‘Sydney Sweeney leak’ searches filled with malware, spam
Sydney Sweeney is going viral, and not just because people can’t stop talking about her appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” X users can’t stop searching for “leaked” obscene photos of actresses, and are running into tons of spam and potential malware. “If you caught some obvious malware because you were looking for Sydney Sweeney’s boobs […]
Apple CEO Tim Cook drastically ramps up lobbying in Washington as antitrust crackdown looms
Apple has launched a major charm offensive in Washington to counter a new wave of antitrust fever. And lobbyists and executives, including CEO Tim Cook, have met at the White House at least 87 times since Biden took office, according to public documents. The $3 trillion tech giant has been linked to Beltway influence peddlers, […]
Instagram overtook TikTok in app downloads during 2023
Instagram is set to become the most downloaded app in 2023 as the Chinese-owned video app faces scrutiny from US regulators and some lawmakers warn it poses a security threat. It took over from TikTok. According to Sensor Tower data, total Instagram app downloads rose 20% year-on-year to 768 million in 2023. This statistic means […]
Dad fatally stabs wife, three kids and then himself in Hawaii’s second-deadliest mass killing
A Honolulu chiropractor doctor stabbed his wife and three children before taking his own life in Hawaii’s second-highest mass killing spree, according to reports and police. Officers who responded to a 911 call about an altercation at a home in the city’s Manoa neighborhood left when no one initially answered the door, Homicide Squad Lt. […]
Elon Musk’s charity broke tax laws as donations came up short: report
Elon Musk’s charity has repeatedly failed to meet minimum donation thresholds required by tax law, potentially resulting in hefty fines from tax authorities, according to a report. The Musk Foundation, like other charities, is required by law to donate 5% of its assets each year. In 2021, Tesla’s president found himself owed $11 billion in […]
Instagram’s hidden game is played with your favorite emoji — here’s how
As if anyone needed it, there’s a new way to kill time on social media. Instagram hid an emoji-based game within its smartphone app’s direct messaging feature – and people are starting to realize that. To play, both iOS and Android users must open and draft a message, then send one emoji of their choice […]
AI robot appears to grope female reporter during live interview in Saudi Arabia
A “fully autonomous” AI robot raised eyebrows at a technology festival in Saudi Arabia after it appeared to grope a reporter during an interview. Journalist Raya Kasem was speaking in front of a robot named Mohammad when the machine appeared to move to touch her behind. A video circulated on a social media show. Kasem […]
Trump raises concerns about TikTok ban as Facebook will ‘double their business’
Presidential candidate Donald Trump worries about banning TikTok ahead of next week’s House vote to give TikTok owner ByteDance about six months to sell the popular short video app. expressed. The former Republican president, who is seeking a return to the White House, wrote late Thursday on social media site Truth Social, “If you eliminate […]
Chinese shopping app Temu spent $2B on Facebook, Instagram ads
Temu, the Chinese fast fashion brand that has taken the U.S. e-commerce retail industry by storm in recent months, was Metaplatforms’ biggest ad spender on social media sites Facebook and Instagram, according to a report. That’s what it means. Temu’s parent company PDD Holdings spent about $2 billion on advertising with Meta last year alone. […]
Google fires engineer who claimed company ‘powering genocide’
A Google engineer who disrupted a New York City technology conference earlier this week by standing up and declaring that he refuses to “build technology that promotes genocide” has reportedly been fired. “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, and surveillance,” the engineer shouted during a speech at the Mind the Tech conference […]