Strange Place for a Progress Report

https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/11/1/20941952/cognizant-content-moderation-restructuring-facebook-twitter-google

Lots came from this 1 link.  Info that very much does impact our abilities and rights~


Cognizant is a content moderating business for Facebook, google and others.
They're scaling back their business, affecting more than 6,000 employees around the world.  (I saw a count of 10,000 from an insider)


Excerpt:
"Moderators at the site described being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome after being subjected to a daily onslaught of graphic and disturbing images. Others said they had come to embrace fringe viewpoints after seeing videos about conspiracy theories on a regular basis. Multiple employees reporting fearing for their safety after being threatened by coworkers."


(Let's hear it for some validation!) 


The company is looking to "the development of machine-learning systems that can take the place of human moderators:"
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Then there's this:   (bad,bad)
Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation to create a new federal agency to regulate the tech industry. The Online Privacy Act, sponsored by Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), would create a new digital privacy agency

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AND it's not "Russia" anymore.  It's just us ! We are the danger...
according to a new report from the human rights group Avaaz. But unlike in 2016, this fake news is not coming from Russia, but from within the United States, reports Vice’s David Gilbert:
While foreign actors may still try to influence the outcome of the election using social media, the mantle for spreading fake news has been picked up by everyone else.

Quote :

The majority of the fake news was shared by individuals (39 percent) or non-official political pages (35 percent). Almost one-fifth came from what the researchers called “alternative media accounts” like Breitbart, while mainstream media posted 1 percent of the disinformation. Politicians themselves accounted for 6 percent.
The content was a mix of memes, photos that were taken out of context, and articles from fringe websites like American Herald Tribune, Patriots Unite, Trump Maga Reports, and Life News
----------------------AND:
 The Justice Department charged two former [size=18]Twitter employees with spying for Saudi Arabia. The case raises concerns about how tech companies can protect private information about users from repressive governments skilled in human intelligence operations, say Ellen Nakashima and Greg Bensinger at The Washington Post:
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California asked for a court order to force Facebook to hand over documents related to Cambridge Analytica. Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the company has refused to comply with subpoenas to provide more information regarding the investigation into alleged privacy violations. 
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Congressional lawmakers are analyzing thousands of pages of leaked Facebook documents containing internal conversations between Mark Zuckerberg and his senior staff. The review comes as antitrust investigations into Facebook heat up.
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AND Zuck still says FB will not monitor political ads for lies...
(as if they could). 
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Not much critical thinking in their assessments of what's right..
(and therefore allowable)




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