James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Tech companies get behind American ‘Dreamers’ once again
Some of the world’s largest tech Wednesday again gave their support to 840,000 “Dreamer” immigrants in the U.S. whose status is under threat. The immigrants, part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, presently stand in no man’s land as the Trump administration attempts to end the program. Initiated under former President ...
Congress grills tech companies on Russian political disinformation
Tech executives stood in front of Congress on Tuesday for the first of three hearings to discuss the inadvertent role their platforms played in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Although execs from Facebook Inc., Google LLC and Twitter Inc. were all on the stand, Facebook was the main focus of criticism. Perhaps that was not ...
Tech giants reveal Russian disinformation campaign was bigger than first thought
Three tech giants plan to disclose to Congress on Tuesday how Russian content during the 2016 elections was far more pervasive than what had initially been reported. Facebook Inc., for instance, told Congress early in October that about 10 million Americans may have seen ads bought by Russian-based operations intended to sway opinions on divisive ...
Three female engineers are suing Uber for gender and race discrimination
Uber Technologies Inc. is being sued by three Latina engineers who claim the company discriminated against them based on their gender and race. A lawsuit was filed on Tuesday at the Superior Court in San Francisco by engineers Ingrid Avendano, Roxana del Toro Lopez and Ana Medina. Medina is still working at the company and the ...
Trump administration clears the path for more drone testing
Following through on President Donald Trump’s promise to support the drone industry, the White House said today it’s clearing the path for more testing of the flying devices. The “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program” will allow tech companies to work with states and cities around the U.S. to test their drones in ways that ...
Twitter will now let you know who’s behind political ads and why you’re seeing them
Twitter Inc. has announced a new “transparency center” for political ads in the wake of growing concerns over how social media platforms can be used to spread misinformation. “In the coming weeks, we will launch an industry-leading transparency center that will offer everyone visibility into who is advertising on Twitter, details behind those ads, and ...
Facebook tests news feed changes that could hurt small publishers
Facebook Inc. has made some major changes to its news feed, changes that have left publishers in select countries less than happy with the results. The trial, which so far has been tested in Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala and Cambodia, saw nonpromoted posts by publishers moved out of the news feed and into ...
Tech companies form coalition to support American immigrant ‘dreamers’
Almost two dozen companies from tech and other industries are forming a coalition to lobby Congress for young immigrants in the U.S. to secure residency, according to a report in Reuters. The Coalition for the American Dream will ask Congress to create new legislation that will give young undocumented immigrants a foothold in their battle ...
Trump nominates antitrust lawyer Joe Simons to head FTC
President Donald Trump Wednesday has nominated antitrust lawyer Joe Simons as the next head of the Federal Trade Commission, an agency of ever-increasing importance to the technology industry’s giants. Simons has for some time been a prominent antitrust lawyer working in Washington D.C., representing companies such as Microsoft Corp. White House officials also said nominated ...
Magic Leap confirms $502 million Series D round for still-unreleased product
Florida-based augmented reality startup Magic Leap Inc. today announcement it has raised $502 million in a late-stage funding. This confirms reports last month that said the Series E round of $500 million was in the bag, and the round means the company has now raised about $1.9 billion. The new round was led by Temasek ...