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Some major tech companies including Meta are taking steps to combat “pig butchering” scams, which trick Americans out of billions of dollars each year through fake online friendships and romances. Pig butchering scams are elaborate and often take months to unfold. Meta on Thursday announced it has taken its first major steps into addressing the scams, including dedicating staff to identify where scammers operate, sharing that information with international law enforcement, and taking down more than 2 million accounts this year. The announcement reflects how more tech companies are recognizing the severity of pig butchering scams. Calling themselves the Tech Against Scams coalition, the companies pledged to share scammer information with each other and better educate users.

Persons: they’ve, Meta, Jeff Lunglhofer, ”, Jake Sims, Operation Shamrock, “, ” Sims Organizations: Meta, Facebook, FBI, Tech, NBC News Locations: WhatsApp, France, Cambodia, OpenAI

The internet was spewing racist and sexist attacks long before Vice President Kamala Harris began her presidential campaign this month, including when Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sought the job. Since the last major election, however, it has become even more noxious — and more central to American politics. In 2008, Mr. Obama faced an ecosystem in which Facebook had millions of users, not billions, and the iPhone was just a year old. In 2020, when Ms. Harris was Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s running mate, it was far harder to use artificial intelligence to produce the fake pornographic renderings and misleading videos that now claim to portray her. In the week since Ms. Harris — who is Black, of Indian descent and a woman — became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, false narratives and conspiracy theories about her have ricocheted across the digital landscape.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Harris, Joseph R, Biden, Harris —, — Organizations: Facebook, Democratic

☆ An inside look at the weekend the GameStop frenzy began on WallStreetBets
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-10 | by ( Nathaniel Popper | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

Like Tesla and Palantir, GameStop was a popular stock to short among hedge funds, though GameStop took it to a whole new level. "That's how I feel about these GME posts that are using the 'P' and get in so we can cause an 'S' words that are no-nos." That was enough to make WallStreetBets the seventh-largest holder of GameStop stock, ahead of some of the big Wall Street investment firms that had shown interest in the stock. AdvertisementOn WallStreetBets, Alzmann shared the growing evidence that Cohen was indeed planning to take a more active role at GameStop. AdvertisementBut when Cramer dug into the conversation happening around GameStop on WallStreetBets, he saw that something new and more sophisticated was happening.

Persons: GameStop, Jaime Rogozinski, Tesla, Jordan Zazzara, I've, Zazzara, Ryan Cohen, Andrew Left, ahem Citron, PLTR, here's, Citron, We're, WallStreetBets, Uberkikz11, I'm, Ryder, Rod Alzmann, Bolt, Alzmann, Kitty, Roaring Kitty, StockTwits, lockdowns, Nathaniel Popper, Harper Collins, Cohen, Jim Cramer, manipulatively, Cramer, who've, It's Organizations: GameStop, Sony, Business, Twitter, Gamestop, Virgin Galactic, Blockbuster, Netflix, Citron Research, Research, Vanguard, YouTube, Roaring, Roaring Kitty, Owls, WSB, shits, GME Owls, CNBC, Virgin, Street Books, HarperCollins Publishers, Misfits Locations: sweatpants, Tampa , Florida

☆ It’s not just Taylor Swift: AI-generated porn is targeting women and kids all over the world
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

It affects everybody.”But while the practice isn’t new, Swift being targeted could bring more attention to the growing issues around AI-generated imagery. Her enormous contingent of loyal “Swifties” expressed their outrage on social media this week, bringing the issue to the forefront. … It’s a reckoning moment.”‘Nefarious reasons without enough guardrails’The fake images of Taylor Swift predominantly spread on social media site X, previously known as Twitter. Although it reportedly took 17 hours for X to take down the photos, many manipulated images remain posted on social media sites. Other social media companies also have reduced their content moderations teams.

Persons: megastar Taylor Swift, “ It’s, ”, Danielle Citron, “, We’ve, Swift, “ Swifties ”, Taylor Swift, ” Citron, …, there’s, Ben Decker, Decker, Karine Jean, Pierre, Francesca Mani, Raymond González, Anita ”, David Jones, Jones, Betsy Kline Organizations: CNN, University of Virginia School of Law, Ticketmaster, Twitter, Meta, White, Westfield High School, Westfield, Communications Locations: New Jersey, Spain, unmoderated

☆ Explicit, AI-generated Taylor Swift images spread quickly on social media
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Pornographic, AI-generated images of the world’s most famous star spread across social media this week, underscoring the damaging potential posed by mainstream artificial intelligence technology: its ability to create convincingly real and damaging images. The fake images of Taylor Swift were predominantly circulating on social media site X, previously known as Twitter. The photos – which show the singer in sexually suggestive and explicit positions – were viewed tens of millions of times before being removed from social platforms. “The social media companies don’t really have effective plans in place to necessarily monitor the content,” he said. Swift’s enormous contingent of loyal “Swifties” expressed their outrage on social media this week, bringing the issue to the forefront.

Persons: Taylor Swift, ” Ben Decker, Decker, ”, Swift, “ Swifties ”, “ Organizations: New, New York CNN, Twitter, CNN, Meta, Ticketmaster, Swift . Nine Locations: New York, United States, unmoderated

☆ 'The most taboo topic I've ever seen': Inside Microsoft's war over the war in Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Viva Engage, Microsoft's slick message board designed to compete with Slack, is often touted as "Facebook for work." In October, according to internal messages viewed by BI, a Microsoft employee shared a post praising child tax credits as a way to reduce poverty. Employees with pro-Palestinian views have also used inflammatory language in their posts on Viva Engage. It has cut off the comments to Viva Engage posts it considered too incendiary. "It's important to recognize the pain and suffering of so many people, including our colleagues, as the events in Israel, Gaza, and the surrounding region continue to unfold," Nadella wrote.

Persons: Slack, —, Sandy Hook, chimed, George Floyd, Satya Nadella, Roe, Wade, Kathleen Hogan, Israel, Nadella, Benjamin Netanyahu, Charlie Bell, Scott Guthrie, Rajesh Jha, Microsoft's, Cherry, Davis Polk, Israel's, Ashley Stewart Organizations: Viva Engage, Facebook, Microsoft, Business, Engage, BI, Employees, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Harvard, Hamas, Wardwell, Ivy League, New York Times, Apple, Amazon Web Services Locations: Israel, Gaza, Uvalde, Columbia, Silicon Valley, America, Haifa, Herzliya , Tel Aviv, Nazareth, Palestine, Gaza . Harvard, Tel Aviv, Seattle

☆ Omegle was a relic of the old internet. I'm not sad it's gone.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Gen-Z beloved site Omegle has shut down. The headline: "Omegle: Children expose themselves on video chat site." As K-Brooks' message said, all platforms are susceptible to bad actors — and child predators certainly exist on other social sites, too. According to K-Brooks's post, Omegle had worked with law enforcement and "there was a great deal of moderation behind the scenes, including state-of-the-art AI operating in concert with a wonderful team of human moderators. Omegle punched above its weight in content moderation, and I'm proud of what we accomplished," he said in his statement Thursday.

Persons: Omegle, —, Leif K, Brooks, you'd, Brooks didn't, hank y, ake, ault, lear, ince, ike, ong — Organizations: Service, BBC, AP, ust Locations: Oregon, uman

☆ The out-of-control spread of fake news about the Israel-Gaza conflict on X is 'a direct result of Musk's policies,' misinformation expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The rampant spread is "a direct result of Musk's policies," a misinformation expert told Insider. "The fact that people with verified accounts can monetize their content means they have the wrong incentive," he said. "They're incentivized to spread content that's going to get engagement, clicks, and ultimately make them money. Even if you keep saying don't trust verified accounts, it's still difficult for people to navigate that landscape." Van der Linden said although misinformation was also present on Twitter before Musk's time, the platform used to have better resources to tackle it.

Persons: —, Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk, Musk, Sander van der Linden, Van der Linden, van der Linden, it's, Stanford, Alex Stamos, der Linden, They're Organizations: Service, Hamas, Cambridge Social, University of Cambridge, Twitter Locations: Gaza, Israel, Egypt

☆ Uncensored Chatbots Provoke a Fracas Over Free Speech
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Stuart A. Thompson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Several uncensored and loosely moderated chatbots have sprung to life in recent months under names like GPT4All and FreedomGPT. Many were created for little or no money by independent programmers or teams of volunteers, who successfully replicated the methods first described by A.I. Most groups work from existing language models, only adding extra instructions to tweak how the technology responds to prompts. The uncensored chatbots offer tantalizing new possibilities. Independent A.I.

Persons: A.I, ”, Oren Etzioni, “ They’re Organizations: Big Tech, A.I, University of Washington, Allen Institute for A.I

Twitter on Saturday blocked searches for a series of hashtags and keywords used to promote the sale of child sex abuse material (CSAM) following an investigation by NBC News posted the day before. NBC News observed the hashtags over a period of several weeks, and counted dozens of users who collectively published hundreds of tweets daily. Irwin said in the last six weeks Twitter had been analyzing thousands of hashtags for a project that was scheduled for completion in the next few weeks. In a review of hashtags and tweets last week, NBC News confirmed that searches related to the file-sharing site Mega had been blocked. A former employee who asked to remain anonymous because they had signed a nondisclosure agreement said that many of the employees specifically tasked with child safety issues had departed the company.

☆ The only thing Elon Musk understands about Twitter is how to kill it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Biologists, anthropologists, and information theorists do think that social networks, like Musk's bird app, show at least some signs of being flocks. "Elon's tweet is basically espousing the invisible hand of social behavior," Bak-Coleman says. In this construction, a social network might have become a collective superintelligence, had capitalists left it to its — our? Under Musk, Twitter has entered the dance-off phase. I'll be sad if the Twitter superintelligence starts singing a Kubrickian cover of "Daisy" and implodes into a pile of melting isolinear chips.

☆ Days before the midterms, Twitter lays off employees who fight misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Ben Collins | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Musk has said the company won’t allow anyone back on Twitter who was previously banned for at least a few more weeks. One current and two former employees were also concerned about a planned product that would allow Twitter users to buy verification badges. “Twitter isn’t prepared for that scale,” said one Twitter employee who survived Friday’s layoffs and asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal company projects. The Twitter employee said that, as of the layoffs, the plan was that “there’s not going to be any verification of ID” to acquire a verification badge. “Now they’ve taken the brakes off the car.”One laid-off Twitter employee told NBC News that “the only saving grace is that he changes his mind on things all the time.”“There were some incredibly talented people who didn’t deserve this,” said a current Twitter employee.

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