Tag: politicians

How Worried Should You Be About Those Tom Cruise Deepfakes?

Are the TikTok deepfake videos of Tom Cruise doing magic and playing golf a threat to global democracy? Not exactly. “[T]he reality is that they took a lot of time, technical expertise, and the skilled performance of a real actor,” reports VICE News. “Rather than predicting a dark future of disinformation for the masses, they’re simply another example of what can…

Banks in Germany Tell Customers To Take Deposits Elsewhere

Interest rates have been negative in Europe for years. But it took the flood of savings unleashed in the pandemic for banks finally to charge depositors in earnest. From a report: Germany’s biggest lenders, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, have told new customers since last year to pay a 0.5% annual rate to keep large sums of money with them. The banks…

Amazon Prime Video Direct and the Dystopian Decision To Stop Accepting Documentaries

When Amazon made a unilateral decision in early February to stop accepting documentaries and short films via Prime Video Direct (a policy that also covers “slide shows, vlogs, podcasts, tutorials, filmed conferences, monologues, toy play, music videos, and voiceover gameplay”), the announcement also served as a quiet purge. Amazon also has been dropping long-running documentary titles from the service, with stakeholders…

Climate Activist Jailed in India as Government Clamps Down on Dissent

Before anyone outside her hometown knew her name, Disha Ravi spent four years raising awareness among young people in Bangalore about the effects of climate change. Now the 21-year-old activist is jailed in New Delhi. The allegation: She distributed a “tool kit” in the form of a Google Doc containing talking points and contact information for influential groups to drum up…

Myanmar Blocks Facebook as Resistance Grows To Coup

Myanmar’s new military government blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the ousting of the elected government and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. From a report: Facebook is especially popular in Myanmar and is how most people access the internet. The military seized power shortly before a new session of…

Internet Blackouts Skyrocket Amid Global Political Unrest

Where there’s a coup, there will probably be an internet outage. From a report: Internet disruptions in Myanmar early Monday morning coincided with reports that top politicians, including the country’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were being rounded up by the military. That’s no surprise: internet blackouts are now common around the world when power hangs in the balance. At…

Facebook Refers Its Trump Ban To Its ‘Supreme Court’

While NBC News reported on Tuesday that Facebook “has no plan in place to lift the indefinite suspension on President Donald Trump’s Facebook account,” there was a new twist two days later. “Facebook on Thursday announced that it will refer its decision to indefinitely suspend the account of former President Donald Trump to its newly instituted Oversight Board,” reports CNBC:
The independent…

Discord Bans Pro-Trump Server From Its Platform

Mashable reports:
We’re all judged by the company we keep. With that adage seemingly in mind, Discord moved Friday to ban a pro-Donald Trump server from its platform. TheDonald, as the server was titled, allowed likeminded individuals to digitally gather and was directly linked to the recently banned r/DonaldTrump subreddit and a separate discussion forum… “While there is no evidence of that…

Why you should trust reindeer to pick stocks over politicians

Reindeers that invest in the stock market, plus belly buttons on the moon and the word game that hates you, in Feedback’s weird weekly round-up Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24933162-600-why-you-should-trust-reindeer-to-pick-stocks-over-politicians/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…