James Farrell
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Facebook Inc. gave reporters a tour of its “war room” Wednesday, explaining its latest efforts to tackle election interference. “As our teams have gotten smarter, so have the adversaries seeking to misuse our services,” Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s director of product management and …
Google’s Chinese search engine now seems to be a certainty
The controversial search engine that Google LLC has been developing in China might soon become a reality, despite objections from inside the company and from some critics. Speaking on Monday at the WIRED 25 Summit, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai (pictured) seemed …
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is dead at 65
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen passed away on Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Allen revealed two weeks ago that the disease had returned after he spent years battling and overcoming it. He said in a statement at the time that he …
Facebook takes down hundreds of pages for ‘inauthentic’ political content
With the U.S. midterm elections looming, Facebook Inc. has removed hundreds of pages related to political spamming and what the company calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” In a blog post, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, and product manager Oscar Rodriguez, said …
Amazon axes AI recruiting tool that wasn’t too keen on women
Amazon.com Inc. recently had to shut down a machine learning recruiting tool because it apparently showed bias against female applicants. According to Reuters, which first published the story, Amazon had been using artificial intelligence since 2014 to go through resumes faster than …
Apple has been secretly fighting iPhone fraud in China
Apple Inc. had to go to war in China over fraudsters who were making handsome profits from buying or stealing iPhones, replacing some parts, and then claiming the phones were broken, according to a report in The Information published Tuesday. That report …
‘Presidential Alert,’ though not from Trump himself, hits millions of US phones
Millions of Americans on Wednesday received what may have looked like a text message from U.S. President Donald Trump. The text was sent out at 2:18 p.m. EDT to test the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, a joint operation led by FEMA …
Facebook introduces new anti-bullying tools to curb harassment
Facebook Inc. has bolstered its efforts to reduce the amount of bullying that occurs on the platform with a slew of new anti-bullying tools. On Tuesday, the company announced that it intends to give people more control over what they see and …
With new Maps feature, Google aims to alleviate the drudgery of commuting
Google LLC has brought out a couple of new features in Google Maps that might help deal with the stress of being stuck in gridlocked traffic. Announced Monday, the new “Commute” tab is tailored to a person’s daily drive, bus ride or train ride to …
US Justice Department sues California to block state net neutrality bill
California Governor Jerry Brown signed a net neutrality bill Sunday, which much like the old Federal Communications Commission laws would prevent internet service providers from prioritizing content or throttling and blocking certain content. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has said any …