The Former Israeli Spies Working in Top Jobs at Google, Facebook and Microsoft – MintPress - June 2023

AMintPress study has found that hundreds of former agents of the notorious Israeli spying organization, Unit 8200, have attained positions of influence in many of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon.

The Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) Unit 8200 is infamous for surveilling the indigenous Palestinian population, amassing kompromat on individuals for the purposes of blackmail and extortion. Spying on the world’s rich and famous, Unit 8200 hit the headlines last year, after the Pegasus scandal broke. Former Unit 8200 officers designed and implemented software that spied on tens of thousands of politicians and likely aided in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

#NSO #Pegasus #Israel #Unit8200 #ProjectNimbus #Google #Meta #Facebook #Microsoft #Intel #spyware #surveillance

Meta  confirms it is blocking EU-based users from accessing Threads via VPN

#Meta #Threads #VPN #EU

Google #Maps has an open source rival powered by #Meta and #Microsoft . This is what their first map with unpublished data looks like

Late last year we saw Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft and TomTom create the Overture Maps Foundation (OMF), which has managed to capture 59 million "points of interest" such as restaurants, landmarks, streets and regional boundaries. Now their data is being made public to enable companies to create their own maps, without having to rely on Google or Apple.

https://overturemaps.org/overture-maps-foundation-releases-first-world-wide-open-map-dataset/

#USA Coalition Sue #Meta for Harming Youth

New York Attorney General Letitia James and a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general today filed a federal lawsuit against Meta for harming young people’s mental health and contributing to the youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit alleges that the company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on #Instagram, #Facebook, and its other social media platforms that purposefully addict children and teens. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit also charges that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without informing parents or obtaining parental consent, in violation of federal law.

“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” said Attorney General James. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem. Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable. I am proud to join my fellow attorneys general to stop Meta’s harmful tactics and keep children safe online.”

The lawsuit alleges that Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, exploited young users for profit by designing its business models to maximize young users’ time and attention and deploying harmful and manipulative features that harm young users. Meta designed features on its platforms that it knew would harp on young users’ vulnerabilities. These features include:

Algorithms that are designed to recommend content to keep users on the platform longer and encourage compulsive use;
“Likes” and social comparison features known by Meta to harm young users;
Incessant alerts meant to induce young users to return to Meta’s platforms constantly, even while at school and throughout the night;
Visual filter features known to promote young users’ body dysmorphia; and
Content-presentation formats, such as “infinite scroll,” designed to discourage young users’ attempts to self-regulate and disengage with Meta’s products.

https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/meta-multistate-complaint.pdf

https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-and-multistate-coalition-sue-meta-harming-youth

🇵🇸 Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content | Human Rights Watch –

Meta’s content moderation policies and systems have increasingly silenced voices in support of Palestine on Instagram and Facebook in the wake of the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 51-page report, “Meta’s Broken Promises: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook,” documents a pattern of undue removal and suppression of protected speech including peaceful expression in support of Palestine and public debate about Palestinian human rights.

Human Rights Watch found that the problem stems from flawed Meta policies and their inconsistent and erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals.

#Palestine #SocialPlatforms #Meta #Facebook #Instagram #Censorship
21/21/2023 #Report

Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content | Human Rights Watch –


#Report #Censorship #Facebook #Instagram #Meta #SocialPlatforms
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2023/12/ip_meta1223%20web.pdf

#gov #censorship #fb #Facebook #meta #why

Judge Orders NSO Group to Surrender Pegasus Source Code to Meta | BitDefender - March 2024

A US Judge ordered the infamous spyware developer and vendor NSO Group to turn over its source code to Meta as part of an almost four-year lawsuit.

Meta sued NSO in 2019 after the American company discovered that a zero-day WhatsApp vulnerability was used to deploy the spyware. According to a Guardian report, the NSO's spyware was allegedly used against 1,400 people in the course of just two weeks.

#Pegasus #NSO vs #Meta #WhatsApp #SourceCode

Engineers warned #Meta that nations can monitor chats; staff fear usrael is using this trick to pick assassination targets in Gaza.

https://archive.ph/o1ld8

#fb #Facebook #WhatsApp #why