Trump Vows Again to Veto Defense Spending Bill Unless Big Tech’s Legal Shield Scrapped

Beijing Suspends Imports From Sixth Australian Abattoir

Beijing has expanded its suspension of Australian beef imports to a sixth supplier, according to an announcement released on Monday. The General Administration of Customs did not give a reason for the decision to block the imports from the Queensland supplier. As of Monday, applications, and registration of beef shipments from Meramist were halted. It follows the August suspension of imports from the John Dee Warwick abattoir, and a May announcement to block imports from four suppliers. At the time, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham noted the suspensions appeared to target “highly technical issues.” The Epoch Times reached out to Meramist for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. The latest suspension comes following a highly publicised week of Beijing-instigated diplomatic incidents including major 100 to 200…

President Donald Trump on Tuesday reaffirmed that he would veto the annual national defense spending bill unless it terminates the legal shield that protects “Big Tech” platforms from liability over content posted by users is terminated.

“I hope House Republicans will vote against the very weak National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which I will VETO,” Trump wrote on Twitter about the bill, which sets the budget and policy priorities for the Defense Department.

“Must include a termination of Section 230 (for National Security purposes), preserve our National Monuments, & allow for 5G & troop reductions in foreign lands!” he wrote.

Earlier this month, Trump threatened to veto this year’s NDAA unless Congress “completely terminated” Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which guarantees that social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can’t be sued in American courts because of the content generated by their users, so long as they’re not considered publishers.

Trump Vows Again to Veto Defense Spending Bill Unless Big Tech’s Legal Shield Scrapped

Critics of the social media giants, however, say that they do act as publishers when they censor certain users or topics, and use fact-checking power to label posts they don’t like as misinformation.

“It’s essentially a shield that is given to social media networks because they claim to be the public square,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a press briefing. “And when you鈥檙e a publisher, there are certain responsibilities with that. You should not be immune from liability.”

McEnany called out Twitter for a double standard, saying that Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s posts expressing hatred toward Israel and the Jewish people were apparently considered “not worthy of flagging or blocking.” She said Chinese officials’ disinformation about the origin of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus were also overlooked by Twitter’s fact-checking system.

When asked whether Trump is seriously considering and talking about vetoing the NDAA over Section 230, McEnany replied that the president is “serious about it.”

“It also is worth-noting that the president will always defend our military and ensure that we get adequate defense funding, as he’s gotten $2.9 trillion so far. But he is going to put the pressure on Congress to step up on this,” she said.

Former vice president Joe Biden, in a rare agreement with Trump, said earlier this year during an interview with told The New York Times that Section 230 should be “revoked immediately.”

“I’ve been in the view that not only should we be worrying about the concentration of power, we should be worried about the lack of privacy and them being exempt, which you鈥檙e not exempt,” Biden said at that time. “[The New York Times] can’t write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued. But [Mark Zuckerberg] can.”

Focus News: Trump Vows Again to Veto Defense Spending Bill Unless Big Tech’s Legal Shield Scrapped

More Chinese Australians Needed to Bolster Intelligence Agencies: Liberal MP

Liberal MP Dave Sharma has said that Australia’s intelligence agencies should tap into the country’s sizeable ethnic Chinese communities in the fight against foreign interference and intimidation from Beijing. In a brief published by the pro-Beijing China Matters policy institute, Sharma said Chinese Australians should be harnessed as “assets.” “Our security agencies need to better engage Australia’s Chinese communities. These communities need to be aware of vulnerabilities and alert to attempts to recruit them, and the agencies need their assistance and cooperation in mapping such activities,” he wrote. To achieve this security agencies would need to recruit Chinese Australians and more Mandarin speakers. “This will require a new approach to security clearances,” Sharma said. A woman walks through the Chinatown district arch on March 04, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. (Lisa…