[단독외신] Crackdown on QAnon continues as TikTok bans conspiracy theory content
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TikTok is the latest social media company to go after the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The mega-popular video app is now deleting accounts that post QAnon-related content, NPR reports, an escalation from its previous policy of reducing the visibility of the posts.
“Content and accounts that promote QAnon violate our disinformation policy and we remove them from our platform,” the company told NPR. “We’ve also taken significant steps to make this content harder to find across search and hashtags by redirecting associated terms to our Community Guidelines.”
QAnon’s content often focuses on undocumented claims of a Satanic conspiracy between Democrats and pedophiles.
TikTok’s move comes less than a week after Google-owned YouTube announced that it would ban QAnon and Pizzagate videos that target individuals and groups in order “to justify real-world violence.”
It also arrives on the heels of Facebook’s decision to remove hundreds of QAnon-affiliated groups over concerns that they could threaten public safety.
The social-media giant said earlier this month that it took down more than 790 groups, 100 pages and 1,500 ads linked to the far-right movement.
The Chinese-owned TikTok is currently in a battle to save its app from being banned in the US by the Trump administration, which has accused it of spying on Americans for the Chinese government.
Parent company ByteDance is still working to finalize a deal to spin off the app’s American operations. The proposal would set up a new US-based company called TikTok Global that would be partially owned by American investors including software firm Oracle and retail chain Walmart, who would have a combined 20 percent stake.
President Trump imposed a Nov. 12 deadline for the sale, after which TikTok’s operations would essentially halt in the US.
LG’s ‘rollable’ TV is finally on sale — for $87,000
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LG's roll-up TV
LG’s TV of the future is finally on sale — and it costs as much as a brand-new luxury sedan.
The Korean electronics giant made its cutting-edge “rollable” TV available for purchase on Tuesday, more than four years after unveiling its groundbreaking bendable screen.
The LG Signature OLED R, as it’s called, features a flexible 65-inch screen that can be tucked into a brushed-aluminum box whenever it’s not in use. LG said it’s selling the “exquisite creation” at seven electronics stores in South Korea.
Park Hyoung-sei, president of LG Home Entertainment Company, called the deluxe device “an unprecedented feat that genuinely deserves to be called a work of art.” But it comes with a price to match — 100 million Korean won, or $87,000.
LG first revealed its flexible screen technology in 2016 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, then returned to the convention with a full TV prototype last year. The rectangular base that holds the screen — which can be engraved with the owner’s name or a message — doubles as a speaker system.
Seoul-based LG says the invention “liberates users from the limitations of the wall” by allowing them to “curate their living environment” without making room for a big, black screen that just takes up space when it’s not being watched.
“This is a true luxury product that reimagines what television can be, this unique TV delivers a differentiated user experience and a new way of thinking about space while once again confirming LG’s leadership in the premium TV market,” Park said in a statement.
[단독외신] Microsoft, SpaceX are trying to expand cloud platform into space
SpaceX CEO Elon Muskdpa/picture alliance via Getty I
Microsoft is partnering with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk-led SpaceX and others as it expands its cloud-computing platform into space, the software giant said Tuesday.
The partnership would allow Microsoft to connect its Azure cloud computing platform to SpaceX’s network of low-Earth orbiting satellites, offering the software company an edge in its battle with the rival cloud platform from Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.
Cloud companies have seen a surge in demand this year as more businesses use their services for switching to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Microsoft in recent months has tested its Azure cloud with satellites in space, and in September unveiled its Azure Space venture, tapping into the demand for data-heavy space services.
The services include “disaster prediction and tracking, increased visibility of supply chains and economic activity, and many others,” the company has said in U.S. regulatory filings.
“Where it makes sense, we will work with you, co-selling to our mutual customers, co-selling to new enterprise and future customers, and basically bring the power of the Starlink connectivity to the Azure infrastructure,” SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told Tom Keane, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Azure Global, in a promotional video.
SpaceX, known for its reusable rockets and astronaut capsules, is ramping up satellite production for Starlink, a growing constellation of hundreds of internet-beaming satellites that Musk hopes will generate enough revenue to help fund SpaceX’s interplanetary goals.
Earlier this month, SpaceX won a $149 million contract to build missile-tracking satellites for the Pentagon, its first government contract to build satellites.
Bezos, whose space company Blue Origin is aiming for a debut launch of its New Glenn rocket in 2021, plans to deploy a satellite constellation rivaling SpaceX’s Starlink dubbed Project Kuiper, a proposed network of 3,236 satellites.
[단독외신] Google blasts DOJ’s lawsuit: ‘This isn’t the dial-up 1990s’
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Google responded to the Department of Justice’s blockbuster lawsuit against it on Tuesday by suggesting that the law enforcement agency is stuck in the past.
In a snark-laden blog post, Google’s chief legal officer Kent Walker denied claims that the company is forcing consumer to use its search engine —saying that even an idiot can figure out how to switch browsers.
“This isn’t the dial-up 1990s, when changing services was slow and difficult, and often required you to buy and install software with a CD-ROM,” Walker’s post read, adding that it is “trivially easy” to change the default search engine on Google’s Chrome browser.
The post came complete with examples about exactly how many clicks it actually takes to change the default search engine on the Apple’s Safari browser, as well as on iPhones and Android devices.
“Changing your search engine in Safari is easy,” Walker writes. “On desktop, one click and you’re presented with a range of options.”
“This lawsuit claims that Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to do this. But we know that’s not true,” he said
The sassy memo was Google’s attempt to slap back at the DOJ’s claims that the tech giant has been exploiting its market dominance to maintain an iron grip on its position as the “gateway to the internet.”
The DOJ’s lawsuit is the biggest challenge to big tech in 22 years, and accuses Google of breaking the law by disadvantaging competitors in an effort to sell more online search ads.
Google’s questionable tactics include a massive contract worth billions of dollars with Apple to make it the default search engine on the iPhone, as well as ensuring that its search engine is pre-loaded onto smartphones using Alphabet’s Android operating system — which runs the majority of phones around the world.
The Mountain View, Calif.-company’s consolidation of market share has “had harmful effects on competition and consumers,” the DOJ said.
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