Category Archives: Technology

Facebook owner reportedly paid Republican firm to push message TikTok is ‘the real threat’

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Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, solicited campaign accusing TikTok of being a danger to American children

Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, is reportedly paying a notable GOP consulting firm to create public distrust around TikTok.

The campaign, launched by Republican strategy firm Targeted Victory, placed op-eds and letters to the editor in various publications, accusing TikTok of being a danger to American children, along with other disparaging accusations.

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Hackers stole over $500m in cryptocurrency in record-making heist, Ronin says

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Ronin, blockchain project that powers the popular online game Axie Infinity, says unidentified hackers used stolen private keys

Blockchain project Ronin said on Tuesday that hackers stole cryptocurrency now worth almost $615m from its systems, in what would be one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record.

The project said that unidentified hackers on 23 March stole 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD coin tokens. At current exchange rates, the stolen funds are worth $615m, but they were worth $540m at the time of the attack.

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EU agrees sweeping new digital rules in effort to curb big tech’s power

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Digital Markets Act seeks to prevent the likes of Google and Facebook parent company Meta from dominating digital markets

The European Union reached an agreement on landmark digital rules to rein in online “gatekeepers” such as Google and Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

EU officials agreed late on Thursday on wording for the bloc’s Digital Markets Act, part of a long-awaited overhaul of digital regulations with major implications for the global tech market. The act, which still needs other approvals, seeks to prevent the biggest of tech firms from dominating digital markets through the threat of fines or even the possibility of a company breakup.

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UK government vows 10-fold increase in electric car chargers by 2030

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New target comes after criticism of infrastructure rollout for failing to match surging vehicle sales

The UK government has set a new target to increase the number of electric car chargers more than ten times to 300,000 by 2030 after heavy criticism that the rollout of public infrastructure is too slow to match rapid growth in sales.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it would invest an extra £450m to do so, alongside hefty sums of private capital. Sales of new cars and vans with petrol and diesel engines will be banned from 2030.

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US charges four Russian hackers over cyber-attacks on global energy sector

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Quartet accused in two major hacking campaigns between 2012 and 2018, indictment unsealed by justice department reads

The US has unveiled criminal charges against four Russian government officials, saying they engaged in two major hacking campaigns between 2012 and 2018 that targeted the global energy sector and affected thousands of computers across 135 countries.

In one now-unsealed indictment from August 2021, the justice department said three alleged hackers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) carried out cyber-attacks on the computer networks of oil and gas firms, nuclear power plants, and utility and power transmission companies across the world between 2012 and 2017.

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Ukraine uses facial recognition software to identify Russian soldiers killed in combat

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The defense ministry began using technology from Clearview AI which scrapes images on the web to match uploaded photos

Ukraine is using facial recognition software to help identify the bodies of Russian soldiers killed in combat and track down their families to inform them of their deaths, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister told the Reuters news service.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice-prime minister who also runs the ministry of digital transformation, told Reuters his country had been using software facial recognition provider Clearview AI to find the social media accounts of dead Russian soldiers.

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Elizabeth Holmes looms large on first day of Sunny Balwani’s Theranos trial

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Prosecutors portray ex-executive as accomplice in a health scam while defense paints picture of well-meaning businessman

The specter of Elizabeth Holmes loomed over the opening day of a trial that will determine whether Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, her former romantic and business partner at Theranos, was also her partner in crime.

Tuesday marked the opening of a case slated to begin last week, which was delayed by a Covid-19 exposure.

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Australia internet outage: 15,000 major news and government websites affected by .au error

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Exact cause of issue which left many users unable to access sites for an hour is under investigation

More than 15,000 Australian websites, including major news sites and government department pages, were taken offline by a major outage on Tuesday.

An error in the Domain Name System, often referred to as the phonebook of the internet, blocked people reaching some .au websites, with the exact cause of the problem under investigation.

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Trolls and traffickers target Facebook group for Ukrainian refugees

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Technology firm should help spot Russian-based users, says founder of group matching up with UK hosts

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

One of the largest Facebook groups matching Ukrainian refugees with UK host families has warned of the dangers of infiltration posed by Russian trolls and traffickers.

Room for Ukrainians in the UK is a Facebook group that was set up little over two weeks ago and already has 12,500 members. Most of those posting are Ukrainians in need of sponsors and British people who want to open their homes to the new arrivals.

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Unlicensed Instagram and TikTok influencers offering financial advice could face jail time, Asic warns

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Popularity of ‘finfluencers’ providing stock tips and flaunting lavish lifestyles is rising as younger demographic looks to invest

The corporate watchdog has warned Instagram and other social media influencers that they need a licence to give financial advice and face up to five years in jail if they break the law.

In a new information sheet aimed at so-called “finfluencers”, issued on Monday, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) took aim at social media stock-tippers who promise big returns or promise the investments they recommend are as good as putting money in the bank.

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Launch of .au domains will allow Australians to drop .com from web addresses

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People who can demonstrate they or their business have a connection to Australia will be able to purchase new domain from Thursday

Australian web addresses will soon be shorter with the launch of .au domains, allowing people to drop the .com for the first time.

From Thursday, people who can demonstrate they or their business have a connection to Australia will be able to purchase .au domains. It is the first time the .au domain has been available for purchase after auDA, the organisation that manages Australian domains, launched the product after years of consultation.

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Afghanistan’s former finance minister is now Uber driver in Washington DC

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Washington Post rides with Khalid Payenda, who left for the US before the fall of Kabul

Days before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban last August, Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, was “welcomed” to the United Arab Emirates. He was alleged to have taken with him $169m, from his country’s treasury.

Six months on, Khalid Payenda, once Ghani’s finance minister, is driving an Uber in Washington DC.

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TikTok was ‘just a dancing app’. Then the Ukraine war started

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Many features make the platform susceptible to disinformation as world leaders try to harness influencers’ power for good

Many have called the invasion of Ukraine the world’s first “TikTok war”, and experts say it is high time for the short video platform – once known primarily for silly lip syncs and dance challenge – to be taken seriously.

Some politicians are doing just that. In a speech, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appealed to “TikTokers” as a group that could help end the war. Last week, Joe Biden spoke to dozens of top users on the app in a first-of-its kind meeting to brief the influencers on the conflict in Ukraine and how the US is addressing it.

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Malaysian government’s ‘gay conversion’ app pulled by Google Play

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App claimed that it could help LGBT+ people ‘return to nature’ but the tech company has now made it unavailable for downloads

An app produced by the Malaysian government that promised to help the LGBTI community “return to nature” has been removed from the Google Play store, after it was found to be in breach of the platform’s guidelines.

The app was first released in July 2016, but attracted fresh attention after it was shared on Twitter by the Malaysian government’s Islamic development department. It claimed the app would enable LGBTI people to return to a state of nature or purity, and that it included an e-book detailing the experience of a gay man who “abandoned homosexual behaviour” during Ramadan.

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Tech bosses face jail if they hamper Ofcom investigations from next year

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Overhaul of online safety bill reduces grace period for criminal prosecution of senior managers from two years to two months

Tech bosses face the threat of prosecution and up to two years in jail if they hamper investigations by the communications watchdog from next year, under a wide-ranging overhaul of a landmark online safety bill.

The government has reduced a grace period for criminal prosecution of senior managers by 22 months from two years to just two months, meaning tech bosses could be charged with offences from early next year.

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Sunny Balwani’s Theranos trial delayed after possible Covid exposure

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Ex-executive faces same charges as his former romantic and business partner in Silicon Valley scandal

The trial of Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the former romantic and business partner of Elizabeth Holmes, was reportedly delayed on Wednesday after a possible Covid-19 exposure forced a judge to send a full courtroom home.

Wednesday was meant to be the day that Balwani finally has his first chance to defend himself against charges that he was Holmes’ accomplice in a Silicon Valley scam that brought down the blood-testing startup Theranos.

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Uber fares to rise in UK as 20% VAT rate is applied

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Change comes after high court ruling that Uber should be regarded as a contractor, not an agent

Uber fares across the UK are to rise sharply from Monday night when VAT of 20% will be applied to rides booked via the app.

The change comes after a high court ruling last December that Uber could not be viewed as simply an agent but should be regarded as the contractor.

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Erin Molan, Nyadol Nyuon tell inquiry defamation bill not ‘useful’ for most online trolling victims

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Problems of cost and ‘unmanageable’ volume of abuse cited as eSafety commissioner says proposed bill should be renamed

High-profile victims of online trolling, including Erin Molan and Nyadol Nyuon, have said an “anti-trolling” bill that overhauls defamation law for online comments will be “almost impossible” to uptake and not “useful” to most people in Australia due to the cost and effort involved.

The bill will make the owners of social media pages and groups not liable for user comments on those groups or pages, and would shift the liability burden to social media platforms if they do not attempt to facilitate the unmasking of anonymous commenters for someone seeking to bring defamation proceedings.

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Twitter launches privacy-protected site on dark web to bypass Russia’s block

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The Tor-friendly site follows moves by Facebook and BBC who also had their platforms restricted on state-owned media

Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country.

Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt to try to restrict the flow of information about its war in Ukraine. Both companies have said they are working on restoring access to people inside Russia even as they restrict the country’s state media from their services.

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Internet scams to be included in UK online safety bill

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Platforms to be required to protect users from pre-paid fraudulent adverts as well as user-generated scams

Measures to protect people from internet scams will now be included in proposed online safety laws, the government has said.

Under a previous draft of the online safety bill, platforms which host user-generated content would have a “duty of care” to protect users from fraud by other users.

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