Another week, another edition of the 404. Time to send the Prada, the hoodie, and the ‘fuck you’ flip flops to the cleaner’s and slip into something more comfortable!
Headlines
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook will not take any new political ads in the week before the US election on November 3rd. He and Priscilla Chan will also donate $300 million to fund election infrastructure.
In the post, Zuckerberg said these and other new measures ‘reflect what we've learned from our elections work over the past four years and the conversations we've had with voting rights experts and our civil rights auditors…’
This comes after the platform announced an election information centre three weeks ago.
———————————————————-
Mark Zuckerberg also stated this week that Facebook removed a militia event posted on the platform in which members discussed shooting and killing protesters. It turns out the militia members deleted it themselves after shootings took place.
Facebook’s ban on posts and groups which discuss or promote violence hasn’t prevented users posting such content.
———————————————————-
The company is also still threatening to ban Australian users from sharing news articles as it grapples with a potential new law forcing it to pay news outlets for content.
The platform will also roll out news terms of service globally to allow it to block or restrict content in order to sidestep other potential regulations in the future.
———————————————————
As part of its ongoing study into how social media affects politics, Facebook is also going to pay some users to log off Instagram for six weeks in the run up to the election.
The results of this study won’t be public until after the election.
———————————————————-
This all come’s as the US Justice Department plans to bring an anti-trust case against Facebook.
It could also be coming sooner rather than later: Attorney General William Barr has overruled lawyers working on the investigation who claim they need more time to build a stronger case.
Mark Zuckerberg testified to the Congressional anti-trust committee, along with Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and Jeff Bezos, at the beginning of July:
_______________________________________
China has added some artificial intelligence features associated with TikTok to a list of export restricted technologies, which could make any deal to purchase the platform’s parent company Bytedance EVEN MORE COMPLICATED.
Meanwhile Japanese company Softbank is trying to gather in vestors to buy TikTok operations in India, which is the platform’s largest market.
Transactions with and involving Bytedance are set to become illegal in under two weeks, with Microsoft and Walmart looking to team up and buy the app in the US.
Why is the app potentially so valuable? Find out here:
_______________________________________
Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that a planeful of mysterious operatives dressed in black was coming to disrupt the RNC borrows from a Facebook rumour which is three months old.
We may also be looking for Trump’s ‘silent’ supporters in all the wrong places.
———————————————————-
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s team has taken to the campaign trail on Animal Crossing. The very same week, TikTok’s favourite US Senator (not verified) beat Rep Joseph Kennedy III in a democratic primary for a Senate seat in Massachusetts.
———————————————————
A coalition of progressive groups is demanding that Joe Biden refrain from appointing any Facebook executives or registered lobbyists to his transition team.
———————————————————-
Amazon is, or at least was, using Facebook groups to monitor potential industrial action by employees.
———————————————————-
Amazon are also joining Apple in raising prices for UK enterprise customers to offset a new UK ‘digital services’ tax.
————————————————————
Remember Minority Report? Well, Canadian police are using algorithms to predict where crimes may occur so they can go and patrol that area.
————————————————————
Google have released a dataset of Covid-19 related search trends, which is designed to help researchers to track where new outbreaks may occur. They’ve also teamed up with Apple to create a new Covid tracking app.
———————————————————
Another teenager is suspected of masterminding July’s colossal Twitter hack.
——————————————————-—
Good to know
If you’re starting to get sick of home working, you can boot up the office (or at least some sort of office) using a VR headset. You can also take a more DIY approach.
In the old country
Ireland has a new (possibly its first?) hype house (or TikTok house lol). Ten Irish influencers with a purported combined following of eight million have moved into a South Dublin mansion, according to a post by its founder on Linkedin.
Spin 1038 presenter Marty Guillfoyle has left the house after receiving online abuse related to his involvement in the project.