Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 42

The world's largest live-streaming platform is experiencing a heavy amount of controversy following the unraveling of the biggest scammer on Twitch.

Former Team Liquid member and streamer Slicker has been exposed for scamming his followers and fellow content creators out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. As outlined by the YouTube investigator Coffeezilla, Slicker admits to scamming numerous individuals by borrowing money from them and never returning it despite promising to do so.

Slicker borrowed the money from people to fuel his gambling addiction, which, following Slicker's admission, sparked a large debate on social media surrounding the victims and the larger impact of gambling being present on Twitch. Streamers such as Ludwig and xQc have offered to help pay back the money owed to Slicker's victims, which now totals more than $300,000, according to Coffeezilla.

Russian citizens are flocking to the world's largest search engine to ask one simple question - "How to leave Russia?".

Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's now-canceled nation address, Russian citizens took to Google on Tuesday to ask the search engine "how to leave Russia", according to the Mozhem Obyasnit Telegram channel. The canceled speech from Putin was rescheduled to Wednesday this week as the Kremlin have indicated that it will respond to the claims that the nation has suffered significant losses in the Ukraine war and how its response could directly impact everyday Russians.

The peak of the Google search queries happened at around 6 pm Moscow time on Tuesday, with the Mozhem Obyasnit Telegram channel reporting that Russians located in the east of the country, bordering China, showed a particular interest in getting results on how to leave Russia.

The Pentagon has launched a "sweeping audit" on how it conducts clandestine psychological operations online after growing concern from the White House and federal agencies.

A new report from The Washington Post reveals that social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook have identified and removed fake accounts that are suspected of being created and run by the US military. The accounts in question violated the platforms' policies, and as a result, Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, has now instructed that a full accounting report on all psychological operations online will be provided to him by next month.

WAPO reports that Twitter and Facebook have taken down more than 150 accounts and media sites that were in violation of the platform's policies. Two officials familiar with the matter spoke to WAPO on the condition of anonymity, and said that the majority of the account removals occurred within the last three years, with some even being as recent as the Russian/Ukraine war as the account/s were spreading anti-Russian narratives that cited "the Kremlin's "imperialist" war in Ukraine and warning of the conflict's direct impact on Central Asian countries," wrote WAPO.

Twitter is preparing to question SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk under oath for the very first time, as the world's second-largest social media platform plans to ask Musk why he decided to abandon the deal to purchase the platform.

Elon Musk decided to back out of his $44 billion deal to purchase Twitter, which sparked legal action from Twitter that Musk and the social media platform are now engaged in. Musk decided to back out of the deal to purchase the social media platform by arguing that Twitter intentionally misrepresented the number of users on its platform, and simultaneously misrepresented its total number of bot/spam accounts.

On the other side of the fence, Twitter has alleged that Musk is attempted to get out of the deal for economic reasons, and that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been attempting to gather insider information from Twitter to build his own competing platform. Both parties are now engaged in a lawsuit that will go to litigation privately in a law office in Delaware on September 26 and September 27, with the possibility of the trial extending an additional day to September 28.

It has been a very tough year for US tech companies with COVID-19-related supply chain shortages across various industries and an overall market downturn.

Most US tech giants are already making decisions like cutting hiring rates to brace for the market downturn, and while most US tech giants have felt the pressure one way or another, there is no one that has felt it more than Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Bloomberg has reported that Zuckerberg has lost a considerable amount of his net worth across 2022, with the publication reporting that the Facebook founder has lost a whopping $71 billion throughout the year, leaving his current net worth at $55.6 billion.

While $55.6 billion is certainly a lot of money, Zuckerberg has moved down to the 20th richest person in the world - his lowest spot on Bloomberg's ladder since 2014. For context, Zuckerberg was the third-richest person in the world just two years ago, meaning that the Facebook founder has lost more than half of his net worth this year. What caused this?

The news comes from Yuga Labs security engineer Sam Curry who took to his personal Twitter to reveal he received a mysterious wire transaction from Google for nearly $250,000.

Curry took to Twitter on September 14, writing that it had, at the time, been almost three weeks since Google randomly sent him $249,000 and that he still hadn't heard anything back from the company regarding the support ticket he filed shortly after noticing the payment. Curry tagged Google on Twitter and asked if he could get into contact with the company about the mysterious payment.

A Google spokesperson told CNN that there was a problem on Google's end with the payment and that it shouldn't have gone to Curry but to a different party. The Google spokesperson said that the payment to Curry was a result of "human error" and that the company appreciates that the issue was quickly brought forward so it can be corrected. So, how come this happened?

A new report from the think tank project Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) has concluded that the United States will fall second to China in a major race of the 21st century.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt chairs the SCSP, and according to the think tanks' newly released report, China is expected to win the technology race on several different fronts if the United States doesn't make certain leaps in various fields. The report states that there are a few key technological battlegrounds that China is advancing in faster than the United States. Those battlegrounds are microelectronics, 5G connectivity, and artificial intelligence.

China beating the United States on several technological fronts may be one thing in itself when purely talking about national pride, but there are very real consequences, such as China controlling the supply of Earth's rare minerals that are used to create the technology. Furthermore, these rare Earth minerals are used for military developments.

Travelers around the world are hitting back at some Airbnb hosts that are seemingly requesting guests complete a chore list before their stay is over.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal has revealed that travelers are becoming increasingly frustrated at the extensive chore lists that are being forced upon guests, with some travelers reporting that hosts are even asking guests to mow the lawn before their stay is complete and pay the initial $125 cleaning fee.

In one now-viral video, TikTok user Melworeit said that she decided not to use Airbnb to book her stay because the host charged a $125 cleaning fee and requested that guests take out the garbage, remove bed liners, run the dishwasher, and do laundry. That post sparked more responses from Airbnb users that have had similar experiences. Adding to the mounting evidence of Airbnb hosts' chore lists, an individual took to Reddit to ask if it was "normal for a host to tell the guest to mow the lawn themselves?"

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger had some choice words to say during the Evercore ISI TMT conference last week, where he admitted the company will bleed data center market share to its competitors until at least 2023... regaining market share in 2025 or 2026.

Gelsinger said that the competition -- AMD -- has "too much momentum" right now, as their Ryzen and EPYC processors steal customers (both gamers and data center) away from Intel. Intel did have its next-gen Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" platform planned for... well... now, but that has been delayed until 2023.

Interestingly, during the Evercore ISI TMT conference, the Intel CEO said that the company will "likely exit" more of its businesses as they "continue to prune and get more focused". Recently, Intel nixxed its Optane business out of nowhere, even after the team were showing off next-gen designs in the months prior to their axing.

The daughter of famed Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has taken to Instagram to share her thoughts on Apple's newest iPhone.

24-year-old Eve Jobs posted a meme on her Instagram story that showcases a man holding two of the same t-shirts up, with the caption reading, "me upgrading from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14 after Apple's announcement today." The meme pokes fun at Apple's design choices for the iPhone 14, as overall, it looks extremely similar to the iPhone 13. However, under the hood, Apple has made several improvements, including better battery life, new software features, a brighter screen, and more.

Regardless of the new features, Apple has to offer in the iPhone 14, the tech company's newest mobile phone largely looks the same as the previous model with minimal design changes. Eve Jobs' meme raises an important discussion topic that analysts have been debating for quite some time, and that is ever since Tim Cook took over from Steve Jobs as Apple's CEO in 2011, the company shifted its focus to making money, and lost its ability to produce products that revolutionize the consumer market.