James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Twitter launches preemptive messages to warn of election misinformation
Twitter Inc. announced today that users in the U.S. will start seeing messages on their timeline that “preemptively debunk” misinformation relating to the election. The messages will appear in the form of banners when people search for election information, such as claims about mail-in voting or premature claims about victory. The company seems to have ...
US officials say emails threatening people to vote for Trump came from Iran
Emails that told voters in Florida to vote for Donald Trump were part of an Iranian intelligence campaign, the FBI announced today. “We are in possession of all your information,” said the email. “You are currently registered as a Democrat, and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You ...
Thousands of deepfake images of naked women shared online
More than 100,000 women have fallen prey to an artificial intelligence that used their social media photos to create new images of them appearing naked, it was reported today. According to Sensity, a visual threat intelligence company based in the Netherlands, there is a “deepfake ecosystem” that exists on the messaging app Telegram. It appears that ...
Irish regulator is looking into Instagram’s handling of children’s data
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is investigating how Facebook Inc.-owned Instagram handles the data of children, it was first reported by The Telegraph Monday. The probe comes a year after David Stier, a U.S. data scientist, published a report that suggested Instagram was not protecting the contact information of millions of minors. He said 2 million ...
Facebook rejected 2M+ ads for attempting to obstruct US voting
Facebook Inc. rejected 2.2 million ads designed to obstruct voting in the U.S., the company announced over the weekend. Nick Clegg, the social network’s vice president for global affairs, said 120,000 posts were also taken down and warnings were posted on about 150 million posts that provided incorrect information related to voting in the upcoming ...
After complaints about handling of news story, FCC moves to regulate social media
The Federal Communications Commission today said it’s in the process of regulating social media platforms such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. The move comes a day after President Trump aired his disdain for the platforms for their handling of a dubious news story in the New York Post about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s ...
Facebook and Twitter limit reach of controversial Hunter Biden story
Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are under the spotlight today after it was revealed that both companies have limited the distribution of a New York Post article that claims to have obtained scandalous information. The article claims to have obtained leaked emails and video that was allegedly on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. It’s ...
Facebook announces a zero-tolerance stance on anti-vaccination ads
Ads that discourage people from receiving vaccinations will now be banned globally, Facebook Inc. announced today. After facing widespread criticism last year, Facebook said it would start taking down content relating to vaccination misinformation. At the time the World Health Organization said “vaccine hesitancy” had become a threat to global health and social media was ...
Facebook bans content denying Holocaust, but rules don’t apply to Armenian or Rwandan genocide denials
Content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust” will be banned from the Facebook Inc. platform, but other genocide denials won’t. The move, announced today, is an about-face for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg (pictured), who has been criticized in the past for not being bold enough to remove such content. In 2018, Zuckerberg said in an ...
Google disclosing search keyword data to law enforcement worries privacy advocates
Google LLC has been helping federal agents by handing over data related to the searches people do online, it was revealed earlier this week. Court documents show that the company disclosed the IP addresses of anyone who had searched for a certain address where an arson took place. Usually police would need a warrant in order ...