James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
LGBTQ groups accuse Facebook of allowing HIV misinformation to spread
Leaders in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer advocacy sent a signed letter to Facebook Inc. today, stating that “inaccurate advertisements” are targeting people on the Facebook app and the Instagram app. A total of 52 health groups as well as LGBTQ groups sent the letter, which was addressed to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. ...
Uber releases its first US safety report
Uber Technologies Inc. released its first-ever U.S. safety report Thursday, detailing how many murders, sexual assaults and fatal crashes happened during its rides through 2018. Although the numbers look grim on their face, Uber pointed out in a blog post that through its app there were 1.3 billion rides last year, which worked out at ...
TikTok’s parent company taken to court for collecting data on children
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Inc., is being sued for collecting and disclosing data of children under the age of 13, according to court documents lodged Tuesday. Those children were users of the Musical.ly app, which was bought by ByteDance in 2017 and later turned into the immensely popular video streaming app, TikTok. According to the complaint, ...
Fired workers accuse Google of unfair labor practices
Four engineers recently filed by Google said Tuesday they’re planning to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, saying the company is trying to quash internal activism. The employees (three pictured) were let go just before the Thanksgiving holiday. All of them had been involved in some way with protests relating to certain ...
Facebook creates a chatbot to help employees deal with criticism
Facebook Inc. created a bot called “Liam” to help employees better deflect criticism, the New York Times reported Monday. According to that report, the bot was introduced for the holiday period when staff might return home and have to answer difficult questions coming from friends and family. The social network has been embroiled in multiple issues ...
Apple bows to pressure and shows Crimea as part of Russia in its Maps app
Apple Inc. has made some changes to its Maps and Weather apps and made Crimea part of Russian territory. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula back in 2014, which was roundly criticized by much of the international community. The U.S., along with the EU, doesn’t recognize the annexation. The changes Apple just made won’t affect anyone ...
TikTok owner ByteDance distances itself from China to appease US investigators
ByteDance Inc. is planning to move operations for its massively popular TikTok app away from other parts of its business to appease those in the U.S. government who think the app could be a threat to national security, according to a report by Reuters today. People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Chinese ...
TikTok denies US teen was banned from platform for China criticism
A U.S. teenager said this week that she was kicked off the popular Chinese-owned video streaming platform TikTok for criticizing China and its treatment of Uighur Muslims. TikTok quickly responded, saying that wasn’t the case. The video in question appears to be at the start just an ordinary beauty tips video. But the young woman, named ...
Twitter’s ‘Hide Replies’ function goes global
After testing in various countries this year, Twitter Inc. is now rolling out its “Hide Replies” feature worldwide. “Everyone should feel safe and comfortable while talking on Twitter,” said Suzanne Xie, director of product management at Twitter. “To make this happen, we need to change how conversations work on our service.” Twitter explained how it works ...
Google will limit political ad targeting and prohibit false claims
Political advertisers will now have a very limited scope for whom they can target, Google LLC announced Wednesday. Scott Spencer, vice president of product management for Google Ads, said in a blog post that given the controversy surrounding political ads and big tech lately, Google felt it had to set down some rules. These rules, said ...