James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
WhatsApp is taking down millions of fake or abusive accounts every month
Facebook Inc.-owned messaging app WhatsApp revealed today that it’s currently taking down about 2 million accounts each month in its fight against the spread of misinformation and abuse of the service. As was reported by VentureBeat, a spokesperson for the company discussed at the press briefing in New Delhi how better technology is helping to ...
Embarrassing message begone: Facebook Messenger now lets you turn back time
Facebook Inc. today released what might be one of the most sought-after features in its history, allowing users to delete messages they have sent in Messenger. In the past, users could always hit delete and the message would disappear from their own inboxes, but that didn’t mean it was scrubbed from the actual conversation for ...
Mark Zuckerberg criticized after waxing positive about Facebook (and negative on its critics)
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg talked about his company’s meteoric rise Monday, a missive written on the social media behemoth’s 15th anniversary — and as is customary, attracted a lot of criticism for that missive. Zuckerberg opened by talking about how an idea for connecting university students turned into a giant plexus connecting 2.7 billion ...
Facebook takes down hundreds of accounts linked to Iranian disinformation campaign
Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it has removed a total of 783 pages tied to Iran that were engaging in inauthentic behavior. “This activity was directed from Iran, in some cases repurposing Iranian state media content, and engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior targeting people across the world, although more heavily in the Middle East and ...
Second Chinese Apple employee arrested for stealing self-driving car secrets
Just over six months since a former Apple Inc. employee was charged with stealing trade secrets relating to the company’s autonomous vehicle technology, another Chinese employee/spy has been caught doing the same thing. According to documents released Wednesday, a Chinese employee of Apple has been accused by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of attempting to steal ...
EU tells tech giants they need to do more to fight fake news
In the European Union’s first monthly progress report on how some of the world’s leading tech companies are fighting disinformation, you could say the overall score was about a B-. EU commissioner Julian King said Facebook Inc., Google LLC, Twitter Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation all need to step up their efforts to combat fake ...
Apple to fix FaceTime bug that lets others listen in before a call starts
Apple Inc. has been accused of accidentally creating a spying device after news circulated on Monday that the iPhone’s FaceTime app has been letting users hear audio of others even if those people didn’t pick up the call. The iPhone maker responded to the issue, something it seems has caused quite the fuss on social ...
Google tried to limit activist workers organizing by email
Just a few months after global walkouts at Google LLC offices, the company is now facing criticism for trying to urge the U.S. government to prevent workers from organizing protests online. As first reported by Bloomberg Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board during the Obama administration set a precedent that would allow workers to use ...
Facebook may shut down more groups and pages suspected of peddling fake news
Facebook Inc. said today it’s taking more steps to cut down on the dissemination of fake news by proactively axing some pages and groups. The net has widened somewhat, since now Facebook says it may delete these pages and groups even if they haven’t violated the platform’s community standards. Now the company says it take down ...
Labor Department accuses Oracle of underpaying women and minorities by $400 million
The U.S. Department of Labor said today that Oracle Corp. underpaid women and people of color, resulting in $400 million in lost wages, according to a federal filing. “Oracle suppressed starting salaries for its female and non-White employees, assigned them to lower level positions and depressed their wages over the years they worked at Oracle,” ...
