Politics

Facebook limiting political content in news feeds

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The move, which will first affect Brazil, Canada and Indonesia before being tried out in the US in a few weeks, is part of a company goal to “lower the temperature and discourage divisive conversations” globally, and was announced by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg at a January conference. The change will initially impact only a small percentage of users as the company explores different ways of classifying political content and finding a balance for the types of things that people want to see.

By Milan Sime Martinic

When political parties reverse their policy stance, their supporters immediately switch their opinions too

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At least a significant portion of their supporters, according to U of Aarhus researchers.

When two competing political parties in Denmark reversed their policy stance on an issue — suddenly they both supported reducing unemployment benefits — their voters immediately moved their opinions by around 15% into line with their party.

The same thing happened when one of these parties shifted from opposing to supporting ending Denmark’s early retirement.

The researchers were studying how public opinion is formed. Their recent paper sheds light on how much influence political parties have over their supporters, according to the researchers, who surveyed their panel of subjects in five successive waves between 2010 and 2011. They studied the same group of party supporters before, during and after a policy reversal.

“We can see that [the] welfare programs were actually quite popular … and many of the voters of the center-right party were in favor of these welfare programs,” commented one of the researchers, Rune Slothuus. “Nevertheless, we can see that they reversed their opinion from supporting these welfare programs to opposing these welfare programs.”

“I was surprised to see the parties appeared this powerful in shaping opinions,” Slothuus said. “Our findings suggest that partisan leaders can indeed lead citizens’ opinions in the real world, even in situations where the stakes are real and the economic consequences tangible.”

The researchers pondered Western democracy in light of their findings: “If citizens just blindly follow their party without thinking much about it, that should lead to some concern about the mechanisms in our democracy. Because how can partisan elites represent citizens’ views if the views of citizens are shaped by the very same elites who are supposed to represent them?”

Source: How Political Parties Shape Public Opinion in the Real World. Rune Slothuus and Martin Bisgaard. First published: 04 November 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12550

U.S. Intelligence Officials Tell Senate They Will Not Repeat What Was Said in Conversations With Trump

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At a Senate intelligence hearing for an unrelated matter this week, senators ended up asking NSA and other intelligence brass about the president and the Russia investigation.

The officials told senators they would not discuss the specifics of conversations with the president.

They said they thought it was confidential information that should be protected from public hearing. They also said they were waiting for more guidance from the White House.

There was some talk about senators now being concerned about their ability to look into these matters and get answers from U.S. intelligence, and whether power has now shifted to the executive.

Comey Testifies About Trump Meetings

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Fired FBI Director James Comey has delivered a prepared statement to Congress this week.

The statement described the six meetings Comey had with the president, some of which are considered quite unusual by analysts.

During one meeting with Trump, Comey testified, he shared with the president sensitive information of a salacious nature that had been gathered as part of the FBI’s Russia investigation. At another meeting Trump asked everyone to leave except Comey and then spoke about “letting Flynn go.”

Trump several times referred to “a cloud” being over the White House because of the Russia investigation, according to Comey, who also related that Trump told him “had not been involved with hookers in Russia,” among other references.

Trump’s attorney issued a statement that he felt vindicated because Comey had said Trump himself was not under investigation.

Did You Know … French Election Media Blackouts

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Two days before the French Election, there is a media blackout for anything political.

This is supposed to provide a few days of uninterrupted consideration of the candidates, without the distraction of big news headlines, scandalous revelations, or campaigning last minute.

Similar things are done in other countries.

In the UK, for example, on the day of an election news can’t be about anything that could potentially favor a particular party. The parliament, as soon as it is dissolved before an election, enters a state of “purdah” (a Persian word for “curtain”) and can’t announce any controversial or contentious legislation.

Spain, although it does not have a media blackout, does have a “reflection” period after official campaigning ends the day before the election, and no more electoral acts are performed. They also forbid news to publish polls in the week leading up to an election.

French Candidate Macron Email Hack

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Many parties are concerned about hacking having an effect on the election, and there are questions about whether false material is mixed in with the email leaks, which are purported to be from four top-level members of the Macron campaign.

Macron is the front-runner in the the election, which is itself a runoff (with Macron and Le Pen combined receiving less than 50% of the vote in the first stage of the election.

In France, the media is not allowed to report on political topics 24 hours before the election begins.

Some are alleging that the hacks stem from the Russian government, which has been active in trying to influence other elections around the world. There is no hard evidence to support this, though, and no evidence is likely to be found, given the nature of the type of activity (cyber).

Confederate Monument Removal Protesters Clash

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New Orleans has been removing monuments to its Confederate history, led by Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Sunday afternoon protesters met at Lee Square, as did people who support monument removal.

The protesters included some considered to be white supremacists, but the peaceful protesters of all beliefs were aligned, as, in the words of one man who attended who did not give his full name: “As long as they’re fighting for my interests I’m with them.”

Many have voiced their concern about the erasing of history, whether they agree with the beliefs of those commemorated at the time or not.

However, monument removal advocates voiced their opinion in chants such as “Go home racists,” and “Hey hey, ho ho, white supremacy’s got to go.”

Macron Still Faces Challenges

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The French president-elect, the youngest leader of the country since Napoleon and a man who was unknown a year ago, could find himself without much power to act if he doesn’t quickly form a movement to win a majority in the French national assembly.

In the run up to the election, two candidates were chosen from a dozen, with Macron getting voter support from 24% of French citizens and Le Pen getting 22%.

Between the two candidates, Macron won a decisive victory, getting 65% of the votes in an election in which relatively few people went out to vote for either option. In all, less than a third of the country voted for the president in the election.

Evidence of how divided France is can be seen in the 35% garnered by Le Pen, whose political views are considered extreme and very different from those of the new president, who was the first choice of less than a quarter of the French public. Another important statistic: 40% of France is against the EU (which represents globalization in Europe), which Macron is in favor of.

Analysts said that there has never been a similar situation in French political life.

The Story of Michael Flynn

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The former Obama administration director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former Trump administration National Security Advisor is back in the news this week after Sally Yates, former acting-Attorney General, testified to the Senate about his history.

She said that the Obama administration had warned Trump not to hire Flynn because Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail from Moscow because Flynn wanted to hide his dealings with Russia.

The reasons behind Flynn’s decisions are known only to him and perhaps the FBI, which is investigating Flynn and others in the Trump administration for possible collusion with Russia during the election.

Flynn was first fired by Obama in 2014.

Between that time and Trump’s candidacy, Flynn was a paid guest on RT, where he criticized the U.S. government, and even shared a table with Putin, reportedly.

During Trump’s run in 2016, Flynn was a big supporter, although he also was being paid $500,000 by Turkey to work on their behalf, reportedly. Flynn did not disclose the relationship with Turkey to the relevant authorities in the U.S. or to the Trump administration.

When Trump was elected he appointed Flynn as National Security Advisor, despite reported warnings from the Obama administration and, according to some, Obama himself, that Flynn could not be trusted because he had lied to the Trump administration about meetings Flynn had with a Russian ambassador (Sergey Kislyak, talking about lifting the sanctions currently on Russia over Crimea and Ukraine issues) during the election.

Additionally, when he was appointed by Trump to become National Security Advisor he did not disclose his dealings with Russia on his security clearance form (a federal crime).

When the Trump administration was warned by the Obama administration about Flynn, he was not fired until 2 weeks later, just after the Washington Post reported on the conversation Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador.

Washington Post, NYTimes, NYTimes, NYTimes, NBC News, Foreign Policy, CBS News