rules

Google has been fined $5 billion USD for breaking antitrust rules. European officials ruled it had acted unfairly in the way it linked its own services with Android devices. The fine comes from the European Commission, the administrative wing of the ... European Union, whose competition rules apply in 28 countries. It says Google breached the rules through the restrictions it places on companies that want to use its Android system on phones and tablets. Although the system is technically open source, regulators say three elements of Google's set-up go too far in promoting its other products and ... (view more)

British students have been banned from wearing any form of wristwatch in exams. It follows concerns that 'smart watches' containing helpful information could be disguised as ordinary watches. The new rules will affect most national exams for school ... students aged 16 and 18, including those which determined whether students can get a particular place on a university course. The rules say normally students must take off their watch and leave it in a visible place on their desk, though in some cases supervisors are collecting the watches and keeping them outside. The changes follow on from ... (view more)

Facebook says it deleted 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of the year. That means on average three to four percent of active accounts in this period were bogus. The figure comes in the company's first Community Standards ... Enforcement Report, which gives statistics about the action it takes over content that breaks its rules. It's part of an effort to improve transparency about the site and follows last month's publication of the full detail of the 'community standards' for the first time. Spam The Most Prevalent Problem As well as improving transparency, the figures are ... (view more)

Around a dozen Google employees have resigned over the company developing artificial intelligence for use with military drones. An internal petition against the work has reportedly been signed by 4,000 employees. The protest is over Google's ... involvement in Project Maven, a program the US Department of Defense is developing to make better use of its aerial drones. It is said to collect so much video footage from its drones in war zones and other areas where the US has a military presence that it's not viable to have humans analyze all the material. The idea of Project Maven is to use computers ... (view more)

YouTube has removed hundred of videos which included promotions for essay-writing services. The company says it breaches its rules but the video presenters say they weren't given enough warning. The case doesn't involve ads placed via YouTube itself ... that are shown to viewers before popular videos, or display ads shown on the site. Instead the 'ads' were part of the videos themselves. 700 Million Views For Promotions A BBC investigation found that more than 250 people who produce popular YouTube videos had broken off in the middle of a clip to promote EduBirdie, a Ukraine-based service which ... (view more)

Facebook has, for the first time, published the full details of what types of content and posts breach its rules. The list had previously been kept secret and seen only by moderators who vet requests to take down content. The full list of "community ... standards" is broken down into six categories: violence and criminal behavior; safety; objectionable content; integrity and authenticity; respecting intellectual property; and content-related requests. (Source: facebook.com ) In the first section, staff are to take into account the tone and context when dealing with threats of violence. The policy ... (view more)

Washington State has passed a law enforcing net neutrality. It could prompt a legal battle over state versus federal rulemaking power. The state law, which takes effect in June, is based on the net neutrality principle that all Internet data (except ... for illegal content) should be treated equally. The new law bans three specific behaviors by Internet providers who offer service in Washington state, namely: blocking users from accessing any legal service, content or application; slowing down transfer speeds for specific types of content; and giving favorable treatment to particular data in ... (view more)

Facebook has made a survey in which it asked if adult users should be allowed to ask children for 'explicit' pictures. The survey question appears to be a horrific mistake, albeit one that's hard to explain. The survey was seen by a journalist at ... the UK's Guardian newspaper, who posted screenshots of the questions. One of the questions read "There are a wide range of topics and behaviors that appear on Facebook. In thinking about an ideal world where you could set Facebook's policies, how would you handle the following: a private message in which an adult man asks a 14-year-old girl for ... (view more)

Artificial intelligence designed to make investing more reliable could backfire in the next stock market crash, according to a global business site. The article for website "Quartz" says AI systems might not react well if market conditions suddenly ... change. The problem is with the increasingly sophisticated way that computer programs can make investment decisions on behalf of human investments. Computers have been used for such processes for many years - but until recently, were simply set to follow basic preprogrammed rules. For example: the program might place a buy order if a ... (view more)

Google says it will use a combination of artificial intelligence and human expertise to combat online videos promoting hatred and terrorism. It's also going to tackle videos that follow the letter but not the spirit of its rules and will ... intentionally promote videos that can counter terrorist recruitment. The four steps are part of what Google and YouTube calls an ongoing program to enforce the principle that "there should be no place for terrorist content on our services." Step one is to improve the way Google's systems automatically spot videos that promote terrorism and ... (view more)