#78: MUSK PLEDGES TO FIGHT IRELAND'S HATE SPEECH BILL
$1 billion in cash taken out of circulation in Australia + Research finds that social media censorship fails to change people's beliefs + Village of 500 residents forced to take in 400 migrants + MORE
MUSK TO TAKE IRELAND TO COURT OVER HATE SPEECH BILL
Billionaire owner of X (formerly known as Twitter) Elon Musk has pledged to file legal action against Ireland’s proposed hate speech legislation which could see people imprisoned for simply possessing material the government deems illegal.
Musk tweeted on X that he “can’t wait for discovery” to begin in a pledge to file legal action.
“X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start!” tweeted Musk.
Although stalled for Summer recess, Ireland has proposed a law giving police powers to raid homes and throw people in prison for up to a year over so-called hate acts.
Independent Irish outlet Gript has also pledged to deliberately breach the law should it be passed.
“This is why here at Gript, we will not only ignore the existence of this law – we will deliberately and consciously disobey it, specifically on the topic of gender identity,” said outlet editor John McGuirk.
“It is for the Government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anything this publication writes or publishes is an incitement to hatred: We do not believe that it is, and we believe that the Government will struggle to find a single witness who admits to hating anybody because they read an article in an online publication.”
$1 BILLION IN CASH TAKEN OUT OF CIRCULATION IN AUSTRALIA
Australians are finding it harder to access cash as major banks are phasing out the option of cash withdrawals at their branches.
According to Sky News Australia, more than one billion dollars worth of banknotes have been withdrawn from circulation in the past year.
The move to digital banking has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced the demand for physical currency and increased the use of online and contactless payments. However, some are concerned about the implications of a cashless society for their privacy and security.
Professor Richard Holden, an economist at the University of New South Wales, told SBS News that Australia should be wary of following China's example of a social credit system.
He said that while Australia has strong laws and institutions to protect civil liberties, a risk still remains.
“I think we’re pretty good in Australia at making sure the administrative agencies aren’t able to misuse our private information,” said Holden.
SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORSHIP FAILS TO CHANGE PEOPLE’S BELIEFS
A new study in the journal Nature challenges the assumption that people become more extreme in their opinions when they’re only exposed to like-minded opinions.
The researchers, who collaborated with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, found that reducing the exposure of Facebook users to content from politically aligned sources did not affect their political beliefs or polarization.
The study was part of the "US 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study", a large-scale research project that examined how social media influences people's attitudes and behaviors during the last US election.
The experiment involved randomly assigning Facebook users to different groups that received different amounts of content from like-minded sources in their news feeds from September to December 2020.
The results showed that the average Facebook user saw 50.4% of their content from like-minded sources, 14.7% from sources with opposite political leanings, and the rest from sources that were neutral.
Reducing the exposure to like-minded sources by about a third did not have any measurable effects on the users' political attitudes or polarization. The researchers concluded that social media echo chambers are not as powerful as commonly assumed.
VILLAGE OF 500 PEOPLE FORCED TO TAKE IN 400 MIGRANTS
Residents of Uphal, Germany are protesting after being told that their community will be used to house up to 400 migrants in hastily-constructed container buildings.
As reported by Remix News, rural areas throughout Germany are being transformed as the German government seeks to spread out the intake of migrants throughout the country.
According to local district administrator Tino Schomann the container village will be completed “if possible, by the end of September.”
Community members have protested the idea and are even involved in a lawsuit with the government to halt the project.
“The building permit has been issued,” said Schomann.
The region has also seen a surge in the popularity of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), where the party received first place scoring 29% in a recent poll.
EL SALVADOR REPORTS LOWEST HOMICIDE RATE IN LATIN AMERICA
In a shocking turn of events, El Salvador, once known for excessive murders, has reported the lowest homicide rate in all of Latin America.
As of July 2023, El Salvador reported a rate of 2.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
This is a stark contrast to its 106 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants reported in 2015.
The major differing factor is the sweeping public safety strategy introduced by the government of President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele has overseen a crackdown on violent criminal organizations including the notorious MS-13.
“July 2023 closes as the safest month in the history of El Salvador. If we annualize the homicide rate from January to July, El Salvador (once considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world) would have an annual homicide rate of 2.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. The safest country in the Americas,” tweeted Bukele.
