Didi Rankovic
Didi Rankovic is an experienced online journalist, editor, and translator, with a career spanning over ten years writing for major a English-language website in Serbia, and previously working as translator for international organizations and peacekeepers in the Balkans. Rankovic is passionate about free and open source tech and is a head contributor for Reclaim The Net, focusing on lead stories. [email protected]
Spotify to introduce feature that allows users to “report” podcasts
Spotify makes it clear it could hide content that users complain about.
YouTube reverses at least some of the censorship of Steven Crowder and others
Crowder highlighted how the search results looked before and after his lawyer contacted YouTube about the issue.
Early reports about a US-UK message sharing partnership won’t include encryption “back doors”
Not everyone thinks these reports might be particularly dire when it comes to free speech and online freedoms.
Major Australian network created a unique news show for Facebook, only get 20 seconds of watch time
The love-hate relationship between Facebook and publishers and broadcasters continues to unfold along what are perhaps all too predictable lines.
Yandex Zen sets its sights on being a YouTube competitor
The Yandex video service lets bloggers upload videos on Yandex Zen that must be under 15 minutes long, which then get recommended based on established user preferences.
Ex-Google and Facebook employee says silicon valley’s use of H1B visa is “institutional slavery”
The fact that foreign workers depend on continued employment to avoid deportation means that they will accept working conditions and treatment by managers that US workers, with incomparably greater job options, never would.
Media outlets publish anti-regulation propaganda by Google-backed organizations without disclosure
If you’d like to know what a propaganda campaign, carried out by a powerful entity apparently lacking any semblance of disclosure and/or transparency might look like in a democracy – look no further than this spate of recent “opinion pieces” cropping up on US-based media outlets.
Dropbox Paper leaks the email address of anyone who’s ever viewed a document
Dropbox says it’s a feature, not a bug.
Senator Hawley calls on the FTC to release Google 2012 antitrust violation details
“The report provides evidence that Google was deceiving consumers before 2012, and the recent fines levied against Google suggest that Google never stopped,” Hawley writes.
Boris Johnson warns about Google surveillance, says smart tech could rein “oppressively over the human race”
Johnson’s speech was designed and delivered at the UN with the aim of securing international coordination in controlling and regulating new technologies in a thoughtful and “balanced” manner, reporters surmised from his address.
Kodi website goes down after host pulls support
What the problem showcases, however, is the financial vulnerability even of some very successful and widely used free and open-source projects.
Report finds evidence of TikTok censorship
ByteDance said the original goal was to not censorship – but preventing “conflict” from the real world spilling over to the platform.