UNBIASED - August 26, 2024: RFK Jr. Suspends Presidential Campaign and Will Remain on Some Ballots; Telegram CEO Arrested Over Lack of Content Moderation, Secret Service Agents on Leave, and More.

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Welcome back to UNBIASED. In today's episode: RFK Jr. Suspends - But Doesn't End - Presidential Campaign; Here's What It Means (1:51) CEO and Founder of Messaging App Telegram Arrested in France Over Alleged Lack of Content Moderation (6:45) Secret Service Agents Put on Leave Amid Investigation into Trump Assassination Attempt (12:21) Quick Hitters: Boeing Astronauts to Come Home in 2025 Aboard SpaceX Vehicle, Kroger and the FTC Head to Court Over Proposed Albertsons Merger, States Sue Biden Over 'Keeping Families Together' Plan, Meta Says Iranian Groups Attempted to Hack WhatsApp Accounts (13:39) Critical Thinking Exercise (16:16) Listen/Watch this episode AD-FREE on Patreon. Watch this episode on YouTube. Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok. All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Conax Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Monday, August 26th, and this is your daily news rundown. As a follow-up to last week's final episode, I am so happy to hear that so many of you loved the new Rumor Has It segment. I was hoping you would because it's so, so important,

especially right now, leading up to the election, to know what's true and what's not. So we'll keep that in and I'll try to feature that segment at the end of each week. I think that makes the most sense. With that said, if you love the unbiased approach that this episode provides and you feel more informed after listening, please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen, share the show with your friends. And if you're watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to the channel if you're not already. All of those things really help me out and they are so, so, so appreciated. Two other things actually, one is just my voice is a little raspy today.

That's because I was having fun at a weekend, at a wedding this weekend. So bear with me, but my voice sounds a little bit deeper. And the other thing is that I am now doing ad-free episodes on Patreon. So Patreon is this platform that I'm on. It is a subscription platform. And now that my podcast is running ads, because I have finally, after two years, started to monetize this platform, but now that I'm running ads, do have the ad free versions of each episode on patreon so you just have to pay $6.99 a month you sign up on patreon.com i always have the patreon link

in the uh in each episode description so you can always find the link there make an account and it's as easy as that just subscribe and you'll get the notifications whenever I post the daily episodes. And again, they will be ad free. So now without further ado, we can get into today's stories. On Friday, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his presidential campaign. He did not completely end it though. And here is what that means. To sum up his announcement, he basically said that he doesn't have a viable path at winning the election because of what the DNC has done to him. And if you've listened to my episodes over the last couple of weeks, you've heard about this, but essentially the DNC has been filing lawsuits and backing lawsuits against Kennedy over his ballot access across various states. The most recently decided

lawsuit was in New York, where a judge ruled that Kennedy couldn't be on New York state ballot because he had put an address on that nominating petition that wasn't his permanent residence, and therefore the New York judge, you know, invalidated his whole petition. And because the filing deadline had already passed, he couldn't refated his whole petition. And because the filing deadline had already passed, he couldn't refile. So he was just off the ballot. So it's been lawsuits like that, but in various states. However, if you heard the episode from last week, where I played a clip of Kennedy's vice presidential pick, Nicole Shanahan, speaking on a podcast, you heard that Kennedy's campaign, they were sort of weighing their options as of a couple of weeks

ago. And they were trying to decide where to take the campaign because on one hand, they didn't want to take votes away from Trump. So they were considering dropping out for that reason. But on the other hand, if they can secure 5% of the vote, they can officially establish their party, which is the We the People party, as an official party for the 2028 election, get access to public funds, all these things. So because of these two conflicting interests, Kennedy ultimately decided to suspend but not terminate his campaign. What that means is he will still appear on ballots in states where, one, he's allowed

to appear, two, in those states that are either red or blue, but not battlegrounds, and three, in states where it's too late for him to withdraw. So he'll stay on the ballots in states like California and Tennessee to try to rack up 5% of the country's votes. But in battleground states, which is about 10 states, he's taking his name off the ballot and telling his supporters to vote for Trump. Importantly, it's too late for him to take his name off the ballot in a couple of battleground states like Michigan and Nevada. So he will remain on those battleground state ballots, but he's still telling his supporters in those states not to vote for him because he doesn't want to take those votes away from Trump and to instead vote for Trump. So why did he do this? What was

his reason for endorsing Trump rather than Harris? Well, he first explained that the Democratic Party isn't what it once was. As you may know, both his uncle and his dad were Democrats. His uncle was former President John F. Kennedy, and his dad was Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Consequently, Kennedy Jr. himself grew up a Democrat. In fact, he originally entered this election as a Democrat, but then he decided last October to instead run as an independent. In his announcement on Friday, he explained that a lot has changed with the Democratic Party since he was growing up, which is what prompted him to leave.

He said years ago, the Democratic Party was all about free speech. The Democratic Party was against censorship, all about fairness. But now he said it's the opposite, that the Democratic Party is the one trying to censor us, trying to restrict our free speech, and that it's not the Republican Party, but the Democratic Party that's been interfering with his ability to run a fair campaign. He also gave a couple of other reasons for leaving the Democratic Party, one being the war in Ukraine, the other being the war on our children, as he calls it. And that war on our children, according to him, encompasses big pharma and big tech and the food industry. Those who know Kennedy's campaign well know that he's very interested in solving chronic disease in this country, as well as doing away with processed

foods and chemicals that many of us put into our bodies on a daily basis, just by way of the way food is made here in the United States. So for all of those reasons, he decided to endorse Trump. Following his announcement, he joined Trump at Trump's rally in Glendale, Arizona, where Trump said that if he's elected, he will establish a panel to investigate chronic health problems and childhood diseases, as well as an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts, which would be tasked with releasing all of the remaining health problems and childhood diseases, as well as an independent presidential commission on assassination attempts, which would be tasked with releasing all of the remaining documents related to JFK's assassination, which as we just said, is RFK Jr.'s uncle.

So their announcement comes, you know, they said that they'll be working together in a sense. So that's the deal with Kennedy suspending his campaign. He did not terminate it. He suspended it. Moving on to the next story, founder and CEO of a social media platform or social networking platform, I should say, Telegram, was arrested in France over the weekend for failing to adequately moderate content and his alleged unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement. Pavel Durov was taken into custody on Saturday at an airport in Paris after arriving on a private plane. The Russian embassy in France, because Durov is Russian, said in a statement that it has asked French authorities for more details of the arrest, but we do not know those details at this point. What we do know is that France's president said today that the arrest was not a

political move, but rather part of an independent investigation. The president of France wrote a statement on X that read, I have seen false information regarding France following the arrest of Pavel Durov. France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship. It will remain so. In a state governed by the rule of law, freedoms are upheld within a legal framework, both on social media and in real life, to protect citizens and respect their fundamental rights.

It is up to the judiciary, in full independence, to enforce the law. The arrest of the president of Telegram on French soil took place as part of an ongoing judicial investigation. It is in no way a political decision. It is up to the judges to rule on the matter, end quote. And we'll talk about that law that he's referring to in just a minute. But what we also know from foreign news outlets is that the arrest warrant was reportedly issued by a French law enforcement agency that's specifically responsible for protecting minors from violence. The arrest warrant was reportedly issued over accusations of organized crime, drug trafficking, fraud,

cyberbullying, and the promotion of terrorism on his platform. So what is Telegram and why is it an issue here? For starters, Telegram is a messaging app. In fact, one of the largest messaging apps with roughly 900 million active users. But something else is that the messages sent on Telegram are encrypted, meaning it is close to impossible for the company and law enforcement to see what is being sent on the app. Because of this, it's a popular platform for bad actors. That's not to say that it's only bad actors that use the platform because it's not. I mean, after all, it's almost a billion people using this platform, but the bad actors that are using it include terrorists, extremists, sex and drug traffickers, and the like. And here's the thing,

despite having almost a billion users, the company has less than 100 employees. Consequently, you can imagine there's not much moderating going on. Now, the European Union has a law called the Digital Services Act. The DSA does many, many things, but some of those things include a ban on targeting underage users with ads based on their personal data, a ban on targeting anyone based on sensitive data, which is, you know, things like sexual preferences or religious beliefs. Under the law, these platforms have to provide a reason to users when their content or account is moderated. Users must have a way to complain about their moderation and challenge the decision. Users have to have the ability to flag illegal goods and services found on the platform, and online platforms have to cooperate with

authorities in cases of any criminal offenses on their platforms. So the DSA, this law, it doesn't just apply to Telegram, it applies to all major networking platforms, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Even some of the smaller ones. But again, this is a European Union thing. As an example of how the DSA can be used against platforms, the EU actually opened a formal investigation into X not too long ago over concerns that X may have allowed the, quote, dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas's terrorist attacks against Israel, end quote. So if a company is found to have violated the DSA, EU regulators can fine the company up to 6% of their worldwide

annual turnover, potentially even block the company from European users. One final note, this is not the first time Durov has been in trouble with foreign authorities over his protection of free speech. Back in 2006, before Telegram, Durov founded a social network called VK. For short, it was essentially Russia's version of Facebook. But later, Durov ended up leaving VK for short. It was essentially Russia's version of Facebook. But later, Durov ended up leaving VK because he refused to cooperate with authorities on censoring the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's page on the VK platform. He didn't want to censor Navalny, the Kremlin did. So Durov ended up leaving. Durov's always been a strong proponent of free speech. And recently, he even sat down with Tucker Carlson to talk about just that, freedom of

speech, freedom of assembly, and a free market. But Durov ended up leaving Russia in 2014, getting citizenship in St. Kitts after making a big donation to the sugar industry in St. Kitts. And then he was later granted French citizenship in August of 2021. And France is, of course, citizenship in August of 2021. And France is of course where his arrest took place. That's where he's been. We'll see how all of this plays out in time. But for now, let's move on to the next story. We'll actually come back to this story when we finish this episode with a critical thinking question. But for now, we can move on

to the Secret Service. The Secret Service has placed at least five agents on administrative leave as a result of the investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Trump. The agents on leave include one agent on Trump's detail and three others within the Pittsburgh field office. Now it's important to note a couple of things. Number one, agents are often placed on leave during the course of investigations for various reasons. These reasons range from mental health reasons all the way to disciplinary reasons. So we don't really have specifics as to why these agents were placed on leave at this time.

Just because they were placed on leave doesn't necessarily mean that we can assume that they did anything wrong. And two, these agents weren't suspended, right? So there's a difference. Being placed on administrative leave means they were given administrative duties for the time being, and they're taking more of a back office position for now. A spokesperson for the Secret Service declined to give a reason for the leave when asked by reporters, but said that the services, quote, mission assurance review is progressing,

and we are examining the processes, procedures, and factors that led to this operational failure, end quote. And just like the last story, I'm sure we'll figure out more in due time. That is what we know about that as of now. And now we can move on to some quick hitters. The Boeing astronauts who have already been at the ISS for about 70 days too long, finally have a departure date back to the United States. For those who haven't heard about this, Boeing flew two astronauts to the International Space Station back in June after years and years of delays. But when the astronauts were in route to the ISS, they realized one, their spacecraft had a helium leak, and two, their thrusters were malfunctioning. So the two astronauts have been stuck at the ISS ever since they got there with

no ride home. But two days ago, NASA announced that the astronauts will head back to Earth in February of next year, 2025, on a SpaceX vehicle. Interestingly, both Boeing and SpaceX were awarded funding under a 2014 NASA award. Since 2020, SpaceX has completed nine flights to the ISS, while Boeing has yet to complete a single mission, despite going a billion and a half dollars over budget. In some other news, the FTC, Kroger, and Albertsons will head to trial in federal court today over Kroger and Albertsons proposed $25 billion merger. The FTC will argue that the merger would be bad for shoppers by eliminating competition and driving prices higher. Kroger and Albertsons, on the other hand, will argue that the merger is necessary so that they can compete with bigger corporations in the grocery space like Walmart, Costco, and Amazon. Moving on, Texas, Idaho, Alabama, Florida, Arkansas, and 11 other states have sued the

Biden administration over the administration's new program called Keeping Families Together, which offers a pathway of citizenship for roughly 500,000 people who entered the United States illegally but are now married to United States citizens and have at least 10 years of residence here in the States. These 15-ish states are arguing that the administration exceeded its authority in providing relief to those without legal status and that the administration is circumventing the intent of federal immigration laws. And finally, Meta announced Friday that an Iranian hacker group targeted the WhatsApp accounts of people associated with the administrations of

President Biden and former President Trump. In a statement, Meta said, quote, this malicious activity originated in Iran and attempted to target individuals in Israel, Palestine, the United States, and the UK, end quote. This announcement adds to the list of companies which have confirmed Iranian hacking attempts this election season, and that list includes both Microsoft and Google, and of course now Meta. Now let's finish with a critical thinking question. If you are new here or you missed last Wednesday's episode, these critical thinking segments are relatively new, something I'm going to try to incorporate whenever I can. It's basically where we take the opportunity to think deeper about an issue, to assess how we,

you know, how we really feel about it and open ourselves up to maybe thinking differently. So for today, let's take it back to the story about the Telegram CEO and his arrest. For starters, my first question is how do you feel about a social media executive, whether it be a CEO or someone else, being held criminally liable for the content posted on his or her platform? At what point, if any point at all, does a platform's executive become liable, criminally liable for failing to moderate others' speech? And how does your opinion differ if, maybe it doesn't differ, but how would it differ depending on the size of a platform? So maybe a platform that has 100,000 people is different than a platform that has 100 million

or a billion. Does the size have any effect on the level of liability attributed than a platform that has a hundred million or a billion? Does the size have any effect on the level of liability attributed to a platform's executive? And for the sake of conversation, let me tell you about something we have in the United States called Section 230. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is this law that basically says social media platforms and those that run them cannot be held liable for the content posted on their platforms. As an example, just last year, the Supreme Court held that Twitter could not be held liable for claims that it aided and abetted terrorism for allowing tweets from ISIS. And this is because of Section 230. In a separate lawsuit, the justices were asked to decide whether YouTube can be held liable for its recommended algorithms. The justices actually declined to answer that question again because of Section 230.

So Section 230 is something that offers a broad immunity to these platforms and those that run them here in the United States. But to bring it back, what are your thoughts on liability when it comes to these platforms, the CEOs of the platforms, the algorithms, the content moderation obligations, if any. And keep in mind our right to free speech to the First Amendment. Of course, we have to keep that in mind. Is something like Section 230 good or bad? Does it hurt or does it help? And I know there's a lot to think about there.

Whenever I do these critical thinking segments, I like to leave you with a lot of questions just because I think the more questions, the better, the more it gives us to think about. So just think about those over today, tomorrow, this week, whatever it is, maybe use those conversations or use those questions to start conversations with other people. I think it's really important that we, you know, think about these things on a deep level. So that is what I have for you today. Thank you so much for being here. Have a great night and I will talk to you tomorrow.