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October 25, 2021, 1:25 AM
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| New York Times: |
Internal docs detail Facebook's struggles with violence-inciting content in India, including failure to designate some politically-connected groups as dangerous — Internal documents show a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence in the country, the company's biggest market.
Tweets: @samidh, @jordanliles, @jairam_ramesh, @daveyalba, @jeffhorwitz, @ihshaheen, @kenroth, @seancasten, @sanasaeed, @seancasten, @vidyakrishnan, @mutalenkonde, @baekdal, @carolecadwalla, @nihamasih, @slpng_giants, @ianclucas, @nsnadeemsarwar, @baekdal, @grantstern, @dearauntcrabby, @hughhewitt, @askanshul, @arifcrafiq, @mtsw, @mariaressa, @duty2warn, @emilygorcenski, @drshamamohd, @szhang_ds, @deccanherald, @evan_greer, @evelyndouek, @evelyndouek, @johnrobb, @wtop, @3r1ng, @nilanjanaroy, @seancasten, @sanasaeed, @baekdal, @chinmayiarun, @maggie_a_lee, @vinodkapri, @nihamasih, @daveyalba, @jeffhorwitz, @arzugeybulla, @revkin, @cat_zakrzewski, @mrwharton, @akarl_smith, @baekdal, @pranavdixit, @brhodes, @emma_leik, @mollyjongfast, @mattocko, @seancasten, @suryaracharya, @sonaliranade, @sonaliranade, @nicdawes, @nytimes, @barbaraortutay, @npr, @yoda, @zoo_bear, @drwinarick, @ap, @dabeard, @marvicleonen, @ericbellmanwsj, @torontoraza, @sabaeitizaz, @moniquegoyens, @blackamazon, @niemanlab, @davewiner, @amaramarasingam, @justinhendrix, @frankluntz, @drdenagrayson, and @joenbc
More:
Wall Street Journal: Internal docs show frequent heated debates among Facebook staff and execs about how to rank, fact check, and moderate content of right-wing pubs like Breitbart
Wall Street Journal: Facebook Services Are Used to Spread Religious Hatred in India, Internal Documents Show
Washington Post: How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India
Benedict Evans / The Economic Times: Facebook's India problem; Groww valuation triples to $3B
Samuel Haig / Cointelegraph: CFTC reportedly investigating decentralized prediction platform Polymarket
Linus Chua / Bloomberg: Facebook says since 2018 it has built teams to monitor and remove content violating its policies, especially in countries most at risk of offline violence
Tweets:
@samidh: @venkatananth The same forces that make India the world's most energetic democracy also make it a challenging environment for platform trust & safety— thousands of dialects, huge variability in (digital) literacy, etc. Definitely more effort needed.
Jordan Liles / @jordanliles: @fbnewsroom 1/ Hello. We sent specific Facebook spokespersons emails both before and after Election Day in 2020. We repeatedly notified the company of groups where the harassment of the Biden-Harris bus was organized in real-time on Oct. 30. We never received answers. https://www.snopes.com/...
Jairam Ramesh / @jairam_ramesh: .@washingtonpost investigation shows BJP, RSS and its acolytes deploy hate speech on Facebook and WhatsApp. While it's obvious Govt of India won't do anything about it, it's unacceptable that @Facebook has one set of standards for USA and another for India https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Davey Alba / @daveyalba: And to be clear, it's not just India. Myanmar. Sri Lanka. Ethiopia. These are all places FB moved into without fully understanding its impact on local culture and politics. Then it struggled to deploy the resources to act on issues once they occurred. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz: “If social media survives 10 more years like this, there will be only hatred.” Facebook's researchers went to India to understand why hate speech was spiking on its platform. Here's @newley on what they found. https://www.wsj.com/...
@ihshaheen: In a report produced after the elections, Facebook found that over 40 percent of top views, or impressions, in the Indian state of West Bengal were “fake/inauthentic.” One inauthentic account had amassed more than 30M impressions. @cjwerleman @ashoswai https://www.nytimes.com/...
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: A researcher created an account to see what Facebook users experience in India. For three weeks, it follow all recommendations generated by Facebook's algorithms. “The result was an inundation of hate speech, misinformation and celebrations of violence.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sean Casten / @seancasten: 14/ If you like CrazyTown, good news. FB has delivered. You'll love the status quo. But if you'd prefer to see thoughtful, sane discourse, even if it comes at the expense of a few FB shareholder dividends... delete the algorithms. And just be a bulletin board. /fin
Sana Saeed / @sanasaeed: Where you find civil strife, ethnic cleansing and ethnic hatred.. you will find complicity of and impunity by Facebook. Like in India, where RSS anti-Muslim propaganda is allowed - by the highest levels - to proliferate on FB platforms. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sean Casten / @seancasten: 5/ In other words, the problem is the algorithm. If they are just a “bulletin board” for information as they claim, you don't incite people to do crazy things because most people are not crazy. The crazy gets swamped out by the normal.
Vidya / @vidyakrishnan: I feel like a broken record saying this: This👏🏾is👏 🏾exactly👏🏾 what👏🏾 @Facebook did👏🏾in👏 🏾 #Myanmar. The company's decisions are tightly related to & directly led to the #RohingyaGenocide https://twitter.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: Facebook should try to prevent bad things on their platform, but to suggest that, because of what people posted on Facebook, there would have been no riots in Delphi is disingenuous at best, completely ignores the real cause, and how the riots actually started.
Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla: The scale of Facebook's toxic impact on the world's biggest democracy is horrifying. The latest stories coming out of @FrancesHaugen's Facebook Files are some of the most important yet. Can Indian democracy even survive Facebook? https://www.nytimes.com/...
Niha Masih / @nihamasih: NEW: How Facebook's failure to invest in key safety protocols helped spread hate speech and violence against minorities in India, internal documents show. With @Cat_Zakrzewski @GerritD @ShibaniMahtani (1/n) https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Ian Lucas / @ianclucas: All part of a course of conduct by Facebook first exposed in 2018. https://twitter.com/...
Nadeemonics / @nsnadeemsarwar: Facebook is shit-scared right now. Just ahead of the next wave of scoops and leaks coming this weekend and early next week, the company wants to do everything it can to unsuccessfully get some sympathy. The language here is almost desperate! #Facebook https://twitter.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: What I see newspapers do right now is actually rewriting history and somehow changing why things happened. This is dangerous and, journalistically, it's very wrong. Read up on how these riots actually started: https://en.wikipedia.org/...
@grantstern: Facebook didn't neglect the reset of the world's, they just cared more about money and catering to hatemongers in high places. Hate is profitable for Facebook, and responsibility could slow growth. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@dearauntcrabby: How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India Facebook must be broken up, regulated, or closed. They are a danger to our society. Their unwillingness to regulate hate speech is a threat to America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Hugh Hewitt / @hughhewitt: “For all of Facebook's troubles in North America, its problems with hate speech and disinformation are dramatically worse in the developing world.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Anshul Saxena / @askanshul: In Assam, a man named Arbas Khan uploaded his photo of putting a foot on a Ganesh idol on Facebook. 1. People of Assam protested & he got arrested. 2. No violence, killings & looting. 3. No attack on any religious site or against any community. This is the right way. https://twitter.com/...
Arif Rafiq / @arifcrafiq: Bottom line: Facebook knows its services are being used by Hindu extremists to incite hatred toward Muslims and wage violence against them, but it won't do a thing because Hindu extremists rule India and India is a huge market for the company. https://www.wsj.com/...
Michael Tae Sweeney / @mtsw: Working the refs works https://twitter.com/...
Maria Ressa / @mariaressa: More evidence of what has been pointed out for years — How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@duty2warn: If you lived in India your Facebook page would be “flooded with hateful messages” saying Kashmiris were “traitors who deserved to be shot.” Facebook is a menace to planetary security. Watch pictures of your friends' kids somewhere else. Shut it down. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Emily GorCIAnski / @emilygorcenski: The Facebook leaks are adding little to the conversation that antifascist activists and internet scholars have been having for years. The peek inside is interesting, but the substantive facts are things we've been screaming about for years. https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Shama Mohamed / @drshamamohd: Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang alleges that a fake news account was not taken down because it was personally run by a BJP MP. She says it is now upto India to hold FB responsible. Will the SC pull up Facebook for interference in India's democracy by promoting fake news!
@szhang_ds: @drshamamohd This is inaccurate. I was not speaking about a “fake news account.” I was speaking about a network of fake Facebook accounts pretending to be Indians who did not exist. The accounts were focused on supporting the BJP MP who personally ran them, not on creating fake news.
@deccanherald: The report said the internal documents include reports on how bots and fake accounts tied to the “country's ruling party and opposition figures” were wreaking havoc on national elections. #Facebook #India https://www.deccanherald.com/ ...
Evan Greer / @evan_greer: This is some of the most important stuff in the Facebook Papers, even if it doesn't get as much attention from US lawmakers as oversimplified “social media is bad for kids” headlines https://twitter.com/...
Evelyn Douek / @evelyndouek: The stories about Facebook's role in overseas markets are the most damning, imo, but sadly also getting the least attention... (the underinvestment and underwhelming level of public & regulatory outrage are... not unrelated) https://twitter.com/...
Evelyn Douek / @evelyndouek: This is a known & ongoing issue. Eg, in April, the @OversightBoard drew attention to the fact that Facebook... had not even translated its community standards into Punjabi? Not an obscure dialect! Wikipedia says the 9th most spoken language in the world!! https://twitter.com/...
John Robb / @johnrobb: This is a very smart way of selling the idea that big tech platforms should be in charge of social pacification, not just in India, but everywhere.... https://twitter.com/...
@wtop: Facebook in India has been selective in curbing hate speech, misinformation and inflammatory posts, even as its own employees cast doubt over the company's motivations and interests. https://wtop.com/...
Erin Gallagher / @3r1ng: There were calls to violence and genocidal language circulating on all social media platforms long before and leading up to the 2020 *pogroms* (not riots) activists had been sounding alarms for months. https://twitter.com/...
Nilanjana Roy / @nilanjanaroy: Facebook has blood on their hands; so does Twitter, YouTube. People reported hate on these networks over five years ago, reported chilling hate campaigns against Muslims and others, women asked for greater safety over and over again. They did nothing. Hate has a high cost. https://twitter.com/...
Sean Casten / @seancasten: More damning information about Facebook, this time in India. But it's important to understand that this is a VERY fixable problem. The algorithm cannot be simultaneously optimized for FB revenue AND not encouraging extremism. Brief thread: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Sana Saeed / @sanasaeed: When your company is heavily invested in a country, when you have executives making exceptions to already poorly enforced rules for a country's fascist leadership and when this pattern is repeated across the world—that's complicity, not an AI/moderation problem to be fixed.
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: I'm getting really tired of this narrative. Are there problems on Facebook? Sure. But this makes it sound like hatred in India is caused by Facebook, So here is a simple question. Was there this level of hatred in India before Facebook? Oh yes, there was ... lot's of it. https://twitter.com/...
Chinmayi Arun / @chinmayiarun: How is this still new to people in 2021? Glad to see more reporting about it though https://twitter.com/...
Maggie Lee / @maggie_a_lee: FB says that globally it's cut the hate speech it serves by half No word on what it's doing with the other half Set up a Fb account, set your location as India and follow the algorithm's recommendations. See how many corpses and hate speech you get https://www.google.com/...
Niha Masih / @nihamasih: 8/ “They were told, told, told and they didn't do one damn thing about it. The anger [from the global south] is so visceral on how disposable they view our lives.” From the Facebook Papers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Davey Alba / @daveyalba: More on the horrors of FB India from @washingtonpost: “8,000 miles away from [Facebook's] headquarters, a Kashmiri student watched as his real FB page flooded with hateful messages. One said Kashmiris were ‘traitors who deserved to be shot.’” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz: I'm hoping everyone can set aside their disagreements to agree that this is both an excellent burn and an excellent response. https://twitter.com/...
Arzu Geybulla / @arzugeybulla: The report was one of dozens of studies and memos written by Facebook employees grappling with the effects of the platform on India. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@revkin: “Facebook has meticulously studied its approach abroad — and was well aware that weaker moderation in non-English-speaking countries leaves the platform vulnerable to abuse by bad actors and authoritarian regimes.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @Cat_Zakrzewski et al @washingtonpost https://twitter.com/...
Cat Zakrzewski / @cat_zakrzewski: NEW from the Facebook Papers: India is Facebook's largest market. But internal documents show that Facebook didn't invest in key safety systems there that it has had in the United States for years @GerritD @ShibaniMahtani @NihaMasih https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Phillip Wharton / @mrwharton: “Violent riots erupted within hours, killing 53 people. Most of them were Muslims. Only after thousands of views and shares did Facebook remove the video.” https://twitter.com/...
Allan Smith / @akarl_smith: “Other documents also reveal that Facebook's management team has been so intently focused on avoiding charges of bias that it regularly places political considerations at the center of its decision making.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: the focus I see in the press that Facebook is somehow the cause of all societal problem everywhere is not just misleading, it's bad journalism. It's escapism. Look, for instance at this, and please explain to me why all of it is somehow Facebook's fault? https://en.wikipedia.org/...
@pranavdixit: Not holding Facebook to account in India is one of the Indian press's most glaring failures (among many others). It's increasingly harder to take any tech journalism out of India seriously. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Rhodes / @brhodes: Facebook is an existential danger to democracy and a global public safety hazard. Like previous products that endanger people, it necessitates aggressive government action with strong enforcement. https://twitter.com/...
Emma / @emma_leik: 87% percent of Facebook's global budget for time spent on classifying misinformation is earmarked for the US, while only 13% is set aside for the rest of the world. Oh & North American users make up 10% of the FB's daily active users. Great reporting by @sheeraf @daveyalba https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: Facebook ruins other countries not just America. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Matt Ocko / @mattocko: What I am trying to understand is how committing the exact same sins with the exact same algos in VR is any better Like “sorry our cigarettes caused cancer & we lied about it but our new ‘mouthfire cylinders’ are way different & also you wear a diving mask while using them...” 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
Sean Casten / @seancasten: 4/ Even the most charitable interpretation of all the reporting over these last few weeks is that the smartest, most ethical people at FB don't know how to stop this. They are the ones who tried to dial back some of the settings on these algos but still couldn't stop it.
Surya Raj Acharya / @suryaracharya: 'how a plan championed by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, to focus on “meaningful social interactions,” or exchanges between friends and family, was leading to more misinformation in India' https://www.nytimes.com/...
@sonaliranade: “Facebook found that over 40 percent of top views, or impressions, in the Indian state of West Bengal were “fake/inauthentic.” One inauthentic account had amassed more than 30 million impressions.” https://www.nytimes.com/... Poopganda factories managers will be proud.
@sonaliranade: “But in Hindi and Bengali, it still did not have enough data to adequately police the content, and much of the content targeting Muslims “is never flagged or actioned,” the Facebook report said.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Nicholas Dawes / @nicdawes: “Facebook hasn't designated the RSS for removal “given political sensitivities,” the document says. Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked for the RSS for decades.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@nytimes: Dozens of reports written by Facebook employees provide stark evidence of one of the most serious criticisms levied against the company: It moves into a country without fully understanding its impact, and fails to act on issues once they occur. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@barbaraortutay: Facebook saw India as of the most “at risk countries” in the world. Yet it didn't have enough local language moderators or content-flagging in place to stop misinformation that at times led to real-world violence, . https://apnews.com/... by @Sheikh_Saaliq and @KrutikaPathi
@npr: Leaked documents reveal that Facebook struggled to quash misinformation and anti-Muslim propaganda on its platform and lacked the resources to do so, even as its own employees raised red flags. https://www.npr.org/...
Drew Olanoff / @yoda: the fake justification shield of “connecting the world” has worn off. https://twitter.com/...
Mohammed Zubair / @zoo_bear: Facebook's services are used to spread religious hatred in India, internal documents show. Company researchers identified calls to violence that coincided with the 2020 riots in Delhi that left 53 dead. Investigative series by @newley and @JeffHorwitz https://www.wsj.com/...
Dr. Daniel J. Winarick / @drwinarick: Facebook is sounding more and more like an international terrorist organization. https://twitter.com/...
@ap: Facebook saw India as at risk for hostile speech, but it lacked resources to stop misinformation such as local language moderators and content-flagging, according to leaked documents obtained by AP. That misinformation at times led to real-world violence. https://apne.ws/BQ23BS9
David Beard / @dabeard: “Following this test user's News Feed, I've seen more images of dead people in the past three weeks than I've seen in my entire life total,” the Facebook researcher wrote. Facebook fed the hate, violence, and misinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Eric Bellman / @ericbellmanwsj: Facebook documents show its services are used to spread religious hatred in India. Company researchers identified calls to violence that coincided with the 2020 riots in Delhi that left 53 dead. The latest from @newley and @JeffHorwitz https://www.wsj.com/...
Ali Raza / @torontoraza: We all know social media algorithms promote outrage and incitement because it drives engagement, which ultimately boosts profits. The side effect is it destabilizes societies, but we seem to not care. Look what it's done to India. https://twitter.com/...
Saba Eitizaz / @sabaeitizaz: Inflammatory content on Facebook spiked 300% above previous levels at times during the months following December 2019, a period in which religious protests swept India, researchers wrote in a July 2020 report that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. https://twitter.com/...
Monique Goyens / @moniquegoyens: With this wealth of revelations, is the @EU_Commission still confident that its Code of Practice to tackle misinformation is the right approach? @julianevrb @divinameigs @OlafSteenfadt @VeraJourova @arcapde @BXLNicola https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: It would be really interesting to note that Facebook seems to have NEVER made an account for Black or marginalized people and seen how often they got fake content and how often that content originated from foreign actors ..... They just knew and don't give a damn https://twitter.com/...
@niemanlab: More on Facebook, this time from the @nytimes: “The documents also give new detail on how aware company researchers were after the election of the flow of misinformation that posited votes had been manipulated against Mr. Trump.” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Dave Winer / @davewiner: Articles like this that use the term “Facebook” ambiguously are possibly deliberate attacks on free speech online. Facebook means at least 8 things, and it's not likely they're talking about Facebook the company here. https://twitter.com/...
Amarnath Amarasingam / @amaramarasingam: In 2019, a researcher employed by Facebook invented a user named Carol Smith Smith said she was interested in politics, parenting, and Christianity. Though never expressing interest in conspiracies, in just two days Facebook sent her to QAnon accounts. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix: Crucial report from @RMac18 and @sheeraf that will no doubt interest @RepAdamSchiff, @RepRaskin, @RepLizCheney & other members of the @January6thCmte charged with considering what factors such as online platforms helped create the conditions for violence. https://twitter.com/...
Frank Luntz / @frankluntz: “Facebook pushed some users into ‘rabbit holes,’ increasingly narrow echo-chambers where violent conspiracy theories thrived. People radicalized through these rabbit holes make up a small slice of total users, but at Facebook's scale, that can mean millions of individuals.” https://twitter.com/...
| Michael Riley / Bloomberg: |
More:
Dan Milmo / The Guardian: Frances Haugen: ‘I never wanted to be a whistleblower. But lives were in danger’
CNN: Not stopping ‘Stop the Steal:’ Facebook Papers paint damning picture of company's role in insurrection
Allie Malloy / CNN: Blumenthal says Facebook's calls for regulation are the ‘height of disingenuousness’
Alison Durkee / Forbes: Breitbart And Other Conservative Publishers Get ‘Special Treatment’: Here's What The ‘Facebook Papers’ Allege So Far
Tweets:
Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla: Curtain raiser for tomorrow's testimony. @FrancesHaugen talks to @DanMilmo ahead of testifying to UK parliament. 'I don't like being the centre of attention' https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Denver Riggleman / @repriggleman: Data and CT experts like me knew this; a monetized radicalization pipeline “After the Capitol insurrection and a wave of Storm the Capitol events across the country, we realized that the individual delegitimizing Groups, Pages, and slogans did constitute a cohesive movement.” https://twitter.com/...
Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix: One of the weirdest things (in the @donie et al report) is this image. What a strange illustration. https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Ben Swasey / @benswasey: This is really alarming. A Facebook experiment found that within just a week, it was suggested that a test user — “a conservative mom in the US south” — follow a QAnon page. by @shannonpareil/@BobbyAllyn: https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: Atop Page One of @washingtonpost this morning: “Inside Facebook, Jan. 6 fueled a torrent of anger, regret” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: 👋🏽 editors, please do not report Facebook's daily audience as 2.8 billion people. It's likely false. Yes, it's a self-reported # and they have no credibility. But you're also in the middle of reporting on their managing #s and SUMA and a whistleblower's SEC complaint over it. 🙏🏽 https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Sal Rodriguez / @sal19: Facebook Friday News Dump: Facebook whistleblower releases documents to multiple news outlets showing company knows the harm it causes https://www.cnbc.com/...
Michael J. Stern / @michaeljstern1: Facebook is interested in the income they generate for themselves, and they are willing to let harm come to the country in order to increase their profits. https://www.cnn.com/...
Ellen Nakashima / @nakashimae: The best account yet of how Facebook fueled Jan. 6 violence. via @craigtimberg @lizzadwoskin @ReedAlbergotti https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Andrew Magloughlin / @magloughlina: Apple and Google banned Parler after Jan 6, citing its content moderation issues. I wonder if Facebook could've met those standards, given this info. https://twitter.com/...
Clare Duffy / @claresduffy: ICYMI: CNN is part of a consortium of news organizations reporting on the Facebook Papers. First up, this piece about what the company knew about the spread of Stop the Steal on its platform ahead of January 6. https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff: “Another [Facebook] staffer, referencing years of controversial and questionable decision-making by Facebook leadership around political speech concluded, “history will not judge us kindly.” https://www.cnn.com/...
@crispinburke: In the two years leading up to the 2020 election, Facebook removed over five *billion* fake accounts. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Donie O'Sullivan / @donie: How important was Facebook in the mobilization of Stop the Steal? Just listen to Stop the Steal organizer Scott Presler. Our full report w/@tarasubramaniam @claresduffy @Sarah_Boxer here: https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@modernhomesla: “Internal docs reveal Facebook's failed attempt 2 curb explosion of hate speech + misinfo ahead of + during Capitol riots, causing distress among employees.” Mid-Jan, Sheryl Sandberg, argues events leading 2 Jan 6, “largely” organized on other platforms. https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Juliette Kayyem / @juliettekayyem: “Relief flowed through Facebook in the days after the 2020 presidential election. . . But the high fives ...were premature. On Jan. 6, FB staffers expressed their horror in internal messages as they watched thousands of Trump supporters shouting 'stop the steal.'"@washingtonpost https://twitter.com/...
Raw Story / @rawstory: ‘History will not judge us kindly’: Facebook internal messages show employees fuming on Jan. 6 over company's role in Capitol riot https://www.rawstory.com/...
Newley Purnell / @newley: Reluctant to turn down the volume on viral content, Facebook is instead playing whack-a-mole with political groups it deems harmful, with little public disclosure or right of appeal. Facebook Files latest. By @JeffHorwitz @ScheckWSJ: https://www.wsj.com/...
| The Information: |
Tweets: @jessicalessin, @sheeraf, @danbarker, @craigsilverman, @marshacollier, @mattdrange, @alexthomp, @ggreenwald, @parismarx, @amir, @jeffhorwitz, @mcbyrne, @pranavdixit, @seancasten, @davidclinchnews, @niemanlab, @rmac18, @moonalice, @charliehtweets, @monteiro, @realdrothschild, @katestarbird, @alexstamos, @wiczipedia, @kantrowitz, @bostonjoan, @juanof9, @skirchy, @markdistef, @william_fitz, @martinsfp, @drdenagrayson, and @brianmcc
More:
Ben Smith / New York Times: How Frances Haugen maximized the impact of her leaked Facebook documents, rolling them out to WSJ and then broadening the circle to a large group of outlets
Sara Fischer / Axios: Nick Clegg told staff to prepare “for more bad headlines in the coming days” containing mischaracterizations of Facebook's research, motives, and priorities
Nadeem Badshah / The Guardian: Facebook executive says tech firms need stronger regulation
Tweets:
Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin: The Facebook whistleblower says she doesn't need financial support because she bought “crypto at the right time.” She is in Puerto Rico in part to join her crypto friends, who are there seeking a tax shelter. Now I'm entertained. https://www.nytimes.com/...
She-Ra Frenkel / @sheeraf: @Bernstein @swodinsky The embargo was lifted on a small number of documents today based on the WSJ story that went up. There's a lot more coming and new documents being released every day.
Dan Barker / @danbarker: Social media has turned “top-down control of information on its head” says Nick Clegg, whose company owns the top down algorithms controlling lots of the world's information. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Craig Silverman / @craigsilverman: I find it a bit strange that some outlets working with FB whistleblower docs are treating FB's internal Stop the Steal report as news. We published the full text of it back in April. Genuinely curious why it's being prominently featured in new stories? https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Marsha Collier / @marshacollier: Roughly 24 news outlets agreed to hold stories based on leaked materials from Facebook whistleblower for Monday publication — but the embargo fell apart Friday night as newsrooms posted a batch of articles 👉🏻 Facebook exec warns of “more bad headlines” https://www.axios.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Matt Drange / @mattdrange: It's 2021 and I, for one, find this enormously reassuring. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen tells @benyt that she “auditioned” WSJ's @JeffHorwitz, “and one of the reasons I went with him is that he was less sensationalistic” than other reporters. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Alex Thompson / @alexthomp: “We live in a time of mega-leaks...These leaks have given the leakers and their brokers a new kind of power over the news media, raising tricky questions about how their revelations should enter the public sphere.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Glenn Greenwald / @ggreenwald: Even with Facebook - through a Democratic Party functionary - censoring a major story just two weeks before the election that raised serious questions about Biden, Dems & the corporate media (same thing) *still* think FB didn't censor enough to help Dems: https://twitter.com/...
Paris Marx / @parismarx: My god, Haugen is also so deep into crypto she joined the crypto colonists and disaster capitalists who wanted to turn Puerto Rico into a technolibertarian utopia. https://twitter.com/...
Amir Efrati / @amir: A little more clarity... https://twitter.com/...
Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz: This pretty much covers all timing questions to the best of my understanding. There are lots of interesting stories to read. https://twitter.com/...
@mcbyrne: Glorious day. Also what happens when you hire bad people from both sides of the pond. https://twitter.com/...
@pranavdixit: .@FrancesHaugen told @benyt she plans to share the documents with academic writers and publications in countries where she sees the greatest peril, including India and the Middle East. “The reason I wanted to do this project is because I think the global South is in danger.” https://twitter.com/...
Sean Casten / @seancasten: 10/ You can see that hacking in real time here BTW: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
David Clinch / @davidclinchnews: Each of those stories has snippets of information about different aspects of how harmful content was being addressed by the Facebook Integrity team. It may be interesting to see an overview of how all these snippets fit together. Also, a lot of issues for any team to deal with! https://twitter.com/...
@niemanlab: Big weekend for Facebook news... https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18: In July 2019, a Facebook researcher created a test account modeled after a “conservative mom” from the South. It started by following Fox News and Sinclair Broadcasting. FB fed it a recommendation for QAnon content within three days and continued to do so. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Roger McNamee / @moonalice: NYT just did FB a huge favor. They released the huge (and embargoed until Monday) 1/6 story on Friday night, diminishing its impact. NYT says they have an independent source. Was that source inside FB Comms? That would be a classic FB move.
Charlie Haynes / @charliehtweets: can't wait to start my new job on Monday running facebook's PR. I'm looking forward to getting a coffee, opening up the computer and having a nice relaxed first day! https://twitter.com/...
Mike Monteiro / @monteiro: All of this was done by design. These weren't bugs, they were features. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
David Rothschild / @realdrothschild: We must end FB...the propaganda machine is evil https://twitter.com/...
Kate Starbird / @katestarbird: “... FB research ... in 2019 ... found that misinformation shared by politicians was more damaging than that coming from ordinary users. Yet the company maintained a policy that year that explicitly allowed political leaders to lie without facing the possibility of fact checks.” https://twitter.com/...
Alex Stamos / @alexstamos: What would it take to get this consortium of media outlets looking at Facebook integrity docs to commit to publishing the underlying documents with every story (redacted for privacy)? These docs could revolutionize academic study of online harms but not without the real data.
Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia: Facebook moved too quickly to removed its election protection measures. In disinformation campaigns, Election Day is an inflection point, not an end point. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz: The consortium of publications that Frances Haugen handed her documents to blew up tonight ahead of a Monday embargo. Get ready for lots of Facebook stories to drop tonight and tomorrow. It's a mess. https://twitter.com/...
Joan S. Pumpkins / @bostonjoan: Whatever happens, it is critical that the media doesn't become the story here. What these internal studies represent is a new basis to build shared facts across journalism, research, gov, and industry. https://twitter.com/...
Juan Ortiz Freuler / @juanof9: @alexstamos I mean, why aren't we asking Facebook to release these docs itself? They have many more to release as well. “They could revolutionize....”
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / @skirchy: It doesn't have to go down this way. Collaborations can be stressful and intense and usually the stories are difficult and complex. But in two collaborations I've worked on having one great big newsroom has been rewarding journalistically. There's so much to learn from each other https://twitter.com/...
Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef: Here's Associated Press tonight; “Every outlet has freedom to pursue whatever story it wants. Nonetheless, it's remarkable to see these news organizations... set aside some of their competitive impulses and work together to work on something unquestionably in the public interest”
William Fitzgerald / @william_fitz: “What the documents do not offer is a complete picture of decision making inside Facebook. ” fb is so so fukd if someone with regular access to zuck & sandberg decides they're willing to give up a lot of money and do the right thing by sharing direct info about decision making. https://twitter.com/...
Martin Sfp Bryant / @martinsfp: Haha. I shouldn't laugh but this is sadly familiar. The rule with this stuff should be ‘we all hold the line’. Did they all really start folding over a piece from The Information? https://twitter.com/...
| Brandy Zadrozny / NBC News: |
Tweets: @brandyzadrozny, @cwarzel, @broderick, @tribelaw, @akilahobviously, @mollyjongfast, @hilaryluros, @tomfgoodwin, @lavanyaballal, @rmac18, @dannagal, @tackettdc, @ttp_updates, @brianklaas, @aljwhite, @jaxalemany, @anneapplebaum, @zeynep, @oneunderscore__, @c_c_krebs, @grimlyspoken, @timmarchman, @melissaryan, @edzitron, @jason_kint, @robpegoraro, @clearing_fog, @blackamazon, @eliotwb, @jeffhorwitz, @evilgalprods, @karenkornbluh, @wiczipedia, @jimhansondc, @cydharrell, @jeffhorwitz, @juliacarriew, @drdenagrayson, @davidoatkins, @resistbot, @peterwsinger, @davidoatkins, @juliacarriew, @jbadomics, @fchollet, and @amir. Thanks:@thekenyeung
More:
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Brandy Zadrozny / @brandyzadrozny: New from me: New internal documents show Facebook has long known—via years of experimentation and research—that its algorithms and recommendation systems push users to extremes. To researchers they gaslit, “Facebook literally helped facilitate a cult.” https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel: this facebook internal experiment reminds me of this 2017 @broderick piece! https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Broderick / @broderick: I knew that every time I spoke to a Facebook PR they were, at least, trying to discourage me. But the last month of Facebook leaks has been hard to process. Just years of my life wasted talking to people who knew what we were all reporting was real and just didn't give a shit. https://twitter.com/...
Laurence Tribe / @tribelaw: To be clear: Facebook's radicalizing business model is NOT free speech. The obstacles to regulating FB's dangerous algorithms aren't constitutional or technical but political and economic. Don't let that Zuckerman dude hide behind the First Amendment. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Akilah Hughes / @akilahobviously: So misogynist Zuck starts a website after getting swerved by a smart woman and funds an algorithm that encourages people to overthrow the government. Very cool. https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: Facebook knew they were radicalizing people and they did nothing to stop it https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Hil.i.am / @hilaryluros: Not only did they do nothing to stop it...they actively and cheerfully encouraged it. They were complicit. https://twitter.com/...
Tom Goodwin / @tomfgoodwin: It's been obvious since about 2012 that Facebook made viewpoints more extreme, then normalized extreme viewpoints, destroyed any middle ground, created enraged tribes, and made money from outrage. How is it that we act surprised to discover data about it now??? https://twitter.com/...
Lavanya Ballal / @lavanyaballal: I am sure as the biggest market of FB - India was a Guinea pig . https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18: Facebook took enforcement action against QAnon a year later in Aug. 2020. The researcher ended up quitting in part because of the company's slowness in decision making. Compare the company's statement on this research with an excerpt from her own departure note. https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Danna Young / @dannagal: This is so important. As some scholars have tried to “debunk the echo chamber myth” (that SM causes most users to restrict to belief-confirming content), the reality is that a small number of users end up down these rabbit holes. 📣Outliers MATTER when operating AT A GIANT SCALE https://twitter.com/...
Michael Tackett / @tackettdc: “Haven't we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?” one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. “We've been fueling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised” https://apnews.com/...
@ttp_updates: THREAD: For months, TTP monitored and recorded threats from militia and far-right actors online In January, we released what we gathered in that time: militia recruiting, threats to public officials, even calls for martyrdom—all posted openly on Facebook https://www.techtransparencyproject.org / ... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Brian Klaas / @brianklaas: Social media has played a major role in transforming otherwise normal, well-intentioned people into deranged authoritarian conspiracist zealots. Regulating it properly is an urgent challenge for all democracies. https://twitter.com/...
Alan White / @aljwhite: In which it knew it was pushing users to extremes, is accused of having “literally helped facilitate a cult” https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Jacqueline Alemany / @jaxalemany: Facebook has yet to fully comply with requests for data from the House select committee investigating the 1/6 events. Read @craigtimberg, @lizzadwoskin, @ReedAlbergotti on FB & Jan. 6 > https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Anne Applebaum / @anneapplebaum: “Facebook pushed some users into “rabbit holes,” increasingly narrow echo chambers where violent conspiracy theories thrived...at Facebook's scale, that can mean millions of individuals.' https://www.nbcnews.com/... via @nbcnews
Zeynep Tufekci / @zeynep: “The body of research consistently found Facebook pushed some users into “rabbit holes,” increasingly narrow echo chambers where violent conspiracy theories thrived.” https://twitter.com/...
Ben Collins / @oneunderscore__: New from the Facebook leaks, by @BrandyZadrozny: Facebook staffers created a Trump-loving, Fox News-watching fake identity. The account went wherever the algorithm told it to go. It went full-on QAnon in two days. Facebook told nobody about this. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Chris Krebs / @c_c_krebs: Important reporting including insights from @noUpside. I'm convinced Covid-related drop in community-centric social activities (kids sports, offices, etc) lowered barriers to crazytown & accelerated radicalization along multiple conspiracy theories. https://twitter.com/...
Grimm / @grimlyspoken: @oneunderscore__ @BrandyZadrozny What happened in Myanmar is a literal precursor to what is happening here. Facebook watched an ethnic group get slaughtered, did nothing, and now had facilitated and even pushed a homegrown domestic threat in the United States. This article is great but I am absolutely disgusted.
Tim Marchman / @timmarchman: Incredible. Facebook internally reproduced the outside reporting that has been done on it, showing that the way its products were built promoted QAnon and the anti-vax movement in ways that fed on one another, and did ... nothing. https://twitter.com/...
Melissa Ryan / @melissaryan: So many reporters and researchers have run similar experiments over the years. Always with the same results. Every time Facebook would say the experiment was flawed and that wasn't actually how the platform worked. Every. Single. Time. https://twitter.com/...
Ed Dead Redemption / @edzitron: The years and years and years of the media taking Facebook at their word and giving them puff press was a bad idea https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: OK, having read @sheeraf @RMac18 NYT report closely, it's really superb reporting. It walks thru everything leading up, during Jan 6th. It does a “truth sandwich” with damming evidence mostly from Facebook on both sides of Facebook spokesperson's “pride.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Rob Pegoraro / @robpegoraro: “a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial, and graphic content”: how one of Facebook's own researchers described the path of a test user created in 2019 with tastes in politics, parenting, Christianity, Fox News and Trump to see how Facebook's recommendation algorithms would respond. https://twitter.com/...
ClearingTheFog / @clearing_fog: Please read this. So many of us have been shouting for years that Facebook is *knowingly* facilitating extremism, and yet they've continued to get a pass in our media, as if they were somehow “trying.” Their own internal documents repeatedly prove that they knew. https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: Only white sources. No mention of the reports on racial overtones or targeting. Makes the entire story about how “white people are mislead” And not that Facebook let itself be hunting grounds for people of color for YEARS Gotta love the “learning” going on from white news https://twitter.com/...
Eliot Brown / @eliotwb: Facebook exec (and a Harvard pal of Zuckerberg) recommends curbs to virality to stave off bad effects Head of ads responds: “'If we remove a small percentage of reshares from people's inventory,' he wrote, ‘they decide to come back to Facebook less.’” https://www.wsj.com/...
Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz: This story with @ScheckWSJ shows how Facebook's platforms might be different - if it wanted them to be. We know the controversies over content moderation - per @masnick, it can't be done well at scale. (The “at scale” part might be optimistic, though). https://www.wsj.com/...
Karen Kornbluh / @karenkornbluh: Shocking new details. Confirms that government has been derelict in not acting. There were always ways to regulate *the design* upstream from the content - it was never about the “truth police.” Now so much harm has been done https://twitter.com/...
Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia: Important reporting from @BrandyZadrozny. Critically, as she notes, many researchers were confirming and re-confirming the danger of Group recommendations for years before Facebook took action. So much wasted time. https://twitter.com/...
Jim Hanson / @jimhansondc: That's fun What happened when they made a woke identity? Wait They never did that? Hmmm https://twitter.com/...
Cyd Harrell / @cydharrell: couple more things: 1. some of the resistance to user research is because we find inconvenient things that people would rather not know (@mulegirl talks about this a lot) 2. researchers do a service by documenting, but need to be realistic about our chances of changing anything https://twitter.com/...
Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz: This story gets into important territory about the continuity between different conspiracy movements — and how one engenders the next. Also, the renaming of a tool called “Rabbithole” as “Drebbel” makes more sense now that I know it's the name of the inventor of the submarine. https://twitter.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: For years Facebook treated reporters who came to it with concerns about how it seemed to be pushing people toward extremism and conspiracies like we were hysterical scolds making mountains out of mole hills but actually it knew that we were right https://www.nytimes.com/...
@drdenagrayson: Bottom line: #Facebook and Zuck *knew* that they were fomenting hate and violence in advance of the #January6thInsurrection. They didn't care, because they PROFITED off it. They're a cancer on our democracy. Act accordingly. #DeleteFacebook https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
David Atkins / @davidoatkins: All the big journo influencers on twitter are beating on each other over Popularism, when THIS is the answer. People, especially low-trust voters, get their news on Facebook. Facebook is driving them to right-wing conspiracy theories. Policy and activist slogans are irrelevant. https://twitter.com/...
@resistbot: “That researcher said Smith's Facebook experience was ‘a barrage of extreme, conspiratorial, and graphic content.’” https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Peter W. Singer / @peterwsinger: This may be one of the most damning of the Facebook leaks... https://twitter.com/...
David Atkins / @davidoatkins: Facebook is poison. It has always been poison. And they knew it. https://twitter.com/...
Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew: I just want to scream https://twitter.com/...
Thanks:@thekenyeung
| Craig Timberg / Washington Post: |
Tweets: @aureliacotta, @aaschapiro, @sfielding90, @climatewarrior7, @labourlewis, @newsremote, @clarajeffery, @gary_machado_, @bobcesca_go, @2020istrash2020, @paulmasonnews, @brainnotonyet, @annmlipton, @stevesilberman, @wiczipedia, @emilybell, @bgrueskin, @katestarbird, @moonalice, @sal19, @rmac18, @ecmclaughlin, @richismo77, @jesselehrich, and @donie
More:
Tweets:
Aurelia Cotta / @aureliacotta: Exactly, private secret FB groups can do anything, untraceable. Organizing insurrections, anti-vaxx campaigns, terrorist attacks, human trafficking .... and how on earth can any public company host and profit from organized crime like this? They aren't exempt from RICO https://twitter.com/...
Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro: It's striking to see Facebook double down on a PR strategy of lecturing journalists about how to do their jobs - in response to WaPo reporting on a whistleblower complaint filed to the SEC, FB retorts that, a “single-source” story is “beneath” WaPo. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Sean Fielding / @sfielding90: Not just Failsworth where @Facebook allows irresponsible people with extremist views to peddle lies and disinformation in closed groups posing as “community” groups then. What has to happen for them to act? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Clive Lewis MP / @labourlewis: I gave up on: “Facebook's vice-president of integrity said,...” Facebook boss ‘not willing to protect public from harm’ https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Nestor Vega / @newsremote: FaceBook knew by their algorithms. That hate and controversial people creat engagement which in turn creates longer time spent which in turns = more Ads served. It's always about the money. https://twitter.com/...
Clara Jeffery / @clarajeffery: 3/ Now a new whistleblower has gone to the Post's @craigtimberg with confirmation, and more allegations, and has evidently gone to the SEC as well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Gary Machado / @gary_machado_: Well, many Members European Parliament are supporting an exemption of moderation for all vaguely-defined media, thus supporting an extended “white list” policy of Facebook. #DSA Bonus: some say they support it because they don't trust and dislike Facebook. Hilarious, and sad. https://twitter.com/...
Bob Cesca / @bobcesca_go: Wasn't there a story a while back about a similar deal between FB and Shapiro's The Daily Wire? https://twitter.com/...
StevieSaid_no_flat_tires / @2020istrash2020: I stumbled across like 6 hate groups on fb a few weeks ago. Reported them. Fb said they didn't violate any TOS. I believe this shit. https://twitter.com/...
Paul Mason / @paulmasonnews: And here we were thinking it's only Facebook's algorithm that promotes far right hate... https://twitter.com/...
Karl / @brainnotonyet: The right has been lying about social media bias while creating a massive far-right propaganda and radicalization platform under those false pretenses. If only people had been warning of this for years. This is a great example of weaponized unreality and its inversion of reality https://twitter.com/...
Ann Lipton / @annmlipton: i mean the fascinating thing again is that the whistleblower is going to the sec. is that bc of protections the securities laws afford against retaliation? https://twitter.com/...
Steve Silberman / @stevesilberman: One of the things that will astonish historians is how much damage to the entire world Trump's tight little circle of pedophiles, criminals, Russian agents, meth-freaks, and psychopaths was able to do with sheer bullying. “Big Tech” is the best friend these scumbags ever had. https://twitter.com/...
Nina Jankowicz / @wiczipedia: On Russian interference in 2016, a FB comms official said: “It will be a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Emily Bell / @emilybell: One of the most depressing aspects of this is that the ‘comms official’ was pretty much right. The Honest Ads Act etc - never came to pass.FB enjoyed record $$ https://twitter.com/...
Bill Grueskin / @bgrueskin: Facebook is like a tobacco grower, an asbestos manufacturer and a lead-paint supplier, all rolled into one company https://twitter.com/...
Kate Starbird / @katestarbird: Again, we hear that instead of holding highly visible, “repeat offender” accounts & domains to higher standards (e.g. around the spread of misinformation), FB whitelisted them, fearing political and PR blowback. And again that private groups are toxic. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Roger McNamee / @moonalice: An epic thread from @TTP_updates details how FB handled right wing extremist groups during 2020 and into early 2021. They found clear evidence that FB enabled and amplified these groups after election and allowed them to operate online stores. Management knew. https://twitter.com/...
@sal19: Yet another Facebook whistleblower has spoken up. Reporting by the @WashingtonPost https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18: This story took a while to report and was based on docs obtained by Frances Haugen + others that I've reported on in the past. It includes this March report that we reported at @BuzzFeedNews. FB took it down internally after our story. So we published it: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
Elizabeth C. McLaughlin / @ecmclaughlin: COMPLICIT. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@richismo77: Facebook breathed relief that immediately post-Election Day 2020, it could go back to taking fascist money for publishing insurrectionist deza for 1/6/21. How much did it take in? I hope it was worth it to Zuckerberg, who really seems more Jason. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: .@facebook employee bemoaning FB's role in the insurrection: “Never forget the day Trump rode down the escalator in 2015, called for a ban on Muslims entering the US & we determined that it violated our policies & yet we explicitly overrode the policy...” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
| Ben Hubbard / New York Times: |
Citizen Lab: the iPhone of Ben Hubbard, an American reporter for NYT, was hacked in 2020 and 2021, likely by Saudi Arabia using NSO's Pegasus; NSO denies claim — Invasive hacking software sold to countries to fight terrorism is easily abused. Researchers say my phone was hacked twice, probably by Saudi Arabia.More:
Tweets:
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: NEW: iPhone of @NYTBen was hacked with #Pegasus spyware *after* he complained to NSO Group about previous targeting. THREAD Our @citizenlab investigation: https://citizenlab.ca/... https://twitter.com/...
@nytben: After yet another hacking scare, I decided to work with @citizenlab to see what they could find. Had I been hacked? With what? By whom? What, if any, of my info was stolen? Here are the results, with a number of questions left unanswered. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Adam Levin / @adam_k_levin: “As long as we store our lives on devices that have vulnerabilities, and surveillance companies can earn millions of dollars selling ways to exploit them, our defenses are limited, especially if a government decides it wants our data.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Chriscreama Warren / @film_girl: This is so fucked up and so beyond scary. I don't even know the solution b/c even if you have a separate device, you can still be a target https://citizenlab.ca/...
@nytben: And here is @citizenlab's more technical write up of what they found. https://citizenlab.ca/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: As we see with the NSO Group hacks, Apple's process misses defects that put its customers in mortal danger. For obvious reasons, companies aren't good stewards who gets to criticize their products, and how. 26/
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 4/ You'd think NSO Group would have taken some kind of action given the negative publicity but... @billmarczak's latest forensic analysis finds that in the past 2 years, @NYTBen was *repeatedly* hacked with #Pegasus spyware using zero-click exploits. https://twitter.com/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: Most recently, Apple attacked @CorelliumHQ, a tool that allows independent security researchers to investigate the inner workers of Apple's software to uncover defects. https://www.technologyreview.com/ ... (Apple lost the suit, thankfully) 29/
Kevin Beaumont / @gossithedog: this area probably needs regulating by governments. https://twitter.com/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: Apple has patched that bug, thankfully, but it's certainly not the last defect that will creep into the Iphone's operating systems (indeed, similar defects might lurk in current versions). 21/
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 3/ A member of the @nytimes tech security team later found another #Pegasus infection attempt from 2018. Here it is, inviting him to cover a protest at the #Saudi embassy in Washington DC. Clicking on the link would infect his device with the spyware. https://twitter.com/...
Adam Goldman / @adamgoldmannyt: In the two attempts in 2018, it appeared that Saudi Arabia had launched the attacks because they came from servers run by an operator who had previously targeted a number of Saudi activists. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: It should terminate the accounts - personal and commercial - associated with NSO Group employees and executives and permanently bar them from using its services. 33/
@ghadaoueiss: I am a victim of spyware. My photos were stolen&used to smear me across social media and the press. No one should have to go through this. No journalist, activist, academic or citizen should feel unsafe just for owning a phone. We need to fight for the right to privacy! https://twitter.com/...
@citizenlab: Read @NYTBen's account of our investigation of how we discovered his phone was hacked with Pegasus @nytimes: I Was Hacked. The Spyware Used Against Me Makes Us All Vulnerable. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: Rather than directing its fire against security researchers who find and disclose its bugs, Apple should follow Whatsapp's lead and sue the NSO Group for exploiting its technology: https://www.vice.com/... 32/
@ragipsoylu: Not surprised the least that @NYTBen was also hacked by Saudi government through Pegasus. I was also in their list since 2018 and only traces belonging to this year, numerous times between February to July https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jonathan Zittrain / @zittrain: Amazing work by @RonDeibert and @citizenlab tracking the hacking of journalists' iPhones by government(s) https://twitter.com/...
Kristian Ulrichsen / @dr_ulrichsen: ‘I have been writing about Saudi Arabia for years & published a book last year about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, so Saudi Arabia might have reasons for wanting to peek inside my phone (...) Did they steal my contacts so they could arrest my sources?’ https://www.nytimes.com/...
Cory Doctorow / @doctorow: These are the scariest kinds of security defects, since there's nothing you, as the owner of an Iphone, can do to defend yourself against them. 20/
Farnaz Fassihi / @farnazfassihi: Beirut bureau chief @NYTBen writes about how he was hacked, twice probably by Saudi Arabia. How finding definite answers even by experts was elusive. How we are all vulnerable in this global game of hacking. https://www.nytimes.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 2/ It began in 2018: @NYTBen shared a suspicious message with my colleague @billmarczak. It was a #Pegasus infection attempt. We @citizenlab attributed it to #SaudiArabia. Ben wrote it up & complained to NSO Group. NSO issued a predictable denial. https://twitter.com/...
Aki Peritz / @akiperitz: Did those amoral businessmen of NSO Group specifically say that US emails & IP “couldn't be infected by their spyware https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 7/ @NYTBen in his own words. If we don't reign in the spyware industry now, this fear, harm and uncertainty will become awfully commonplace. https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 5/ Of course, NSO Group has again issued a denial. Truth is: as long as NSO helps autocrats hack...they will keep infecting journalists. #Pegasus spyware enables these enemies of democracy to export their wretched repression around the globe. https://twitter.com/...
John Scott-Railton / @jsrailton: 6/ Remember the #pegasusproject? Yeah, @NYTBen 's number is on that list of potential targets, too. Along with @nytimes colleague @azamsahmed who extensively reported on Pegasus in Mexico. July report by @ronenbergman & @PatrickKingsley: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: Israeli spyware NSO Group “canceled its contracts with Saudi Arabia” after Saudis killed Khashoggi. NSO resumed the following year with “contractual restrictions.” It cancelled again when the Saudis used its spyware to hack phones of 36 Al Jazeera staff. https://www.nytimes.com/...
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft reverses its decision to remove code editing feature Hot Reload in its upcoming .NET 6 SDK, after backlash from the open source community — .NET 6 will now include Hot Reload across multiple platforms — Microsoft is reversing a decision to remove a key feature …
Tweets: @thatcks, @davepermen, @peterzaitsev, @isotopp, @curious_drive, @fallenhitokiri, @starbuxman, @ardalis, @mpdreamz, @peterzaitsev, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, and @tomwarren
More:
Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft angers the .NET open source community with a controversial decision
Tim Anderson / The Register: Microsoft under fire again from open-source .NET devs: Hot Reload feature pulled for sake of Visual Studio sales
Sofia Wyciślik-Wilson / BetaNews: Microsoft decides not to drop Hot Reload from .NET 6 after open-source community backlash
Tweets:
Chris Siebenmann / @thatcks: Can we trust Microsoft with open source? No, of course not. Nor can we trust Google, Apple, or Facebook. Any appearance of open source friendliness is tactical; it's not and has never been a deep seated cultural value. (Applications to Github are left for Halloween scares.)
@davepermen: It's scary to see how often Microsoft forces their people to shut up. There was a huge war with windows phone going. Now they all have to act like it never existed. Doesnt seem like a healthy company, sadly. https://twitter.com/...
Peter Zaitsev / @peterzaitsev: Great to see Microsoft listening to Open Source Community https://www.theverge.com/... #opensource
@isotopp: “Can we trust Microsoft with Open Source?” Microsoft removed hot reload from open source dotnet, and actively sabotages better C# support in VS code, because it wants to protect VS Studio. Not smart, and shows that OSS friendly MS still is just a facade. https://dusted.codes/...
Timo Zimmermann / @fallenhitokiri: It doesn't matter if you are invested in the dotNet ecosystem, but with VSCode, GtiHub and other tools I'd suggest paying attention to this https://dusted.codes/...
Josh Long / @starbuxman: Good news! They reversed course on this. Right on, @microsoft and 🙏 https://twitter.com/...
@ardalis: Good article, with some new info at least on the source of the decision. I'm certain most of the .NET engineers with whom I've worked and gotten to know for YEARS are absolutely LIVID about this, and I feel for them and their frustration. 😥 indeed. This was self-inflicted. https://twitter.com/...
Martijn Laarman / @mpdreamz: While I'm exited for #dotnet hot reload making a return this cycle needs to be broken. Visual Studio and #dotnet become better through rigid design of the CLI and file formats. Stop designing .NET for Visual Studio https://devblogs.microsoft.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Peter Zaitsev / @peterzaitsev: The second worst thing you can do after taking Open Source code proprietary is remove Open Source code between Beta and Release https://dusted.codes/...
Tom Warren / @tomwarren: Microsoft has reversed its controversial .NET 6 decision after a public outcry from the open source community. The company says “Hot Reload capability will be in the general availability build of the .NET 6 SDK available on November 8th.” Full details: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
| Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: |
CISA warns of malware discovered in npm package UAParser.js, which has 6M-7M downloads weekly, that installs a password stealer and a crypto miner — A massively popular JavaScript library (npm package) was hacked today and modified with malicious code that downloaded and installed … Source:
More:
Sean Gallagher / Sophos News: Node poisoning: hijacked package delivers coin miner and credential-stealing backdoor
Chetan Conikee / Security Boulevard: Evolving Threat series — Infiltrating NPM's Supply Chain (UA-Parser-js)
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: Popular NPM library hijacked to install password-stealers, miners
MRT / Market Research Telecast: Malicious code discovered in widely used JavaScript library UAParser.js
Tweets:
Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi: NEW: CISA warned today about the compromise of a major JavaScript/npm library with millions of weekly downloads -The library, called UAParser.js, was compromised with a cryptominer -Library author said their account was hijacked https://therecord.media/... https://twitter.com/...
Sami Laiho / @samilaiho: Embedded malware in ua-parser-js in npm https://github.com/... Classification: Severe, Solution: Update, Exploit: Unknown
@michalczukm: Crap, this one is pretty popular. I also remember using it once. It is widely used (~7M monthly), so your deps might depend on it. Few versions are compromised. Take a look at node_modules pits and lock files in your projects #Node #javascript https://twitter.com/...
John Smart / @thesmart: Package manager day of reckoning is approaching. This is such a massive problem no one talks enough about. Lock. Your. Packages! https://twitter.com/...
Adam Baldwin / @adam_baldwin: I've got 2 responses to this tweet. You are responsible for what you require() - take your lumps for updating and not vetting changes. These clowns wasted their access on a cryptominer, smh. https://twitter.com/...
Jamon / @jamonholmgren: Every time one of these compromises happens, I wonder how many others are going undetected. Especially lessor-known packages. It appears that macOS wasn't affected, but who knows. Going to be digging into it more today. https://twitter.com/...
Rasmus Andersson / @rsms: Is anyone actually surprised by this? I just assume half of the packages on npm are malicious (intentionally or accidentally.) It is important to review all 3rd party code from sources that you don't have a high trust level already established with. There are no shortcuts. https://twitter.com/...
Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi: The incident is a big deal, first and foremost, because of the large number of weekly downloads (6-7m). Second, this library is used all over the place, including a bunch of big companies, such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Slack, IBM, HPE, Dell, Oracle, Mozilla, etc. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Paul / @segphault: An npm package with 7m weekly downloads was compromised by malware. Facebook's fbjs package was among the impacted packages consuming it as a dependency. https://github.com/... The npm ecosystem continues to be a complete and utter dumpster fire.
David Flanagan / @__davidflanagan: I feel like NPM revolutionized software development for the web and now has the potential to destroy software development for the web https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Us-Cert / @uscert_gov: Versions (0.7.29, 0.8.0, and 1.0.0 ) of a popular NPM package named ua-parser-js was found to contain malicious code. Please update to the patched versions (0.7.30, 0.8.1, 1.0.1). More in our alert: https://us-cert.cisa.gov/... GitHub advisory: https://github.com/...
Rob Joyce / @nsa_csdirector: Important @CISAgov alert: Malware inserted into widely used JavaScript library (npm package) AParser.js which reads information stored inside user-agent strings. Developers must update to patched versions: 0.7.30, 0.8.1, 1.0.1 https://therecord.media/...
Scary Mary Branscombe / @marypcbuk: Software supply chain problems and of course it's a cryptominer. Crypot is why we can't have nice things https://twitter.com/...
Bytesafe / @bytesafedev: Beware: compromised versions of #npm package ua-parser-js. Malicious versions have been deprecated and flagged. Details: https://github.com/... Take steps to handle your dependencies securely. #node #javascript #nodejs #supplychainsecurity
Jim Nitterauer / @jnitterauer: This won't end well. Malware found in npm package with millions of weekly downloads - The Record by Recorded Future https://therecord.media/...
Drew Church / @drewchurch: Another (IMO) supply chain compromise - this time with a popular JS library ua-parser-js. 2.5m public repos on GH, 7m weekly downloads on NPM. Oof. https://github.com/...
Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi: IOCs here: https://github.com/... Here's a very sane advice from GitHub's security team: https://twitter.com/...
| Richard Lawler / The Verge: |
Tesla rolls back its FSD beta from version 10.3, which improved many items like brake light and turn signal detection, to 10.2 after “seeing some issues” — Elon Musk didn't specify what issues the company found — Tesla's decision to test its “Full Self Driving” …
Tweets: @elonmusk, @tim_stevens, @snazzyq, @petegaines, @gwenckatz, @waltisfrozen, @notgrubles, @grady_booch, @anthraxjones, @ryanmhickman, and @therideshareguy
More:
Jody Serrano / Gizmodo: Elon Musk Says ‘Some Issues’ Have Forced Tesla to Pull Newest Full Self-Driving Beta
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch: Elon Musk rolls back newest ‘Full Self-Driving’ beta due to software issues
Trevor Mogg / Digital Trends: Tesla pulls latest Full Self-Driving beta less than a day after release
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post: Tesla gives ‘Full Self-Driving’ to a new crop of users, then takes it away after apparent software bugs
Tweets:
Elon Musk / @elonmusk: Seeing some issues with 10.3, so rolling back to 10.2 temporarily. Please note, this is to be expected with beta software. It is impossible to test all hardware configs in all conditions with internal QA, hence public beta.
Tim Stevens / @tim_stevens: Tesla is effectively disabling FSD beta, temporarily. I think it's really great of every motorist in the US to agree to help Tesla beta test software that could literally kill them. https://twitter.com/...
Quinn Nelson / @snazzyq: Mistakes happen and are understandable but the quantity of bugs in this release are shocking and frankly, dangerous. Can't help but think this is a result of shipping upon deadline rather than completion. It's okay when it's a phone. Not okay when it's a 5,000 lbs car. https://twitter.com/...
Pete Gaines / @petegaines: it is fucking insane that a car company is allowed to have a beta software for adaptive cruise control 1) called “full self driving” 2) IN A BETA TEST WHERE EVERY USER IS THE BETA TESTER https://twitter.com/...
Gwen C. Katz / @gwenckatz: One might posit that, if your software can't be debugged except by releasing it onto the entire public and seeing what happens, your software doesn't belong in a car. https://twitter.com/...
Greg / @waltisfrozen: This kind of shit would never fly in a country with a functioning government. There are so many laws that apply to cars and driving, but America doesn't do regulation anymore so a billionaire can make us all unwitting participants in a beta test for his robot cars. https://twitter.com/...
@notgrubles: It's like Ethereum, but you're risking your life instead of your money. https://twitter.com/...
Grady Booch / @grady_booch: Running beta software on a one ton object barreling down public thoroughfares without the consent of the public sharing the road. This is wrong on so many levels. https://twitter.com/...
Andrew Shaw Legacy Night / @anthraxjones: all teslas should have a large animated exclamation point hovering above them in traffic https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Hickman / @ryanmhickman: This is insane. I expect this situation all the time as I test unreleased versions of Android and Google apps. The consequences are that sometimes my TV or phone misbehaves. To test a safety system for a lethal vehicle like this is beyond acceptable. FSD should be halted. https://twitter.com/...
Harry Campbell / @therideshareguy: Lol this seems dangerous https://twitter.com/...
| Michael Shields / Reuters: |
ProtonMail's parent company wins a Swiss court appeal confirming email services are not considered telcos and thus not subject to data retention requirements — Geneva-based Proton AG, the company behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN, has won an appeal regarding its treatment under Swiss law … | Lizzy Lawrence / Protocol: |
A look at productivity influencers who center their content around apps like Notion, Excel, and Asana, offering advice on how to stay organized — This is the creators' internet. The rest of us are just living in it. We're accustomed to the scores of comedy TikTokers … Tweets:
Tren Griffin / @trengriffin: On the topic of productivity influencers, there is PowerPoint Spice with 72K YouTube subscribers. https://m.youtube.com/...
Gavin Baker / @gavinsbaker: Love it that there are “Productivity Influencers.” It is getting easier and easier to monetize personal passions/interests/obsessions. Interesting that a lot of this seems TikTok centric. https://www.protocol.com/...
Jeremie Berrebi / @jberrebi: Interesting article about Productivity Influencers https://www.protocol.com/...
Tren Griffin / @trengriffin: 1/ A vision of the Excel screen with the left-right function paired with Drake's “Toosie Slide” popped into her head. Kat Norton, also known as Miss Excel, is one of a very small number of people who can have a dance party to Microsoft Excel tips. https://www.protocol.com/...
@protocol: This is the creators' internet, the rest of us are just living in it. That goes for Notion creators, too. https://www.protocol.com/...
@protocol: If you, like us, spent a good portion of 2020 designing the perfect Notion homepage, we've got just the story for you. https://www.protocol.com/...
August Bradley / @augustbradley: Fun article in @protocol about “productivity influencers” working with specific apps. Tells my story of using @NotionHQ to build a business, and fellow Notion creator @fro_dera. + others working with Excel, Asana, Evernote. Excellent piece by @LizzyLaw_ https://www.protocol.com/...
| Julia Kollewe / The Guardian: |
Tesco, UK's largest supermarket chain, was hacked on Saturday, halting online grocery orders through Sunday; Tesco says its site and app are back up and running — Consumers unable to book or amend deliveries after ‘attempt made to interfere with systems’ — Tesco has been hit by hackers … More:
Russell Hotten / BBC: Tesco say website and app down after hack attempt
Barry Collins / Forbes: Tesco Blames Cyberattack For Day-Long Website Outage
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Indian startup Clear, which helps individuals and businesses file tax returns and more, raises a $75M Series C from Kora Capital, Stripe, and others — Stripe has made its second investment in India, just days after disclosing the first. One of the world's most valuable startups …
Tweets: @sub8u, @refsrc, and @architgupta
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India-based Groww, which lets users invest in mutual funds, gold, stocks, and more, raises a $251M Series E led by Iconiq Growth, tripling its valuation to $3B — Groww has tripled its valuation to $3 billion in just six months as the Indian fintech startup looks to broaden its offerings … | Drew Harwell / Washington Post: |
A look at the bitter privacy debate in a Colorado neighborhood over the use of license plate scanners made by Flock, whose customer base has risen 4x since 2019 — A battle among homeowners in the Colorado mountains shows how a new generation of surveillance technology is reshaping American neighborhoodsMore:
Tweets:
Andrew G. Ferguson / @profferguson: Revealing @drewharwell article on the growth of “surveillance as a service” through community license plate readers. #surveillance https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Henry Grabar / @henrygrabar: Crime paranoia is driving hundreds of HOAs to install license plate readers to track local comings and goings https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@constans: It's funny how the people who extol how great their community is and how they could never live in a city then go on to become extraordinarily paranoid about crime in their supposed utopian neighborhood. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Elizabeth Dwoskin / @lizzadwoskin: Another great read by @drewharwell who shows the rise of license plate reading surveillance “as a service” - and how it nearly tore this Colorado town apart. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Adrian Daub / @adriandaub: Suburban racial paranoia meets Silicon Valley solutionism — what could possibly go wrong? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life: The combination of smartphones and online databases means we're tracked multiple times a day in the physical world. License plate scanners, facial recognition in retail stores & Ring doorbells means private citizens now have spying Orwellian capabilities. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro: “This is not just for million-dollar homes,” Flock's founder, Garrett Langley, said. “This is America at its core.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jim Duncan / @jimduncan: License plate scanners operated by HOAs. Searchable by neighbors. What could go wrong? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Lori Montgomery / @loriamontgomery: A new point of friction between crime-fearing residents and their privacy-minded neighbors. Via @drewharwell https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@mediaverse: Great story. These scanners simply play on one's “feelings” about safety and crime. License plate scanners were supposed to bring peace of mind. Instead they tore the neighborhood apart. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
| Chris O'Brien / The French Tech Journal: |
Profile of France-based BlaBlaCar, a long distance carpooling marketplace with 80% of its riders outside of France and 60% outside of Europe — BlaBlaCar has become an icon of the French Tech ecosystem. But the mobility company that wants to efficiently help people get from Point A to Point B … Tweets:
Chris O'Brien / @obrien: With @BlaBlaCar celebrating 15 years, CEO @nbrusson looks back at the company's journey, including some wrong turns. A couple of years ago, there were whispers the company had hit a dead end. Now it's thriving and prepping for a possible IPO next year. https://frenchtechjournal.com/ ...
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Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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| Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: |
More:
Bloomberg Linea: Hash, the Brazilian fintech that's been skyrocketing, raises a $40M Series C led by Kaszek and QED.
Isabela Fleischmann / LABS English: Six months after Series B, Brazil's Hash puts another $40 million in its pocket
Tweets:
Mary Ann Azevedo / @bayareawriter: Fintech in Brazil is 🔥 Hash today announced it has raised $40M in a round led by @QEDInvestors and @KaszekVentures. CEO/founder João Miranda said that since April, Hash has grown its number of transactions by “6x” and doubled its client base. https://techcrunch.com/...
| Danny Palmer / ZDNet: |
More:
Tweets:
Virus Bulletin / @virusbtn: Bitdefender researchers have identified a rootkit with a Microsoft-issued digital signature. The rootkit is used to proxy traffic to Internet addresses that interest the attackers (for credential theft and in-game-purchase hijacking). https://www.bitdefender.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Kevin Beaumont / @gossithedog: Press coverage. One thing to note is this isn't a new thing - it's been happening for about a year that people have been getting MS signed rootkits through the certification process. Two tweets prior there's a massive list of lots of different types. https://www.zdnet.com/...
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Tweets: @niron, @calcalistech, and @groveventures
Source:
More:
Tsani Gramatikova / Grails: US startup Metrolink raised $22 million in a Seed round
Tweets:
@niron: Israeli startup Metrolink, founded by the former head of the IDF's technological unit 81, raises $22 million seed round led by Grove Ventures and Eclipse Ventures. Here's the full list of startups that raised money in 2021 so far: http://technologer.net/funding https://www.calcalistech.com/ ...
Earlier Picks
| Sam Shead / CNBC: |
Tweets:
Nico Wittenborn / @ncsh: what a decade for European tech lucky to have witnessed this shift through @TeamEurope @PointNineCap @insightpartners and now @adjacent https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Andris K. Berzins / @akberzins: US VC funds coming to Europe in force. A good trend for the region in my view, this will up everyone's game https://www.cnbc.com/...
Alex Ferrara / @alexferrara: The rumors are true! My family has moved to London to focus 110% on early stage Europe SaaS investing. I'm joining my colleague @GroovyyDhruvy. Also, I'm apparently now considered a “veteran investor”.😬🤫 https://www.cnbc.com/...
Ryan Browne / @ryan_browne_: From Bessemer to General Catalyst, America's biggest VC firms are expanding into Europe to capitalise on the continent's booming startup scene. https://www.cnbc.com/...
Sam Shead / @sam_l_shead: NEW: US VCs are continuing to move in on Europe after several start-ups like Hopin and Klarna saw their valuations soar. Bessemer has sent one of its top VCs from New York to London, while General Catalyst and Lightspeed have beefed up teams in the city https://www.cnbc.com/...
| Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: |
Tweets: @campuscodi, @heidi_cuda, @tinu, @campuscodi, @campuscodi, and @campuscodi
More:
Tweets:
Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi: The Facebook data was posted for sale on RaidForusm on Dec 1, 2020. This predates the April 2021 scrape (533mil) by a few months, but Facebook said both scrapes were collected the same way, by abusing the contacts importer feature for Facebook Messenger https://therecord.media/... https://twitter.com/...
Heidi Cuda / @heidi_cuda: Facebook will go down in history as a massive global crime scene. https://twitter.com/...
@tinu: Can't recall the name of the person who told them that feature wasn't safe. I wanna say in 2012. https://twitter.com/...
Catalin Cimpanu / @campuscodi: How did Facebook identify him? Well... poor OpSec... as usual. Lots of reused usernames and emails. https://therecord.media/... https://twitter.com/...
| Leah Nylen / Politico: |
Tweets: @jason_kint, @patrickmcgee_, @snowden, @chouinardjc, @kevinakwok, @joshraby, @modestproposal1, @jamiepastore9, @techwontsaveus, @senblumenthal, @jeffhauser, @jason_kint, @adfichter, @fynnderella1, @atomicadman, @dougsaunders, @marie_haynes, @courtneyr, @khushitavasant, @theregister, @khushitavasant, @moonalice, @jason_kint, @lukolejnik, @khushitavasant, @thezedwards, @profcarroll, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @khushitavasant, @khushitavasant, @patrickmcgee_, @patrickmcgee_, @jason_kint, and @leah_nylen
More:
Thomas Claburn / The Register: Antitrust battle latest: Google, Facebook ‘colluded’ to smash Apple's privacy protections
David McCabe / New York Times: Google said it had successfully ‘slowed down’ European privacy rules, according to lawsuit.
Tweets:
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: Thread incoming. AGs lawsuit v Google posted upon orders of court. Simply put, there is A LOT. I previously called Google “screwed” despite redactions but there are more eye poppers. I'm starting with Facebook market rigging allegations. Congrats Sheryl Sandberg on redaction. /1 https://twitter.com/...
Patrick McGee / @patrickmcgee_: Facebook and Google allegedly agreed on quotas for how often Facebook would win publishers's auctions — “literally manipulating the auction with minimum spends and quotas for how often Facebook would bid and win,” complaint alleges. https://twitter.com/...
Edward Snowden / @snowden: European lawmakers, data regulators, and privacy authorities must recognize that It is time to revise your approach to the internet giants, who have for the entirety of the post-2013 era actively, intentionally sabotaged the process of reform. https://www.nytimes.com/...
JC Chouinard / @chouinardjc: Facebook and Google colluded! This is actually a very important (and thrilling) read. The collusion confirms most of what we all thought, and more. https://twitter.com/...
Kevin Kwok / @kevinakwok: need to set time aside to read through this. The screenshots from it floating around are...wild And adjacently very interesting peek into how Google's internals work on ad team and amp https://storage.courtlistener.com/ ...
Modest Proposal / @modestproposal1: Just a couple frenemies building a moat 🤝 https://twitter.com/...
@jamiepastore9: The thing about oligopolies is that you always end up with collusion because competition eats into profit margins https://twitter.com/...
@techwontsaveus: “Ahead of a 2019 meeting with other major tech companies, Google said in a memo that it had ‘been successful in slowing down and delaying’ the European Union's ePrivacy Regulation process.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Richard Blumenthal / @senblumenthal: Big Tech seemingly will stop at nothing to make more money by exploiting kids. Violating privacy, deceiving parents, secret meetings, & colluding with competitors to stop protections for kids. It's time for Congress to end this charade. https://www.politico.com/...
Jeff Hauser / @jeffhauser: Not many obvious reasons this is a civil only case, i.e., these emails seem to me to be evidence of criminal violations of Antitrust statutes. https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: Aaah, this makes more sense as Apple would be the fish out of water at any meeting to undermine privacy rights. Facebook and Google are the only two of the companies who have biz models built off surveillance - collecting more data on other companies' products than their own. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Adrienne Fichter / @adfichter: ‼️Google said in a memo that it had “been successful in slowing down and delaying” the European Union's ePrivacy Regulation process and had been “working behind the scenes hand in hand with the other companies,” according to the filing.‼️ https://www.nytimes.com/...
Fynn-derella / @fynnderella1: G👀gle must be dismantled. They are caught red-handed rigging the entire marketplace. Ma Bell was taken down for MUCH less. Tech giants need to be regulated! #Bernanke #Rigged #exposed #Unredacted https://twitter.com/...
Doug Garnett / @atomicadman: This thread is stunning. Facebook and Google apparently colluding .. including Google guaranteeing win rates for Facebook ad bidding... @acfou @AdContrarian https://twitter.com/...
Doug Saunders / @dougsaunders: Competition is good for consumers and good for industries and good for the planet and good for entire economies, but individual companies hate it and will do absolutely anything to prevent it. Including the very largest companies, it seems https://twitter.com/...
Marie Haynes / @marie_haynes: Oh wow. If you have issues with Google (or Facebook), grab a coffee and read this. It's a long but eye opening thread about collusion and monopolies and even stuff Google tried to redact about AMP🍿 https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Courtney Radsch / @courtneyr: Wow. That a thread from @jason_kint, who slogged through a lawsuit against Google, helpfully highlighting & explaining important parts abt manipulation of ad tech market + impact on publishers @rankingrights @CIMA_Media @MarechalPhD @jeffjarvis @anyaSIPA @CMDSatCEU @Poynter @CJR https://twitter.com/...
Khushita Vasant / @khushitavasant: There's more! “@Facebook ‘believed strongly’ that partnering with @Google was ‘relatively cheap compared to build/buy and compete in zero-sum ad tech game’. Facebook did not want to play zero-sum games”, unsealed Texas complaint reveals. #antitrust #adtech https://twitter.com/...
@theregister: The amended US states' antitrust complaint against Google has many allegations: * Google tried to ‘diminish child privacy protections in proposed regulations’ * It colluded with Facebook to bypass Apple's privacy protections * And more https://www.theregister.com/ ...
Khushita Vasant / @khushitavasant: In the Google adtech antitrust #case, judge Castel in NY just ruled that most of the complaint filed by a multi-state coalition led by Texas will be made public as it's “a judicial document with a strong presumption of public access”. Including Jedi Blue agreement with @Facebook
Roger McNamee / @moonalice: TX AG's antitrust complaint against Google will be made public. Among other things, complaint alleges price fixing between G and FB in adtech. If DOJ joins or takes the case, price fixing is a federal felony. Standard penalty is 3+ years in prison for executives. Very big deal. https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: As you think about way real-time markets work, it's not only about pricing, too. It's about access to that data and even the effects of terms around time guarantees and thresholds. Facebook got longer time, again likely due to its market size and Google wanting to “Kill HB.” /12 https://twitter.com/...
Lukasz Olejnik / @lukolejnik: American lawmakers are immediately concerned with Big Tech policymaking influence operations. So far European policymakers (where this influence has been exerted on a privacy regulation) went surprisingly silent. One may only wonder, why? #eprivacy https://www.politico.com/...
Khushita Vasant / @khushitavasant: In the @Google adtech #antitrust complaint *just* made public, the Texas-led lawsuit says this about the @Facebook agreement: “In Google's words, the Jedi program ‘generates suboptimal yields for publishers and serious risks of negative media coverage if exposed externally’”.
@thezedwards: And now we know what Google has been actually doing to slow down ePrivacy.. The unredacted documents between Google & Facebook @ https://storage.courtlistener.com/ ... are outrageous. There are going to dozens of important ad tech, digital privacy stories from all the details we can now see. https://twitter.com/...
David Carroll / @profcarroll: Adtech is a scam, even among the walled gardens. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: Here is (just some of) the previously language in the Facebook and Google allegedly illegal market rigging deal. Do you think this drew any red flags for the executives reviewing the deal? /14 https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: It also involved providing a bunch of help in identifying users, allegations compare some of the methods to “inside trading” in that Facebook was uniquely win certain terms to block inside info. Congrats, Dan. /10 https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: According to these allegations, Google's initial way for this executive to achieve this goal involved just stopping competition, innovation and investment. “forestall major industry investment in FB...” /6 https://t.co/l2wWk3ODQ3
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: It's pretty amazing to see the actual quotes from discovery. For instance the express purpose to “kill HB.” That's short for “header bidding” which was a significant threat to Google's business. /2 https://twitter.com/...
Khushita Vasant / @khushitavasant: Facebook's support for header bidding posed a severe threat. So, #Google made overtures to #Facebook. “Internal Facebook communications reveal that @Facebook executives fully understood why @Google wanted to cut a deal with them: “they want this deal to kill header bidding.”
Khushita Vasant / @khushitavasant: Facebook's header bidding announcement was part of an “18 [month] header bidding strategy”—to draw Google in, as per internal @Facebook communication at the highest level, the unredacted adtech lawsuit reveals.
Patrick McGee / @patrickmcgee_: Then comes @Facebook. In March 2017 Facebook throws its weight behind header bidding. Big threat. “Facebook communications reveal that Facebook executives fully understood why Google wanted to cut a deal with them: “they want this deal to kill header bidding.” https://twitter.com/...
Patrick McGee / @patrickmcgee_: Google doesn't want to compete with Facebook. Says it would rather “build a moat” by collaborating instead. Facebook anticipated this in “an 18 month head bidding strategy” — new unredacted detail.