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Tech NewsNews
Telegram Adds Simple Tool to Bring In Your WhatsApp Data
Following the disastrous announcement of changes to its privacy policy, WhatsApp is losing the trust of millions of users who are now looking for a new encrypted messaging platform. Telegram claims it’s added 100 million new users this month alone, and it hopes its new ability to transfer WhatsApp chat histories will accelerate the transition. … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook’s Oversight Board Issues First Five Rulings for Everyone to Get Mad About
Facebook’s Oversight Board, the supposedly independent entity the company created to quell some of the heat over its moderation policies, announced its first five decisions on Thursday. The oversight panel, which consists of 20 academics, lawyers, and human rights activists, overruled Facebook moderators on four of their decisions and dinged the company for having vague … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Says a ‘Configuration Change’ Is the Reason a Ton of Users Were Logged Out on Friday
Facebook users took Twitter and other social media platforms on Friday to report that they had, for no explicit reason, been logged out of the big blue app. Memes and the phrase “So Facebook” quickly popped up during the incident, which the company apologized for on Saturday. Apparently, the massive sign out of an unknown … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsNews
Microsoft Landed a Patent to Turn You Into a Chatbot
What if the most significant measure of your life’s labors has nothing to do with your lived experiences but merely your unintentional generation of a realistic digital clone of yourself, a specimen of ancient man for the amusement of people of the year 4500 long after you have departed this mortal coil? This is the … Continued
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Tech NewsApple
Pebble Founder Says His New App Brings iMessage to Android With a Little ‘Trickery’
Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced some changes to its privacy policy that sent users scrambling to move their mobile social life to a new network. Signal got an influx of richly deserved new users, and Android users bemoaned the fact that they can’t switch to Apple’s iMessage. All of that’s a long way of saying … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech NewsNews
Screw It, Trump Is Banned From Twitch Too
Former President Donald Trump’s part in egging on the riotous mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6 has now earned him permanent bans from Twitter, Snapchat, Shopify and, most recently, Twitch. On Wednesday, the live streaming platform for gamers announced that after disabling Trump’s account for two weeks following the violent uprising, it had … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
This Was WhatsApp’s Plan All Along
Even if you aren’t the type of person who peruses WhatsApp on a regular basis, chances are you’ve tried perusing its new privacy policy. Emphasis on “tried.” The roughly 4,000-word tome fell under fire from countless WhatsAppers across the globe after the company told its users that they’ll be ejected from the platform unless they … Continued
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ScienceHealthCovid-19
Twitter CEO on Banning Trump: Online Speech Can Cause Harm Offline
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finally gave this thoughts on Wednesday about the decision to ban President Donald Trump from the platform, explaining that the move wasn’t easy and that he takes no pride in banning anyone. But Dorsey acknowledged there can be real harm from speech that happens online and he believes permanently suspending Trump’s … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNews
Yearly Report on ‘Industrialized Disinformation’ Finds It’s Getting Way Worse, In Case You Haven’t Noticed
Professional disinformation campaigns are a boom market, according to a new report from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII); researchers found “evidence of 81 countries using social media to spread computational propaganda and disinformation about politics,” up from 70 in 2019. Among them: Both sides of the civil war in Libya, a pro-Trump group that tries … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsAmazon
Amazon Court Filing Includes Chilling Death Threats Published on Parler
Amazon submitted a new filing in federal court on Tuesday in response to an emergency motion by Parler to restore its hosting services through Amazon’s AWS. Parler was kicked offline early Monday after Amazon said the social media company had violated its terms of service and Parler couldn’t find another company willing to do business. … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsNews
YouTube Deletes Latest Trump Video, Suspends Account Through Inauguration Day
YouTube has deleted President Donald Trump’s latest video over concerns that it could inspire violence, the video sharing site announced late Tuesday. Comments are being blocked on all of the president’s remaining videos and his account has been suspended for at least the next seven days. Notably, the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden is seven … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsHellfeed
Here Are All the Trump Sycophants Who Got Banned From Social Media After the Capitol Riot
Last week, Donald Trump riled up a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol while members of Congress were voting to certify the results of the 2020 elections—a de facto act of sedition that failed to bring about his fantasized coup and resulted in five deaths. As a reward for his efforts, social … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFacebook
Facebook Warns Employees Not to Wear Company Gear In Public After Banning Trump
Facebook’s internal security team has warned employees not to wear or carry any Facebook-branded gear in public, according to a new report from tech news site the Information. The warning comes after the social media giant banned President Donald Trump from the platform following a violent coup attempt by his followers at the U.S. Capitol … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsPolitics
Twitter Probably Won’t Implode Because It Banned Our Awful President
Twitter finally banned its worst user last Friday, Donald Trump, after he directly incited a ragtag mob of his most rage-addled supporters into an ill-fated Pickett’s Charge on the Capitol last week. For years, the site had let the president act with near-total impunity on the site as he spread conspiracy theories, threatened opponents, lied … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
The Instagram Insurrection
The first inkling I had that something was very wrong on Wednesday was when my wife said, “Oh shit, is this real?” as we were en route to Trader Joe’s after spending a few hours on the cold, sun-drenched beaches of Long Island for a winter walk on our last day of a vacation. A … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Tech NewsNews
YouTube Kicks Steve Bannon’s War Room Podcast Off the Platform
Banning, it seems, is in this week. Google and Apple have kicked out social media app Parler from their app stores; Reddit has banned r/donaldtrump, the unofficial subreddit dedicated to President Donald Trump; and Twitter has banned the president himself, as well as other high-profile supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory. YouTube decided toadd to … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsNews
Jack Offs Trump
Rest in piss, @realDonaldTrump: Twitter has permanently suspended the president after he incited a riot at the Capitol this week. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them—specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter—we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Twitter Cracks Down on Qanon Accounts for Role in Capitol Riot
Twitter removed the accounts of a number of high-profile supporters of the Qanon conspiracy theory this Friday after their alleged role in spurring on the violent, pro-Trump insurgency at the U.S. Capitol building Thursday. Among the purged were former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who not only has shown a willingness to Tweet out … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsNews
Far-Right Reddit Clone Voat Has Shut Down, for Real This Time
Voat, the abhorrent Reddit clone that became a home for toxic communities and conspiracy theories like QAnon, has shut down. Although the site has claimed to be closing before, this time it appears to be legit. When you type in its address in your browser, you are not able to access the site, and instead … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
Tech NewsNews
Charlie Sheen, Dolph Lundgren, and Danny Trejo All Spread Russian Propaganda on Cameo: Report
The Libyan government released a suspected Russian intelligence agent, Maxim Shugaley from prison, in part because someone paid actors Dolph Lundgren, Charlie Sheen, and Danny Trejo to endorse his release on video app Cameo. Per Business Insider, U.S. security researchers with Facebook and Stanford University’s Internet Observatory suspect Shugaley was connected to the Internet Research … Continued
By Tom McKay