There’s something funky going on at WhatsApp HQ. Android users are noticing that the app is now blocking any links to rival chat app Telegram. The odd behavior was first spotted by Telegram users over on Reddit. Links to the app – which are normally automatically made clickable – appear as plain text, and users are unable to copy or forward the messages.
Twitter unveiled at least three new climate-related emoji to mark the U.N. Climate Summit, which is activated using the hashtag #COP21. More than 140 world leaders, including President Obama, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are in Paris for the high-stakes event.
How online activist groups are raising millions to keep corporations in line
When activists are fighting corporate misbehavior, a million dollars can go a long way.
With that cash in hand, online activist network SumOfUs.org recently reported a successful summer of crusading “for people over profits.” In three months’ time, it helped persuade Delta and other airlines to stop shipping hunting trophies, lobbied officials to charge Nestle more for the water it draws from public lands, and helped get Standard Chartered Bank to cancel its financing of Adani’s giant Australian coal mine.
IT’S ELECTION SEASON, and teams of journalists are avidly tracking the flow of big money into political campaigns. Sifting financial records and filings, they are laying bare the activities of Super PACs, 501(c)(4)s, and campaign committees. There’s a parallel realm of big-money activity, however, that receives much less attention: philanthropy. With the explosion of the billionaire class, the number of deep-pocketed donors and foundations has mushroomed as well. Many of the new benefactors are Wall Street and Silicon Valley moguls who are seeking to apply to social and economic problems the same zest for innovation and entrepreneurship that they showed in their business ventures.
Unlike many other governments around the world, a Swedish court has ruled that it cannot force ISPs to block their customers’ access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The decision came after more than a month of deliberations, according to Swedish publication TheLocal.se and safeguards citizens’ access to the site, despite it being used to distribute copyrighted material. The case was brought by Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry to try and force ISP Bredbandsbolaget into blocking the service, as it has been in many other European countries. In the UK, for example, none of the…
Google has removed over 440,000 links over Europeans’ ‘right to be forgotten’ requests
Google has published data that reveals how many search results it has removed in response to European citizens’ requests, after an EU court granted them the ‘right to be forgotten’ last May. The ruling stated that Google must act on users’ requests to remove ‘irrelevant’ and ‘outdated’ links in searches for their names. The company began reviewing requests last June. To date, it has received 348,085 requests and evaluated more than 1.2 million links for removal. Of those, it has removed 441,032 URLs. Google opted not to remove 608,169 more URLs; the rest are pending review or require additional information.
Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the popular open-source Firefox browser, said that it no longer relies on Google for its revenue and expects to earn even more through its new search deals, reports CNet.
Anonymous trolls ISIS by removing darknet site, replacing it with Prozac ad
GhostSec, a group that affiliates itself with Anonymous, took to the darknet today for some lulz by removing an ISIS propaganda site and replacing it with a Prozac advertisement and the following message: Enhance your calm. Too many people are into this ISIS-stuff. Please gaze upon this lovely ad so we can upgrade our infrastructure to give you ISIS content you all so desperately crave. The ad points to CoinRx an online pharmacy that bills itself as “the number one bitcoin online pharmacy” and sells everything from Viagra to Xanax without asking for a prescription. This is one of the hundreds…
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