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July 19, 2021, 2:45 AM
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| Dana Priest / Washington Post: |
Investigation: Israel-based NSO Group's malware infected 23 phones belonging to government officials, reporters, execs, and activists, out of 67 checked — Dana Priest, a reporter at The Washington Post for 30 years, covers national security issues. Recently, she has investigated Russian …
Tweets: @washingtonpost, @jsrailton, @snowden, @josephfcox, @jsrailton, @jsrailton, @wcathcart, @jsrailton, @jslaternyc, @evacide, @snowden, @thewire_in, @arvindgunasekar, @shanehuntley, @josephfcox, @glcarlstrom, @nihamasih, @jsrailton, @snowden, @fs0c131y, @utwitily, @amnesty, @satyajeettambe, @mairavz, @dalrymplewill, @andraslederer, @wcathcart, @iamcouncil, @panyiszabolcs, @salmansoz, @galffy, @billmarczak, @gargirawat, @jsrailton, @billmarczak, @philthatremains, @zahrahankir, @moonofa, @haaretzcom, @wcathcart, @drewharwell, @freedomofpress, @avischarf, @shaunwalker7, @elise_jordan, @washingtonpost, @panyiszabolcs, @wcathcart, @billmarczak, @valeriein140, @drewharwell, @pbhushan1, @vidyakrishnan, @cat_zakrzewski, @snowden, @occrp, @agnescallamard, @omerbenj, @billmarczak, @milanv, @omthanvi, @billmarczak, @abuhilalah, @salmansoz, @kathviner, @carolecadwalla, @wcathcart, @billmarczak, @rdanielkelemen, @thewire_in, @pwnallthethings, @brettmmurphy, @ericgarland, @crubiomartinezu, @jsrailton, @noupside, @evacide, @wcathcart, @dangillmor, @cyalm, @pranavdixit, @marietjeschaake, @alok_bhatt, @billmarczak, @jslaternyc, @camillefrancois, @anthony, @noupside, @mihirssharma, @khalafroula, @arvindgunasekar, @billbrowder, @drewharwell, @ihackbanme, @narangvipin, @davidbelle_, @josephmenn, and @brhodes
More:
Amnesty International: Massive data leak reveals Israeli NSO Group's spyware used to target activists, journalists, and political leaders globally
Simon Sharwood / The Register: Amnesty International and French media protection org claim massive misuse of NSO spyware
Kim Lyons / The Verge: Pegasus spyware used to target phones of journalists and activists, investigation finds
Washington Post: Q&A: A guide to ‘spyware’ … The Pegasus Project, an investigation by The Washington Post …
Bill Marczak / The Citizen Lab: Independent Peer Review of Amnesty International's Forensic Methods for Identifying Pegasus Spyware
Jody Serrano / Gizmodo: NSO Group's Spyware Reportedly Used in Attempted and Successful Phone Hacks of Journalists and Activists
Mark Lungariello / New York Post: Spyware used to hack phones of journalists, activists: report
Doroteya Borisova / phonearena.com: Phones of journalists, activists infected with military-grade spyware
Charlesarthur / The Overspill: Start Up No.1595: NSO Group blamed for hacking of activist phones, Facebook hits back over vaccination, climate change hits, and more
Haaretz: Project Pegasus: A new investigation by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International together with 17 news outlets reveals how Israel's NSO's cyber spy tech …
Frank Bajak / TIME: Journalists and Human Rights Activists Identified as Targets of Military-Grade Israeli Spyware
Mychael Schnell / The Hill: Military-grade spyware found on journalists' and activists' phones: report
Connor Perrett / Insider: Israeli military-grade spy software was used to hack phones of journalists, activists, executives, and 2 women connected to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a report says
Andrew Backhouse / news.com.au: Pegasus Project: Massive global phone hack discovered targeting journalists and politicians
Emma Newburger / CNBC: Israeli spyware used to target phones of journalists and activists, investigation finds
Nathan Ord / HotHardware.com News: Massive Global Pegasus Spyware Campaign Covertly Stalked Politicians, Activists, Journalists
Tweets:
@washingtonpost: Military-grade Israeli spyware was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a global investigation finds. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: BREAKING: massive, global leak of the targets of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. *huge deal.* Forensic investigation by @AmnestyTech in collaboration with @FbdnStories reporters. We @citizenlab conducted peer review. Here's an explainer THREAD. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Edward Snowden / @snowden: Stop what you're doing and read this. This leak is going to be the story of the year: (LINK: https://t.co/...) https://twitter.com/...
Joseph Cox / @josephfcox: Newly released NSO linked domains https://github.com/... https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 2. Background: the already-notorious NSO Group makes mercenary spyware to silently & remotely hack iPhones & Androids. Many of their government customers are authoritarians. Most cannot resist the temptation to target their critics, reporters, human rights groups etc. https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 3. More about leaked numbers & targets in a sec, but first you need to know: @AmnestyTech just released a report with technical analysis of NSO's infrastructure... & analysis validating w/forensics that some phones were infected with Pegasus. https://www.amnesty.org/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: This groundbreaking reporting from @Guardian, @WashingtonPost, and many others demonstrates what we and others have been saying for years: NSO's dangerous spyware is used to commit horrible human rights abuses all around the world and it must be stopped. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 5. Now, to the findings: >50k numbers were leaked that are reportedly part of the infection & targeting workflow with Pegasus. To help validate the relationship between these numbers & infections @AmnestyTech got consent to forensically examine a subset of the devices. https://twitter.com/...
Joanna Slater / @jslaternyc: Introducing the Pegasus Project: a collaborative investigation involving more than 80 journalists on 4 continents showing how powerful spyware licensed only to governments targeted journalists, activists and more. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... 1/
Eva / @evacide: My mentions are now a pit of privacy nihilism. Fuck privacy nihilism. Privacy is not dead. Scared and insecure government leaders spy on the people who stand up to them precisely because privacy is not dead and its continued existence is a threat to them.
Edward Snowden / @snowden: Hungary gave the most incriminating response I've ever seen to a request for comment on the #Pegasus surveillance scandal. I mean, whenever I'm “not aware” of whether I did something or not, I demand to know if foreign spies tipped you off about it. LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@thewire_in: @svaradarajan @mkvenu1 @DevirupaM @rohini_sgh @sukanyashantha 7. The NSO Group issued multiple responses to the #ProjectPegasus investigation. Some were direct communications to media, and others were from legal counsel warning that media partners could be sued for defamation. https://thewire.in/...
Arvind Gunasekar / @arvindgunasekar: WhatsApp head 👇🏻 https://twitter.com/...
Shane Huntley / @shanehuntley: Continuing evidence of the harm done by companies like NSO. What will it take for governments to stop these vendors operating with impunity? https://twitter.com/...
Joseph Cox / @josephfcox: Apps that are installed by default on iOS are being leveraged by NSO to install their malware; apps that people would not ordinarily see as a threat, or may not even use, so likely haven't removed from their devices https://www.amnesty.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Gregg Carlstrom / @glcarlstrom: The charming folks at Israel's NSO Group were asked by a number of mostly authoritarian governments, among them Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to spy on the phones of more than 180 journalists around the world (myself included). https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Niha Masih / @nihamasih: BREAKING: Introducing the Pegasus Project: a collaborative investigation involving more than 80 journalists on 4 continents showing how powerful spyware licensed only to governments targeted journalists, activists and more. (1/n) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 8. #HUNGARY 🇭🇺 Ask the government for comment... get hacked. Hungary's far-right PM Viktor Orbán is using Pegasus spyware to surveil & attack Hungary's independent media, like @direkt36, @panyiszabolcs, and many more. Story: @shaunwalker7 https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Edward Snowden / @snowden: The Israeli company behind this — the NSO group — should bear direct, criminal liability for the deaths and detentions of those targeted by the digital infection vectors it sells, which have no legitimate use. https://twitter.com/...
Baptiste Robert / @fs0c131y: Insane work of @amnesty on the activity of the NSO group. They also released IOCs and the tools they used. #DFIR folks this article is made for you. https://www.amnesty.org/...
@utwitily: Haha wow that's wild Oh well I'm sure someone is going to face some consequences for this, let's just wait https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@amnesty: Here's how our Security Lab analysed the phones 👇 #PegasusProject https://www.amnesty.org/...
Satyajeet Tambe / @satyajeettambe: Marching towards the dictatorial state. #Pegasus https://twitter.com/...
@mairavz: Potential targets of surveillance included the Wall Street Journal, CNN, the New York Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, Radio Free Europe, Mediapart, El País, AP, Le Monde, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, the Economist, Reuters and Voice of America https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
William Dalrymple / @dalrymplewill: FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm Data leak and forensics suggest NSO's surveillance tool used against journalists at some of world's top media companies https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Andras Lederer / @andraslederer: 300+ HUN targets identified, incl @direkt36's investigative stars @AndrasSzab & @panyiszabolcs. No surprise #pegasus spyware targets civil society figures as well. In the first 3,5 mths of 2021, Judit Varga approved on avg 5 surveillance reqs/day. Govt reaction speaks for itself https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: In 2019, @WhatsApp discovered and defeated an attack from NSO. They rely on unknown vulnerabilities in mobile OSes, which is one of the reasons why we felt it was so important to raise awareness of what we'd found. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Indian American Muslim Council / @iamcouncil: Among the journalists hacked by Pegasus were Siddharth Varadarajan and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a co-founder and a reporter at the Indian news website the Wire. Thakurta was hacked in 2018 while he was working on an investigation into Hindu nationalists. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Szabolcs Panyi / @panyiszabolcs: 200 journalists worldwide were selected as targets for surveillance by authoritarian & corrupt regimes. My phone was hacked for 7 months with a spyware called Pegasus, forensic analyses by @amnesty & @citizenlab confirmed. That's life.😬 #PegasusProject https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Salman Anees Soz / @salmansoz: The Indian contingent at the #pegasus olympics includes “ministers, opposition leaders, business executives, senior officials, scientists, activists and others”. Is there anyone Modi & Shah are not scared of? Thread👇 https://twitter.com/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: Because the 0-clicks they're using appear to be quite reliable, the lack of traditional “persistence” is a feature, not a drawback of the spyware. It makes the spyware more nimble, and prevents recovery of the “good stuff” (i.e., the spyware and exploits) from forensic analysis
Gargi Rawat / @gargirawat: FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm | Surveillance | ‘Among the journalists confirmed by analysis to have been hacked by Pegasus were Siddharth Varadarajan and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’ #Pegasus https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 18. Know who else is saying #NSOGroup must be stopped? Big tech. These days they are hitting back hard against the mercenary spyware industry for hacking their products & users. E.g. this thread by @wcathcart @WhatsApp's CEO.👇 https://twitter.com/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: Phone logs show that (at least some of) the iOS 13.x and 14.x zero-click exploits deployed by NSO Group involved ImageIO, specifically the parsing JPEG and GIF images. ImageIO has had more than a dozen high-severity bugs reported against it in 2021.
Zahra Hankir / @zahrahankir: Roula Khalaf, the Lebanese veteran journalist and first female editor of the FT, and Omar Radi, the Moroccan freelance journalist and human rights activist who is currently on trial (verdict due Monday), were also targeted https://twitter.com/...
@moonofa: “Other prominent journalists whose phones were selected by NSO's clients include Gregg Carlstrom, a Middle East reporter at the Economist, whose Egyptian and Qatari phone numbers were selected as possible targets by an NSO client, believed to the UAE. ” https://twitter.com/...
@haaretzcom: Here's how NSO's Pegasus software is used to infect journalists phones in what is called “zero clicks” https://www.haaretz.com/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: Thank you to @Microsoft, @Google, @Cisco, @VMWare, the @InternetAssn and others who have spoken up against the perils of giving spyware firms like NSO immunity.
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell: New: Our giant global investigation into the private Israeli spyware used to hack the phones of journalists and activists around the world. Reported with #PegasusProject across 10 countries. And there are so many stories to tell: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@freedomofpress: HUGE new investigation: “The editor of the @FT is one of more than 180 editors, investigative reporters and other journalists around the world who were selected as possible candidates for surveillance by gov't clients of the surveillance firm NSO Group” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Avi Scharf / @avischarf: Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus software is used to infect journalists phones utilizing ‘zero click’ exploits. Here's how they did it and what we found out https://www.haaretz.com/...
Shaun Walker / @shaunwalker7: My piece on how some of the world's most invasive spyware is being used against independent Hungarian media - the result of a long, enriching and very collaborative investigation with various outlets. A small part of the upcoming #PegasusProject https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Elise Jordan / @elise_jordan: This is a HUGE story: “Reporters...range from local freelancers, such as the Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto, who was murdered by attackers armed with guns one month after his phone was selected, through to prize-winning investigative reporters, editors and executives” https://twitter.com/...
@washingtonpost: The widespread use of spyware has emerged as a leading threat to democracies worldwide, critics say. “This is nasty software — like eloquently nasty,” said Timothy Summers, a former cybersecurity engineer at a U.S. intelligence agency. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Szabolcs Panyi / @panyiszabolcs: Thank you @citizenlab for doing the peer review of my phone's forensic analysis. I finally have proof I wasn't paranoid - I was right all the time!😬 My surveillance with the Pegasus spyware started on April 4, 2019 & ended on November 7, 2019. Is it going to start again...? 🤷🏻♂ ️ https://twitter.com/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: At the time, we worked with @CitizenLab, who identified 100+ cases of abusive targeting of human rights defenders and journalists in 20+ countries. But today's reporting shows that the true scale of abuse is even larger, and with terrifying national security implications.
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: (4) One of the other interesting bits here is just how much of pain it is to do phone forensics. @AmnestyTech couldn't do much w/ Android (as a lot of logs that are easy-to-access are wiped on device reboot), and the highest-signal iPhone analysis was limited to DataUsage.sqlite
Valerie Hopkins / @valeriein140: There were 11 occasions when a Pegasus infection was confirmed within a few days of a comment request from @panyiszabolcs to the Hu Gvt, according to analysis. More than 50% of the comment requests he sent to the government during a 7 month period were followed up with an attack https://twitter.com/...
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell: * Jamal Khashoggi's wife was targeted with spyware before his death: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... * Surveilled in Hungary: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... * A guide to Pegasus spyware: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... * Key details: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... * @SallyBuzbee: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Prashant Bhushan / @pbhushan1: “Revealed: leak uncovers global abuse of cyber-surveillance weapon. Spyware sold to authoritarian regimes used to target activists, politicians and journalists, data suggests.” Many activists, journalists, politicians& judges are targets in India. #Pegasus https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Vidya / @vidyakrishnan: This is a bomb shell of a story. #PegasusProject #ModiHaiTohMumkinHai https://twitter.com/...
Cat Zakrzewski / @cat_zakrzewski: “Humanity is not in a place where we can have that much power just accessible to anybody.” https://twitter.com/...
Edward Snowden / @snowden: HUGE: Israel's NSO group has repeatedly denied having had anything to do with Khashoggi's killing — but astonishing new evidence confirms the phones of the central women in his life were hacked right around his murder. https://twitter.com/...
@occrp: Loved ones and colleagues of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi had their phones compromised with NSO Group software both before and after Khashoggi's 2018 killing. Read the full story in @washingtonpost, one of 17 reporting partners in the #PegasusProject 👇 https://twitter.com/...
Agnes Callamard / @agnescallamard: Our first statement on the massive data leak which @amnesty helped unveil. NSO claims that the targeting of human rights defenders and journalists through its spyware are rare and down to rogue use of their technology are blown apart. https://www.amnesty.org/...
Omer Benjakob / @omerbenj: Snowden calls to hold NSO directly accountable for abuse of its spy tech software after @PhineasJFR's bombshell report for @FbdnStories comes out across the world as part of massive global investigation https://twitter.com/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: BlastDoor is a great step, to be sure, but it's pretty lame to just slap sandboxing on iMessage and hope for the best. How about: “don't automatically run extremely complex and buggy parsing on data that strangers push to your phone?!”
Milan Vaishnav / @milanv: “The minister first moved the meeting..at the last moment, then switched off his phone & told Varadarajan to do the same Then “the two phones were put in a room and music was put on in that room..and I thought: ‘Boy, this guy is really paranoid. But maybe he was being sensible’” https://twitter.com/...
Om Thanvi / @omthanvi: NSO Group claims that its Pegasus spyware is only used to “investigate terrorism and crime” and “leaves no traces whatsoever”. This Forensic Methodology Report shows that neither of these statements are true. ~ @amnesty https://www.amnesty.org/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: DataUsage.sqlite is a file in an iTunes backup that records process names accessing the mobile data, as well as bytes uploaded and downloaded. Information can persist in here for *years* unless cleaned up. So, in around 2019, NSO Group decided to try their hand at cleaning it up.
Salman Anees Soz / @salmansoz: As @rohini_sgh points out, the name of a sitting Indian Supreme Court judge is on this list (name to be disclosed). Should the Supreme Court not seek an explanation from PM Modi? Not for the Supreme Court's sake but for the Constitution of India? For India? #PegasusProject https://twitter.com/...
Katharine Viner / @kathviner: Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary, using NSO spyware in assault on media, data suggests https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla: Great explainer & round-up of global scale of NSO Pegasus leak. Massive database of 50k numbers, journalists & government critics across the world targeted for surveillance. Huge kudos to global collaboration by @FbdnStories & @AmnestyTech inc @guardian team led by @PaulLewis https://twitter.com/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: Human rights defenders, tech companies and governments must work together to increase security and hold the abusers of spyware accountable. Microsoft was bold in their actions last week https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: Also, (3) as @AmnestyTech observed and we @citizenlab can confirm, NSO Group's Pegasus spyware delivered via 0-click exploits is no longer “persistent” in the strict sense of the word (i.e., doesn't come back when you reboot). Persistence is achieved via firing the 0-click again
R. Daniel Kelemen / @rdanielkelemen: Must read by @shaunwalker7 on how the Orbán autocracy in Hungarian is hacking phones of investigative journalists and targeting owners of independent media 👇 cc: @VeraJourova https://twitter.com/...
@thewire_in: BREAKING | Here's a thread of the #PegasusProject stories we've released tonight. 1. Over 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers in a leaked database of thousands believed to have been listed by clients of the NSO Group (that sells Pegasus spyware.) https://thewire.in/...
@pwnallthethings: @amnesty Special kudos to them publishing model as well as version details; turns out to be important when reasoning about the robustness of certain platform security features. https://twitter.com/...
Brett Murphy / @brettmmurphy: Last paragraph in this screenshot is terrifying https://twitter.com/...
Eric Garland / @ericgarland: IT GETS WORSE: Israel's NSO Group also sold surveillance tech to pro-Putin dictator Viktor Orban in Hungary for the harassment of journalists. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Carlos Rubio / @crubiomartinezu: I was the victim of the spyware, and ended up running from Dominican Republic to USA, and even in the US, the Dominican Republic Government, leaked to narco traffickers my location in the USA. Had to move a few times. https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 4. We @citizenlab independently peer reviewed @AmnestyTech's forensic methodology, including how they identify an infected phone. Our review, led by my colleague @billmarczak, judged their forensics & research methodology to be SOUND. https://citizenlab.ca/... https://twitter.com/...
Renee DiResta / @noupside: So just to be clear: social media had major impact here in a foundational sense. And as COVID took off, the anti-vax apparatus - Groups, Pages, etc- and its affinity circles pivoted to denigrating the COVID vaccine. We have been documenting how at https://viralityproject.org/
Eva / @evacide: This is a really important story and I suggest that everyone read it, but this headline is cringe. “Military-grade spyware” is not a thing. https://twitter.com/...
Will Cathcart / @wcathcart: We need more companies, and, critically, governments, to take steps to hold NSO Group accountable. Once again, we urge a global moratorium on the use of unaccountable surveillance technology now. It's past time.
Dan Gillmor / @dangillmor: WashPost has key “takeaways” from a great global journalistic collaboration — exposing, in more detail than before, the rancid operations of the world's most notorious spyware company. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... But read it all. Chilling, dangerous, and infuriating.
Cyril Almeida / @cyalm: Pegasus spyware gives NSO clients complete device access and thereby the ability to bypass even encrypted messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. Pegasus can be activated at will until the device is shut off. As soon as it's powered back on, the phone can be reinfected https://twitter.com/...
@pranavdixit: This is *very* concerning. Apple routinely markets iPhones, especially the ones running the latest versions of their operating system, as more secure than Android devices, which more often than not, run outdated software. https://twitter.com/...
Marietje Schaake / @marietjeschaake: Read this thread and research about the targets of NSO Group's spyware. Spoiler: it's ugly! I hope this straw breaks the camel's back of the complete reluctance to stop these toxic, private, high-tech intelligence services ↘️ https://twitter.com/...
Alok Bhatt / @alok_bhatt: Introducing Govt response - “However, questionnaire sent to GoI indicates that story being crafted is one that is not only bereft of facts but also founded in pre-conceived conclusions. It seems you are trying to play the role of an investigator, prosecutor as well as jury” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: It also indicates that Apple has a MAJOR blinking red five-alarm-fire problem with iMessage security that their BlastDoor Framework (introduced in iOS 14 to make zero-click exploitation more difficult) ain't solving.
Joanna Slater / @jslaternyc: Among those targeted by NSO Group's Pegasus spyware: the fiancee of murdered columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Her phone was compromised days after he was killed, forensic analysis showed. 7/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@camillefrancois: 🚨 The #PegasusProject stories coming out today are a must read for anybody who cares about technology and human rights. Remarkable work from @FbdnStories, @amnesty @citizenlab and all orgs involved in this massive, global, complex investigation. 🗞 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@anthony: Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers across the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments using hacking software sold by the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, according to an investigation into a massive data leak https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Renee DiResta / @noupside: But, Facebook *did improve*. And now, despite the focus on the Disinformation Dozen, perhaps the largest amplifier of COVID health misinfo has been figures like MTG & Tucker Carlson. Media. Politicians with huge platforms. That must be emphasized.
Mihir Sharma / @mihirssharma: One of the most important news stories of the year. GoI has denied it has used this spyware. That denial simply doesn't hold up when faced with this leak. https://twitter.com/...
Roula Khalaf / @khalafroula: Press freedoms are vital, and any unlawful state interference or surveillance of journalists is unacceptable. FT editor among 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Arvind Gunasekar / @arvindgunasekar: Govt cannot deny the fact that phones of Indian citizens were hacked by Pegasus through WhatsApp. This was Cert-in (under MeiTY) ‘Vulnerability Notes’ dated May 2019 on WhatsApp-Pegasus. In Oct 2019, WhatsApp sued NSO in US court for “surveillance of specific WhatsApp users”. https://twitter.com/...
Bill Browder / @billbrowder: A number of journalists I have dealt with on Magnitsky case among the 180 journalists identified by clients of spyware firm. They include @bradleyhope @Khadija_Ismayil & many others. The firm supplying this spyware should face consequences https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell: @SallyBuzbee @FbdnStories @guardian @lemondefr @SZ @OCCRP @thewire_in @zeitonline @direkt36 @haaretzcom @AristeguiOnline @radiofrance @proceso @Knack @Daraj_media @lesoir @frontlinepbs How @AmnestyTech found Pegasus. Huge breakthrough. Their forensic analyses discovered traces of successful and attempted infections as recently as *this month*: https://www.amnesty.org/...
Zuk / @ihackbanme: [Important thread 1/N]: Let that sink in for a second: almost all respected publications were under espionage. All the sources of journalists, were exposed. If you ever spoke to a journalist (even with “Signal"/"Whatsapp") you are exposed. THIS IS A MAJOR THREAT TO DEMOCRACY! https://twitter.com/...
Vipin Narang / @narangvipin: Government surveillance of journalists and opposition leaders isn't new. What's new is the speed, stealth, and totality of ownage by the Pegasus tool, which requires no user interaction whatsoever. It's like the nuclear weapon of government surveillance. https://twitter.com/...
David Belle / @davidbelle_: You journos are brave. After the Panama Files I would have done this anon. https://twitter.com/...
| Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: |
[Thread] Amnesty International and Citizen Lab found zero-click iMessage exploits being deployed against iPhones, even with iOS 14.6, to install malware — THREAD with a couple of interesting bits from @AmnestyTech's new report on what they learned from looking for NSO Group's spyware on phones https://www.amnesty.org/...
More:
Tweets:
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: @AmnestyTech (1) @AmnestyTech saw an iOS 14.6 device hacked with a zero-click iMessage exploit to install Pegasus. We at @citizenlab also saw 14.6 device hacked with a zero-click iMessage exploit to install Pegasus. All this indicates that NSO Group can break into the latest iPhones.
Ryan Naraine / @ryanaraine: Reacting to iOS zero-days: Apple said: “Security researchers agree iPhone is the safest, most secure consumer mobile device on the market.”
Jorge A. Caballero / @datadrivenmd: ⚠️ This tells me we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg. NSO seems to have found some kind of authentication flaw in iCloud's content-sharing processes. There's something about the way that Apple shares content across accounts that's being exploited https://www.amnesty.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Jorge A. Caballero / @datadrivenmd: Devs out there will appreciate how clever this is: “Again, after a successful exploitation, crash reporting was disabled by writing a com[.]apple[.]CrashReporter[.]plist file to the device.” https://www.amnesty.org/...
Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green: Time to reboot our iPhones I guess.
J. A. Guerrero-Saade / @juanandres_gs: Unbelievable work by @AmnestyTech, done in spite of @Apple's reticence to provide means to verify the integrity of iOS devices. What's it going to take for Apple to stop burying its head in the sand? https://twitter.com/...
Eva / @evacide: Tools like Pegasus are a win/win for authoritarians. For a while, they get to spy covertly on their enemies. And if they get caught, it's just one big advertisement for how omniscient and omnipotent they are.
Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green: Regardless of what you name it, what kind of idiots give such a recognizable name to a process that might be logged by iPhone telemetry?
Kayleigh E. Long / @ayleighk: “All this indicates that NSO Group can break into the latest iPhones.” https://twitter.com/...
Byron Wan / @byron_wan: In this report, Amnesty International shares its methodology and publishes an open-source mobile forensics tool and detailed technical indicators, in order to assist information security researchers and civil society with detecting and responding to 1/n https://www.amnesty.org/...
Zuk / @ihackbanme: @ShaneHuntley Even if we stop them, what stops governments developing their own tools abusing it in a similar way? So it's not really up to governments, it's up to Google and Apple to change the model. Identifying NSO is actually easy. (HINT: open up the sandbox, at least on managed devices).
Stefan Esser / @i0n1c: With PEGASUS in the news again. Never forget that behind closed doors people will tell you that when PEGASUS was found the first time in the wild Apple forbid researchers to put the samples in the public and they complied because they were scared for their app(s) in the @AppStore
Patrick Wardle / @patrickwardle: Reminder that your iPhone can be remotely hacked ...& attackers can leverage your device's security/privacy to their benefit. 😥 Examples: 🎯 Invisibly deliver exploits (e.g. protected by iMsg's E2E encryption) 🙈 Remain undetected on device (as iOS prevents introspection) https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Green / @matthew_d_green: The thing that makes identifying NSO hard is that iMessage is encrypted, and Apple doesn't want to upload every suspicious payload for privacy reasons (but also I think because they don't even have the infrastructure to do so.) https://twitter.com/...
Jorge A. Caballero / @datadrivenmd: 🔥 Cyber/InfoSec/NatSec folks: This. Whole. Thread. 👀⤵️ https://twitter.com/...
Bill Marczak / @billmarczak: (2): @AmnestyTech also found that after @citizenlab's Dec 2020 report mentioning the zero-click hacking of Al Jazeera, NSO Group switched to Amazon's CloudFront to deliver exploits (lololol). @AmnestyTech reported this to Amazon, who took action to try and block the activity. https://twitter.com/...
@ndtv: Government of India's response to inquiries on the ‘#Pegasus Project’ media report. https://twitter.com/...
| Guy Rosen / About Facebook: |
Facebook says their data shows a 50% decline in vaccine hesitancy among US users, refuting Biden's claim that it's “killing people” by allowing COVID-19 misinfo — At a time when COVID-19 cases are rising in America, the Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies.
Tweets: @noupside, @dylanbyers, @rflaherty46, @sachabaroncohen, @peteralexander, @thehill, @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @brendannyhan, @ct_bergstrom, @brianstelter, @bostonjoan, @rmac18, @brandonlive, @brianschatz, @jesselehrich, @noupside, @jessreports, @brandee, @kenvogel, @repkenbuck, @babydocanita, @raysteelertv6, @rothschildmd, @richarddeitsch, @badastronomer, @sheeraf, @mjaeckel, @teri_kanefield, @ct_bergstrom, @marietjeschaake, @lidskylidsky, @rvawonk, @andymstone, @steveschmidtses, @caulfieldtim, @pinboard, @brianstelter, @profgalloway, @lam_barrett, @brendannyhan, @sentedcruz, @datadrivenmd, @jbenton, @moonalice, @carolecadwalla, @katestarbird, @datadrivenmd, @rmac18, @karaswisher, @bryanrbeal, @govhowarddean, @stefanie2000, @steveschmidtses, @jesselehrich, @the12fthofnever, @housegop, @technicaladept, @evelyndouek, @mmasnick, @ceciliakang, @juddlegum, @brandyzadrozny, @brendannyhan, @noupside, @maya_sen, @matthewstoller, @sheeraf, @rvawonk, @sruhle, @mollyjongfast, @moonalice, @steveschmidtses, @jrubinblogger, @brendannyhan, @juddlegum, @brendannyhan, @karaswisher, @karaswisher, @lancegooden, @rwmalonemd, @ct_bergstrom, @nicoleperlroth, @sivavaid, @pinboard, @steveschmidtses, @timcast, @evan_greer, @pinboard, @mariachong, @noupside, @authorkimberley, @davechensky, @pinboard, @evan_greer, @draditinerurkar, @matvelloso, @jeffschogol, @quinnypig, @ylecun, @reedgalen, @sarthakgh, @sarahfrier, @sbyrnes, @jaronschneider, @soledadobrien, @emilydreyfuss, @mgsiegler, @drdavidley, @johnbattelle, @dylanbyers, @qjurecic, @jesselehrich, @repzoelofgren, @jason_kint, @anthony, and @jesselehrich
More:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: Facebook Tells Biden: ‘Facebook Is Not the Reason’ Vaccination Goal Was Missed
Lauren Egan / NBC News: 'They're killing people': Biden blames Facebook, other social media for allowing Covid misinformation
Laura Dobberstein / The Register: US Surgeon General doubles down on Facebook-bashing amid vaccination information blame game
Charlie Warzel / Galaxy Brain: The Biden/Facebook Fight Is Part Of The Problem
Emma Newburger / CNBC: Facebook refutes Biden claim that it is ‘killing people’ with vaccine misinformation
Connor Perrett / Insider: Surgeon General doubles down on criticism of social media, says companies like Facebook need to ‘take responsibility’ for COVID-19 misinformation
Ronn Blitzer / Fox News: Surgeon general: Facebook's efforts to combat COVID misinformation ‘not enough’
Sami Khan / International Business Times: Facebook Reacts To Biden's “Killing People” Remark; Says Vaccine Hesitancy Sharply Declined In US
Liz MacGahan / Newser: Facebook Pushes Back on Biden's ‘Killing People’ Claim
Tweets:
Renee DiResta / @noupside: 🧵The last 48 hours on here have been all about The Vaccine Discourse. Is FB killing people? Is the govt passing the buck? Who even can tell what IS misinformation, and who watches the watchmen, anyway? I've spent ~7 years watching the AV movement evolve online and have thoughts
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: FACEBOOK official: “In private exchanges the Surgeon General has praised our work, including our efforts to inform people about COVID-19. They knew what they were doing. The White House is looking for scapegoats for missing their vaccine goals.”
Rob Flaherty / @rflaherty46: I guess I'm left with a simple question: How many people have seen COVID vaccine misinformation on Facebook? https://twitter.com/...
Sacha Baron Cohen / @sachabaroncohen: The President is right—Facebook is killing people. CEOs have been jailed for less. But under US law, social media CEOs have near total immunity, which is insane. Change the law. Hold Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook accountable for the death they cause. #StopDeathForProfit https://twitter.com/...
Peter Alexander / @peteralexander: JUST IN: @Facebook responds to Biden ("They're killing people") re: COVID misinformation: “The facts show Facebook is helping save lives. Period.” Full statement here. https://twitter.com/...
@thehill: Reporter: “What's your message to platforms like Facebook?” President Biden: “They're killing people.” https://twitter.com/...
Judd Legum / @juddlegum: Guys, 2 BILLION PEOPLE have viewed accurate information about vaccines on Facebook and A SECRET NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT FACEBOOK KNOWS BUT WILL NOT DISCLOSE have viewed misinformation about vaccines on Facebook Let's stick to the FACTS and leave Facebook alone
Judd Legum / @juddlegum: Facebook sticking to their strategy of selectively releasing proprietary data — without providing the necessary context for anyone to evaluates its claims — and pretending it's transparency https://twitter.com/...
Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan: The White House/Facebook debate over vaccine misinformation is incredibly frustrating and full of implicit false binaries. All of the following can be true: 🧵
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: Facebook concludes by asking to be praised for putting bandaid on the gaping wound they created. Don't fall for it. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: Multiple Facebook execs have been invited to come on @ReliableSources tomorrow. So far no one has agreed. https://twitter.com/...
Joan Donovan / @bostonjoan: Reporters should press FB to release the data on how many people engaged with, clicked, liked, shared, or dwelled on the 18 million pieces of misinformation they took down. Reminds me of @d1gi's excellent data grab of Russian disinfo in 2016, before FB deleted it. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Mac🙃 / @rmac18: It's interesting watching which exec names Facebook puts on blog posts its comms team deem too hot for Zuckerberg https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Brandon Paddock / @brandonlive: It's technically a reduction in vaccine hesitancy if it becomes vaccine hostility, right? https://twitter.com/...
Brian Schatz / @brianschatz: Delete the misinformation accounts. You have a perfect legal right to do so but you have made a choice to allow them to continue to spread lethal lies. https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: per @crowdtangle data, this is the top Facebook post in the entire U.S. about vaccines today: https://twitter.com/...
Renee DiResta / @noupside: Media wouldn't cover them but SOCIAL media is an excellent tool for networked activism and they could get themselves amplified. Platforms want to allow free expression; no one wants to tell people they can't express a political opinion.
Jesselyn Cook / @jessreports: Reminder that Facebook-owned Instagram is *still* actively recommending anti-vax content to users who search for vaccine info. https://www.huffpost.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Brandee Barker / @brandee: I'm going to take a shot at a re-write: We appreciate the WH acknowledging Facebook's important role in spreading accurate information about the vaccine. We commit to vigilantly fight against & remove misinformation, especially that which may be leading to more death... https://twitter.com/...
Kenneth P. Vogel / @kenvogel: If you thought @ceciliakang would be relaxing after releasing “An Ugly Truth,” the must-read book she & @sheeraf just dropped on @Facebook, then you don't know Cecilia. Here's her day story on rising tensions between @Facebook & the BIDEN administration. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Rep. Ken Buck / @repkenbuck: Facebook censored accurate stories about Hunter Biden's sketchy activities and the origins of COVID-19. They de-platformed the sitting President while allowing CCP propaganda and human smugglers on their platform. We have to break up Big Tech now.
Anita Henderson / @babydocanita: Pediatricians have dealt with antivaxxers for years. This thread explains how and why this has become mainstream and what we can and must do to combat the deliberate assault on vaccines and public health @MSAAP1 @MSMA1 @TCBPubHealth @msdh @MSFamilyDocs @WCUCOMDO @LAWoodwardMD https://twitter.com/...
Ray Steele / @raysteelertv6: If Facebook would release their raw data, independent people would be able to verify it. They won't, though. https://twitter.com/...
Mike Rothschild / @rothschildmd: This thread is as right on as you're ever going to get about vaccination, health freedom conspiracy theories, and social media. https://twitter.com/...
Richard Deitsch / @richarddeitsch: You can listen to ghost-of-Roger Ailes-paid bloviators — and millions sadly do. Or you can listen to experts on how actors leverage the information ecosystem to exert influence. Might as well do my tiny part to pass along those. Godspeed. https://twitter.com/...
Phil Plait / @badastronomer: The anti-vax movement has been killing people for years. Together with partisan weaponization and overlap with QAnon it's now center stage during a pandemic and has never been more dangerous. https://twitter.com/...
Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf: Renee is the one to listen to on this. She was following and tracing anti-vaccine movements online long before the rest of us became aware of their growth and tactics. https://twitter.com/...
MarleneJ / @mjaeckel: An incredibly informative thread to learn why and how anti-vaccine propaganda, medical disinformation, and pseudoscience have become a significant public health threat. Social media platforms played no small part. https://twitter.com/...
Teri Kanefield / @teri_kanefield: Interesting response, which amounts to: “But look at how many people we didn't kill.” https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: 3. Q: Where does a company find a VP of Integrity, anyway? A: You hire the cofounder and CEO of the spyware company (masquerading as a privacy-promoting service) that you acquired and used to collect information on competitors until you were exposed. https://news.ycombinator.com/ ...
Marietje Schaake / @marietjeschaake: US Government vs Facebook is heating up: White House Director of Digital Strategy asks Facebook what so many have sought independent research of ↘️ https://twitter.com/...
Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky / @lidskylidsky: Better ?s: How many people see but DON'T believe? How many believe, but only because they sought out confirmation of their intuition? How much info has been condemned as false that turned out to be true, suggesting our fallibility in applying the imprecise term “misinfo”? https://twitter.com/...
Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D / @rvawonk: “Some people are still getting vaccinated” does not refute Facebook's impact among those who are not vaccinated. They're not even addressing the problem in their response; they're redirecting entirely.
Andy Stone / @andymstone: Important context: For people in the US on Facebook, vaccine hesitancy has declined by 50%. And vaccine acceptance on the part of US Facebook users has increased by 10-15% with racial and ethnic disparities in acceptance shrinking considerably. https://twitter.com/...
Steve Schmidt / @steveschmidtses: and insanity that has played an outsized role in both the poisoning of American democracy and the spread of Covid misinformation that has killed hundreds of thousands unnecessarily. But for @FoxNews and the malignancy of their propaganda, Facebook would be peerless.
Timothy Caulfield / @caulfieldtim: This kind of analysis demos the TOP DOWN (prominent individuals pushing BS) and BOTTOM UP (people sharing on social media) nature of the #infodemic. “Majority of #Covid #misinformation came from 12 people, report” https://www.theguardian.com/ ... by @salamdogmillion #ScienceUpFirst
@pinboard: If you agree with me that propagating news through social networks and feeding user behavior back into automated recommendations engines is irredeemably harmful, then ban or regulate those. Personalizing it as Zuckerberg being some kind of malevolent supervillain is preposterous.
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: Thread of the day >>> https://twitter.com/...
Scott Galloway / @profgalloway: Would @Facebook ever accuse President Xi Jinping of “looking for scapegoats”
Lindsey Barrett / @lam_barrett: self-important exhortations that critics abandon “finger pointing” are the resort of those with no better argument than “criticizing me is inherently bad and *that's* what we should focus on [instead of conduct I can't plausibly defend on the merits].” grow up! https://twitter.com/...
Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan: None of this is to say that Facebook can't do better at combating vaccine misinformation. They should; every bit helps! They should also be more transparent. But evidence suggests the company is neither the principal cause of nor the primary solution to our vaccine problems.
Senator Ted Cruz / @sentedcruz: Twitter is not the government. Facebook is not the government. And yet, Joe Biden is trying to use #BigTech as a government power to silence the American people. https://twitter.com/...
Jorge A. Caballero / @datadrivenmd: @PeterHotez is the expert on the tactics used by the anti-vax movement online and offline. Everything else is second hand information. Period. Full stop. https://twitter.com/...
Joshua Benton / @jbenton: Has there ever been a case where “Let's move past the finger pointing” was not a synonym for “Please stop correctly blaming me”? https://about.fb.com/...
Roger McNamee / @moonalice: A short and essential thread from @noUpside, who has been studying online antivax conspiracy theories from way back ... https://twitter.com/...
Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla: @andymstone @jason_kint Imagine having a senior position in corporate comms for a multi-billion $ global company that the President of the United States has just accused of killing people & thinking that's in any way an appropriate response?
Kate Starbird / @katestarbird: Super-informative thread for how the anti-vax community leveraged social media to grow. One comment. Yes, FB has improved. But the AV disinfo has now taken root in the networks & algorithms (& ideologies). Actions by FB needs to address the structural effects of these efforts. https://twitter.com/...
Jorge A. Caballero / @datadrivenmd: This is a great thread but misses key tie-ins to other mis/dis-information campaigns: 🔸anti-vax movement ↔️ disproven claims of election fraud 🔸anti-vax message amplification ↔️ Russia and China cyber influence IOW: misinfo/disinfo isn't a new beat, it's a natsec/cyber subtype https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Mac🙃 / @rmac18: The guy who has total equity control and decision making power has time to post surfing photos, but doesn't want to confront the president.
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher: This is a perfectly reasonable blog post by @guyro & good to know, but 1. Would be great if it provided more details about misinformation 2. All due respect and love his title, but this prolly should have been penned by Mark or Sheryl. I'm sure there was a long debate about it. https://twitter.com/...
Bryan Beal / @bryanrbeal: Facebook coming out swinging https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Howard Dean / @govhowarddean: Written by the VP for integrity. Even George Orwell Couldn't make this up. https://twitter.com/...
StefanieFriedhoff / @stefanie2000: Researchers: We need algorithm audits & transparency on the key infrastructure that shapes which information people see, and how people are drawn in to share info & come back for more. Facebook: We did remove & label some posts! Thanks for this thread @CT_Bergstrom https://twitter.com/...
Steve Schmidt / @steveschmidtses: Only in Silicon Valley would this dreck be released by an employee ludicrously titled as the “Vice President of Integrity”. It proves definitively that all the money in the world can't buy Zuckerberg or Sandberg self awareness. Facebook is a veritable Chernobyl of misinformation https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: FB legit made up new rules to avoid punishing Trump for destroying democracy but Biden is like “vaccine disinfo is bad” & they go nuclear 😂 “how dare you attack an American social media company!?!?”
RiverRising / @the12fthofnever: CCDH reports the ‘disinformation dozen’ have a combined following of 59 million people across multiple social media platforms, with Facebook having the largest impact. 95% of the Covid misinformation reported on social media platforms was not removed. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
House Republicans / @housegop: Facebook is letting the White House dictate what is acceptable. Let that sink in. https://www.washingtontimes.com/ ...
Matthew Hardy / @technicaladept: For certain definitions of ‘refute’ that include ‘now killing half as many people as before’ https://twitter.com/...
Evelyn Douek / @evelyndouek: Amazon and YouTube just loving this *whistling away in the corner looking nervous* https://twitter.com/...
Mike Masnick / @mmasnick: I get the thinking behind a tweet like this (though I'm uncomfortable with the 1st sentence appearing as an imperative from a govt official), but the issue that is ignored is this is *way* easier said than done. https://twitter.com/...
Cecilia Kang / @ceciliakang: NEW: Over weekend, tensions escalate as Facebook accuses Biden admin of scapegoating. Biden admin says they are ducking on key efforts around vaccine misinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Judd Legum / @juddlegum: Specifically, they know how many people have viewed vaccine misinformation on Facebook and they are not releasing it. Their refusal to do so gives you some insight into what those numbers show.
Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny: Few people know more about the way anti-vaxx organized online over the last decade. For a very good up-to-speed: https://twitter.com/...
Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan: Role of online misinfo in creating vaccine hesitancy is overstated: -Exposure levels to vaccine-skeptical info online are low https://www.sciencedirect.com/ ... -Hesitancy long predates social media / Internet -Vaccine exemptions track more closely with state laws https://www.nytimes.com/...
Renee DiResta / @noupside: These were important and critical policy interventions and they did address some of what SG Murthy & Pres. Biden are saying: people ARE getting bad information on social platforms, and for many many years social media recommended people into the groups, amplified the wild claims.
Maya Sen / @maya_sen: Is there any question at this point that Facebook is a net bad for society? https://twitter.com/...
Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller: Should be fairly obvious that Facebook is deeply hostile to Democrats. Doesn't make the Hunter Biden censorship or Trump deplatforming untrue, but allegations that Zuckerberg is aligned with the Dems should bring forth a chuckle. https://about.fb.com/...
Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf: It would be more interesting and pertinent to this discussion to see how many people saw Covid vaccine misinformation. Especially given what @kevinroose just wrote about efforts by Facebook to hurt @crowdtangle, one of the only tools journalists have to measure and track misinfo. https://twitter.com/...
Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D / @rvawonk: This is such a dishonest response and I am 100% certain Facebook knows that. https://twitter.com/...
Stephanie Ruhle / @sruhle: Really Facebook? This is your strategy? https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: Facebook is the Exxon of social media https://twitter.com/...
Roger McNamee / @moonalice: Epic thread dissects FB's response to criticism by @POTUS. https://twitter.com/...
Steve Schmidt / @steveschmidtses: The release came from, LOL, the Vice President of Integrity. I think the cigarette companies should name Vice Presidents for healthy lungs and clean air. https://twitter.com/...
Jennifer ‘pro-voting’ Rubin / @jrubinblogger: two bipartisan issues : Facebook and China - both are a menace https://www.nytimes.com/...
Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan: Exposure to misinformation can affect vaccine intention https://www.nature.com/.... The same is likely to be true on Facebook at least to some extent and the lack of transparency from the company on the reach of vaccine misinfo makes it impossible to assess the scope of the problem.
Judd Legum / @juddlegum: The idea that Canada's success reflects on Facebook is particularly silly. Brazil has a massive Facebook user base. Does Facebook want to take credit for Brazil's vaccine program too?
Brendan Nyhan / @brendannyhan: Effect of exposure to dubious anti-vaccine claims on Facebook is likely to be smaller than critics assume both in terms of reach & effects as with so-called “fake news” https://gen.medium.com/.... I'm more concerned about cues from GOP, Fox, etc & state laws banning vaccine mandates
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher: What Joan says https://twitter.com/...
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher: It would be interesting to understand why Facebook did not have such a firm response to Trump, given how often he attacked social media: Moving Past the Finger Pointing - About Facebook https://about.fb.com/...
Lance Gooden / @lancegooden: The Biden Administration is working with Facebook to censor and ban ‘misinformation.’ In other words, they are working to violate the First Amendment rights of the American people.
Robert W Malone / @rwmalonemd: @politico My problem is that they define “misinformation” to include valid scientific discussion and debate which does not comport with “official” WHO or HHS interpretations. And “Who you gunna trust” at this point? Facebook? CDC? WHO? Reuters non-scientist fact checkers?
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “Lots of people viewed true information on facebook.” Lots of people viewed disinformation, too Without knowing how many we can't possibly work out the balance sheet to know whether facebook helped or hurt. Problem is, only facebook has that information. https://twitter.com/...
Nicole Perlroth / @nicoleperlroth: This is a nuanced must read thread on the latest White House-Facebook back and forth on whether the company is “killing people.” I would add this 2018 NIH research on how Russian bots and trolls helped legitimize anti-vax fears on Twitter. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Siva Vaidhyanathan / @sivavaid: Carl dissects the Facebook duplicity over its vaccine disinformation problem. The FB response itself is an example of masterful disinformation. As usual, FB management is making the problem worse by being dishonest. https://twitter.com/...
@pinboard: This view that misinformation is inflicted on an unwilling and innocent public is starting to grind my gears. The demand is driven by people hungry for more and more of it. Mark Zuckerberg is not responsible for the human condition, and linear algebra didn't radicalize your aunt
Steve Schmidt / @steveschmidtses: The two behemoths function together, officially uncoordinated, yet perfectly harmonized in spreading the siren song of craziness that has done more damage to the fabric of this country, than any two companies in modern American history.
Tim Pool / @timcast: With the admission that the Biden admin is colluding with Facebook to censor people the “But muh private business” argument is over
Evan Greer / @evan_greer: @BostonJoan @d1gi Genuinely asking: let's say we did know the answer to this. What would we do with that information? How would it actually inform our ability to craft policies that address this harm without causing even more harm?
@pinboard: Sensational thread on misinformation by someone always worth listening to on this topic https://twitter.com/...
Maria Chong / @mariachong: Great thread from someone who has been studying both online misinformation and the anti-vax movement for years. https://twitter.com/...
Renee DiResta / @noupside: Facebook eventually decided it was time to crack down in 2019, a year of two major measles outbreaks, one in which ~87 kids died. And to their credit, they removed the Groups from the recommendation engine, made the Pages harder to find, and stopped accepting $ for ads.
Kimberley Johnson / @authorkimberley: Facebook is basically an arm of the Kremlin. And Biden is correct, @Facebook is killing people. https://twitter.com/...
David Chen / @davechensky: Thread: Don't let Facebook convince you that they're not at least partially responsible for the rise of anti-vaxx nonsense https://twitter.com/...
@pinboard: The law he is presumably referring to is Section 230, which keeps owners of online forums from being liable for what participants post. This law allows small websites like mine to exist. Without it, we would only have the tech giants, who can afford massive legal departments. https://twitter.com/...
Evan Greer / @evan_greer: @BostonJoan @d1gi It just feels like at this point there is a whole industry built around reports and news stories that say “look at this terrible thing Facebook did or didn't do” that are easily co-optable by partisan pundits and authoritarians and I don't see how they bring us toward solutions
@draditinerurkar: Misinformation about the Covid vaccines runs wild on Facebook. It's time to call it like it is: a public health threat. We need to have a serious discussion about holding actors like Facebook accountable for allowing misinformation to spread like wildfire. It's killing people.
Mat Velloso / @matvelloso: “Let's move past finger pointing, so everyone can stop pointing at us” https://twitter.com/...
Jeff Schogol / @jeffschogol: Says Facebook, which took down QAnon pages 4 years after America's parents and grandparents had been radicalized. https://twitter.com/...
Corey Quinn / @quinnypig: And if you can't trust Facebook to tell the truth, who can you trust? https://twitter.com/...
Yann LeCun / @ylecun: 85% of FB users have been or want to be vaccinated. Many countries that use FB as much as the US have much lower level of anti-vaxxers. The cause of anti-vaxx sentiment in the US is not social media. In fact FB has done a lot to promote vaccinations, as Guy Rosen writes here. https://twitter.com/...
Reed Galen / @reedgalen: .@Facebook is a utility everyone hates, wishes they could get rid of and knows everything about you. https://twitter.com/...
Sar Haribhakti / @sarthakgh: “The data shows that 85% of Facebook users in the US have been or want to be vaccinated against COVID-19. President Biden's goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.” Bold comms https://about.fb.com/...
Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier: Facebook doubles down on its critique of Biden saying “they're killing people” by saying we should instead focus on who they help. Again not acknowledging the role of its algorithm in the spread of vaccine hesitancy. https://about.fb.com/...
Sean Byrnes / @sbyrnes: Do we think we can trust this more than their video analytics numbers? No, no we can't. https://twitter.com/...
Jaron Schneider / @jaronschneider: Tell that to our filling hospitals and rising cases that are made up of just about entirely the unvaccinated. https://twitter.com/...
Soledad O'Brien / @soledadobrien: Lol. Facebook newsroom reporting on... itself. https://twitter.com/...
Emily Dreyfuss / @emilydreyfuss: @Techmeme @guyro They should let outsiders see their data (anonymized) so that we could have faith in such a poll Additionally, that doesn't refute the allegation. Hesitancy could be going down among US users now, which has no bearing on how many people died before now due to wrong information
M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler: I mean, how on Earth are you ever going to win this argument? Why even bother engaging? Multiple times! Just let it go and a million other news cycles wash it over... https://twitter.com/...
David J. Ley PhD / @drdavidley: “VP of Integrity?” I'd love to see the qualifications and description for this position. https://twitter.com/...
John Battelle / @johnbattelle: Can't agree more that Fox needs more attention, but...Facebook is, well, two orders of magnitude bigger. https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: NEW: In blog post, Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen calls on White House to “move past finger pointing” > “At a time when COVID-19 cases are rising in America, the Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies...” https://about.fb.com/...
Quinta Jurecic / @qjurecic: Publishing a piece titled “Moving Past the Finger Pointing” doesn't actually strike me as the best way to move past the finger pointing https://about.fb.com/...
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: wow they're really just gonna keep digging huh? https://twitter.com/...
Rep. Zoe Lofgren / @repzoelofgren: A company can simultaneously be helping people get vaccinated & spreading misinformation. When it comes to Facebook, like President Biden, I am concerned about the latter. https://www.axios.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: A lie and misleading info about vaccines in her post. Most of the spread isn't because of the author but because Facebook intentionally puts it in feeds of certain users without counterspeech, correction or labeling thereby accelerating its velocity to a microtargeted public. https://twitter.com/...
| Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: |
[Thread] The response to Biden from Facebook's VP of Integrity is a textbook example of bluster and obfuscation — After Biden's criticism of @Facebook for their inaction on antivax propaganda, @fbnewsroom is going on the offensive. They issued a press release that is a textbook example of bluster, obfuscation, and agnatogenesis. Here's the link. Let's take a look. https://about.fb.com/...
More:
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg: Klobuchar Tells Social Media: ‘Take This Crap Off’
Peter Aitken / Fox Business: Klobuchar: Social media companies can afford to ‘be better,’ urges limits to liability protections
Kevin Harness / The Daily Caller: ‘Take This Crap Off Their Platforms’: Amy Klobuchar Says Social Media Companies Should Be Liable For Misinformation
CNN: Sen. Amy Klobuchar says social media firms should be able to better monitor COVID-19 misinformation and “take this crap off of their platforms”
Tom Boggioni / Raw Story: Dem senator serves notice to Facebook of anti-trust investigation if they refuse to police ‘crap’ misinformation
Tweets:
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “We have also labeled and reduced the visibility of more than 167 million pieces of COVID-19 content debunked by our network of fact-checking partners.” Flipside: “We left up 167 million pieces of disinformation despite knowing they were false.” https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: Finally, when your “Vice President for Integrity” is so adept at packing misdirection, agnatogenesis, deceit, and all-around weaselry into so short a document, you've got big problems with your corporate culture. https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: @benedictevans To be clear, what I take issue with is their claim that Facebook is not a problem. What to do about it so much harder question. Fact checking every single post doesn't seem to be the right answer. We need structural changes.
@terrellrussell: Short version - consider the source, they have exclusive information, and every incentive to spin this their way. Don't fall for it. Facebook is horrible. https://twitter.com/...
Melissa Ryan / @melissaryan: Biden clearly struck a nerve over at Facebook. We're on day two of their attempt at crisis comms. https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: This a big part of why social media is such a powerful medium for disseminating propaganda. When you drop leaflets from a plane, everyone knows it's propaganda. When Uncle Rick shares a story he read somewhere, it's much less clear what you are looking at.
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “Facts, not allegations.” It would be nice to be able to rely on facts. Unfortunately, Facebook has exclusive access to the data we need to know what the facts are, and is not forthcoming with those facts. See e.g. the ongoing CrowdTangle debacle. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Benedict Evans / @benedictevans: Perhaps the real problem is that we spent 200 years working out how free speech works in different spheres and the answer is always ‘it depends’. We haven't worked out how we think about the kinds of speech that were created by the Internet and how they should be controlled
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “Vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the US has increased.” This is a red herring, given that vaccine acceptance among everyone in the US has increased—dramatically. Look at the decline in those truly hesitant: the “wait and see” group. Source: https://www.kff.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed.” This is pure slight of hand. First, they're comparing a survey result with a behavioral response; that's apples and oranges. Second, to evaluate the highlighted claim below, we need to consider a counterfactual. https://twitter.com/...
Carl T. Bergstrom / @ct_bergstrom: “Hearing from a friend is more persuasive.” Can they really not see that this cuts both ways? If hearing from a friend that they were vaccinated helps more than exhortations of a remote agency, seeing a friend post antivax propaganda hurts more than finding it via google etc. https://twitter.com/...
Bob Adlhoch / @badlhoch: Always the one with the finger pointed at them that wants to “move past the finger pointing” https://twitter.com/...
Sar Haribhakti / @sarthakgh: This critique assumes FB is obligated to do real time takedown of whatever wrong things I post about vaccines and anything short of that is “killing people” When did we get to a societal consensus that this is the level of power & responsibly we want to give to them? https://twitter.com/...
| GlobeNewswire News Room: |
Zoom says it will acquire Five9, which makes cloud-based call center software for sales, marketing, and support, in an all-stock deal valued at ~$14.7B — The combination of Zoom's robust communications platform with Five9's intelligent cloud contact center will enable organizations …
Tweets: @eringriffith, @jordannovet, @zoom, and @alexrkonrad
More:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Zoom buys cloud call center firm Five9 for $14.7 billion
Kanishka Singh / The Economic Times: Zoom to buy cloud-based call centre operator Five9 in $15-billion deal
J. Jennings Moss / Silicon Valley Business Journal: Zoom acquires Five9 in $14.7 billion deal
Chris Duckett / ZDNet: Zoom to pay $14.7 billion for Five9
Eric S. Yuan / Zoom Blog: Zoom to Acquire Five9 and Build the Customer Engagement Platform of the Future
Kanishka Singh / Reuters: Zoom to buy cloud software provider Five9 in $15 billion deal
Tweets:
Erin Griffith / @eringriffith: Zoom's IPO two years ago valued it around $9 billion. Today it is worth an astounding $106 billion and it just bought a company called Five9 for $15 billion: https://www.globenewswire.com/ ...
Jordan Novet / @jordannovet: just remembered Cisco bought BroadSoft (for $1.9B) in 2018 https://www.cisco.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@zoom: Exciting news! 🎉 We have signed an agreement to acquire @Five9. Together we will build the customer engagement platform of the future! Details: https://blog.zoom.us/...
Alex Konrad / @alexrkonrad: damn, Zoom is spending nearly $15B on a cloud contact center company called Five9. (h/t @loganbartlett) https://www.globenewswire.com/ ... The companies were already close in 2019, when Zoom had me chat with Five9's CEO about a hardware startup Zoom helped launch. https://www.forbes.com/...
| Flavia Rotondi / Bloomberg: |
An Italian museum is using cameras to monitor people looking at artwork, to define a work of art's “attraction value” and accordingly change museum layouts — As Italy's museums and galleries welcome back tourists and try to recoup some of the 190 million euros ($225 million) … Tweets:
Bloomberg CityLab / @citylab: Using cameras to monitor people looking at artwork, researchers hope that the data can help define “attraction value” for specific works of art, leading to changes in museum and gallery layout and exhibit scheduling https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David S. Bernstein / @dbernstein: IRL click counter https://twitter.com/...
@axel_hexed: yes because, as we all know, valuing the world through engagement has worked out great so far and it's exactly what galleries and museums need. let's add upvote/downvote buttons everywhere too, fuck it https://twitter.com/...
@negrosubversive: Step two: Art dealers and apparatuses will start factoring “attraction value,” into how they assess the value of a piece. Step three: Art owners will loan out pieces and pay people to stand in front of them to raise their value... https://twitter.com/...
Bloomberg CityLab / @citylab: Using cameras to monitor people looking at artwork, researchers hope that the data can help define “attraction value” for specific works of art, leading to changes in museum and gallery layout and exhibit scheduling https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life: I have a friend who's a chemical engineer who often talks about how lucky software people are to get detailed analytics of product usage. He often says imagine how much better appliances or buildings could be if you could redesign based on usage data. We will see more like this. https://twitter.com/...
James Kelleher / @etienneshrdlu: Looking forward to smashing my artistic KPIs with a clear call to action https://twitter.com/...
@georgiebroad: i've read a lot of depressing, dystopian, and soul-crushing headlines lately but this is so so grim. the planet is dying and there is a global plague and humans are all cruel shit heels and now we can't even look at some art without some ghouls trying to optimise “engagement” https://twitter.com/...
Southpaw / @nycsouthpaw: Every museum is already full of cameras pointed at the patrons but none of them are specifically pitched toward making us miserable, so “researchers” needed to add more. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Broderick / @broderick: Good. I'm sick and tired of classic artists being exempt from the attention economy. They should feel the dehumanizing pressure of engagement metrics just like the rest of us. https://twitter.com/...
Bo Bolander / @bbolander: jesus creeping christ please leave us something that doesn't feel like something a dystopian novelist would think up on the toilet and then toss out, just one single solitary activity https://twitter.com/...
Moomin James / @moomin_james: They're making art galleries into reddit God help us all https://twitter.com/...
Sean Aitchison / @sean8urson: It's insane how much the concept of viewcounts has actively annihilated art https://twitter.com/...
Chris Zubak-Skees / @zubakskees: Looking forward to when the gallery is just Mona Lisas https://twitter.com/...
John Overholt / @john_overholt: .@DiscourseMarker did a really interesting study about how visitors experienced an exhibition at Houghton using gaze-tracking glasses, but crucially with specific, consenting volunteers, not mass surveillance. https://twitter.com/...
| Bliss Broyard / New York Times: |
A look at the state of community Wi-Fi providers in NYC, including NYC Mesh, a nonprofit covering ~800 households, which seeks to end the “telecom oligopoly” — NYC Mesh, a band of a few dozen tech volunteers, takes on Verizon and the big “incumbent providers,” with the promise of inexpensive community internet.Tweets:
Bliss Broyard / @blissbroyard: Last December when my internet went down, I googled “I hate Spectrum” and stumbled on NYC Mesh. I couldn't believe they could get people online in a few hours for a smallish amount of $ in a moment when being online was a lifeline, and I'd never heard of it. Here's my story. https://twitter.com/...
| Ashley Carman / The Verge: |
Overview of short-form audio apps like Racket, Beams, and Quest that let users record and share voice clips, as Facebook aims to enter the space with Soundbites — “So I've identified a few metrics and KPIs that I'm going to start tracking in order to better my overall life experience,” … Tweets:
Ashley Carman / @ashleyrcarman: NEW: i looked at the shortform audio gold rush and all the startups (and facebook!) who think voice note social networks are the next Big Thing https://www.theverge.com/...
Sar Haribhakti / @sarthakgh: Anchor walked and Clubhouse jogged so that an entire new wave could run https://twitter.com/...
David H. Montgomery / @dhmontgomery: “I think the problem with RSS, when you look at podcasting, it's like a decentralized technology that wasn't made to be a social network.” 😔 https://twitter.com/...
Rich Greenfield / @richlightshed: Constraining time has made video far more creative, as Vine and now Tik Tok illustrate @racket100 is set to do the same for audio — LightShed Ventures is excited to help @awwstn build the future of audio Read the latest from @verge @ashleyrcarman https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Dona Sarkar / @donasarkar: Short form audio (less than 9 min) might be having a moment soon. My hope is these apps will have captioning by design rather than trying to add it later. People who are Deaf or speak a diff language shouldn't be left out the way they STILL ARE w/CH https://www.theverge.com/...
| Lewis Gordon / The Verge: |
Interviews with digital artists and game makers who are pushing the boundaries in Roblox by creating interactive art projects and MMO games — Like so many Roblox players, digital artist Everest Pipkin has their own abandoned birthday world. — Last year, when the pandemic … Tweets:
Abhilash / @c0up: “You search a term or, more likely, scroll through what's popular at any given moment, pick a world depending on its thumbnail, and, whoosh, you're in. ” This description of Roblox is fascinating. It's like instead of watching a YouTube video, you're jumping into a game. https://twitter.com/...
Lewis Gordon / @lewis_gordon: Back on @verge with a peek into the boundary-pushing work being made for Roblox — from @everestpipkin's beautiful art games to @Defaultio's latest project, a Wind Waker-esque MMORPG that blows my mind. https://www.theverge.com/...
Talewind Studios / @talewindgames: Breezy Bay just got featured in a fantastic article from @verge alongside some incredible @Roblox games that are pushing the boundaries of the platform. Thanks for letting us discuss the game with you @lewis_gordon! https://www.theverge.com/...
| Helen Rosner / New Yorker: |
Experts say consent and disclosure are key to the ethical use of synthetic media, amid controversy surrounding Bourdain's deepfake voice in a new documentary — The new documentary “Roadrunner” uses A.I.-generated audio without disclosing it to viewers. How should we feel about that?More:
Tweets:
@newyorker: A new documentary about Anthony Bourdain uses A.I.-generated audio without disclosing it to viewers. How should we feel about that? https://nyer.cm/YUpKf9W
Annie Gowen / @anniegowen: Why is nobody is talking about the true ethical lapse in @RoadrunnerMovie which blames Bourdain's suicide on girlfriend Asia Argento but they never asked to interview her bc it would be “too painful” and they “already knew” what she was going to say? https://www.newyorker.com/...
@davidsunlee: To me, a person's voice feels like it's part of their likeness. And like your likeness, you should have control over how that it used, especially for commercial use https://twitter.com/...
Ali Alkhatib / @_alialkhatib: i think this article hits a couple of good points but two things still stick with me: 1. the blending of real and generated recordings makes it (maybe deliberately) ambiguous 2. the intimacy of the content generated is unlike any of the article's examples (nixon, simpsons, etc) https://twitter.com/...
Daniel Radosh / @danielradosh: whole article is worth reading but I suspect this is the crux because I'm not nearly as bothered by the AI thing as many people onhere even though I post a lot more about media ethics and I suspect the difference is I've never seen an Anthony Bourdain show https://www.newyorker.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Kainaz Amaria / @kainazamaria: Really good follow up by @hels on the AI used in the Bourdain doc. New technologies always raise ethical and moral questions. But A.I. in particular has an odious reputation which sets it apart and hence brings up all the feelings. https://twitter.com/...
Yash / @yashwinacanter: i find the whole thing equally fascinating and unsettling and haven't really made up my mind either way, but this piece feels like the best way of untangling the emotions around the AInthony Bourdain discourse. in @hels we trust. https://twitter.com/...
Jonah Blank / @jonahblank: Debate over #RoadRunner creating a #DeepFake of the voice of #AnthonyBourdain really doesn't need to be this complex: 1. In a work of fiction, it's OK to bend the truth. 2. In a documentary, it isn't. Simple. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Sam Gregory / @samgregory: Glad @hels asked for my responses to backlash around AI-generated lines in new Bourdain documentary: we've been focused on these issues (and work-shopped draft norms) as part of our @witnessorg 'Prepare, Don't Panic' initiative on #deepfakes (https://wit.to/... to learn +) https://twitter.com/...
Helen Rosner / @hels: How should we feel about that deepfake Anthony Bourdain voice in “Roadrunner”? I talked to Morgan Neville, Ottavia Busia, and some seriously smart A.I. ethicists about what happened, what didn't happen — and what might happen https://www.newyorker.com/...
Tom Philpott / @tomphilpott: Agreed w @hels that the decision not to interview Argento is more troubling than the deepfake line readings. Together, they really sap my enthusiasm to see this film though. https://twitter.com/...
Helen Rosner / @hels: Anyway I talked to some ethicists (and to Neville and to Bourdain's ex-wife Ottavia Busia) and reported it out https://www.newyorker.com/...
Karen Hao / @_karenhao: What are the ethics of using AI to fake Bourdain's voice in a documentary about his life? @SamGregory and I spoke with @hels about why it was such a jarring revelation for so many people. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Jennifer Brandel / @jenniferbrandel: YES! The most thoughtful, nuanced and fair exploration of the use of AI in the Bourdain film @RoadrunnerMovie Full disclosure: I'm married to one of the film's editors, and @hels reporting mirrors the grappling and conversations we've had about it as the film came together. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Floyd / @brianmfloyd: Helen is great at everything but especially working through complicated and thorny things like this. Was honestly waiting to see what she would report and write about it all https://twitter.com/...
Martin Stabe / @martinstabe: Important case study here in how to think about the ethics of AI-in-news, specifically the use of synthetic media to present in a subject's own voice words they wrote but didn't actually utter: https://twitter.com/...
Mike Cook / @mtrc: I think Karen Hao is one of the great AI critics, but I do feel she's off the mark here. We don't need to give this guy any slack, in my opinion - Helen herself here tracks down ethics specialists to discuss this idea for the article. Why couldn't Neville have done the same? https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
James Gleick / @jamesgleick: For me this is not a close call. Viewers will think they are hearing the voice of Anthony Bourdain. They are not. So it's false and deceptive. The practice should be shunned. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Angela Chen / @chengela: .@_KarenHao and @SamGregory weigh in on the Anthony Bourdain voice deepfake: https://twitter.com/...
Martin Austwick / @martinaustwick: Really interesting follow up on the use of voice deepfake tech to create fresh Bourdain vo. When I talked to @Riana_Crypto last year for the @20korg episode about voice deepfakes, the faking of dead people's voices was one of the grey areas she mentioned. https://twitter.com/...
| FinSMEs: |
Specright, whose software helps companies manage and share supply chain data across suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers, raises $30M Series B — Specright, a Tustin CA-based provider of Specification Management software, raised $30M in Series B funding.More:
Kevin Costelloe / ocbj.com: Specright Gets $30M Series B Funding
Maria Armental / Wall Street Journal: Sageview Capital Backs Software Maker Specright
| Wall Street Journal: |
How decision-making by Masayoshi Son, who estimated WeWork would be worth $10T by 2028 and wanted Adam Neumann to be “crazier”, led to WeWork's implosion — Adam Neumann and Masayoshi Son pushed WeWork to new heights as they challenged each other to think big and bet billions.Tweets:
Robbie Whelan / @rwhelanwsj: “Chicken First!”: How a Yoda meme, hand-drawn by SoftBank's Masa Son, explains the unraveling of WeWork. Tremendous excerpt from @eliotwb and @maureenmfarrell 's new book, “The Cult of We” on Adam Neumann, one of tech's great false messiahs. https://www.wsj.com/...
Patrick Bahners / @pbahners: „Decor inspired by gentrification should have been a tipoff." https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dodes / @racheld: Loving reading about @katierosman's in-the-margins notes: “psychotic brilliance” P 83; “pyramid” P 182; “THE BOARD IS SO DUMB” P 237; and “sick burn” next to the last line of the last chapter of @maureenmfarrell & @eliotwb's 📚 https://www.nytimes.com/...
Demetri Kofinas / @kofinas: This was a fantastic book. I know, because I read it & interviewed author @maureenmfarrell for @HiddenForcesPod. Among the things that WeWork and Adam Neumann promised to do? Revolutionize education, solve Middle East peace, & build a community on Mars. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Maureen Farrell / @maureenmfarrell: Absolutely thrilled beyond belief to read the NYT review of our book! I love reading @katierosman's NYT stories as they combine brilliant reporting with so many moments of LOLing, which I also did many times reading this review! https://twitter.com/...
Ahmed Al Omran / @ahmed: WeWork founder believed it wasn't enough for his company just to have a big valuation. It needed to have the biggest valuation. That way when countries started shooting at one another, he would be the one they would have to call to solve their problems https://www.wsj.com/...
Felix Gillette / @felixgillette: “It's also very funny, with Brown and Farrell employing wry juxtaposition and understatement to enjoyable effect.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jorge Arango / @jarango: Spoiler: In this remake, Daedalus encourages Icarus to fly into the sun. https://www.wsj.com/...
Eliot Brown / @eliotwb: Elated by this NYT review of our book!! “I guzzled Brown and Farrell's “The Cult of We” the way Neumann might gulp bottled water after smoking so much pot on a private jet that flight attendants would reach for their air masks. (This actually happened)” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Dana Rubinstein / @danarubinstein: “I guzzled Brown and Farrell's ‘The Cult of We’ the way Neumann might gulp bottled water after smoking so much pot on a private jet that flight attendants would reach for their air masks.(This actually happened, according to Brown and Farrell's reporting)” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@gregbensinger: Who among us hasn't thought their investments could be worth $10 trillion? Read this for just a few of the eye-popping details from @eliotwb @maureenmfarrell's “Cult of We” due out next week https://www.wsj.com/...
@constans: On one hand Adam Neumann seems totally delusional and off in a fantasy world. On the other hand he pocketed $1 billion from those delusions https://twitter.com/...
Eliot Brown / @eliotwb: -WeWork's Adam Neumann once asked Masa Son for $70 B -Masa sent him a motivational picture of Yoda -Masa planned for WeWork to be worth $10 Trillion by 2028 -Adam's strategy: a triangle of trillions Please read our book excerpt for THE CULT OF WE (!) https://www.wsj.com/...
Maureen Farrell / @maureenmfarrell: Masa and Adam Neumann sketched out plans to build WeWork into a $10 trillion company. Read our story for more details on how their relationship led to the rise and fall of WeWork https://www.wsj.com/...
Ann Lipton / @annmlipton: “As Mr. Son pushed Mr. Neumann for more, and as the two charted out the future, their plans tested the boundaries of the world's financial system.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Mark Bergen / @mhbergen: Chicken first!!! https://twitter.com/...
Ron Charles / @roncharles: One of many cringy moments in this story: “Following a dinner with Walter Isaacson, WeWork founder Adam Neumann gathered staff around to read a complimentary email from the author. He told his employees he wanted Isaacson to write a biography about him.” https://www.wsj.com/...
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More:
Tweets:
@longreads: “Right as I was joining, I was like, oh, Black people are on here. And we're bodying it. We're really going in.” @nonlinearnotes @WIRED https://www.wired.com/... #longreads
Condé Nast Library / @condelibrary: “Like all histories, it is incomplete. But it is a beginning. An outline. Think of it as a kind of record of Blackness—how it moves and thrives online, how it creates, how it communes—told through the eyes of those who lived it.” - @nonlinearnotes https://www.wired.com/... @WIRED
PublicSource / @publicsourcepa: “Black Twitter has become the most dynamic subset not only of Twitter but of the wider social internet. It is both news and analysis, call and response, judge and jury—a comedy showcase, therapy session, and family cookout all in one.” via @WIRED https://www.wired.com/...
@wired: Black Twitter is a multiverse, simultaneously an archive and an all-seeing lens into the future. 4/
@wired: More than a decade later, Black Twitter has become the most dynamic subset not only of Twitter but of the wider social internet—capable of creating, shaping, and remixing popular culture at light speed. 🎨: Aaron Marin 3/ https://twitter.com/...
@wired: The ingenious use of the app by Black users created a ripple effect that resulted in the creation of black community and empowerment. 2/
Gideon Lichfield / @glichfield: Really proud that @WIRED is publishing @nonlinearnotes' oral history of Black Twitter—"a kind of record of Blackness—how it moves and thrives online, how it creates, how it communes—told through the eyes of those who lived it." This is part 1 of 3. https://www.wired.com/...
@kozza: I believe I have achieved full meta. Spoke with the homie @nonlinearnotes for h̶i̶s̶ our oral history of Black Twitter, and I couldn't be more honored. With illustrious company. https://www.wired.com/...
@anthony: Black Twitter has become the most dynamic subset not only of Twitter but of the wider social internet. Capable of creating, shaping, and remixing popular culture at light speed, it remains the incubator of nearly every meme worth knowing about https://www.wired.com/...
Alex Whitcomb / @alexwhitcomb: 15 years ago today, Twitter launched as a fun, quippy way to connect people online. We all know the trouble it has gotten into since then, but it also did something else: it gave a voice to the voiceless. A powerful beauty from @nonlinearnotes: https://www.wired.com/...
Raju Narisetti / @raju: A People's History of Black Twitter, Part I From #UKnowUrBlackWhen to #BlackLivesMatter, how a loose online network became a pop culture juggernaut, an engine of social justice, and a lens into the future. https://www.wired.com/...? via @wired
@wired: This is a record of Blackness—how it moves and thrives online, how it creates, how it communes—told through the eyes of those who lived it. Here is the first official chronicling of how it all came together so fantastically: https://www.wired.com/... 5/
@niemanlab: “It took ABC News at least an hour before his passing came across the news ticker in Times Square. I remember thinking, ‘Damn, Twitter broke this news.’” https://www.wired.com/...
S. E. Smith / @sesmith: Black Twitter is a social and cultural phenomenon that has had PROFOUND impact, and this is a detailed oral history on the subject. https://www.wired.com/...
@wired: .@Twitter launched 15 years ago today, with the goal of changing how people communicate online. Now, @nonlinearnotes reconstructs the story of its most influential user group. Here, in all its melanated glory, is A People's History of Black Twitter: https://www.wired.com/...
@longreads: “We make spaces out of spaces where we were not intended to be. That's what we do.” @nonlinearnotes @WIRED https://www.wired.com/... #longreads
| Allison Johnson / The Verge: |
| Richard Lawler / The Verge: |
More:
Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear: WhatsApp adds encrypted cloud backups, but only for some beta users
Aisha Malik / mobilesyrup.com: WhatsApp reportedly testing end-to-end encrypted cloud backups for Android
Nathaniel Mott / PCMag: WhatsApp Is Reportedly Testing Encrypted Backups on Android
Abdullah / Gizchina: WhatsApp tests cloud backup encryption
Earlier Picks
| Bloomberg Law: |
More:
Tweets:
@taxjustice: An expose last year revealed Turbotax was steering lower-income tax filers eligible for free file to its paid tax filing services. Free file, a necessary public good, is contrary to its profit goals. ...at least the company is now being honest. https://news.bloombergtax.com/ ...
Nick Heer / @nickheer: Big a fan of press release titles. Intuit is pulling out of the IRS' Free File program, which is not exactly what you might imagine when you read “Accelerating Technology Innovation to Better Help Consumers Solve Their Most Pressing Financial Problems”. https://www.intuit.com/...
Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life: The US income tax system is capitalism run amok. Instead of the government automatically sending you a refund or a bill, we pay Turbo Tax or H&R Block for tax prep. Then the government forces them to make free versions. Now both have stopped free version https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ ...
Ian Sherr / @iansherr: Intuit has also lobbied hard against simple automated tax returns. https://www.propublica.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Leslie Book / @book_leslie: Intuit withdraws from Free File. Time has come for better options for taxpayers; no upselling, ezaccess https://www.intuit.com/...
Blake Oliver / @blaketoliver: Intuit is pulling out of the Free File program after 20 years. Will the IRS now create its own app? Seems like the time is ripe. https://www.intuit.com/...
Justin Elliott / @justinelliott: Intuit/@TurboTax says it's pulling out of the Free File program that offers free tax filling to most Americans, saying the company's goal is “to democratize financial services” https://www.intuit.com/... (1/3) https://twitter.com/...
Borscht Belt Barbie / @schxleo: Send us a bill like every other country and shut down these businesses that have no genuine purpose!!! https://twitter.com/...
Eric Nakagawa / @ericnakagawa: Sounds like a good opportunity for open source software built with the US government. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ ...
@tax: After nearly 20 years, the maker of TurboTax is leaving an IRS program that offers millions of Americans the ability to file their taxes for free. https://btaxgo.com/eLAi8oy
Elizabeth Warren / @senwarren: I've spent years fighting the tax prep industry's schemes to sabotage Free File. The IRS and FTC are finally cracking down on @TurboTax, so they're quitting. The IRS should not rely on giant companies that rip off taxpayers for essential filing services. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ ...
| Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News: |
Tweets:
@crunchbasenews: In this addition to the Something Ventured project, we find that while venture funding to Black startup entrepreneurs in the U.S. remains woefully small, Crunchbase numbers show a significant uptick over the past year. https://news.crunchbase.com/ ...
Henri Pierre-Jacques / @hpierrejacques: “The biggest change has been that downstream capital is just moving at a pace we've never seen for people of color” It's encouraging to see significant increase in dollars going to Black founders ($1.8B in 1H21), but the number of rounds and % is flat https://news.crunchbase.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Atul Butte / @atulbutte: Finally some good news on this, but still a long way to go... Funding to Black startup founders quadrupled in past year, but remains elusive (via @crunchbasenews)... https://news.crunchbase.com/ ...
Janine Sickmeyer / @myfriendjanine: Funding to Black-founded startups has quadrupled in the past year but the number is still just 1.2%. That's why @OverlookedVC is here - to change these stats! Thanks for leading the way @HarlemCapital @MaCVentureCap @Base10Partners @BLCKVC @reachfund https://news.crunchbase.com/ ...
| Steve Lohr / New York Times: |
Tweets:
Brian / @arekfurt: The poster child case where a tech company's extraordinary hype and marketing promises got way, way, way ahead of what new technology could actually deliver. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Josh Wolfe / @wolfejosh: I used to rail against IBM Watson nonsensical hype—(as I did against Tesla + Trump) + stopped when a critical mass of people finally acknowledged Watson was BS I spent time w/ smart inventor Ferrucci—trapped by silence. Wait til he ‘leaves’ Bridgewater.. https://www.nytimes.com/...