For Tech Giants, Halting Russian Meddling Won’t Be Easy

The U.S. indictment handed down against three Russian companies and 13 individuals suggests it won’t be easy to stop any aggressive influence campaign in the run-up to the midterm election in less than nine months.

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Like Peter Thiel, Tech Workers Feel Alienated by Silicon Valley ‘Echo Chamber’

Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel has said he plans to leave Silicon Valley in part because of its perceived cultural uniformity, joining other investors who have defected from the nation’s high-tech cradle.

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How the Russians Ran Their Election Propaganda Shop

The alleged Russian campaign to manipulate the U.S. presidential election was orchestrated by what amounted to a propaganda startup, with finance and graphics departments, performance targets and a sophisticated social-media strategy.

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How ‘Fortnite’ Defied Convention and Became a Hit

“Fortnite” wasn’t a big hit when it first came out as a $40 game. To attract players, Epic Games made an unusual decision: create a free version.

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Russians Charged With Interfering in U.S. Election

Three Russian companies and 13 Russian nationals were indicted Friday on charges of engaging in a widespread effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, providing the most comprehensive official account to date of a sweeping effort by Moscow to upend U.S. politics and set Americans against each other.

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Florida Shooter: When Social Media Foretells a Mass Shooting

Disturbing social-media posts apparently made by Nikolas Cruz before a deadly shooting spree have rekindled questions about what responsibilities and capabilities technology companies and law-enforcement authorities have for detecting threats among the billions of words, images and videos online.

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Twitter: Pokemon Was the Most-Mentioned Game Globally in 2017

Twitter took a look back at the video game-related content on its platform in 2017. In a blog post, Rishi Chadha, head of gaming content partnerships at Twitter, said more than 218 million tweets about gaming were shared by users around the world last year. In terms of mentions, the most-mentioned video game globally in…

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If You Thought Voice Was Easy, Wait Until Devices Make Predictions

Voice technology was everywhere at CES this year (toilets included), in large part because it’s an easy, natural interface. But it still requires input from consumers–which, at least in marketing terms, means friction remains. “There are few things more natural than simply asking for something and having that thing brought to you,” said Jason Snyder,…

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Gucci’s ’60s-Inspired Student Protest Ad Misses the Point About Why We’re All Mad

It doesn’t take a lot for people to stop believing in their institutions. It doesn’t take much to dampen our sense of injustice and the motivation to force change. If too many messages conflict, too many injustices go unpunished and too much infighting is left to fester in our fresh-dug trenches, we can easily become…

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Super Bowl Ad Directors? Yeah It’s Pretty Much An Exclusive Boy’s Club

At least that was the case this year, according to stats pulled together by Free The Bid. Maybe that’s why this year’s gaggle of ads has been tagged, by and large, as pretty lackluster.

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