WEBVTT - Tech News: Tech and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.920 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.720 And how the tech are you. It's time for the 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:25.120 tech news for Thursday, February twenty four, twenty twenty two, 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:30.000 and probably the biggest story in the world right now 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:34.639 is Russia's invasion of Ukraine, something that has heightened tensions 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.280 around the globe, and of course that also spills over 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.760 into tech news. In the hours before open hostilities, Reuters 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.640 reported that the US will likely begin with holding tech 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.600 from Russia, ranging from products like computer systems to individual 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:56.760 components like semiconductors and aircraft parts. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.760 the language is directed more at Vladimir Putin than at 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:05.400 Russia as a whole, and Putant's tendency toward authoritarianism arguably 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:11.000 justifies that wording. The US Deputy Treasury Secretary said that, quote, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.680 We're going to cut him off from Western technology that's 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.080 critical to a dancing his military, cut him off from 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.040 Western financial resources that will be critical for feeding his 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.319 economy and also to enriching himself. Uh. The he in 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.480 this case being Putent and again this all came out 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:35.080 before Russia's actual invasion. But yes, we should see various 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.080 sanctions around the world. I know the UK has also 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.480 started to announce some and likely a lot of that 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.400 is going to focus not just on finances but on 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.560 tech as well. In addition to the explosions and gunfire 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.400 happening in Ukraine. By the way, any listeners out in Ukraine, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.200 I really hope you and your loved ones are safe. 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.680 But the country has also been under a pier attack. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.520 It appears that distributed denial of service attacks, also known 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:09.520 as the DOS attacks, have hampered Ukraine's internet infrastructure. In addition, 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.400 it seems as though there's been a deployment of a 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.359 type of malware designed to infect and then wipe out 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.880 data on machines, and that this has been targeting some 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:24.760 computer systems in Ukrainian organizations. Now, just in case you're 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.040 not familiar with the term di DOS attack, the basic 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:32.000 ideas that you have a distributed network of machines, so 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.960 a whole collection of computers that are distributed in an 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.480 area could be all around the world actually, and you 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:43.880 use these to target specific web servers and you overwhelm 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.480 those servers with traffic such as a pin request or 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.360 maybe even a pin request that goes back to an 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.760 address that doesn't exist, and the web server attempts to 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.600 respond to all those requests because that's how you know, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.480 the Internet functions, is that if it didn't respond to 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.680 these request USTs, then the Internet wouldn't work. It has 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.280 to be able to respond to these things. So this 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.919 is kind of equivalent to bringing a doorbell and then 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.400 running away. I've used this analogy before. Imagine that you 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:16.480 are required to answer your door every time the doorbell rings. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.040 And someone rings your doorbell, so you get up, you 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:21.000 walk to your front door, You open the door, no 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.840 one's there. You close the door. Someone rings the doorbell. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:25.639 You have to turn back around and go back to 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.960 the door, open it. And this just happens over and 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.480 over to the point where you can't do anything else. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.040 That's essentially the basic version of a distributed denial of 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.160 service attacks. If you just imagine that all the neighborhood 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.000 kids in all the neighborhoods around you are all in 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:43.480 on this, and they're all taking turns doing it. That's 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.360 kind of what's going on on a the you know, 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:52.000 an analogy level well. There are companies like cloud Flare 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.120 that specialize in mitigating the dose attacks, and some of 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.760 Ukraine's most critical services, such as those connected to financial 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.000 military operations, appeared to have weathered the storm a little 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.040 bit better than you know, just about everybody else. The 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:11.320 malware is a different matter, the Wiper malware. This is 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.520 software that appears to have been created in late twenty one, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.520 which could indicate that this was a planned part of 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.440 the invasion, and that the invasion itself has been something 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.320 that's been the work for at least a few months, 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.120 which honestly, I would be shocked to hear otherwise it 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.599 The narrative coming out of Russia is that this was 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:38.160 something that kind of happened suddenly, but all evidence seems 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:43.040 to contradict that. Moscow so far has denied any involvement 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.320 in the DIDOS attacks or the malware. But as we 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.040 covered in a recent tech News episode, much of the 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.440 hacking activity reported around the world, including nearly three quarters 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.120 of all ransomware attacks, appears to originate out of Russia 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.480 or Russia aligned countries. On a relay to note, researchers 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.520 in Ukraine have been sharing information, photos, and videos on Twitter. 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:11.520 So this includes journalists and security experts, and a lot 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.680 of them have noticed that their accounts have been hit 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:19.839 with suspensions. For example, Oliver Alexander, who has been fighting 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.960 misinformation during the invasion by trying to cover things on 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.480 the ground, has had his accounts suspended at least two 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.880 times in the last twenty four hours. Now, in most cases, 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.039 the researchers are told that they received a suspension for 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.719 violating a Twitter policy, but at least in a few 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:40.640 of those, no specific policy was cited. As of the 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:44.120 time of this recording. The working hypothesis is that there 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:49.400 was and potentially still is, an active campaign, likely originating 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:54.040 in Russia, that is identifying and reporting any social media 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.039 accounts attempting to cover the Ukraine invasion, and that these 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.839 reports are all made in bad face in an effort 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:04.360 to suppress information from being published. So in other words, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.120 you know, it's it's people saying, hey, they're spreading misinformation 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.640 in an attempt to silence people. Now, a Twitter spokesperson 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.440 has said that quote, We've been proactively monitoring for emerging 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.839 narratives that are violative of our policies, and in this instance, 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.640 we took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:30.320 We're expeditiously reviewing these actions and have already proactively reinstated 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.760 access to a number of affected accounts. The claims that 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.760 the errors were a coordinated body campaign or the result 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:42.159 of mass reporting is inaccurate end quote. So in other words, 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:46.200 they're refuting that hypothesis, and hopefully that is true, because 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.400 presumably it will mean that from this point forward we'll 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.719 see fewer mistaken suspensions and that will just be a 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:59.000 little blip in the early days. Uh, if this actually 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:01.360 is part of a supper Ashan campaign, maybe that will 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.480 mean Twitter will develop better tools to detect and prevent 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:07.760 those from happening, which again can be a larger benefit 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:13.000 in the future. Switching over to North Korea, Wired has 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.640 an article titled North Korea hacked him, so he took 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.480 down its Internet and the pieces about a hacker who 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.120 goes by the handle Packs that's p the numeral four 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:28.880 and X, and North Korea targeted Packs because Packs does 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:33.920 cybersecurity work and had been involved in cybersecurity work related 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.960 to North Korea, and Packs did not like getting targeted 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:39.840 and after a year of waiting to see what the 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.760 US would do about this, and Seeing that apparently the 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.080 answer was nothing, Packs decided to take it upon himself 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:50.240 to do a effectively a denial of service attack on 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.800 North Korea's Internet system. Now, you could argue that this 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.239 is not really an effective strategy because very few people 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:02.920 in North Korea actually have access to the Internet. A 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.160 lot of folks, or at least not a lot some 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:11.320 folks can access and intronet, but that has no connectivity 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.720 to the outside. Internet's fully controlled by the North Korean government. 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.280 The Internet sites in North Korea really are mostly for 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.640 propaganda purposes and are outward facing, So in other words, 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:23.920 it's for the rest of the world, not for the 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:27.440 people in North Korea. So disrupting those just means that 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:32.679 North Korea's propaganda campaign was somewhat hindered. In fact, a 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.439 lot of people say, like, the best this does is 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:38.280 kind of irritate the government and it could potentially force 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.680 them to start beefing up their Internet security, which could 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:47.240 in theory disrupt say more clandestine efforts that could be 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.360 going on at the same time. In other words, don't 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.800 bring attention to these vulnerabilities because someone else might be 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:57.319 using them to do some important work. Uh. Then again, 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.839 you know, considering the limited use of the Internet and 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.520 North Korea, you could argue that maybe there's not really 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:08.480 any real opportunity through that route, unless, of course, you know, 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.400 they are really bad at doing things like having air 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.480 gaps in their system. And air gap, by the way, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:15.880 in case you're not familiar with that term, that's where 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.199 you make certain that a system has no connectivity to 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.000 outside networks. It is a standalone network. It's like an island. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.640 It doesn't touch any other network. And uh, that's that's 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.839 a security measure, right if you If it doesn't interoperate 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.199 with any other networks, there's no way to get at 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.959 it from outside. You have to get access to the 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:42.559 actual system itself, which really cuts down on the possibility 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.920 of it being um compromised. It doesn't eliminate that possibility, 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.960 it just cuts way back on it. And um it 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.880 would be shocking to me. I guess not shocking, but 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.559 you know, if North Korea is not doing that, it's 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:01.680 stupid because if it's not using the Internet the way 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.760 other countries are, then there's no real reason to have 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.000 any of its you know, crucial systems hooked up to it. 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:13.440 But anyway, that's what's going on right now, and I 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.319 recommend the article again. It's titled North Korea hacked him 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.560 so he took down its internet. Check out that article. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.680 We've got a few more stories to cover, but before 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:32.280 we get to those, let's take a quick break. We're back. 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:34.559 You might remember from a couple of weeks back when 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.120 I talked about how the Dutch Competition Authority was levying 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.760 fines against Apple for violating anti competitive regulations. Specifically, we're 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.320 talking about Apple's payment system in app payment system, and 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.760 how the company previously required all apps to use Apple's 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.280 own operated in payment system, and that also meant that 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.720 Apple could take a chunk out of every in app 0:10:55.800 --> 0:11:00.520 transaction like up to well, Apple has since change things 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.160 up uh. It has announced that developers will be able 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.000 to use third party payment systems, but Apple will collect 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:10.079 a twenty seven percent commission on all in app purchases 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:16.600 that use a third party payment method. Now that that's rough, 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.240 because chances are app developers will have to pay a 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.520 cut to whatever third party payment system they're using. So 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.400 you might start to suspect that while Apple is saying 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.160 it is going to offer an alternative, the alternatives will 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.319 likely end up being more expensive to use than the 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:37.360 Apple provided option, and Apple still gets a cut. As such, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.080 The Netherlands Authority for Consumers says that Apple has quote 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:44.840 refused to put forward any serious proposals end quote, and 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:48.920 that furthermore, the company appears to be fine with paying 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.680 fines even if those fines get up to fifty million 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.240 euros a week for non compliance, which tells you just 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.200 how important in app revenue is for Apple if the 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:02.480 company is not responding to this stuation with more speed 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.400 and seriousness. The a c M says that Apple is 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.360 purposefully putting in barriers that discouraged the use of third 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.439 party payment systems and has to come up with a 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.400 fair alternative. The BBC News investigated how the metaverse is 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.240 shaping up when a researcher posed as a thirteen year 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.720 old girl and used a meta quest a k a. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.760 The old Oculus quest headset to visit the vr chat 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:30.760 virtual space. The researcher witnessed numerous things that were wildly 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:35.000 inappropriate for a child, including simulated sex acts. The researcher 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.760 was also approached by several adult men. Remember the researcher 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.600 was posing as a thirteen year old girl, and that 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.280 is beyond disturbing, and reportedly the researcher even received a 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.600 rape threat. On top of all that, the researcher said 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:51.600 she used a fake identity to create an account, and 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:55.120 there was no point where Meta actually verified her age, 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:57.959 which meant she was free to wander into virtual space. 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.720 Is very much inappropriate for children. The National Society for 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.160 the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the UK responded 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.720 to the report by saying that there is an urgent 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.280 need to address online safety issues for children, particularly as 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.880 they're such a hard push to create the metaverse. As 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.840 it stands, the virtual environments that are sort of a 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:23.040 proto metaverse are very much not a safe space. Um. 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.160 They actually remind me a lot of very early Internet 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.040 chat rooms, which could range from just being silly and 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:34.000 harmless to outright disturbing and pornographic, depending on the chat 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:37.400 room and who was there at the time. The NSPCC 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.880 said that as it stands, these virtual chat rooms are 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.520 dangerous by design because of oversight and neglect. Meta's approach 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.000 so far has been kind of a weird and gross 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.480 scientific observation. Essentially, watch how people are interacting in virtual 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.960 spaces and then address problems that crop up. But that 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.600 does mean anyone who's adopting the Virtual Space protest, an 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.400 early adopter, is effectively a guinea pig, and that person's 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:09.920 mental health isn't really afforded very much protection. Anyway, don't 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.680 let your kids use VR chat rooms just yet. The 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.120 world can be a cruel and dangerous place, and the 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.880 online world sometimes it's a billion times more so. Earlier 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.040 this year, we talked about how Peloton, the exercise company, 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:26.160 is going through a really rough patch. After an initial 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.520 surge in demand at the top of the pandemic, things 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.360 quieted down and Peloton found itself with warehouses full of 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.800 product that they couldn't move. In addition, a terrible tragedy 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:40.560 involving a treadmill made by the company necessitated an expensive recall. 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:45.080 Shareholders began to lose confidence in Peloton, and apparently a 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:48.640 batch of Peloton bikes coming out of a Taiwanese manufacturing 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.680 facility had rust on them in mostly in non visible 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.400 parts of the bikes, and the company's response reportedly was 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.520 to use a chemical to conceal the corrosion. And I've 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.200 seen this referred to as Project ten Man. I'm not 0:15:03.240 --> 0:15:06.640 actually sure if that originated from inside the company or not. 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.760 Warehouse workers were told to use the concealer, which covered 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.920 the rust with a black layer, so it wasn't removing 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.320 the corrosion, it was just covering it up. It's like 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.880 putting a rug over a dirty spot on the floor. Allegedly, 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:24.040 inspectors were encouraged to downplay how badly rusted a bike 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.600 actually was. Uh. And the company had adopted a policy 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.920 that would allow lightly rusted vehicles or bikes, I should say, 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.960 not really vehicles. They don't take you anywhere their stationary bikes, 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.760 but they would allow lightly rusted ones to go on 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.560 to be sold to customers and if it was deemed 0:15:42.760 --> 0:15:48.800 unsalable then it wouldn't be And the reports suggest that 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:52.640 people at least felt pressured to air on the side 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.640 of selling them to customers rather than to say no, 0:15:55.760 --> 0:16:00.840 this is unacceptable. Uh. So Platon has actually said that 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:05.160 if anyone pushed something that should not be sold out 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:09.120 to a customer, that was against corporate policy, and it 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.000 actually falls on the person in charge of that inspection, 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:15.320 not on Peloton. They said, no, listen, we would never 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.080 want to do that. Uh. You know, we don't know 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.600 where this came from these people are in charge of that, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.760 they have the authority to make those decisions, and if 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:29.920 they chose to sell heavily rusted bikes to customers, that's 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.200 that's on them now. Apparently at least six thousand bikes 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:38.000 were affected by what Peloton creatively referred to as cosmetic oxidation, 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:42.320 which I guess is glamour rust. The company has issued 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.440 statements saying no customers have reported problems with the bikes 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.920 and that the company would be certain to make available 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.880 replacement parts should any problems pop up down the line 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.040 due to this issue. That's good, though, I think you 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.640 can make a strong argument that covering up the corrosion 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.920 and calling it cosmetic oxidation points to its Peloton really 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.640 knowing this wasn't a cool move from the get go. 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:06.880 Online shopping has seen a bit of a decline as 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.520 more people emerge from isolation and start to populate brick 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.680 and mortar stores once again. Amazon has adjusted its forecast 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.160 for first quarter sales, and it says that those estimates 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:23.240 are now slightly lower than they originally were. eBay has 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.679 had similar news. In fact, eBay's news was enough to 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.080 concern shareholders and send the stock price down nearly nine 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.760 and extended trading. Stephen Priest, the chief of finance at eBay, 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.280 told investors, quote, the second quarter should mark the low 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.280 point for margins during the year as we lap difficult 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.399 comps and ramp up our pace of investment end quote. 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:46.720 So it does sound like things are going to get 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:51.320 worse for eBay before they get better. Andy Maxwell of 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:55.159 torrent Freak wrote an article titled Reddit Banned two thousand, 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.840 six hundred twenty five subreddits for excessive copyright infringement into 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.920 in D twent d one, which details how Reddit is 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:06.840 taking d m c A takedown notices. Seriously, that's the 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.800 Digital Millennial Copyright Act. Maxwell points out that Reddit reviews 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.040 these takedown notices and only takes further steps if the 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.119 notification follows redd It's rules. So if someone sends in 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:23.320 a copyright notice but they don't completely or correctly fill 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.720 out Reddit's forms, then that notice doesn't count. Reddit will 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:29.639 take no action on it because the person did not 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.879 bother to actually properly fill out the notice in the 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.840 first place. Then if the notice is filled up properly, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.480 Reddit examines the case to see if perhaps it's an 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.680 example of fair use. So as a reminder, fair use 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:49.600 covers exceptions to copyright exclusivity. Now, fair use is usually 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.440 a matter that gets decided within a court of law. 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.680 Arguing fair use on the outset isn't really a force 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.399 field against d m C A action, But in limited cases, 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.840 someone can use part of a copyrighted work without getting 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:08.480 permission to do so. Anyway, Maxwell mentions that in one 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.600 read it received copyright notices regarding more than nine twenty 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:17.680 thousand pieces of content. Read It subsequently removed around six 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.320 sixty five thousand of those pieces, So again, it's not 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.639 a guarantee that once read It gets a copyright notice 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.240 that it will strike content. It did so more frequently 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.639 than it didn't, but like a third of almost a 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:38.920 third of the complaints were dismissed. But Maxwell points out 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.840 that folks really do need to take copyright more seriously 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.360 on the platform because repeated violations can result not just 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.480 in user bands, but even bands of entire sub credits. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.119 And imagine being part of a community that gets shut 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.080 down because too many other folks in that community we're 0:19:56.119 --> 0:20:00.919 posting copyrighted material without permission. That would stink. Anyway, The 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.480 article is a good read. I recommend checking it out again. 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.040 It is titled Reddit banned two thousand, six d twenty 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:11.680 five subreddits for excessive copyright infringement in one and it's 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:16.639 on torrent Freak. Okay, we've got a few more stories 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.879 before we close out today, but first let's take another 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:30.840 quick break. Meta, the company that was formerly known as Facebook, 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.560 has announced that it is developing AI tools dedicated to 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:40.240 translating languages in real time any language to any other language. 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.240 And right now, we do have tools that can cater 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:47.520 to some of the major languages in the world, like Mandarin, English, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.359 and Spanish, but a lot of other languages have little 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.960 to no support in those tools, and Meta says that 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.959 the company wishes to build out a universal translator like programs, 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:02.040 something that could let any two people from any two 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:05.520 places in the world have a conversation in real time 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:09.000 with each other, no matter what languages each person was speaking. 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.000 So if you had one person speaking Portuguese and another 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:16.960 speaking Hindi, they could communicate easily with one another through 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.680 this AI application. And you can immediately understand how this 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.760 would be a really important component in Meta's vision of 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:29.280 its own future, primarily the metaverse. If there is to 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:34.000 be a persistent global virtual world. It would be beneficial 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:38.320 if there were no communication barriers between people visiting that world. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.280 I should add, however, that while Meta's goal is pretty 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.840 easy to understand, like we we see what they're aiming for, 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:49.719 Meta has not yet shared any information on how it 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.280 plans to get to that goal, like how long is 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:56.080 it going to take, what are the milestones to achieving 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.919 that goal? None of that has been shared publicly. At 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.560 least if I replacing a BET, I would aima oult 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.760 several years, maybe as many as ten to get a 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:08.919 really good handle on this. The tools we have today 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:13.680 are pretty amazing, um, at least for the limited contexts 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:16.040 in which they work. But they still have a lot 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:19.800 of flaws and shortcomings. They're far from perfect. There's a 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:21.720 lot of bias in there. There's still a lot of 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.639 error in there um And a lot of this is 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:29.320 because translation is hard. Interpretation is part of translation, and 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.800 that is hard. So it's gonna take some time to 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.440 develop something that can work with low latency and high 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:40.240 reliability across all languages. The Center for Countering Digital Hate 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:43.720 released research saying that Facebook is falling well short of 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:48.439 its responsibility to flag climate misinformation. UH, it's supposed to 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:53.160 it's supposed to tag UH posts that contain our links 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:56.399 to articles that are are deemed to be misinformation. But 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.360 the research states that ten publishers nicknamed the Toxic Ten, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.720 are responsible for nearly sevent of all climate change denial 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.359 posts on Facebook, and that Facebook had only tagged about 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:13.080 half of those as containing misinformation. The research sites examples 0:23:13.119 --> 0:23:17.520 of posts that clearly contained misinformation in the headlines alone, 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:21.040 let alone inside the articles themselves, and yet did not 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:26.000 get that climate denial misinformation tag on them. But a 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:29.040 Facebook rep addressed the findings and said that part of 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:30.919 the problem was that the company was actually in the 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:35.520 process of rolling out its labeling platform when this research 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.679 came out and when it was conducted, suggesting that it 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:40.840 was just a matter of timing that the company was 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:45.520 failing to tag of misinformation incidents. The c C d 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:49.720 H report included several examples of posts that were made 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:52.920 after September of last year, which is when Meta announced 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:57.440 it was labeling climate change misinformation posts. So I guess 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:00.760 it all just depends on which party you believe. Hopefully 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.360 it will mean that we will see more accurate tagging 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:09.840 in the future and potentially less bultification of misinformation across 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:14.920 Facebook's platform. I know a guy can dream. U S 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:19.200 Senator Tammy Baldwin sent a message to Activision Blizzards CEO 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:22.800 at least for now, Bobby Codeck, and in that message, 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:26.800 Baldwin told Codeck he should quote negotiate in good faith 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.160 with the workers and suspend any efforts to undermine your 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:34.200 employees legal rights to form a union and collectively bargain 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:39.000 end quote. Among the many issues plaguing the company, one 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:43.440 is that quality assurance testers working at Raven Software, which 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:48.080 is owned by Activision Blizzard, have been attempting to unionize. 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:52.600 And you know, we've seen several tech companies face unionization 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:56.280 efforts in what I think we can generously refer to 0:24:56.400 --> 0:25:01.840 as an adversarial response. Of course, Microsoft is on track 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.680 to acquire Activision Blizzard and a deal that will not 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:10.400 finalize until the by the end of fiscal year three, 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:17.439 which doesn't start until this July UM, so that is 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:20.480 probably going to complicate matters. However, it does mean that 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:25.440 Baldwin decided to copy Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadela on this 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:28.840