Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise Condemns Facebook’s

“Suppression” of Conservatives and Right-Leaning Media Outlets

The group of concerned entrepreneurs expresses concern for the platform’s censorship of Conservative views and opinions in advance of the mid-term elections and Senate Judiciary Hearings around Cambridge Analytical on April 10th

 

Rockville, MD – March 28, 2018 –The Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise (EFFE), a leading group of business owners dedicated to ensuring a free and fair electoral and political process for all Americans, announces today its condemnation of Facebook for its blatant suppression of Conservative views throughout its platform, particularly escalating as the mid-term elections approach.

This seeming desire the leading social networking platform has for its users to be “ignorant and compliant” is at the center of the recent uncovering of the censorship of Conservative and Conservative-leaning individuals and publishers. These activities are literally enabling Facebook to push its own Liberal agenda in the name of “community” and rob its users of the objectivity and availability of free speech and information under the First Amendment to the Constitution.

A recent article by The Daily Caller details a number of shocking changes Facebook made over a period of 8 days in January, 2018 to its algorithms, in a seeming attempt to alter the information users are seeing and exposed to in their own dedicated newsfeeds. In particular, it is noted that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made not one, but two key changes to its algorithms that were undertaken with the goal of benefiting specific media outlets and taking traffic, hiding information, and suppressing opinions from others. These changes were made all the more concerning when it was found that the information being both suppressed and boosted is laden with political overtone and implication, with Conservative individuals and publishers being hardest hit and most affected.

The process by which supposed “trusted sources” were determined was through a generic, informal, and highly subjective survey of users by Facebook, comprised of two questions (1. Whether they had heard of a website (‘yes/no’) and 2. How much they trusted each (‘entirely’ to ‘not at all’). This information was then used in apparent combination with Facebook executives’ own opinions to boost “quality” news sources, even if they lacked large-scale name recognition and visibility and thus would have had poor survey results. Facebook’s Campbell Brown indicated this disturbing overstep of power and control while speaking at a tech conference last month.

Details around the changes include:

  • Rapid cuts to news articles’ share of the newsfeed from 5% to 4% over the next several months; and
  • Conscious boosting of certain “trusted” news outlets and the suppression of others, which appeared “less trustworthy” sources according to a statement made by Zuckerberg directly. This obviously subjective judgment appears to have been made at the high level within Facebook and without consent or even awareness from individual users.

According to an analysis of Facebook engagement data by The Outline from research tool BuzzSumo, Conservative and other identified right-wing publishers, including Fox News, Breitbart, and Gateway Pundit, dropped as much as 55% in their engagement totals for February, 2018 as a result of these changes – while the engagement figures for largely liberal publishers were essentially unchanged and unaffected.

“This suppression of information, as well as the blatant partisanship Facebook is demonstrating in its censorship of certain information and agenda to push other facts and news to its users instead violates everyone’s 1st Amendment rights. This issue also highlights the disturbing and insidious power these large social media platforms have in our lives and to shape our minds and thoughts,” EFFE Steering Committee Member, Robyn Sachs said. “Not only is Facebook violating our freedom of speech, press, and information, these efforts show that we as Americans are being manipulated – largely without our knowledge and definitely our consent- on platforms like Facebook that we formerly trusted to connect with friends and colleagues and share information about our lives. This must stop and it is critical we make our government aware of this issue!.”

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been invited alongside Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, and Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, to testify on the data mining/privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytical at a congressional hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, set for April 10, 2018.

For more information about EFFE, please visit www.effe4usa.org.

 

About Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise is an organization founded in 2012 to educate the general public on the major issues surrounding the Presidential Election. Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise organization takes it upon themselves to make sure that citizens are told the entire story to allow them to make an educated vote in November’s election with all the facts in front of them.   For additional information on Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise, please contact info@entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org. General information can be obtained by accessing the organization’s web site at www.effe4usa.org, the organization’s Twitter page at @EFFE4USA or the organization’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EFFE4USA.

 


 

ELECTION INTEGRITY MARYLAND RELEASE

The Maryland State Board of Elections Refuses to Take Dead Voters Off of the State Voter Rolls, Election Integrity Maryland Fights for Change to Instill Accountability in Electoral System

The State’s Election Board Not Complying with Section 8 of National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) Requirements, Places Election Fairness, Authenticity in Jeopardy

Rockville, MD – August 6, 2013 –  Election Integrity Maryland (EIM), one of the Mid-Atlantic’s leading election integrity organizations, announces today that it is continuing to push for serious attention to be paid to a staggering amount of fraudulent, inaccurate entries in current voter rolls despite continued rebuffs from the State’s Board of Elections.  In recent months, the thousands of inaccurate and fraudulent voter entries uncovered by EIM in their efforts to clean up Maryland’s voter rolls have  continually been ignored by the State’s Board of Elections, allowing these errors to continue to plague the current system and seriously affect the integrity and accuracy of political elections.

EIM is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization modeled after the True the Vote initiative that is dedicated to the preservation of essential voter freedoms. As a key aspect of its work, EIM empowers citizen volunteers to take action and help to recognize and report fraudulent activity in the electoral system that, if left uncorrected, seriously corrupts outcomes, results, and activities at all levels of the political process across the United States. EIM’s research data is completely non-partisan and provides no details about a registrant’s race or ethnicity. Instead, the group is focused simply on the facts, and taking action to reduce as many instances of incorrect voters on the rolls as possible to effect positive change and more equitable outcomes for all Americans participating in the political process.

Over the past two years EIM has researched more than 36,000 total voter registration records across Montgomery, Prince George’s, Baltimore, Wicomico, and Anne Arundel counties and Baltimore City, uncovering over 12,000 irregularities in the voter rolls requiring challenges be filed. Of these, more than 1,100 registered voters were deceased, many of whom were recorded as voting post-mortem. In addition, at least one voter was discovered to have registered to vote after their legally-recorded date of death. These errors were submitted to the state’s Board of Elections for review and removal, however, to-date they have been largely ignored and rebuffed and it is unknown if or to what extent they were investigated further by the State Prosecutor’s office.

Voter roll irregularities come in several forms, including:

 

  • Deceased voters who remain actively registered, some who appear to have cast ballots post-mortem;
  • Individuals with no history of voting activity for more than two consecutive federal cycles;
  • Registrations with incorrect or non-existent addresses;
  • Duplicate interstate and intrastate registrations; and
  • Individuals who have commercial addresses listed as their places of residence.

 

 

All of these are well-known, documented occurrences that are continuing to plague the current voter rolls and overall system, not just in the state of Maryland, but across the country. As of yet, the Maryland State Board of Elections continues to ignore the data presented to them about current inaccuracies and voter fraud, and fails to make any concerted effort to clean up the voter rolls or make the positive changes necessary to improve the system for all voters, regardless of political party of position.  In one recent example, 26% of dead voters uncovered in the EIM’s research came from area nursing homes. In one such home, Collingwood Nursing Home in Rockville, MD, out of a total of 120 registered voters, 94 were deceased, many of them dead for a significant period of time. The Board of Elections continues to stonewall these challenges to inaccuracies in the current voter rolls, often citing the need to add further layers of bureaucracy and administrative hurdles to correcting these glaring errors.  Collingswood’s dead voters now show as inactive, but not removed for the most part.

EIM’s President, Cathy Kelleher, is a passionate crusader for free and fair elections for all Americans. Among her beliefs and the central motto of EIM, “Election fraud strikes at the heart of our political system and threatens our freedom. When fraudulent votes cancel out legal votes, our rights as citizens, regardless of political party, are diminished.” Cathy states, “It is essential that we fight for free and fair elections across our country, as they are truly our American birthright. We encourage all Americans to join us in the cause to correct these glaring errors and help instill a culture of accountability in our electoral system.”

     A recent McClatchy-Marist Poll surveyed 1,204 adults of legal voting age by telephone in various regions across the country between July 15 and 18, 2013. Regions were surveyed in proportion to their population to reflect accurate voter sentiment around current Voter Rights Act issues. On the subject of voter ID in particular, 83% of nationwide voters polled expressed support for changes to be made to current voter laws to require individuals to present valid identification in order to vote. Other related initiatives, such as Same-Day Voter Registration, have been recently supported by the Maryland Board of Elections, however, such measures stand to further corrupt the integrity of voter rolls across the state, rather than improve them. Concerns about under-funding and lack of transparent management lead the common fears about switching to a same-day voting system in Maryland.

About Election Integrity Maryland (EIM)

Election Integrity Maryland (EIM) is a non-partisan, non-profit citizen initiative dedicated to upholding free and fair elections. A 501 (c)(4) organization, EIM exists to promote integrity throughout the voting process in Maryland, thereby enhancing the public’s confidence in its voting franchise in local, state and federal elections.EIM seeks to support the efforts of Maryland’s various Boards of Elections in their effort to maintain voter integrity, as well as the interests of Maryland voters. For more information about EIM, please visit: www.ElectionIntegrityMaryland.com

EFFE FAIR & FREE ELECTION RELEASE

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise Uncovers Irrefutable Evidence of Voter Fraud, Urges Action and Support in the Fight for Free and Fair Elections

The group of concerned entrepreneurs leads the charge for preserving American freedoms and the election process for all citizens, regardless of party affiliation

Rockville, MD – November 14, 2012 – In the wake of the 2012 Presidential Election, the Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise (EFFE) is leading the charge for adequate investigations of alleged voter fraud and urges all Americans to continue the fight for free and fair elections across the country to preserve citizens’ voices and the continuation of the essential freedoms it was founded on.

The driving force behind the current call for review of potential voter fraud instances stems from EFFE’s ongoing mission to keep Americans informed about and engaged in current issues, regardless of party affiliation. Additionally, EFFE calls on all Americans to demand attention and media coverage be paid to these issues in order to determine the causes and depth of implications, and most importantly, to ensure they never happen again.

Particular examples in a number of critical swing states, such as Ohio and Florida, in the most recent Presidential Election, underscore the undeniable evidence of potentially fraudulent errors, inaccuracies, and omissions, that have the power to alter the course of the election outcome and, as a result, the lives and futures of Americans the world over. One such example on a petition posted on The White House’s “We the People” website cites a county in Ohio, a key battleground state, where President Obama received 106,258 votes, while the actual total of all eligible registered voters only amounted to 98,213. As the numbers clearly show and the petition states, “it is not humanly possible to get 108% of the vote.” Additionally, as reported by The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Obama received more than 99% of the vote in over 100 precincts in Cuyahoga County, with Romney receiving zero votes in some areas, and in more than 50 precincts, he received less than 2. At first glance these numbers seem bizarre and unlikely at best, but certainly worthy of concern. As The American Dream said of this data, “third world dictators don’t even get 99% of the vote.”

Central to the debate at present is the issue of passing Voter ID laws requiring all voters to show identification prior to casting their ballots. Such measures could also be instrumental in eliminating other instances of traditional voter fraud that have taken place on both sides of the aisle for years, including election swamping, resulting in system chaos, duplicates, errors, and inaccuracies. A recent report on Townhall.com adds significant evidence into the incidence of voter fraud in the national election, enabled in part by lack of adequate Voter ID systems and laws. According to The Columbus Dispatch, 20% of registered voters in Ohio are actually ineligible to vote and “in at least two counties in Ohio, the number of registered voters exceeded the number of eligible adults…of voting age.” Further, with the national average voting registration level at 70%, a reported voter registration rate of over 90% in 31 of Ohio’s 88 counties, which ultimately resulted in the 100,000 vote margin that rendered Obama victorious in this important swing state during this election, has also raised numerous red flags.

Similarly, in the 18th Congressional District of another key swing state, Florida, there were several issues of potential fraud documented in this most recent election, including vote inaccuracies, obstructions and hostile behavior of poll workers that many believe also critically affected the outcome of the elections, at the Presidential and local Congressional levels. In the Congressional race, incumbent Republican Allen West reported a near 2,000 vote lead on Democratic challenger, Patrick Murphy, on election night followed by a near-immediate trail of 2,400 votes approximately 35 minutes later that concluded the election in Murphy’s favor, according to FOX News. West’s team continues to fight for recount due to the close results of the election, echoing concerns about the integrity of the American electoral process as a whole. On the morning of November 14th, an article came out on WatchdogWire regarding potential voter fraud that stated that in Port St. Lucie County, FL, there was a 141% turnout on Election Day.

“This issue surpasses partisanship and cuts to the core of the American spirit,” EFFE Steering Committee Member, Robyn Sachs states. “It is imperative that we address these incidents of voter fraud that took place during this last election cycle, and continue to fight for freedom and equality in the election process in this country, to allow us to continue to enjoy the hard-earned freedoms that it was built on.”

About Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise
Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise is an organization founded in 2012 to educate the general public on the major issues surrounding the Presidential Election. Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise organization takes it upon themselves to make sure that citizens are told the entire story to allow them to make an educated vote in November’s election with all the facts in front of them. For additional information on Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise, please contact info@entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org. General information can be obtained by accessing the organization’s web site at www.effe4usa.org, the organization’s Twitter page at @EFFE4USA or the organization’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EFFE4USA.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA PRESS RELEASE

Earlier today, EFFE dropped a release announcing that the major media outlets are becoming heavily “liberally-biased” and not covering all of the important issues and news.  You can read the rest of this press release below:

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise Finds Mainstream Media is Becoming Irrelevant

By not covering the recent Chick-Fil-A groundswell, most Americans now openly resent “Obama-agenda bias” in major media outlets

Rockville, MD – August 9, 2012 – Major media outlets such as ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN want to pretend that the Conservative groundswell doesn’t exist by ignoring it. Conservatives have a message for them — YOU are becoming irrelevant by not covering issues important to us. We will take our considerable buying power and ignore you back.

As a result of this history of heavily ‘liberally-biased’ coverage in major media outlets, Conservatives tend to now get their news from online channels, including social media networks like Twitter. FOX News is their #1 network to watch after these, due to its commitment to more ‘fair and balanced’ coverage.

“America tends to be a slightly right of center country,” says Robyn Sachs, EFFE Steering Committee member. “So major media outlets only showing one view is dangerous to their ratings. Over 50% of the country is ‘ignoring’ them back. FOX News has 3, 4, or even 6 times the viewership of any other cable news network, depending on the daypart.”

For example, major media outlets have barely covered the White House and leaks that compromise our National Security, the ‘war’ going on between the White House and Border Patrol and ICE around the issue of enforcing the law in border states like Arizona and Texas, and didn’t cover Fast and Furious until President Obama invoked Executive Privilege.

In a recent interview for The Daily Caller’s Leaders with Ginni Thomas series, President and Founder of the Media Research Center Brent Bozell weighed in on his views and observations of recent omissions and censorship in major media outlets in favor of a liberal agenda. Describing coverage – or lack thereof around other recent news issues like the Healthcare-Contraception debate  between the Catholic Church and the Obama Administration that represented the largest lawsuit in the history of the Republican Party,  as well as prompted simultaneous demonstrations in 163 cities – and received ZERO coverage in any of the major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Another example he gives is the Trayvon Martin case where NBC in particular, according to Bozell, “cooked the books” to edit footage to make George Zimmerman appear to be a racially-motivated killer. Bozell says, there is “willful, deliberate, politically-motivated sensationalism designed to advance a Left Wing world view, while destroying a Conservative world view.”

Now, as a result of this bias, online publications, like Newsmax, The Daily Caller, and Breitbart are much more popular than traditional publications and media outlets with Conservatives. Publishers should take note and adjust accordingly to provide more balanced coverage, says EFFE. Otherwise, they will find their ratings continuing to slide, just like the economy as a whole. Calling Leftism a “social experiment gone awry,” Bozell mentions also that “Leftism doesn’t work – anywhere in the world. Every country that is collapsing economically right now is collapsing under [this] burden That is where we’re headed right now.”

Further, Bozell adds, “more people [in America] watch re-runs of The Simpsons than CBS News.”EFFE urges major media outlets to re-examine their agendas and priorities and to return to balanced coverage of news issues affecting all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, social class, or any other factor.

About Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise is an organization founded in 2012 to educate the general public on the major issues surrounding the Presidential Election.  Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise organization takes it upon themselves to make sure that citizens are told the entire story to allow them to make an educated vote in November’s election with all the facts in front of them.   For additional information on Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise, please contact info@entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org.  General information can be obtained by accessing the organization’s web site at www.effe4usa.org, the organization’s Twitter page at @EFFE4USA or the organization’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EFFE4USA.

 

EFFE GOVERNORS STUDY

Earlier today, EFFE dropped a release announcing the findings from our recently conducted governors study.  Based off the study, we were able to conclude that the Republican Governors who took office in 2009 and 2010 have greatly reduced the unemployment rate and have been responsible for creating far more jobs than the Democratic Governors have.  You can read the entire release below:

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise says “You Didn’t Build That, Republicans Did”

Organization releases new Governor’s Study which shows Republican Governors reduced unemployment rate 78% more than Democrats did

Rockville, MD – July 31, 2012 – President Obama likes to take credit for the “4.3 million jobs created in the last 27-months” (a seemingly random timeframe), but a study done by Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise (EFFE) shows “he didn’t build that, Republicans did.”

The Republican Governors who came into office in 2009 and 2010 have reduced the unemployment rate (as calculated from BLS statistics) 78% more than the Democratic Governors did that came in during the same years.* If the Democratic Governors had grown jobs at the same rate the Republican states did, these states would have grown 172,000 more jobs than they actually did.  On the other hand, if Republican states had grown jobs at the lower rate that Democratic states produced, there would be 246,000 less jobs.

Overall, the Republican Governors have an unemployment rate in their states of 7.53%, while the Democratic governors are at 8.63%.  This study shows that since 2010, the Republican Governors across the nation have reduced the unemployment rate 46% more than Democrats across the nation.  These states have also grown jobs at a rate that is 34% higher than Democrats. If the Democrats had grown jobs at the same rate as Republicans, the country would have 360,000 more jobs.

Based on these findings, EFFE concludes that the Republican Governors’ approach does work and should be adopted by the country as a whole.  This approach includes:

•      lower taxes and tax incentives for businesses

•      less regulation

•      smaller government

•      balanced budgets

“Americans want to know who has the recipe to fix the economy,” says Robyn Sachs, Steering Committee Member of EFFE.  “It looks like the Republicans do.”

About Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise is an organization founded in 2012 to educate the general public on the major issues surrounding the Presidential Election.  Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise organization takes it upon themselves to make sure that citizens are told the entire story to allow them to make an educated vote in November’s election with all the facts in front of them.   For additional information on Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise, please contact info@entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org.  General information can be obtained by accessing the organization’s web site at www.effe4usa.org, the organization’s Twitter page at @EFFE4USA or the organization’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EFFE4USA.

 

*All Statistics used were taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and looked at a timeframe from December 2010 to May 2012.

**Underlying data is available upon request.

 

PRESS RELEASE – FORMATION OF EFFE

Earlier today, we dropped a press release announcing the formation of Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise!  You can read the entire press release below.  As a reminder, you can keep up with all the news from Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise by visiting our Facebook and Twitter pages!

 

LOCAL ENTREPRENEURS FORM “ENTREPRENEURS FOR FREE ENTERPRISE”

Organization joins national business leaders like Steve Forbes and Carly Fiorina to express discontent in the country’s general direction

Rockville, MD – July 10, 2012 – Robyn Sachs, CEO of RMR & Associates, Inc., along with Shelby Scarbrough, President of Practical Protocol, Brien Biondi, Former Chief Executive Officer of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization, now the Entrepreneurs Organizations (EO), and other local entrepreneurs are proud to announce the formation of a new organization, “Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise,” whose website can be found at www.entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org.   This organization will offer fact-based information on the country’s current financial standing and the upcoming Presidential Election.

“I was on Capitol Hill with Congressman Tim Scott last week discussing Entrepreneurs’ concerns which boil down to 3 issues:  ever increasing regulations, higher taxes on job creators, and general uncertainty over the future of our country (i.e., ObamaCare impact and Bush Tax Cuts ending on 12/31/2012).” said Sachs, an Entrepreneur for over 25-years.  “There seems to be a not so subtle attack on Capitalism right now and the current administration seems to be pushing Socialism, using veiled language that divides rather than unites people like “fairness, wealth distribution and the 99%.”

The “Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise” will disseminate information, host a petition to be presented to Congress and the President about how entrepreneurs feel about what seems to be a move to Socialism.  The site will also feature informative videos, a blog, useful resources and a section with articles and interviews from concerned entrepreneurs, such as Sachs.

About “Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise”

Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise is an organization founded in 2012 to educate the general public on the major economic issues facing small business and how those issues are addressed by candidates in the upcoming Presidential Election.  Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise organization takes it upon themselves to make sure that citizens are told the entire story to allow them to make an educated vote in November’s election with input from the member of our society who drive our economic engine – the entrepreneurs.

For additional information on “Entrepreneurs for Free Enterprise”, please contact info@entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org. General information can be obtained by accessing the organization’s web site at www.entrepreneursforfreeenterprise.org, the organization’s Twitter page at https://twitter.com/EFFE4USA or the organization’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/EFFE4USA.