James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Justice Department amends demand for information on anti-Trump website visitors
The U.S. Department of Justice today amended a broad demand for information that sought to identity visitors to a website that had served as a conduit for protest planning during President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Earlier this month, Justice had issued a warrant to web hosting provider DreamHost demanding that details be handed over on about 1.3 million people ...
UK warns it will prosecute online hate crimes the same way it does offline hate crime
British prosecutors are taking steps to reduce the amount of online abuse that is hurled around by treating hateful speech online the same way it does face-to-face abuse. On Monday the Crown Prosecution Service published new guidelines in an attempt to crack down on online instances of “ill-will, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment and ...
Photo editing app Prisma is now offering its services to other companies
Russian startup Prisma Labs, Inc., which is best-known for its popular photo editing app, is now planning to sell to businesses with the launch of a new website, prismalabs.ai, offering various artificial intelligence-related services. The Prisma app isn’t going anywhere, but the company’s focus now will be marketing its machine learning tools to other technology ...
Facebook takes another shot at killing clickbait by purging deceptive video links
Social media giant Facebook Inc. is taking more steps to purge clickbait content from its news feed, this time focusing on those irksome images of fake video play buttons that often lead to some kind of viral content. The updates are twofold, Facebook announced on Thursday. One will be to reduce the amount of those fake play ...
Privacy advocates blast U.S. government demand for details about anti-Trump website visitors
The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that it be given details about 1.3 million people who visited a website that was created to organize protestors on President Donald Trump’s inauguration. In a blog post, web hosting provider DreamHost explained how the DOJ issued a warrant demanding that it hand over details on visitors to ...
As boardroom battle rages on, Uber mulls three separate investments
Uber Technologies Inc. is considering selling a large number of shares to two investment groups, with a third proposal also being mulled over, according to a report in The New York Times. Uber’s board gave the thumbs up to go ahead with an investment from Japanese telecommunications giant, SoftBank Group, while a consortium of investors ...
As employees fear online harassment, Google cancels gender issues meeting
Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai Thursday canceled a meeting the company was set to hold concerning gender issues. The move followed the recent controversy involving software engineer James Damore and his internal email criticizing Google’s diversity policy. Damore was subsequently fired, and he later filed a complaint with the National Labor Review Board. ...
In the Trump era, US companies don’t want as many foreign tech workers
A report released today by San Francisco-based recruitment company Hired Inc. reveals big changes in global tech hiring trends during the era of President Donald Trump. Trump’s promise to bring jobs back to America has so far included plans to reform the H-1B visa system and also to scrap the Obama administration’s so-called startup visa. The Hired ...
Google engineer sets off a firestorm with a challenge to diversity initiatives
A Google Inc. software engineer has created a furor after disseminating an antidiversity manifesto, in which he criticizes the company for being an “ideological echo-chamber.” The memo accuses Google of discrimination for its attempt to level the playing field and assert gender and race equality within the company. The employee writes that Google embraces biases regarding ...
Report: Uber knowingly leased defective cars to drivers in Singapore, and it didn’t end well
Uber Technologies Inc. knowingly leased hundreds of defective cars to drivers in Singapore, and at least one of those cars caught fire, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal Thursday. The car in question was a Honda Vezel sport utility vehicle driven by Singaporean Uber driver Koh Seng Tian. The driver rented the vehicle ...
