Meta says it removed scammers' Canada convoy Facebook groups


Truckers and their supporters continue to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa

Mon, February 7, 2022
By Elizabeth Culliford

(Reuters) - Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Monday it had removed dozens of groups, pages and accounts that latched onto the truck convoy protest in Canada but were run by spammers and scammers, including in Vietnam.

A "Freedom Convoy" has disrupted life in downtown Ottawa for 11 days, starting as a movement against a Canadian vaccine mandate for cross-border drivers but turning into a rallying point against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and many of the Canadian governments' public health measures.

"We continue to see scammers latch onto any hot-button issue that draws people's attention, including the ongoing protests," said Meta spokeswoman Margarita Franklin.

"Over the past week, we've removed Groups and Pages run by spammers...who used abusive tactics to mislead people about the origin and popularity of their content to drive them to off-platform websites," she said. Meta said users were sent to websites filled with pay-per-click ads.

The protest in Canada has also been promoted online by right-wing communities and social media influencers in various countries including in the United States.

"The Canadian convoy movement has been championed online by extreme right-wing communities & offered a blue print to extremist COVID protest groups worldwide," Ciaran O'Connor, an analyst from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue think tank which tracks extremism, said on Twitter.

Meta said it had also taken down one Facebook group associated with the convoy protest for breaking its rules against sharing content promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)

Multiple people arrested at 'Freedom Convoy' protests in Ottawa




Mon, February 7, 2022

Canadian authorities have arrested multiple people in Ottawa who were part of a "Freedom Convoy" protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

In a statement on Sunday, the Ottawa Police Service said it has launched 60 criminal investigations from the protests, stemming from mischief, property crimes and thefts all the way to hate crimes.

According to The Washington Post, Ottawa Police said they have made seven arrests in relation to property damage and other acts of "mischief" as of Sunday evening.

Police also said that multiple vehicles and fuel have been seized during the protests, according to the statement.

Authorities also issued more than 500 tickets over the weekend for notices such as "excessive honking" and seat belt violations, the Post reported.

"More than 100 Highway Traffic Act and other Provincial Offence Notices were issued including excessive honking, driving the wrong way, defective muffler, no seat belt, alcohol readily available and having the improper class of driving licence," OPS said in its statement.

The city of Ottawa declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the second week of protests against local COVID-19 restrictions.

"Declaring a state of emergency reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government," Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said in a statement.

Truck drivers starting last month were required to enter Canada fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, following a similar requirement the U.S. government implemented on truck drivers entering the country.

In a statement last week, the Canadian Trucking Alliance condemned the actions of some demonstrators during the protest, calling it a "disgusting act."

Ottawa declares state of emergency over 'serious danger' posed by anti-mandate protest

Catherine Garcia, Night editor
Sun, February 6, 2022, 

Police in Ottawa. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency on Sunday in response to the anti–vaccine mandate protest roiling Canada's capital, saying this declaration "reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government."

Watson told CBC News that the state of emergency "gives our staff and our city a few extra tools to speed things up like procurement. We're in the midst of a serious emergency, the most serious emergency our city has ever faced, and we need to cut the red tape to get these supplies available to our police officers and to our public works staff."

The protest was organized by a group calling itself the Freedom Convoy, and is against the requirement that cross-border truck drivers receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The demonstration began 10 days ago, and Ottawa residents have complained of truck horns blaring at all hours and verbal and physical altercations with protesters. Ottawa police said there are 97 criminal investigations now underway, and 11 are related to hate crimes. So far, four people have been charged.

Diane Deans, a city councilor and chair of the Ottawa Police Services Board, said on Saturday that "this group is emboldened by the lack of enforcement by every level of government." Ottawa police later announced that anyone bringing "material aid" to demonstrators, like fuel, could be arrested.

In addition to being against the vaccine mandate for drivers, many of the demonstrators are also protesting public health measures put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. CBC News reports that the protesters still in Ottawa say they won't leave until all COVID-19 restrictions are lifted; most of the policies were introduced by provinces.

Canada pushes back against GOP support for COVID protests



2/ 9
Canada pushes back against GOP support for COVID protestsA protester affixes a flag to the top of a truck, parked beside another with a sign calling for the jailing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, outside Parliament Hill, as a protest against COVID-19 restrictions continues into its second week in Ottawa on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022.
(Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

ROB GILLIES and TRACEY LINDEMAN
Mon, February 7, 2022

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Canada's public safety minister said Monday that U.S. officials should stay out of his country's domestic affairs, joining other Canadian leaders in pushing back against prominent Republicans who offered support for the protests of COVID-19 restrictions that have besieged downtown Ottawa for more than a week.

A day after the city declared a state of emergency, the mayor pleaded for almost 2,000 extra police officers to help quell the raucous nightly demonstrations staged by the so-called Freedom Truck Convoy, which has used hundreds of parked trucks to paralyze the Canadian capital's business district. The protests have also infuriated people who live around downtown, including neighborhoods near Parliament Hill, the seat of the federal government.

“Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an emergency debate in Parliament, while the protest continued outside. “It has to stop."



Trudeau said everyone is tired of COVID-19 but this is not the way. He said the restrictions won't last forever and noted that Canada has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. 

“Canadians trust science,” Trudeau said. “A few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are.”

Protests unfolded elsewhere too. A truck-convoy protest near the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing between Canada and the U.S., caused long traffic backups along the span from the Detroit side of the Detroit River. And in Alaska, more than 100 truck drivers rallied in support of their counterparts in Canada by driving the 10 miles from Anchorage to Eagle River, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Many members of the GOP have made comments supporting the demonstrations, including former President Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates."

Protesters have said they will not leave until all vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. They also called for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the restrictive measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.

Prominent Republicans including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton complained after crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund the vast majority of the millions of dollars raised by demonstrators.

The site said it cut off funding for protest organizers after determining that their efforts violated the site’s terms of service by engaging in unlawful activity. Ontario Provincial Premier Doug Ford has called the protest an occupation.

In response, Paxton tweeted: “Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Fox News that “government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates."

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino shot back: “It is certainly not the concern of the Texas attorney general as to how we in Canada go about our daily lives in accordance with the rule of law."

“We need to be vigilant about potential foreign interference ... Whatever statements may have been made by some foreign official are neither here nor there. We’re Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them,” Mendicino said.

In a letter to Trudeau and the public safety minister, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said “what was initially described as a peaceful protest has now turned into a siege of our downtown area" with 400 to 500 trucks. He asked for 1,800 additional police officers. That would nearly double the existing resources of the entire Ottawa Police Service, which has 2,100 police and civilian members.

Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of intergovernmental affairs, blamed the GOP interference for inciting disorderly conduct and helping to fund entities that are not respecting Canadian law. Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said Paxton was wrong for commenting on it.

Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, said groups in the U.S. need to stop funding and interfering in the domestic affairs of America’s neighbor.

On the street in front of Parliament Hill were thousands of signs ranging from “no more mandates” and “freedom of choice” to “truck you Trudeau” and some compared vaccine mandates to fascism.

Trudeau has called the protesters a “fringe,” but he faces calls by the opposition Conservative party to extend an “olive branch” to them. Some Conservative lawmakers, including one running to lead the party, have met and posted for pictures with them.

Embattled Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly called the demonstration an “unprecedented protest never seen in Canada” and acknowledged that authorities failed to plan for it to last more than three days.

Steve Bell, the city’s deputy police chief, said a person from Ohio was arrested in connection with a threat against Ottawa police headquarters.

Meanwhile, Ottawa police were investigating a fire at an apartment building that was apparently set by protesters. Matias Munoz said residents of the building south of Parliament Hill were already at their wits’ end Saturday night as the noise of the protest blared through their homes for the ninth night in a row.

When he came downstairs Sunday morning, Munoz said the carpet and floor were charred, and there were blackened fire-starter bricks strewn across the lobby.

Surveillance video showed two men light a package of the bricks in the lobby and tape or tie the front door handles together before leaving through a side door before dawn. The video also showed a different man entering the building and putting the fire out a short while later, Munoz said.

"Somebody trying to do something as insidious as taping the door shut so people can’t leave if there’s a fire in the main lobby — it’s terror, is what it is,″ Munoz said.

Ottawa police declined to release details, citing the ongoing investigation.

In other developments, Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh McLean granted a 10-day injunction to prevent truckers parked on city streets in downtown Ottawa from honking their horns incessantly.

___

Gillies reported from Toronto and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.

Canadian truckers protesting vaccines turned to a Christian fundraising site after GoFundMe blocked donations. They've already raised $4 million.


Canadian truckers protesting vaccines turned to a Christian fundraising site after GoFundMe blocked donations. They've already raised $4 million.

Rebecca Cohen,Kieran Press-Reynolds
Mon, February 7, 2022,

Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates moved to a Christian fundraising platform after GoFundMe suspended their campaign.

The Freedom Convoy has raised $4 million on GiveSendGo where they are "demanding" the federal government "cease all mandates."

The group has been protesting for 10 days, prompting the mayor of Ottawa to declare a state of emergency.

Canadian truckers in Ottawa who are protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates turned to a Christian fundraising platform after GoFundMe blocked donations to their campaign.

The group, known as Freedom Convoy, has since raised more than $4 million on the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo.

"To our Fellow Canadians, the time for political over reach is over," the group said on GiveSendGo. "Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods."

"We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our Federal Government and demanding that they cease all mandates against its people," the group added.

The fundraiser on GiveSendGo was launched after GoFundMe revoked the Freedom Convoy's fundraiser upon learning of the group's actions.

"GoFundMe supports peaceful protests and we believe that was the intention of the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser when it was first created," GoFundMe said in a statement. "We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity."

The Freedom Convoy's GiveSendGo page crashed a number of times on Monday as the fundraiser continued to spread online. A spokesperson for GiveSendGo told Insider "occasional hiccups" were occurring because of increased traffic to the site.

GiveSendGo's website describes itself as the "#1 Free Christian Crowdfunding Site" and "a place to work together with the body of Christ around the world to make a difference." The platform's official Twitter account tweeted on Sunday night that it was a "miracle" that so much money had been donated in the span of 48 hours.

The Freedom Convoy has been protesting in the country's capital for 10 days, using their trucks to block streets while supporters bring them fuel on sleds. Thousands of people are involved in the protest, Insider previously reported. The demonstration led the mayor of Ottawa to declare a state of emergency on Sunday.

"Declaring a state of emergency reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations," Mayor Jim Watson's office said in a statement.

On Sunday, Ottawa police released a statement that said it launched 60 criminal investigations in connection with the demonstration. At least seven people have been arrested and 100 have been ticketed, the police said.

Those who donated to the group's initial GoFundMe can request a full refund, and any remaining funds donated to the campaign will be donated to "credible and established charities chosen by the Freedom Convoy 2022 organizers and verified by GoFundMe," GoFundMe said.

Multiple far-right personalities with a history of sharing conspiracy theories posted in priase of the convoy on Telegram over the last week.

On Saturday, one Telegram user with 150,000 subscribers wrote a post featuring clips of the convoy that gained over 76,000 views. Another far-right influencer with 140,000 Telegram subscribers in a post on Thursday called the protest the "most amazing trucker convoy in history."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Ted Cruz Throws In With Anti-Vaccine Ottawa Trucker Mob As City Declares Emergency

Mary Papenfuss

Mon, February 7, 2022

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) became the latest hard-right politician to back a mob of anti-vaccine Canadian truckers occupying downtown Ottawa, which has declared a state of emergency over the strong-arm protest.

“God bless these Canadian truck drivers,” Cruz crowed in a tweet Sunday.

“They’re defending Canada, America, and they’re standing up for freedom! The government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.”

Cruz on Saturday clashed with Vancouver’s mayor, who told the rogue truckers to stay away. Cruz suggested in a tweet that the city might learn a lesson with hunger as market shelves emptied without the drivers.

But Mayor Kennedy Stewart fired back that 90% of Canada’s truck drivers are vaccinated and no one’s worried about the absent protesters.

The truckers in what they call the “Freedom Convoy” have been protesting for 10 days in Ottawa against the requirement that they be vaccinated before they can drive across the border into the U.S.

City officials, fearing violence from the rowdy protesters, on Sunday declared a state of emergency.

“We’re in the midst of a serious emergency, the most serious emergency our city has ever faced,” the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, said in an interview.

“Someone is going to get killed or seriously injured because of the irresponsible behavior of some of these people,” he mayor warned.

The truckers convoy was hit Friday with a $9.8 million class-action complaint on behalf of Ottawa citizens for relentlessly blasting their air horns for up to 16 hours a day while jamming streets. They have also been accused of harassing area residents and shoppers, even assaulting some, and ripping masks off residents’ faces.

Ottawa’s premier complained that the protest morphed days ago into an “unacceptable occupation.”

“This is a siege. It is something that is different in our democracy than I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly said.

Similar protests are beginning to spread to Toronto, Winnipeg, Quebec City and other provincial capitals.

After police expressed concerns, GoFundMe on Friday shut down an online fundraising campaign and blocked close to $10 million money raised for the convoy because of “unlawful” activities, it said in a statement.

“We now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity,” the statement added.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday announced on Twitter he was launching an investigation and accused GoFundMe of “fraud” for “commandeering” the money raised for the truckers. He insisted the money should be refunded.

Though GoFundMe initially said it would refund the money or redirect it to charities, it announced hours before DeSantis’ tweet that it would automatically be refunding all donations.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also complained about GoFundMe’s action on Twitter, and Elon Musk gushed: “Canadian truckers rule.”

Donald Trump Jr. called via a tweet on Friday for all Republican attorneys general in the U.S. to investigate.

Attorneys general Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia and Ken Paxton of Texas all indicated they’re launching investigations into GoFundMe on behalf of the truckers.

Paxton boasted that “patriotic” Texans donated to the “Canadian Truckers’ worthy cause.”

The Canadian Trucking Alliance, the main advocacy organization for the nation’s truckers, and the Ontario Trucking Association have disavowed the protest, the Ottawa Citizen reported. The Trucking Alliance said the vast majority of its members are fully vaccinated and are continuing to work.

University of Ottawa associate criminology professor Michael Kempa said in a CBC-TV interview Sunday that the movement is fundamentally organized and funded by those with an autocratic political agenda, including American interests, and aimed at undermining Canadian rule of law and democracy.

“They’re people interested in undoing the conventional state system, and replacing the Canadian democratic model with something that is much more grassroots authoritarian and far-right conservative,” Kempa said.

“Generally, they are outside, and intent on dismantling, the political mainstream. They’re not interested in the ... liberal system we have here in Canada.”

Kempa said Canadians were taken aback by the truckers behavior and suggested the military should reestablish order.

 

Republican Lawmaker Basically Begs 

Anti-Vax Truckers to Blockade the

Super Bowl

Jack Crosbie
Mon, February 7, 2022

Pro-Trump Rally And Caravan Held On Long Island, New York - Credit: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

For the past 11 days, hundreds of protestors, many of whom are driving big-rig trucks have occupied Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, blocking streets and disrupting the city with raucous demonstrations. These trucker protests, led by the so-called “Freedom Convoy” now besieging Ottawa, began after the Canadian and U.S. government enacted a rule requiring cross-border truckers to be fully vaccinated in order to get into either of the two countries.

The protests, like massive, heavily polarized movements are wont to do, spiraled into a wider, incoherent demonstration against public health measures as a whole. And now, they may be coming to the U.S.

Analysts watching right-wing chatter on apps like Telegram have recently seen an outpouring of organizing around direct actions similar to Canada’s trucker protests, which spread from the Ottawa occupation to large disruptive actions across the country, including at a border crossing to the U.S. in Alberta. In particular, some right wingers seem to be plotting to shut down the Super Bowl this weekend. Trump megafan and Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers took up that mantle yesterday, giving us this particularly bizarre take:



Rogers is a fringe figure, deep in the far right, but there are signs that the “trucker protest” model is rapidly catching on with more mainstream conservatives. Here’s Rand Paul, often one of the main gateways of the idiocy exchange between the far right and GOP mainstream:



The sentiment seems to be spreading fast, but it seems doubtful that the right would be able to mobilize anything significant in time for the Super Bowl next weekend, according to Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab who studies right-wing movements.

“The desire to provide an American answer to the Canadian protests and cause havoc and headaches is completely there,” Holt told Rolling Stone. “What isn’t, at this point, is a clear plan and call to action.”

Holt noted on Twitter that some of the familiar spokes of right-wing organizing are already there — media networks are covering the trucker protests favorably, groups are starting to discuss or solicit financing for some form of action, and many of the groups have large numbers of members. But there’s no one narrative or specific action that has taken hold in the way that the right rallied at in Washington, D.C., last Jan. 6, or during Charlottesville’s Unite the Right event.

“If organizers are able to speak over that frenzy with a clear plan to action, there may be a potential to generate a similar event, though I’m skeptical of its ability to capture the same scale it did in Canada,” Holt said. “Maybe most importantly, it’s not totally clear that American truckers are actually ready or willing to do this.”

In other words, we’ll have to hope that America’s truckers are more responsible behind the wheel than the ones currently honking their horns in Canada’s capital.

MILLIONAIRE TRUCKERS PROTEST
Canadian police seize fuel, remove oil tanker; court silences protesters' horns


Truckers and supporters continue to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Ottawa

Mon, February 7, 2022
By Anna Mehler Paperny, David Ljunggren and Ismail Shakil

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Police in Canada's capital said on Monday they had seized thousands of liters of fuel and removed an oil tanker as part of a crackdown to end an 11-day protest against COVID-19 measures, adding truck and protester numbers had fallen significantly.

The protest, which has gridlocked Ottawa, has been largely peaceful but ear-splitting horn blaring by protesters saw a court on Monday grant an interim injunction preventing people from sounding horns in the city's downtown.

The so-called "Freedom Convoy" consisting of truckers and other motorists started as a movement opposing a Canadian vaccine mandate for cross-border drivers - a requirement mirrored by a U.S. rule - has morphed into a rallying point against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau' public health measures.

Trudeau, who appeared on Monday for the first time in nearly a week after being infected by COVID, said the protest has to stop. Responding to an emergency debate in the parliament, Trudeau denounced the tactics used by demonstrators.

"This is a story of a country that got through this pandemic by being united and a few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are," he said.

Trudeau and his family left Ottawa to an undisclosed location as the convoy started rolling into the city due to security concerns. The protests last week included some Confederate and Nazi flags. AND LOT'S OF AMERICAN FLAGS

Canadians have largely followed government's health measures and nearly 79% of the eligible population has taken two doses of the vaccine. But recent polls have shown frustrations against restrictions are growing.

While Ottawa awoke to its second week of what its political and policing leaders now describe as a siege, Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly said on Monday activity has decreased at the blockades. This weekend, police counted 1,000 trucks and 5,000 protesters, down from 3,000 trucks and 10,000 to 15,000 protesters last weekend, Sloly added.

"We are turning up the heat in every way we possibly can," Sloly told reporters, days after he said there may not be a "policing solution" to the occupation. "We are asking for a major push of resources to come in the next 72 hours."

On Monday, a Canadian judge granted a 10-day injunction preventing people from sounding horns in downtown Ottawa. The injunction was part of a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents, some of whom have said they feel unsafe in their own neighbourhood.

The Ambassador Bridge, a major road bridge connecting Canada and the United States was temporarily closed in both directions, the Canadian government website said https://bit.ly/3rww8zo late Feb. 7. The Windsor-Detroit border is the busiest international crossing in North America.

'PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE'

Deputy Police Chief Steve Bell told city councillors on Monday police had received "active threats to public figures throughout this occupation," which they continue to investigate.

Ottawa police have received help from hundreds of officers in other police agencies, but they say it is not enough. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson asked for reinforcements in a letter on Monday to Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

"The occupation has turned into an aggressive and hateful occupation of our neighbourhoods," he wrote. "People are living in fear and are terrified." He called the honking "tantamount to psychological warfare."

A short stretch of Metcalfe Street in downtown Ottawa, home to Canada's parliament, central bank, and buildings including Trudeau's office, smelled of campfire on Monday. A clustering of trucks, cars and tractors without trailers bore signs deriding everything from vaccines and mandates to Canada's carbon tax.

One sign showed a poster of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees rights including that of life, liberty and security of the person - subject to "reasonable limits."

'PRIME MINISTER STOP HIDING'

Packets of water bottles, briquettes and diapers were piled high beside open-sided white tents with tables of food.

There was also evidence of pushback from residents. Small signs in the ground-floor windows of an apartment building a few blocks away said: "GO HOME MORONS" and "VACCINES SAVE LIVES."

"We cannot allow an angry crowd to reverse the course that continues to save lives in this last stretch. This should never be a precedent for how to make policy in Canada," Mendicino told reporters on Monday.

Trudeau did not attend the press conference and missed question period in the parliament.

"When will the prime minister stop hiding, show up for Canadians, show some leadership and fix the mess that he's created?" interim Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen, who has supported the protests, told the House of Commons.

On Sunday night, police began removing gas and fuel supplies at a logistics encampment set up by protesters after the city's mayor declared a state of emergency https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/protest-against-vaccine-mandates-paralyzing-canada-capital-mayor-says-2022-02-06 on Sunday.

A well-organized supply chain -- including portable saunas, a community kitchen and bouncy castles for children -- has sustained the protesters. It has relied partly on funding from sympathizers in the United States, police said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have praised the truckers.

Over the weekend, protests spilled over into other large Canadian cities, including the financial capital Toronto, and were met with counter demonstrations.

(Reporting by Anna Mehler-Paperny in Ottawa; Additonal reporting by Radhika AnilkumarWriting by Denny Thomas; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Lisa Shumaker and Michael Perry)

Meta's vision for the metaverse is an 'old idea' that's 'never worked,' tech CEO says


Isobel Asher Hamilton
Sun, February 6, 2022

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.Facebook


Phil Libin is the former boss of Evernote and is now CEO of videoconference company Mmhmm.

He told Insider he'd tried out Horizon Workrooms, Meta's VR-meeting software, and wasn't impressed.

He described Meta's vision of the metaverse as "uncreative."

When tech founder Phil Libin donned his Oculus VR headset to try out Meta's first metaverse product, he was hoping it wouldn't be terrible.

"I had a very, very strong feeling that it would suck, but I went into it with as much hope as possible that I would be pleasantly surprised," Libin said in an interview with Insider.

He and his employees at videoconference company Mmhmm, where he is CEO, were trying out Meta's Horizon Workrooms product. Horizon Workrooms lets people use VR headsets for virtual work meetings in the so-called metaverse.

Libin said his gut instinct turned out to be correct. "It was only tolerable for a few minutes," he said.

He believes that using VR for meetings is less enticing than familiar technologies such as Zoom, where people can still do real-world things like drink a cup of coffee. "Can't do that with a giant plastic thing on my face without spilling hot coffee all over myself," Libin said.

Horizon Workrooms, Meta's VR meetings product.Facebook

The word "metaverse" is borrowed from science fiction and refers to a future version of the internet accessed through immersive technologies such as virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets. It has been pushed in particular by Mark Zuckerberg, who rebranded Facebook as Meta in October.

In its fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday, Meta said its new metaverse business lost $10 billion and its user base shrank for the first time in its history. Meta stock plummeted 26.4% Thursday, erasing nearly $240 billion from the company's valuation in the largest one-day wipeout in US corporate history.

Libin has previously been critical of the hype surrounding the metaverse. In a podcast interview last month, he compared the hype with communist propaganda he received as a child living in the former Soviet Union.

And he remains unconvinced.

He says the vision of the metaverse presented by Meta — one of an "interconnected 3D world that we experience for many hours a day, both for fun and for work primarily through VR" — "that package of things is godawful."

"It's an old idea," Libin told Insider. "It's uncreative, it's been tried many, many times over the past four decades and it's never worked."

Proponents of the metaverse believe we'll have to wait to see its full potential, Libin said, but he doesn't think that's how great technology works.

"I think great technology starts out being primitive, but it starts out being great immediately," he said. Over time, he said, great technology gets "more polished and more mature and more sophisticated."

He gave the example of early video-game consoles and his first-ever purchase from Amazon in the mid-1990s.

"It was my very first ever e-commerce transaction — went to the Amazon website, and Amazon in the mid-'90 was super primitive. It was like a text-based site, all you could do is buy books from it. And it didn't have one-click checkout; it was very, very basic. But I bought a couple of books and I remember understanding at that point, this is amazing."

As for Horizon Workrooms, Libin said: "It's not gonna get better because it started bad. It started stupid. It can get more sophisticated, but it'll just be more sophisticated — but still bad."

Read the original article on Business Insider

California warns Tesla over racial discrimination allegations

THE FACE OF HUBRIS

Jacob Knutson
Mon, February 7, 2022

Tesla said Monday that a California state agency warned it has grounds for a civil complaint over allegations of race discrimination and harassment at the company.

Why it matters: A federal jury in California last year ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages to a Black former employee who accused the company of ignoring racist abuse he endured from other workers.

The company disclosed the notice from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in an annual regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The big picture: The filing also included a disclosure that the company received a subpoena from the SEC in November to ensure compliance with a previous 2018 settlement deal that required lawyers to vet all of Elon Musk's tweets about the company before they go out.

The SEC has accused Musk of violating the terms of the deal on at least two occasions, saying he has sent unauthorized tweets regarding Tesla's solar roof production volume and its stock price.

Lawyers for Musk have previously criticized the SEC over the settlement, saying it trampled "on Musk's First Amendment rights" in an "unconstitutional power grab" that "smacks of retaliation and censorship."

Go deeper: Tesla agrees to fix "rolling stop" software feature over safety fears

California warns Tesla it may sue over race discrimination and harassment allegations

Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY
Mon, February 7, 2022

A California state agency warned Tesla it has grounds for a civil complaint over charges of race discrimination and harassment, the automaker disclosed Monday.

Tesla disclosed the notice from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in an annual regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The automaker said it received the notice on Jan. 3.

The state investigated “undisclosed allegations of race discrimination and harassment at unspecified Tesla locations,” the company said in the SEC filing.


“The DFEH gave notice that, based upon the evidence collected, it believes that it has grounds to file a civil complaint against Tesla,” Tesla said.

SHAREHOLDERS WANT ELON MUSK TO PAY: 

Tesla shareholders want Elon Musk to pay $13 billion for role in acquisition of SolarCity

TESLA DRIVER CHARGED IN AUTOPILOT CRASH: 

Tesla driver charged with vehicular manslaughter after deadly 2019 Autopilot crash

DFEH declined to comment.

Last year a federal jury in California ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages in a racial harassment lawsuit brought by a Black former employee at the company’s factory in Fremont, California.

“The Company does not believe that the facts and law justify the verdict,” Tesla said in the SEC filing. It said a court decision in its request for a new trial or a reduction in damages is expected soon.

“Tesla will pursue next steps, including an appeal, if necessary,” the company said.

The company's diversity track record has been under scrutiny for some time.

At the automaker’s annual meeting in October, the majority of Tesla investors voted for the automaker to release detailed data about the demographics of its workforce.

Although the resolution to force disclosure of the company's EEO-1 report was supported by the majority of shareholders, it is up to Tesla whether or not to adopt it.


A Tesla charges at a station in Topeka, Kansas, on April 5, 2021.

The EEO-1 report, which breaks down the race and gender of a company’s workforce by job categories, is filed annually with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The report is private unless a company discloses it.

USA TODAY gathered EEO-1 reports from 83 of the nation’s top 100 companies and found deep racial inequities despite corporate pledges to do better after George Floyd's killing in 2020.

White and male employees remain overrepresented in positions that pay the highest salaries, offer the best benefits and provide a path to promotions in the Standard & Poor's 100. Black workers, particularly women, tend to be concentrated in the lowest ranks of America’s leading corporations.

Tesla previously disclosed that its U.S. workforce is diverse but 83% of those in company leadership roles are men and 59% are white. Tesla also said that 79% of the workforce, 75% of new hires and 77% of promotions in 2020 were men.

Black and African American employees comprised 10% of the workforce but 4% of leadership, 12% of new hires and 10% of promotions in 2020. Hispanic and Latino employees were 22% of the workforce, 4% of leadership, 27% of new hires and 24% of promotions.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California warns Tesla it may sue over race discrimination, harassment

Judge dismisses fired Amazon worker's lawsuit alleging discrimination

Mon, February 7, 2022,

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday sided with Amazon.com Inc in dismissing a discrimination lawsuit that workplace organizer Christian Smalls had filed against his former employer.

U.S. District Judge Rachel Kovner rejected Smalls' claim that Amazon had fired him because he is Black and had opposed discriminatory COVID-19 policies.

Smalls' allegation that Amazon subjected a largely non-white workforce to conditions inferior to that of its mostly white managers, by failing to provide necessary protective gear, failed on the merits as well, Kovner said.

Smalls had no immediate comment. Amazon did not immediately comment.

The online retailer terminated Smalls in March 2020, saying he joined a protest at its warehouse on New York City's Staten Island despite being on paid quarantine from close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19.

In the months since, Smalls has led an organizing campaign at the warehouse to create what he and peers call the Amazon Labor Union and demand safer conditions, higher wages and job security. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board said last month that the group could proceed with a union election.

Smalls' firing has remained an issue for New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who wants a court order requiring his reinstatement. Smalls has the option to file an amended complaint within 30 days, as well.

The case is Smalls v Amazon Inc, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 20-05492.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Palo Alto, California, and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)