Yup, Facebook and Mark are evil. Facebook reportedly ignored its own research showing algorithms divided users An internal Facebook report presented to executives in 2018 found that the company was well aware that its product, specifically its recommendation engine, stoked divisiveness and polarization, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Yet, despite warnings about the effect this could have on society, Facebook leadership ignored the findings and has largely tried to absolve itself of responsibility with regard to partisan divides and other forms of polarization it directly contributed to, the report states. The reason? Changes might disproportionately affect conservatives and might hurt engagement, the report says. “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness,” one slide from the presentation read. The group found that if this core element of its recommendation engine were left unchecked, it would continue to serve Facebook users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.” A separate internal report, crafted in 2016, said 64 percent of people who joined an extremist group on Facebook only did so because the company’s algorithm recommended it to them, the WSJ reports. FACEBOOK FOUND THAT ITS ALGORITHMS WERE PUSHING PEOPLE TO JOIN EXTREMEST ORGANIZATIONS Leading the effort to downplay these concerns and shift Facebook’s focus away from polarization has been Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president of global public policy and former chief of staff under President George W. Bush. Kaplan is a controversial figure in part due to his staunch right-wing politics — he supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh throughout his nomination — and his apparent ability to sway CEO Mark Zuckerberg on important policy matters. Kaplan has taken on a larger role within Facebook since the 2016 election, and critics say his approach to policy and moderation is designed to appease conservatives and stave off accusations of bias. Kaplan, for instance, is believed to be partly responsible for Facebook’s controversial political ad policy, in which the company said it would not regulate misinformation put forth in campaign ads by fact-checking them. He’s also influenced Facebook’s more hands-off approach to speech and moderation over the last few years by arguing the company doesn’t want to seem biased against conservatives. The Wall Street Journal says Kaplan was instrumental in weakening or entirely killing proposals to change the platform to promote social good and reduce the influence of so-called “super-sharers,” who tended to be aggressively partisan and, in some cases, so hyper-engaged that they might be paid to use Facebook or might be a bot. Yet, Kaplan pushed back against some of the proposed changes — many of which were crafted by News Feed integrity lead Carlos Gomez Uribe — for fear they would disproportionately affect right-wing pages, politicians, and other parts of the user base that drove up engagement. One notable project Kaplan undermined was called Common Ground, which sought to promote politically neutral content on the platform that might bring people together around shared interests like hobbies. But the team building it said it might require Facebook take a “moral stance” in some cases by choosing not to promote certain types of polarizing content and that the effort could harm overall engagement over time, the WSJ reports. The team has since been disbanded. In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson tells The Verge, “We’ve learned a lot since 2016 and are not the same company today. We’ve built a robust integrity team, strengthened our policies and practices to limit harmful content, and used research to understand our platform’s impact on society so we continue to improve. Just this past February we announced $2M in funding to support independent research proposals on polarization.”

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No more Made in China Apple product in the future? Apple has moved some AirPods Pro manufacturing from China to Vietnam Some Apple AirPods Pro cases now say the headphones are assembled in Vietnam, according to a Twitter user, multiple reports on the MacRumors forums, and one Verge staffer who recently purchased a pair, indicating the company may be reducing its reliance on Chinese manufacturing (via MacRumors). Typically, AirPods Pro units contain a message on the back of the case that says the device was assembled in China. Apple famously assembles a large majority of its products in China. But the company has shown interest in, and even made sizable foreign investments toward, diversifying its manufacturing. That’s partly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the ongoing trade war between the US and China that imposed tariffs on some Apple products and components and put pressure on CEO Tim Cook’s lobbying efforts with the Trump administration. As far back as 2017, Apple began assembling some iPhone models in India, too. In February, for example, Apple issued a rare investor note saying that the worldwide iPhone supply would be “temporarily constrained” as its manufacturing partners in China ramped back up amid the outbreak. Nikkei reported last July that Apple was considering moving some of its manufacturing to Vietnam due to the trade war as well. It’s unclear what percentage of AirPods Pro are manufactured in Vietnam or if Apple plans to make more products in the country. However, The Information reported on Tuesday that it plans to use factories in Vietnam to manufacture a pair of as-of-yet-unannounced over-ear headphones, though Apple is apparently going to manufacture some of the headphones in China as well. theverge.com/2020/5/21/21266574/apple-airpods-pro-vietnam-china-chinese-manufacturing

It’s unclear how many AirPods Pro will be made in Vietnam.

iOS jailbreak can never be stopped!! New jailbreak tool works on Apple’s just-released iOS 13.5 A new tool by hacking group Unc0ver can jailbreak iOS 13.5, the just-released version of Apple’s mobile operating system, Wired reported. The group says the jailbreak, which works on iOS 11 and higher, is built on a zero-day vulnerability, doesn’t drain a device’s battery life, and doesn’t affect the use of Apple services or undermine the iOS sandbox security, according to Wired. Unc0ver’s lead developer told Wired the jailbreak adds exceptions to existing rules, and “enables reading new jailbreak files and parts of the filesystem that contain no user data.” The jailbreak tool is not open source, and the group didn’t say which vulnerability in iOS it exploited to build the tool. Jailbreaking gives a user more control over a device’s OS, allowing customization and the installation of apps that Apple would otherwise restrict. It also can be used by would-be attackers to compromise a device’s security. In earlier versions of iOS, jailbreaking was relatively common. The practice has dwindled in recent years with Apple making it more difficult to pull off, resulting in some of the most prominent jailbreak-reliant app sources closing down. unc0ver.dev

unc0ver, The most advanced jail​break tool.

You know what? The Anti-5G USB Stick Is a Scam A lot of bullshit has been circulating about 5G lately, specifically as it relates to the novel coronavirus. To be very clear: There is no evidence that the rollout of 5G is at all connected to the origin or spread of covid-19. But that hasn’t stopped dozens of attacks on cell towers, the proliferation of cockamamie conspiracy theories, and, of course, hucksters peddling bogus anti-5G products to the scared masses. The 5G BioShield USB Key is the latest dumb device to make headlines. On its website, it’s described as creating a “wearable holographic nano-layer catalyzer” that can be used for the “balance and harmonization of the harmful effects of imbalanced electric radiation.” Basically, the device creates a holographic bubble that somehow protects you from the scary 5G waves for a bafflingly varied range of 8 to 40 meters. It is, in fact, a regular old 128MB USB stick with vaguely sci-fi words slapped onto it for marketing. Pen Test Partners, a UK-based security firm, wrote a tear-down blog of the device—as you’d expect, the stick’s supposed “quantum holographic catalyzer technology” transmitter was nothing more than a sticker. No other electronic components were found. The most disturbing thing about the USB stick—besides the fact it costs £300, or roughly $350—is that it’s been recommended by the Glastonbury Town Council’s 5G Advisory Committee, which has called for an inquiry into 5G tech, according to the BBC. You can find the recommendation and a link to this bogus device on page 30 of the committee’s final report. The report is also full of spurious 5G claims, saying that birds may fall “out of the sky dead when 5G is on” and that people could get nose bleeds or commit suicide at higher rates. (Snopes has debunked the 5G bird deaths, while health fears over 5G radiation are also unfounded.) Equally disturbing, the BBC found that the founders of BioShield Distribution show that they were previously involved in a dubious business called Immortalis that hocked a dietary supplement featuring a “proprietary procedure that leads to relativistic time dilation and biological quantum entanglement at the DNA level.” Enough said. But the anti-5G USB stick isn’t the only bogus product out there. On Amazon, you’ll find an assortment of 5G underpants. Entering “5G protection” into Amazon’s search bar will net you 9,000 results with products ranging from pills, stickers, phone cases, hats, and crystal bracelets. Querying “5G shield” will get you roughly 1,000 results, including a ridiculous maternity belly band that supposedly protects an unborn fetus from the ‘dangers’ of 5G. Is it surprising that Amazon hasn’t cracked down on these products? No. But it goes without saying that they should. So in light of the charlatans capitalizing on 5G-related coronavirus hoaxes, it bears repeating that 5G frequencies don’t present a greater risk than other types of electromagnetic radiation. These bogus anti-5G products are at best expensive placebos, and according to the New York Times, your skin is actually a pretty good barrier against higher-frequency radio waves, including 5G. So, no, no one is catching covid-19 from 5G cell towers. And those brain worms you got? It’s more likely you picked them up from Twitter.

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