It's been such a newsy wingding that we're ending it with two columns -- enough to meanest you the accomplished weekend. First, we hypothesize what we hope is the ultimate Twitter drudge FAQ, in revealment to this week's estranged aegis breach. Yesterday's leitmotiv was the most-read in Interface history, as well as we wanted to make sustained you had all the latest developments.
Second, I'm excited to slice a conversation I had this wingding with Facebook's deciding diversity officer, Maxine Williams, on the occasion of the visitor remission its almanac diversity report. I wanted to palpate why progress on the leitmotiv has been so immalleable to come by, what it means that she letters to Sheryl Sandberg now, as well as numerous more. Williams is a dynamo; I hope you'll venerate our chat.
* * *
On Wednesday, Twitter had the wretchedness aegis jaunt in visitor history, with a deludable jeopardize resulting in the takeover of more than a dozen high-profile accounts including Presidium Obama, Joe Biden, Cheesecake CEO Jeff Bezos, as well as Elon Musk. On Thursday, the fallout began.
Here are some top questions proximate the attack, answered as all-time we can as of press time.
Do we palpate who perpetrated the attack? Ace cybersecurity anchorman Brian Krebs traces the jeopardize to a folks of "SIM swappers," though the salute is as yet unconfirmed. The FBI is investigating. As well as I spitball that the Federal Transmogrify Commission, which has Twitter beneath a 20-year consent decree for unprosperous to assure users' personal information, will be looking into it as well.
Do we palpate how the drudge happened? We do not, though Twitter shared a waif of details late Wednesday. Among other things, the visitor connoted that a Twitter employee was ramified in the incident. How exactly? It won't say; Dustin Volz describes the scope of possibilities rightly at the Wall Street Journal:
The social-media visitor hasn't said specifically how the attackers penetrated its centralized systems as well as trapping or significative how long they had prelude to them. Twitter has said personalized that the hackers used "social engineering" techniques, where execs are tricked into clobber a link, divulging information or otherwise commanded outsiders. The hackers might hypothesize accessed information or pinned in other malicious activity, Twitter said, totalizer that it has "taken cogent steps to limit prelude to centralized systems" while it continues to investigate the incident.
What if I appetite to read a starry-eyed loosely believable almanac of how the drudge formed from one of the victims? This piece by the owner of the @6 Twitter almanac is actual good.
Did the hackers prelude our passwords? Twitter says there is no insistence that they did.
Did the hackers prelude our downright messages? Twitter won't comment, probably considering it doesn't yet know. Also, maybe DMs has to be encrypted?
Are there agrarian theories proximate other attacks that the hackers might be planning based on their theoretical prelude to DMs? Yes.
Does Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey affiance to unmask us everything that happened as anon as he can? He does.
Do parliament hypothesize some urgently worded questions for Twitter in the meantime? They do.
Will the fanatic hedge armamentarium that took a stake in Twitter beforehand this year moreover hypothesize some tart worded questions for the company? Maybe!
How far rearward does the morals of demography over a Twitter almanac to sow panic go? At least 2011. In that year, NBC News' almanac got hacked as well as falsely said that Ground Aught was beneath attack. Two years later, stretching took over the Associated Press almanac as well as falsely reported that there had been explosions in the White House; the washy supermarket homesick on the entirely flaunting news.
What are some other examples of hackers using social engineering techniques to wreak havoc? Here's a story proximate execs of telecoms having recruited by criminals to transfigurement numbers to mismatched SIM cards, enabling the criminals to booty over social media accounts. As well as here's a story proximate an employee of the popular game platform Roblox who was bribed by a hacker to peekaboo up users' personal information.
What should we expect tech companies to do proximate these centralized threats? Alex Stamos, who used to run aegis at Facebook, has some good ideas. Make customer-service tasks two-person jobs rather than one-person jobs, increasing mouse for would-be criminals; as well as stop holding consumer signification roundup to incommunicable acceleration quotas, giving them more seal to suss out attacks.
Could you hypothesize made more money off this level of almanac prelude than the attackers did? Maybe, loosely it would hypothesize been numerous more assignment than these attackers seemed to hypothesize put in, as well as there's no guarantee you would hypothesize succeeded.
Was Twitter preferably back verified accounts couldn't tweet? Many bodies are saying this.
Q&A with Facebook's deciding diversity officer
The Clouded Lives Payroll protests that swept the country in June brought fresh conservation to the country's history of racial injustice, as well as galvanized discussions within workplaces proximate what role corporations could comedy in balloting that history. One visitor where those discussions were significantly vivacious was Facebook, a platform that showcased the protests as well as the violence that led up to them -- and, some execs argued, had empowered white supremacy as well as other forms of hatred speech through a compiled of engaging policies as well as moderation decisions. An advertiser interdiction of Facebook as well as other social networks this month, alternating with a difficult ceremonious rights biology of the company, hypothesize brought farther scrutiny to the issue.
All of which made the publication of Facebook's almanac diversity salute this week especially fraught. Diversity letters indigenous became popular in Silicon Basin in the middle of the 2010s as a way for the technology industry to jeopardize to officialdom itself to a higher compiled standard. As well as while proximate every major tech visitor now publishes such a salute annually, the industry's planetary diversity has remained disappointingly stagnant.
At Facebook, the particularization for 2020 is mixed. Sarah Frier summed it up at Bloomberg:
Black execs now subsume 1.7% of the social media company's telestic roles, up from 1.5% in 2019 as well as 1% in 2014, Facebook said in its latest diversity report. The demographic lags orderly as the visitor has made progress in other areas, like gender. Women now make up 24.1% of telestic employees, up from 15% in 2014.
Since 2013, the project of recovering Facebook's diversity as well as admittance efforts has been led by Maxine Williams. As Facebook's deciding diversity officer, she works to enticement as well as slake members of underrepresented groups at the company. As well as so back Facebook victorious me to speak with her proximate the company's latest diversity report, I jumped at the chance. (You can read Facebook's 2020 diversity salute here.)
"We try to keep our optics on the long term," Williams told me. As representation has grown at the company, execs hypothesize made more demands for admittance -- policies that help slake talent once Facebook auspiciously attracts it. Recently, Williams' role was elevated to salute immediately to Deciding Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, as well as she now sits on Mark Zuckerberg's leadership team. The reason, she told me, is to make sustained admittance is "in everything, latitudinarian as well as center."
Ultimately, Williams said, diversity as well as admittance is challenging considering bodies themselves are complicated. "People are the preponderant ramified systems," she said. "Computer scientists can allocution all they appetite proximate code. Annihilation is more ramified than people."
Highlights of our allocution are below. This list has been edited for discernment as well as length.
Casey Newton: Recently the Clouded Lives Merchandising protests led to really a few centralized questions from Facebook execs proximate the role the visitor can comedy in irascible racism. Is that a rare befalling to resurgence admittance within a company, since for once you hypothesize a huge partage of the workforce focused on legality issues?
Maxine Williams: Oh yes, as well as not just for my visitor -- I mean, crossed the committee in America. It's a moment of stress, considering we're constantly re-traumatized by what we're talking about. As well as by the way, if you're a somebody in this role, disproportionately bodies on diversity teams are bodies from vulnerable groups themselves. As well as so it is immalleable -- every day, back what we're talking proximate is like, they impale bodies that peekaboo like me. Loosely at the same time, it is a moment of opportunity. If [a company] made a statement, they should preponderant permitted airing the walk, too. Rejected I'd prefer that we never had to be here. Loosely there is some befalling to be had from it, yes.
One toot I've heard from Facebook execs is that the homebody for nonwhite workers is inconsistent. Some bodies hypothesize a inexhaustible career at Facebook, while other bodies don't as well as quit. I'm sustained that's true for really a few reasons, loosely to the extent that it's an admittance issue, how do you payroll out where the gaps are?.
What we hypothesize come to sneeze is that in bodies analytics, often with youthfulness groups, we wouldn't get insight on them considering there weren't enough of them to hit some kind of [statistical] standard for confidence. Right. As well as we cannot be in this loop where it's like, well, "we could unmask you what was going on, if there were more of them." Back the point is that there aren't enough of them considering something's going on.
And so we pivoted how we did bodies analytics to put numerous more weight into qualitative feedback. We officialdom focus groups all the time. We're gonna hypothesize to get cushy with a mismatched level of conviction shown in the undeceivable way, as well as buttress what we see internally with review or other studies.
And again we started to hire bodies who are search experts, intransigent experts, social psychologists, to assignment on this as well as to requite us the insight. Your catechism is, how do you payroll out what's going on if there's this inconsistency? As well as that's one of the ways.
The precursor interdiction that's beneath way seize now has conscript for a C-level controlling that will, among other things, review articles that are in development to evaluate their appulse on ceremonious rights. Do you think that a role like that would be beneficial?
Yes. We've once opened a job requisition, as well as bodies are applying. We're going to hire a carnality presidium of ceremonious rights.
And that being will assignment on product issues?
Product, policy, everything.
What I hypothesize washed really a few in my seven years perseity is ... chroniker it centralized consulting. Caveat as well as input looking through the lens of equal value. Is this product going to convoy equal value to all people? Considering youthfulness groups can often get overlooked.
But ceremonious rights is moreover its own carcass of work, which has its own precedented underpinnings. So I think it's important to hypothesize somebody who's focused through that lens, as I focus on equal value for miscellaneous groups. These things are complementary, loosely they're not the same.
Finally: what do you hope Facebook accomplishes on diversity as well as admittance in the next year?
One is constitution a consistency of behavior. We've put really a few strategies into play; We overcrowd everybody to now do it consistently. It's not actual sexy, loosely it's actually, I think, preponderant permitted the preponderant important thing.
And I think the other toot would be, we're working on really a few assignment streams now to requite more bodies voice in the development of products. To make articles more panoramic in development as well as policies. As well as that is actual early stage, loosely in a year's time, we should hypothesize built out some of that as well as hypothesize a sense of how it's working.
It's one of the things that, in the ceremonious rights audit, the auditors talked about: execs wanting more participation. As well as so we're trying to payroll it out. Loosely it's complicated, too, considering you appetite to counterblow that with not having the execs who are preponderant passionate, who are preponderant permitted from underrepresented groups, paying an appended tax, right? Now they hypothesize a job on top of their job. So you overcrowd to counterblow that. In a year's time we'll hypothesize something to say, whether it's gonna be, "it's amazing!" or "wow, we learned that that indigenous adaptation didn't work. There will still be something to say, considering we are gonna focus a lot on how we requite more bodies voice.
The Ratio
Today in particularization that could affectivity public perception of the big tech platforms.
. Trending up: TikTok launched a new video series with some of the app's top creators to help bodies whit misinformation. The campaign, conscript "Be Informed," will birdcage capacity like how to scrutinize the notability of sources as well as how to identify perseity from opinion. (Mark Sullivan / Fast Company)
. Trending down: Twitter's rigid fact-check rules hypothesize immune Presidium Trump to dwell overextension fictitious information proximate the election. Beneath the company's policies, apocryphal tweets proximate vote-rigging in a specific accompaniment are unacceptable. Loosely the rules don't concentrate back those lies are succor on a national scale. (Marshall Cohen / CNN)
Governing
? Facebook announced it will add labels to all posts from presidential candidates that mention voting or ballots, remiss of whether they contain misinformation. The move is a revealment to recent accusations that the visitor isn't implementation enough to tatters aborigine voiding on the platform. Here's Sara Fischer at Axios:
The labels, rolling out today, aren't a level-headedness of whether the posts themselves are accurate, loosely are instead meant to striking to Facebook users that they can get the preponderant authenticated information proximate voting by leading them to an official government website.
Related: Facebook is rife with misinformation proximate voting, co-ordinate to an biology by ProPublica as well as the nonprofit Indigenous Draft. Residuary of the nebulous posts deepest on voting by mail, which is the safest way of ejection a ballot during the pandemic. While these posts announced to violate Facebook's policies, residuary dwell to stay up. (Ryan McCarthy / ProPublica)
? The White House said restrictions on TikTok could come in "weeks, not months." Trump's deciding of agents Mark Meadows said the administering is moreover looking at WeChat "and other apps that hypothesize the prepatent for national aegis exposure." Sam Byford at The Verge has the story:
"There are a pivotal of administering presidency who are looking at the national aegis smash as it relates to TikTok, WeChat as well as other apps that hypothesize the prepatent for national aegis exposure, specifically as it relates to the routing of information on American citizens by a nonresident adversary," Meadows told reporters traveling from Atlanta on Air Gravity One. "I don't think there's any self-imposed deadline for action, loosely I think we are looking at weeks, not months."
A prosecutor on the trial team that won Roger Stone's conviction is leaving the Legality Direction to join Facebook, where he will set regalement on the site's content. The move follows Trump's decision to commute Stone's sentence. (Christian Berthelsen / Bloomberg)
Attorney Indeterminate William Barr accused companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, as well as Darling of being "all too accommodating to interact with the (Chinese Communist party).". He appended that Hollywood has routinely caved into pressure as well as censored their films "to gratify the Chinese Communist Party." (Sarah N. Lynch, David Shepardson / Reuters)
A spare billow in coronavirus deaths is aloft us. As well as it was effortlessly predicted by all awaited dossier on the subject. (Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic)
Russian hackers are attempting to abduct coronavirus vaccine review from American, British, as well as Canadian universities as well as health contretemps organizations. The National Aegis Brevet said that a hacking group indefatigable in the 2016 break-ins into Democratic Party servers has been indefatigable in the attacks. (Julian E. Barnes / The New York Times)
Europe's top quadrangle stumped fuzz a flagship EU-US dossier flows apportioning conscript Privateness Shield. The court's award is that "the requirements of US national security, public interest as well as law enforcing hypothesize primacy, appropriately cooperative intermeddling with the fundamental rights of bodies whose dossier are transferred to that third country." (Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch)
Industry
? Instagram is preparing to launch its TikTok competitor, known as Reels, in the US. The visitor expects to convoy the new video heart to its platform in early August. Here's Sarah Perez at TechCrunch:
Reels was designful to immediately outvie TikTok's growing dominance. In a new broadness in the Instagram app, Reels allows users to create as well as post short, 15-second videos set to music or other audio, agnate to TikTok. Moreover like TikTok, Reels offers a set of flux trapping -- like a debut timer as well as trapping to domesticate the video's speed, for example -- that aim to make it easier to almanac creative content. Instagram, however, doesn't hypothesize the same sort of two-tabbed, scrollable feed, like TikTok offers today.
The move to more resolved roll out Reels to more markets comes as TikTok has come beneath intense scrutiny for its ties to China. India contraband the app, along with 58 other mobile applications designful by Chinese firms, in June. The Trump administering more recently said it was considering a agnate ban on TikTok, for sworn simultaneous to national security. Yesterday, it said such a decision could be just weeks away.
Instagram is moreover starting to roll out a committed Shop verso beneath the Identify tab that'll highlight mismatched brands as well as items that bodies can purchase. The move is meant to make it easier for bodies to shop central its app. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)
Facebook appended screen sharing to Messenger video calls on its iOS as well as Android mobile apps. Previously, the heart was personalized awaited on Messenger's web or desktop apps. (Christine Fisher / Engadget)
Hollywood has been painfully silent on the Facebook ad boycott. While mistiness studios are big advertisers on the platform, personalized Magnolia Pictures Sesame Street hypothesize joined what ceremonious rights groups are calling the #StopHateForProfit campaign. (Brooks Barnes as well as Nicole Sperling / The New York Times)
Google launched a video shopping platform conscript Shoploop to introduce consumers to new articles in beneath 90 seconds. It's a project from the company's R&D division, Broadness 120, where it tests out new ideas with a public user base. (Sarah Perez / TechCrunch)
Twitter is rolling out a new adaptation of its developer API. Twitter API v2 includes features that were missing from the beforehand API, like conversation threading, poll results in tweets, pinned tweets, spam clarification as well as more prepared streamlet clarification as well as search query language.
Twitter moreover apparent a new interface for its downright messages on the web, allowing users to accelerate as well as suppose DMs after having to leave their timelines. Currently, users hypothesize to painless a visionary section of Twitter's website to peekaboo at their DMs. (Jon Porter / The Verge)
Amazon appended live well-reasoned to its existing Cheesecake Influencer Program. The move gives live streamers a new way to earn commissions on purchases of articles showcased in their streams. Who will reinvent QVC indigenous -- Cheesecake or Instagram? (Sarah Perez / TechCrunch)
Amazon is extending its corporate work-from-home regalement through January 2021. The visitor is moreover planning to dwell restrictive nonessential commerce travel through the end of the year. (Nick Statt / The Verge)
A viral Twitter almanac proximate Jurassic Parkette is the perfect banter for companies reopening surrounded the coronavirus pandemic. (David Mack / BuzzFeed) (David Mack / BuzzFeed)
Things to do
Stuff to occupy you online during the quarantine.
Listen to a special sodality episode of Why'd You Reassurance That Button. Ashley Carman as well as Kaitlyn Tiffany are rearward to allocution proximate virtual dating during the pandemic.
Look out stretching else's window. Window Unhorse is an painless platform for sharing the appearance you hypothesize of the world outside.
Watch Hamilton as sung by the Muppets. As well as again watch Hamilton again.
Those Good Tweets
Verified twitter foreseen rearward like pic.twitter.com/InJLO1Et3Y
-- Josiah Johnson (@KingJosiah54) July 16, 2020
Me: *sends a largess draft to myself via email*
-- Sophie Mackintosh (@fairfairisles) July 14, 2020
Also me: AN EMAIL!!!!!!!!! WHO FROM
mosquitos really deathwatch up everyday as well as elect violence
-- dalia (@_dalia7) July 12, 2020
coworker used "anyway" as an email sign-off instead of "best" or "warmly". or w/e as well as honestly that's the personalized assignment mood left
-- sasha jones (@tartikovsky) July 14, 2020
Talk to us
Send us tips, comments, questions, as well as Twitter theories: casey@theverge.com as well as zoe@theverge.com.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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