Trump Accused of Trying to 'Inflict as Much Harm as Possible' With Billions in Global Health Funding Cuts During Pandemic


"These rescissions are filled with damaging and irrational cuts to programs critical in the fight against Covid-19."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer
Published on Friday, January 15, 2021
by Common Dreams

A medical worker collects a swab sample from a mother for Covid-19 tests at a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 16, 2020. (Photo: Michael Tewelde/Xinhua via Getty Images)


With less than a week left in the White House, President Donald Trump on Thursday presented Congress with more than $27 billion in proposed funding cuts to an array of domestic and foreign aid programs, including $4 billion from an initiative helping to distribute coronavirus vaccine doses in poor nations that have struggled to inoculate their populations due to hoarding by rich countries.

The American Prospect's David Dayen reported Friday that the "largest cut" in Trump's rescission proposal, which Congress is not required to act on, "would cancel $5.1 billion for Global Health Programs, in the middle of a pandemic."

"Represents the latest in the Trump administration's attempts to sabotage the incoming president, in ways large and small, on his way out the door."
—David Dayen, The American Prospect

"The program 'funds activities related to child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases' (emphasis mine)," Dayen noted. "Specifically, $4 billion in cuts would defund the GAVI program, which concerns itself with vaccinations in the developing world, including the Covid vaccine. That's combined with a $2.1 billion cut to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an enormously successful effort to curb HIV/AIDS infections and deaths in the developing world."

In a letter to congressional leaders, the Trump administration attempts to justify the requested cuts on the grounds that assisting international Covid-19 vaccination campaigns detracts from efforts to inoculate the U.S. population—an argument critics say presents a "false choice" that needlessly pits people against each other and undermines the fight against a virus that has spanned the globe.

Dayen argued that the outgoing president's last-minute proposed rescission of funding approved in the omnibus spending bill he reluctantly signed into law last month "represents the latest in the Trump administration's attempts to sabotage the incoming president, in ways large and small, on his way out the door."

"This one is easily countermanded, but only if the Biden administration takes action quickly," Dayen wrote. "Otherwise, $27.4 billion in spending, including the above-mentioned items, will be held up for the first month and a half of the Biden presidency."

In total, Trump proposed funding cuts for more than 70 programs, including, as Politico reported:
$1.5 billion for emergency overseas food aid;
Billions for scientific research, including $2 billion for the research and development of renewable energy and energy efficient technology;
More than $2 billion for AIDS relief;
More than $1 billion to assist refugees and victims of conflict worldwide;
$291 million to programs that promote democracy worldwide;
$241 million in economic support for countries across the globe;
$500 million in foreign military assistance;
$12.3 million for research on firearm mortality and injury prevention;
$13 million for the National Institutes of Health;
$430 million for cultural exchange programs;
$181 million for climate research programs at NOAA; and
Hundreds of millions in federal student aid.

In a statement Thursday, House Budget Committee Chair Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said that "these out-the-door funding cuts are a clear attempt by President Trump to inflict as much harm as possible before he leaves the White House."

"These rescissions are filled with damaging and irrational cuts to programs critical in the fight against Covid-19, climate change, and strengthening America's global leadership," said Yarmuth. "They contradict the bipartisan agreement achieved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump himself."

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Poland's growing problem with illegal European waste

Thousands of tons of waste are dumped in Poland every year, much of it from Germany. But Poland also has problems with its own waste disposal and its environment is suffering as a result.




Waste at this illegal dump in northern Poland is believed to have come from Germany

Gravel pits, fields, forests, roadsides and old warehouses are just some of the dumping grounds in Poland for waste that largely comes from Germany.

Poland imports thousands of tons of garbage from abroad and each year the burden grows. Great Britain, Italy and Austria are among the nations sending their waste to Poland. But in terms of volume, they are well behind Germany, which alone accounts for 70% of Polish waste imports.

'We are the waste dump of Europe'

According to Germany's Left Party (Die Linke), the country exported some 250,000 tons of waste to Poland in 2018.

Added to this is undetected waste such as paper or plastic that can be transferred within the EU without a reporting requirement, meaning quantities are not registered.

Moreover, operators often don't have a permit to accept or recycle the type of waste they receive, meaning it "often got here illegally," said Beata Merenda of the Lower Silesian Inspection Authority for Environmental Protection, which controls imported waste around Wroclaw in the west of Poland.

"We are the waste dump of Europe," said Piotr Barczak of Zero Waste, a Polish environmental organization.


For years, the EU's richer nations have been exporting trash to the bloc's poorer members

70% of Poland's waste imports come from Germany — and that amount is growing

Rigging the system

While recyclable material can be traded freely within the EU with a permit, the parties involved in the illegal waste business know how to trick the system, explains Merenda.

"For example, they declare it as plastic waste when in reality it is household waste or non-functional old vehicles that are being transported," she said.

It is hard to estimate just how many thousands of tons make it across the border unnoticed or under false labels. Merenda says that of about 20 spot checks her agency carried out in 2019, 14 cases uncovered illegal shipments of sludge, medical waste and unsorted household waste into Poland.

Watch video 03:23

Romania’s garbage dumps

The dirty business of waste

German companies can halve their disposal costs if they export their waste to Poland, according to Merenda. And some Poles are happy to take it.

It's a lucrative business for both sides, even if they are breaking the law, says Grzegorz Wielgosniski, an environmental engineer at the Lodz University of Technology. Describing the dirty business of waste dumping in Poland, he explains how a Polish company might offer to take plastic from a German operator and obtain a permit that says it will recycle the waste.

"But apart from a plot of land and maybe an excavator for unloading waste, this company has nothing that is needed for further recycling," Wielgosniski said. "Whether there is a facility for this, the responsible authority has not checked, but it has issued the permit nonetheless. In such a case, the waste is usually simply burned."

Lessons from Norway? Oslo's Klemetsrud waste incineration plant uses carbon capture and storage technology to reduce emissions

Harming people and the environment

Instead of utilizing modern waste incineration plants and technologies, mountains of waste are sometimes set alight to save money. As much of the waste contains harmful substances and chemicals, this has negative consequences for both people and the environment.

Piotr Barczak of Zero Waste criticizes the Polish government for not doing enough to fight waste management crime. Too many permits are issued and controls are too lax, he says. He is calling for tougher penalties and would like to see the German and Polish environmental authorities cooperate much more closely.

He also wants German companies to monitor where their waste is going, and to ascertain what actually happens to it in Poland. "[But] that they don't really control it and just turn a blind eye," Barczak said.

Poland can't process its own waste

Polish ecologists are appealing to the government to ban the import of waste from abroad because Poland can no longer even process its own waste.

The country lacks recycling and disposal facilities, says Barczak, who is critical of cross-border waste transfers in general. "Those who produced the waste should take responsibility for its disposal and not shift that responsibility to poorer countries where the cost of disposal is lower, such as in Poland," he said.

The ecologist fears, however, as long as prices are lower in Poland, the dirty business of waste will continue to boom.

Hackers 'manipulated' stolen COVID vaccine papers, says EU agency

Documents and emails about the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna jabs were taken in a cyberattack late last year. The EU's drug regulator thinks hackers are trying to damage public trust in the COVID vaccines.



Documents and emails were taken in a cyberattack last year

Hackers have leaked stolen coronavirus vaccine documents online and altered them prior to publication, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday.

Documents and emails about the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were taken in a cyberattack on the EMA, the EU agency revealed in December 2020.

Some of the correspondence been "manipulated in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines," the Netherlands-based agency said.


EMA came under pressure over its comparatively slow approval of two COVID-19 vaccines
How hackers manipulated the documents

"We have seen that some of the correspondence has been published not in its integrity and original form and, or with, comments or additions by the perpetrators," EMA added.

The EU drug regulator did not state what information was altered.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS said it had viewed documents posted online which appeared to show the EMA facing heavy pressure from the European Commission to approve the vaccines as soon as possible.

According to NOS, the agency has not confirmed whether those passages — which were posted on a Russian internet forum — were genuine.

The broadcaster quoted an unnamed source as saying that a "foreign intelligence service" was behind the hack. German media has reported similar findings.

Watch video

Klaus Cichutek: 'One has to balance the benefits of vaccines against potential risk'

High medical standards

EU member states criticized the EMA for slow vaccine approval in December amid a growing second wave of infections.

The agency issued its first recommendation for the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine weeks after the shot received approval in Britain, the United States, Canada and elsewhere. It recommended a second vaccine, made by Moderna, for use earlier this month.

The EMA said it had been in "constant dialogue" with the European Commission.

There had "always been consensus across the EU not to compromise the high-quality standards" it uses, despite high demand for vaccines.

Dutch police are currently investigating the hack along with the EMA.

 
IF WE ARE HEROS AND ESSENTIAL PAY US LIKE IT

Striking Kenyan health workers hope for vaccine

In Kenya, 32 health care workers have died of COVID-19, and more than 3,000 have been infected. Medical workers on strike are demanding better pay, health care coverage and adequate protective gear. Their biggest hope now is that the COVID vaccine arrives soon.

Donald Trump baby blimp gets final resting place as it is acquired by Sadiq Khan-funded Museum of London

Huge inflatable shows US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone 

It took to the skies above Parliament Square during protests in June 2018 

Following its global tour the Trump Baby blimp is heading to Museum of London

By ISABELLA NIKOLIC FOR MAILONLINE
18 January 2021 

The Donald Trump baby blimp has found its final resting place after being acquired by the Sadiq Khan-funded Museum of London.

The huge inflatable depicts the US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone.

It took to the skies, above Parliament Square, during protests over Mr Trump's state visit to the UK in June 2018.


The Museum of London announced in the same year that it was in talks to acquire the 20ft orange effigy, for its protest collection.

Now, following its global tour, the Trump Baby blimp is 'heading to its final resting place,' at the Museum.


The huge inflatable depicts the US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone

It will be conserved and potentially displayed in future years.

The creators of the famous effigy said they hoped it served as a reminder of the fight against the 'politics of hate'.

'While we're pleased that the Trump Baby can now be consigned to history along with the man himself, we're under no illusions that this is the end of the story,' they said in a statement to the PA news agency.

'We hope the baby's place in the museum will stand as a reminder of when London stood against Mr Trump - but will prompt those who see it to examine how they can continue the fight against the politics of hate.

'Most of all we hope the Trump Baby serves as a reminder of the politics of resistance that took place during Trump's time in office.'

Sharon Ament, the museum's director, said it became 'determined' to acquire the object in 2018.

It took to the skies, above Parliament Square, during protests over Mr Trump's state visit to the UK in June 2018

'We did not know then what would transpire,' she told PA.

'Of course the museum is not political and does not have any view about the state of politics in the States.'

But the blimp touches on a typical British response, satire, she added.

'We use humour a lot. And we poke fun at politicians. This is a big - literally - example of that....

'To some it's a joyous object, it makes you smile, it makes you laugh because it's satirical.'

The balloon-like object has just arrived at the Museum, 'squashed' in a suitcase.

The Museum of London announced in the same year that it was in talks to acquire the 20ft orange effigy, for its protest collection

'The most ironic and fitting thing now is it's currently in quarantine in the museum,' Ms Ament said.

'All objects have to be put into quarantine before they go into the collection because they could have insects or with something like clothing... moths.'

The conservation team will work to make sure the object lasts for future generations.

'This is seven metres tall, there is nothing like it in our collections at all. It's a massive challenge,' she said.

The Museum is a fitting home as the effigy is 'a response from Londoners,' she said.

'It was born in London... It was an extraordinary and imaginative idea.'

And she added: 'It is timely because it's coming to us in the final days of President Trump being President Trump.'

The makers of the blimp said: 'This large inflatable was just a tiny part of a global movement - a movement that was led by the marginalised people whose Trump's politics most endangered - and whose role in this moment should never be underestimated.'

Coronavirus: World facing ‘catastrophic’ moral failure on vaccines, says WHO chief

This handout TV grab taken on January 5, 2021 shows WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing on coronavirus via video link from the WHO headquarters in Geneva.( World Health Organization/AFP)

AFP Monday 18 January 2021

The world is on the “brink of a catastrophic moral failure” if rich countries hog COVID-19 vaccine doses while the poorest suffer, the head of the WHO said Monday.

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus denounced the “me-first” attitude of wealthy nations and also blasted vaccine manufacturers for chasing regulatory approval in rich countries rather than submitting their data to the WHO to green-light vaccine use globally.

He said the promise of worldwide equitable access to vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic was now at serious risk, in a speech in Geneva opening a WHO executive board meeting.

Tedros said 39 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine had been administered so far in at least 49 higher income countries.

Meanwhile, “just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country. Not 25 million; not 25,000; just 25,” he said.

“I need to be blunt. The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure - and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

He said even as some countries pronounced reassuring words on equitable access, they were prioritizing their own deals with manufacturers, driving up prices and trying to jump the queue.

He said 44 such deals were struck in 2020 and at least 12 have already been signed since the New Year.

“The situation is compounded by the fact that most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries where the profits are highest, rather than submitting full dossiers to WHO,” Tedros said.

“Not only does this me-first approach leave the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people at risk, it’s also self defeating.

“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, prolong our pain, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering.”

Read more:

WHO experts investigating COVID-19 origins in China’s Wuhan to hold online meetings

Coronavirus: UN chief urges vaccinations for all - not just the rich

Coronavirus: UAE lowers age requirement for COVID-19 vaccines to 16

Coronavirus: Israel Prison Service to vaccinate Palestinian inmates

Last Update: Monday, 18 January 2021 KSA 17:16 - GM

POLITICAL PRISONER USA
Fired Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones turns herself in to authorities


By Tina Burnside and Holly Yan, CNN
 Mon January 18, 2021

Body camera footage shows police outside in raid of Rebekah Jones' home 02:49

(CNN)The former Florida data analyst who has accused state officials of covering up the extent of the pandemic has turned herself in to authorities days after a warrant was issued for her arrest, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
Rebekah Jones has been charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices, the FDLE said. She surrendered Sunday to the Leon County Detention Facility.

Florida police raid home of former state Covid-19 data scientist

In a series of tweets Saturday, Jones announced her intention to turn herself in to authorities.
"To protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that I'm ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I'm turning myself into police in Florida Sunday night," Jones tweeted.
"The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out."
Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May and has repeatedly criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis' handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
The FDLE has said it is investigating whether Jones accessed a state messaging system without authorization to call for state officials to speak out about Covid-19 deaths.

Putting 'politics in front of lives': DeSantis faces criticism over Florida's Covid-19 response

"It's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," said a message sent on November 10, according to the affidavit. "You know this is wrong. You don't have to be part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late."

Officials traced that message to an IP address linked to Jones' house, according to a search-warrant affidavit.
On December 7, Jones' home was raided. Jones has filed a lawsuit, alleging FDLE officials violated her First Amendment rights, deprived her of due process and unlawfully seized her computers, cell phone and storage media during a search of her home.
The suit states that IP addresses are commonly "spoofed" and references news articles that found that the username and password for the system of the message that triggered the investigation were publicly available on the health department's website.

Governor faces mounting scrutiny
The investigation of Jones comes as DeSantis faces increasing scrutiny over his handling of the pandemic.
In April, the governor falsely claimed Covid-19 hadn't killed anyone under age 25.

Fired coronavirus data scientist discusses judge who approved raid 01:31

Despite multiple surges of Covid-19 in the state, DeSantis has refused to allow municipalities enforce their own mask mandates or stricter social distancing laws. That limitation of local control has been criticized by mayors from both parties.
An investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that DeSantis' administration worked to minimize bad news about the pandemic and spread misinformation.
Some health department spokespeople were told in September not to issue statements until after the November election, and officials withheld crucial data about the spread of the virus, the newspaper reported.
Jones, who helped build the state's coronavirus dashboard, has become one of the governor's harshest critics, publicly alleging that DeSantis was to blame for the mounting death toll.
In May, state officials said Jones was terminated because she "exhibited a repeated course of insubordination" and modified a state data portal without input or approval from epidemiologists or her supervisors.
But Jones said she was fired after she refused to falsify state Covid-19 data.

'We're dying here,' Florida newspaper says in pleading with governor to issue a statewide mask mandate

Jones filed a whistleblower complaint in July with the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
After her firing, Jones published her own dashboard of Covid-19 stats. She said she received internal records from people who worked for the state, including what she said was proof that state officials "were lying in January (2020) about things like internal reports and notices from the CDC."
That evidence was on "a bunch of flash drives" that officers took when they raided her house, Jones said. She said she also had documents that were legally accessed from when she was a state employee.
Legal experts said the material could theoretically be used to target Jones' sources if they violated rules about sharing internal information.
The search warrant allowed officers to recover "any and all computer equipment" that stores or transmits data, including hard drives, devices, software, and correspondence "pertaining to the possession, receipt, origin or distribution of data involving the facilitation of computer crimes offenses."
Employment attorneys in Florida said that state workers who leaked internal records to Jones could face disciplinary action or possibly legal trouble -- although they might be able to seek protection under state whistleblower laws.

CNN's Curt Devine contributed to this report.

European Union urges Israel to halt settlement expansion in West Bank

January 18, 2021 - 10:32 AM News Code : 1106891 Source : PressTV : 

The European Union has urged Israel to halt its settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The European Union has urged Israel to halt its settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

On Sunday, the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said Israeli authorities advanced plans for the construction of 780 new illegal settler units in the occupied West Bank.

“Israel's latest decision to advance plans for the approval and construction of almost 800 new settlement units in the West Bank is contrary to international law and further undermines the prospects of a viable two-state solution,” the European Commission’s spokesperson on foreign affairs said in a statement.

The statement also called on the Israeli regime “to suspend the ongoing bidding process for the construction of new housing units for an entirely new settlement in Givat Hamatos”.

The latest settlement announcements came after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Monday ordered construction plans advanced for the 800 new settler units in the occupied West Bank, days before the pro-settlements US President Donald Trump's administration leaves office.

Also on Sunday, the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s new settlement expansion plan.

The ministry’s spokesman Dhaifullah al-Fayez said in a statement that the move marks a flagrant and grave violation of the international law and resolutions, most notably the UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they are built on occupied land.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

After Trump took office in December 2016, Israel stepped up its settlement expansion in defiance of Resolution 2334, which pronounces settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

Israeli warplanes launch attacks on besieged Gaza Strip
January 18, 2021 - 12:42 PM News Code : 1106955 Source : PressTVLink:
Israel's military says its warplanes have carried out air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Israel's military says its warplanes have carried out air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The aircraft “struck military targets” belonging to the Hamas resistance movement in Gaza, it said in a statement on Monday.

It claimed that the attack took place in response to an alleged rocket attack launched from Gaza towards the coast near the city of Ashdod in the occupied territories.

There were no reports of any damage.

Israeli military sources said the rockets had landed in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Palestinian Information Center cited local sources as saying that an Israeli warplane fired two rockets at a position as well as a farmland east of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, causing material damage.

According to the report, another Israeli fighter jet fired two rockets at a position east of Khan Yunis city, destroying it and private properties nearby.

The Israeli regime every so often launches strikes against positions in the blockaded enclave, accusing the resistance groups there of launching rockets.

Gaza has been under a crippling Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Gaza Strip.

Since 2008, Israel has waged three wars against Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians.

What the dark web can tell us about the future of social networks

The landscape of social media is becoming increasingly fractured. The dark web offers clues as to what happens next

Monday 18 Jan 2021

This week, Donald Trump leaves his post as US President to make way for Joe Biden. The inauguration comes just two weeks after the storming of the US Capitol, after which Twitter announced that it had permanently suspended Donald Trump “due to the risk of further incitement of violence”. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch similarly blocked Trump from posting new content.

Trump’s social media ban was followed by a rush in new users to Parler – a social networking site that markets itself as an unbiased, free speech alternative to mainstream platforms. However, accusations that Parler had been used to orchestrate the Capitol storming led to the platform being removed from the Apple and Google app stores, and from Amazon Web Services, forcing Parler offline.

Soon after, other alternative social media apps such as MeWe and CloudHub rapidly rose up the app store rankings. The big question now is whether users will gradually go back to mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or disperse into a myriad of smaller, less regulated services. I think that the ‘dark web’ can provide some useful insights.
In the shadows

The dark web is a hidden part of the Internet that’s only accessible through specialised, anonymising web browsers. Illegal activity is rife on the dark web, such as in dark ‘marketplaces’, where users trade goods, mainly using Bitcoin. Silk Road, regarded as the first dark marketplace, launched in 2011 and mostly sold drugs. Shut down by the FBI in 2013, it was followed by tens of dark marketplaces which also traded in weapons, fake IDs and stolen credit cards.

In research carried out with colleagues in the UK, US and Denmark, part-funded by The Alan Turing Institute’s ‘Economic data science’ programme, we looked at what happens after a dark marketplace is shut down by a police raid or an exit scam (where the moderators of a marketplace suddenly close the website and disappear with the users’ funds). We focused on ‘migrating’ users, who move their trading activity to a different marketplace after a closure.

We found that most users (on average, 66%) moved their activity to a single marketplace (typically the one with the highest amount of trading). User migration happened within a few days, possibly coordinated via a discussion forum such as Reddit or Dread, and the overall amount of trading across the marketplaces quickly recovered. So although individual marketplaces can be fragile, with participants regularly making large losses due to scams and shutdowns (just last week, a huge marketplace called DarkMarket was taken offline in an international operation involving the UK’s National Crime Agency), this coordinated user migration guarantees the marketplaces’ overall resilience, so that new ones continue to flourish.

This has striking parallels with what’s currently happening on social media.

User migrations following dark marketplace closures. The arrow points in the direction of migration, and the arrow width represents the number of users. Marketplaces are ordered clockwise according to their closure dates, starting from Silk Road (diagram: ElBahrawy et al., 2020)

The fractured web

Just as Silk Road was pivotal in sparking illicit online trade, Facebook and Twitter were the seeds of social networking. They enabled faraway individuals with shared interests to meet and start a conversation. Their centralised nature was a key feature. Users were able to discover communities that they did not know they belonged to: crowds of like-minded souls available to communicate with 24/7.

But we are now witnessing the evolution of a new, more fragmented social media ecosystem. When one platform – however big – experiences censorship or a shutdown, users are quick to coordinate their migration to another platform.

In the dark web, after a closure, users tend to migrate to the same place. The same is true of the social web, with user migration driven by like-mindedness on specific themes, chiefly politics. We are familiar with echo chambers developing within one platform, where users are presented with content and opinions that agree with and reinforce their own belief systems. Soon, we might see these echo chambers each developing their own, individual platform.

What does all this mean for social giants such as Facebook and Twitter? Our research has shown that dark web communities have a remarkable resilience, even when threatened with frequent shutdowns. If the same is true of the emerging constellation of alternative social networks, then we might see a shift in power away from the bigger platforms as they lose users permanently to the smaller ones. The increasing number of platforms, and the ability of users to coordinate mass migrations, will make it harder than ever for regulators to keep track of the content being posted online. What this will mean for the influence of controversial users such as Trump remains to be seen.


Reference: ElBahrawy, A., Alessandretti, L., Rusnac, L. et al. (2020). Collective dynamics of dark web marketplaces. Scientific Reports 10, 18827.

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Authors
Dr Andrea Baronchelli

Visiting Researcher

What the dark web can tell us about the future of social networks | The Alan Turing Institute