James Farrell
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Meta takes down deep fake video of Ukrainian president telling his people to surrender
Meta Platforms Inc. today said it has removed a deep fake video that had been circulating on the web that shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling people to lay down their arms and go back to their families. The video first appeared on the Ukrainian news website for TV24, a service that says it was ...
Meta says it’s no longer fair game to call for Putin’s assassination on Facebook or Instagram
After Meta Platforms Inc. surprised a few people last week by saying it would allow calls for violence against Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the company today said it has reversed this decision. Last week, Meta announced that it was issuing a “spirit-of-the-policy” notice that would mean people in certain countries would be allowed to call ...
Russia opens criminal case against Meta after it allows language calling for violence against Russian troops
Updated: Russia today opened a criminal case against Meta Platforms Inc. after the owner of Facebook and Instagram Thursday said it will allow calls for violence on the Facebook and Instagram platforms if it’s related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian prosecutors are seeking to designate Meta as an “extremist organization” and said it’s ...
Sony and Amazon join other tech firms in shutting down operations in Russia
Sony Corp. today joined the parade of other large tech companies in pausing some of its businesses in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. The arm of the company that takes care of the Playstation business, Sony Interactive Entertainment, said today that it’s halting all hardware shipments to the country and will for now not ...
Amazon launches Amp, a Clubhouse competitor that turns people into DJs
After a long period of testing, Amazon.com Inc. announced today that it’s launching its social audio app Amp. The company said for now it will only be available to a limited number of people in the U.S. as a beta version for Apple Inc.’s iOS such as iPhones. The app, which is comparable to the ...
To fight misinformation, Twitter expands crowdsourced fact-checking tool Birdwatch
Twitter Inc. said today that some of its users will start seeing notes under their posts telling them that they’ve been flagged by members of the public for sharing dubious information. The program started last year as part of a program called “Birdwatch,” although during the trial stage it was made available only to 10,000 ...
Amazon announces it’s closing 68 brick-and-mortar stores in US and UK
Amazon.com Inc. said today that it’s streamlining its physical stores, closing 68 Amazon Books, 4-Star and Pop Up stores in the U.S. and the U.K. That will lead to a large number of employees being left without a job, although Amazon said it will try to find work for those people somewhere in its other ...
Joining rest of big tech, Apple halts all sales in Russia and limits services
Apple Inc. announced today that it’s halting all product sales in Russia, a move in line with various measures big technology companies have taken against the country since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The move comes about a week after Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov sent a letter to Apple in which he called ...
In line with sanctions, computer chip industry halts sales to Russia
President Joe Biden’s sanctions against Russia will soon hit the country with a shortage of computer chips, a move designed to paralyze Russia’s tech manufacturing industry. Last week, Biden announced an embargo that will include selling chips to Russia, something he said will “impair their ability to compete in the 21st-century economy.” The loss might ...
Reddit gets a makeover that should make using the platform less frustrating
Reddit Inc. today announced some major changes to its platform, including a new Discover Tab, that should make life easier for its users. In the past, users looked for communities, or so-called subreddits, by seeing what’s popular on the platform or by searching various topics. The problem with finding new things to read is that ...