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]
Firefox says encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS won’t be turned on by default in the UK
Mozilla will leave UK Firefox users to fend for themselves when it comes to the all-seeing and snooping eyes of their ISPs.
Chinese TikTok introduces face search
TikTok – the global version – and the app’s version for the Chinese market that is now launching this advertising feature, known as Douyin – are both the product of one of China’s own “Big Tech” companies, namely, ByteDance.
Google blocks pro-privacy motion at World Wide Web Consortium
One paragraph said PING could ask the W3C to give it the power to block any projects that the group felt undermined user privacy.
Egypt censors news websites and social apps during unrest
NetBlocks said that while access to Facebook Messenger, Facebook image CDN servers, and the BBC, among others, was not blocked as of Sunday, it appeared to be restricted to various degrees.
YouTubers hit with security breaches and account takeovers
Phishing Tackle’s CEO James Houghton, who stressed that regardless of the complexity and the coordinated nature of the attack, it was humans and their poor judgment, digital security-wise, that allowed it to happen.
Facebook workers accuse leadership of downplaying recent employee suicide over job pressure
Ex employee says HR there is prone to “deflect to mental illness” and cover up any problems.
YouTube’s anti-conspiracy algorithm has boosted legacy media at the expense of YouTubers
Independent creators are consistently drawing the short end of the stick.
BBC tests allowing users to hide “triggering” news
The project is now in its testing phase, and the BBC doesn’t seem to be planning to introduce it soon.
Tulsi: Tech giants against free speech is “a danger to us all”
Gabbard pointed out that the fact Google didn’t hesitate to suspend the account of a member of Congress and a presidential candidate, means that “regular” people and their right to free speech are just as endangered – if with fewer resources to protect themselves.
EU free speech vs right to be forgotten case to be heard next week
In this case, Richard Cumbley of law firm Linklaters told Reuters, it would “create a serious clash with US concepts of freedom of speech, and other states might also try and suppress search results on a global basis reducing Google’s search engine to a list of the anodyne and inoffensive.”
EFF warns that frantic push to crush “extremist” speech online will hurt innocent users
Hard questions are being asked about the way content is treated and censored online by some of the world’s most powerful platforms.
Social network Gab outlines GabPro tiers with extra benefits for supporters
The funding of alternative platforms is more relevant given that the social networking scene is dominated by giants and the policies behind them that are unsympathetic towards Gab’s brand of free speech.