James Farrell

James Farrell is the former editor-in-chief of Chiang Mai CityNews, where he wrote and managed daily news, features, op-eds and blogs on a diverse range of topics. Prior to this, in the same city of Northern Thailand where he lives, he was the longstanding deputy editor of the monthly magazine Citylife. He has written on culture, politics, travel, tech, business, human rights, for local, national, and international news services and magazines. He has a keen interest in the role technology is playing in the transformation of society, culture and politics, especially in developing nations. This is reflected in his not-so-successful first novel.

Latest from James Farrell

Amid Apple privacy spat, Facebook will ask users to opt in to tracking for ‘better ads experience’

Facebook Inc. said today that it will start rolling out a new function for iPhone and iPad in which users will be asked to allow the company to track their activity in order to improve their ad experience. The move comes before Apple Inc.’s spring update which has rankled Facebook somewhat. In that update, users ...

In its first rulings, Facebook’s Oversight Board overturns four of five cases

Facebook Inc.’s Oversight Board has ruled that four of five cases where Facebook had taken down content should be reversed. Almost a year ago to the day, Facebook announced that it would soon start implementing a third-party review board to oversee its decisions regarding what it removes from the platform, although it wasn’t until December ...

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will cut back on News Feed political content

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said today that there’s too much political content on the platform and he has some ideas about how to address that. Zuckerberg brought the matter up when talking on the quarterly earnings call, saying that a top priority for 2021 was to lessen the amount of political fighting on ...

Twitter gives academics full access to its tweet archive

Twitter Inc. said today that it will grant academic researchers full access to its archive of tweets so they can better understand user behavior and what topics people discuss. Academics have been able for some years now to access some of the company’s archive, but Twitter said it hasn’t always been easy for researchers to ...

Twitter pilots a new misinformation fighting tool: Birdwatch

Twitter Inc. today announced the preliminary release of Birdwatch, its fact-checking function for users. The program, which is specifically designed to address specious information that appears on the platform, is available to only 1,000 users in the U.S. right now. Those users will be able to address information and tag it as misleading, adding more ...

Google investigating top AI ethicist after thousands of files downloaded and shared

It was only in December that Google LLC found itself the topic of controversy once again when it fired Dr. Mimnit Gebru, one of its leading artificial intelligence ethicists, and today a very similar story hit the news. The company said Gebru had given her superiors an ultimatum, which was to publish her paper or she’d ...

GitHub head of HR resigns after Jewish employee was fired for warning about Nazis among Capitol mob

Following the unnecessary firing of an employee over a comment about Nazis being among the people that invaded the U.S. Capitol this month, GitHub Inc. announced today that the head of human resources has “taken accountability” and resigned. The reason the employee in question was fired was a message he sent to his coworkers regarding ...

YouTube suspends Trump’s channel, Snapchat hands down a permanent ban

After being accused of inciting violence, YouTube has banned President Trump’s channel for at least seven days. “After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies,” YouTube said. “It now has its 1st strike and is temporarily ...

Authorities take down DarkMarket, the world’s largest illegal online marketplace

The world’s largest online illegal marketplace today was taken offline and an Australian man accused of running it has been arrested. The unnamed 34-year-old man from Australia said to be behind the marketplace, DarkMarket, was picked up by police in the city of Koblenz in the southwest of Germany. According to police, the investigation was ...

Facebook and other big tech firms halt political spending after attack on the Capitol

Facebook Inc. will freeze political contributions after last week’s attack on the Capitol, it was first reported today by Axios. “Following last week’s awful violence in DC, we are pausing all of our PAC contributions for at least the current quarter, while we review our policies,” the company said in a statement. Google LLC said ...