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Luxury resort bans gadgets at swimming pool to create guest 'haven'
Look, as great as it is to have all these fancy laptops and smartphones around us, sometimes we can become too attached to them. And when you're on vacation, you just have to find a way to break free from technology. That's why a luxury resort in Bali, Indonesia is banning electronic devices from one of its swimming pools. With its "In the Moment" campaign, the five-star Ayana Resort & Spa wants to encourage its guests to unplug and fully enjoy their me-time, which it feels can be more easily accomplished if they're not worrying about calls, checking email or what's happening on social media.
PayPal is the latest company to ban InfoWars
InfoWars has been issued another ban, this time from PayPal. The company notified InfoWars on Thursday that it would no longer process the site's store transactions, giving InfoWars 10 days to find a new processor. PayPal said the site had violated its "acceptable use policy," according to InfoWars. The payment company confirmed the move to The Verge. "Our values are the foundation for the decision we made this week," said a spokesperson. "We undertook an extensive review of the InfoWars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion."
Reddit bans communities promoting QAnon conspiracy theory
Reddit's tougher policies just led to more community bans, albeit not for typical reasons. The site has confirmed to Slate that it shut down subreddits associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory, including GreatAwakening, QProofs and thestorm, among others. While the company didn't say exactly what had prompted the bans, it noted that its rules bar activity that "incites violence, disseminates personal information, or harasses." It had banned a related board in March, but it hadn't conducted such a sweeping response until now.
Banning Alex Jones proves Twitter can’t be impartial
All efforts to save @RealAlexJones and @InfoWars from themselves have failed, and you can blame Jack Dorsey for that. Whether or not he intervened in applying a seven-day suspension for rulebreaking tweets (the company denies it) he's successfully undermined the values Twitter claims to hold high. A month ago, when YouTube and Facebook took action against the accounts, Dorsey said: "We're going to hold Jones to the same standard we hold to every account, not taking one-off actions to make us feel good in the short term, and adding fuel to new conspiracy theories." So how'd that work out? Twitter claims justification for the ban comes from tweets and videos posted yesterday targeting CNN reporter Oliver Darcy. Unfortunately, we won't ignore the fact that this action occurred within 24 hours of its CEO being personally exposed to Jones' outrage. If Twitter wants to show, as Jack told Congress yesterday, that "Impartiality is our guiding principle" then it's difficult to imagine a more spectacular example of failure.
Facebook bans Myanmar military officials following damning UN report
Facebook is taking action to halt the spread of hate speech and misinformation in Myanmar, banning Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the Myawady military TV network and other people and groups. It said that international experts, working with the UN Human Rights Council, "found evidence that many of these individuals and organizations committed or enabled serious human rights abuses in the country." In total, it removed 18 Facebook accounts, 52 pages and one Instagram account.
AMD prevails in patent fight with Vizio over TV graphics
AMD's legal blitz against TV makers over graphics patents has claimed a major casualty. The US International Trade Commission has issued a final determination that Vizio and chip supplier Sigma Designs violated an AMD patent for a parallel pipeline graphics system. The Commission has ordered Vizio and Sigma to "cease and desist" making products that violate the patent, and has banned them from importing any existing products. Vizio is no longer allowed to bring some of its TVs into the US, then, although it's not certain just how much damage this does to the company's bottom line.
Twitter bans far-right group Proud Boys ahead of Washington rally
Just because Twitter is reluctant to take action against some of its more malicious users doesn't mean it isn't cracking down against others. Twitter has confirmed to BuzzFeed News that it banned the accounts of the far-right group Proud Boys for reportedly breaking its rules prohibiting "violent extremist groups." The social network shut down the group's main account, its satellite accounts and that of its founder Gavin McInnes. While the company didn't specify what prompted the move, it came just after a violent August 4th protest in Portland, Oregon, and just ahead of the extreme right-wing Washington, DC rally on August 12th.
France bans smartphones in schools
Under new legislation, French students will be prohibited from using smartphones and tablets while at school. The law, which was originally noted in President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign, was elevated to a matter of public health amidst concerns French youth has become super-connected.
Facebook blocks Infowars’ Alex Jones from posting for 30 days
Days after YouTube took down multiple videos from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' video channel, Facebook has suspended his account on the platform for 30 days. The InfoWars founder had violated the social network's Community Standards, according to Mashable. If he or his fellow admins keep breaking the rules, Jones' personal page could be permanently banned.
Twitter again says it doesn't 'shadow ban'
Over the last day or so, an article alleged that Twitter was showing bias against conservative political figures by failing to auto-populate their names in the search box. Once the president's account tweeted about it this morning, it officially became a thing, and the company repeatedly tried to explain how multiple factors affected a number of accounts showing up in search, not just those on one particular political side. We've gone in-depth on the issue already, but if you need more information from the source, there's a new blog post from Twitter explaining more about what goes into its search feature and why a certain account might not appear right away. Once again, product lead Kayvon Beykpour and Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde put their names out there proclaiming that Twitter does not "shadow ban," and said that hundreds of thousands of accounts from around the world were affected by the search auto-suggest issue. We'll see if that's enough to put things to rest.
Starbucks' straw ban is a big win for the Earth's oceans
Those little plastic straws that you get at virtually every restaurant in America have become a huge problem for the world's oceans and Starbucks is finally doing something about it. The global coffeehouse chain announced on Monday that it will immediately begin phasing out plastic drinking straws from its 28,000 stores worldwide and eliminate their availability almost completely by 2020. Given that the company uses around a billion straws every year, that could make a significant difference to the health of our seas.
US says ZTE can resume limited business while sanctions are debated
The Trump administration has handed ZTE another lifeline, Bloomberg reports, allowing it to resume certain business activities while US lawmakers decide how to deal with the company going forward. In April, the US Commerce Department banned ZTE from working with US companies after the company shipped US-made parts to Iran and North Korea -- in violation of US trade sanctions -- and then lied about giving the executives involved with those deals large bonuses. Though the Trump administration is looking to offer ZTE a reprieve, some members of Congress would like to see certain sanctions stay in place. And while the two sides try to work that out, ZTE will be allowed to keep providing some services.
Facebook removes fake pages in Latin America ahead of elections
Facebook has taken down more than 10,000 allegedly fake Pages, Groups and accounts sourcing from Mexico and Latin America for violating the platform's community standards. Specifically, they "broke our policies on coordinated harm and inauthentic behavior, as well as attacks based on race, gender or sexual orientation," according to a blog post written by Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy.
Just tweeting a story with WH advisor's number could get you blocked (updated)
White House adviser Stephen Miller is widely regarded as the person behind the Trump administration's zero tolerance immigration policy that has taken children away from parents accused of attempting to enter the country illegally. Earlier today, Gizmodo Media Group site Splinter wrote a story titled 'Here's Stephen Miller's Cell Phone Number, If You Need It' and tweeted out the digits from their official account for good measure. But it seems that those who are simply linking to that story (not repeating the number themselves) are getting temporarily blocked by Twitter, too.
Facebook blocks gun accessory ads to the under 18s
Facebook has tightened the rules about what sort of firearms-related content is visible by the site's underage users. From June 21st, ads for weapon accessories, from optics, flashlights and holsters through to bulletproof vests and camouflage gear, will need to be visible by adults-only. This category also includes gun safes, mounts, gun cases, slings, gun wraps and equipment like clay throwers.
Google will block Chrome extension installs outside its Web Store
Google will block inline Chrome extension installation on all platforms starting this summer, which means no more sideloading from developers' or random websites. The tech giant said the descriptions and feature lists in the Chrome Web Store are instrumental in helping people make informed decisions on whether or not they truly need a particular extension. It found that users are less likely to uninstall an add-on if it came from the official extension portal.
Bipartisan Senate effort aims to override Trump’s deal to save ZTE
A bipartisan group of Senators has added language to the National Defense Authorization Act that would reinstate sanctions on Chinese firm ZTE, the Wall Street Journal reports. The legislation is set to be voted on this week. If it passes in the Senate -- and it's expected to -- it could override a deal that President Trump and the Commerce Department have put in place that would allow ZTE to once again purchase necessary components from US suppliers.
ZTE will pay $1 billion fine to beat US export ban
Tensions between the US government and Chinese smartphone maker ZTE seem to have abated, at least temporarily. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC this morning that the government has "struck a deal" with ZTE to end trade sanctions. The deal includes a $1 billion penalty and a US-picked compliance department that will embed within the company and monitor it going forward. More than that, within the next 30 days, ZTE will have to install a new board of directors and executive suite, whom the compliance committee will report to directly.
Steam Store will accept anything that's not 'illegal' or 'trolling'
In efforts to police content on Steam, Valve suddenly changed its policy in mid-May and cracked down on on certain visual novels, giving them a week or two to change their content or be removed from the store. The resulting backlash from confused developers and angry fans pushed Valve to walk back that policy. Weeks later, they've formally announced a new one: Allow everything that's not illegal or "straight-up trolling" and give players tools not to see games they don't like.
A banned CFC is destroying the ozone and nobody can find its source
Scientists spent years campaigning for a ban on the ozone-damaging chemical CFC-11, but 30 years after it was phased out in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, someone somewhere is breaking the rules. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, emissions of the banned chemical are on the rise, climbing 25 percent since 2012. By now, production of CFC-11 is supposed to be at or near zero.
