents.
Ines Quevedo, a 39-year-old mother of two children, suggested to the paper that it’s hard to be jolly when “we are all worried about how we are going to put food on the table.”
This Story originally came from humanevents.com
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PHOTO: Tim Walz’s Family Members Reveal Support for Donald Trump
Several family members of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrat Party’s vice presidential nominee, have come out in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump.
A photo shared by Charles Herbster, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate for Nebraska, showed several people wearing blue t-shirts with the words, “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump.”
The people in the photo wearing shirts supporting Trump are related to Walz on his grandfather’s brother’s side, a representative confirmed to the Daily Mail.
Former President Donald Trump responded to the photo in Truth Social post by thanking Jeff Walz, the brother of the Minnesota governor.
“Thank you very much, Jeff,” Trump wrote in his post. “It is a Great Honor to have your Endorsement. I look forward to meeting you soon!”
The photo of the Walz family supporting Trump comes after Walz’s brother described him as “not the type of character you want making decisions about your future” and added that he “opposed” his brother’s ideology.
In a Facebook post from March 2023, Jeff Walz responded to several comments from people.
“We’ve just become a third-world banana republic,” Walz said in the post.
One of the people encouraged Walz to “have a talk with his brother,” to which Walz revealed that he had not spoken to him “in 8 years.”
“Haven’t spoke to him in 8 years,” Jeff Walz wrote in a comment. “I’m opposed to all his ideology. My family wasn’t given any notice [that] he was selected and denied security the days after.”
Another person encouraged Walz to “Help MAGA” and to “Get on stage with President Trump and endorse him.”
“I’ve thought hard about doing something like that,” Jeff Walz responded. “I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it. The stories I could tell. Not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.”
Tim Walz has three siblings: Sandy Dietrich, Jeff Walz, and Craig Walz. Dietrich is reportedly living in Nebraska, while Jeff Walz lives in Florida.
Craig Walz died in June 2016 while camping at Duncan Lake after a powerful storm rolled through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) and Cook County, leading to a tree falling on his campsite, according to KARE11 News.
Breitbart News reached out to Jeff Walz for a statement but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Originally Posted At www.breitbart.com
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