Facebook said on Tuesday it removed 7 million posts in the second quarter for sharing false information about the novel coronavirus, including content that promoted fake preventative measures and exaggerated cures. Reuters reports: It released the data as part of its sixth Community Standards Enforcement Report, which it introduced in 2018 along with more stringent decorum rules in response to a…
Tag: backlash
The Workforce Is About to Change Dramatically
“For the first time ever, the world’s largest companies are telling hundreds of thousands of workers to stay away from the office for a full year, or longer,” notes the Atlantic. “If, in five years, these edicts have no lingering effects on office culture, that would be awfully strange…” Ambitious engineers, media makers, marketers, PR people, and others may be more…
US Threatens To Restrict WeChat Following TikTok Backlash
Amid intense scrutiny over TikTok as a potential national security risk in the U.S., WeChat, the essential tool for Chinese people’s day-to-day life, is also taking heat from Washington. TechCrunch reports: White House trade advisor Peter Navarro told Fox Business on Sunday that “[TikTok] and WeChat are the biggest forms of censorship on the Chinese mainland, and so expect strong action…
Inside the Plot To Kill the Open Technology Fund
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VICE News: [The Open Technology Fund is a U.S. government-funded nonprofit, which is part of the umbrella group called the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which also controls Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.] OTF’s goal is to help oppressed communities across the globe by building the digital tools they need and…
Education and Coronavirus: Lessons From Emergency Remote Teaching
By Matthew Rascoff In recent months, almost every university in the world has shifted to emergency remote teaching—a kind of “first aid” for higher education in a pandemic. When the Chinese government closed all higher education institutions in early February, Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in Kunshan, China, was among the first universities to make this […]
The post Education and Coronavirus: Lessons…
ACLU Accuses Clearview AI of Privacy ‘Nightmare Scenario’
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday sued the facial recognition start-up Clearview AI (alternative source), which claims to have helped hundreds of law enforcement agencies use online photos to solve crimes, accusing the company of “unlawful, privacy-destroying surveillance activities.” The New York Times reports: In a suit filed in Illinois, the A.C.L.U. said that Clearview violated a state law that…
Startups Pursue ‘Free Money’ With Relief Funds, Prompting Backlash
Some young companies have turned to the government loans not for day-to-day survival but simply to buy useful time. From a report: Domio, a start-up that offers short-term rentals, has its headquarters in a New York City loft that features beer on tap, a game room and a wall of house slippers for visitors. The fast-growing and unprofitable company has raised…
WD Sets the Record Straight: Lists All Drives That Use Slower SMR Tech
News emerged last week that WD, Seagate and Toshiba are all shipping hard drives using Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR), a slower form of HDD technology that can result in reduced performance in some types of workloads, but without disclosing that critical bit of information in marketing materials or specification sheets. The backlash has been swift, and now WD is striking a…