No one seems to know for sure what this means, but libertarians of all backgrounds are tweeting their support of the company’s CEO tweeting a link to the foundational book of one of the major schools of thought in Libertarianism.

Jack’s tweet has garnered approval from some prominent named Libertarian individuals and organizations, including former Congressman Justin Amash, 2020 LP vice-presidential candidate Spike Cohen, the Libertarian Party’s Mises Caucus, 2022 GA LP gubernatorial candidate Shane Hazel and many official accounts for several state branches of the Libertarian Party.

Some members of the liberty community joined in the thread to call for the Twitter CEO to cease his censorship of the liberty movement online and create a space that honors the spirit of the first amendment and the American tradition of free speech. 

The LP Mises Caucus even posted a screenshot of #Rothbard trending on Twitter nearly three hours after Jack tweeted out the link to a free online copy of “Anatomy of the State” published on Mises.org.

 Is the CEO of one the largest tech giants on the yellow brick road of libertarianism to AnCapistan? Only time will tell, but one thing is sure—this single act promoted the ideas of liberty, peace, and free markets—and that’s something worth celebrating.

The post Twitter CEO Rocks Libertarian Twitter With Mysterious Rothbard Tweet appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

by Micah J. Fleck

According to the Associated Press:

A secretive group that published a trove of hacking tools allegedly used by U.S. spies has released a password that it says can unlock related files.

In a Medium post , the “Shadow Brokers” group revealed a password to files associated with the leaked toolkit, purportedly from the U.S. National Security Agency . Some security experts tweeted that the password works, but that couldn’t be independently verified.

An October leak by the group included information that experts said might identify computers used to obscure U.S. electronic eavesdropping.

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by Micah J. Fleck

We wish it weren’t true, but as a new report explains, it all started with a theft, and snowballed from there, ultimately resulting in a Minnesota judge legally circumventing probable cause restrictions:

A Minnesota bank received a call in January from who they thought was Douglas, their customer, asking to wire transfer $28,500 from a line of credit to another bank. To verify the transaction, the bank relied on a faxed copy of his passport. But it wasn’t him, the passport was fake, and the transfer request was fraudulent.

The Edina Police Department figured out that while searching Google Images for the victim’s name, they found the photo used on the fake passport, and investigators couldn’t find it on Yahoo or Bing. So, they theorized the suspect must have searched Google for the victim’s name while making the fake passport.

Edina Police Detective David Lindman detailed this theory in an application for a search warrant filed in early February, asking the Court to authorize a search warrant for names, email addresses, account information, and IP addresses of anyone who searched variations of the victim’s name over a five-week period of time.

But search warrants require supporting probable cause, not just mere suspicion or theory. For that reason, “anyone-who-accessed” search warrants like Detective Lindman’s can be risky to execute, as evidence could potentially be thrown out in a pretrial motion. Moreover, it’s possible that such a wide net could catch completely routine and non-criminal searches of the victim’s name by neighbors, prospective employers or business associates, journalists, or friends.

Could this type of search warrant be used to wrongly ensnare innocent people? If Google were to provide personal information on anyone who Googled the victim’s name, would Edina Police raid their homes, or would they first do further investigative work? The question is: what comes next? If you bought a pressure cooker on Amazon a month before the Boston bombing, do police get to know about it?

Under a probable cause standard, no way.

But alas, Hennepin County Judge Gary Larson signed Edina’s warrant and Detective Lindman served it about 20 minutes later. 

Orwellian, or necessary law enforcement measures? You decide.

The search warrant paperwork itself can be found at this link.

The latest news regarding this ongoing investigation, however, is that Google is taking a pro-citizen stance and fighting this warrant. Good for them. But as we know, challenging the state isn’t always successful. Google is large, though. They can likely handle the heat.

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by Micah J. Fleck

The Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280 have joined forces to do something pretty extraordinary: cram inconspicuous flash drives full of pro-freedom, unfiltered information from the outside world and then smuggle said drives into North Korea for mass consumption.

Reports the New York Post:

That old USB drive you never use anymore could be the key to unlocking the truth for a North Korean living in the world’s most oppressive regime.

A joint initiative between the Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280 is collecting donated flash drives to be erased and then loaded up with films, e-books and other content from the outside world to eventually be smuggled into North Korea, where citizens will covertly watch in groups. Flash Drives for Freedom, which began as a way to disseminate Western blockbusters and South Korean television, has morphed into a marketplace of documentaries and educational content – with the hope of sparking an intellectual revolution down the line.

Even closed borders will be breeched when liberty is at stake, Free trade for all– including of ideas!

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by Micah J. Fleck

The existence of fake accounts and/or bots isn’t surprising to those who have become public figures on social media, as there are many fake fans and retweets and follows that tend to piggyback on growing supporter bases for the purposes of advertising. But a new study independent from Twitter’s own researchers has now discovered that over twice as many accounts on the service are fake than originally estimated.

According to a summary of the study by CNBC:

Researchers at USC used more than one thousand features to identify bot accounts on Twitter, in categories including friends, tweet content and sentiment, and time between tweets. Using that framework, researchers wrote that “our estimates suggest that between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots.” 

Since Twitter currently has 319 million monthly active users, that translates to nearly 48 million bot accounts, using USC’s high-end estimate.

The report goes on to say that complex bots could have shown up as humans in their model, “making even the 15% figure a conservative estimate.”

At 15 percent, the evaluation is far greater than Twitter’s own estimates. In a filing with the SEC last month, Twitter said that up to 8.5 percent of all active accounts contacted Twitter’s servers “…without any discernable additional user-initiated action.”

Since that equates to roughly 20 million more bot accounts than Twitter’s own assessment, that could be an issue in light of analyst concerns about user growth. In a recent research report, Nomura Instinet analysts wrote that “Twitter’s revenue growth has slowed to the mid-single digits, as the platform has struggled to attract new users over the past year…”

USC’s researchers also highlight the benefits of some bots, writing, “many social bots perform useful functions, such as dissemination of news and publications…”

But the USC report also points to the downside of bots, saying, “there is a growing record of malicious applications of social bots. Some emulate human behavior to manufacture fake grassroots political support… [and] promote terrorist propaganda and recruitment.”

Oh, good. Automated political agenda-pushing. That doesn’t sound dangerous at all.

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Facebook and other social media corporations could be forced to purge fake news and hate speech from their platforms if a proposed law in Germany is enacted.

Tech companies could be fined up to 500,000 euros for effectively “publishing” misleading or false content. Germany plans on giving social media firms 24 hours to comply.

“Defamation and malicious gossip are not covered under freedom of speech,” Germany’s Minister of Justice Heiko Maas said Sunday in an interview with a German newspaper, according to Digital Trends.

“Justice authorities must prosecute that, even on the internet. Anyone who tries to manipulate the political discussion with lies needs to be aware (of the consequences),” Maas added.

German legislators brought up the possibility of added measures to help expand their already far-reaching anti-defamation laws.

“After years of discussions, the social media must now unfortunately be forced to take responsibility,” said Volker Kauder, the parliamentary floor leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Only in this way we can counter further brutalization and willful manipulation of political debate in the net.”

Facebook recently published a job listing looking for a “Head of News Partnerships” on its website. (RELATED: Facebook Wants To Hire 20-Year Media Veteran To Help Solve ‘Fake News’ Problem)

The dissemination and spread of what is considered fake news has caused quite an uproar, especially after fake online news incited a man to fire a rifle inside a Washington D.C. pizzeria earlier in the month. There were unfounded and fabricated reports of the restaurant harboring child sex slaves and how this was in some way connected to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (RELATED: Journalists Struggle To Define ‘Fake News’ Even As They Declare War On It)

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Send tips to eric@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The post Germany To Consider Fining Facebook If It Doesn’t Purge Fake News appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Did you know that the U.S. has had exclusive oversight of the majority of URLs seen online? The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an independent organization, was scooped up by the feds shortly after its inception in 1998 in order to oversee and control such major online domains as .info and .com (which ICANN has had the authority to arbitrarily raise prices on in the past). Now, the government is handing it over to the private sector, which many internet freedom advocates argue is a good thing for keeping the internet open.

However, certain politicians such as Ted Cruz argue that doing this could give other countries’ governments more power over censorship and propaganda. But experts say this fear is inapplicable since ICANN cannot regulate speech; only the woman names themselves.

In fact, as reported by Patch, there is actually a significant chance that the chances of foreign propaganda would be even less likely now that ICANN will not be affiliated with any government body at all and left in the private market:

Ed Black, President and CEO of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, wrote in an Op-Ed for the Huffington Post that the transition will make ICANN more transparent and directly accountable to Internet stakeholders. Black explains that restrictive regimes like Russia and China will have even less influence than they do today.

The post U.S. Government to Relinquish Monopoly Over Internet Address Book appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

According to The Daily Mail:

The computer technician who deleted Hillary Clinton’s emails after she was ordered by Congress to preserve the records was reportedly offered immunity by federal officials.

The New York Times has identified the whiz as Paul Combetta, an employee of Platte River Networks, the firm Clinton hired to maintain her server. It was also the first outlet to report the immunity deal.

He is the second, known IT specialist who handled Clinton’s emails to have been granted legal protection by the Justice Department in exchange for his testimony. 

The former campaign staffer and State Department employee who set up Clinton’s server, Bryan Pagliano, was the first.

Combetta initially told the DOJ in his deposition that he didn’t remember being involved in the deletion of any emails, but later changed his story completely, even going so far as to admit that he had been tasked with not touching Clinton’s emails for any reason due to a preservation request. So why this person has now been granted immunity is anyone’s guess.

The current presiding president has made no secret of the fact that he endorses Hillary Clinton as his successor, and has even joined her on the campaign trail in the past to show his public support.

The post Another Clinton IT Guru Who Deleted Emails Granted Immunity by Obama appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

by Joey Clark

I can only hope the story of Donald J. Trump‘s presidential candidacy will one day serve as a cautionary tale, the moral of the story being passed on from this generation to the next: “When someone threatens your liberty, take them seriously. We didn’t this time around. And we’re sorry for being such boobs. Please forgive us.”

Donald Trump’s direct threats to liberty are apparent. When asked point-blank by CBS reporter Major Garrett whether he sided with liberty or security, he answered security. Accordingly, Trump has called for a boycott of Apple until they break the iPhone’s encryption, has appealed to closing up parts of the internet, and in 2013 implied his desire to see the “traitor” Edward Snowden executed.

In particular, when Trump called for “closing that internet up in some ways,” he anticipated the obvious criticism of his position, saying, “We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people.”

And now, Donald Trump is threatening the freedom of speech once again, saying:

One of the things I’m going to do if I win, and I hope we do and we’re certainly leading. I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.

Trump’s plan to open up libel laws is a direct threat to the freedom of the press and political speech. Seeing a problem, any problem, Trump’s tendencies seem to be totalitarian. When he calls for making America “great again,” one has to wonder what he means by “great.” Maybe, by “great again,” Trump means to say unfettered by the restraints of American liberty.

Trump has, indeed, been pining a lot lately for the “good old days” or “how things used to be.” For instance, after one of his rallies was interrupted by a protestor, Trump said “You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”

Does that statement or any of the above sound like the words of someone who respects American liberty?

No, but it does sound like the language of a “lion.” After all Trump did retweet this harbinger, a quote from Benito Mussolini, reading “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”

After being asked if he wanted to be associated with a fascist, Trump defended himself by saying, “No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes.”

So, Mr. Trump, though I may be running the risk of being libelous here, allow me to associate you with another interesting quote from America’s Julius Caesar, President Abraham Lincoln:

Many great and good men sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would inspire to nothing beyond…a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon?–Never! Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored.–It sees no distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memory of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and, if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen.

Dare I ask, Mr. Trump, you lion you, will your distinction come from emancipating slaves or enslaving freemen?  I cannot yet prove it, but I venture it will be the latter.

Again, when someone threatens your liberty, take them seriously.

The post Trump: a Lion Itching to Feast on Your Liberty appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

It seems 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump is on the side of the FBI when it comes to the recent fight between said entity and Apple Computers, the latter of which is refusing the former’s request to open up hackable pathways into their iPhone network in order to counter potential threats.

The irony of Trump’s latest pot-stirring, however, is that he called for a boycott of Apple products… using an Apple product (his iPhone).

As the Daily Caller reports:

Friday, during a rally in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, Trump said, “I want Apple, first of all, Apple ought to give the security for that phone, okay. What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number.”

“How do you like that? I just thought of that,” Trump said. “Boycott Apple. Here’s the thing, first of all, the phone’s not even owned by this young thug who killed all these people, the phone is owned by the government, okay, not even his phone. We don’t even have to go that far.”

“But Tim Cook, is looking to do a big number, probably to show how liberal he is,” Trump claimed. “But Apple should give up, they should get the security or find other people.”

Referencing the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Trump said, “When these two young people had bombs all over their apartments and the floor, other people saw those bombs. Well, those people in a certain way are almost as guilty as the ones that did the shooting. We got to get to the bottom of it and you’re not going to get to the bottom of it unless we use common sense. So I like the idea of boycott Apple until such time as they give that information, I think that’s a great idea.”

Photo Source: brecorder.com

The post Trump Uses iPhone to Promote Apple Boycott [VIDEO] appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.