Blog

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Makes Big New Promises About Privacy

Facebook, which grew into a colossus by vacuuming up your information in every possible way and using it to target ads back at you, now says its future lies in privacy-oriented messaging that Facebook itself can’t read.

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO, announced the shift in a Wednesday blog post apparently intended to blunt both criticism of the company’s data handling and potential antitrust action. Going forward, he said, Facebook will emphasize giving people ways to communicate in truly private fashion, with their intimate thoughts and pictures shielded by encryption in ways that Facebook itself can’t read.

But Zuckerberg didn’t suggest any changes to Facebook’s core newsfeed-and-groups-based service, or to Instagram’s social network, currently the fastest growing part of the company. Facebook pulls in gargantuan profits by selling ads targeted using the information it amasses on its users and others they know.

“All indications that Facebook and Instagram will continue growing and be increasingly important,” Zuckerberg said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.

Critics aren’t convinced Zuckerberg is committed to meaningful change.

“This does nothing to address the ad targeting and information collection about individuals,” said Jen King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. “It’s great for your relationship with other people. It doesn’t do anything for your relationship with Facebook itself.”

Facebook’s new orientation follows a rocky two-year battering over revelations about its leaky privacy controls. That included the sharing of personal information from as many as 87 million users with a political data-mining firm that worked for the 2016 Trump campaign.

Since the 2016 election, Facebook has also taken flak for the way Russian agents used its service to target U.S. voters with divisive messages and being a conduit for political misinformation. Zuckerberg faced two days of congressional interrogation over these and other subjects last April; he acknowledged and apologized for Facebook’s privacy breakdowns in the past.

Since then, Facebook has suffered other privacy lapses that have amplified the calls for regulations that would hold companies more accountable when they improperly expose their users’ information.

As part of his effort to make amends, Zuckerberg plans to stitch together its Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging services so users will be able to contact each other across all of the apps.

The multiyear plan calls for all of these apps to be encrypted so no one but senders and recipients can see the contents of messages. WhatsApp already has that security feature, but Facebook’s other messaging apps don’t.

Zuckerberg likened it to being able to be in a living room behind a closed front door, and not having to worry about anyone eavesdropping. Meanwhile, Facebook and the Instagram photo app would still operate more like a town square where people can openly share whatever they want.

While Zuckerberg positions the messaging integration as a privacy move, Facebook also sees commercial opportunity in the shift. “If you think about your life, you probably spend more time communicating privately than publicly,” he told the AP. “The overall opportunity here is a lot larger than what we have built in terms of Facebook and Instagram.”

Critics have raised another possible motive — the threat of antitrust crackdowns. Integration could make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to later separate out and spin off Instagram and WhatsApp as separate companies.

“I see that as the goal of this entire thing,” said Blake Reid, a University of Colorado law professor who specializes in technology and policy. He said Facebook could tell antitrust authorities that WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger are tied so tightly together that it couldn’t unwind them.

Combining the three services also lets Facebook build more complete data profiles on all of its users. Already, businesses can already target Facebook and Instagram users with the same ad campaign, and ads are likely coming to WhatsApp eventually.

And users are more likely to stay within Facebook’s properties if they can easily message their friends across different services, rather than having to switch between Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. That could help Facebook compete with messaging services from Apple, Google and others.

As part of the process, Zuckerberg said Facebook will meet with privacy experts, law enforcement officials concerned about the new encryption making it impossible to uncover illegal activity being discussed on the messaging service and government officials.

Creating more ways for Facebook’s more than 2 billion users to keep things private could undermine the company’s business model, which depends on the ability to learn about the things people like and then sell ads tied to those interests.

In his interview with the AP, Zuckerberg said he isn’t currently worried about denting Facebook’s profits with the increased emphasis on privacy.

“How this affects the business down the line, we’ll see,” Zuckerberg said. “But if we do a good job in serving the need that people have, then there will certainly be an opportunity” to make even money.

Read More

Ted Turner name likely stripped from new WarnerMedia company after $85B merger

For nearly 50 years, Ted Turner and the Turner brand have been integral parts of the landscape of Atlanta and the nation’s media industry. But that’s changing in the wake of the finalization of the AT&T-Time Warner merger, as a WarnerMedia spokesman confirmed to NBC News that the Turner brand will likely soon be retired.

“With the new structure, we no longer need that brand,” the spokesman explained. “The Turner name isn’t as meaningful.”

For many, the news marks the end of an era for a brand and a man who pioneered cable television and is credited with developing the 24-hour news cycle.

There is no word as to when the Turner name will officially go away, said WarnerMedia, but the brand’s retirement would likely affect properties bearing the Turner name throughout Atlanta, and that staffers who previously identified themselves as Turner employees will soon identify themselves as WarnerMedia employees.

This latest casualty of the AT&T/Time Warner media merger comes a year after AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson and his top entertainment executive, John Stankey, flew to Atlanta to meet in person with Ted Turner to personally assure him that his legacy would be maintained in the wake of any reorganization of the company.

“Ted and I were assured at that meeting, by the highest levels, by the AT&T chairman and the chairman of WarnerMedia, that all that Ted built would be strengthened and that the editorial integrity of CNN and the journalistic excellence of CNN will prevail,” said Tom Johnson, a former president of CNN, and a close friend who was with Turner at the time of the private lunch in March 2018.

Johnson said he and Turner have not heard back from Stephenson and Stankey since the finalization of the merger. Johnson says he remains cautiously optimistic that Turner’s legacy will be maintained, but admitted news that the Turner name may soon be gone from products of the empire he built is saddening.

“There’s tremendous concern among all of those who served with Ted,” Johnson told NBC News. “I have an inbox loaded with messages, texts from concerned staffers and community leaders because of Ted’s extraordinary record in Atlanta. There’s great affection for Ted.”

“It’s a sad moment,” said Steve Stahl, a former director of operations for CNN who began working for Turner in 1984. “The Turner brand was a fantastic brand. It was synonymous with the underdog. Ted had the idea to put his little UHF station on cable, and to do 24 hours of news for the first time. Time after time, he innovated. I think that will be the greatest shame — to not have something physical to remember him by.”

In addition to the myriad of CNN networks, Turner also launched TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Movie Classics, and owned the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and Atlanta Braves baseball team.

Many who worked closely with Turner say the erosion of the Turner brand has been ongoing since Turner merged his media empire in the late 1990s, first with Time Warner and later with AOL. Turner had served as an operating officer following the Time Warner merger, overseeing all cable operations, and was under the impression he would serve a similar role following the merger with AOL — but that did not happen. When it became evident that Turner was being pushed out of the media empire he built, Turner lashed out publicly, telling CNN staffers at a private concert to mark the network’s 20th anniversary in June 2000 that he had been sold out.

Turner formally resigned from his role as vice chairman of AOL/Time Warner in 2003 and his name — and presence — has steadily slipped from many of the networks he founded and properties he built ever since.

Today, the Atlanta Braves — which Turner bought in 1976 and worked doggedly to brand “America’s Team” as he broadcast their games on a near-nightly basis on his then-fledgling cable station — no longer play on what had long been Turner Field. In 2017, Turner Field was renamed Georgia State Stadium.

Turner, 80, who announced last year he suffers from dementia, has given no interviews since the finalization of the AT&T/Time Warner merger. In a written statement, he said, “Given I have been out of the cable and television industry for many years now, I trust Randall Stephenson, John Stankey and the executive team will do what is best for the company, its businesses, and most importantly, its employees.” NBC News reached out to Turner but has not yet received a response.

Since the merger, there has been speculation from past and present staffers that many of the operations currently based in Atlanta will be diminished or moved elsewhere, likely to New York and Los Angeles. There has additionally been growing concern among CNN staffers, past and present, that CNN Center — the large structure in downtown Atlanta that houses multiple CNN networks as well as a hotel and a number of businesses — is quietly being shopped and that while CNN would likely retain a presence there, it could be in a rental capacity.

Many longtime Turner staffers worry what the retirement of the Turner brand could mean for the city of Atlanta.

“It’s like cutting my heart out with a spoon,” said Andy Parsons, a former senior projects manager at CNN who worked with Turner since the network launched in 1980 and, like many Turner staffers, remains in Atlanta. “It’s going to be a kick in the ass the day that they take the Turner signs off some of these buildings and replace it with WarnerMedia.”

“I guess only time will tell,” said Johnson about the future of the Turner brand. “This is an incredibly different media world than the one that existed when I was CEO of CNN. There’s so much consolidation and streaming in so many different ways.”

“I think we all have our time,” said Stahl. “It’s just sad for us who worked for Ted to see the name start to fade to black.”

Read More

‘Our Gun Laws Will Change’ After 49 Die In Shootings At Mosques, New Zealand PM Says

The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, said she would seek a change in her country’s gun laws after at least one man opened fire during afternoon prayers Friday and killed at least 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch.

“Our gun laws will change,” Ardern declared in a news conference Saturday morning local time.

The violent attack struck at the very heart of New Zealand, a country that prides itself on being both peaceful and diverse.

More than 40 people were treated for injuries sustained in the attacks in Christchurch, police said.

The chief of surgery at the Christchurch hospital, Greg Robertson, said that of the 48 people originally admitted, 39 are still hospitalized in the Christchurch hospital, 11 in intensive care and critically ill. A 4-year-old girl was transferred to another hospital. Four people died on the way to the hospital, he said.

Robertson said it is unusual for local surgeons to treat gunshot wounds. But he noted that they’ve seen things that have been “pretty terrible” in the earthquake of recent years. He said they’ve had this experience “and we wouldn’t want to get more.”

New Zealand police have charged a 28-year-old man with murder and he has made an initial court appearance that lasted about a minute, according to the Associated Press.

Two other people were taken into custody and police continue to investigate their possible connections to the shootings. A fourth individual who had been arrested turned out to have been an armed man who was trying to assist the police, Ardern said.

The prime minister also revealed that the suspected “primary perpetrator” and his apparent accomplices were not on any terror watchlist in New Zealand or Australia. Ardern added that the suspect had a gun license and legally purchased his weapons.

“We are seeking answers,” she said in relation to how the gunman, a citizen of Australia, entered New Zealand.

Ardern said he had two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. She says a lever-action shotgun “was also found.”

New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush, in a new conference, praised the quick work of local authorities in responding to the first reports of gunfire at the mosque. A police official said the suspected gunman was taken into custody 36 minutes after police were summoned to the mosque.

Bush also said that New Zealand authorities are working closely with Australian police and intelligence agencies to learn more about the gunman.

“This person was not known to any of us, hadn’t been reported to any of us, has no previous convictions that we can understand, was not a person of interest to either jurisdiction,” Bush added.

Police said an explosive device was found in a car belonging to the gunman.

“You don’t think that something like this could happen in New Zealand,” a young woman named Yasmin Ali told reporters. “In Christchurch of all places. We’re such a small community. We’re so kind and loving, so I just don’t understand why someone would hurt us like this.”

Most of those killed were worshiping at Al Noor Mosque when the gunman entered. A second shooting targeted the Linwood Mosque, about 3 miles away.

Farid Ahmed told The Guardian he was at Al Noor during the attack and heard the shooter change magazines seven times. “When the shooting started people started rushing out, running out and the door is closed,” recalled Ahmed, whose shirt was stained with blood. “There was a bench and I lied down and [hid] my half body under the bench and my legs are out, pretending to stop my breath.”

Len Peneha said he lives next door to Al Noor and saw a black-clad man wearing a helmet enter the mosque. The sound of dozens of shots rang out, he told The Associated Press. Peneha said the man ran out, dropping a gun as he fled.

Peneha went inside to try help the victims. “I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque,” he told the news service. “I don’t understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It’s ridiculous.”

A man named Hassan told the Guardian he was worshiping at Linwood mosque when the shooting there started.

He said women around him rose up and screamed, “Do not come here,” at the gunman that and some of them charged at the assailant.

“The shooter was screaming a lot and waving the gun in every direction, shooting, shooting, shooting,” Hassan said. “I don’t know who of my friends is dead or alive now. I am waiting. Police told me: ‘I am sorry, this is the first time this has ever happened in this country.’ “

Before the shootings, a man who identified himself as a white man from Australia allegedly posted a 74-page, hate-filled screed online, and then live-streamed the killings on Facebook. He has not been publicly identified by officials.

The massacre rocked a small, peaceful nation where such events are extremely rare. Following the attack, New Zealand’s national security level was changed from “low” to “high.”

Earlier, Ardern had described Friday as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.” She called the shootings a terrorist attack, one that appeared to have been well planned. With a grim expression, she said the country seems to have been targeted because of its welcoming and tolerance.

“We were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone racism, because we are an enclave for extremism,” Ardern said during a news conference in Wellington. “We were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things. Because we represent diversity, kindness, compassion, a home for those who share our values, refuge for those who need it. And those values, I can assure you, will not, and cannot, be shaken by this attack.”

Prior to Friday’s attack, the country’s deadliest shooting occurred in 1990, when a man killed 13 people following a dispute with a neighbor.

Christchurch is New Zealand’s second-largest city, with a population of about 375,000 people. “Our city has changed forever today,” Mayor Lianne Dalziel said in a statement. “It is beyond belief that something like this should happen in our city and in New Zealand.”

In his screed, the suspected gunman said he had been planning the attack for two years. He claimed to represent Europeans and whites in a battle against immigrants, people he repeatedly described as “invaders.” He also referred to the right to bear arms as laid out in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and claimed that attempts to take away guns in the U.S. will lead to a civil war.

A front page of New Zealand newspaper The Dominion Post reflected the sense of shock and grief: “End of innocence.”

New Zealand’s ambassador-designate to the U.S., Rosemary Banks, told NPR that authorities are “convinced this particular event is over.”

“We are a very diverse society, we have over 200 ethnicities, 160 languages…we have been very welcoming to outsiders,” Banks said Friday. “For these people who are victims in these mosques — they are refugees, they are people who are from our migrant communities who’ve chosen to live in New Zealand, thinking they would find a safe place where they could be free in their religion and their culture.”

The White House released a statement condemning the attacks. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with the people of New Zealand and their government against this vicious act of hate.”

The alleged gunman reportedly streamed 17 minutes of the attack on Facebook. The social media platform removed the video and removed the suspect’s accounts. The company says it is working directly with the New Zealand Police, the country’s national police force, in its investigation. In a statement, according to the AP, Facebook New Zealand spokeswoman Mia Garlick said that the company is “also removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we’re aware.”

Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, say they’re working to remove any video of the shootings from their sites, as well. Versions of the video reportedly persisted on the sites for hours after the shootings.

“You may have chosen us,” Ardern said Friday, “but we utterly reject and condemn you.”

Read More

Copyright 2024 Scene Magazine | All Rights Reserved.