Facebook said Tuesday that it has removed hundreds of accounts linked to a mysterious advertising agency operating out of Russia that sought to pay social media influencers to smear Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca. A network of 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts was traced back to Fazze, an advertising and marketing Read more about Facebook says Russia-linked ad agency tried to smear Covid vaccines[…]

Debian Project Secretary Kurt Roeckx has announced the results of a closely-watched vote on what statement would be made about Richard Stallman’s readmission to the Free Software Foundation’s board. Seven options were considered, with the Debian project’s 420 voting developers also asked to rank their preferred outcomes: Option 1: “Call for the FSF board removal, Read more about Debian Votes to Issue No Statement on Stallman’s Return to the FSF Board[…]

After a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and Anti-Vax Watch found that a huge percentage of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines can be traced back to just a dozen people, the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter told Congress they weren’t sure they would ban them. The CCDH/Anti-Vax Watch report Read more about Big Tech CEOs Waffle on Banning the 12 Major Anti-Vaxxers that cause 73% of misinformation[…]

What do you do if Google disables your cloud life? Andrew Spinks, co-author of the Terraria game and president of Re-Logic Games, does not know either, but has declared Google “a liability” and cancelled the port of Terraria to its Stadia platform.Terraria, co-designed by Spinks, was first released for Windows in 2011 and has sold Read more about Terraria dev cancels Stadia port after Google disabled his email account for three weeks – Kafka has nothing on this[…]

In two reports, the researchers contended that an app on Google’s Android operating system that powers drones made by China-based Da Jiang Innovations, or DJI, collects large amounts of personal information that could be exploited by the Beijing government. Hundreds of thousands of customers across the world use the app to pilot their rotor-powered, camera-mounted Read more about US accuses Chinese-Made Drones with Security Weakness: the possiblity to update their software[…]

The Washington Post’s Tony Romm reported on Monday night that Twitter has decided it will allow certain right-wing accounts to spread disinformation about the Iowa Democratic Caucuses, including tweets that suggest the results are being “rigged.” Trump campaign manager Brad Pascal tweeted on Monday, “Quality control = rigged?,” citing a second Trump campaign official who Read more about Twitter Helps Spread Disinformation During Iowa Caucuses[…]

Verizon, which bought Yahoo In 2017, has suspended email addresses of archivists who are trying to preserve 20 years of content that will be deleted permanently in a few weeks. As Verizon announced in October, the company intends to wipe all content from Yahoo Groups. As of December 14, all previously posted content on the Read more about Verizon kills email accounts of archivists trying to save Yahoo Groups history[…]

Fears of Russian interference ahead of a heated U.K. election were all but confirmed this week with a Reddit post. In a post Friday, Reddit announced that its internal investigation found evidence that an account purportedly linked to Russian disinformation campaign was behind last month’s leak of contentious US-UK trade documents on the platform. “We Read more about Reddit Uncovers Russian Interference Campaign Ahead of Pivotal UK Election[…]

ProPublica has determined that dozens of state and local agencies have purchased “SCAN” training from a company called LSI for reviewing a suspect’s written statements — even though there’s no scientific evidence that it works. Local, state and federal agencies from the Louisville Metro Police Department to the Michigan State Police to the U.S. State Read more about Why Are Cops Around the World Using This Outlandish Mind-Reading Tool That Doesn’t Work?[…]

After two weeks of no uploads, a notable Borderlands personality on YouTube returned to the platform yesterday with a video explaining his absence. He said that the game’s publisher Take-Two Interactive hit his channel with several copyright strikes and sent investigators to his home in response to months of Borderlands coverage on his channel, which Read more about Take-Two Sends Investigators To YouTuber’s House To Crack Down On Borderlands 3 Leaks – wait you can send your own police force to muscle on people in the USA? Kafka-esque experience follows with service shutdowns[…]

Charges announced by the Justice Department on Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange provide fresh insight into why federal prosecutors sought to question whistleblower Chelsea Manning last month before a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. Manning, convicted in 2013 of leaking classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, was jailed in early Read more about Assange Charges Finally Reveal Why Chelsea Manning Is Sitting in Jail[…]

Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served years in prison for leaking one of the largest troves of classified documents in U.S. history, has been sent to jail for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for contempt of court Friday after a Read more about Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify on Wikileaks[…]

An explosive new report by Reuters released Friday may upturn the narrative surrounding the potential cancer risks of talcum powder. According to the report, Johnson & Johnson—the makers of the most popular consumer talc product, Baby Powder—knew for decades that its products at times contained carcinogenic asbestos, but did everything possible to keep its findings Read more about Report: Johnson & Johnson Knew About Asbestos in Its Baby Powder Products for Decades[…]

Thousands of machine-learning wizards have signed an open statement boycotting a new AI-focused academic journal, disapproving of the paper’s policy of closed-access.Nature Machine Intelligence is a specialized journal concentrating on intelligent systems and robotics research. It’s expected to launch in January next year, and is part of Nature Publishing Group, one of the world’s top Read more about AI boffins rebel against closed-access academic journal Nature[…]

GitHub user Zeffy has created a patch that removes a limitation that Microsoft imposed on users of 7th generation processors, a limit that prevents users from receiving Windows updates if they still use Windows 7 and 8.1. Source: User-Made Patch Lets Owners of Next-Gen CPUs Install Updates on Windows 7 & 8.1 MS wants to Read more about MS now blocking updates for Win7 & 8 on PCs with modern CPUs. User makes patch to be able to install updates after all.[…]

A recent study from researchers at University of Twente (UT) and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) has found that three-phase static (electronic) energy meters, which are replacing traditional electromechanical meters, can exaggerate energy consumption by as much as 582 per cent. Estimates of the number of households in the Netherlands with smart meters range Read more about “smart” meters caught simply making up readings[…]

Welcome to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room. Do UFOs fascinate you? Are you a history buff who wants to learn more about the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam or the A-12 Oxcart? Have stories about spies always fascinated you? You can find information about all of these topics and more Read more about CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room releases 12m new documents[…]

An 18-year-old broke France’s anti-terror laws by naming his home Wi-Fi network “Daesh 21” – after the medieval murder bastards ISIS. The unnamed teen was given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for now, after he was found guilty of essentially publicly condoning a terrorist act or group. Source: Teen in the dock on terror apologist Read more about Teen in the dock on terror apologist charge for naming Wi-Fi network ‘Daesh 21’[…]

Somewhere a Lenovo engineer is crying over how your OS is accessing the SSD Source: Lenovo downward dogs with Yoga BIOS update supporting Linux installs Finally – wtf is with Lenovo!?

You find a fault in a Tesla. You ask for repairs. Tesla comes back offering 50% of the repair price, but only if you promise to not tell anyone about the problem you found! This offer, to repair a defective part in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement, is unheard of in the auto industry. More Read more about Tesla Suspension Breakage: It’s Not The Crime, It’s The Coverup – Slashdot[…]

Recently, Microsoft’s policy had been to throw up a dialogue box asking you whether you wanted to install Windows 10. If you clicked the red “X” to close the box – the tried-and-tested way to make dialogue boxes vanish without agreeing to do anything – Microsoft began taking that as permission for the upgrade to Read more about Microsoft removes the X to close the Windows 10 update after they decided the closing X meant yes, do it now[…]

Linksys has been collaborating with chipmaker Marvell and the makers of OpenWrt to make sure its latest WRT routers can comply with the new rules without blocking open source firmware, company officials told Ars. Linksys’s effort stands in contrast with TP-Link, which said it would entirely prevent loading of open source firmware on its routers Read more about Linksys WRT routers won’t block open source firmware despite FCC rules[…]