Subjects Archives: Internet

Tulsi Gabbard was the most-searched person on Google during the first debate–so the giant corporation shut down her account.

We know it’s bad but not quite how bad. We know we should do more about protecting our personal data but either we can’t be bothered or don’t know how.

From the Algeria to algorithms, Lizzie O’Shea argues that Frantz Fanon’s ideas have much to offer us as we seek to understand, and resist, some of the most profound challenges of living in the digital age.

Facebook’s cryptocurrency initiative furthers an agenda of neoliberal financialization, writes Josh Gabert-Doyon

A PLC is a programmable industrial computer to automate industrial processes. Its architecture has similarities to computers that are at the hands of anyone: power source, CPU (Central Processing Unit), communication modules and inputs / outputs. The control programming that is designed for these devices will be done according to the process or processes that are intended to be controlled.

A WhatsApp-sponsored report, prepared in partnership with Queen Mary University, has raised the alarm that the 2019 elections in India, which already has cleavages on lines of caste, race, gender, religion, would be a fertile ground for damaging fake news.

NPR’s Facebook page seems to go out of its way to conceal the fact that it’s U.S. government–supported, calling itself “a privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization.” Maybe the P stands for “Private”?

It’s some achievement to get me sympathising with Mark Zuckerberg. But denunciations from a powerful combination of a parliamentary committee in the UK and self-appointed watchdogs of the new media like the Guardian almost managed it. – Jonathan Cook

While Facebook claims impartiality in its crackdown on “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” the loyalties of the man charged with carrying out that mission. if his resume is any indication, are not with the users.

A total of 1,196 social media accounts based in Venezuela have been closed accused of “influencing domestic audiences.”

In May 2017 artist Joana Moll, alongside Tactical Tech, purchased 1 million online dating profiles for 136€ from U.S.Date, a supposedly U.S.-based company that trades in dating profiles from all over the globe.

AT THE BEGINNING of October, Amazon was quietly issued a patent that would allow its virtual assistant Alexa to decipher a user’s physical characteristics and emotional state based on their voice. Characteristics, or “voice features,” like language accent, ethnic origin, emotion, gender, age, and background noise would be immediately extracted and tagged to the user’s data file to help deliver more targeted advertising.

Bolsonaro’s rise to power came with a welter of misinformation, rumour and lies. What role did ‘fake news’ play in the far right leader’s victory?

Proceed with caution: the CIA, NSA, FBI and DOD are your ‘friends’ on Facebook, writes Lauren Smith.

In this episode, we speak with Emma Caterine (@emmacaterineDSA), a law graduate and writer with more than a decade of experience working within economic justice, feminist, LGBTQ, and racial justice movements. We talk Democratic Socialists of America, MMT, the advantages of a federal jobs guarantee over a universal basic income, the place for sex work in a jobs guarantee program.

Suddenly without warning, between 4 and 5 pm on Monday, August 13th, the Facebook page of teleSUR English was unpublished for the second time this year.

Last week, the company said it took down 32 suspicious pages and accounts that purported to be run by leftists and minority activists. While some U.S. officials said they were likely the work of Russian agents, Facebook said it did not know for sure.

Venezuelanalysis is the only independent English language website covering news and analysis on Venezuela from a progressive perspective & which platforms leftist grassroots voices. It is run by committed journalists, authors and academics & praised by renowned journalists and intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Marta Harnecker and Oliver Stone.

Britain is doing Washington’s dirty work and given the heavily increased ‘political chatter’ on Assange’s fate–it is quite likely the British government is looking for public reaction to be muted enough to simply arrest him, go through the motions and send Assange to certain solitary confinement on death row.

If Australia reneges on its obligations to protect Assange and fight for his rights, the implications such actions would hold for every other citizen of the country are as vast as they are chilling.