Category: Technology

Twitter suspended at least 58 million user accounts in the final three months of 2017, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. The figure highlights the company's newly aggressive stance against malicious or suspicious accounts in the wake of Russian disinformation efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Last week, Twitter confirmed a Washington Post report that it had suspended 70 million accounts in May and June. The huge number of suspensions raises questions as to whether the crackdown could affect Twitter's user growth and whether the company should have warned investors earlier. The company has been struggling with user growth compared with rivals like Instagram and Facebook. The number of suspended accounts originated with Twitter's "firehose,'' a data stream it makes available to academics, companies and others willing…

Egypt’s parliament has passed a law giving the state powers to block social media accounts and penalize journalists held to be publishing fake news. Under the law passed on Monday social media accounts and blogs with more than 5,000 followers on sites such as Twitter and Facebook will be treated as media outlets, which makes them subject to prosecution for publishing false news or incitement to break the law. The Supreme Council for the Administration of the Media, headed by an official appointed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, will supervise the law and take action against violations. The bill prohibits the establishment of websites without obtaining a license from the Supreme Council and allows it to suspend or block existing websites, or impose fines on editors. The law, which takes…

Scientists from Cranfield University in Britain have teamed up with the engineering firm Siemens to retro-fit a classic 1965 Ford Mustang with driverless technology. They recently tested it on a racetrack at the Goodwood Festival of Speed -- considered the largest motoring garden party in the world. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. ...

Robots can do a lot of things people can do... but can they replace doctors? A London-based artificial intelligence company says its AI robot doctors can diagnose patients just as well as a human clinician. But some general practitioners say the service can never replicate the level of care given by human doctors. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. ...

Social networking site Twitter Saturday suspended two accounts linked to 12 Russian spies indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. On Friday, a federal grand jury charged the 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016 in the most detailed U.S. accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the election to help Republican Donald Trump. Twitter said Saturday it had suspended the accounts @DCLeaks_ and @Guccifer_2 that were named in the indictment, which alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy involving sophisticated hacking and staged release of documents. The indictment alleges that from around June 2016 the conspirators released tens of thousands of stolen emails and documents “using fictitious online personas, including ‘DCLeaks’ and ‘Guccifer 2.0.’” In a statement Saturday, a Twitter spokesman said:…

British inventor Nik Spencer believes household garbage is a valuable and underrated resource. That's because trash happens to be the perfect fuel for his latest invention: the Home Energy Resources Unit, or HERU. VOA's Julie Taboh has more. ...

Football fans are watching the World Cup on multiple screens in bars, on their phones while they should be working, on TVs at home with their friends. One day, they could be following the action in 3D. Researchers at the University of Washington are developing a way to watch soccer games and other sporting matches as if you were in the stadium, by using augmented reality devices. Faiza Elmasry takes a look at the new technology in this report, narrated by Faith Lapidus. ...

Temperatures around the world are rising as humans burn coal, oil and other fossil fuels for energy. Burning those fuels releases heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. But it does more than that. CO2 is vital for plant growth. While having more of it sounds like a good thing, scientists are finding it is not always that simple. VOA's Steve Baragona has more. ...

Pangolins are the world's most illegally trafficked animal. Eight species of the elusive mammals are found in Africa and Southeast Asia, but as many as 300 are poached every day, destined for markets in Vietnam and China, where their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales believed to have medicinal properties. Researchers in the UK are hoping to deter pangolin poaching with fingerprint technology that's designed to identify poachers and bring them to justice. VOA's Julie Taboh explains. ...

Forty years ago this month, the first test-tube baby was born in what is now called in vitro fertilization. British baby Louise Brown was born July 25, 1978. She's married now with two children who were born naturally. A new exhibition at the Science Museum in London is showcasing the anniversary and the technological advances achieved through in vitro fertilization. VOA's Deborah Block has more. ...

Pacific nations Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have signed on to a joint undersea internet cable project, funded mostly by Australia, that forestalls plans by Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd to lay the links itself. Wednesday's pact comes as China pushes for influence in a region Australia views as its backyard, amid souring ties after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last year accused Beijing of meddling in Canberra's affairs. Australia will pay two-thirds of the project cost of A$136.6 million ($100 million) under the deal, signed on a visit to Brisbane by Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. "We spend billions of dollars a year on foreign aid and this is a very practical way of investing in the…

Social networking platform Twitter announced Wednesday it will be removing accounts it had deemed suspicious from user's follower counts, as part of a recent push to promote accuracy on the website. This could reduce the number of "followers" of some of the website's most popular users, including politicians and celebrities. The website had locked accounts of users where Twitter "detected sudden changes in account behavior," such as sharing misleading links, being blocked by a large number of accounts that account had interacted with, or a large number of unsolicited replies to other users' tweets, Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde wrote. The accounts are locked, preventing one from logging in and using the account until the account's owner verified their use. Wednesday's change will remove these locked accounts from users' follower…

Facebook will be facing its first fine in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the social media platform allowed the data mining firm to access the private information of millions of users without their consent or knowledge. A British government investigative office, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), fined Facebook 500,000 pounds, or $663,000 - the maximum amount that can be levied for the violation of British data privacy laws. In a report, the ICO found Facebook had broken the law in failing to protect the data of the estimated 87 million users affected by the security breach. The ICO’s investigation concluded that Facebook "contravened the law by failing to safeguard people’s information," the report read. It also found that the company failed to be transparent about how…

A federal court has charged a former Apple engineer with stealing trade secrets related to a self-driving car and attempting to flee to China. Agents in San Jose, California, arrested Xiaolang Zhang on Saturday, moments before he was to board his flight. Zhang is said to have taken paternity leave in April, traveling to China just after the birth of a child. When he returned, he informed his supervisors he was leaving Apple to join Xiaopeng Motors, a Chinese company in Guangzhao, which also plans to build self-driving cars. But security cameras caught Zhang allegedly entering Apple's self-driving car lab and downloading blueprints and other information on a personal computer at the time he was supposed to be in China on paternity leave. Neither the FBI nor Zhang's lawyers have…

Poverty, gender discrimination and digital illiteracy are leaving women behind as the global workforce increasingly uses digital tools and other technologies, experts warned Tuesday. The so-called "digital divide" has traditionally referred to the gap between those who have access to computers and the internet, and those with limited or no access. But technology experts say women and girls with poor digital literacy skills will be the hardest hit and will struggle to find jobs as technology advances. "Digital skills are indispensable for girls and young women to obtain safe employment in the formal labor market," said Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke, founder of Women's Worldwide Web, a charity that trains girls in digital literacy. She said "offline factors" like poverty, gender discrimination and gender stereotypes were preventing girls and women from benefiting from…

After hoax messages on WhatsApp fueled deadly mob violence in India, the Facebook-owned messaging platform published full-page advertisements in prominent English and Hindi language newspapers advising users on how to spot misinformation. The advertisements are the first measure taken by the social media company to raise awareness about fake messages, following a warning by the Indian government that it needs to take immediate action to curb the spread of false information.   While India is not the only country to be battling the phenomenon of fake messaging on social media, it has taken a menacing turn here — in the past two months more than a dozen people have died in lynchings sparked by false posts spread on WhatsApp that the victims were child kidnappers.   Ironically, the digital media giant…

Senior citizens - adults 65 and older - will outnumber children in the United States for the first time by 2035, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.As their number increases, the demand for elder care is also growing. For the past 12 years, SenCura has been providing non-medical in-home care for this segment of the population in Northern Virginia.Company founder Cliff Glier says its services "include things as bathing, dressing, companionship, meal planning and prep and transportation, pretty much everything in and around the home that seniors typically need help with.”  Hollie, one of SenCura’s professional caregivers, visits 88-year-old Olga Robertson every day for three hours.She cooks for her, takes her to appointments, plays some brain games with her and goes walking with her around the neighborhood or in the…

In this age of the smart machine, robots are increasingly playing roles in different fields, from construction and hospitality to the military and art. When it comes to caregiving for the elderly, which depends mainly on human interaction, it turns out robots can also help. But will they replace humans? Faiza Elmasry went searching for an answer. Faith Lapidus narrates. ...

Google's YouTube says it is taking several steps to ensure the veracity of news on its service by cracking down on misinformation and supporting news organizations.   The company said Monday it will make "authoritative" news sources more prominent, especially in the wake of breaking news events when misinformation can spread quickly.   At such times, YouTube will begin showing users short text previews of news stories in video search results, as well as warnings that the stories can change. The goal is to counter the fake videos that can proliferate immediately after shootings, natural disasters and other major happenings. For example, YouTube search results prominently showed videos purporting to "prove" that mass shootings like the one that killed at least 59 in Las Vegas were fake, acted out by…

Twitter shares tumbled Monday on concerns the social media's efforts to crack down on fake accounts would affect its user base, and potentially its finances. At 1810 GMT, shares of the social media company were down 6.0 percent at $43.89 after earlier shedding almost 10 percent. The decline follows a report late Friday in the Washington Post that described how Twitter's greater scrutiny of user data had resulted in more than 70 million account suspensions in May and June. The efforts are a response to criticism that social media companies have done too little to confront the spread of disinformation and fake news. CFRA analyst Scott Kessler on Monday downgraded Twitter to "sell" from "hold," citing the Washington Post article, which raised concerns about its official active user count and…

Some students in Virginia who play the guitar are also learning how to build them. It's part of an after-school program where middle and high school students learn about science and music through the design and function of an electric guitar. The workshops, sponsored by the nonprofit Music for Life, are free for those who cannot afford to participate. VOA's Deborah Block takes us to a high school in Manassas, Virginia, where the students are learning the challenges of making an electric guitar. ...

While the Trump administration is putting tariffs on Chinese imports, another battle has been brewing about whether the United States should block Chinese investments in some U.S. companies that work in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other key technology.   Some of these technologies have U.S. national security implications, argues the Department of Defense in a report on growing Chinese ties to U.S. firms. Lawmakers in Washington are considering expanding a Treasury Department review process that looks at investments from foreign entities.   “I assure you that the threat China poses is real and that the dangers we worry about are already taking effect,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texan Republican, who is sponsoring the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, the bill that would strengthen the review.  “Our inaction…

U.S. policymakers are raising national security concerns about Chinese money flooding into U.S. startups in fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics. But in Silicon Valley, there is a sense that ties with China are mutually beneficial. Michelle Quinn reports. ...

Nano technology researchers at the University of Cambridge are developing an intelligent toilet that might change the nature of medicine. It automatically analyzes a user's urine to capture valuable medical data. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. ...

Key California lawmakers said Thursday they've reached an agreement on legislation to enshrine net neutrality provisions in state law after the Federal Communications Commission dumped rules requiring an equal playing field on the internet. California's bill is one of the nation's most aggressive efforts to continue net neutrality, and the deal comes after a bitter fight among Democrats over how far the state should go. Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, who repudiated his own legislation when major pieces were removed two weeks ago, said those provisions have been restored under his agreement with Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago. "We need to ensure the internet is an open field where everyone has access, the companies that are providing internet access are not picking winners and losers," Wiener told reporters at a Capitol news…

Republican Senator John McCain is perhaps the best known person who has brain cancer. His is a glioblastoma, the most deadly type. Since McCain announced the news last year, he has had surgery and chemotherapy. There’s no cure for this type of cancer, and even with treatment, most people don’t live longer than three years after being diagnosed. Surgeons often can’t remove the entire tumor because it might affect brain functions, or it might be attached to the spinal column. These tumors often grow tentacles that make them impossible to cut out completely. Untreated, people have just months to live. But even with treatment, the two-year survival rate is just 30 percent, according to the American Brain Tumor Association. What’s hopeful is that some new treatments are showing promise. A…

The Russian Internet company Yandex said Thursday that its public search engine has been turning up dozens of Google documents that appear meant for private use, suggesting there may have been a data breach. Yandex spokesman Ilya Grabovsky said that some Internet users contacted the company Wednesday to say that its public search engine was yielding what looked like personal Google files. Russian social media users started posting scores of such documents, including an internal memo from a Russian bank, press summaries and company business plans.   Grabovsky said Yandex has alerted Google to the concerns.   It was unclear whether the files were meant to be publicly viewable by their authors and how many there were. Google did not comment.   Grabovsky said that a Yandex search only yields…

Orthopedic surgery can be tricky. So, researchers at Northwestern University are engineering new materials to make 3D printed bones that are a perfect match, ready for grafts. Faith Lapidus reports. ...