Science, Technology, and Social Media

For centuries, people have looked up at the sky and wondered whether we’re alone in the universe. Science fiction and popular media have imagined various ways humans might encounter and communicate with life from other parts of the galaxy. When the Voyager spacecrafts were launched in 1977, they carried copies of the Golden Record, a compilation of sounds and images ...

European Union regulators fined Google a hefty $1.7 billion Wednesday on the basis that the Silicon Valley giant violated various anti-trust laws, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. Google engaged in “illegal practices” in a bid to “cement its dominant market position” in advertising markets, Margrethe Vestager, EU’s top competition commissioner, said in a press statement announcing the penalty. Additional criticisms ...

By Laura Poppick, Knowable Magazine The Earth has endured many changes in its 4.5-billion-year history, with some tumultuous twists and turns along the way. One especially dramatic episode appears to have come between 700 million and 600 million years ago, when scientists think ice smothered the entire planet, from the poles to the equator — twice in quick succession. Drawing ...

The New Zealand’s shooter’s video flew across the platform in record time despite receiving fewer than 200 total views during the live broadcast, Facebook noted in a blog post Monday night. “Before we were alerted … a user on [troll site] 8-chan posted a link to a copy of the video on a file-sharing site,” Facebook stated in the post. ...

Japan’s government will publicly back restrictions on developing robots that can kill without human intervention at an upcoming U.N. conference, departing from their usual policy. The Japanese government already opposed the creation of lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS, which are robots empowered with artificial intelligence that equips them to kill human beings without the direction of another human. Japan ...

Big Tech, Internet providers and cybercrooks can’t sell, share, or steal what they cannot see While browsing, your device interacts with numerous websites and data gathering agencies. You have no control over what info is being divulged, who is seeing it or sharing it, and most importantly, how it is being used against you. In addition, if your personal data ...

Republican California Rep. Devin Nunes filed suit against Twitter and some Twitter users Monday for $250 million in compensatory damages, alleging that the social media platform engaged in “shadow-banning conservatives” including himself. “Twitter created and developed the content at issue in this case by transforming false accusations of criminal conduct, imputed wrongdoing, dishonesty and lack of integrity into a publicly ...

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., (March 15, 2019) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket carrying the tenth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite for the U.S. Air Force lifted off from Space Launch Complex-37 on March 15 at 8:26 p.m. EDT. ULA has been the exclusive launch provider for all ten WGS satellites. (WATCH: ULA WGS-10 Launch ...

Tech giants Facebook and Google are struggling to remove video images of shootings at two mosques Friday as some analysts criticize the companies’ inability to immediately ding such content. Twitter has a “dedicated team in place for managing exigent and emergency situations such as this,” the company said in a statement to CNN. At least 49 people died in the shootings. One man ...

One of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s top lieutenants unexpectedly quit Thursday following news that federal prosecutors are investigating the company’s use of private data. Chris Cox was put in charge of some of Facebook’s most important features, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp,- which together have over 2.7 billion users worldwide. Cox, who has been with the company for 13 years, announced his ...

Federal prosecutors are investigating partnership deals Facebook forged with some of the world’s largest technological companies. A grand jury subpoenaed records from two smartphone developers, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Both companies entered into large and complex data deals with Facebook, allowing all the firms involved in the partnership to collect vast ...

A former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer who has worked with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele quietly formed a pro-democracy nonprofit group in 2018 called Advance Democracy Inc.  A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found that a multi-billion dollar charity backed by Silicon Valley tech titans donated $500,000 to the group last year. The staffer operates a similar charity called The ...

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., (March 13, 2019) — A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket is in final preparations to launch the tenth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite for the U.S. Air Force. The launch is planned during a three-hour window on March 15 between 6:56 p.m. EDT and 9:05 p.m. EDT at Space Launch Complex-37 from ...

Twitter is rolling out a new prototype that executives say is designed to make the social media platform a friendlier environment for people to navigate, NBC reported Wednesday. The company offered the public a new prototype for the Twitter app, which includes a variety of changes to how the platform looks and operates. The new version is centered around a new ...

Facebook removed several ads Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign published on the company’s social media platform, Politico reported Monday. The ads, which Warren’s campaign placed on the platform Friday, promoted the Massachusetts senator’s plan to break up what she believes is Facebook and Amazon’s monopoly. Nearly a dozen other campaign ads addressing her proposal to slam tech companies were not ...