Search / 195 results found

from
to
Advanced Search Close Search
FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference
National News

FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference

  • By MELISSA GOLDIN - Associated Press

A lack of Google autocomplete results about the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump is being held up on social media as evidence of election interference. Multiple high-profile figures, including Trump and sitting members of Congress, promoted the claim across social media platforms, collectively amassing more than 1 million likes and shares by Tuesday. Google attributed the situation to existing protections against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, noting that “no manual action was taken” to suppress information about Trump. By Tuesday, the situation around the autocomplete searches around the assassination attempt was being resolved.

Senate passes bill to protect kids online and make tech companies accountable for harmful content
Technology

Senate passes bill to protect kids online and make tech companies accountable for harmful content

  • By MARY CLARE JALONICK and BARBARA ORTUTAY - Associated Press
  • Updated

The Senate has passed legislation designed to protect children from dangerous online content. It's pushing forward with what would be the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable for the harm they cause. The bill has bipartisan support and has been pushed by parents of children who died by suicide after online bullying. It would force companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on online platforms frequently used by minors, requiring them to ensure they generally default to the safest settings possible. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut wrote the bill with Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas in privacy lawsuit over facial recognition
Nation & World Business

Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas in privacy lawsuit over facial recognition

  • By NADIA LATHAN - Associated Press/Report for America
  • Updated

Officials say Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday that the settlement is the largest secured by a single state. A judge in 2021 approved a $650 million settlement with the company, formerly known as Facebook, over similar allegations of users in Illinois. Meta says in a statement that the company is pleased to resolve the matter. The Texas lawsuit said that Meta was in violation of a state laws that prohibits capturing or selling a resident’s biometric information, such as their face or fingerprint, without their consent.

Election 2022 Fighting Misinformation
World News

Election 2022 Fighting Misinformation

  • Jenny Kane - staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Updated

FILE - An iPhone displays the Facebook app, Aug. 11, 2019, in New Orleans. Russia, China and Iran are continuing to target voters in the U.S. with disinformation and propaganda related to the upcoming presidential election, top intelligence officials told reporters on Monday, July 29, 2024. Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly using private public relations firms or unwitting social media users to spread their false claims as a way to hide their tracks. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Beach volleyball at Eiffel Tower stadium draws the crowds looking for the perfect social media post
Olympics

Beach volleyball at Eiffel Tower stadium draws the crowds looking for the perfect social media post

  • By ALANIS THAMES - AP Sports Writer
  • Updated

Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower is serving as a backdrop for one of the most photogenic venues of the Paris Olympics. The 13,000-seat stadium was built specifically for the Olympics at Champ de Mars, a garden where Parisians and tourists typically sit on the grass for picnics or July 14 firework displays. The site draws hundreds of people on any regular day, but since the start of the Olympics, people buy tickets to beach volleyball matches just to squeeze through crowds of people for the perfect selfies and videos with the tower and sand in the background.

Technology's grip on modern life is pushing us down a dimly lit path of digital land mines
National News

Technology's grip on modern life is pushing us down a dimly lit path of digital land mines

  • By MICHAEL LIEDTKE - AP Technology Writer
  • Updated

“Move fast and break things,” a high-tech mantra popularized 20 years ago by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was supposed to be a rallying cry for game-changing innovation. It now seems more like an elegy for a society perched on a digital foundation too fragile to withstand a defective software program that was supposed to help protect computers. The worldwide technology meltdown unleashed late last week by a flawed update installed by cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike illustrated the digital pitfalls looming in a culture  that takes the magic of technology for granted until it implodes into a horror show exposing our ignorance.

Meta's Oversight Board says deepfake policies need update and response to explicit image fell short
Nation & World Business

Meta's Oversight Board says deepfake policies need update and response to explicit image fell short

  • By KELVIN CHAN - AP Business Writer
  • Updated

Meta's Oversight Board says the company failed to take down an AI-generated intimate image of an Indian female public figure that violated its policies until the board got involved. The quasi-independent board also said the social media giant’s policies on non-consensual deepfake images needs updating, including wording that’s “not sufficiently clear.” Deepake nude images of women and celebrities including Taylor Swift have proliferated on social media because the technology used to make them has become more accessible and easier to use. Online platforms have been facing pressure to do more to tackle the problem. Meta said it welcomed the board’s recommendations and is reviewing them.

Meta takes down thousands of Facebook, Instagram accounts running sextortion scams from Nigeria
Technology

Meta takes down thousands of Facebook, Instagram accounts running sextortion scams from Nigeria

  • By BARBARA ORTUTAY - AP Technology Writer
  • Updated

Meta says it has removed about 63,000 Instagram accounts engaging in sexual extortion scams. It has also taken down Facebook groups and pages that were trying to organize, recruit and train new scammers. The accounts were located in Nigeria. Meta said it also removed a coordinated network of about 2,500 accounts as part of the takedown. Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.