Month: March 2022

‘Like a horror movie’: 19-year-old shares Ukraine escape on TikTok

‘I thought, “I’m going to show these videos to my kids and say that’s what we had to go through”,’ says Diana Totok As Diana Totok and her sister reached through the wire fence separating Romania from Ukraine to grasp her father’s hand, it occurred to her that she might never see him again. Ukraine’s …

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‘We are not ready’: a cyber expert on US vulnerability to a Russian attack

Ukrainian websites have been subjected to a relentless series of attacks – but what will happen when the sites are set on America? The war between Russia and Ukraine has been widely anticipated to play out online, in addition to on the ground. Moscow’s cyberwar capabilities have long been cause for concern. Russia has a …

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Best podcasts of the week: perfect, soapy escapism from Dolly Parton

The country singer’s new novel and accompanying album have been fused into Spotify’s ‘first Bookcast’. Plus: John Legend calls for prisoners to get voting rights Run, Rose, RunA podcast touched by the hand of Dolly Parton is a beautiful thing. What Spotify are calling their “first Bookcast” features audio excerpts of the novel the singer …

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Facebook and Instagram let users call for death to Russian soldiers over Ukraine

Parent company Meta makes temporary change to hate speech policy for users in eastern Europe and Caucasus Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates Facebook and Instagram users in some countries will be allowed to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, after parent company Meta made a temporary change …

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TikTok users in Russia can see only old Russian-made content

All non-Russian content blocked, in addition to ban on livestreaming and adding new content from Russia TikTok has blocked all non-Russian content in Russia but is allowing historical content uploaded by domestic accounts to stay online, including videos by state-backed media services. The Chinese-owned video sharing app said on Sunday it had banned livestreaming and …

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Twitter launches privacy-protected site on dark web to bypass Russia’s block

The Tor-friendly site follows moves by Facebook and BBC who also had their platforms restricted on state-owned media Twitter has launched a privacy-protected version of its site to bypass surveillance and censorship after Russia restricted access to its service in the country. Russia has blocked access to Facebook and has limited Twitter in an attempt …

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Luke Heggie: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The comedian and self-described ‘laggard’ shares what cracks him up online – including many long-forgotten morsels of Australian history I never really got formally introduced to the internet. I was off wandering around when it came out. Been a bit of a laggard since; I still have a Hotmail account. Most of my time now …

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Amazon referred to US attorney general over ‘potentially criminal conduct’

House judiciary committee asks Merrick Garland to investigate whether retail giant obstructed Congress with misleading conduct Members of the Democratic-controlled House judiciary committee have referred Amazon to the Department of Justice, alleging “potentially criminal conduct” by the company and some of its senior executives. In a letter to the attorney general, Merrick Garland, lawmakers claim …

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‘Catastrophic’ cyber war between Ukraine and Russia hasn’t happened (yet), experts say

Experts says both sides may understand that large-scale cyber attacks will result in ‘mutually-assured destruction of systems’ As military conflict has mounted between Ukraine and Russia, so have fears of unprecedented cyber war. Experts are monitoring both countries closely, fearing a volatile crisis involving one of the world’s leading hacking super powers could lead to …

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Biden signs cryptocurrency order to examine risks as popularity rises

Action comes as officials increasingly voice concern that Russia may be using cryptocurrency to avoid the impact of sanctions Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on government oversight of cryptocurrency that urges the Federal Reserve to explore whether the central bank should jump in and create its own digital currency. The Biden administration …

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