James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Facebook’s War Room may have lost some of its soldiers, for now
On the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections, Facebook Inc. showed off its War Room to reporters, a place within the company where certain employees would try to stamp out misinformation on the platform, among other nefarious activities. According to a report by Bloomberg Monday, in spite of its promised usefulness in spotting misinformation before ...
Facebook comes clean about hiring Definers PR firm to investigate George Soros
Facebook Inc. admitted Wednesday that it hired a right-wing-oriented public relations firm to investigate billionaire George Soros and some of the company’s competitors, following an expose that said as much published by the New York Times this month. Facebook’s head of communication and policy, Elliot Schrage, discussed in a blog post why Facebook had hired Republican-affiliated ...
Child pornography is the reason Tumblr was removed from Apple’s App Store
It’s now known that the reason social blogging site Tumblr mysteriously went missing from Apple Inc.’s App Store was because it had allowed some users to post images of child pornography. The app disappeared from the store on Friday, but up until now, no reason had been given for the disappearance. The Oath Inc.-owned site ...
Facebook pledges almost $6 million to train journalists in the UK
In what’s being called a first-of-its-kind project, Facebook Inc. has pledged £4.5 million ($5.7 million) to train journalists in the U.K. The money will go toward training 80 journalists who will work with local newspapers around the country. Part of what Facebook calls the “Community News Project,” the initiative will be administered by the U.K.’s ...
Facebook denies wrongdoing in the face of more scandals
Facebook Inc. quickly responded to the scathing report published by the New York Times Wednesday, stating the story included a number of inaccuracies. In a post on Thursday, Facebook denied that it knew about Russian activity on the platform as early as 2016 and was slow to respond, while the company also denied the allegation that ...
Google open-sources API for its Quick, Draw! machine learning doodle tool
In 2016, Google LLC released a sort of digital Pictionary called Quick, Draw!, a machine learning tool that let people doodle sketches, which would then be analyzed by the tool. Apparently it caught on. Since then, Google has open-sourced about 50 million of those doodles to allow developers to conduct research into the way people draw. “Since the ...
Report reveals Facebook’s aggressive strategies to deflect criticism away from itself
Updated below: The truth can be as strange as social media, it seems, according to a report published Wednesday by the New York Times about Facebook Inc.’s internal affairs. One takeaway from that report was an order Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg had issued which demanded that his staff use only Android phones. That came after ...
YouTube says EU’s copyright law could prove dire for its video creators
The European Union’s copyright law Article 13 could put a lot of YouTube creators out of business, according to a company blog post published on Monday. YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki said in no uncertain terms that the directive means the “creator economy is under threat.” Article 13 asks that companies block the publication of ...
After global walkout, Google rewrites policy on sexual misconduct cases
After thousands of Google LLC took to the streets last week in protest over the treatment of women, the company has vowed to make some changes. Last week’s walkout saw Google employees all over the world gathering outside office buildings demanding an end to forced arbitration in sexual misconduct cases and an end to internal ...
Mark Zuckerberg snubs international committee request to talk about fake news
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rebuffed an invitation to meet with an “international grand committee” on Nov. 27 to discuss the matter of fake news and how much of it is disseminated on Facebook. The invitation came from Damian Collins, the head of the U.K. parliament’s media committee, along with government representatives from the Canada, ...