James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
If you just lost lots of your Twitter followers, you’re not alone
As part of Twitter Inc.’s ongoing initiative to make its platform safer and less plagued by bots, the company has now started to remove all locked accounts from follower lists. Accounts that were locked, Twitter explained Wednesday, had been locked for “tweeting a large volume of unsolicited replies or mentions, tweeting misleading links, or if ...
Facebook fined $664K in UK over Cambridge Analytica data breach
Facebook Inc. Tuesday was been slapped with its first fine over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal, with reports saying the amount is to the tune of £500,000, or $664,000. The fine is the maximum amount the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office can impose, who said Facebook had failed to protect the privacy of its users and ...
YouTube invests $25 million to combat spread of misinformation
Google LLC-owned YouTube is taking steps to steer its billions of daily viewers towards reputable news and away from what’s become known as “fake news” as well as the many conspiracy theories that can be found on the platform. YouTube announced the changes Monday and an investment of $25 million that will include putting “more ...
Samsung just opened world’s largest mobile phone factory in India
Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today opened what is thought to be the world’s biggest mobile phone factory in India as demand for phones in the country surges. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in cut the ribbon at the site in Noida, a city located a little under 20 miles ...
Italian, Spanish and Polish Wikipedia pages shut down ahead of controversial copyright law
The Polish, Spanish and Italian language pages of Wikipedia were temporarily shut down Wednesday in protest against European Union legislation that would overhaul internet copyright laws. In late June, critics of the new legislation had called it a “dark day” for the Internet when the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs voted in favor of articles 13 ...
After lynchings, Indian government tells WhatsApp it must help stop spread of deadly fake news
India’s information technology ministry warned Facebook Inc.-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday that the spread of fake news on its platform in the country has been an accomplice to a slew of beatings and lynchings. Indian Today reported that in the last few months alone, more than two dozen people have been lynched in the country, with five people on ...
Facebook’s data leak comes under more scrutiny from federal agencies
A new set of federal investigations is underway into Facebook Inc.’s data leak and the company’s relationship with data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. The probes follow months of controversy and explanations by Facebook, but this is a broader investigation. This time multiple agencies will get involved, including the FBI, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal ...
Facebook and Twitter get serious about ad transparency
Following a tsunami of criticism over Russian propagandists using social media to foment division in America, both Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. this week launched ad transparency features. On Thursday, Facebook announced its View Ads program, which will allow people to see every active ad on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Users will be able to ...
Twitter doubles down on getting rid of trolls and spam
Twitter Inc. signaled on Tuesday that it’s taking more steps to combat abuse and the number of automated accounts on its platform, following waves of criticism that it has been used as a tool to spread propaganda and harass people. A company first will be asking new users from now on to confirm their email ...
AT&T and NSA have been collaborating on spying program, according to report
The National Security Agency and telecommunications giant AT&T Inc. have been involved in a spying program that has spanned several years, according to a new investigation outlined Monday by The Intercept. The investigation revealed that eight AT&T facilities in the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. ...