Internet & Websites News - Page 6
Facebook admits even it doesn't know what happens to your private data
Facebook is under pressure from several regulators worldwide to change how it handles users' data.
A leaked internal document written in 2021 obtained from Facebook by Motherboard shows that Facebook was "surprised" by a "tsunami of inbound regulations," and privacy engineers on its Ad and Business Product team are sounding alarm bells within the company to institute change to prevent trouble with regulators. The document uses the acronyms 3PD, 1PD, and SCD to refer to third-party data, first-party data, and sensitive categories data, respectively.
"We've built systems with open borders. The result of these open systems and open culture is well described with an analogy: Imagine you hold a bottle of ink in your hand. This bottle of ink is a mixture of all kinds of user data (3PD, 1PD, SCD, Europe, etc.) You pour that ink into a lake of water (our open data systems; our open culture) ... and it flows ... everywhere. How do you put that ink back in the bottle? How do you organize it again, such that it only flows to the allowed places in the lake?" the document reads.
Continue reading: Facebook admits even it doesn't know what happens to your private data (full post)
New York Times, Forbes 'bought Twitter followers', Elon Musk replies
Since Elon Musk's official purchase of Twitter, many individuals have been asking the SpaceX CEO questions about what he will do to the platform when the deal has closed and what he should investigate internally once he has taken the reins.
Dave Rubin, a conservative political commentator who hosts "The Rubin Report," took to Twitter to ask Musk to investigate The New York Times, Forbes, and other media outlets for buying "their Twitter followers to fake influence." Rubin then pointed out that The New York Times Twitter account has 53 million followers but only gets about 50 retweets per post, indicating a severe lack of user engagement despite the extremely high follower count.
The very same principle applies to Forbes' Twitter account, which has 17.8 million followers but only receives about fifteen retweets per post and about ten comments. Notably, Rubin didn't provide evidence of these media outlets directly purchasing followers but has pointed out an interesting metric nonetheless. Furthermore, Musk has responded to the call for an investigation to be launched by replying, "Yeah, I noticed that too. Pretty weird."
Continue reading: New York Times, Forbes 'bought Twitter followers', Elon Musk replies (full post)
Elon Musk reveals what Twitter needs to be trusted by everyone
Since his purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk has been launching off several tweets about what he believes Twitter needs to be in the future, revealing some of the ethos he will be bringing to the company.
Earlier this week, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $46.5 billion, citing that free speech is the "bedrock of a functioning democracy" and that "Twitter is the digital town square". When the deal was struck, Musk said that he wanted to "unlock it" by implementing changes such as making the social media platform open source and making it "politically neutral".
The now Twitter owner seeks to make Twitter a publicly trusted platform, and recently revealed how he intends to do that. Musk to his personal account on April 28 to write that "For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally". Jokingly, Musk said that his next big company purchase will be Coca-Cola as he desires to put the cocaine back in the drink. More on that story below.
Continue reading: Elon Musk reveals what Twitter needs to be trusted by everyone (full post)
Elon Musk agrees to put restrictions on his Tweets, posts two anyway
Following Elon Musk's official purchase of Twitter and the long process of closing a multi-billion dollar deal, Musk has found himself in the middle of some controversy.
Musk only recently purchased Twitter, and as a part of the 95-page-long agreement, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO agreed to put restrictions on any future tweets until the deal was closed. The restrictions that Musk signed on for was that any future tweets wouldn't "disparage" Twitter or any of its representatives.
Twenty-four hours after the agreement was signed, Musk posted two tweets; one was a reply to podcast host Saagar Enjeti flagging, who posted an article that claimed Twitter's legal head, Vijaya Gadde, was "emotional" and cried during a meeting where the deal was being discussed. Enjeti described Gadde as Twitter's "top censorship advocate", which was a call back to the role Gadde played in Twitter's decision to stop the New York Post from publishing a story about President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.
Continue reading: Elon Musk agrees to put restrictions on his Tweets, posts two anyway (full post)
A YouTuber that crashed his own plane did it for views, says US agency
A YouTuber that goes by the Trevor Jacob filmed himself crashing his own plane over California's Los Padres national forest and has now lost his pilot license.
Jacob filmed himself flying over California's Los Padres national forest in a small plane that was equipped with several camera angles. In the video, Jacob can be heard saying, "I'm over the mountains and I ... have an engine out," and then he can be seen abandoning his plane, jumping out, and filming himself parachuting towards the ground. The video was uploaded on December 24, 2021, and sparked an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on April 11, 2022.
The investigation has concluded that the crash of Jacob's 1940 Taylorcraft BL-65 was intentional and that Jacob "demonstrated a lack of care, judgment, and responsibility by choosing to jump out of an aircraft solely so you could record the footage of the crash."
Continue reading: A YouTuber that crashed his own plane did it for views, says US agency (full post)
Twitter's ex-CEO Jack Dorsey: 'Elon is the singular solution I trust'
President Trump won't be returning to Twitter any time soon, while SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has just secured Twitter for $44 billion... and ex-CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, is singing Musk's praises.
In a series of new tweets, Jack said that doesn't believe "anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness".
Jack continued: "Elon's goal of creating a platform that is "maximally trusted and broadly inclusive" is the right one. This is also Parag's goal, and why I chose him. Thank you both for getting the company out of an impossible situation. This is the right path...I believe it with all my heart".
Continue reading: Twitter's ex-CEO Jack Dorsey: 'Elon is the singular solution I trust' (full post)
Here's the first ever YouTube video, it was uploaded 17 years ago
YouTube launched on December 15, 2005, and since then, it has become an internet sensation and a standard, to the point where younger generations can't even imagine an internet without it.
With YouTube getting thousands upon thousands of hours uploaded to its every day in 2022, in 2005, there was nothing on the platform, that was until YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, an American software engineer, uploaded the very first YouTube video titled "Me at the zoo" on April 24, 2005. The 17-year anniversary of the video's upload and the beginning of YouTube's journey was just yesterday.
In April 2005, YouTube launched a public beta and around the same time, Karim, one of YouTube's co-founders, left the project to study for a master's degree in computing science at Stanford University. Karim left with a substantial number of shares in the company, which was later purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, sending YouTube's share value skywards.
Continue reading: Here's the first ever YouTube video, it was uploaded 17 years ago (full post)
Elon Musk secures $46.5 billion financing to acquire Twitter
Elon Musk has secured the required $46.5 billion in funding for his acquisition of Twitter, according to a filing with US regulators on Thursday.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will be ponying up $33.5 billion on his own, which includes $21 billion in equity and $12.5 billion in margin loans. The richest man on the planet still requires regular banks, with financial firms like Morgan Stanley agreeing to cough up $13 billion in debt against Twitter, according to the filing.
Twitter has been tripping over itself to not let this happen, going as far as introducing a "poison pill" so that someone like Musk couldn't buy the social networking giant. Well, spoiler alert... I think it's about done. The second-largest shareholder of Twitter has just secured $46.5 billion in funding to do what you should do when you're obscenely rich -- whatever the hell you want to.
Continue reading: Elon Musk secures $46.5 billion financing to acquire Twitter (full post)
Documents from 'The Facebook Papers' are now online for you to read
The full collection of The Facebook Papers contains thousands of pages of internal company documents from Meta.
The collection was shared last year with seventeen United States news outlets by Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, and former Facebook product manager. Haugen also shared the documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a consortium of European news organizations.
The Facebook Papers have yet to make their way into the wider public domain for public access and scrutiny. Gizmodo was one of the outlets that had the documents shared with them and announced in November 2021 that it would publicize the documents after partnering with independent experts who would review them to redact private individuals' sensitive information.
Continue reading: Documents from 'The Facebook Papers' are now online for you to read (full post)
Elon Musk reveals why he wants to buy Twitter and 'unlock it'
Hours after putting down an offer of $43 billion for the world's second-largest social networking company, Elon Musk appeared on the TED stage to explain why.
In early April, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased a 9.2% state in Twitter valued at $2.9 billion. This purchase by Musk caused the social media's share price to skyrocket by 25% and led people to believe that Musk was going to join Twitter's board of directors and attempt to implement a bunch of new changes. Now, the SpaceX CEO has changed his plans by putting down $43 billion for 100% of the company's shares at $54.20 a share, according to an SEC filing.
"I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it," Musk wrote.
Continue reading: Elon Musk reveals why he wants to buy Twitter and 'unlock it' (full post)