A former Facebook employee says tens of thousands of pages of internal company research she has provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission prove Facebook is lying to the public and investors about the effectiveness of its campaigns to eradicate hate, violence and misinformation from its platforms. That former employee, who anonymously filed the complaints…
Category: Tech

Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show
About a year ago, teenager Anastasia Vlasova started seeing a therapist. She had developed an eating disorder, and had a clear idea of what led to it: her time on Instagram. She joined the platform at 13, and eventually was spending three hours a day entranced by the seemingly perfect lives and bodies of the…

Barry Diller Headed 2 Hollywood Studios. He Now Says The Movie Business Is Dead
Barry Diller made his name in the film industry as the chairman and CEO of two Hollywood studios, Paramount Pictures and what was then 20th Century Fox. Now, he is declaring the industry dead. “The movie business is over,” Diller said in an exclusive interview with NPR on the sidelines of the Allen & Company…

Cosby release infuriates survivors; lawyers hail win for Constitution
Reaction to Bill Cosby being freed from prison on Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction ranged from outrage to cheers. Here are some of those voices: – “Today’s devastating decision to overturn the conviction of a man who caused so much harm, pain, and emotional trauma to so many women is…

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing. In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income…

Facebook upholds Trump ban but will reassess decision over coming months
KEY POINTS Facebook’s oversight board ruled to uphold the company’s decision to suspend former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. But, the board said, the indefinite time frame of the suspension “was not appropriate.” The board effectively punted the decision on the length of the suspension back to Facebook, saying the platform “seeks to…

Reddit’s flashmob won’t be able to work its GameStop magic on silver
It will be a great deal harder to push up the price of the metal, which is already at an eight-year high Volatility on the New York Stock Exchange has spread to silver from underdog companies like GameStop. Photograph: Nicole Pereira/AP Mon 1 Feb 2021 15.00 EST Attempting to corner the silver market has a long…

How a little-known Democratic firm cashed in on the wave of midterm money
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy The solicitations piled into voters’ email accounts — sometimes multiple times a day. And they carried alarming messages, often in blaring capital letters. “We’re on the verge of BANKRUPTCY.” Follow the latest on Election 2020 “Our bank account is ALMOST EMPTY!” “Trump is INCHES away from firing Robert…

ELON MUSK’S TOTALLY AWFUL, BATSHIT-CRAZY, COMPLETELY BONKERS, MOST EXCELLENT YEAR
In 2020, the COVID-doubting, media-hating Twitterholic CEO became the third-richest man alive, SpaceX launched two astronauts into orbit, and Tesla became the most valuable car company on the planet. Inside the mind of Silicon Valley’s most vainglorious villain. Elon Musk is on a mission. He’s on a mission to Mars. He’s on a mission to…

Glenn Greenwald On His Resignation From The Intercept
The Pulitzer winner founded the Intercept to challenge official narratives and protect editorial freedom. When editors abandoned those principles, spiking a controversial story, he was forced to quit Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald quit his job this morning. In a bizarre, ironic, and disturbing commentary on trends in modern media, the celebrated reporter was forced to…