How far-right extremist groups face exposure from army of hacktivists. Throughout 2021, websites associated with far-right extremist groups and extremist-friendly platforms and hosts have suffered from data leaks and breaches that have exposed the inner workings of far-right groups, and the nature of the movement as a whole.
The data has been exfiltrated in breaches engineered by so-called “ethical hackers” – often assisted by poor security practices from website administrators – and by activists who have penetrated websites in search of data and information. Experts and activists say that attacks on their online infrastructure is likely to continue to disrupt and hamper far-right groups and individuals and makes unmasking their activities far more likely – often resulting in law enforcement attention or loss of employment. Numerous far-right groups have suffered catastrophic data breaches this year, in perhaps a reflection of a lack of technical expertise among such activists. Lush quits Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat over safety concerns.
Lush has announced it is closing its accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok until the social media sites do a better job of protecting users from harmful content.
The Questions Concerning Technology - by L. M. Sacasas - The Convivial Society. A few days ago, a handful of similar stories or anecdotes about technology came to my attention.
Where have all the translators gone? Amid soaring appetite for non-English-language shows and a growing global streaming market, it ought to be a golden time for subtitle translators.
The popularity of shows such as the Korean megahit Squid Game, which attracted 111 million viewers in its first 28 days to become Netflix’s most watched series ever, the Spanish series Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) and the French drama Lupin have proved that subtitles are no block to pulling in huge global audiences. Last year Netflix reported that foreign language titles were up by more than 50% on 2019. But despite their crucial and highly skilled role, acting as conduits between the action on screen and millions of viewers around the world, the translators who painstakingly write the streamers’ subtitles – some of whom may be paid as little as $1 (75p) per minute of programme time – do not appear to have seen the rewards filtering down to them “There is no lower limit [in pay].
Forget Flexibility. Your Employees Want Autonomy. Amendments strengthen access to information, protect people’s privacy. British Columbia is taking important steps to strengthen B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPPA) to deliver better, more inclusive services to people, businesses and public-sector organizations.
“The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we live, work, connect with loved ones and access the services we need. Today, people can safely talk to their doctor via Zoom, learn online and do business faster,” said Lisa Beare, Minister of Citizens’ Services. “These amendments help people continue to access the services they need faster, while ensuring their privacy is protected. We’re making changes today to keep pace with advancements in technology and provide the level of service that people expect in the digital era.” Highlights of the proposed amendments include: Data-residency requirement changes will bring B.C. in line with other jurisdictions by removing restrictions that prevent access to digital tools and technologies.
Why are food blog recipes so long? — Bold Type Writing Training. If you’ve ever used an online recipe, you probably know this scenario: you click on a food blog and scroll down.
And down. And just a bit further. “Hacker X”—the American who built a pro-Trump fake news empire—unmasks himself. This is the story of the mastermind behind one of the largest "fake news" operations in the US.
For two years, he ran websites and Facebook groups that spread bogus stories, conspiracy theories, and propaganda. Under him was a dedicated team of writers and editors paid to produce deceptive content—from outright hoaxes to political propaganda—with the supreme goal of tipping the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Through extensive efforts, he built a secret network of self-reinforcing sites from the ground up.
He devised a strategy that got prominent personalities—including Trump—to retweet misleading claims to their followers. And he fooled unwary American citizens, including the hacker's own father, into regarding fake news sources more highly than the mainstream media. (1) Can AI Save the NHS? John Oliver on digital misinformation: ‘There needs to be more public pressure on platforms’ John Oliver devoted this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight to the issue of digital misinformation and the havoc it can wreak.
The HBO host started by informing his viewers that despite the fact that 90% of monthly Facebook users are based outside the US and Canada, only 13% of the platform’s monitoring is spent on content outside of America. He said it was the “same general attitude to misinformation that the Oscars took toward best pictures for the first 90 years of its existence”. There was an unsettling clip played that showed a woman who was basing her Covid views from an unverified doctor from El Salvador via Facebook, rather than anything more official. US schools gave kids laptops during the pandemic. Then they spied on them.
When the pandemic started last year, countless forms of inequality were exposed – including the millions of American families who don’t have access to laptops or broadband internet.
After some delays, schools across the country jumped into action and distributed technology to allow students to learn remotely. Frances Haugen says Facebook's algorithms are dangerous. Here’s why. In her testimony, Haugen also repeatedly emphasized how these phenomena are far worse in regions that don’t speak English because of Facebook’s uneven coverage of different languages.
“In the case of Ethiopia there are 100 million people and six languages. Facebook only supports two of those languages for integrity systems,” she said. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Down: Sites, Employee Systems Crippled for Hours. Facebook and Instagram Down: Making Sense of the Outage. Report: YouTube is running ads from major brands, including Samsung an. A new report from global activism nonprofit Avaaz reveals that YouTube’s algorithms are running ads from major brands on climate-change misinformation videos. In total, Avaaz identified 108 brands that were having their ads associated with climate change misinformation videos, including Samsung, L’Oréal, Decathlon, Danone, Warner Bros., and Carrefour. How to TikTok: A Beginner's Guide. Judge rules in Wisconsin teen’s favor after sheriff threatened jail over Covid post.
A federal judge ruled that a Wisconsin sheriff violated free speech protections guaranteed by the first amendment when he asked a teen to remove an Instagram post about Covid-19 that “upset” local parents in March last year. The teen, Amyiah Cohoon, and her parents sued the sheriff’s department after a deputy threatened to arrest family members if Amyiah did not delete an Instagram post which described her experiences when possibly infected by Covid-19.
She was 16 at the time. “Labeling censorship societally beneficial does not render it lawful,” wrote Brett Ludwig, a district court judge in Milwaukee. “If it did, nearly all censorship would evade first amendment scrutiny.” According to Ludwig’s ruling, the post, made in mid-March 2020, was the subject of “numerous” calls to health and school officials in Marquette county. Center for Humane Technology. Inside the Mad, Mad World of TripAdvisor. The Koryo Hotel does pretty well on TripAdvisor, all things considered. The Internet never—and I mean never—works. The Curb-cut Effect and Championing Equity. Leaks just exposed how toxic Facebook and Instagram are to teen girls and, well, everyone. For years, Facebook has faced torrents of criticism from human rights groups and academic researchers, who raised alarms about the ways that the most pervasive digital social platform in human history distorts our world and promotes destructive behavior ranging from eating disorders to genocide.
In response, Mark Zuckerberg and his staff have frequently pronounced commitments to reform. While many of those pledges and predictions seemed to have been sincere, it turns out that not only have the architecture and incentives built into Facebook itself undermined the biggest efforts to fix the service, but that Facebook’s own research staff have informed top leadership of the company’s stunning failures. This week the Wall Street Journal has run an eye-opening series of articles, based on internal studies and documents leaked by Facebook researchers, revealing just how duplicitous and/or naive Zuckerberg is about his own company and its influence on the world.
Comments matter. Canadian Nobel scientist's deletion from Wikipedia points to wider bias, study finds. Wikipedia — the world's largest online encyclopedia — celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. One of the biggest collaborative efforts in human history, thousands of volunteers around the world create and edit the content on its pages. And those editors even have camps with competing philosophies: the deletionists who have high standards for content versus the inclusionists who take a broader view to what makes it in.
But all is not well in the Wikipedia world. A new study by American sociologist Francesca Tripodi shows that its volunteer editors nominate women's pages on Wikipedia for deletion at a higher rate than men's pages. It found that women make up only 19 per cent of all profiles, but account for a quarter of page-deletion recommendations. Student proves Twitter algorithm ‘bias’ toward lighter, slimmer, younger faces. Sask. music producer on a mission to preserve Indigenous music through streaming website, app. Over the years many Indigenous languages and cultural practices have been lost and others are fading. Now, a Saskatchewan producer is working hard to prevent further loss by preserving all types of Indigenous music. "This has brought out the worst in some people": Restaurateur Jacob Wharton-Shukster on his plan to make vaccination mandatory for indoor dining.
FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm. Why Is Esports So Segregated? TikTok accidentally detected my ADHD. For 23 years everyone missed the warning signs. Dear Adriana LaGrange, your domain, like your curriculum, is expired. FBI Tricked Hundreds of Criminal Organizations into Using An App Tailor Made to Spy on Them. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images For years, thousands of drug dealers, contract killers, and gun runners across the world communicated via Anom, an encrypted app purchased on the black market that would shield their messages from law enforcement. Governments across Canada withholding COVID-19 data to regulate public reaction to pandemic, says access-to-information advocate. ‘I was addicted to the high’: I became an influencer as a joke – then it nearly broke me.
A bill aims to stop abusers stalking ex-partners. US telecom firms are lobbying against it. The top lobby group for the US wireless industry is quietly seeking to weaken proposed legislation that has been designed to protect victims of domestic violence by allowing them to remove themselves from family phone plans.
Companies including Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless are seeking to protect themselves from possible future liability and enforcement in the event that they do not adequately comply with the new proposed legislation. Dear Gavin Williamson, teenagers use mobile phones. Get with the times. These Vancouver Volunteers Rescued 350,000 Pounds of Food Destined for Waste, and Redirected it to People in Need. NPR Cookie Consent and Choices. Felicia Day Talks Making Gaming More Diverse - Education and Career News.
Cybersmile – Cyberbullying. What Parents Need to Know About Discord. 8 Common Online Trolling Tactics (And How to Handle Them) - North Cyber Research. Universities must stop presuming that all students are tech-savvy. "House Floats" Replace Mardi Gras Parades in New Orleans. How to Edit Your Facebook Friend List Visibility and Why You Should. Who do our children see in Canadian and American TV shows? The Fanfiction Take That Enraged the Internet. Wikipedia at 20: last gasp of an internet vision, or a beacon to a better future? Ginella Massa is revolutionizing Canadian television…again. After Searching for a Decade, Legendary Hollywood Research Library Finds a New Home - Internet Archive Blogs.
Neuroscience Explains Why Instagram Is So Bad For Teen Girls. Study says it’s not if, but how people use social media that impacts their well-being. Fake naked photos of thousands of women shared online. Instagram censored one of these photos but not the other. We must ask why. Drivers wearing earbuds are distracted even if phone is dead: BC court. The Zoom Signal Protecting Domestic Violence Survivors. Twitter to Roll Out Prompt Warning You to Read the Dang Article. Untitled. Untitled. Untitled. The Illustrated History of Emojis. The 25 greatest video game consoles – ranked! Untitled. How the 'Plandemic' conspiracy theory took hold. Trapped in a hoax: survivors of conspiracy theories speak out. Eight marvelous and melancholy things I've learned about creativity.
Untitled. Report and Reaction: Whitecaps’ exciting four play leads to tremendous Rapids climax – AFTN. The abuse and threats made to Greta Thunberg by people from Bristol. Untitled. Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW. 'I was always told I was unusual': why so few women design video games. Why is YouTube Broadcasting Climate Misinformation to Millions? Why taking Facebook quizzes is a really bad idea.
Screen time kids study: Groundbreaking study examines effects of screen time on kids - 60 Minutes. Untitled. Untitled. That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It. After viral posts about abductions and sex rings, Abbotsford police address problematic issues with social media. Inuit sharing ancient knowledge of ice, sea and land with new app. How a CBC producer caught Trudeau on a hot mic gossiping about Trump. 10 Canadian songs that shaped the 2010s. A quarter of young people report 'problematic smartphone use': research. Detroit has a new old-school payphone that's free to use. Reporting in Indigenous Communities. Federal Court Rules Suspicionless Searches of Travelers’ Phones and Laptops Unconstitutional.
What the digital age means for my music — and my paycheque. Mizzou Tweet on Diversity Goes Wrong, So Very Wrong. Without encryption we will lose all privacy. This is our new battleground. John Oliver buys $15 million of medical debt for $60,000 and forgives it all, because he could. [Thread] 1/ I have compiled a lot of data over the past month on various Trudeau hashtags. In this analysis I compiled samples from the past 1.5 months In the following analysis, you will see pro-Trump accounts still dominating anti-Trudeau hashtags #cdne. Anxiety and burnout: I work with kids. Here’s why they’re consumed with worry. ‘Do you have white teenage sons? Listen up.’ How white supremacists are recruiting boys online. 89-Year-Old Grandma Says Video Games Keep Her Mind Sharp. Yes, there is a right way to write an email — here are some rules.
Why Phone Conversations Are Better Than Texting. How To Stop Checking Your Phone: 4 Secrets From Research. Ontario’s e-learning plan misses the mark. More than just a game: the zen power of Tetris. Inside the African essay factories that churn out university coursework for 115,000 cheating British students every year. The Amateur Radio Operators Preparing for Disaster. This Is How Borrowing Things From Our Neighbors Strengthens Society by Sarah Lazarovic.