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Pfizer, BioNTech request COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization for kids ages 5 to 11

10/07/21 5:47 AM

New story in Technology from Time: Twitch Hack Reveals How Much Its Top Game Streamers Make

An anonymous hacker attacked Amazon.com’s video game streaming platform Twitch and earlier today leaked a trove of critical data including Twitch’s source code and a spreadsheet detailing earnings for the platform’s top gamers.

Leaks on the social media platform 4Chan, popular among conspiracy theorists and gamers, claim to include the entirety of the platform’s Twitch.tv streaming history and an Amazon Game Studios product, still under development, designed to challenge Valve’s dominant Steam storefront. Bloomberg has reported previously on Amazon’s plans for a digital game store.

The leak also offers a glimpse into the wealth generated in the gaming sub-industry. A document listing Twitch’s top earners shows gross earnings since 2019 reached $9.6 million for the platform’s top account, “CriticalRole.” The account, a set of voice actors, according to their Twitch page, generated an average of $370,000 a year, according to the document. The list points to 13 accounts that have made more than $108,000 a year and at least 80 who’ve collected more than $1 million since 2019.
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Twitch confirmed the breach and said it would provide updates when it has more information.

The hacker said the purpose of the leak was to “foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space,” which he described as a “disgusting toxic cesspool,” according to the 4Chan post reviewed by Bloomberg News. Users on the thread applauded the hack for exposing the pay of top earners, who were accused of attempting to keep their profits secret. The leak even spawned a site — TwitchEarnings.com — that promises to let users sift through the stolen payments data or search for many of the thousands of Twitch handles by name.

“Anytime source code gets leaked it’s not good and potentially disastrous,” said Ekram Ahmed, a spokesperson at Check Point Software Technologies, a cybersecurity firm. “It opens a gigantic door for evildoers to find cracks in the system, lace malware and potentially steal sensitive information. I strongly recommend all Twitch users to exercise caution in the near-term ahead as cyber attacks are on the rise.”

Twitch earned its share of scrutiny in September over the platform’s mishandling of so-called hate raids. These occur attackers or bots bombard an active livestream with messages in the victim’s chat box, typically homophobic, racist or sexist content. Users boycotted the platform on Sept. 1 for Twitch’s lack of response to these hate raids.

Seattle-based Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014. Since then, it has tried to combine it with other Prime services, like Amazon Music and Prime Gaming, once called Twitch Prime.

Twitch is the leading broadcaster of video gameplay, a livestreaming platform that attracts millions of viewers. The company offers streamers a share of advertising revenue, and occasionally finds itself in bidding wars with rivals like Google’s YouTube for the exclusive services of closely watched streamers.

“With 15 million daily users, Twitch holds significant amounts of data, much of which contains personal information about its customers,” said Danny Lopez, chief executive officer of Glasswall Solutions, a cybersecurity firm, in a statement. “It is essential that a proactive approach is taken to cybersecurity in order to protect such information. Once hackers have access to systems, there is little else that can be done.”

(Updates with details of hack in second paragraph)

–With assistance from Augusta Saraiva.

Fox News Breaking News Alert

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Texas high school shooting injures multiple, suspect in custody, Arlington police say

10/06/21 11:38 AM

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Suspect at large in Texas high school shooting, 4 injured, police say

10/06/21 9:45 AM

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Texas police confirm shooting at Arlington high school

10/06/21 8:50 AM

New story in Technology from Time: 4 Big Takeaways From the Facebook Whistleblower Congressional Hearing

While appearing before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook project manager who revealed her identity on 60 Minutes on Sunday, testified that the social media site’s products “harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” and that congressional intervention is needed.

The hearing came in the wake of Haugen leaking tens of thousands of pages of company documents to senators showing that Facebook has failed to fix numerous problems that it’s long known about, and in some cases made them worse. The documents became the subject of a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal in September that detailed internal Facebook research and alleged that Instagram is “toxic” to teens’, and specifically teen girls’, mental health.
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Read More: The Facebook Whistleblower Revealed Herself on 60 Minutes. Here’s What You Need to Know

Here’s what to know about Haugen’s testimony.

‘Big Tobacco moment’

Following Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal opening the hearing by stating that Facebook, and Big Tech as a whole, is facing a “Big Tobacco moment,” Haugen repeatedly spoke to allegations that “Facebook is prioritizing profit over people.”

Comparisons were made between the ways in which Facebook and tobacco are both addictive and profitable, but ultimately unhealthy for users. Blumenthal also referenced the tobacco’s industry’s history of hiding its own research on the harmful impact of its products in connection to Haugen’s allegations against Facebook.

Eating disorder content from Instagram’s algorithm

Although Facebook announced on Sept. 27 that it was pausing the development of an Instagram for kids under 13 amid public backlash, Haugen testified that the company knows that Instagram causes “severe harm” to children and teens.

Haugen said Facebook claims that it can’t find underage kids on the platform because they lie about their age when they sign up, but testified to senators that is false. She stated that Facebook could employ the mechanisms it uses to analyze other types of audiences on the platform but just chooses not to do so.

Read More: Here’s How to Fix Facebook, According to Former Employees and Leading Critics

In response to a question about how Instagram’s algorithm plays a role in making body image issues worse for teens, Haugen said that Facebook has confirmed that Instagram users can be led by the algorithm to eating disorder content. Remedying the effects of negative social comparison that teens experience while using the platform will require larger measures than just removing “likes,” she said.

Haugen also detailed how Facebook’s algorithm’s heavy weighting of “meaningful social interactions,” i.e. content that generates strong reactions, has resulted in a system that’s amplified divisive content on the platform, fostered hate speech and misinformation, and incited violence, including recent ethnic violence in Ethiopia.

‘Facebook should not get a free pass’

Haugen spoke at length about how “Facebook can change, but is clearly not going to do so on its own,” imploring the legislators to act.

She went on to urge senators to overhaul Section 230, which shields digital platforms from lawsuits over content posted by their users, specifically suggesting that Facebook and other tech giants be made legally liable for decisions about how to rank content in users’ feeds.

“They have a hundred percent control over their algorithms, and Facebook should not get a free pass on choices it makes to prioritize growth and virality and reactiveness over public safety,” she said.

Read More: Messenger Apps Signal and Telegram Benefit After Facebook Outage

Haugen argued that Facebook could still be profitable if it changed its methods of amplification, such as by switching to a chronological ranking system rather than engagement-based, to eliminate the problematic aspects of its algorithm. She also proposed the development of a regulatory body that could synthesize requests for data that are privacy conscious so that Facebook can no longer stonewall its internal findings.

Holding Facebook accountable

Senators said they supported issuing subpoenas to get the full text of the internal Facebook research leaked by Hogan that the company previously refused to release. There was bipartisan agreement on this point, with senators from both parties speaking to the need for congress to take action to better understand what’s happening at Facebook.

“I think we’re going to look back 20 years from now and all of us are going to be like, ‘What the hell were we thinking,’ when we recognize the damage that [Facebook] has done to a generation,” Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said.

“Our children are the ones who are victims,” Blumenthal added. “Teens today looking in the mirror feel doubt and insecurity. Mark Zuckerberg ought to be looking at himself in the mirror.”

New story in Technology from Time: Messenger Apps Signal and Telegram Benefit After Facebook Outage

Messenger apps like Signal and Telegram received a surge in interest after a Facebook Inc. outage left Whatsapp users in the lurch. At least 2.7 billion social network users around the world were plunged into digital darkness on Monday as Faceboo’s suite of apps and services, including Whatsapp and Instagram, went down. For six hours, from around 11:40am EDT, millions of communication channels were unusable.

The company attributed the outage to a “faulty configuration change” and promised there was “no evidence that user data was compromised as a result.” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, whose net worth dropped by $6bn as a result of the outage, apologized for the disruption as the apps came back online.
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According to Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app favored by activists and organizers concerned about data privacy, “millions” flocked to its app after the outage. “Signups are way up on Signal (welcome everyone!),” the company tweeted on Monday. Signal declined to disclose more specific user numbers.

Other alternative message apps, such as Telegram and Discord, enjoyed a surge of signups. Telegram currently ranks fifth on the U.S. Apple App Store’s top free apps chart.

The sheer scale of Monday’s Facebook outage highlighted the company’s monopoly over social media worldwide. Whatsapp has more than 2 billion users across 180 countries, and is the market leader in all but 25 countries globally. It is also heavily relied on by many people in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, India and Argentina to communicate.

Read more: From Instagram’s Toll on Teens to Unmoderated ‘Elite’ Users, Here’s a Break Down of the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Revelations

Signal uses end-to-end encryption, similar to Whatsapp and iMessage. In fact, Whatsapp integrated Signal’s protocol into its encryption software in 2016. What sets Signal apart is the extra level of security it provides: messages’ metadata are encrypted, blocking out hackers and law enforcement agencies alike. Moreover, Signal is owned and operated by a non-profit foundation, rather than a multinational corporation. Whatsapp, on the other hand, stores user data to share with Facebook, even if messages themselves are protected.

NSA whistleblower and privacy activist Edward Snowden tweeted his support for Signal on Monday. “Facebook-owned Whatsapp being down is a reminder that you and your friends should probably be using a more private, non-profit alternative like @Signalapp anyway (or another open-source app of your choice),” he wrote in a tweet.

This is not the first time users have ditched Facebook-run platforms for Signal and other platforms in recent months due to data protection and privacy concerns. In January, a privacy update on Whatsapp asked users to consent to businesses sharing their data with Facebook for marketing purposes. A spokesperson for Signal claimed that move prompted a “super, super exodus” of users from the platform to Signal. Whatsapp ended up delaying the proposed update, from Feb. 8 to May 15, due to “confusion” and “misinformation” over “our principles and the facts.”

Read more: Here’s How to Fix Facebook, According to Former Employees and Leading Critics

In an interview with TIME last year, Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton, who had defected to Signal, said, “Any time there is some form of unrest or a contentious election, there seems to be an opportunity for us to build our audience.”

Drew Angerer—Getty ImagesFormer Facebook employee Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled ‘Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower’ on Capitol Hill Oct. 5, 2021 in Washington, DC.

The outage was the latest in a series of headaches for the social media company. A series of reporting by the Wall Street Journal known as the Facebook Files, based on internal documents leaked by a Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, exposed the company’s awareness of harms caused by its products and decisions.

Haugen went public on CBS’s 60 Minutes program on Oct. 3 and testified before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. She told the committee the social network puts “astronomical profits before people’ and its products “harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.”