Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the state had secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta over its “unauthorized capture of personal biometric data.” “We have secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta to stop the company’s practice of capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law,” Paxton said. “This settlement is the largest ever obtained from an action brought by a single State and the largest privacy settlement an Attorney General has ever obtained. This serves as a warning to any companies engaged in practices that violate Texans’ privacy rights,” he added. BREAKING NEWS:  We have secured a $1.4 billion settlement with Meta to stop the company’s practice of capturing and using the personal biometric data of millions of Texans without the authorization required by law. This settlement is the largest ever obtained from an action… pic.twitter.com/AkOppAGO0K — Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 30, 2024 Spectrum News reports: Specifically, Paxton says the data was collected in violation of Texas’ Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. In November 2021, Facebook said it was shutting down its face-recognition system and deleting the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others. More than a third of Facebook’s daily active users have opted in to have their faces recognized by the social network’s system. That’s about 640 million people. Facebook introduced facial recognition more than a decade ago but gradually made it easier to opt out of the feature as it faced scrutiny from courts and regulators. Facebook in 2019 stopped automatically recognizing people in photos and suggesting people “tag” them, and instead of making that the default, asked users to choose if they wanted to use its facial recognition feature. Researchers and privacy activists have spent years raising questions about the tech industry’s use of face-scanning software, citing studies that found it worked unevenly across boundaries of race, gender or age. Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas for biometric data usage in Facebook imageshttps://t.co/Lj7lV6XOa9 — KXAN News (@KXAN_News) July 30, 2024 BREAKING: Texas officials say Meta agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement over claims the tech giant used biometric data without permission. https://t.co/FYggq12SFM — The Associated Press (@AP) July 30, 2024 From the Associated Press: Meta said in a statement: “We are pleased to resolve this matter, and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers.” Filed in 2022, the Texas lawsuit said that Meta was in violation of a state law that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent. “This is by far the biggest state governmental privacy settlement in history,” Chicago-based class action attorney Jay Edelson said in an email. Edelson’s firm filed the lawsuit that settled for $650 million with Meta. The only other larger claim is the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 billion settlement with the company in 2019. To date, Meta has now paid over $2 billion in settlements for biometric privacy claims, according to Edelson. “That is a huge signal to other companies that they should be extremely careful if they want to trade in individuals’ biometric information,” he said. The company announced in 2021 that it was shutting down its face-recognition system and delete the faceprints of more than 1 billion people amid growing concerns about the technology and its misuse by governments, police and others.

The Acting Director of the Secret Service says he is ashamed and cannot defend the security failures that occurred at Donald Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania rally.

On the morning of 29 July 2024, a mass stabbing took place at a dance studio in a community centre in Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom. Three children were killed and ten people, including eight children, were injured. Police arrested a 17-year-old male at the scene. Eight other children were injured, five of them critically, in […] The post Update on Knife Attack on Children in Southport appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The hosts of ABC’s “The View” took several potshots at vice presidential nominee JD Vance (R-OH) during Tuesday’s broadcast, claiming that despite the success of his book and the subsequent movie, he was still “a poor dude.” Host Whoopi Goldberg said that she chose to “pity” Vance — in the same way that Mr. T used to say “I pity the fool” — and argued that although she appreciated his book, she believed he’d learned none of the lessons he had written about. The conversation began with an audio clip of Vance from a recent fundraiser where he pointed out that the Democrats’ new de facto nominee — Vice President Kamala Harris — did not have the same Achilles’ heels as her predecessor, President Joe Biden. “Because whatever we might say, Kamala Harris is a lot younger, and Kamala Harris is obviously not struggling in the same ways that Joe Biden did,” Vance said. “This poor guy. I feel so bad for him,” Goldberg said, over the objection of co-host Joy Behar. “No, no, I’m going to. I’m going to pity this man. Remember how Mr. T used to pity the fool? Well, I pity this man. I pity him, because he’s had a very bumpy roll-out so far.” Hostin turned the direct attack on Vance, referencing his book — “Hillbilly Elegy” — and claiming that he lacked “empathy” for poor people and “blamed” them for their circumstances. “What’s so difficult to me is he writes this thing, ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ about sort of growing up poor… but he blames the people for their circumstances,” she claimed. “Look, I grew up in poverty, I remember what it feels like to be hungry, I remember what it feels like to not have enough, I remember what it feels like when my mother made my clothes, but I do not blame the people who are still in that circumstance for being in that circumstance.” “This is the thing. He wrote a really interesting and smart book and didn’t recognize that he isn’t out of poverty. He’s bereft —” Goldberg began. “He’s bereft of morality,” Hostin cut her off. “He’s bereft of morality, he’s bereft of empathy,” Goldberg agreed. “He’s got a spine, it’s just not a good one … He’s a poor dude.” WATCH: The View says JD Vance “isn’t out of poverty” and “bereft of morality” and has no “empathy.” “He’s a poor dude.” pic.twitter.com/Z4OWRiYWsy — Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 30, 2024

Former President Donald Trump ripped into Facebook and Google on Tuesday over accusations that the tech giants have been censoring information about the attempt on his life earlier this month. Trump’s comments come after social media users noticed that Google did not autocomplete searches for information about the attempted assassination and Facebook was censoring photos of Trump leaving the stage after being shot in the ear. Trump suggested the reason was because the two were trying to rig the election. “Facebook has just admitted that it wrongly censored the Trump ‘attempted assassination photo,’ and got caught. Same thing for Google. They made it virtually impossible to find pictures or anything about this heinous act,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Both are facing BIG BACKLASH OVER CENSORSHIP CLAIMS. Here we go again, another attempt at RIGGING THE ELECTION!!! GO AFTER META AND GOOGLE. LET THEM KNOW WE ARE ALL WISE TO THEM, WILL BE MUCH TOUGHER THIS TIME. MAGA2024!” he added. On Monday, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk pointed out that a post on Facebook featuring the famous photo of Trump leaving the rally stage with blood on his face and the American flag above him had been fact-checked with an “altered label” photo. In response, Facebook said that it had made a mistake. “Yes, this was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo. This has been fixed and we apologize for the mistake,” Facebook communications director Dani Lever wrote. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP Google also faced criticism after users pointed out that autofill for searches about the assassination attempt would not generate Trump-related suggestions. Responding to critics, Google said it was working to update its system. “There was no manual action taken on these predictions,” the spokesman said. “Our systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event occurring. We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date.” In the lead up to 2020 election, Facebook suppressed reporting from the New York Post about a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that shed a light on alleged influence peddling between Biden and overseas business partners. At the time, former intelligence officers claimed that the laptop was Russian disinformation. The contents of the laptop were later verified, confirming the Post’s reporting.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a strike on Tuesday in Lebanon that reportedly targeted a top Hezbollah commander in response to the terrorist group’s attack over the weekend that killed many children and injured dozens more inside Israel. The New York Times and various Israeli news organizations reported that the strike in Beirut targeted Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah official who served on the Jihad Council and was a close adviser on military affairs to Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. The strike came in response to a rocket attack Saturday from Hezbollah on Majdal Shams, a small village in the Golan Heights, that killed 12 children at a soccer field and wounded 40 more. The Times said that the strike happened in the vicinity of Hezbollah’s Shura Council where the terrorist group’s top decision-making takes place. Israeli media said that U.S. officials were given an advanced notice about the strike. Shortly after the strike, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Hezbollah crossed the red line.” Hezbollah crossed the red line. — יואב גלנט – Yoav Gallant (@yoavgallant) July 30, 2024 The Washington Institute for Near East Policy senior fellow Hanin Ghaddar said that Shukr was “a very big target.” It is unclear as of this writing if Shukr survived the attack. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP The U.S. government had placed a $5 million bounty on Shukr for playing a “central role in the October 23, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut which killed 241 U.S. military personnel and wounded 128 others,” according to the U.S. State Department. Joe Truzman, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), noted that Israel would not have launched the strike unless it was sure that Shukr was there. “Given the complexity of the current war, it’s highly unlikely Israel would have targeted senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr unless it had rock solid intelligence on his whereabouts,” Truzman said. “Nonetheless, Hezbollah is likely to respond strongly, even if Shukr survived the attempt.” Truzman verified videos from the strike that showed a large building in the densely-packed area was completely destroyed with smoke filling the area and debris covering the streets. It appears a building was the target of the attack in Beirut. pic.twitter.com/b8L6DLk3jI — Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 30, 2024 Site of explosion in southern Beirut. pic.twitter.com/bjuNPe7SGh — Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 30, 2024 Explosion reported in Beirut. Reports indicate the area hit is in the southern suburbs of the city where Hezbollah maintains a strong presence. pic.twitter.com/bDQHozOpS3 — Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) July 30, 2024 The U.S. has tried hard to restrain Israel from taking the gloves off in response to the near daily attacks that Hezbollah has launched against Israel since Hamas’ October 7 attacks. In the nearly 10 months since October 7, Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones into Israel, which have killed soldiers and civilians. The attacks along Israel’s northern border have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have not been able to return to their homes since last year. Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a senior fellow at FDD, said that in Israel’s last official war with Hezbollah in 2006, the IDF “did not manage to kill any Hezbollah leader.” “Since Hezbollah launched its war on Israel on October 8, the Jewish state has taken out over 300 Hezbollah commanders, including the top 4 or 5 of Hezbollah’s chain of command (those with personal pictures with Nasrallah, Mughniyah and Soleimani),” he said. “I’m starting to feel that Israel could take out Nasrallah himself if it wanted to, but saving him and enjoying his weekly rants and rambles on live TV.”

A top FBI official insisted on Tuesday that there had “never” been any question as to whether former President Donald Trump was wounded in the ear by a bullet during an assassination attempt. FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate made the assertion during a hearing in the days after his boss, FBI Director Christopher Wray, suggested that shrapnel may have caused the injury. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Abbate if the FBI, which is investigating the shooting, had any doubt that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month. “There is absolutely no doubt in the FBI’s mind whether former President Trump was hit with a bullet and wounded in the ear,” Abbate replied. “No doubt, there never has been.” .@SenJohnKennedy asks if there's any doubt President Trump was shot in the ear: "It wasn't a space laser? It wasn't a murder hornet? It wasn't sasquatch? It was a bullet…fired by Crooks that hit president Trump in the ear and almost killed him?" FBI Deputy Director: "100%" pic.twitter.com/95SQHC5cpZ — CSPAN (@cspan) July 30, 2024 Kennedy went on to ask, “It wasn’t a space laser? … It wasn’t a murder hornet? … It wasn’t Sasquatch?” He also got Abbate to say the bullet was shot by the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks. A Secret Service sniper shot and killed 20-year-old Crooks while other personnel rushed to protect Trump and escort him off the stage, but not before the former president was struck in the right ear. One rally-goer, 50-year-old fireman Corey Comperatore, was killed. Two others were wounded and have been released from the hospital in recent days. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP Last Wednesday, during a hearing before the House, Wray cast doubt on whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet — as the former president had said from the beginning. “I think with respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray said. He added, “It’s conceivable — although as I sit here right now I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to, you know, causing the grazing could have also landed somewhere else.” Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Trump’s former White House physician, posted to X that he personally examined the wound and condemned Wray for his “absolutely irresponsible” statement. Trump called on Wray to step down, though he did so citing another issue. He did also react to the bullet comment, saying, “No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!” The FBI released a statement on Friday declaring that Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet shot by the gunman at the former president’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the bureau said.

Facebook faced significant backlash after it mistakenly censored an iconic image of former President Donald Trump, labeling it as an "altered image." The photograph, captured by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci, showed Trump raising a defiant fist while being escorted by Secret Service agents following an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The incident occurred on July 13, when a gunman fired shots at Trump, resulting in a bullet grazing his right ear. The Secret Service swiftly neutralized the assailant, but the dramatic moment was captured by Vucci and quickly circulated online. The image, symbolizing resilience and defiance, gained widespread attention and was hailed as one of the most iconic photos in recent political history​​. BREAKING: Facebook says it was an “error” when they censored the iconic photo of former President Trump pumping his fist. pic.twitter.com/TgTRWS9pqL — Leading Report (@LeadingReport) July 29, 2024 Facebook initially removed the image, citing its policy against altered images. The platform claimed the photograph had been digitally manipulated, which it later admitted was a mistake. The removal sparked outrage among Trump supporters and free speech advocates, who accused Facebook of political bias and censorship. In response to the backlash, Facebook issued a statement acknowledging the error and restored the image to its platform. The company stated, "We made an error in our enforcement process and have since corrected it. We apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused." Meta AI says the Trump assassination attempt is a fictional event. pic.twitter.com/nUApDamC1a — Billboard Chris (@BillboardChris) July 29, 2024 Despite this apology, the incident has intensified the ongoing debate over social media censorship and the platforms' role in moderating political content. Trump, addressing the incident on his Truth Social platform, condemned the initial censorship. He wrote, "It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country. Social media giants continue to suppress free speech and manipulate the narrative. We will not be silenced!" His comments further fueled discussions about the power and influence of tech companies over public discourse​. This isn't the first time Facebook has faced criticism for its content moderation policies. The platform has previously been accused of bias and overreach in handling politically sensitive material. This latest controversy underscores the challenges tech companies face in balancing content regulation while maintaining free speech principles​​. As the 2024 presidential election approaches, incidents like this are likely to heighten scrutiny of social media platforms and their impact on political campaigns. The image of Trump, now restored and widely shared, serves as a potent symbol of his enduring influence and the contentious nature of modern American politics​​. The post Facebook Admits Error in Censoring Iconic Trump Image appeared first on The Conservative Brief.

A post shared on X claims that former White House photographer Pete Souza was suspended from X for spreading the claim that former President Donald Trump wasn’t hit by a bullet. Pete Souza was the Official Chief White House Photographer for the entire Presidency of Barack Obama. He took over 2 MILLION photos of Obama, as well […]