Former lobbyist/political advisor Joel Kaplan joined Facebook in 2011 to lead its Washington D.C. outreach, reports BuzzFeed news. But some employees said they were very unhappy with decisions made by both Kaplan and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: In April 2019, Facebook was preparing to ban one of the internet’s most notorious spreaders of misinformation and hate, Infowars founder Alex Jones. Then…
Tag: memo
Second Google AI Ethics Leader Fired, She Says Amid Staff Protest
Alphabet’s Google on Friday fired scientist Margaret Mitchell, she said in a Twitter post, after weeks of being under investigation for moving thousands of files outside the company amid a battle over research freedom and diversity. From a report: Google’s ethics in artificial intelligence research unit has been under scrutiny since December’s dismissal of scientist Timnit Gebru, which prompted protest from…
Parler CEO John Matze Says Company’s Board Fired Him
John Matze, CEO and co-founder of far-right friendly social media platform Parler, said on LinkedIn Wednesday that he has been terminated. Axios reports: Parler has been at the center of controversy since Amazon Web Services, Apple and Google unplugged the network last month for its lack of content moderation related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In a memo obtained by…
Biden Orders Sweeping Review of Government Science Integrity Policies
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: President Joe Biden today created a task force that will conduct a 120-day review of scientific integrity policies across the U.S. government, including documenting instances in which “improper political interference” interfered with research or led to the suppression or distortion of data. The review is part of a lengthy memorandum from Biden on his…
Intelligence Analysts Use US Smartphone Location Data Without Warrants, Memo Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A military arm of the intelligence community buys commercially available databases containing location data from smartphone apps and searches it for Americans’ past movements without a warrant, according to an unclassified memo obtained by The New York Times. Defense Intelligence Agency analysts have searched for the movements of Americans within…
Amazon and Facebook Staff Warned of Threats To Safety
Amazon and Facebook have warned staff about threats to their safety amid fears of a backlash against “big tech.” From a report: Amazon Web Services (AWS) employees were told to “be vigilant” after the firm removed Parler from its web-hosting service. The app is popular with some supporters of President Donald Trump. Facebook staff were also instructed not to wear company-branded…
Sealed US Court Records Exposed In SolarWinds Breach
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs On Security: The ongoing breach affecting thousands of organizations that relied on backdoored products by network software firm SolarWinds may have jeopardized the privacy of countless sealed court documents on file with the U.S. federal court system, according to a memo released Wednesday by the Administrative Office (AO) of the U.S. Courts. The…
Apple’s China App Store Sheds Videogames as Beijing Tightens Internet Control
Apple is booting thousands of videogame apps [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] from its platform in China as the government clamps down harder on such content, illustrating the tech giant’s vulnerability to state pressure on its business. From a report: The iPhone maker this month warned Chinese developers that a new wave of paid gaming apps are…
Google CEO Pledges To Investigate Exit of Top AI Ethicist
Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized Wednesday for the company’s handling of the departure of AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru and said he would investigate the events and work to restore trust, according to an internal memo sent companywide and obtained by Axios. From the report: Gebru’s exit has provoked anger and consternation within Google as well as in academic circles, with…
A Whistleblower Says Facebook Ignored Global Political Manipulation
Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee and obtained by BuzzFeed News. From the report: The 6,600-word memo, written by former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, is filled with concrete examples…