Real-world events trigger online hate toward unrelated groups, study finds

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Real-world events such as murders and political protests can trigger an increase in online hate speech directed against seemingly unrelated groups. The finding could help online moderators better predict when hateful content is most likely to be published, and what they should be looking out for, researchers say.

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U.S. Accuses Google of Abusing Monopoly in Ad Technology

The Justice Department and a group of eight states sued Google on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally abusing a monopoly over the technology that powers online advertising, in the agency’s first antitrust lawsuit against a tech giant under President Biden and an escalation in legal pressure on one of the world’s biggest internet companies.

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Who owns the internet? Who controls the internet and internet data, and who should control it in the future?

The worldwide web was originally developed on ambitious principles: free and universal access, agreed common standards, and consensual, public development. But today those principles are being challenged, as commercial platforms take increasing ownership of aspects of the internet and autocratic regimes fragment the online space.

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Welcome to the Era of Internet Blackouts: New research from Cloudflare shows that connectivity disruptions are a problem around the globe, pointing toward a troubling new normal.

The Iranian government’s latest attempts in recent months to stifle protests through internet blackouts, digital curfews, and content blocking have presented a particularly extreme example of how far regimes can go in restricting digital access. But a new report from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare, released today, highlights the stunning global prevalence of connectivity disruptions and their increasing relevance to people and organizations all around the world.

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Even Retired Cricketers Get Their .AU

The long overdue launch of .au second level domains has been a success to date with over 700,000 registered as of the end of November 2022. And even retired Australian cricketers are getting in on the act. Listening to the ABC Radio cricket commentary today during coverage of the Australia v South Africa test match, former Australian players Shane Watson and Glenn McGrath were discussing Watson’s self-published book Winning the Inner Battle where Watson made reference to it only being available from shanewatson.au. Watson also has the .com.au domain, but it redirects to the .au.

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Meta’s Ad Practices Ruled Illegal Under E.U. Law

Meta suffered a major defeat on Wednesday that could severely undercut its Facebook and Instagram advertising business after European Union regulators found it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads.

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As governments across Asia fight for control over the internet and big tech, citizens on social media face rising online crackdowns

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in Vietnam last year, blogger Bui Van Thuan took to Facebook to criticise a government plan to use soldiers to deliver groceries to people confined to their homes in Ho Chi Minh City.

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ICANN Announces Sudden Resignation of President and CEO Göran Marby

ICANN Thursday announced the sudden resignation of Göran Marby, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately. Sally Costerton has been named as Interim President and CEO while a search is undertaken for Marby’s replacement. No reason was given for Marby’s sudden decision to resign.

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