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]
Twitter bans Harry The Owl, man already suing UK police for investigating “thoughtcrimes”
Harry The Owl was criticizing another Twitter user who was celebrating the death of a woman who today died of cancer. The tweet got him banned from the platform.
Instagram censors fishmonger’s produce photos, says they’re “offensive or disturbing”
Rex Goldsmith, suspected it might have been the work of “vegan warriors.”
Twitch suspends Jonny Zeta (BeesOnMyHeadTV) after being alleged victim of livestreamed carjacking
During the September 14th livestream, Zeta had stopped riding around in his car and stopped in a parking lot when he saw a car approaching in the distance.
Edward Snowden warns of AI tyrants that become “automated police officers”
Snowden touched on the dangers that future misuses of artificial intelligence (AI) can present to civil liberties and human rights.
Texas’ deepfake election influence law is a flop
Lawmakers in Texas recently passed new legislation regulating the issue to the extent of making the creation and distribution of deepfake videos a criminal offense.
Microsoft’s Brad Smith says it’s time to break up big tech
He told NPR that the lack of more forceful government interference in the way tech companies do their business will eventually spell the downfall of democracy.
Angel Mom’s post about illegal immigrant crime is censored on Facebook for “hate speech”
The latest example is Facebook’s decision to remove posts from the personal page of Mary Ann Mendoza, a woman whose son, a police officer, was killed by a drunk-driving illegal immigrant back in 2014.
Russia looks to block Mailbox.org and other communications providers
Germany and America-based companies behind these services – Heinlein Support and SCRYPTmail – previously failed to register with the authorities as required by Russian law.
Nintendo lawsuit aims to take down RomUniverse
Nintendo’s filing also alleges unfair competition on the part of the pirate site.
Russia considers complete ban of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
The signs are pointing in the direction of the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube being completely blocked in Russia by early 2021.
Facebook reportedly cuts off police access to WhatsApp in Hong Kong
The information the police were soliciting from citizens included photos and video and audio recordings.
Microsoft suggests Chromium “cleanup of potentially offensive terms” such as “blacklist”
Microsoft is making its decisions on what’s allowed and what isn’t based on “a machine learned model that does context based scanning on hundreds of file formats.”