Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 1

A document has gone viral showcasing a move by the UK government to censor Russel Brand following numerous allegations.

The actor, comedian, and pollical commentator was accused of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse between the years of 2006 and 2013. These allegations are yet to be proven, and Brand has denied their validity in a video posted to his social media platforms. Now, a document has surfaced on X that reveals the British Government is attempting to get Brand's social media platforms censored, which has been viewed by many as a way of manipulating the court of public opinion.

The document requests TikTok provide the UK government with information relating to Brand's monetization of content that has to do with the allegations. With the letter requesting, "We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr. Brand is able to monetize his TikTok posts, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him, and what the platform is doing to ensure that creators are not able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and potentially illegal behavior."

Leaked documents between a Microsoft head and a senior Nintendo employee have revealed Microsoft's intention to purchase Nintendo.

Emails between Phil Spencer, the Head of Xbox, Takeshi Numoto, Executive Vice President & Commercial Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft, and Chris Capossela, EVP & Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft, revealed a discussion about purchasing Nintendo, describing the company as the "THE prime asset for us in gaming". The email chains were leaked by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as a result of the Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft.

Not only were emails leaked, but internal documents revealed plans for future Xbox consoles, along with unannounced games and more secret details. The idea for Microsoft to merge with Nintendo is clearly well thought out, as Spencer outlines that the company's Board of Directors has seen a "full writeup" of the possible merger, and that Microsoft's board is "fully supportive" if the opportunity presents itself.

Elon Musk's brain chip company Neuralink is officially looking for its first human participants in an upcoming study, the first of its kind for the company.

The search for study participants follows an independent review board evaluation that granted the company approval to test its product on humans over the course of a six-year study. For those that don't know, Musk's brain-chip company is one of the handful of companies attempting to create a viable brain-computer interface (BCI), essentially a device that is the bridge between the human brain and computers. Musk has said previously that Neuralink will be able to solve medical afflictions in the body, while also connecting humans with artificial intelligence.

It was only last year that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied Neuralink's request to fast-track human trials. However, the regulator granted Neuralink an investigation device exemption (IDE), which enables the company to use a device for clinical studies, hence the call for human participants. As for who Neuralink is looking for, Elon Musk's brain-chip company is after patients with quadriplegia caused by a vertical spinal cord injury or ALS.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is cracking down on the owners of the world's largest search engine by accusing the company of using agreements with big tech companies as a way of cornering the market.

A new report from the AP has dived into the relationship between the Department of Justice and Google regarding the company's agreements with tech giants such as Apple, Samsung, and Mozilla Firefox to make Google the default search engine across a large range of devices. The DOJ lawyers argue that these agreements were viewed by Google as "powerful tools" that kept the search engine market away from any competitors.

As you can probably already imagine, Google's lawyers denied any illegal use of its agreements, saying the company didn't use the agreements as a way to dominate the market, and that Google's market share is a result of the company creating superior products compared to its competitors. The DOJ lawyers accuse the goliath platform of using anticompetitive methods to prevent any potential competition from challenging Google's position.

An upcoming biography about Elon Musk has shed some light on the relationship between the Tesla CEO and Bill Gates.

The excerpt from the biography titled "Elon Musk" comes from Walter Isaacson, who shadowed Musk for three years. The passage that highlights the relationship dates back to early 2022 when Gates was discussing philanthropy with Musk, pushing the Tesla CEO to donate to curing AIDS, mosquito eradication, and climate change-reducing projects. However, Musk discovered that Gates had a $500 million short against Tesla, which, for those that don't know trading terminology, means Gates has a $500 million bet that Tesla's share price will go down.

Isaacson asked Gates about the disagreement between the two billionaires, which is mostly tied to Musk saying to Gates, "Sorry. I cannot take your philanthropy on climate seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change." Gates told Isaacson, "Once he heard I'd shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he's super mean to so many people, so you can't take it too personally." Adding, "I apologized to him."

eBay is attempting to integrate artificial intelligence into its platform, and the company is concentrating on marketplace sellers as its test subjects.

The iconic platform has announced that the new AI-powered tool will first be rolled out to iOS users and will become available to Android users within the coming weeks. So, what does it do? According to reports from Tech Crunch, the new AI tool gives marketplace sellers the ability to snap a single photo of the product and automatically generate a title and description based on that photo. Additionally, it will generate information such as a product release date, suggested category to place that product in, price, and shipping cost.

An eBay spokesperson told TechCrunch that the tool is called "photo-to-listing," and the underpinning AI model that's powering the tool is trained on past product data, which the spokesperson said eBay has a right to use since the platform's terms and conditions state it has a license to use listing data. The idea behind the new tool is to remove what eBay calls the "cold start" issue for first-time sellers, which is the overwhelming feeling generated by how much information needs to be inputted into a listing.

Mark Zuckerberg's summertime activities have certainly changed with his growing interest in mixed martial arts (MMA), and that can be seen in his consistent training that's posted on Meta's social media platforms.

It was in April 2021 when Mark Zuckerberg became the laughing stock of the internet when a photograph surfaced of him surfing with an extremely thick layer of sunscreen on. Those times are now behind the founder of Facebook, as he has adopted MMA training into his already rigorous schedule and has gained the respect of many prolific figures within the field.

An example of this is a recent video shared on Zuckerberg's personal Instagram account that shows him training with Nigerian and New Zealand MMA fighter Israel Adesanya and Australian MMA fighter Alexander Volkanovski. The location of the training was on a floating barge, and the Meta CEO can be seen grappling opponents, kicking, and even flipping into the water.

The Palo Alto Police Department won't be issuing a fine to Elon Musk for his illegal livestream while driving through Palo Alto on a Friday afternoon.

Elon Musk decided to test X's newly improved livestreaming capabilities on Friday afternoon last week, and over the course of the 45-minute livestream, the Tesla CEO revealed he was operating the vehicle while holding his phone. Elon Musk didn't lose control of the vehicle throughout the livestream but was at one stage forced to engage with his Full Self Driving system to stop it from running a red light.

However, these events weren't what caught the attention of many people, it was the fact that Musk was driving while holding his mobile phone, an illegal act under California law. The Verge contacted the Palo Alto Police Department regarding whether Musk will be issued a fine for the offense, and according to their response, Musk won't be fined because a police officer didn't see the act taking place. In the event that Musk was seen by a police officer, he would have been issued an infraction ticket like any other driver.

The controversy with Linus Tech Tips, one of the biggest tech YouTubers on the platform, continues as the official X account has recognized the recent allegations from a former employee.

On the same day that Linus Tech Tips posted an apology video addressing the recent exposure by Gamers Nexus for prioritizing video quantity over quality, which led to many critical review errors such as incorrect benchmark charts, lazy evaluations, poor objective testing standards, Madison Suop, a former Linus Tech Tips employee alleged she experienced sexual misconduct in the workplace, amongst other startling issues.

Suop took to her personal X account to outline her experience working at Linus Tech Tips, and according to the former employee, she was held to egregious working standards, consistently belittled by co-workers and upper management, verbally harassed, inappropriately grabbed, and asked about her sexual history, which all led to Suop suffering from mental health issues and eventually quitting her job.

Linus Tech Tips, one of the biggest tech YouTubers in the world, is battling ongoing controversy following the exposure of multiple inaccuracies in their videos and the blatant mishandling of a Billet Labs' Monoblock.

The controversy began when competing tech channel Gamers Nexus posted a 45-minute video exposing a collection of poor reporting by Linus Media Group, the parent company managing the multiple channels that fall under its umbrella. The examples brought forward by Gamers Nexus ranged from tragically incorrect benchmark results for GPUs, temperature testing for hardware, unfair review processes, and more. Gamers Nexus proposed that Linus is prioritizing quantity and the bottom line of his channels over quality videos.

An apology video was posted to the Linus Tech Tips YouTube channel addressing the allegations against the quality of their videos. On the same day the apology video was posted, former Linus Tech Tips employee Madison Suop took to her personal X account to outline her experience working at the company. Soup wrote that she quit her role at LTT over egregious working standards and a toxic work environment, which was ruining her mental health.