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Twitter suspends 1,600 accounts linked to state disinformation networks
It blocked accounts allegedly run by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Thailand.
Reddit has banned nearly 7,000 hateful subreddits since June 29th
Reddit has banned nearly 7,000 hateful subreddits since its new content policies went into effect.
Twitter removes 170,000 state-backed accounts based in China
In its latest sweep, Twitter has removed 32,242 state-linked accounts with ties to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Russia and Turkey.
Twitter bans accounts related to Hamas and Hezbollah
Over the weekend, Twitter suspended multiple accounts related to militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move represents a reversal from Twitter's previous position on the two organizations. In the past, the company had said that it differentiated between the political and military arms of Hamas and Hezbollah, a stance that put Twitter at odds with other tech companies, including Facebook and Google, and effectively allowed the groups to continue using the platform. The company has yet to issue a statement on the takedown, though navigating to those accounts show they violated Twitter's terms of service. We've reached out to the company for further information, and we'll update this article when we hear back.
Google blocks TikTok downloads in India over pornography concerns
Today, Google blocked TikTok downloads from its Google Play store in India, and Apple has been asked to do the same. The move comes after India's federal government sent a letter to the companies requesting that they abide by a state court's decision to ban the popular video app. India's concern is that TikTok encourages pornography and makes child users vulnerable to sexual predators, Reuters reports.
Facebook bans white nationalism and separatism accounts in Canada
Last week, Facebook announced it would ban white nationalism and separatism content, in addition to the white supremacy content it already prohibits. Today, we're getting a sense of which accounts that might include. According to BuzzFeed News, Facebook will ban groups, Pages and Instagram accounts associated with Faith Goldy, the Canadian Nationalist Front, Soldiers of Odin, Wolves of Odin, Kevin Goudreau and the Aryan Strikeforce.
Slack removed 28 accounts with ties to hate groups
Today, Slack removed 28 group accounts because of their "clear affiliation with known hate groups." The news comes shortly after the media organization Unicorn Riot leaked Slack messages by the group Identity Evropa. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center have classified Identity Evropa as a hate group, but Slack would not say if it was one of the groups removed today.
Telegram banned in Russia following court ruling
Russian authorities have been threatening to ban Telegram since 2017 due to its developers' repeated refusal to give them access to users' data. Well, they can soon make good on that threat now that a Moscow court has officially issued a ban on the secure messaging application. It all started when KGB successor Federal Security Service (FSB) demanded access to Telegram's decryption keys last year. FSB wants those keys so it can read user messages, apparently as part of its anti-terror measures.
Twitter suspends account used for 'Daily Stormer' updates
The white supremacist website Daily Stormer keeps popping up, and like a bad game of whack-a-mole, the internet keeps trying to rid itself of the stain. Web hosting company GoDaddy dumped the domain itself, and even though the neo-nazi site briefly resurfaced as a Russian .ru domain, it is no longer available on the regular web. Now, Twitter has suspended an account, @rudhum, that provided Daily Stormer updates.
Twitter explains its handling of ISIS-linked accounts
One way ISIS has distinguished itself from other terrorist organizations is its use of social media to spread news and recruit followers. Now, following Google and Facebook, Twitter is revealing info about what it's doing to stop extremist groups from using the service to get their messages out. According to a story tweeted by its @Policy account, since mid-2015 Twitter has already banned some 125,000 accounts for threatening or promoting terrorist acts. It's also increased the size of its team reviewing those reports, and turned spam fighting tools against the groups to help filter out related accounts that pop up.
Twitch bans streamer who faked his own swatting
There are a couple things you probably shouldn't do to celebrate acquiring 800,000 followers on Twitch. Faking your own swatting at the end of a 24-hour live event, as streamer Trick2g recently did, is at the top of the list. Trick2g, who focused primarily on League of Legends during his broadcasts, can be seen casually chatting with viewers when two "police officers" bust in and haul him away.
EVE Online plans security crackdown on RMT rule violators
Players who have been skirting EVE Online's TOS might find themselves on the bad side of a ban come 2015, as the studio is rolling out tougher rules on violators in the new year. CCP posted a security blog in which it outlined how real-money traders will be punished, as well as those engaging in other activities such as input broadcasting and multiplexing. While CCP didn't post the number of bans it performed in 2014, it did show a few graphs illustrating where the problem areas lay. Banned accounts this year, permanent and temporary, were divided up by macro use (56%), ISK selling (18%), ISK buying (5%), modified clients (4%), ISK spamming (1%), and other (16%). On the brighter side of news, the team is hard at work on January's Proteus patch with sneakier combat recon ships, improved asteroid belt visuals, and the retirement of industry teams. [Thanks to Chrysillis for the tip!]
Uber ordered to cease operations in Spain
Taxi drivers protest Uber in Spain, (AP Photo/Paul White) Uber can't keep itself out of the news lately. The San Francisco-based company best known for creating a mobile app that connects taxi/livery services with smartphone users is now banned from operation in Spain. The injunction is a result of a complaint from the Madrid Taxi Association, and it forces Uber to cease operations in the country immediately; a statement from the Madrid court announcing the injunction points out that Uber didn't even get to defend itself, and cites Uber's business license being from Delaware (a tax haven where many companies file, despite not being based there) as the reason. If all this sounds a bit like a kangaroo court, that's because it likely is: entrenched taxi and livery companies have been working against Uber and other ridesharing services in a variety of cities all over the world. Uber is of course far from perfect -- this is a company that was recently caught plotting against journalists, headed by a CEO that's been heavily criticized for misogyny -- but it wasn't even present to defend itself in the Spanish court hearing that ended its ability to function in Spain. Expect Uber to push back in the coming weeks; the company didn't respond to request for comment as of publishing.
Blizzard gives thousands of Hearthstone bots the boot
"Several thousand" bots have been banned from Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft recently, Blizzard revealed in a Battle.net blog. The developer found that the accounts were associated with third-party programs that automate actions within the game, and they will now be banned from the game until 2015. "As we've stated, fair play is at the core of the Hearthstone experience, and cheating and botting will not be tolerated," the developer said. "From this point on, accounts found to be cheating will be permanently closed without warning." Hearthstone players that believe they've encountered an exploitative account in the game are encouraged to report it to the developer at hacks@blizzard.com. The popular digital card game will reach Android tablets by the end of the year with Android smartphones and iPhone following in early 2015. [Image: Blizzard]
Left 4 Dead 2 uncensored classified in Australia
Residents over the age of majority in the great nation of Australia are now permitted to legally purchase Left 4 Dead 2 in its unedited state on PC. Kotaku Australia confirmed with developer Valve that the new rating had been implemented. "We are making plans to deliver that version to those who have already purchased the game. We will announce more details on that soon," Valve's Doug Lombardi told Kotaku.
Berlin bans Uber to protect passengers and its taxis
It's safe to say that Uber has become a victim of its own success, provoking the ire of the global taxi industry and also its fellow ridesharing competitors. While it's enjoyed some leniency in the US, European regulators have put the boot into the app, with Berlin becoming the latest city to ban Uber cars from its roads. In a statement, Berlin's State Department of Civil and Regulatory Affairs said that Uber puts passenger safety at risk by using "unverified drivers in unlicensed vehicles," and threatened to levy a €25,000 ($33,400) fine each time it violates the ban. Drivers won't escape action either, receiving €20,000 ($26,750) fine if they're caught pursuing passengers.
Dictatorship simulator cuts too close to the bone for Thailand's dictator
In Tropico 5 you play El Presidente, the dictator of a small island, given free reign to build the world according to your whim while violently suppressing your opponents. Unfortunately, tongue-in-cheek games about that sort of subject don't go down so well with an actual military dictatorship, like the one running Thailand right now. The junta, which has already censored the internet and banned Facebook and Bitcoin, has now outlawed sales of the game. The only reason given is that Tropico 5's content might have somehow affected peace and order in the country -- possibly by showing the wider population how dictatorships work. Stefan Marcinek from the game's developer says that the move sounds like it "could have come from one of El Presidente's own edicts." Between this and Manuel Noreiga's decision to sue Activision, it's time the military dictators of the world learned the meaning of that phrase about glass houses and throwing stones.
CCP permabans EVE monument vandals
Citing a "zero tolerance approach to dealing with harassment and victimization in the EVE Universe," CCP announced today that it has permanently banned the three vandals who defaced the new EVE monument in Reykjavik, Iceland. A fourth individual received a six-month ban. "The fact that the monument was vandalized is an insult to the entire community, not just to the individual who's name was directly targeted by the vandalism," the studio posted. The ban includes not only CCP's games but attendance at Fanfest as well. CCP declined to release the in-game names of the individuals and said that any future development related to the incident will be kept confidential.
Titanfall cheaters pool live on PC now, here's how it works
Titanfall's anti-cheating system, FairFight, is now active on PC, and it places all cheaters in the same pool to play with each other – and only each other. As Respawn puts it, "You can play with other banned players in something that will resemble the Wimbledon of aimbot contests. Hopefully the aimbot cheat you paid for really is the best, or these all-cheater matches could be frustrating for you. Good luck." If you're not banned and invite a banned friend into your party, you'll all end up playing in the all-cheater pool. Respawn promises that playing with cheaters won't raise your risk of getting banned. Only cheating can do that. If you think you've been unfairly banned, Respawn says to hit up anticheat@respawn.com.
Rust punches more than 4,000 cheaters right in the cheat codes
Proving the old adage that "violence always solves everything," - or something like that - Facepunch Studios has implemented a new anti-cheating system, dubbed "CheatPunch," in their first-person survival game Rust. During its initial run over last weekend, a total of 4,621 people were banned. Facepunch, CheatPunch ... is there any problem that can't be solved by punching? Developer Garry Newman noted on the game's site that he expects cheats will be found that can circumvent the anti-cheating measure, but players should nonetheless be wary: "If you get kicked from the official servers with the message that you've been banned then you have been caught," Newman wrote. "You're a naughty boy. You know what you have done. You won't get unbanned. We know it was your 9 year old cousin. We know your computer got hijacked. We know that the CIA is getting you banned from all your games on Steam so you will join them in the hunt for aliens." As a famous dynamic duo would say: POW! [Image: Facepunch Studios]
