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Censorship Industrial Complex

Biometric and Digital ID in Crisis Zones: Is the Red Cross Paving the Way for a Privacy Nightmare?

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From Reclaim The Net

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The Red Cross (ICRC) is the latest long-established and operating international organization of considerable repute, that has found itself enlisted to, essentially, help the biometrics data-reliant ID happen.

Specifically, the Switzerland-based ICRC seems to have gotten involved in a schemeĀ developed to such an endĀ by Germany’s CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, and also Switzerland-based Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).

The scheme is called the Janus system.

While formally and generally working in any region affected by natural or human-created disasters – helping refugees, casualties, the issue of missing or displaced persons – the ICRC is mandated first and foremost by the 1949 Geneva Convention.

But the times have in the meantime clearly changed quite considerably – and now there’s the initiative to “hoover up” ICRC’s many decades of experience, and repute, into a “new reality.”

Such as creating new tools “aimed at verifying the identities of humanitarian aid recipients.”

And once again, the focus is onĀ developing nations. This time – not entirely unlike the stated rationale behind recent UK’s recent mass surveillance effort under the guise of fighting tax money fraud – the focus is supposedly to make sure that those caught up in humanitarian crises areas do not submit “multiple registrations.”

It’s either to make sure humanitarian aid gets to as many people as possible – or, a handy opportunity to present this problem as one without a solution, other than drastic things like biometric data getting introduced into the mix.

There has now been a disturbingly high number of instances of Western-based and/or majority-funded organizations, formal (like the UN), or informal but powerful ones, “testing abroad” the tech that they know would face serious and strong opposition at home.

And that’s in countries and societies where the dangers to privacy and security are either not well-advocated or are simply voided by the everyday bare necessity to survive.

Biometric data harvesting, retention, usage, and (ab)use fall in this category, and as much as civil rights organizations in developed countries are to be praised for the work they do or attempt to do at home, it should be said that the “backdoor experiments” taking place in poorer countries not getting enough spotlight is something these groups definitely need to work on.

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ā€˜Great Reset’ champion Klaus Schwab resigns from WEF

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From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Schwab’s World Economic Forum became a globalist hub for population control, radical climate agenda, and transhuman ideology under his decades-long leadership.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and the face of the NGO’s elitist annual get-together in Davos, Switzerland, has resigned as chair of WEF.Ā 

Over the decades, but especially over the past several years, the WEF’s Davos annual symposium has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism due to the agendas being pushed there by the elites. As the Associated PressĀ noted:Ā 

Widely regarded as a cheerleader for globalization, the WEF’s Davos gathering has in recent years drawn criticism from opponents on both left and right as an elitist talking shop detached from lives of ordinary people.Ā 

While WEF itself had no formal power, the annual Davos meeting brought together many of the world’s wealthiest and most influential figures, contributing to Schwab’s personal worth and influence.

Schwab’s resignation on April 20 was announced by the Geneva-based WEF on April 21, but did not indicate why the 88-year-old was resigning. ā€œFollowing my recent announcement, and as I enter my 88thĀ year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,ā€ Schwab said in a brief statement. He gave no indication of what he plans to do next.Ā 

Schwab founded the World Economic Forum – originally the European Management Forum – in 1971, and its initial mission was to assist European business leaders in competing with American business and to learn from U.S. models and innovation. However, the mission soon expanded to the development of a global economic agenda.Ā Ā 

Schwab detailed his own agenda in several books, includingĀ The Fourth Industrial RevolutionĀ (2016), in which he described the rise of a new industrial era in which technologies such artificial intelligence, gene editing, and advanced robotics would blur the lines between the digital, physical, and biological worlds. Schwab wrote:Ā 

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society …

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, finally, will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our sense of privacy, our notions of ownership, our consumption patterns, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health and leading to a ā€œquantifiedā€ self, and sooner than we think it may lead to human augmentation.

How? Microchips implanted into humans, for one. Schwab was a tech optimist who appeared to heartily welcome transhumanism; in aĀ 2016 interview with France 24Ā discussing his book, he stated:Ā Ā 

And then you have the microchip, which will be implanted, probably within the next ten years, first to open your car, your home, or to do your passport, your payments, and then it will be in your body to monitor your health.

In 2020, mere months into the pandemic, Schwab publishedĀ COVID-19: The Great Reset, in which he detailed his view of the opportunity presented by the growing global crisis. According to Schwab, the crisis was an opportunity for a global reset that included ā€œstakeholder capitalism,ā€ in which corporations could integrate social and environmental goals into their operations, especially working toward ā€œnet-zero emissionsā€ and a massive transition to green energy, and ā€œharnessingā€ the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including artificial intelligence and automation.Ā 

Much of Schwab’s personal wealth came from running the World Economic Forum; as chairman, he earned an annual salary of 1 million Swiss francs (approximately $1 million USD), and the WEF was supported financially through membership fees from over 1,000 companies worldwide as well as significant contributions from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is now serving as interim chairman until his replacement has been selected.Ā 

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Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in theĀ National Post,Ā National Review,Ā First Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, theĀ Jewish Independent,Ā theĀ Hamilton Spectator,Ā Reformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author ofĀ The Culture War,Ā Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion,Ā Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Movement,Ā Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author ofĀ A Guide to Discussing Assisted SuicideĀ with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan Ramp Up Pressure On Google Parent Company To Deal With ā€˜Censorship’

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From theĀ Daily Caller News Foundation

By Andi Shae Napier

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan are turning their attention to Google over concerns that the tech giant is censoring users and infringing on Americans’ free speech rights.

Google’s parent company Alphabet, which also owns YouTube, appears to be the GOP’s next Big Tech target. Lawmakers seem to be turning their attention to Alphabet after Mark Zuckerberg’s MetaĀ endedĀ its controversial fact-checking program in favor of a Community Notes system similar to the one used by Elon Musk’s X.

Cruz recently informed reporters of his and fellow senators’ plans toĀ protectĀ free speech.Ā 

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ā€œStopping online censorship is a major priority for the Commerce Committee,ā€ CruzĀ said, as reported by Politico. ā€œAnd we are going to utilize every point of leverage we have to protect free speech online.ā€

Following his meeting with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai last month, CruzĀ toldĀ the outlet, ā€œBig Tech censorship was the single most important topic.ā€

Jordan, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sentĀ subpoenasĀ toĀ AlphabetĀ and other tech giants such asĀ Rumble,Ā TikTokĀ andĀ AppleĀ in February regarding ā€œcompliance with foreign censorship laws, regulations, judicial orders, or other government-initiated effortsā€ with the intent to discover how foreign governments, or the Biden administration, have limited Americans’ access to free speech.

ā€œThroughout the previous Congress, the Committee expressed concern over YouTube’s censorship of conservatives and political speech,ā€ JordanĀ wroteĀ in a letter to Pichai in March. ā€œTo develop effective legislation, such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with Big Tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech.ā€

JordanĀ subpoenaedĀ tech CEOs in 2023 as well, including Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Tim Cook of Apple and Pichai, among others.

Despite the recent action against the tech giant, the battle stretches back to President Donald Trump’s first administration. Cruz began his investigation of Google in 2019 when heĀ questionedĀ Karan Bhatia, the company’s Vice President for Government Affairs & Public Policy at the time, in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Cruz brought forth a presentation suggesting tech companies, including Google, were straying from free speech and leaning towards censorship.

Even during Congress’ recess, pressure on Google continues to mount as a federal courtĀ ruledĀ Thursday that Google’s ad-tech unit violates U.S. antitrust laws and creates an illegal monopoly. This marks the second antitrust ruling against the tech giant as a different courtĀ ruledĀ in 2024 that Google abused its dominance of the online search market.

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