Cartoon: Silicon Valley cavebro
In a few hundred thousand years, he’ll pivot to video.Follow me on Twitter @BrianMc_Fadden.
View ArticleLetter From Out of Control California
[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]07/25/17 0417.53 PST San Jose, CaliforniaOut of control, that was the frightened parental accusation put upon California after the catastrophic election 2016, for...
View ArticleAnita Hill urges women to use class action suits to fight gender inequality...
Attorney Anita Hill has an op-ed in the New York Times reminding us that the Google employee’s sexist tirade is not a one-off moment. It’s just one of many signs revealing the systemic inequality and...
View ArticlePaypal officially bans accounts for racist sites after being used to fund...
Many communities use services like PayPal to raise money for causes that may not get funds through more traditional means like grants and loans. Unfortunately, Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch...
View ArticleAirbnb officially bans all white supremacists from using their platform
When Airbnb was notified that white supremacists were using the site to find accommodations to attend the Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, the company canceled those white supremacists’...
View ArticleMan loses job at think tank funded by Google after criticizing the company
Former senior fellow at New American Foundation Barry Lynn says he and his team members lost their jobs at the think tank after Lynn publicly criticized Google, according to the New York Times. The...
View ArticleRussian firm bought $100,000 in Facebook ads during 2016 election season
As Americans try to understand exactly how Russia managed to influence the 2016 election, it’s become increasingly clear that the Internet was a major component in spreading misinformation. Facebook...
View ArticleFacebook to share Russian-bought political ads with Congress, refuses to...
In a Facebook Live announcement Thursday afternoon, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company decided to reverse its initial decision to withhold the online political ads purchased by a Russian firm...
View ArticleTwitter's Russian-bought political ads still remain a secret. Will they...
The response from Silicon Valley in light of its use to manipulate the US election has not been uniform. After significant outside pressure, Facebook agreed to share the specific political ads bought...
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Open thread for night owls. From the pages of The Baffler: Zucktown,...
Julianne Tveten at The Baffler writes—Zucktown, USA:EARLIER THIS YEAR IN SILICON VALLEY, a phalanx of six-figure-earning Facebook engineers confronted Mark Zuckerberg about subsidizing their...
View ArticleAs advertisers flee Breitbart, Facebook defends keeping the hateful site in...
The self-described “alt-right” website Breitbart’s fall from grace has been pretty sharp. While it shot to prominence during former President Obama’s time in office and got so popular that its CEO...
View Article"The Cost of Devaluing Women" - an important read by an important woman
You may before this never have heard the name Sallie Krawchek. To get a sense of how important a figure she has been on Wall Street, you need to read only one paragraph of her profile at...
View ArticleA Jewish journalist made a Twitter bot to expose Nazi trolls. The bot was...
Twitter has long been a haven for some of the worst people on the Internet. The high rates of harassment against women and people of color have been an issue for years. Russia abuses it to drive...
View ArticleTwitter updates number of users who engaged with Russian U.S. election...
Social media companies Facebook and Twitter seemed initially reluctant to admit that their platforms’ were abused by the Russians to sow (even more) discord during the U.S. 2016 election seasons....
View ArticleYou can now peruse a database of 200,000 tweets sent by Russian bots during...
For everyone who doesn’t have their head in the sand, it’s undeniable that Russia used social media to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. Unfortunately, companies like Facebook and Twitter and...
View ArticleRight-wing conspiracy theorists are already spinning lies about Austin...
On Monday, there were news reports from Austin, Texas, about several deadly package bombs that killed and injured four people—black and Latino. While police have said they believe all the bombs are...
View ArticleTheranos: Looks Like It Was Too Good to be True
The story of Elizabeth Holmes and the company she founded is in the news, but not in a good way. She was a brilliant student who dropped out of Stanford to pursue her ideas of revolutionizing medical...
View ArticleYouTube bans videos promoting the selling or making of guns
YouTube just became a little less friendly to gun enthusiasts with a new change in their policy implemented this week. The platform, which already banned videos that linked to the selling of bump...
View ArticleTumblr's response to Russian propaganda sets a positive example for other...
While there’s been a lot of attention on Facebook and Twitter’s role in the spread of Russian propaganda, they are not the only platforms used to influence the U.S. presidential election. Tumblr was...
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