Australia Is Adopting China’s Surveillance and Tracking Technology to Spy on Its Citizens
written by GEG | May 2, 2019
The city of Darwin, Australia is integrating Chinese surveillance technology that is used in its tyrannical social credit system for a new program Down Under called ‘virtual fences’ that will track people, their movements around the city, the websites they visit, and what apps they use. The monitoring will be done mainly by artificial intelligence, but will alert authorities based on set triggers.
On this May day, alarm bells should be sounding as China’s internet
standards and surveillance grid is spreading around the globe.
As reported by the Epoch Times,
the city of Darwin in Australia is preparing to integrate with Chinese
surveillance technology that powers its social credit system. “Virtual
fences” will alert authorities of unauthorized activity.
According to the report, the technology is based on systems being
used in Shenzhen, China where the social credit score is tracking
Chinese citizens.
As reported, the system will be powered by artificial intelligence tracking individuals movements,
“In Darwin, they’ve already
constructed “poles, fitted with speakers, cameras and Wi-Fi,” according
to NT News, to monitor people, their movements around the city, the
websites they visit, and what apps they use. The monitoring will be
done mainly by artificial intelligence, but will alert authorities
based on set triggers.
Just as in China, the surveillance
system is being branded as a “smart city” program, and while Australian
officials claim its operations are benign, they’ve announced it
functions to monitor cell phone activity and “virtual fences” that will
trigger alerts if people cross them.”
This is happening as free speech is being crushed. CBS news recently promoted the idea that the United States should look to countries like Australia for a model for “regulating speech”.
Under the backdrop of “Russian meddling” and “fake news” narratives
there is an expectation among tech elites and globalists that internet
regulation and law in the west will yield to the Chinese model of
cyberspace.
Financial Blacklisting: Activists Pressure MasterCard Stockholders to Censor “Far Right”
written by GEG | May 2, 2019
Left-wing activists, who call themselves ThisIsUs and are linked to Color of Change, forced MasterCard to hold a shareholder vote on creating a ‘human rights committee’ to “stop designated white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists, such as Tommy Robinson, from getting access to money sent from donors using the company’s card payment services. The Board of MasterCard has opposed the proposal, stating that consumers should be able to make all lawful purchases, and urged stockholders to vote against it.
Left-wing activists have forced MasterCard to hold a shareholder vote on the creation of a “human rights committee” that would monitor payments to the “far right,” with a view to cut off disfavored individuals and political groups from receiving money from supporters.
BuzzFeed reports
that the proposed Mastercard human rights committee would “stop
designated white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists, such as
Tommy Robinson, from getting access to money sent from donors using the
company’s card payment services.”
The Board of Mastercard has opposed the proposal, urging stockholders to vote against it.
The proposal was submitted for a vote at Mastercard’s upcoming
meeting of stockholders on June 25, 2019. The proposal was submitted by
left-wing advocacy organization ThisIsUs, whose board members are linked
to Color of Change, a group that has been pressuring banks, payment
processors, and credit card companies to cut off service to
right-wingers, Islam critics, and critics of progressivism.
In response, the board of Mastercard recommended that stockholders
vote against the proposal, stating that the company operates on the
principle that consumers should be able to make “all lawful purchases.”
Florida’s Legislature Passes Bill Banning Speech in Schools that Is Critical of Israeli Government
written by GEG | May 2, 2019
A bill in Florida, waiting for the signature of Governor Ron DeSantis, requires public schools, including universities and colleges, to treat anti-Semitism as discrimination, and anti-Semitic speech and acts as racist. The bill conflates criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism. It identifies anti-Semitism, and only anti-Semitism, as an example of discrimination, ignoring all others. -GEG -GEG
The Senate Monday may have given Gov. Ron DeSantis the perfect
agenda-sweetener for his Florida Cabinet meeting next month in Jerusalem
– a signing ceremony for a new Florida law requiring public schools to
treat anti-Semitism as discrimination, and anti-Semitic speech and acts
as racist speech and acts.
The Florida Senate unanimously approved
House Bill 741 with all 39 members on the chamber floor Monday signing
on as co-sponsors.
HB 741 – approved by the House 114-0 on April
11 – was substituted for its Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 1272,
which had only progressed through one committee, on the Senate floor and
adopted after senators consented to waive procedural rules to
accelerate its passage.
After
it is formally enrolled, the bill goes to DeSantis for the governor’s
signature. He has 10 days to sign or veto any bill once it crosses his
desk; approved bills left unsigned and un-vetoed still go into effect 10
days after transmittal.
In other words, DeSantis could
ceremoniously sign it during his May 25-31 trip to Israel which will
include a Florida Cabinet meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem,
likely sometime between May 28-30.
The Senate moved to introduce
HB 741 Monday morning two days after a shooting at a San Diego-area
synagogue and six months after the deadly mass shooting at a Pittsburgh
synagogue.
GOP State Chairman Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who
sponsored SB 1272, cited both attacks in describing why the measure is
necessary to ensure students are properly educated.
“Anti-Semitism
is on the rise, and we have the ability to do something about it. No
one is born with hate in their heart,” Gruters said.
The fact that
the Poway synagogue gunman is 19-years-old – recently emerged from 13
years of public school education – shows “our education system has
failed,” he said.
“If we don’t do something now,” Gruters
continued, “it will only get worse. I believe when the history books are
written, it will be known that on this day, in this chamber, and at
this moment, we made a statement against hatred.”
HB
741, sponsored by Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, amends the Florida
Educational Equality Act to add religion to the list of categories for
which discrimination is prohibited, and adopts a 2017 definition of
anti-Semitism encoded by the Miami-Dade County city of Bal Harbour and
endorsed by the U.S. State Department.
Fine filed HB 741 in
February as a response to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
movement which he says is orchestrating anti-Israel campaigns using
anti-Semitic tactics.
Under the bill, the BDS movement is defined
as a terrorist group no different than the KKK or ISIS, which has
prompted some to question if criticism of the Jewish state could be
mischaracterized as being anti-Semitic criticism of the Jewish people.
HB
741 also amends Florida’s hate crime statute to specifically include
anti-Semitism, which it defines “as a perception of the Jewish people,
which may be expressed as hatred toward Jewish people,” through such
acts as:
“Calling for, aiding, or justifying violence against Jews.
“Alleging myths about a world Jewish conspiracy or that Jews control the media, economy, government, or other institutions.
“Accusing
Jewish people as a whole of being responsible for real or imaginary
wrongdoing by a single Jewish person, group, or the state of Israel, or
for acts of non-Jews.
“Accusing the Jewish people of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
“Accusing Jewish citizens of countries other than Israel of being more loyal to Israel than their own nations.
“Demonizing, applying a double standard to, or delegitimizing Israel.”
Senate
Minority Leader Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, was the only lawmaker to
cast a negative ballot against the measure during its committee rounds,
objecting to potential freedom of speech challenges – which it is
likely to draw – in SB 1272’s one and only committee hearing.
For
that, Gibson was vociferously skewered by Republicans and Democrats and,
within two days, had issued change-of-heart statements.
