Technology | Praxis

The Reddit Fan Club Powering Donald Trump Online

For a presidential candidate who hasn’t pursued a sophisticated tech strategy, Donald Trump has a huge base of support online. Facebook and Twitter have helped to showcase the Republican nominee’s incessant self-promotion. But it’s on Reddit where his supporters are fully in charge. During this crazy election season, the pro-Trump subreddit /r/The_Donald has emerged as a hub for some of the Republican candidate’s most Internet-savvy supporters. Today, those people claim the greatest Reddit reward: Trump himself will drop by tonight at 7PM Eastern for an AMA—the “ask me anything” question-and-answer session that has become…

Despite Dems’ High Tech Advantages, Lowly Email May Doom Clinton’s Chances

“The DNC documents show this election really wasn’t an election at all. It was a coronation,” said Joshua Rothstein, a 25-year-old comedian from Brooklyn, his cardboard-and-duct tape pitchfork in hand. “Before those documents came out, I would have been happy to support Hillary.” But, he says, “the leaks put me over the edge.” Wasserman Schultz’s departure, especially the day before the convention begins, instantly casts the Democrats as a party in turmoil. That’s a far cry from the image the party hoped to present after…

Last Known Maker of VCRs Is Calling It Quits

40 years after the first VHS video cassette recorder rolled off the production line, the last known company making the devices is ceasing production. According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Funai Electric, a Japanese consumer electronics company, will give up on the format by the end of the July after 30 years of production. Declining sales, plus a difficulty in obtaining the necessary parts, prompted Funai Electric to cease production. While the Funai brand might not be well-known in the west, the company sold VCRs under the…

BlackBerry CEO Blasts Apple, Says Tech Companies Should Provide Data Under Subpoena

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said he is “disturbed” by Apple’s tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm’s attitude is harmful to society. Now, we already know that Chen and Apple don’t see eye-to-eye on security. In December, Chen waded into Apple’s FBI encryption battle in which the iPhone maker resisted government demands to unlock a device because it would be an “unprecedented step which threatens the security of customers”. Chen remarked: “We are indeed in a dark place when companies…

‘Communist’ China Is Going to Ban Ad Blocking Software

There are apparently 159 million people who block ads on their mobile devices in China. Desktop numbers are relatively low by comparison. All of them, though, are going to have a fundamental right snatched from them come September, when their government will take away their right to block ads. That’s because just last week China issued its Internet Advertising Interim Rules, Article 16 of which will place a ban on ad blocking. Aside from the oppressive part, the new regulations will seek to define what…

9th Circuit: Visiting Private Websites Against Owners’ Wishes Is Trespass

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has handed down a very important decision on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Facebook v. Vachani, which I flagged just last week. For those of us worried about broad readings of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the decision is quite troubling. Its reasoning appears to be very broad. If I’m reading it correctly, it says that if you tell people not to visit your website, and they do it anyway knowing you disapprove, they’re committing…

Lawsuit: DOJ and FBI Deliberately Use Obsolete Software to Stymie Information Requests

A new lawsuit alleges that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) intentionally conducts inadequate searches of its records using a decades-old computer system when queried by citizens looking for records that should be available to the public. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) researcher Ryan Shapiro alleges “failure by design” in the DOJ’s protocols for responding to public requests. The FOIA law states that agencies must “make reasonable efforts to search for the records in electronic form or format”. In an effort to demonstrate that the…

Is Pokemon Go a National Security Risk? Potentially, Yes

Nintendo’s smash hit augmented reality game Pokemon Go is attracting the attention of conspiracy theorists who believe it’s part of an elaborate plot to spy on users or get them to spy on behalf of sundry foreign governments. In China, where the app is not officially available, people are telling each other to avoid using the app anyway lest it allegedly allow foreign nations to spy on the country’s military installations: “Don’t play Pokemon GO!!!” said user Pitaorenzhe on Chinese microblogging site Weibo. “It’s so…

When a Driverless Car Crashes, Should Passengers or Pedestrians Get Protected First?

Driverless cars pose a quandary when it comes to safety. These autonomous vehicles are programmed with a set of safety rules, and it is not hard to construct a scenario in which those rules come into conflict with each other. Suppose a driverless car must either hit a pedestrian or swerve in such a way that it crashes and harms its passengers. What should it be instructed to do? A newly published study co-authored by an MIT professor shows that the public is conflicted over…

Tim Cook and Apple Are Right: Encryption Is a Human Right That Must Be Protected

Apple is under fire from critics but this time it’s not for a hardware or software mishap. Instead, the company is being sued by the U.S. federal government to compromise the security of its users by creating a means of bypassing encryption on its iPhone mobile phones. At issue in the dispute is the smartphone of Syed Rizwan Farook, the man at the center of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California which killed 14. Before his death, Farook had enabled full device encryption…

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