When Tim Cook told an interviewer that Apple wouldn’t get in a Facebook-style data-collection controversy, “Mr. Zuckerberg shot back that Mr. Cook’s comments were ‘extremely glib’ and ‘not at all aligned with the truth,'” reports the Wall Street Journal. But “In private, Mr. Zuckerberg was even harsher. ‘We need to inflict pain,’ he told his team, for treating the company so…
Tag: riot
Facebook Blames ‘Technical Issues” for Its Broken Promise to the US Congress
Facebook is blaming “technical issues” for its broken promise to the U.S. Congress to stop recommending political groups to its users, reports The Markup: Facebook made the pledge once in October, in the run-up to the presidential election, and then falsely reiterated it had taken the step after rioters overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a deadly event partially coordinated…
Fake Pro-China Accounts Are Reaching Millions on Twitter
“A pro-China network of fake and impostor accounts found a global audience on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to mock the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” reports the Associated Press, “as well as the deadly riot in Washington that left five dead, new research published Thursday found.” Slashdot reader schwit1 shared their report:
Messages posted by the network, which also praised China,…
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…
New Site Extracts and Posts Every Face from Parler’s Capitol Hill Insurrection Videos
“Late last week, a website called Faces of the Riot appeared online, showing nothing but a vast grid of more than 6,000 images of faces, each one tagged only with a string of characters associated with the Parler video in which it appeared,” reports WIRED, saying the site raises clear privacy concerns: The site’s creator tells WIRED that he used simple,…
Report Finds Extremists Did Use Facebook to Plan Capitol Attack
NBC News reports: A number of pro-Trump extremists used Facebook to plan their attack on the U.S. Capitol, a watchdog organization has found, contradicting claims by Facebook’s leadership that such planning was largely done on other sites. Private Facebook groups spent months advising one another about how to “take down” the U.S. government, particularly after Joe Biden was elected president, according…
Capitol Riot Suspect Plotted To Sell Stolen Pelosi Laptop To Russian Intelligence, Authorities Say
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: A Pennsylvania woman accused of being one of the Capitol rioters told a former “romantic partner” that she planned to steal a laptop computer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and sell it to Russian intelligence, court documents revealed Monday. The woman, Riley June Williams, 22, was on the run, charged with…
Twitter Temporarily Suspends Account of US Representative
CNN reports: Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeated violations of new rules the social media platform put in place following the violent U.S. Capitol riot earlier this month, a company spokesperson told CNN. “The account referenced has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy,” the spokesperson said. As…
Online Far-Right Movements Fracture, as ‘Gullible’ QAnon Supporters Criticized
“Online far-right movements are splintering,” argues NBC News: Users on forums that openly helped coordinate the Jan. 6 riot and called for insurrection…have become increasingly agitated with QAnon supporters, who are largely still in denial that President Donald Trump will no longer be in the Oval Office after Jan. 20… [QAnon adherents] have identified Inauguration Day as a last stand, and…
YouTube Suspends Trump’s Channel For At Least 7 Days
YouTube has taken action against President Donald Trump and barred new videos from being uploaded to his channel for at least seven days, citing violations of its policies and “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence.” NBC News reports: It’s the latest action against Trump after last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Twitter and Facebook…