Kazakhstan's parliament approved a bill on Wednesday requiring owners of foreign social media and messaging apps to set up offices in the country or risk being blocked as part of a campaign against cyberbullying. Reuters reports: The draft law, which had passed its first reading in the lower house of parliament, focuses on protecting children's rights but includes provisions regarding social media and messaging software, which some critics regard as a tool to censor online comment. Once the bill is approved by the senate and the president, it will require the owners of such apps to register with authorities and open offices in the Central Asian nation, moves the government says will streamline the handling of official requests to remove illegal content. The local offices must be headed by Kazakh citizens who will be personally responsible for removing illegal content - such as posts deemed to amount to cyberbullying - within 24 hours of being notified, according to the draft.

Two top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee's panel over consumer protection said they were launching a probe into Facebook after The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the company was aware of the harm Instagram can cause to teenage girls. The Verge reports: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced their investigation into Facebook in a statement released Tuesday. The senators said that they were in touch with "a Facebook whistleblower" and would seek new documents and witness testimony from the company related to the reporting. "It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable. The Wall Street Journal's reporting reveals Facebook's leadership to be focused on a growth-at-all-costs mindset that valued profits over the health and lives of children and teens," the lawmakers said. "When given the opportunity to come clean to us about their knowledge of Instagram's impact on young users, Facebook provided evasive answers that were misleading and covered up clear evidence of significant harm."

House lawmakers also criticized Facebook over the Journal's new reporting, and Republicans even issued a new amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation seeking to address tech's effects on teens. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) introduced the measure that would direct the Federal Trade Commission to go after "unfair and deceptive acts or practices targeting our children's mental health and privacy by social media." The amendment failed. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, said in a tweet, "Big Tech has become the new Big Tobacco. Facebook is lying about how their product harms teens." A group of Democrats, including Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Lori Trahan (D-MA), penned a letter to Facebook Wednesday calling on the company to abandon its plans to launch an Instagram app for kids in light of the report.

Emergency software patches, in which users are pushed to immediately update phones and computers because hackers have figured out some novel way to break in, are becoming more common. From a report: Researchers raised the alarm Monday about a big one: The Israeli spyware company NSO Group, which sells programs for governments to remotely take over people's smartphones and computers, had figured out a new way into practically any Apple device by sending a fake GIF through iMessage. The only way to guard against it is to install Apple's emergency software update. Such emergency vulnerabilities are called "zero days" -- a reference to the fact that they're such an urgent vulnerability in a program that software engineers have zero days to write a patch for it. Against a hacker with the right zero day, there is nothing consumers can do other than wait for software updates or ditch devices altogether.

Once considered highly valuable cyberweapons held mostly by elite government hackers, publicly disclosed zero-day exploits are on a sharp rise. Project Zero, a Google team devoted to identifying and cataloging zero days, has tallied 44 this year alone where hackers had likely discovered them before researchers did. That's already a sharp rise from last year, which saw 25. The number has increased every year since 2018. Katie Moussouris, founder and CEO of Luta Security, a company that connects cybersecurity researchers and companies with vulnerabilities, said that the rise in zero days is thanks to the ad hoc way that software is usually programmed, which often treats security as an afterthought. "It was absolutely inevitable," she said. "We've never addressed the root cause of all of these vulnerabilities, which is not building security in from the ground up." But almost paradoxically, the rise in zero days reflects an online world in which certain individuals are more vulnerable, but most are actually safer from hackers.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The FCC has announced (PDF) it's investigating deals the broadband industry strikes with landlords that block broadband competition in apartment complexes, condos, and developments. While the FCC passed rules in 2008 attempting to prevent such deals, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have exploited massive loopholes in the restrictions for more than a decade. "With more than one-third of the U.S. population living in condos and apartment buildings, it's time to take a fresh look at how exclusive agreements between carriers and building owners could lock out broadband competition and consumer choice," interim FCC boss Jessica Rosenworcel said of the announcement. "I look forward to reviewing the record."

The inquiry comes after President Biden signed an executive order in July urging regulators to take a closer look at competition and monopoly issues in several sectors. The order also mandated the creation of a competition council, which urged the FCC to take a closer look at the anticompetitive nature of these arrangements. The FCC's existing rules technically bar landlords and ISPs from colluding to restrict broadband competition. But in a 2016 piece in Wired, Harvard Law Professor Susan Crawford outlined the various ways big telecom wiggles around the restrictions -- often by simply calling what they're doing -- something else. "Sure, a landlord can't enter into an exclusive agreement granting just one ISP the right to provide Internet access service...but a landlord can refuse to sign agreements with anyone other than Big Company X, in exchange for payments labeled in any one of a zillion ways," Crawford wrote. "Exclusivity by any other name still feels just as abusive."

For example, to get around FCC rules expanding access to an ISP's in-building wiring, companies like Comcast or Charter will often deed ownership of these wires to a landlord, then turn around and pay that landlord to ensure that nobody else can have access. Because the landlord now technically owns the wires, the FCC rules no longer apply. ISPs also pay landlords to sign agreements that ban any other competing ISPs from advertising in the building. If you're a landlord that violates such arrangements, you can then expect a nastygram from a company like Comcast for violating your deal. In addition, many landlords will charge "door fees" to any company that needs access to a building to install new wiring, creating an additional layer of difficulty and expense for smaller broadband competitors trying to compete with dominant ISPs. Collectively such restrictions serve the same function as blocking broadband competition outright. Much as it does on the national level, this lack of block by block competition directly contributes to higher prices, slower speeds, and comically-terrible customer service.

Microsoft said it has hired a former Amazon cloud executive to run its cybersecurity operations, potentially setting in motion a legal battle between the two tech giants. From a report: Charlie Bell, who long reported to former Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy and oversaw the engineering teams working on AWS's main software services, will become an executive vice president reporting to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella. "Cybersecurity is one of the most challenging issues of our time -- for every person and organization on the planet -- and it is core to our mission," Nadella wrote in an email to employees obtained by Bloomberg. Securing customers' digital technology platforms, devices, and clouds "is a bold ambition we are going after and is what attracted Charlie to Microsoft."

[...] Bell's departure to a direct rival is a major blow for Amazon, and Microsoft said it's committed to continuing "constructive discussions" with the cloud leader about Bell's role. "We're sensitive to the importance of working through these issues together, as we've done when five recent Microsoft executives moved across town to work for Amazon," Microsoft said in a statement. Amazon, which has a history of seeking to enforce non-compete agreements vigorously, didn't immediately comment on the move. Bell will officially start his role once "a resolution is reached with his former employer," Nadella wrote in the email.

Anyone with a Microsoft account can now remove their password from the account entirely to enable better security. From a report: "For the past couple of years we've been saying that the future is passwordless, and today I am excited to announce the next step in that vision," Microsoft corporate vice president Vasu Jakkal writes in the announcement post. "Beginning today, you can now completely remove the password from your Microsoft account." As for the "why" of this change, Microsoft points to the fact that passwords are insecure and are the focus of over 18 billion attacks every year, or 579 attacks every second. Before you can go passwordless, you'll need the Microsoft Authenticator app on your smartphone. Then, you can use Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code that's sent to an email address, your phone, or a compatible app or service like Outlook, OneDrive, Microsoft Family Safety, and more to sign-in, depending on the location.

Thelasko shares a report from the BBC: A new "massive" undersea transatlantic communications cable has been brought ashore on a beach in Cornwall. The Google data cable, called Grace Hopper, was landed in Bude on Tuesday. Once operational, it would have the capacity to handle "17.5 million people streaming 4K video concurrently," Google bosses said. The cable has been laid between New York in the United States, Bilbao in Spain and Bude over several months, and is expected to be operational in 2022. It was part of a "new generation" of lines that "connect continents along the ocean floor with an additional layer of security beyond what's available over the public internet," Google said. The tech giant has named it Grace Hopper after the American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. It is about 7,000km (4,350 miles) long and is the company's fourth privately-owned undersea data cable, which transport 98% of international internet traffic around the world.

A Russian court on Tuesday said it had fined U.S. social media companies Facebook and Twitter for failing to delete content that Moscow deems illegal, part of a wider crackdown by Russia on the internet and Big Tech. From a report: The Tagansky district court said Facebook had been handed five fines totalling 21 million roubles ($287,850). Twitter received two fines of a total 5 million roubles, it said. Popular messaging app Telegram had been fined 9 million roubles, the court said. Moscow's actions to strengthen its control of the internet have included a push to require foreign internet companies to open fully-fledged offices in Russia and to store Russians' personal data on its territory.

Twitter has again restarted its account verification process, the company said on Monday. TechCrunch reports: Since launching the revamped verification program this spring, Twitter had hit a few snags which have forced it to shut down verifications more than once. The most recent of these pauses was announced on August 13, when the company said it need to make improvements to both the application and review process. [...] Now, Twitter says users who are looking to be verified should keep checking their account settings screen for access to the in-app application. It didn't detail what, specifically had changed -- but hopefully the system will now remain open for good.

In studies conducted over the past three years, Facebook researchers have found that Instagram is "harmful for a sizable percentage" of young users, particularly teenage girls, reported The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. CNET reports: Research presented in 2019 reportedly found that Instagram makes body image issue worse for one in three teen girls. Teens also said Instagram increased rates of anxiety and depression, reported the Journal, citing internal company documents. On Tuesday, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, said it stands by its research to understand young people's experiences on the app. "The question on many people's minds is if social media is good or bad for people," wrote Karina Newton, head of public policy at Instagram, in a blog post. "The research on this is mixed; it can be both. At Instagram, we look at the benefits and the risks of what we do." Newton added that Instagram has done "extensive work around bullying, suicide and self-injury, and eating disorders" to make the app a safe place for everyone. The company is also focused on addressing negative social comparison and body image, said Newton, and is developing ways to "jump in if we see people dwelling on certain types of content."

The Instagram research is part of a "trove of internal communications" reviewed by the Journal. On Monday, the Journal reported that Facebook exempted millions of high-profile users, including celebrities and politicians, from some or all of its community standards as part of a program called XCheck. A Facebook spokesman said the program was meant to give certain Facebook pages a "second layer of review to make sure we've applied our policies correctly."

New Atlas reports the latest development with Michelin's airless tire technology, which has been in the works for almost two decades. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares an excerpt from the report: The advantages are pretty clear: firstly, you can never be brought to a stop by a puncture or blowout -- Michelin says about 200 million tires every year hit scrapyards early thanks to these. Secondly, you don't have to look after your tire pressures; that doesn't just save you time, it also eliminates all early wear caused by underinflation. Their internal spokes are hugely tunable to meet desired performance characteristics. You can individually tune their stiffness under acceleration, braking, cornering and bump handling forces. The bump handling characteristics can even be tuned to eliminate the need for separate suspension in some types of vehicles. You can poke holes right through the tread to let water escape, potentially creating much better resistance to aquaplaning. They take less raw material and less energy to make, making them better for the environment, and Michelin has estimated they'll last up to three times as long as a regular ol' hoop.

They have obviously not been easy to commercialize, though; 16 years and counting is a long and difficult birth for a product people are clearly interested in. The Tweel, which replaces the entire wheel assembly, has been available for some time for various off-road vehicles, but it's still yet to make it to the road. Michelin has teamed up with GM to design and start selling an airless tire for street use on passenger cars. Called Uptis, this product is a full-wheel solution requiring specialized rims. Michelin says it will withstand much greater impacts than a regular tire and wheel, and will have a "dramatically" longer lifespan, while adding no extra rolling resistance, not feeling any different to the driver and adding only around seven percent to the weight of the wheel -- less than existing run-flat tires do. GM will begin offering Uptis as an option on certain models "as early as 2024," and the partnership is working with US state governments on regulatory approvals for street use, as well as with the federal government.

At IAA Munich recently, the Uptis airless tire got its first public outing, in which "certain lucky members of the public" had a chance to ride in a Mini Electric kitted out with a set. By all reports, the experience was about as exciting as driving on a regular set of tires -- i.e. not very interesting at all. They felt no different. But that's kind of the point here, Michelin is hoping to bring in a new and improved technology with zero change in the user experience. Hence this awkward interview with "Automotive lifestyle YouTuber Mr JWW" (James Walker).

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: The latest version of Radeon Software adds an unusual (and welcome) new twist: The ability to automatically overclock your Ryzen processor if you're rocking an all-AMD gaming desktop. Yes, your GPU software can speed up your CPU now, too -- and it can do it all with a single click. [...] The addition of Ryzen auto-overclocking in Radeon Software 21.9.1 continues the theme, and might just allow you to ditch AMD's separate Ryzen Master tool if you're running a Team Red graphics card. They'll need to be newer hardware, though, as the feature currently only supports AMD's latest Ryzen 5000 CPUs and Radeon RX 6000 GPUs.

AMD's blog describes how to use the new tool: "To access this easy-to-use feature, open up Radeon Software using the hotkey 'ALT' + 'R', navigate to the 'Performance' tab found at the top of the window, and select 'Tuning' in the sub tab directly below it. If you have the latest generation of AMD Ryzen and Radeon product installed on your system, a 'Tuning Control' section should appear for your system, allowing you to select 'Auto Overclock' to increase performance on both your processor and graphics card. We also have a new tuning section for CPUs, allowing you to overclock just your CPU. When the feature is selected, the system will ask for a restart and once you are back in Windows, you will be good to go!" "Radeon Software 21.9.1 also adds official Windows 11 support and the ability for Radeon RX 5000-series GPUs to tap into Smart Access Memory," adds PCWorld. "AMD also took the time to tout FidelityFX Super Resolution's rapid uptake. The DLSS rival is now supported in 27 games, with Arkane's awesome-looking Deathloop set to launch this week with native FSR support in place."

You can download these new drivers here.

TikTok faces two investigations by the Irish data watchdog following intense scrutiny for months over concerns that children's data isn't safe on the platform. From a report: Ireland's Data Protection Commission, said on Tuesday it opened two "own volition" investigations into ByteDance's TikTok amid worries about the way it handles its users' data. The Irish regulator became TikTok's lead European Union data protection authority in December. The first probe will look into TikTok's processing of data by its underage users and whether it's in line with the EU's strict protection rules. The second follows concerns expressed by the Irish privacy chief, Helen Dixon, that some EU user data could be accessed by "maintenance and AI engineers in China."

South Korea's competition regulator on Tuesday announced it will fine Google 207.4 billion Korean won ($176.9 million) for allegedly using its dominant market position in the mobile operating system space to stifle competition. From a report: Google's Android operating system currently holds the lion's share of the smartphone market, ahead of Apple's iOS platform. The U.S. tech giant allegedly used its market position to block smartphone makers like Samsung from using operating systems developed by rivals, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Yonhap News added that the regulator, which published its decision in Korean, said the tech giant required smartphone makers to agree to an "anti-fragmentation agreement (AFA)" when signing key contracts with Google over app store licenses and early access to the operating system. That agreement prevented device makers from installing modified versions of the Android operating system, known as "Android forks," on their handsets, Yonhap reported. The regulator alleged that Google's practice stifled innovation in the development of new operating systems for smartphones, the news site added. The KFTC has asked the tech giant to stop forcing companies to sign AFAs and ordered it to take corrective steps, according to Yonhap.

An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2015, representatives from more than 196 countries met in Le Bourget, France to sign the Paris Agreement. The legally binding treaty limits global warming to a rise of well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels, preferably capping warming at 1.5 degrees. While the Paris Agreement doesn't spell out how the undersigned are expected to achieve this goal, some countries have pledged to cut their net climate emissions to zero by 2050. For these and other steps to be successful, reliable data is key. While the ability to evaluate companies' carbon footprints will be critical for countries seeking to comply with the measures, only a fraction of companies currently disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. But researchers at Bloomberg Quant Research and Amazon Web Services claim to have successfully trained a machine learning model to estimate the emissions of businesses that don't disclose their emissions.

The researchers say investors could use this model to align their investments with international regulatory measures and achieve net-zero goals. Some regions, including the European Union, require investors to apply a "precautionary principle" that penalizes non-disclosing companies by overestimating their emissions. "Merely 2.27% of companies filing financial statements are disclosing their [greenhouse gas] emissions according to our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) datasets," the coauthors wrote in a paper. "In order to make a meaningful change, we need to measure who is contributing [greenhouse gases] into the atmosphere and monitor their claims to decarbonize."

New York is aiming to ban the sale of all gas-powered vehicles in the state by 2035. CBS News reports: A bill amending the state's environmental conservation law was passed by the state's Senate and Assembly and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last week. Under the new law, 100% of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will have zero emissions by 2035. That means state agencies will work to develop affordable powering options for zero-emissions vehicles in all communities, improve sustainable transportation and support bicycle and pedestrian options. Several agencies will work to create a zero-emissions vehicle market development strategy by 2023, so ensure more zero-emission cars are available in the state.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Uber drivers are employees, not contractors, and so entitled to greater workers' rights under local labor laws, a Dutch court ruled on Monday, handing a setback to the U.S. company's European business model. It was another court victory for unions fighting for better pay and benefits for those employed in the gig economy and followed a similar decision this year about Uber in Britain. The Amsterdam District Court sided with the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), which had argued that Uber's roughly 4,000 drivers in the capital are employees of a taxi company and should be granted benefits in line with the taxi sector.

The court found drivers who transport passengers via the Uber app are covered by the collective labour agreement for taxi transportation. "The legal relationship between Uber and these drivers meets all the characteristics of an employment contract," the ruling said. Uber drivers are in some cases entitled to back pay, the court said. The judges also ordered Uber to pay a fine of 50,000 euros ($58,940) for failing to implement the terms of the labor agreement for taxi drivers. Uber said it would appeal against the decision and "has no plans to employ drivers in the Netherlands." They added: "We are disappointed with this decision because we know that the overwhelming majority of drivers wish to remain independent. Drivers don't want to give up their freedom to choose if, when and where to work."

Last November, Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies scored a decisive win in California when a majority of the state's voters passed a company-sponsored ballot measure that cemented workers' status as contractors, albeit with some benefits.

Kape Technologies Plc agreed to buy ExpressVPN in a $936 million deal that will more than double the cybersecurity company's customer base and expand its tools for private web surfing. Bloomberg reports: Kape will pay $354 million in cash when the deal closes and the equivalent of $237 million in shares, which can be sold after a 24-month lockup, the company said in a statement on Monday. Another $345 million in cash will be paid in two installments, 12 months and 24 months after the close. The deal still needs approval from regulators.

Karen Hao, reporting for MIT Technology Review: The website is eye-catching for its simplicity. Against a white backdrop, a giant blue button invites visitors to upload a picture of a face. Below the button, four AI-generated faces allow you to test the service. Above it, the tag line boldly proclaims the purpose: turn anyone into a porn star by using deepfake technology to swap the person's face into an adult video. All it requires is the picture and the push of a button. MIT Technology Review has chosen not to name the service, which we will call Y, or use any direct quotes and screenshots of its contents, to avoid driving traffic to the site. It was discovered and brought to our attention by deepfake researcher Henry Ajder, who has been tracking the evolution and rise of synthetic media online.

For now, Y exists in relative obscurity, with a small user base actively giving the creator development feedback in online forums. But researchers have feared that an app like this would emerge, breaching an ethical line no other service has crossed before. From the beginning, deepfakes, or AI-generated synthetic media, have primarily been used to create pornographic representations of women, who often find this psychologically devastating. The original Reddit creator who popularized the technology face-swapped female celebrities' faces into porn videos. To this day, the research company Sensity AI estimates, between 90% and 95% of all online deepfake videos are nonconsensual porn, and around 90% of those feature women.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Facebook gives high-profile users special treatment, which includes immunity from its rules for some, and allowed Brazilian footballer Neymar to post nude pictures of a woman who had accused him of rape, according to a report. The XCheck or "CrossCheck" system steers reviews of posts by well-known users such as celebrities, politicians and journalists into a separate system, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. Under the program, some users are "whitelisted" -- not subject to enforcement action -- while others are allowed to post material that violates Facebook rules, pending content reviews that often do not take place.

People are placed on the XCheck list -- where they are given special scrutiny -- if they meet criteria such as being "newsworthy," "influential or popular" or "PR risky." Names on the XCheck program included Donald Trump, US senator Elizabeth Warren and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, although the report does not state whether those names were whitelisted at any point. By 2020 there were 5.8 million users on the XCheck list, the Wall Street Journal said. In one example cited by the WSJ, Brazilian football star Neymar responded to a rape accusation in 2019 by posting Facebook and Instagram videos defending himself, which included showing viewers his WhatsApp correspondence with his accuser. The WhatsApp clips included the accuser's name and nude photos of her. Instagram and WhatsApp are owned by Facebook. Instead of immediately deleting the material, which is Facebook's procedure for "nonconsensual intimate imagery," moderators were blocked for more than a day from removing the video, according to the WSJ.

The WSJ investigation details the process known as "whitelisting," where some high-profile accounts are not subject to enforcement at all. An internal review in 2019 stated that whitelists "pose numerous legal, compliance, and legitimacy risks for the company and harm to our community." The review found favoritism to those users to be both widespread and "not publicly defensible." "We are not actually doing what we say we do publicly," said the confidential review. It called the company's actions "a breach of trust" and added: "Unlike the rest of our community, these people can violate our standards without any consequences." According to another internal document, enforcement procedures and rule-drafting were subject to interventions from members of Facebook's public-policy team and senior executives. One 2020 memo from a Facebook data scientist added: "Facebook routinely makes exceptions for powerful actors." The WSJ also reported that the system suffered from enforcement delays that allowed posts to stay up before they were eventually prohibited. In 2020, posts being reviewed by XCheck were viewed at least 16.4 billion times before being removed. A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement: "A lot of this internal material is outdated information stitched together to create a narrative that glosses over the most important point: Facebook itself identified the issues with cross check and has been working to address them. We've made investments, built a dedicated team, and have been redesigning cross check to improve how the system operates."