Popular privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, commonly considered an alternative to Google, has announced that it will be “down-ranking” sites associated with “disinformation,” along with adding “information boxes” to “highlight quality information.” The announcement received widespread backlash from DuckDuckGo supporters, who view the changes as adopting the censorship policies of the Masters of the Universe.
Popular dating app Tinder has reportedly added a tool that lets users run background checks on prospective dates. Following years of negative public opinion due to Tinder being used to set up women for crimes, parent company Match Group has enabled a system that will offer a background check on potential dates for arrests and convictions of violent crimes, along with sex offender registry status.
Employees at the digital mortgage lender Better.com reportedly learned that they have been laid off when their severance checks suddenly appeared in their payroll app. Last year the company’s bumbling CEO, Vishal Garg, faced massive backlash after laying off other employees via a mass Zoom meeting.
Two major American companies that provide internet services to Russia has announced plans to pull out of the country. Lumen and Cogent, part of the global internet backbone, are shutting down communications with Russia in what some are referring to as a “digital iron curtain.”
A recent report claims that seven newly discovered vulnerabilities in an “Internet of Things” remote management tool put a wide variety of medical devices, ATMs, and other machines connected to the internet at risk of hacking.
A recent report claims that Amazon’s delivery service partners are going into debt and face seemingly instant termination of their contract if they fail to follow every guideline handed down from the Masters of the Universe. One small business owner who had his contract canceled said: “I am a pimple on the butt of an elephant when it comes to Amazon.”
E-commerce giant Amazon has reportedly continued to work with companies in China that have been accused of using Uyghur slave labor, according to research by the Tech Transparency Project. According to the report, the Amazon suppliers make products marketed under the “Amazon Basics” label.
Researchers have discovered that Amazon Echo smart speakers can be tricked into unlocking doors, making phone calls, and purchasing items via self-issued commands. In short, the devices hack themselves through an attack nicknamed “Alexa vs. Alexa.”
The Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok has suspended livestreaming and content uploads from Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian users can still watch videos on the platform but have been stripped of the ability to post any content of their own.
Netflix has reportedly shut down its streaming service in Russia following the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The company seems to have no similar problem with China’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghurs and other horrors.
Wired reports that Google’s latest privacy-invading technology can read your body language without using cameras. One Google designer ominously commented, “We’re really just pushing the bounds of what we perceive to be possible for human-computer interaction.”
The Russian government has reportedly blocked access to Facebook and Twitter completely in the country in response to the social media Masters of the Universe placing restrictions on Russian state media.
The Masters of the Universe at Google have paused all ad sales in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The internet giant said the “extraordinary circumstances” of the war led to its decision after it faced criticism from the Russian government over ads “aimed at creating a distorted perception of current events.”
Popular rental platform Airbnb has announced plans to suspend all operations in Russia and Belarus following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite taking a stand over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company has no problem with continuing to do business with communist China after doubling down as a sponsor of the Genocide Games.
Reddit, the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet” known for its rampant censorship, has banned users from posting links to Russian state media outlets like Russia Today and Sputnik.
EA is removing all Russia-linked teams from its wildly popular FIFA and NHL video game franchises.
Popular audio chatroom app Clubhouse has announced that it will boycott the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference this year in Austin, Texas, due to the state’s policy labeling extreme treatments for allegedly transgender children as child abuse. Gov. Greg Abbott said: “It is already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”
A bipartisan coalition of eight state attorneys general announced that it has opened an investigation into the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok this week.
The startup firm Kytch, which invented a device to fix McDonald’s infamously broken and glitchy ice cream machines, has sued the fast-food giant for $900 million. Fighting back against the chain’s attacks on their product, a Kytch cofounder said: They’ve tarnished our name. They scared off our customers and ruined our business. They were anti-competitive. They lied about a product that they said would be released.”
Tech giant Google has reportedly blocked Russian state media apps including Russia Today and Sputnik from the Google Play store across Europe.
Tech giant Apple has shut down the sales of its products in Russia and restricted the apps of Russian state news outlets such as Russia Today and Sputnik.
Amazon has opened its first Whole Foods store featuring the company’s “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology.
Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have reportedly blocked Russian state media like Russia Today and Sputnik in the EU.
Tech giant Google has disabled the live traffic data on its Maps app in Ukraine after consulting with Ukrainian officials who worry that the feature could be used to track military movements.
Tech giant Google is reportedly dropping many of its coronavirus-related restrictions, including its vaccine mandate for U.S. employees.
Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov has contacted Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him to pull all of Apple’s services from Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Social media platforms Facebook and Twitter have reportedly removed two anti-Ukrainian “covert influence operations” from their platforms. One group appears to be based in Russia and a second in Belarus, according to the Silicon Valley Masters of the Universe.
The SEC has reportedly launched an insider trading investigation into Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk following their recent stock sales.
The UK is introducing draft legislation that would require tech platforms like Facebook and Google to verify the identities of their users.
A recent report claims that Tesla plans to start the development of a new facility in Shanghai as soon as next month, more than doubling its production capacity in China. Elon Musk has frequently praised China’s genocidal communist regime. In one meeting with the government, Musk said “I love China very much and I am willing to come here more.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine may cause further strain on the supply of semiconductor chips already cut short by the worldwide chip shortage according to reports. Potential shorts of neon gas and palladium, mined in Ukraine, could cause significant production delays for tech firms and automakers, amongst other industries.
The Ukrainian government has reportedly called on the country’s underground culture of hackers to help protect its critical infrastructure and conduct cyberattacks and spying missions against Russian troops.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices plummeted after Russia attacked Ukraine on Wednesday, but have partially recovered. Bitcoin was down as much as 8 percent following Russia’s invasion, but by Thursday afternoon had recovered much of the drop.
Social media giant Twitter recently banned a number of accounts sharing Russian military activity during the Ukraine invasion — then promptly had a change of heart and unsuspended the accounts.
Facebook (now known as Meta) has plans to develop an AI research project to create language translation software that works for “everyone in the world.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “The ability to communicate with anyone in any language — that’s a superpower people have dreamed of forever, and AI is going to deliver that within our lifetimes.”
The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) has claimed that Amazon is unlawfully interfering with a union election at its Alabama warehouse. This is the latest in a long string of incidents related to the unionization election, some of which contributed to the results of the first election last year being thrown out by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
A California court has ruled in favor of Google’s self-driving car company Waymo allowing the company to keep its autonomous vehicle emergency protocols secret.
Peloton has faced a number of crises in recent months, now the company is facing yet another as details of a plan to conceal the internal corrosion of exercise machines referred to internally as “Project Tinman,” are made public. One outraged employee who came forward said: “It was the single driving factor in my beginning stages of hatred for the company that I had spent the previous year and a half falling in love with.”
Security researchers have reportedly created a clone of the Apple AirTag tracker that bypasses the security features built by Apple to prevent the devices from being used for stalking and other crimes, a growing problem since the introduction of the tech giant’s tracking device.
Fast-food chain White Castle is addressing its problems in hiring restaurant workers by outsourcing some of its jobs to robots, planning on installing “Flippy 2” robotic burger flippers in 100 locations to serve its iconic sliders.
