Facebook has acknowledged that they are exploited by governments in manipulating public opinion, and also said they would try to do something about reducing these types of “information operations.” Governments use Facebook to amplify a view, sow distrust, and spread confusion, according to the company. Recently, Facebook made an attempt to cut down this use … Read more
Indonesian female clerics issued a fatwa (nothing legal but a matter of religion) after holding a 3-day meeting. They also want the government there to make marriage illegal for women under 18. Currently, 16 is the marriage age. According to the UN, 1/4 of Indonesian women marry before they are 18. The fatwa is unusual … Read more
Protest over President Michel Temer’s austerity measures are crippling public transport in several major cities, and many factories, businesses and schools are closed, including in major tourist areas. Police have barricaded protesters from entering airports (some flights were delayed and cancelled earlier) and are trying to clear up roadways. Brazil has not had a nationwide … Read more
Citizens are protesting the government after a March 20 attempt by the country’s highest court to dissolve the national assembly, which would in turn weaken President Maduro’s opponents. Read more
The Australian Federal Police announced this week that they illegally obtained a journalist’s phone records under the Turnbull government’s new metadata retention plan. The breach was accidental, according to the police, and happened as part of an investigation into a leak of police material. The journalist was not notified about their data being accessed, due … Read more
A temporary funding bill was approved by the House and Senate. Read more
Email and texts will no longer be collected just for mentioning a target of the agency, according to the NSA; only communications sent to and from a target will be collected Read more
The secretary of state warned the UN Security Council that failure to act now on North Korea may bring “catastrophic consequences.” He called for “painful new sanctions” to pressure North Korea to give up it’s nuclear and missile programs. North Korea tested another missile day of the meeting. Reportedly, the test likely failed. Read more
A team of software designers, technicians, conservators, architects, artists, artisans, working together as Factum Arte, are recreating works of art to be used by the public. Some of their work is already used by museums. The group makes its money by also producing works in the private market. The goal of their public efforts are … Read more
The new president has so far racked up a travel bill of $20m. The rate, accumulated over Trump’s first 100 days, if continued would cost $294 million after 4 years, or over half a billion after 8. One of the top destinations for the president is his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which he calls … Read more
Amazon Prime now has 80m subs. The increase has been steady in the last 2 years. People like Amazon’s fast delivery, cheap prices, easy checkout, and good customer service. Read more
The app may be on every young person’s phone, but it’s losing money. When it launched its IPO this year, it raised $3.4b. But as of January, it’s lost $1.2b. Almost half of that loss was in 2016. It was growing at 15m new daily users in the first 3 quarters of 2016, but the … Read more