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“Did We Create This Monster?” How Twitter Turned Toxic
2018-04-04

For years, the company’s zeal for free speech blinded it to safety concerns. Now it’s scrambling to make up for lost time. Yair Rosenberg wanted to troll the trolls.Read Full Story

19 Ways Twitter Can Make Itself Safer Right Now
2018-04-04

There may be no miracle cures for what ails Twitter, but insiders and outsiders alike have constructive ideas for improving its “conversational health.” For our new cover story on Twitter, which charts the company’s struggles to rid its service of trolls, bots, and other assorted troublemakers, we...

If Facebook cared about us at all, it would adopt EU privacy standards globally
2018-04-04

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw some 50 million Facebook users’ personal information collected by a data analytics firm without their knowledge, the social network’s CEO stopped short of promising to extending the privacy protection that it will afford to users in the European Union, to...

Apple snaps up Google’s AI chief to fix Siri
2018-04-04

In an effort to catch up to its rivals’ AI assistants, Apple has brought on board Google’s head of AI and search, John Giannandrea, reports The New York Times. Giannandrea, who’d been at Google since 2010 and served as its senior vice president for search since early 2016, will run Apple’s machine learning and...

Facebook confirms: Donald trumped Hillary on the social network during 2016 election
2018-04-04

A recently unearthed document from Facebook shows that Donald Trump’s team outperformed Hillary Clinton’s in nearly every meaningful metric on its ad network during the 2016 election. Trump has often bragged of hiring the best people — a claim the White House turnover rate would seem to debunk — but this time,...

Google’s AI guru is now Apple’s AI guru
2018-04-04

The conventional wisdom is that Apple is a laggard in the race to infuse consumer technology with artificial intelligence. That’s a charge that nobody would ever make against Google. And so the news that Apple has hired Google search and AI chief John Giannandrea to head its AI efforts henceforth could not be...

YouTube shooting spree: Here’s what we know
2018-04-04

Earlier today, police responded to reports of a shooter in YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California. The altercation left four wounded and one dead — presumed to be the shooter. At a press conference, San Bruno Police Chief Ed Barberini said: We have four victims, who have all been transported for...

Facebook update shows which of your friends are suckers for fake news
2018-04-03

Facebook today announced it was rolling out an update to its News Feed to combat fake news. While the initial purpose of the update appears to be giving users context for the news stories they read. But the update also has a hidden second purpose: Showing you which of your friends are sharing bogus news stories. The...

You’re not crazy: The Instagram app just disappeared from Apple Watch
2018-04-03

If you updated your Apple Watch to version 39.0 on iPhone you may have noticed that your Instagram app disappeared. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Instagram for Apple Watch was one of the first social network apps to appear on watchOS, built back when such apps had to be paired with...

Facebook just shut down dozens of Russia-linked Facebook and Instagram pages
2018-04-03

Facebook said today it has removed dozens of Facebook and Instagram accounts owned by the Internet Research Agency, the infamous Russian group that is accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The company says it also shuttered 138 IRA-owned Facebook pages, many of which were running ads. In a blog post...

Breaking: Gunshots reported near YouTube HQ in California
2018-04-03

Police have responded to reports of a shooter either close to or in YouTube’s headquarters in San Bruno, California. Bay Area news station KRON 4 reports that police received multiple 911 calls from inside the building, and the San Bruno police have tweeted that people should avoid the area due to police activity....

First Apple, Now Facebook: What Happens When Tech Shareholders Turn Into Activists?
2018-04-03

Shareholder grievances against big tech companies are becoming more common, but in the end, powerful tech founders may hold all the cards. The head of New York City’s pension funds, who controls a $1 billion stake in Facebook, had a strong message for CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday: Step down as chairman of the...

Facing a trust crisis, Facebook offers up even more context about news feed publishers
2018-04-03

Facebook has been making attempts to restore people’s trust in what they come across in their news feeds. In the latest example, the company is rolling out new features that aim to give users more information about the publishers and stories they read. Originally conducted as a test last year, the new...

This Startup Built Its Brand On Facebook. Now It Can Never Leave.
2018-04-03

Facebook gave Quip great bang for its buck but little data on the consumers it targeted. With a Facebook backlash brewing, how will small advertisers fare? While scrolling Facebook you might’ve noticed a slim, futuristic toothbrush hovering between photos of your friends’ babies and your uncle’s...

Facebook adds 360 photos and HD videos to Messenger
2018-04-03

If you’ve been dying to send your contacts sweet HD videos, then you’ll be happy to learn Facebook is finally improving the quality of pictures and videos you fire off onMessenger. Now you can feel free to bombard your friends with all the 360 photos they can handle. For those of you who want to use the feature,...

Google Search just made it easier to pick a movie to watch
2018-04-03

Google is adding a small but useful update to its mobile search app that should make it easier to plan a night out to the movies. A new comparison tool lets you quickly see IMDB, Metacritic, and Rotten Tomatoes scores, as well as a description and showtimes. The movies are listed in a horizontal card interface so you...

This Twitter Experiment Explodes The Literary Male Gaze
2018-04-03

A Twitter challenge for women to “describe yourself like a male author would” serves as an amusing, illuminating summary of how men tend to write women. John Updike and Jonathan Franzen are two literary lions with one thing in common: the way they describe their female characters often leaves a lot to be...

Facebook now lets you bulk-remove apps from your account
2018-04-03

Lots of people use their Facebook account to log into websites, as a convenient alternative to usernames and passwords. But as the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed us, these apps can be privacy-harming nightmares with repercussions far beyond the digital borders of the world’s biggest social networking site. Until...

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin calls ‘Bitcoin creator’ Craig Wright a fraud
2018-04-03

The long-standing dispute between Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and self-proclaimed “Bitcoin creator” Craig Wright is far from over. Earlier today, Buterin took to Twitter to share some of his thoughts on the “Bitcoin, Controversy over Principle” presentation at Deconomy conference. The segment in question...

How Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook targeting model really worked – according to the person who built it
2018-04-03

The researcher whose work is at the center of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data analysis and political advertising uproar has revealed that his method worked much like the one Netflix uses to recommend movies. In an email to me, Cambridge University scholar Aleksandr Kogan explained how his statistical model...

Are Robo-Instructors The Future Of Corporate Training?
2018-04-03

Google and YouTube are the de facto training departments for many organizations. But the science of learning suggests the best instruction is still human-led. It’s the best of times and the worst of times for people whose job it is to teach others how to do their own jobs better, adapt to change, and get the...

These Hashtags Could Put Your Child In Danger On Social Media
2018-04-03

A new PSA campaign warns parents about the dangers of oversharing photos of kids across social media. Thanks to Cambridge Analytica, people have become hyperaware of the issues related to their online privacy, particularly within Facebook and other social networks. But while the recent news cycle so far has focused...

Stopping racist AI is as difficult as stopping racist people
2018-04-03

In early 2016, Microsoft launched Tay, an AI chatbot that was supposed to mimic the behavior of a curious teenage girl and engage in smart discussions with Twitter users. The project would display the promises and potential of AI-powered conversational interfaces. However, in less than 24 hours, the innocent Tay...

Singapore just fined two Airbnb hosts $45,800 for unauthorized short-term letting
2018-04-03

The fine is the first known case under the city-state’s new rules on short-term property rentals, reports Reuters. The rules, introduced last year, state that private home rentals are subject to a minimum rental period of three months, while public housing rentals are subject to a minimum rental period of six...

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