Links 09/03/2024: Mutiny Inside Microsoft and Moles Inside Chaffbot Company's Board
Contents
- Leftovers
- Science
- Education
- Hardware
- Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
- Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Security
- Defence/Aggression
- Environment
- AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
- Censorship/Free Speech
- Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
- Civil Rights/Policing
- Internet Policy/Net Neutrality Monopolies/Monopsonies
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Leftovers
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Hackaday ☛ Inside America’s Last Morse Code Station
The Titanic famously (or infamously) used Morse code to call out in distress at the end of its final voyage. Ships at sea and the land-based stations that supported them used Morse code for decades, but with the growing use of satellites, maritime Morse code ended in 1999. With one notable exception. [Saahil Desai] writing in the Atlantic tells the story of America’s last Morse code station, KPH just north of San Francisco.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Why do we blame the victim?
In a new study published in February in Evolution and Human Behavior, Boyer and co-authors suggest that many people resolve this inner conflict by finding shortcomings in the person needing help. "It's a pervasive phenomenon, but it has barely been studied," he said.
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Password-cracking botnet has taken over WordPress sites to attack using the visitor's browser
These new attacks function differently, and are instead utilizing visitors' PCs for en masse password cracking attempts. The likely reason for this divergence in approach is because it will take a very long time for the active "crypto drainers" to actually turn a profit, if they even manage to do so before getting blocked.
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Manuel Moreale ☛ P&B: Brad Barrish
This is the 28th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Brad Barrish and his blog, bradbarrish.com
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Matt Fantinel ☛ 5 Years of Fantinel.dev!
On the dev side, I want to keep experimenting. I have some small redesigns planned that I just need time to work on. More importantly, I'm trying really hard to simplify the writing process so I can write more, and more often, from anywhere.
And on the writing side, I really wanna expand the topics I write about. The “blogging renaissance” that's been going on lately has really inspired me to have this blog be less of a content repository and more of... Matt's blog. Last year I already started with some purely personal posts and I'm thinking of doubling down on that. But, that's only good if it comes naturally, I won't force myself to write stuff I don't want to. We'll see.
The only thing I'm certain of is that I want to keep it going.
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Bryce Wray ☛ Contrast and change
If you normally check my blabberings only through your friendly feed reader, this might be one of those times when you click on through to the real site, because that’s the only way you’ll be able to see what I’ll be describing. As of the initial publication of this post, the ol’ site’s appearance has changed a bit.
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Quartz ☛ Google's new Bay View office has WiFi internet problems
Google employees say the new building has been plagued for months with inoperable WiFi, according to a report from Reuters Thursday. The Wi-Fi is so bad that many software engineers are forced to plug ethernet cables into their laptops to do any work. The Wi-Fi issues come as Google is mandating employees return to the office for three days a week, which is upsetting to many employees who have better internet connections at home.
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The Scotsman ☛ Hay's Way: Why am I about to spend the next six months walking around Scotland
Next month, I will have been in the role of rural affairs correspondent at the publication for a year. I have learnt a lot from the people who I have spoken with about the big questions facing Scotland’s countryside, from wildlife management to land ownership to what is driving depopulation in parts of the country. But visiting Scotland’s rural landscape – which makes up 98 per cent of the country – and the communities within it can only bring deeper understanding.
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Variety ☛ Akira Toriyama Dead: 'Dragon Ball' Manga Creator Was 68
Akira Toriyama, the highly influential Japanese manga artist who created the medium-defining franchise “Dragon Ball” in the 1980’s and shepherded its growth as it became a global phenomenon, died March 1 due to an acute subdural hematoma. He was 68.
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Hackaday ☛ That’s A Lot Of Building Systems
The only thing makers like more than building things is making systems to build things. [Eric Hunting] has compiled a list of these modular building systems.
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Science
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BoingBoing ☛ Bertrand Russell knew all about the MAGA threat in 1959
BERTRAND RUSSELL I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral: The intellectual thing, I should want to say to them, is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only "what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out?" Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think could have beneficial social effects, if it were believed. But look only and solely at: "What are the facts?" That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say. The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple. I should say: Love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact, that some people say things that we don't like. We can only live together in that way. And if we are to live together and not to die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.
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Education
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Collaborative Fund Management LLC ☛ The Dumber Side of Smart People
Take intelligence. I’m talking about book intelligence, the kind that shows up in SAT scores and GPAs.
How could someone possibly be too intelligent? How do you get to a point where you realize you could have been more successful if you had been a little dumber?
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ B’wood Bibliophiles
Celebrities, while living whirlwind lives in the spotlight, often find a haven in the simple pleasure of reading. India’s biggest stars are no exception, and their reading habits offer a captivating glimpse into their minds and passions. Some even have gigantic bookshelves to flaunt, making every bookworm go gaga over their collection and library aesthetics! From the Khans, Bachchans to the young charms of Bollywood like Alia Bhatt, Mouni Roy, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ananya Pandey, reading is their ‘me-time’. Simply put, an escape to a fictional or non-fictional world as per their choice of momentary read.
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Gabriel ☛ A day in the life…
Ever since I became a “freelancer” my routine and habits have changed drastically. Not only has been affected because of my newfound “profession” but some other life events as well. It got pretty much all over the place, a little out of control some may say. And it was like that for a while, trying to figure things out and dealing with it. However, things have changed recently. Still a freelancer but now I can say I am also a stay-at-home dad — and it’s excellent.
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Hardware
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Hackaday ☛ Ferrules And 3D Prints Revive Classic Microphone
Contrary to what our readers may think, we Hackaday writers aren’t exactly hacking layabouts. True, we spend a great deal of time combing through a vast corpus of material to bring you the best from all quadrants of the hacking galaxy, but we do manage to find a few minutes here and there to dip into the shop for a quick hack or two.
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Hackaday ☛ 2024 Home Sweet Home Automation: Plantpal Is A Friend To You Both
One easy way to get started on the home automation front is with something that makes a house a home in the first place — lush, green plants. As nice as it is to have them around, it can be difficult to care (or remember to care) for them all the time.
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Hackaday ☛ Retro Gadgets: Pay TV In The 1960s
These days, paying for TV programming is a fact of life. You pay your cable company or some streaming service and the only question is do you want Apple TV and Hulu or would you rather switch one out for NetFlix? But back in the 1960s, paying for TV seemed unthinkable and was quite controversial. Cable TV systems were rare, and the airwaves were a public resource, so allowing someone to charge to watch TV on the public airwaves was hard to imagine. That was the backdrop behind the Telemeter — an early attempt to monetize TV programming that was more like a pay phone than a modern streaming service.
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Health/Nutrition/Agriculture
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Patrick Breyer ☛ European Health Data Space (EHDS): Patients risk losing control over their data in decisive round of negotiations
The EU Parliament is calling for a Europe-wide, guaranteed and full right for patients to opt out of their health data being passed on to third parties, but is encountering fierce resistance from EU governments and the EU Commission. Even the existing national rights to opt out of the transfer of data for research purposes, is at stake in the negotiations and could be restricted. In any case, they could come under pressure eventually if no right to object applies in other EU states and their ‘pharmaceutical industry’ therefore complains of being disadvantaged.
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Brandon ☛ Seeking Calmness: A Beginner's Mind
One of my constant battles over the years has been trying to find calmness in my life. I tend to get wrapped up in the noise from the internet, family, work, as well as my own head. After discussing my most recent depressive spell, I've decided I need to put a little more effort into learning to be calmer and more relaxed.
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Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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New York Times ☛ About 600 Workers Unionize at Microsoft-Owned Activision
The group will become the largest union at a video game company in the United States, while Microsoft pledged to stay neutral on the vote.
[...]
About 600 workers at Activision Publishing, the video game maker owned by Microsoft, are unionizing, forming the largest video game workers’ union in the United States, the Communications Workers of America said on Friday. Microsoft recognized the union after the vote count was finalized.
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The Atlantic ☛ Why We Must Resist AI’s Soft Mind Control
The democratic challenges provoked by Big AI go deeper than mere bias. Perhaps the gravest threat posed by these models is instead cant—language denuded of intellectual integrity. Another dialogue I had with Gemini, about tearing down statues of historical figures, was instructive. It at first refused to mount an argument for toppling statues of George Washington or Martin Luther King Jr. However, it was willing to present arguments for removing statues of John C. Calhoun, a champion of pro-slavery interests in the antebellum Senate, and of Woodrow Wilson, whose troubled legacy on racial politics has come to taint his presidential reputation.
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The Verge ☛ Sam Altman rejoins OpenAI’s board after investigation into sudden firing
An independent investigation commissioned by OpenAI’s nonprofit board has found that CEO Sam Altman’s conduct “did not mandate removal.” After surviving an attempted boardroom coup in November, he will now rejoin the board.
In a press release, board chair Bret Taylor said the law firm WilmerHale interviewed board members, employees, and reviewed “more than 30,000 documents” to reach the conclusion that Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman “are the right leaders for OpenAI.”
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Wired ☛ Florida Middle Schoolers Arrested for Allegedly Creating Deepfake Nudes of Classmates
The Florida case appears to be the first arrests and criminal charges as a result of alleged sharing of AI-generated nude images to come to light. The boys were charged with third-degree felonies—the same level of crimes as grand theft auto or false imprisonment—under a state law passed in 2022 which makes it a felony to share “any altered sexual depiction” of a person without their consent.
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The Verge ☛ Fortnite was down all day
The launch of Fortnite’s Greek mythology-themed Chapter 5: Season 2 had been on hold since early this morning after the usual downtime for maintenance didn’t end on schedule. Epic usually takes the servers down at 3AM ET to prepare for a big update, but only for a few hours. This time, the battle royale game stayed offline until well into Friday evening.
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Lee Peterson ☛ How to stop WordPress from sharing your data with AI companies
As a long time paying customer of WordPress I’m not particularly happy that they are now making money from my content by selling it to AI companies. There is a setting to stop this happening.
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Daniel Miessler ☛ AI Is Worse If You Think It's Someone's Fault
We aren’t choosing anything. AI is just naturally and inevitably unfolding like any other technology, and we’re just the people who happen to be here while it happens.
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Axios ☛ Whistleblowers are calling out flaws in AI chatbots and image tools
Tech firms pushing to deploy AI fast are facing mounting pushback from whistleblowers who say that generative AI products aren't ready or safe for broad distribution.
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The Register UK ☛ Reddit moderators getting an assist from a new LLM tool
Reddit has experienced the effect of a blowback before, with thousands of the site's subreddits going dark last year in protest of a plan to begin charging developers to use the site's APIs, effectively killing many third-party Reddit clients.
Reddit knows its users are a risk – it even disclosed its concerns in an SEC filing last month regarding its IPO plans. Ostensibly a tool to assist moderators, the addition of AI could also be seen as a subtle threat – protest again and we'll simply replace you volunteers with Gemini, at least until it gets trained on enough Reddit data to start siding with the protesters.
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The Register UK ☛ India plans 10,000-GPU sovereign AI supercomputer
The push for indigenous LLMs will deliver, though, because India has 22 scheduled languages that the nation is required to foster by law. While some of those languages – like Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu – have over 80 million speakers, others are spoken by many fewer. The giants of AI may not prioritize LLM development for the ~35 million speakers of Malayalam or Punjabi.
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Security
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Privacy/Surveillance
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EFF ☛ Four Actions You Can Take To Protect Digital Rights this International Women’s Day
Privacy fears should never stand in the way of healthcare. That's why this common-sense federal bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs, will require businesses and non-governmental organizations to act responsibly with personal information concerning reproductive health care. Specifically, it restricts them from collecting, using, retaining, or disclosing reproductive health information that isn't essential to providing the service someone asks them for. The protected information includes data related to pregnancy, menstruation, surgery, termination of pregnancy, contraception, basal body temperature or diagnoses. The bill would protect people who, for example, use fertility or period-tracking apps or are seeking information about reproductive health services. It also lets people take on companies that violate their privacy with a strong private right of action.
Study after study shows that facial recognition algorithms are not always reliable, and that error rates spike significantly when involving faces of folks of color, especially Black women, as well as trans and nonbinary people. Because of face recognition errors, a Black woman, Porcha Woodruff, was wrongfully arrested, and another, Lamya Robinson, was wrongfully kicked out of a roller rink.
Yet this technology is widely used by law enforcement for identifying suspects in criminal investigations, including to disparately surveil people of color. At the local, state, and federal level, people across the country are urging politicians to ban the government’s use of face surveillance because it is inherently invasive, discriminatory, and dangerous. Many U.S. cities have done so, including San Francisco and Boston. Now is our chance to end the federal government’s use of this spying technology.
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Krebs On Security ☛ A Close Up Look at the Consumer Data Broker Radaris
If you live in the United States, the data broker Radaris likely knows a great deal about you, and they are happy to sell what they know to anyone. But how much do we know about Radaris? Publicly available data indicates that in addition to running a dizzying array of people-search websites, the co-founders of Radaris operate multiple Russian-language dating services and affiliate programs. It also appears many of their businesses have ties to a California marketing firm that works with a Russian state-run media conglomerate currently sanctioned by the U.S. government.
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Kansas Reflector ☛ Kansas extremists can't ban abortion. So they've decided to harass women instead.
So anti-abortion activists have settled on a new tactic: harassing women who want to terminate their pregnancies.
On Thursday, the Kansas House passed House Bill 2749, which would require abortion providers to ask every woman receiving an abortion a list of 11 intrusive, personal, private questions. In case you wonder whether the bill was introduced for benign reasons, just know it was requested by the state’s leading anti-abortion group, Kansans for Life.
The number of brave legislators who voted against this blatant intrusion into your personal freedom? Thirty-nine.
Eighty-one voted for it.
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CoryDoctorow ☛ Palantir's NHS-stealing Big Lie
Right now, there's an attempt underway to loot the NHS, the UK's single most beloved institution. The NHS has been under sustained assault for decades – budget cuts, overt and stealth privatisation, etc. But one of its crown jewels has been stubbournly resistant to being auctioned off: patient data. Not that HMG hasn't repeatedly tried to flog patient data – it's just that the public won't stand for it: [...]
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Scoop News Group ☛ Palantir wins $178M Army deal for TITAN artificial intelligence-enabled ground stations | DefenseScoop
In a statement, Palantir USG President Akash Jain described the TITAN system as the Army’s “first AI-defined vehicle.”
Choung noted that it’s a software-centric program.
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The Register UK ☛ Palantir wins US Army contract for battlefield AI
In what purports to be the Army's first AI-defined vehicle, Palantir will provide systems for the TITAN "ground station," which is designed to access space, high altitude, aerial, and terrestrial sensors to "provide actionable targeting information for enhanced mission command and long range precision fires", according to a Palantir statement.
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EFF ☛ The Atlas of Surveillance Removes Ring, Adds Third-Party Investigative Platforms
Whenever we announce that we've added new data points to the Atlas, it comes with a great sense of satisfaction. That's because it almost always means that we're hundreds or even thousands of steps closer to achieving what only a few years ago would've seemed impossible: comprehensively documenting the surveillance state through our partnership with students at the University of Nevada, Reno Reynolds School of Journalism.
At the same time, it's depressing as hell. That's because it also reflects how quickly and dangerously the surveillance technology is metastasizing.
We have the exact opposite feeling when we remove items from the Atlas of Surveillance. It's a little sad to see our numbers drop, but at the same time that change in data usually means that a city or county has eliminated a surveillance program.
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Defence/Aggression
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International Business Times ☛ Saudi Arabia Joins Afghanistan And Iran As One of World's Leading Executioners
In 2023, Saudi Arabia organised more than 172 executions, up by 15 per cent compared to 2022, and joined Afghanistan and Iran as the leading executioners in the world, according to data from the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR).
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El País ☛ Why schoolchildren are being abducted in northern Nigeria amid the region’s security crisis
The kidnappings take place in the country’s troubled northern region, where relentless violence by insurgent Islamic militant organizations and by bandit groups with no particular ideology have crumbled communities and killed thousands of people.
While some of the Chibok school victims were believed to have been forced into marriage with militants, most of the kidnappings since then have been for ransom. Bandits also attack communities to force adults into labor on seized farmlands and mining sites.
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YLE ☛ Finland sees five-fold increase in GPS disturbance reports during 2023
There were around 7,500 reports about GPS disruptions last year, compared to around 1,500 in 2022. However the disturbances did not significantly affect aviation safety, according to the agency.
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CBC ☛ RCMP commissioner says Mounties have 'credible' info about alleged Chinese 'police stations'
The centres have been accused of acting as hubs to harass and intimidate members of the Chinese community in Canada — allegations the groups deny.
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Digital Music News ☛ Kansas Latest State to Sue TikTok Over Harm to Minors
Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a consumer protection lawsuit vs. TikTok, saying the social media giant failed to inform minors of its addictive qualities. It also alleges the app failed to inform adults about the effectiveness of its parental controls when it comes to blocking content that may damage mental health.
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Techdirt ☛ When Viral Advocacy Fails: TikTok’s Call Flood To Congress Backfires
Flooding Congress with phone calls can work wonders to stop bad bills at times. The SOPA blackout 12 years ago was one of the most effective advocacy campaigns in history. Coincidentally, I was at the Capitol that day, and wandering the halls between meetings, hearing phones ringing non-stop was amazing.
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The Hill ☛ Biden says he’ll sign bill that could ban TikTok if Congress passes it
The bill from Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with unanimous support on Thursday, just two days after it was introduced. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the a special House committee focused on China.
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CBS ☛ Biden says he would sign TikTok bill that could ban app
In a one-page memo to members of Congress that was obtained by CBS News, the Justice Department laid out the dangers it says TikTok poses, including the "tremendous amounts of sensitive data" it collects, and the potential for the Chinese government to carry out an influence campaign.
The Justice Department said the legislation would be on more stable legal ground if it gave the government the authority to force ByteDance to divest from TikTok, rather than to impose an outright ban on the app if ByteDance doesn't sell.
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The Register UK ☛ TikTok ban bill poised for vote in Congress opposed by Trump
Trump's post signaled his entry into the debate surrounding a Congressional bill introduced Tuesday that would ban TikTok from operating in the US in six months unless Chinese parent ByteDance sold it - a nearly identical proposal to Trump's failed plan.
In response to that proposed law, TikTok pushed a notification to its US users, warning them of the looming blockade, and urging them to contact their representatives in Congress. Lawmakers were reportedly flooded with irritated TikTok fans demanding the bill be thrown in the bin.
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New York Times ☛ Biden the President Wants to Curb TikTok. Biden the Candidate Embraces Its Stars.
The White House is so concerned about the security risks of TikTok that federal workers are not allowed to use the app on their government phones. Top Biden administration officials have even helped craft legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States.
But those concerns were pushed aside on Thursday, the night of President Biden’s State of the Union address, when dozens of social media influencers — many of them TikTok stars — were invited to the White House for a watch party.
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CBC ☛ Trump claims concern over possible TikTok ban, years after he tried to ban it himself
Donald Trump's administration once sought to ban TikTok. Now the former U.S. leader is claiming to have concerns about efforts by U.S. lawmakers to do the same.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to soon get the chance to vote on proposed legislation that would force the Chinese-owned ByteDance to divest TikTok.
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The Independent UK ☛ John Lydon: Former Sex Pistol blames immigration for ‘division’ in the UK
Now, Lydon claimed, those towns are “full” of “prospective immigrants… which are really illegals [who are] not being cared for properly, but they shouldn’t have been accepted in such vast numbers.
“It’s created a real animosity in communities,” he continued. “The division… when you import so many people with a completely different point of view, they’re not going to adapt to yours, they’re going to stay and bring the problems they’re allegedly escaping from with them.”
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US Navy Times ☛ 100 years ago Friday, the first submariner received the Medal of Honor
“Upon reaching the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking,” the orders read. “Instead of jumping overboard to save his own life, he returned to the torpedo room to the rescue of a shipmate whom he knew was trapped in the boat.”
That shipmate was Chief Electrician’s Mate Lawrence Brown. The ship’s compartments were flooding fast, but Breault secured the watertight door to the torpedo room, giving the pair precious air and time. Breault locked himself and Brown inside. Safe there, they planned to wait for salvage divers.
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[Repeat] Hong Kong Free Press ☛ ‘No intention of banning social media,’ Hong Kong officials say
Hong Kong officials have pushed back against public suggestions that some popular social media platforms and messaging apps should be “banned” under a proposed new security legislation, saying they had “absolutely no intention” in doing so.
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India Times ☛ US to decide on TikTok ban next week: Here's what you need to know
The legislation will also give the US president new powers to designate apps of concern posing national security risks and impose bans or restrictions. It would apply to apps with "over one million annual active users, and is under the control of a foreign adversary entity."
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The Register UK ☛ Congress tells SpaceX: Explain how Russia got Starlink
In a letter addressed to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, a pair of Democratic reps asked SpaceX to provide a better explanation than what was provided on Twitter last month for how Russia may have obtained and operated Starlink terminals.
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Russia, Belarus, and War in Ukraine
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Meduza ☛ Medvedev says Russia has ‘no more red lines’ for France after Macron reportedly says Paris’s support for Ukraine has ‘no limits’ — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘Embittered children’: What Russia teaches potential guardians about orphans forcibly taken from Ukraine — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ A Church divided Russia’s war against Ukraine fuels tensions in Moldova’s main Orthodox Church — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘A cover-up or a strategic step’ Vladimir Putin reportedly discussed Navalny’s exchange just hours before his death — Meduza
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Meduza ☛ ‘A change in moral priorities’: New Russian bill would allow criminal suspects, defendants, and convicts to sign army contracts to avoid prison time — Meduza
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JURIST ☛ Serbia reverses expulsion order of anti-war Russia activist
The government of Serbia reversed an expulsion order Friday that would have forced a Russian woman who fled to Serbia after expressing opposition to the war in Ukraine to leave the country. Elena Koposova is a literature translator from Russia. She is one of many Russians living in Serbia after fleeing Vladimir Putin’s regime.
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RFERL ☛ In Mixed Message On International Women's Day, Putin Says Motherhood Is Women's 'Preordination'
President Vladimir Putin sent a mixed message to Russia's women to mark International Women's Day, lauding their contribution in the war against Ukraine while emphasizing that the most important duty for women is the "relentless care of children."
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Defence Web ☛ Russia’s Africa Corps – more than old wine in a new bottle
The Russian military company Wagner appears to have been renamed the Africa Corps by Moscow, and brought under the control of Russia’s Defence Ministry. What does the government takeover of the company mean for security in Africa? Russia’s economic, diplomatic and military interests in Africa have been increasing in the past few years.
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France24 ☛ US issues sanctions on companies over Wagner Group links
The United States unveiled sanctions Friday on two companies over their roles supporting Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group, noting that Moscow has tried to use affiliated businesses to secure revenues and further its interests in Africa.
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RFERL ☛ U.S. Issues Sanctions On Russian, Central African Republic Entities Over Wagner Ties
The United States has sanctioned two entities in Russia and the Central African Republic for what the Treasury Department on March 8 said were efforts to advance Moscow's "malign activities" in the African nation in part by enabling the Wagner mercenary group.
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European Commission ☛ Solidarity with Ukraine
European Commission Factsheet Brussels, 08 Mar 2024 Solidarity with Ukraine Solidarity with Ukraine
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Latvia ☛ Kariņš meets his counterparts in Vilnius
Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Krišjānis Kariņš was in Vilnius, Lithuania Friday to compare notes with his counterparts from Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine and France.
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Federal News Network ☛ Retired Army officer allegedly uses foreign, online dating site to transmit Ukraine war info
David Franklin Slater, 63, was working at U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska.
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France24 ☛ Turkey ready to host Ukraine-Russia peace summit, says Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose NATO-member country has sought to balance its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia, offered during a visit Friday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to host a peace summit between the two countries.
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France24 ☛ French arms companies to manufacture directly on Ukrainian soil, defence minister says
France is planning to have some of its arms manufacturers produce much-needed military equipment directly on Ukrainian soil to help the country in its war against Russia, Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Friday.
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JURIST ☛ US House of Representatives lawmakers inquire into allegations of Russia use of SpaceX technology
Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability sent a letter to SpaceX inquiring about the technology company’s potential relationship with Russia. The Wednesday letter stems from allegations that Russia may be using Starlink internet satellites, produced by American-owned SpaceX, in its ongoing war against Ukraine, potentially violating US sanctions.
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JURIST ☛ India investigation agency uncovers alleged ‘human trafficking’ network with links to Russia
Indian investigation agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed Thursday to have uncovered an organized “human trafficking” network that lured Indian nationals with high-paying jobs to Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Ukraine Says It Will Soon Receive 4.5 Billion Euro Tranche From EU
Ukraine will receive 4.5 billion euros ($4.9 billion) from the European Union through its four-year Ukraine Facility program in the next few days, with an additional 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to come over the next two months, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on March 8.
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RFERL ☛ Ukrainian Journalists' Union Calls For Release Of RFE/RL's Yesypenko On Third Anniversary Of Incarceration
The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NSZhU) issued a statement on March 8 marking the third anniversary of the incarceration by Russian occupiers of RFE/RL journalist Vladyslav Yesypenko in Ukraine's Crimea region.
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RFERL ☛ Erdogan Says Turkey Ready To Host Peace Talks As Zelenskiy Insists On Road Map First
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is ready to host peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv and that it will “strongly contribute” to efforts to rebuild Ukraine after the war, which began in earnest with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
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YLE ☛ Finnish climate minister in Ukraine to discuss war's environmental impact
Kai Mykkänen (NCP) visited the war-torn country on Friday to assess the environmental damage of the war as well as discuss Finland's support for Ukraine's reconstruction.
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CS Monitor ☛ Ukrainians along front: Digging deeper, and waiting, waiting ...
In a tour along the long eastern Ukraine war front with Russia, one consistent and clear sign of the impact of a lack of US weapons and ammunition supplies is the defensive posture the Ukrainian army has been forced to take.
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New York Times ☛ From Ukraine to Gaza, Biden’s First Battles Are at Home
Republican opposition, splits in his own party and tension with allies make Mr. Biden’s vow to restore American power a far more complicated task than it was when he came into office.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian PM Siliņa: Russia is like an unpredictable alcoholic
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa (New Unity party), on March 8 compared the current state of Russia to that of an unpredictable alcoholic.
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Latvia ☛ Latvian Foreign Ministry strongly advises against traveling to Russia
The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued an appeal to avoid traveling to Russia, as well as a warning of a possible terror threat in Moscow in the next 48 hours, referring to a similar warning by the US Embassy in Russia.
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RFERL ☛ Serbia To Allow Russian Citizen To Remain Despite Earlier 'Unacceptable Risk' Ruling
Serbia's Interior Ministry has accepted an appeal by Russian citizen Yelena Koposova, saying she does not have to leave the country after she was earlier declared to be an "unacceptable security risk” and told to leave.
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RFERL ☛ St. Petersburg Police Detain Friend Of Woman Missing Since Being Forced Back To Chechnya
Police in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, on March 8 detained a friend of Seda Suleimanova, whose whereabouts have been unknown she was detained in August and sent her to her native Chechnya, where rights defenders believe she may have become the victim of an honor killing.
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RFERL ☛ Balkars In Russia's North Caucasus Mark 80th Anniversary Of Deportation To Central Asia
Balkars in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria are marking the 80th anniversary of their mass deportation to Central Asia by Josef Stalin.
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teleSUR ☛ FAO Reports New Drop in Food Prices
International wheat prices decreased mainly due to Russia's strong export pace, while rice prices also fell during February by 1.6 percent.
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The Straits Times ☛ As UN urges Sudan truce, Russia and China cite Gaza
The United Nations Security Council on Friday called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan, prompting China to remind it not to forget about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Russia to accuse the United States of double standards.
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New York Times ☛ The I.C.C. Arrest Warrants for Russian Officers Will Echo Beyond Russia.
The warrants for two commanders over alleged war crimes may set an interesting precedent, legal experts said, including for the conflict in Gaza.
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LRT ☛ Opposition leader issues plea as Lithuanian intelligence warns of Belarusian threats
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the Vilnius-based Belarusian opposition leader, has asked the Lithuanian authorities not to use Belarusians fleeing from the Lukashenko regime in politics.
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RFERL ☛ Tsikhanouskaya Calls On UN Chief To Intervene On Behalf Of Political Prisoners In Belarus
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on UN chief Antonio Guterres to intervene on behalf of political prisoners in her home country – including in the case of her imprisoned husband, Syarhey Tsikhanouski.
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Environment
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University of Hawaii ☛ Mānoa: Earth suffers ‘ocean amnesia’ symptom of global warming
The world’s ocean is steadily losing its year-to-year memory due to global warming, according to a study published in Science Advances co-authored by a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa atmospheric scientist. The research team discovered this by assessing future projections from the latest generation of Earth System Models.
Compared with the fast weather fluctuations of the atmosphere, the slowly varying ocean exhibits strong persistence, or “memory,” meaning the ocean temperature tomorrow is likely to look a lot like it does today, with only slight changes. As a result, ocean memory is often used for predicting ocean conditions.
Across the climate models, ocean memory decline was found as a collective response to human-induced warming. As greenhouse-gas concentrations continue to rise, such memory decline will become increasingly evident.
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Omicron Limited ☛ Mapping chemical footprints in European streams
After analyzing 445 samples from 22 rivers, the researchers detected 504 of the 610 chemicals. They found 229 pesticides and biocides and 175 pharmaceutical chemicals, as well as surfactants, plastic and rubber additives, per- and polyfuoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and corrosion inhibitors.
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DeSmog ☛ The U.S. Livestock Industry Has Side-Stepped Scrutiny – Again
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made headlines around the world this week by voting to move forward with rules that will require public companies to disclose climate-related business risks to investors.
Some lawmakers have welcomed the mandate from the U.S.’s most powerful financial regulator, which will now force firms to share at least some emissions data.
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DeSmog ☛ How Money Laundering Rules Could Be Used to Tackle Deforestation
I spent the last month binging on money laundering TV to research this feature. But nothing prepared me to write about money laundering in relation to environmental destruction, because until now it has rarely been considered a shady subject.
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Energy/Transportation
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Hindustan Times ☛ Electric city bus service rolls out in Panchkula
Flagging off five electric AC buses from the Sector-5 bus stand in Panchkula, Haryana assembly speaker and local MLA Gian Chand Gupta announced that the bus service will be free for the next seven days.
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DeSmog ☛ Oil and Gas Companies Want You to Think They Care About Women — but It’s Just PR
In a March 7 video posted to Shell’s LinkedIn page, a woman named Kimberly says to the camera,“Unconscious bias shows up everywhere, in all forms, and it is more prevalent than any of us would like to admit.”
In the supercut of Shell employee testimonials that follow, a woman named Jane declares that “still too often, women are expected to be grateful for the opportunity to prove themselves,” and a man named Kevin admits that “when you’re part of the majority, a lot of the time you overlook it.”
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Pro Publica ☛ A Seattle Airfield Offers a Rare View of ICE Deportation Flights
A closed-circuit video camera zoomed in on the tarmac of Seattle's Boeing Field one recent afternoon, buffeted by 30-mile-an-hour gusts as it captured the arrival of a charter jet. The jet rolled to a stop alongside two buses. Behind their tinted windows, still invisible to the camera, were people waiting to be deported from the United States.
"Windy," muttered a woman watching the video feed on a projector screen. Struggling to make out the plane’s tail number from the shaky image, she stood up for a closer look.
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Hackaday ☛ Pairing A New Remote To A Cheap RC Car
The cheap little RC cars are abundant anywhere you are, and if you’ve ever disassembled one, you are familiar with how the PCB looks. A single-sided phenolic paper PCB with a mystery chip driving a bunch of through-hole transistors, a sprinkle of through-hole capacitors, and a few supporting components for the wire antenna. It might not feel reusable, but [Chris Jones] begs to differ, with a Twitter thread showing us how he’s paired a scrap board from one RC car with a remote control from another, all to help a little family project.
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Overpopulation
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NDTV ☛ Bengaluru Water Crisis: Stop Using Drinking Water For These Activities In Bengaluru Or Pay Rs 5,000
Bengaluru, with its 1.3 crore population, faces a shortfall of over 1,500 MLD (Million Liters Per Day) in its daily water needs, which ranges between 2,600-2,800 MLD.
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Deccan Chronicle ☛ BWSSB to Go for Filter Borewells in Lakes to Mitigate Water Crisis in Bengaluru City
At 236 places in the city, he said, tankers with a capacity of 1,000 to 3,000 litres will be pressed into service to cater to the needs of the people and water will be supplied for the residents free-of-cost. Besides, tractors mounted with tankers and vehicles will be rented to be used to supply water.
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AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics
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Jacobin Magazine ☛ Billionaires Hate This One Weird Trick: Taxing Them
The global movement to tax billionaires, much to the dismay of the 1%, is gaining steam. Sure, wealth taxes are not a panacea for the ruinous problems caused by capitalism, but the fact that the rich hate them is a good reason to pursue them further.
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The Hill ☛ Sam Altman reinstated to OpenAI board after investigation
Altman was fired and quickly rehired as CEO of OpenAI and also booted from its board in a notable debacle in November. The company also announced that it would form a new board in the wake of the incident.
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Gizmodo ☛ OpenAI's Sam Altman Returns to Board After Investigation
Sam Altman will return to OpenAI’s Board of Directors, the exclusive group with ultimate control over the ChatGPT developer, first reported by The Information on Friday. The decision comes just over four months after the board mysteriously fired Altman, causing more than 700 OpenAI employees to revolt and threaten to leave the company.
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SEC ☛ FORM 8-K/A: Microsoft Corporation
As disclosed in the Original Filing, the Company detected that beginning in late November 2023, a nation-state threat actor had gained access to and exfiltrated information from a very small percentage of employee email accounts including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions. Since the date of the Original Filing, the Company has determined that the threat actor used and continues to use information it obtained to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access to some of the Company’s source code repositories and internal systems. The threat actor’s ongoing attack is characterized by a sustained, significant commitment of the threat actor’s resources, coordination, and focus. Our active investigations of the threat actor’s activities are ongoing, findings of our investigations will continue to evolve, and further unauthorized access may occur.
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FAIR ☛ US Media and Factcheckers Fail to Note Israel’s Refutation of ‘Beheaded Babies’ Stories
In late November, the Washington Post (11/22/23) factchecked President Joe Biden’s repeated claims that babies had been beheaded during Hamas’s October 7 attack in Israel.
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FAIR ☛ Voters Won’t Miss Sinema—but Corporate Media Already Do
When Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I–Ariz.) announced that she would not seek re-election in 2024, few of her constituents likely mourned. After launching her political career with the Green Party and running for Senate as a moderate Democrat, Sinema veered ever rightward, carving out a reputation for cozying up to industry lobbyists while leaving her voters out in the cold. (She left the Democratic Party in December 2022.) But corporate media, whose commitment to centrism over the public interest mirrors Sinema’s own, offered praise for her supposed achievements, and bemoaned the “partisanship” they blamed for bringing her down.
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FAIR ☛ Ian Millhiser on Supreme Court Trump Protection, Alfredo Lopez on Radical Elders
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Democracy Now ☛ Katrina vanden Heuvel: Biden’s Domestic Agenda — Taxes, Reproductive Rights — Undermined by Foreign Policy
President Biden delivered his State of the Union address Thursday night. In it, he made his case for a second term ahead of this year’s presidential election, criticizing Republican front-runner Donald Trump without mentioning him by name, and highlighting his administration’s policies to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, reinstate reproductive rights and provide support to Ukraine. Our guest Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher of The Nation, describes current U.S. foreign policy as a “Cold War redux moment” that threatens the success of populist economic policies that have recently taken hold in the Democratic Party after decades of trickle-down, neoliberal economics. She calls for “ending the policing and the global policing which the establishment believes is their right,” warning that “if you don’t have a transformative foreign policy, you will end up with military Keynesianism.”
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The Nation ☛ At the State of the Union, Joe Biden Brings It and Bests Another GOP Speaker
I felt crazy anxious in the run-up to this year’s State of the Union address, because I remembered how President Joe Biden crushed it a year ago. He silenced critics focused on his age and sharpness with a masterful performance. Could he possibly do it again?
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Insight Hungary ☛ Orbán to visit Trump in Florida
Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orban will visit former US President Donald Trump today. In a departure from the norm for leaders of NATO countries, Orbán isn't anticipated to meet members of the Biden administration during his visit.
On Thursday he participated in a panel discussion alongside Kevin Roberts, the president of the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, before meeting Trump in Florida today. The visit was organized amidst strained relations between Hungary and the US and is closely monitored in diplomatic circles. There are concerns that Orbán might use his connection with the twice-impeached, former US President to push narratives aligning with Russian interests, particularly regarding the war in Ukraine.
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Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda
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India Times ☛ Union IT minister's message to Google, Microsoft, Facebook: ‘Start taking responsibility for what you publish’ - Times of India
Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has urged digital platforms Facebook parent Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, among others to start taking responsibility for what they publish, and devise technical and business process solutions to counter misinformation that could harm society and democracy. He also emphasised that the government a well-considered legal framework to address deepfakes and misinformation will be finalised post-elections.
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US News And World Report ☛ Fake Images Made to Show Trump With Black Supporters Highlight Concerns Around AI and Elections
The fabricated images, highlighted in a recent BBC investigation, provide further evidence to support warnings that the use of AI-generated imagery will only increase as the November general election approaches. Experts said they highlight the danger that any group — Latinos, women, older male voters — could be targeted with lifelike images meant to mislead and confuse as well as demonstrate the need for regulation around the technology.
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New York Times ☛ Spate of Mock News Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S.
Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle.
In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by interspersing it among an at-times odd mix of stories about crime, politics and culture.
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RTL ☛ Political disinformation: Brazil seeks to curb AI deepfakes as key elections loom
AI-generated videos and photos used for political disinformation are the scourge of a busy global election year, and Brazil is scrambling to regulate the technology ahead of municipal polls.
In a country of 203 million, which counts more phones than people, Brazilian authorities last week banned the use of deepfake technology and set out guidelines for uses of AI for electoral purposes.
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India Times ☛ Misinformation harmful for society, democracy; norms against deepfakes after elections: Vaishnaw
"...Misinformation in a vibrant and diverse democracy like ours, can really be very harmful. It can be harmful for society, for democracy, for the electoral process, and it can really impact our future and harmony of the society in a big way.
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The Hindu ☛ Misinformation harmful for society, democracy; norms against deepfakes after elections: Ashwini Vaishnaw
The government asked digital platforms to provide technical and business process solutions to prevent and weed out misinformation that can potentially harm society and democracy, Minister for IT and Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw has said. He added that a well-thought legal structure against deepfakes and misinformation will be finalised after the elections.
With poll season in India up ahead, digital platforms have upped election integrity efforts over the past weeks, while the government, through advisories and missives, has conveyed its zero tolerance for deepfakes and misinformation circulating on social media and other platforms.
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Censorship/Free Speech
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Idiomdrottning ☛ Content Warning
I found myself using them for three reasons, or four since the third, main reason has two sub-reasons.
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NDTV ☛ Pakistan Student Sentenced To Death Over "Blasphemous" WhatsApp Messages: Report
A 22-year-old student in Pakistan has been sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy over Whatsapp messages, BBC reported on Friday.
In the ruling this week, a court in Pakistan's Punjab province said that the student was sentenced to death over photos and videos that contained derogatory words about Prophet Muhammad.
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BBC ☛ Pakistan blasphemy: Student sentenced to death over Whatsapp messages
The complaint was filed in 2022 by the cybercrime unit of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore, the capital of Punjab.
The case was referred to a local court in the city of Gujranwala.
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India Today ☛ Pakistan student sentenced to death over 'blasphemous' WhatsApp messages - India Today
The complaint against the two was filed in 2022 by the cybercrime unit of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore.
The complainant alleged that he received the videos and photos with blasphemous content from three different mobile phone numbers. The probe agency established that "obscene material" was sent to the complainant after examining his phone.
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India Times ☛ Pakistan blasphemy: Pakistan student faces death penalty over WhatsApp message
The plaintiff alleged that he had received the offensive videos and photos from three different mobile phone numbers. The FIA, after examining the plaintiff's phone, confirmed that "obscene material" had indeed been sent to him. However, the defense lawyers argued that the two students were victims of a false case.
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The Scotsman ☛ JK Rowling: Harry Potter author issues police warning over accusations of misgendering broadcaster India Willoughby
Following the release of the filmed interview, Rowling, 58, said Willoughby appeared to have forgotten the Forstater ruling, which “established that gender critical views can be protected in law”.
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Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press
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CPJ ☛ Malawi police seize equipment from journalists amid ‘fake’ Facebook page investigation
The seizures took place largely at MBC offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu following a complaint by MBC’s management about the creation of a “fake” Facebook page bearing the corporation’s name and logo, which the outlet had not approved, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the journalists, and police search warrants reviewed by CPJ. The complaint accused the 14 journalists of “spamming,” which carries a maximum penalty of two million Malawian kwacha (about US$1,190) and imprisonment for five years under section 91 of Malawi’s Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act.
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CPJ ☛ CPJ, media leaders demand UK police act on online abuse of women journalists
In the letter, the signatories made four recommendations to the police: [...]
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Civil Rights/Policing
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Papers Please ☛ US passports and freedom of international travel
As we mark twenty years since the creation of this website for the Identity Project, perhaps it’s time to assess the state of freedom of movement in the USA and for US citizens.
We’ve been reporting, in more detail than anyone else, on changes in policies and practices that affect our right to travel freely. But sometimes the big picture can get lost in the details. Incremental changes can be more significant, in the long term and in the aggregate, than might be apparent if we focus on any single step along the way.
Travel is restricted by (1) requirements to have, carry, and show ID to cross international borders or travel by common carrier; (2) restrictions on issuance of passports, driver’s, licenses, and state IDs used or needed for travel; and (3) ID-linked blacklists and controls that allow travel only by government permission and restrict who is given permission to travel.
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The Dissenter ☛ Independent Media Collective Defeats 'Unconstitutional Antics' Of San Francisco Police
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Common Dreams ☛ Florida Legislature Approves Law Banning Water Breaks and Cooling Measures for Workers
“The punitive cruelty of denying workers access to water and protection from heat in one of the hottest states in the country is sinister and monstrous. Each year, hundreds of workers across the U.S. die excruciating deaths from heat. Not only does this bill rob workers of simple water breaks, it forbids the posting of educational materials to protect themselves from the heat.
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Daniel Pocock ☛ Federal Felony: OSI President promoted Civil Disorder at FrOSCon (Molly de Blanc again)
From time to time, I've drawn attention to the drawing the OSI President created and displayed in a talk at FrOSCon, Germany in 2019. The prosecution of Donald Trump supporters for the US Capitol riots of 6 January has created fresh awareness of the federal felony crime of Civil disorder. Here is the legal definition of the crime:
"A public disturbance involving acts of violence by assemblages of three or more persons, which causes an immediate danger of or results in damage or injury to the property or person of any individual."
That is exactly what the OSI President drew for us.
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El País ☛ Iran committed ‘crimes against humanity’ during repression of protests over Mahsa Amini’s death, UN fact-finding mission says
Security and paramilitary forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran killed hundreds of people on the orders of the authorities. They also detained, imprisoned, tortured, or subjected to enforced disappearance, among other “inhumane acts,” numerous Iranian citizens during the crackdown on anti-regime protests that began on September 16, 2022, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, died in police custody three days after being arrested in Tehran for wearing the veil in an “inappropriate” manner. These are the conclusions reached by the United Nations-appointed Independent Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran in a report released Friday, coinciding with International Women’s Day.
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VOA News ☛ UN Presses Taliban Again to End ‘Heartbreaking’ Curbs on Afghan Women
“It is heartbreaking that we are seeing precisely the opposite unfolding in Afghanistan: a catastrophic and deliberate disinvestment that is causing immense harm to women and girls, creating only barriers to sustainable peace and prosperity,” said Roza Otunbayeva.
Since reclaiming power in August 2021, the Taliban have blocked girls from accessing secondary school education and beyond. They have limited women’s freedom of movement outside the home and prohibited most from public and private sector workplaces, including the United Nations and other aid groups.
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ABC ☛ Uvalde parents outraged after independent report finds police officers didn't violate policy
The investigation was conducted by Jesse Prado, a retired Austin police detective with 24 years of experience who conducted 36 internal investigations in his retirement career.
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VOA News ☛ Prince Salman Did Not Free Saudi Women From Sharia Dress Code
That is misleading.
Polygraph.info could not find any recent interview with or statement by the Saudi Arabian prince about his nation’s dress code for women.
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Axios ☛ TSA opening first self-screening airport security system
What's next: If the Vegas test goes well, expect to see similar tech pop up at other airports nationwide.
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The Straits Times ☛ Exiled Tibetans guard heritage from ‘cultural genocide’
From teaching centuries-old crafts to cataloguing their language, exiled Tibetans guard the cultural identity of a homeland most have neither seen nor dare visit, and where they say Beijing is eradicating their heritage.
Crouched over a minutely detailed devotional “thangka” painting depicting Buddha, artist Lobsang Tenzin teaches students in northern India.
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Cyble Inc ☛ We’re Not There Yet - Women In Cybersecurity
The cybersecurity space, as dynamic and challenging as it is, has been witnessing a gradual but significant change – the rising influence of women in its ranks. When I took the plunge into this field in late 2017, it was like stepping into a world where women were just a ripple in a vast ocean, making up 14% inching up from 11% of the industry’s workforce.
Fast forward to today, and that ripple has become more noticeable, with women representing around 25% of the cybersecurity workforce. It’s a shift, yes, but let’s be clear: we’re not there yet.
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Techdirt ☛ Texas Court Dismisses Ken Paxton’s Lawsuit Against Yelp For Accurately Describing Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Last fall, we wrote about Yelp going to court in California to try to block Texas’s indicted and facing trial shortly Attorney General Ken Paxton from suing the company for using its speech to accurately warn users that “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” do not generally offer any actual medical care.
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Techdirt ☛ RCMP All Pissed Off A Private Business Told It To Get A Warrant If It Wanted A Copy Of Parking Lot Camera Footage
Say what you will about the general politeness of Canadians and the genteel nature of their secondhand Britishness, but never forget their cops can be just as petty and vindictive as our cops.
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Techdirt ☛ Prosecutor Dumps Case Against Migrant Charged With Murder Just Because One Of The Officers Assaulting Him Died After This Assault
Just imagine how petty and vindictive you have to be to charge someone with murder just because they weren’t arrested easily. Imagine how self-centered you have to be to present someone as an assailant just because they were unable to comprehend your instructions. Imagine just how inhumane you have to be to present a false narrative about a weapon wielded against officers just so you can charge a migrant with no English skills with aggravated murder, just because an officer died of natural causes after being involved with this arrest.
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EFF ☛ Four Voices You Should Hear this International Women’s Day
An internet that is safe for sex workers is an internet that is safer for everyone. Though the effects of stigmatization and criminalization run deep, the sex worker community exemplifies how technology can help people reduce harm, share support, and offer experienced analysis to protect each other. Public interest technology lawyer Kendra Albert and sex worker, activist, and researcher Danielle Blunt have been fighting for sex workers’ online rights for years and say that holding online platforms legally responsible for user speech can lead to censorship that hurts us all. They join EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley in this podcast to talk about protecting all of our free speech rights.
Sandra (Sandy) Ordoñez is dedicated to protecting women being harassed online. Sandra is an experienced community engagement specialist, a proud NYC Latina resident of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and a recipient of Fundación Carolina’s Hispanic Leadership Award. She is also a long-time diversity and inclusion advocate, with extensive experience incubating and creating FLOSS and Internet Freedom community tools. In this interview with EFF’s Jillian C. York, Sandra discusses free speech and how communities that are often the most directly affected are the last consulted.
From the days of chattel slavery until the modern Black Lives Matter movement, Black communities have developed innovative ways to fight back against oppression. EFF's Director of Engineering, Alexis Hancock, documented this important history of codes, ciphers, underground telecommunications and dance in a blog post that became one of our favorite articles of 2021. In collaboration with The Nib and illustrator Chelsea Saunders, "Coded Resistance" was adapted into comic form to further explore these stories, from the coded songs of Harriet Tubman to Darnella Frazier recording the murder of George Floyd.
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Internet Policy/Net Neutrality
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Mike Rockwell ☛ Dial-Up Is Still, Just Barely, a Thing
My grandparents were using dial-up internet up until just a few years ago when they switched to a cellular provider.
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EFF ☛ Four Infosec Tools for Resistance this International Women’s Day
This International Women’s Day, visit EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) to learn how to defend yourself and your friends from surveillance. In addition to tutorials for installing and using security-friendly software, SSD walks you through concepts like making a security plan, the importance of strong passwords, and protecting metadata.
This IWD, learn what a security plan looks like and how you can build one. Trying to protect your online data—like pictures, private messages, or documents—from everything all the time is impractical and exhausting. But, have no fear! Security is a process, and through thoughtful planning, you can put together a plan that’s best for you. Security isn’t just about the tools you use or the software you download. It begins with understanding the unique threats you face and how you can counter those threats.
Depending on your circumstances, you may need to protect yourself against the social network itself, against other users of the site, or both. Social networks are among the most popular websites on the internet. Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram each have over a billion users. Social networks were generally built on the idea of sharing posts, photographs, and personal information. They have also become forums for organizing and speaking. Any of these activities can rely on privacy and pseudonymity. Visit our SSD guide to learn how to protect yourself.
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EFF ☛ Four Reasons to Protect the Internet this International Women’s Day
The internet is a vital tool for women everywhere—provided they have access and are able to use it freely. Here are four reasons why we’re working to protect the free and open internet for women and everyone.
Data privacy, free expression, and freedom from surveillance intersect with the broader fight for reproductive justice and safe access to abortion. Like so many other aspects of managing our healthcare, these issues are fundamentally tied to our digital lives. With the decision of Dobbs v. Jackson to overturn the protections that Roe v. Wade offered for people seeking abortion healthcare in the United States, what was benign data before is now potentially criminal evidence. This expanded threat to digital rights is especially dangerous for BIPOC, lower-income, immigrant, LGBTQ+ people and other traditionally marginalized communities, and the healthcare providers serving these communities. The repeal of Roe created a lot of new dangers for people seeking healthcare. EFF is working hard to protect your rights in two main areas: 1) your data privacy and security, and 2) your online right to free speech.
The internet is an essential service that enables people to build and create communities, shed light on injustices, and acquire vital knowledge that might not otherwise be available. Governments are very aware of their power to cut off access to this crucial lifeline, and frequently undertake targeted initiatives to shut down civilian access to the internet. In Iran, people have suffered Internet and social media blackouts on and off for nearly two years, following an activist movement rising up after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman murdered in police custody for refusing to wear a hijab. The movement gained global attention, and in response, the Iranian government rushed to control visibility on the injustice. Social media has been banned in Iran and intermittent shutdowns of the entire peoples’ access to the Internet has cost the country millions, all in effort to control the flow of information and quell political dissidence.
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Techdirt ☛ Dish Network, The Trump Era ‘Fix’ For The Sprint T-Mobile Merger, Heads Into Its Final Death Spiral
Aging satellite TV provider Dish Network is supposed to be undergoing a major transformation from tired old satellite TV provider to streaming and wireless juggernaut. It was a cornerstone of a Trump administration FCC and DOJ plan to cobble together a new wireless carrier out of twine and vibes as a counter-balance to the competition-eroding T-Mobile and Sprint merger.
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Techdirt ☛ The NY Times War On All Wordle ‘Clones’ Continues
Remember Wordle? I sure do and one of the ways I start my days at work is to pull up the site and give it a quick play. But I honestly may just need to stop, given the behavior of the current owners of the game.
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Wired ☛ Apple Could Be the First Target of Europe's Tough New Tech Law
Europe changed the rules of the internet this week when the Digital Markets Act took effect, holding the biggest tech companies to tough new standards. Now the world is waiting to see which giant will be first to fall foul of the law. One of the architects of the DMA says Apple is a strong candidate for the first formal investigation, describing the company as “low hanging fruit.”
Apple has faced intensifying pressure in recent years from competitors, regulators, and courts in both Europe and the US, over the restrictions it places on app-makers who must rely on its App Store to reach millions of users. Yesterday Apple terminated the developer account of Fornite publisher Epic Games which has challenged the company in US courts and recently announced its intention to launch a rival to the Apple App Store.
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Deutsche Welle ☛ EU warns Apple amid spat with Fortnite developer
The EU on Thursday said it would look into an ongoing dispute between tech giant Apple and Epic Games, the developer of the popular Fortnite video game franchise.
Epic Games has accused Apple of shutting down its efforts to establish its own game store on iOS devices in Europe. The developer says this breaches the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) EU regulation, which came into force on Thursday.
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India Times ☛ thierry breton gatekeepers apple: EU's Thierry Breton warns gatekeepers against silencing developers in Apple, Epic Games spat
The iPhone maker on Wednesday terminated a new developer account created by Epic in Sweden in an attempt to put Fortnite and other games back on iPhones in Europe by running its own game store on Apple's devices. It cited Epic's past breaches of contract in the long-running legal dispute.
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The Register UK ☛ Apple may have made itself a target before EU's DMA
Experts say Apple has made itself a target for regulators as the EU introduces stringent new rules under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which just went into effect.
The DMA came into force at midnight European time and introduces powers to fine tech giants up to 10 percent of their turnover. Speaking on the eve of its introduction, William Echikson, non-resident senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), said Apple's $2 billion fine for its music-related anti-steering provisions looked like the kind that the DMA is designed to enforce.
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The Register UK ☛ Euro-cloud consortium issues ultimatum to Microsoft
With 27 member organizations – including 26 headquartered in the region plus US-based AWS – Cloud Infrastructure Providers in Europe (CISPE) is a non-profit industry group based in Brussels. It filed a complaint against Microsoft with the EU's antitrust cops in November 2022.
That complaint laid out how Microsoft discounts its own software when bundled with its own Azure cloud services – meaning it is more expensive to run Redmond’s wares in rival clouds. The Windows goliath tried to settle the case out of court last May. CISPE told The Register Microsoft's offer was "paltry" and rejected it.
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Copyrights
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Brandon ☛ Re: Blogging and AI: A Personal Take
A few months ago, I was browsing Instagram when I saw a picture that seemed oddly familiar. It was a post showing off computer rooms from the 90's, and one particular room was a little too familiar. That's when I realized, it was one of my computer rooms from the 90's! It was the setup we had in our dining room when I lived in Texas sometime around 1997-1998.
It was eerie, as I hadn't shared that image online much. The only time it had made its way online was on some small blog post probably a decade ago. But, someone liked it enough to grab it, save it, and then allow it to be shared around, and now some nostalgia influencer is using it for likes, which means another 2,000 influencers are going to recirculate that same image and claim it as their own.
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Torrent Freak ☛ DMCA Notices Took Down 20,517 GitHub Projects Last Year
GitHub received more than 2,000 valid DMCA takedown notices last year, which resulted in the removal of over 20,000 projects. Targeted repositories included pirate apps and games, as well as hundreds of RARBG backups. The number of takedowns has increased significantly in recent years. However, legitimate projects have grown faster and GitHub says it continues to take a developer-first approach.
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Torrent Freak ☛ DSA: Google Reports Billions of Deletions on Google Play & Shopping
TorrentFreak can confirm a massive action against billions of content items reported under Europe's Digital Services Act. On Google Play, thousands of apps have been removed following rightsholders' copyright complaints, over 200,000 for other reasons. Other reports, over 13.5 billion of them and counting, include mass action against Google Shopping advertisers found in breach of agreed terms and conditions.
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Monopolies/Monopsonies
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