September 20, 2023

The Japan News: Google, X Among Six Search, Social Media Operators Subject to Japan’s New Government Regulations to Protect Personal Data

The Japan News: Google, X Among Six Search, Social Media Operators Subject to Japan’s New Government Regulations to Protect Personal Data. “Google LLC and X Corp., which operates the service formerly known as Twitter, are among the six companies whose services will be subject to regulation by the Japanese government from as soon as October. A council of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry released its report Tuesday saying that it is appropriate to designate the six companies, with the aim of strengthening the protection of users’ personal information.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 18, 2023

TechCrunch: Twitter/X rival T2 rebrands as ‘Pebble,’ saying the old name was never meant to be permanent

TechCrunch: Twitter/X rival T2 rebrands as ‘Pebble,’ saying the old name was never meant to be permanent . “An X challenger didn’t hide its ambitions to take on the social network formerly known as Twitter when it dubbed itself T2 at launch, but now that name — one which indicates a desire to build a Twitter clone — is no more. The company announced on its platform that the would-be X rival will now be called ‘Pebble.’” “Like the smartwatch?” said my not-quite-keeping-up memory.

Tweaks & Updates 0
September 16, 2023

New York Times: TikTok Rankles Employees With Return-to-Office Tracking Tools

New York Times: TikTok Rankles Employees With Return-to-Office Tracking Tools. “TikTok employees in the United States expressed frustration and dismay this week after the company introduced a tool for tracking office attendance and threatened disciplinary action for failing to comply with new in-person mandates, in an unusual effort to get workers back into the office with custom data-collection technology.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 16, 2023

Business Tech: South Africa launches major investigation into Google, Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT

Business Tech (South Africa): South Africa launches major investigation into Google, Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT. “The Competition Commission has published the final terms of reference for its Media and Digital Platforms Market Inquiry, which aims to sniff out imbalances and competition issues related to dominant news aggregators and local South African media publications. According to the commission, the inquiry is specifically looking at the growing imbalance between news publishers in South Africa and large platforms like Google, Facebook and Apple, which take extracts of copyrighted work and place them on aggregated news feeds.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 15, 2023

New Study: People Have A Negative View Of Advertisers Who Still Advertise On Platforms That Allow Hate Speech (Techdirt)

Techdirt: New Study: People Have A Negative View Of Advertisers Who Still Advertise On Platforms That Allow Hate Speech. “CCIA has released a report on the impact of harmful content on brands and advertising, done through creating surveys of users in hypothetical scenarios on social media where hate speech is and is not moderated Turns out, as we said, if you allow hate speech on your website it drives users and advertisers away (someone should tell Elon). It also makes users think poorly of the advertisers who remain.”

Research & Opinion 0
September 15, 2023

New York Times: Google Sheds Hundreds of Recruiters in Another Round of Layoffs

New York Times: Google Sheds Hundreds of Recruiters in Another Round of Layoffs. “Google conducted another round of layoffs on Wednesday, telling its recruiters that by the end of the day hundreds of them would be losing their jobs, three people with knowledge of the layoffs said. Google’s recruiting group, which at one point had more than 3,000 employees, has already been hit hard by layoffs this year.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 15, 2023

Bloomberg: X Unlikely to Win Back Advertisers Before Holiday Season

Bloomberg: X Unlikely to Win Back Advertisers Before Holiday Season. “Elon Musk picked Linda Yaccarino to be chief executive officer of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, with hope that the former NBCUniversal executive would convince advertisers who had stopped spending on the site to return. But so far, many major brands are remaining on the sidelines, and have already planned to deploy their budgets elsewhere during the holiday season — historically the most lucrative period for ad revenue.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
September 13, 2023

From chargers to children’s data: how the EU reined in big tech (AFP)

AFP: From chargers to children’s data: how the EU reined in big tech. “When Apple unveils its latest iPhone on Tuesday, the European Union will have left its mark on the US giant’s flagship product. Now the iPhone 15 is expected to have a USB-C charger, instead of Apple’s usual Lightning charger, after the EU ordered manufacturers to adopt a common connection. Brussels said this would make customers’ lives easier and reduce waste.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 12, 2023

New York Times: 8 More Companies Pledge to Make A.I. Safe, White House Says

New York Times: 8 More Companies Pledge to Make A.I. Safe, White House Says. “The White House said on Tuesday that eight more companies involved in artificial intelligence had pledged to voluntarily follow standards for safety, security and trust with the fast-evolving technology. The companies include Adobe, IBM, Palantir, Nvidia and Salesforce. They joined Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection AI, Microsoft and OpenAI, which initiated an industry-led effort on safeguards in an announcement with the White House in July.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
September 11, 2023

The Journal (Ireland): Major internet companies not doing enough to combat misinformation, report finds

The Journal (Ireland): Major internet companies not doing enough to combat misinformation, report finds. “MAJOR INTERNET COMPANIES are not doing enough to combat misinformation on their platforms, according the CoP Monitor Report co-authored by the EDMO Ireland hub in DCU’s Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society. The report is an international collaboration of 9 academics who conducted a systematic analysis of all information provided by Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), in the first self-reports submitted under the Strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation.”

Research & Opinion 0
September 11, 2023

WIRED: Is Google’s Search Engine Smart or Sneaky? A Court Will Decide

WIRED: Is Google’s Search Engine Smart or Sneaky? A Court Will Decide. “A FAMILY MEMBER’S hurried Google search for a last-second visa to visit New Zealand recently caused a headache—and provided a timely reminder of why Google faces a landmark US antitrust trial next week. Tapping on the first link took us off to a website that after a few swipes charged $118 for the necessary paperwork. Only later did it emerge that we’d paid a so-called ‘internet-based travel technology company’ and not a government agency, and been fleeced for more than double the required cost.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
September 10, 2023

Death of the Bluebird: The Twitter we once knew is `X-ecuted´ (The Daily Aztec)

The Daily Aztec: Death of the Bluebird: The Twitter we once knew is `X-ecuted´. “Elon Musk did not put a lot of intentional effort into X, unlike the original creators of the app. The rebranding of the platform could be a strategy to lead people’s attention away from what Musk is actually doing, which appears to be censoring freedom of speech — something this app is known for providing to its users.”

Research & Opinion 0

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