Elon Musk: "Facebook Sucks."

@ Elon Musk

Breitbart: Elon Musk to Facebook AI Chief: ‘Facebook Sucks’.

Facebook employee leaps to death from roof of corporate headquarters.

Daily Mail: Facebook employee jumps to his death from roof of company's Silicon Valley headquarters in apparent suicide.

A Facebook employee has died at the company's headquarters campus in Silicon Valley in what police call an apparent suicide.

Horrified bystanders in Menlo Park, California called 911 at about 11.30am on Thursday after an adult male jumped from the top of a four-story building on the 100 block of Jefferson Drive.

Paramedics rushed to Facebook's sprawling campus and rendered first aid, but the victim was declared dead on the scene.

The deceased individual has not been publicly identified pending family notification, but Facebook confirmed in a statement to DailyMail.com that he was an employee.

Zuckerberg may have to install suicide nets like Apple did in China to prevent employees from leaping to their deaths.

"Our AI wasn't programmed to identify suicidal tendencies."

Facebook Messenger Kids app flaw let thousands of children chat to strangers online. Facebook 2Q lobbying spends more than Amazon and Google.

Mirror: Messenger Kids app flaw let thousands of children chat to strangers online.

It’s promoted as a ‘safe kids’ chat app’, but new findings may put you off letting your children use the Facebook Messenger Kids app.

A design flaw has been discovered within the app, that allowed thousands of children to chat to strangers online.

A report by The Verge revealed that Facebook has quietly been closing down these group chats and alerting users, but did not make a public statement about the issue.
[.]
...the flaw meant that children could be added to group chats with strangers, as long as one of their trusted contacts had added them.

MarketWatch: Facebook tops Amazon and Google in 2Q lobbying spending.

Facebook Inc. shelled out $4.1 million on lobbying Washington in the second quarter, topping the outlays by other so-called FAANG companies and keeping the tech giant on pace for another record year of spending to influence lawmakers and regulators.
[.]
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.00%  wasn’t far behind with $4 million[.]
[.]
Google business spent $2.9 million from April through June[.]
[.]
Netflix Inc.,...spent a relatively modest $200,000.

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Mirror story Archived
Market Watch story Archived

Patent Granted to Facebook's shadowbanning.

Reclaim The Net: Facebook’s shadowbanning process is now patented:

It's official and patented: Facebook is that company that engages in censorship utilizing a practice known as shadowbanning. [].. the US Patent and Trademark Office has now granted the request.
[.]
In the summary of the patent case Facebook describes how shadowbanning works: comments are analyzed for content and sentiments that are prohibited by the social network, such as profanities, or racist, derogatory, “or negative” remarks.

And while such comments will still be visible to the author – and in some cases, their friends – “the social networking system will not display the comment to other users.”

Facebook added that it may also “train a machine learning classifier to block comments based on moderator actions of manually deleting comments or unblocking comments in the online forum.”

Is this Social Media AI Comment Moderation or censorship? This should be a fun one to watch. AI learning what it identifies as "negative remarks". What could possibly go wrong?

Steve Wozniak: "Get off Facebook!"

Steve Wozniak, "Get off Facebook." Via TMZ:

LA Wire: Steve Wozniak Warns People to Get Off Facebook Over Privacy Concerns.

Steve Wozniak has a warning for anyone who uses social media … the platforms are eavesdropping on your private conversations, and sending that precious data to advertisers.
[.]
...he explains why anything you say in the presence of your electronics is readily made available to all sorts of entities.

The Urban Twist: Steve Wozniak warns to GET OFF Facebook and Instagram.

Wozniak, [accuses] platforms under the umbrella of Facebook [of] using audio surveillance tactics to gather information to sell to advertisers.

Deleted Trump Video Tweet

According to (via) LeahR77, Twitter deleted this Video Tweet by President Donald Trump. So please, copy, publish and share.

Link: https://twitter.com/LeahR77/status/1126594552507371520

(Make sure audio is on)

Mark Zuckerberg privacy joke gets no laughs.Howard Beale - "Network": as relevant today as in 1976.

Mashable: Zuckerberg joke a slap in the face to Facebook victims.

Most awkward Zuck moments revolve around the CEO's inability to exhibit human emotion. This one comes with a serving of insult, added to injury.

[Zuckerberg] opened Facebook's annual F8 developer conference on Tuesday with a manifesto-ish address about how the future of Facebook is focused on privacy.
[.]
    The moment Mark Zuckerberg tries to make a joke about privacy and nobody laughs: pic.twitter.com/izt7kIhjLz

    — alfred 🆖 (@alfredwkng) April 30, 2019
[.]
"I know that we don't exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly," Mark Zuckerberg joked, amid some understated snorty laughs. Not even the audience — packed with Facebook employees and developers — could muster more than that.

Advisory - NSFW language:

Reference: Howard Beale.

Reference: "Network".

Tech News

9 News: Two Huawei employees arrested in Poland; spying allegations.

Poland has arrested a Chinese employee of Huawei and a Polish [Huawei] cyber business specialist on allegations of spying.

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Information Week: How to manage the Internet of Things (IOT).

Once data is collected in central storage, analytics on the entire body of data can be run to produce the most inclusive and holistic picture of the business.

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MIT Review: When China decides to really hack the rest of the world.

Many thought the internet would bring democracy to China. Instead it empowered rampant government oppression, and now the censors are turning their attention to the rest of the world.

Or North Korea. Or Russia. Or those godless Tuvaluians.
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TechDirt: Facebook not helping Vietnamese government censor critics quickly enough.

...the government is going to do other vague things ("necessary economic and technical measures") to hurt Facebook and "ensure a clean and healthy network environment." One "necessary economic measure" is somehow blocking Facebook from collecting money for "hatred advertising," whatever the hell that is.

WTH is "hatred advertising"? Anyone wanna take a shot at defining it?

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO/Censor.

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TechCrunch: MS Bing suggests inappropriate/illegal image search results.

Following an anonymous tip, TechCrunch commissioned a report from online safety startup AntiToxin to investigate. The results were alarming.

Alarming is an understatement. Stop using Bing. Over on the far-right sidebar, scroll down and look for "Search Engine Alternatives To Google." Start using any of them and make Google and Bing history.

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Tech Crunch: SpaceX to lay off hundreds. 

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TechSpot: CBS Superbowl 8K resolution.

US cable providers still do not even support live 4K broadcasts, but CBS Sports is going to try out its 8K cameras at the Super Bowl anyways.

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ZD Net: Government shutdown affecting websites; TLS certificates expiring. 

The blame falls on the current US federal government shutdown [...] Consequently, government websites are dropping like flies, with no one being on hand to renew TLS certificates.

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Ars Technia: AT&T says it will stop selling phone location data. 

Earlier this week, AT&T said it "only permit[s] sharing of location when a customer gives permission for cases like fraud prevention or emergency roadside assistance or when required by law." But the Motherboard investigation showed that the data was being re-sold on the black market, allowing pretty much anyone to get the location of other people's phones.

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It looks like "It's" here. Technocracy: IBM launches Quantum-Computer-In-A-Box.

The 20-qubit IBM Q System One represents the first major leap for quantum computers of 2019[.]

Quantum in a Box

Tech News

TechDirt - Students charged with terroristic threats for posting video of fictional school shooting.

Three students face felony charges of making a terroristic threat for posting online two brief videos where they act out a school shooting in someone’s house.
[...]
Content disturbing to others is present in a lot of content. Just because this dramatization happened to be produced by students and distributed by Instagram doesn't somehow entitle it to less First Amendment protection than a motion picture released by a major studio.
[...]
Sheriff Craig Apple's speech -- as moronic as it is -- is also protected by the same First Amendment he won't extend to these students.

    “There’s been enough shootings going on around the country. This is despicable artistic expression, if that’s what it was.”

Is the video protected under the First Amendment or is the sheriff's interpretation of the video consistent within the context of preventing a potential threat?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Business Times: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it will fix years to FB's problems.

Who...knew?

Gadgets Now: India law misunderstood by FB moderators. 

[Facebook moderators are advised] that any post degrading an entire religion violates Indian law and should be flagged for removal.

[Another instructs moderators] to "look out for" the phrase "Free Kashmir" - though the slogan, common among activists, is completely legal.

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Ars Technia: Residential home battery (power) not energy efficient in most cases.

"There may be good reasons to decentralize the grid through ubiquitous installation of small RES [Residential Energy Storage], but cost-effective emissions control is not one of them at the moment," the researchers write.

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Caution - story contains AI created "scary" names (I'm looking out for the easily frightened Libs, here.); Ars Technia:

AI invents New Year fireworks names that sound more like the end of humanity.
[...]
Flaming Thundersplont Box
Red flashing cake
Machine Blinking Display
Black Moo
Original Cat Pix Budget 2 Boom

Yikes! Machine Blinking Display and Original Cat Pix Budget 2 Boom. Run Away ! Run Away !
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Coffee? Tea? Lots of room?

Technology: What happens when almost no passengers show up for their flight?

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Technology: Wind turbines hurting robins. 

...wind turbines are rather loud and robins have to adapt. In these areas where wind turbines are present, robins drop their lower pitch and go for the trademark puffed up red chest instead. Little birds cannot compete against the low hum of the wind turbine blades.

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TechRadar: MS 2018 retrospective.

...the October 2018 Update has been the most problematic and buggy update ever released for Microsoft’s OS, outdoing even the infamous Anniversary Update.
[.]
Another major development for Microsoft in 2018 was that the firm finally admitted that it had got things wrong with the default web browser for Windows 10. The company has been pushing hard with Edge for a good while now, but to no avail[.]

WccfTech: Here comes Win 10 forced update v 1809.

We are still waiting for user reports to see if they have experienced any Windows 10 forced updates over the last few days. But, if you want to avoid Windows 10 version 1809, it would be wise to block it to avoid any surprises.

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Gadgets Now: Elon Musk needs people to beta test Tesla's autonomous-driving cars.

Earlier this year [Tesla] reportedly sought hundreds of employees to test its full-driving system and offered free Autopilot upgrade with new purchases.

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The Drive - Ford's 2019 preview and 2020(?) Bronco.

Ford "Super Duty"

Facebook Knows What's Best for You!

From The Guardian:

...confidential emails, released Wednesday by the British Parliament, reveal the hardheaded business calculations that lurked beneath the feel-good image projected by Zuckerberg and Facebook.

“That may be good for the world, but it’s not good for us,” Zuckerberg wrote in a 2012 email about the possibility that developers would build applications that used data about Facebook users and their friends, but not provide any data back to Facebook.

Zuckerberg’s assessment – that “sharing” was only valuable if people were sharing data with his company – was endorsed by Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, who responded, “I think the observation that we are trying to maximize sharing on facebook [sic], not just sharing in the world, is a critical one.” Facebook discussed cashing in on user data, emails suggest.

The emails provide an uncommon window into the thinking of Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives as they sought revenue streams amid an industry-shaking shift from desktop to mobile computing.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and Chairman

Facebook denies the allegations. TechSpot:

“Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends’ data [sic],” stated Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Chairman Damian Collins[.]
[.]
Collins also points out emails that spelled out the collection of user call and text logs on Android devices. He claims Facebook went to great lengths to keep users from realizing such data was being collected from them.

“Facebook knew that the changes to its policies on the Android mobile phone system, which enabled the Facebook app to collect a record of calls and texts sent by the user would be controversial. To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard of possible for users to know that this was one of the underlying features of the upgrade of their app.”

The accusations. The Guardian:

In 2015, the company began “continuously uploading” call and text logs from Android phones, giving it a valuable window into the communications habits of its users.
[.]
Since 2013, the company has used a VPN app it acquired, named Onavo, to harvest information about app usage on iPhones. By funnelling all internet usage on those phones through Facebook’s servers, it could be forewarned about popular apps, and take pre-emptive action against possible competition.
[.]
Even though it clamped down on apps accessing user data in 2015, Facebook offered continued access to that data to a small number of large companies, including Netflix, Lyft and Airbnb.

朋友; 伙伴; 同志 (Comrade) Cooks helps China Gov Censor Citizens

Apple  友; 伙伴; 同志 CEO Tim Cook  makes no apologies for promoting and buckling under to the Chinese government in censoring its internet. Quartz:

Apple removed dozens of virtual private network (VPN) apps from its Chinese app store, depriving many users of tools that are critical to jumping the country’s Great Firewall. The move marked a major capitulation to China’s censorship regime, and follows similar requests to block various apps and content in the country.

[.]

Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has defended his company’s compliance with censorship requests in countries like Pakistan and Thailand by arguing that it serves citizens’ best interests to “continue operating” rather than risk getting shut down for not blocking content.

Is this part of the reason they own $52.6 Billion in U.S. Treasuries?

And with Zuckerberg and Pakistan and Thailand, this is nothing new.

Remember Google, the "Do No Evil" company and how they promised, in 2007, to fight global internet censorship?

Then, January 2010, Google threatened to yank their business out of China if they couldn't resolve their censorship restrictions with the Chinese Government.

Come March 2010, Google shut down their China service, redirecting to its server in Hong Kong.

Eventually, Google gave up in January, 2013.

Even CNN  couldn't put a positive spin on Google in January, 2015. Same link, Google also kowtowed to censorship by the Turkish government.

By December of 2014, the Chinese Government pulled the plug  on Google Gmail, Google Drive and many other Google services.

Besides, Google is not evil, are they?

Or are they?

Well, they dropped the "Don't be Evil" motto, so maybe they are?

Dotcom companies certainly aren't the only industries that play ball with repressive governments.

Then again, dotcom companies, especially the search engine and social media platforms, are companies that exist in a special area, unlike companies in manufacturing or other industries that work within the confines of a country like China or Turkey who control unfiltered information available in their country.

Email and social media companies are specifically in the business of communication(s), speech and information. Ideally, yes, everyone om earth would have the freedom to have unfiltered access to the information available on the web. What are the ethical obligations, if any, of communication companies agreeing with governments who censor the information available to its citizens?

I'm not sure I have any answers right now. Do you?