Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU ministers raised concerns Friday about whether citizens’ rights are protected in a bill aimed at speeding up investigators’ access to email and other digital evidence in cross-border terrorism cases. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, introduced the bill in April to help prosecutors …
Read More »Italy fines Facebook for selling users’ data
Rome, Italy | AFP | Italy’s competition authority has fined Facebook 10 million euros ($11.3 million) for selling users’ data without informing them and “aggressively” discouraging users from trying to limit how the company shares their data. Facebook “misleadingly gets people to sign up… without informing them in an immediate …
Read More »EU steps up fake news fight before elections
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union launched Wednesday a system for member countries to alert each other to online disinformation spread by opponents such as Russia to undermine next year’s key elections. The bloc also urged Facebook and other social media platforms to follow through on pledges to …
Read More »Pop star Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ video smashes records
New York, United States | AFP | Pop star Ariana Grande’s sugary new music video for the hit “Thank U, Next” is now the fastest to rack up 100 million views on YouTube, the platform told AFP Wednesday. After dropping Friday, the clip needed little more than three days to …
Read More »EU steps up fake news fight before elections
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | The European Union launched Wednesday a system for member countries to alert each other to online disinformation spread by opponents such as Russia to undermine next year’s key elections. The bloc also urged Facebook and other social media platforms to follow through on pledges to …
Read More »‘Fix Facebook, whether it wants to or not’
Bruxelles, Belgium | AFP | Eight months after revealing the links between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica (CA), whistleblower Christopher Wylie is pushing for the internet giant to be regulated — whether it wants to or not. He is scathing about Facebook’s “man-child” chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and the arrogance of …
Read More »Former employee says Facebook failing black people
San Francisco, United States | AFP | A former Facebook employee on Tuesday went public with a memo saying the company is failing to include black people in its workforce and on the social network. Mark Luckie said that he shared the message with all Facebook employees around the world …
Read More »Google accused of manipulation to track users
Oslo, Norway | AFP | Seven European consumer groups filed complaints against Google with national regulators Tuesday, accusing the internet giant of covertly tracking users’ movements in violation of an EU regulation on data protection. The complaints cited a study by the Norwegian Consumer Council that concluded the Internet giant …
Read More »Snapchat selfie sparks terror scare on Jet Airways Indian flight
Kolkata, India | AFP | A passenger was taken off an Indian plane and detained for questioning after he posted a photo of himself on Snapchat alongside the word “terrorist”, officials said Tuesday. Yogvedant Poddar, 21, was removed from the Jet Airways flight after a passenger spotted him typing …
Read More »Amazon says some customer email addresses exposed
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Amazon on Wednesday said that a website glitch accidentally exposed names and email addresses of some of the e-commerce giant’s customers. Amazon declined to disclose the extent of the software slip-up. “We have fixed the issue and informed customers who may have been …
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