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Twitter: Banning world leaders would ‘hide important information’
In a blog post today, Twitter made an attempt at clarifying its stance on how political figures and world leaders use its platform. Many have called for the site to block Donald Trump as he has repeatedly tweeted violent and threatening posts, and Twitter has often stumbled through its explanations of why it hasn't done so. In its post today, the company says that blocking leaders or deleting their tweets would ultimately limit important conversations. "Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate," it said. "It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions."
Twitter bans extremist account retweeted by Trump
Twitter's enforcement of its new anti-hate rules is having a very immediate and tangible effect. Daily Dot has noticed that Twitter banned the account of Jayda Fransen, the British extremist whose bogus anti-Muslim videos were retweeted by Donald Trump in November. The social network also banned the account of her right-wing group, Britain First, as well as those of numerous other racist organizations, such as American Renaissance and its editor Jared Taylor.
Mueller investigation obtains thousands of Trump transition emails
Government-related emails are once again prompting a very public dispute -- albeit under very different circumstances than a year earlier. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office has confirmed an Axios report that it obtained thousands of Trump transition emails from the General Services Administration as part of its investigation into the President's team. The move was prompted by transition attorneys who accused Mueller's office of taking the messages without permission.
Trump to sign directive ordering NASA to return to the Moon
President Trump's administration hasn't been shy about wanting to put people back on the Moon, and now it's taking action to make sure that happens. In a statement, the White House said the President would sign Space Policy Directive 1, which orders NASA to lead an "innovative space exploration program" that sends astronauts to the Moon and, "eventually," Mars. Details of what the policy entails aren't available at this point, but the signing will take place at 3 PM ET. The date isn't an accident -- it's the 45th anniversary of the landing for the last crewed Moon mission, Apollo 17.
Twitter contractor turned off Trump's account by 'mistake'
Earlier this month, the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account disappeared for about eleven minutes, however, the company never revealed who the employee was that deactivated it. Now TechCrunch has talked to Bahtiyar Duysak, a 20-something contractor from Germany who now describes the event as a mistake. Duysak worked in customer support with the Trust & Safety division and says that towards the end of his final shift, an alert came in that someone had reported Trump's account. Although he put things in motion for it to be deactivated, he says he didn't expect for that to actually happen.
White House reportedly considering personal phone ban for staff
Bloomberg reports today that the White House is considering a ban on personal phone use among its staff. According to anonymous sources, the ban has been proposed as a security measure not as an action against press leaks. However, some staff are concerned that because the White House already blocks websites like Gmail and Google Hangouts, this move would wholly isolate them from friends and family during the work day. Further, if staff instead use their government-issued phones for personal use, some worry about those calls being archived and made public.
What to expect from the FCC's net neutrality proposal
Today, senior FCC officials outlined the net neutrality draft proposal that will be released by the commission tomorrow. As has been discussed for months, if the new proposal is accepted by the FCC, broadband internet service will cease being subjected to Title II regulations and will return to an information service classification rather than a telecommunications one. Additionally, the order would fully repeal the FCC regulations allowed by the internet conduct standard put in place in 2015, which let the commission investigate practices like zero-rating schemes -- AT&T's Sponsored Data and Verizon's FreeBee Data 360 setups, for example -- and would get rid of the bright-line rules that prevented internet service providers (ISP) from blocking, throttling or fast-laning certain content.
Tech incubator Y Combinator severs ties with Peter Thiel
It's safe to say that Peter Thiel's relationship with the tech industry has been... contentious. His wealth and willingness to invest have made him highly influential, but his eagerness to stifle media criticism and (at least for a time) support President Trump have put him at odds with a Silicon Valley culture that values things like immigration and renewable energy. However, it looks like he won't play as large a role as he once did. Gab and BuzzFeed News have discovered that Y Combinator, the primarily tech-focused startup incubator, quietly cut ties with Peter Thiel. His 2015 introductory post at Y Combinator now includes a message saying Thiel is "no longer affiliated" with the accelerator. It's not certain when this happened, but modifications to the post's web code last took place on October 30th.
Digital democracy's steep decline
We thought the internet was going to be great for equality, freedom, and maybe even human rights, but now we're not so sure. Turns out, the internet is great for propaganda. And totally unraveling democracy. If only the people who invented and run everything we use online had thought of this! If only they had imagined someone using their social sites, apps, advertising networks, and comment systems to attack and oppress people of color, women, anyone who wants healthcare, and enemies of the state (the same thing, usually). They didn't think of these things because they were coding, developing, and seeking venture capital in order to make the world a better place. Also licking advertiser bootheels. And lobbying.
Colorado voters really want city-run broadband service
Internet access and quality varies widely depending on where you live in the US. There's a huge rural broadband gap that the FCC, companies like Microsoft and the Trump administration have said they'd like to close in the coming years and as Cleveland's situation shows, service can be drastically different even within the same city. One solution that has been proposed as a fix for spotty or inadequate broadband service is city-run internet, and it's one that Colorado communities are continuing to back.
Fake Russian Twitter users supported Trump early in his campaign
It's no longer shocking that bogus, Russia-backed Twitter accounts tried to influence voters in the 2016 presidential election. But how long did it take this apparatus to get started? Not long at all, apparently. A Wall Street Journal analysis has determined that Russian Twitter accounts started promoting Donald Trump mere weeks after he announced his candidacy in June 2015, not December 2015 as the US intelligence community said in its election report. In addition to heaping heaping praise on Trump, many of these early posts attacked the Republicans' then-favorite Jeb Bush as well as the Democrats' Hillary Clinton.
Federal report says humans are the cause of climate change
Today, over a dozen federal agencies released the Climate Science Special Report, which is a product of the National Climate Assessment -- a congressionally mandated review that takes place every four years. In it, hundreds of scientists from dozens of government agencies and academic institutions present evidence that supports the existence of a human-caused warming planet and all of the consequences that come with it. "This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century," the report stated. "For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence."
Twitter: An employee on their last day disabled Trump's account (updated)
No, you weren't hallucinating -- the President's personal Twitter account was unplugged earlier this evening. It disappeared, and then reappeared without warning or reason, however now Twitter is offering an explanation. The account was "inadvertently deactivated due to human error by a Twitter employee" for about 11 minutes before it was restored, so those hoping the company would turn it off for good are still left waiting. Update: Or... Maybe not. Now Twitter is saying that after an investigation, it appears this was done by a customer support employee on their last day. The tweet did not note if it was already the person's last day before or after they turned off the president's account.
Tech companies file briefs supporting challenges to DACA withdrawal
Major tech companies are still voicing their support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that protects undocumented immigrants that came to the US when they were children. President Trump decided to end DACA protections in September and while tech companies spoke out in support of DACA prior to and following that decision, many have now filed a document backing those that are challenging the president's move in court.
Paul Manafort's password inspiration: Bond. James Bond.
Apparently, being involved in high-level political intrigue doesn't guarantee that you'll be any good at password management. Security researchers speaking to Motherboard have discovered that former Trump campaign manager and international lobbyist Paul Manafort used uncannily appropriate password variations for his old (2012-2013) Adobe and Dropbox accounts: Bond007. Yes, you read that correctly -- as Christina Wilkie notes, this was a secret foreign agent signing in as another secret foreign agent. Cheekiness aside, the James Bond nod underscores the tendency toward terrible password habits and how they can have very real consequences.
Twitter bans Trump adviser Roger Stone for threatening CNN staff
Twitter is no stranger to taking down high-profile users' accounts when it believes they've crossed the line, but its latest takedown is arguably the biggest yet. The social network has suspended former Trump adviser Roger Stone after he hurled threats at multiple CNN personalities. When CNN reported that Robert Mueller had filed his first indictments in the Russia investigation, Stone flew off the handle... to put it mildly. In addition to throwing insults, he insisted that Don Lemon should be "confronted, humiliated, mocked and punished," while Jake Tapper should be "very severely punished." Whether or not Stone was promoting violence, it's clear Twitter didn't want to risk people using this as a pretext for more direct threats.
Great, now there's 'responsible encryption'
Trump's Department of Justice is trying to get a do-over with its campaign to get backdoors onto iPhones and into secure messaging services. The policy rebrand even has its own made-up buzzword. They're calling it "responsible encryption." After Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein introduced the term in his speech to the U.S. Naval Academy, most everyone who read the transcript was doing spit-takes at their computer monitors. From hackers and infosec professionals to attorneys and tech journalists, "responsible encryption" sounded like a marketing plan to sell unsweetened sugar to diabetics.
EPA cancels scientists' climate change talk at the last minute
If there were any lingering doubts that the Environmental Protection Agency under Scott Pruitt would suppress any mention of climate change by its scientists, they've just been erased. The agency has cancelled an October 23rd climate change talk in Rhode Island mere hours before it was slated to take place. A spokesman didn't offer an explanation, but the three EPA scientists were expected to speak primarily about climate change and its effect on Narragansett Bay. The decision came from the EPA's Office of Public Affairs.
'The Daily Show' library of Trump’s tweets opens in Chicago tomorrow
Back in June, we covered The Daily Show's presidential Twitter library in New York. After all, the frequency at which our Commander in Chief takes to Twitter is surely to become a part of his legacy. The library is now moving to Chicago, and you can see it this weekend only. It's free and open to the public from 10 AM to 10 PM CT tomorrow through Sunday. The library is located in the Burlington Room at Chicago's Union Station.
Coal power plant closures ramp up in spite of White House plans
The Trump administration may hope that it can reverse coal power's decline by ending the Clean Power Plan and other eco-friendly efforts, but the industry's moves suggest otherwise. Luminant has announced plans to close three major coal plants in Texas (in Freestone, Milam and Titus counties) between January and February of 2018. The shutdowns will take a combined 4,200MW of power off the grid -- enough to run over 4 million homes, as Reuters notes. The news boosts the expected capacity of 2018 power plant closures to over 13,600MW, or a whopping 79 percent more than the known closures for this year. It's not a record high (nearly 18,000MW went offline in 2015), but it's clear that the trend is toward more closures, not fewer.
