Tag Archives: Free Press

Ebay Executives indicted for bullying

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This indictment is beyond the pale. Read on.

Former eBay Executive Pleads Guilty to His Role in Cyberstalking Campaign

BOSTON – A former eBay, Inc. executive pleaded guilty today in connection with his role in a cyberstalking campaign targeting the editor and publisher of a newsletter that eBay executives viewed as critical of the company.

James Baugh, 47, of San Jose, Calif., eBay’s former Senior Director of Safety & Security, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and through facilities of interstate commerce, two counts of stalking through interstate travel, two counts of stalking through facilities of interstate commerce, two counts of witness tampering and two counts of destruction, alteration and falsification of records in a federal investigation. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for Sept. 29, 2022.

In June 2020, Baugh was arrested and charged along with David Harville, eBay’s former Director of Global Resiliency. Co-conspirators and former eBay employees Philip Cooke, Brian Gilbert, Stephanie Popp, Veronica Zea and Stephanie Stockwell previously pleaded guilty. Cooke was sentenced in July 2021 to 18 months in prison. Gilbert, Popp, Zea and Stockwell are awaiting sentencing. Harville has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

According to court documents, between approximately Aug. 5, 2019 and Aug. 23, 2020, Baugh and his co-conspirators at eBay agreed to engage in a harassment campaign targeting a husband and wife in Natick, Mass. for of their roles in publishing a newsletter that reported on issues of interest to eBay sellers. Senior executives at eBay were frustrated with the newsletter’s tone and content, and with the tone and content of comments posted beneath the newsletter’s articles. The harassment campaign arose from communications between those executives and Baugh, who was eBay’s senior security employee. 

Baugh and his co-conspirators allegedly executed a three-part harassment campaign intended to intimidate the victims and to change the content of the newsletter’s reporting. The campaign included sending anonymous and disturbing deliveries to the victims’ home; sending private Twitter messages and public tweets criticizing the newsletter’s content and threatening to visit the victims in Natick; and traveling to Natick to surveil the victims and install a GPS tracking device on their car.

The deliveries ordered to the victims’ home included a book on surviving the death of a spouse, a bloody pig mask, a fetal pig, a funeral wreath and live insects. The harassment also featured Craigslist posts inviting the public for sexual encounters at the victims’ home.

The threatening Twitter messages were written as if they had been sent by eBay sellers who were unhappy with the victims’ coverage in the newsletter. Some of these messages posted the victims’ address and threatened to visit the victims at their home. 

On Aug. 15, 2019, Baugh and co-conspirators allegedly traveled from California to Natick to surveil the victims and to install a GPS tracking device on the victims’ car. The victims spotted the surveillance team and contacted local police. After learning of the police’s investigation, Baugh made false statements to police and internal investigators, deleted digital evidence related to the cyberstalking campaign and falsified records intended to throw the police off the trail.

The charges of conspiracy to commit stalking and stalking each provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.  The charges of witness tampering and destruction, alteration and fabrication of records in a federal investigation each provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution. The witness tampering charges also carry the potential for forfeiture. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Natick Chief of Police James G. Hicks made the announcement. eBay provided valuable assistance and cooperation with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth B. Kosto, Deputy Chief of Rollins’ Securities, Financial and Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

TESLA CEO Elon Musk’s April Fool’s Tweet

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Apparently Elon Musk made good on his outrage against the lack of Free Speech with Twitter. The US Securities and Exchange Commission reported Musk’s purchase of 73,486,938 shares of Twitter valued at $2.89 billion based on April 1, 2022 Friday’s closing price.

The following tweet was posted after Elon Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder.

On March 24, 2022, Musk tweeted his question below. It’s a great question that many have been asking. But it takes a larger-than-life person like Elon Musk with 80 million followers to bring it to the collective consciousness.

The marginalization of Free Speech and Free Press has been collectively going downhill. It used to be that journalism and reporting was primarily about bringing the news in print and through radio/TV to the public. We now have too many talking heads and posers.

Now, there are so many options and venues. The internet obviously has opened up new worlds of communications. In the 1970s, when 24/7 cable news was start, there was a group of forward-thinking and public good minded citizens who fought for Free Press and Free Speech. The ideals and intent of the Public, Education, and Governmental (PEG) Access Channels and support services have since been incrementally undermined, neglected, and pushed out by many new communications platforms.

Additionally, many relatively big or small newspapers and communication outfits have been out-paced and out-spent and forced to close. Others have to resort to “pay wall” where unfortunately only those can can afford to pay can read.

There are benefactors who impose and insist on their own idealogy relating to their so-called Free Press and Free Speech forums and businesses. There is censorship by editors on which public comments and accepted and which are not. Many comments have no “threats” or “bullying” or other anti-social behavior. The censored comments are simply under the whims of the editor or publisher’s ideology.

Enter the social media platforms like Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram and Tick-Tock and there goes the opportunity for the general public to read and digest and analyze in details of a good printed report.

Tweeter has now increased its Tweet text content of a Tweet up to 280 characters or Unicode glyphs. It used to be 140 words. That at least increased the attention span a little.

In a way, it forces the tweet to be concise and succinct. In other ways, there are inherent limits to further delving into careful reading or sufficient information.

Still, it’s nice to see Elon Musk take a stand for Free Speech and be able to do something about it. Twitter had taken to censorship of information. A public forum must be open to ALL forms of idealogy. Diversity of thoughts and information enhance better results in the end.

Let the people use their brains, analyze, and decide for themselves.

Democracy can only function and thrive when there’s Free Speech and Free Press. It’s that fundamental and basic.

While we’re at this, remember we can all be like Elon Musk in our own ways and own spaces. Speak up for Free Speech and Free Press where you live. Write a blog. Host a public community radio or television or Pod.

If you see something that is not right in the Public Square, speak up. Object. Raise your concerns. Hold your own water. Stand your ground.

That’s the only way the Free Speech and Free Press can survive and thrive.

Free Press: Something Is Not Right About This

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What’s up with giving “EXCLUSIVE” interviews? There is something unnerving about Public Officials getting involved in this media game. Is the media network hyping this up or is a Public Official playing favoritism?

I’ve seen this “Exclusive” bit on FOX NEWS and others too. I just so happened to see this on CNN today. I generally don’t watch these networks any more. I like C-SPAN or NPR. But I’m interested in what’s happening in Ukraine so I tune in once in a while.

Ukraine Invasion: Russian Disinformation and Propaganda

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What’s happening in Russia is more reason why we as individuals of the Free World must fiercely protect the First Amendment – including Free Press and Free Speech.

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Most of the world witnessed the illegal invasion on the sovereign nation of Ukraine on different media sources. Some informed Russian protested against the invasion on their homeland but were quickly arrested.

However, parts of Russian populace were in total oblivion to Putin’s atrocities on neighboring Ukraine.

There have been increased chattering about the “Russian Propaganda Machine” on its own people. Communist Russia’s stronghold against Free Press on its people is obvious.

This is a significant report from CNN.

Listen to Ukraine-based restaurateur Misha Katsurin’s personal experience about the response of his father who is living in Russia. Although Misha told his father on the phone that he woke up to bombing in Ukraine, his father insisted that Russia was in a peace mission. His father started to argue that Russia was trying to save them from the Nazi regime. His father was sure that soldiers were giving local people in Ukraine food and warm clothes, based on their in-country media reports.

Note: CNN and other network like Fox News have not consistently displayed true journalistic ideals either.

Misha Katsurin has since started a website to encourage others to call their families inside Russia. The hope is to try to circumvent the Russian propaganda machine and bring the real truth to Russia.