James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Report: Facebook knows just how much Instagram is hurting youth
U.S. senators are asking for answers after a report today by The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook Inc. seemingly downplays the impact Instagram has on the mental health of the young. Internal documents seen by the Journal show that Facebook knew that the immensely popular app is damaging for a large percentage of its teenage ...
Report: Facebook program gives VIPs immunity from standard moderation
Facebook Inc. has a program that gives millions of users immunity from the company’s standard moderation practices, according to an article published in the Wall Street Journal today. Documents obtained by the Journal seem to suggest that there’s a “one rule for us and one rule for them” situation at Facebook, relating to a program ...
Amazon announces it will pay full college tuition for employees in the US
Amazon.com Inc. said today that it will cover all college tuition fees should any of its 750,000 operations workers in the U.S. decide to take on higher education. The e-commerce giant said as part of a $1.2 billion investment in education and skills training, it will cover fees, books and classes. As part of the ...
Twitter is testing a ‘Communities’ feature for people who want to stick to one topic
Twitter Inc. announced today that it’s slowly rolling a feature called “Communities” that will allow users to form their own groups and focus on one topic. In what has been a transformative time for Twitter, the company is now going the way of Facebook Inc. and its Groups feature and Reddit Inc.’s subreddits. The platform ...
Ford hires exec who was behind Apple’s secretive Apple Car project
Ford Motor Co. announced today that it has hired Doug Field, a former Apple Inc. executive who worked on the company’s autonomous car project. Field reportedly led Apple’s efforts to build an autonomous electric car, a project that is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. In 2018, he joined the company as vice president of engineering, ...
Report: Automated hiring software is rejecting millions of suitable job candidates
According to a report published by the Harvard Business School today, automated hiring software is overlooking a lot of talent in the U.S. The report states that millions of job candidates in the U.S. don’t even get a foot in the door, not because they are unqualified for a position, but because the software automatically ...
Twitter announces new ‘Safety Mode’ to combat harassment
Twitter inc. announced today that it’s testing out a new safety feature that should cut down on trolling, something for which the platform is still notorious. The “safety mode” can be activated by users in the settings menu, after which Twitter’s algorithm will attempt to spot harmful language or repetitive replies and mentions. If the ...
Facebook makes plans to reduce political content on the platform
Following Facebook Inc.’s promise last February to “turn down the temperature” regarding political content in people’s News Feeds, the company has now taken that to another level. It was reported by Axios today that Facebook has received positive feedback after reducing political content in the News Feeds of users in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and ...
China clamps down on gaming addiction, limiting playing time for kids under 18
Children under the age of 18 in China will now be limited to playing online games for one hour only on Fridays and weekends, and also on public holidays, the Chinese government announced today. Three hours per week might seem a hefty curtailment, but in the eyes of the Chinese government, the “spiritual opium” of ...
UK announces it will shake up GDPR data protection rules
The U.K. said today that it will “shake up” data laws previously in line with European data protection regulations. Now that the U.K. is on its own following its Brexit break with the European Union, it’s reported that the country wants to see an end to “endless” cookie pop-ups that ask for permission to use ...