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Researchers propose aggressive new method to eradicate online hate groups

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 9:35 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Social Media


A team of researchers from George Washington University and the University of Miami recently published the results of a study to determine the ecological makeup of online hate groups. Based on their findings, they’ve come up with four strategies to disrupt these groups and, hopefully, eradicate them once and for all. Not all heroes wear capes. Online hate groups are a scourge that, according to the researchers, thrives due to the formation of networked “cluster groups.” Traditional studies have focused on the individuals that comprise hate groups or the ideologies they support, but this study focused on the “network of…

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YouTube’s killing Messages before they atrophy from disuse

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 6:16 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google


YouTube’s made the decision to squash a feature I honestly forgot existed — its private messages. It’s stated reason is to focus on public conversations — and for once I believe the party line here. According to Google’s announcement, “Two years ago, we launched a feature to enable you to share videos via direct messages on YouTube. Since then, we’ve also focused on public conversations with updates to comments, posts, and stories.” That’s certainly true, given how it’s fiddled with it formula since then. With the plethora of other messaging apps and platforms available, I’m curious to know how many…

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Android goes keto with a radical new rebrand

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 3:09 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Plugged


Android’s ditching the carbs and saying farewell to sugar. The latest update to the brand, unveiled today by Google, introduces a new logo and style language, and ditches the iconic dessert-themed OS codenames. So, let’s talk about the logo. The old-school “bugdroid” robot has had a bit of surgery and now only shows its head, rather than the entire body and the requisite appendages. Similarly, the Android wordmark is slightly more svelte. As with the previous two revisions, each character is lowercase. However, when examining the new logo, you’ll notice that each character has been thinned somewhat, and there’s now…

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Google listed the wrong number for its product hotline, nobody noticed

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 1:10 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Shareables


Not so long ago, Google set up a consultation hotline in case you needed to be convinced why your home needs a smart speaker – or any other smart device. But if you were wondering why nobody was picking up the phone, don’t worry, it wasn’t personal: the Big G had listed the wrong number on product pages for months. The company accidentally messed up one of the digits in the phone listing, as spotted by AndroidPolice. Instead of (855) 224-6378, Google had initially put down (855) 244-6378. So who did the wrong number connect customers to, you might wonder? The answer…

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Open-source spyware bypasses Google Play defenses — twice

Aug22
by on August 22, 2019 at 12:57 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google


Google Play Store continues to attract sketchy Android apps despite its best efforts to vet incoming apps for malware. In a new report published by security firm ESET, researchers have discovered the first known instance of an open-source spyware bypassing the internet giant’s app store vetting process — twice. Radio Balouch — the app in question — is a legitimate radio app serving Balouchi music enthusiasts, except that it also included AhMyth, a remote access espionage tool that has been available on GitHub as an open-source project since late 2017. Lukas Stefanko, ESET researcher who uncovered the campaign, said the…

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