Cultural globalization

Instagram is dying a slow, drawn-out death, and I don’t think that I’m the only one to notice. The app has been at the center of controversy after controversy as Meta continuously shifts around its ambitions for it, tries to compete with other social media giants like TikTok, and packs itself full to bursting with suggested posts and a relentless number of advertisements. It feels like Meta is doing its best in order to maximize profits and draw users in, but from everyone I’ve talked to who feels the same as I do,…

Multiple YouTube channels under the Linus Media Group (LMG) brand have been taken offline after being hijacked by crypto scammers. The main Linus Tech Tip YouTube channel, which has amassed over 15 million subscribers, is offline, as are the TechQuickie and TechLinked channels. It appears all three were impacted by the same hackers. The channels stayed live briefly early Thursday morning, promoting bogus livestreams that included pre-recorded footage of tech personalities like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey talking about…

Ferrari has been targeted by a hacker who is threatening to release data linked to its customers unless the automaker hands over a ransom payment. Ferrari said it’s refusing to pay up. In a statement posted online on Monday, the company said it had been “recently contacted by a threat actor” who is demanding payment to prevent the release of customer details that include names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers. Customers’ payment details, bank account numbers, and details of Ferrari cars owned or…

Image: Lipowski Milan (Shutterstock)Governments in 35 countries shut down the internet for a record total of at least 185 times in 2022 alone, a new study shows. The New York-based watchdog group, Access Now, published the report on Tuesday noting that the rate of online shutdowns has not only skyrocketed but is lasting longer and are often targeting the populations during times when it is needed the most. Access Now launched its Keep It On campaign in 2016, and has found that India accounted for nearly half of the…

The Internet Archive’s latest project promises to expand its capacity to catalog old ham radio communications, but also podcasts, videos, and more communications from the days of the early internet.Photo: Pavel Kubarkov (Shutterstock)As much as some companies like Google are willing to let their cloud-based game services like Stadia perish on the vine, groups working to preserve digital information are only growing more sophisticated. On Monday, the nonprofit Internet Archive said they’re working with a grant to create a…

Photo: Handout (Getty Images)Can federal agencies turn to private data brokers to gather data on individuals that would normally be protected under local laws?That question took center stage during a public hearing in Cook County Illinois, where rights groups and immigration activists organized and urged lawmakers to investigate the ways U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allegedly partners with private data brokers to target undocumented immigrants. According to the activists, ICE’s siphoning up of vast troves of…