Author: Techman

Facebook was used to spread disinformation about the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, and in 2018 the company began to delete posts, accounts and other content it determined were part of a campaign to incite violence.  That deleted but stored data is at…

U.S. authorities said on Thursday that four ransomware attacks had penetrated water and wastewater facilities in the past year, and they warned similar plants to check for signs of intrusions and take other precautions.  The alert from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) cited a series…

Microsoft will close LinkedIn in China later this year, the company announced Thursday. The professional networking site, which started operating in China in 2014, faces a “significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements” in the country, it said in a blog post. “We…

Social media giants were urged to act Wednesday to stem online antisemitism during an international conference in Sweden focused on the growing amount of hatred published on many platforms.  The Swedish government invited social media giants TikTok, Google and Facebook along with representatives from 40…

The White House is holding a two-day international conference starting Wednesday to combat ransomware computer attacks on business operations across the globe that cost companies, schools and health services an estimated $74 billion in damages last year. U.S. officials are meeting on Zoom calls with…

Brain computer interfaces, where computers analyze brain signals and help paralyzed people to write and carry out other actions, is a burgeoning area of research. VOA’s Deana Mitchell has the story of one breakthrough. ...

A tech body backed by the Australian units of Facebook, Google and Twitter said on Monday it has set up an industry panel to adjudicate complaints over misinformation, a day after the government threatened tougher laws over false and defamatory online posts.  Prime Minister Scott…

Facebook, in the aftermath of damning testimony that its platforms harm children, will be introducing several features including prompting teens to take a break using its photo sharing app Instagram, and "nudging" teens if they are repeatedly looking at the same content that's not conducive…

Congress appears poised to pass a bipartisan, $1 trillion plan that would be the largest federal investment in infrastructure in more than a decade. History shows that investing in infrastructure can transform the United States, changing how Americans move, bolstering economic prosperity, and significantly improving the health and…

Ten years ago, Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer at 56. He played a huge role in making Apple one of the most successful companies in the world. But what does Apple’s future look like? Karina Bafradzhian has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. ...

Mustang Panda is a Chinese hacking group that is suspected of attempting to infiltrate the Indonesian government last month. The reported breach, which the Indonesians denied, fits the pattern of China's recent cyberespionage campaigns. These attacks have been increasing over the past year, experts say,…

Facebook confirmed on Friday that some users were having trouble accessing its apps and services, days after the social media giant suffered a six-hour outage triggered by an error during routine maintenance on its network of data centers.  Some users were unable to load their…

Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Most also think social media companies, and the people that use them, bear a good deal of blame for the situation. But few are very concerned that they themselves might be responsible,…

Russia appears to be getting more aggressive and more successful as the nation's hackers launch a growing number of cyberattacks against the United States and other nations, according to a new report by Microsoft.  Microsoft's 2021 Digital Defense Report warns that what it labels as "Russian…

Google plans to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to ensure access to fast and cheaper internet and will back startups to support the continent's digital transformation, it said on Wednesday. The unit of U.S. tech company Alphabet Inc made the…

Amazon.com Inc.'s livestreaming e-sports platform Twitch said Wednesday that it had been hit by a data breach. It gave no details. An anonymous hacker claimed to have leaked Twitch data, including information related to the company's source code, clients and unreleased games, according to Video…

The United States is taking new steps to make sure the country's air and surface transportation sectors will not be crippled by ransomware or cyberattacks. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the measures Tuesday at a virtual cybersecurity conference, warning that recent incidents such as…

Facebook is in the hot seat again. A recent Wall Street Journal report cites internal knowledge of its harmful effects and the company's reticence to act. A whistleblower, a former Facebook employee, came out in public this week to testify against the social media company,…

Key U.S. lawmakers pilloried social media giant Facebook on Tuesday after Frances Haugen, an inside whistleblower who once worked at the company, alleged that Facebook's products are harming young people, undermining democracy and helping to divide the country politically.  Haugen, who worked as a Facebook…

Facebook took another pounding in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday and a senator called on federal regulators to investigate accusations by a whistleblower that the company pushed for higher profits while being cavalier about user safety. In an opening statement to a Senate Commerce subcommittee,…

An outage has left millions of people around the world unable to use Facebook along with its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms to connect with friends, family and others. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get…

The whistleblower who shared a trove of Facebook documents alleging the social media giant knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health revealed her identity Sunday in a televised interview, and accused the company of choosing "profit over safety."  Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old data…

Twitter has appealed a French court decision that ordered it to give activists full access to all of its relevant documents on efforts to fight hate speech, lawyers and a judicial source said on Saturday.   In July, a French court ordered Twitter to grant…

Since China’s government declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal last week and banned citizens from working for crypto-related companies, the price of bitcoin went up despite being shut out of one of its biggest markets. Experts say large-scale Chinese miners of cryptocurrency — the likes of…

During the three-day World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen, China, this week, the country's biggest tech tycoons rushed to show their support for Beijing's "common prosperity" initiative. Their enthusiasm for the initiative comes amid a yearlong crackdown on the country's tech industry, where several high-profile…

A popular Chinese-made phone has a built-in censorship tool that can blacklist search terms on the web, according to research by the Lithuanian government. The country is urging owners of the phones to replace them, as Henry Ridgwell reports. ...

A company in suburban Washington, D.C., is using cutting-edge technology to create lifelike video avatars to drop into music and training videos, games and other immersive environments. It’s an entry point to the so-called metaverse, as VOA’s Arzouma Kompaoré discovered while touring Avatar Dimension’s new…

YouTube will ban any video that claims vaccines are ineffective or dangerous, including those that question vaccines for measles and chickenpox, the company announced Wednesday.   “Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do…