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The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
Two recent cable cuts that occurred in the Baltic Sea resulted in little-to-no observable impact to the affected countries, in large part because of the significant redundancy and resilience of Internet infrastructure in Europe.
One of the United States government's priorities in Internet policy is encapsulated by a term that's recently been making the rounds; the "free flow of information." It appears almost every time U.S. officials describe how they intend to protect the free and open Internet, especially when it comes...
Researchers found that surgical masks impede the spread of COVID-19 and that just a few, low-cost interventions increase mask-wearing compliance.
When should you use someone's family name first? And is Kim a first name or a last name? The Asia Media Centre looks at Asian naming conventions.
Språkrådet arbeider for å styrke det norske språket og språkmangfoldet. Språkrådet er statens forvaltningsorgan i språkspørsmål og følger opp den norske språkpolitikken.
When I joined Google a decade ago, there was hardly any discussion of diversity in tech. This was long before we published our diversity numbers or understood how import…
What do you do when you want to look up the owner of a domain name? You probably perform a "WHOIS search" to find out the owner's name and contact information. The WHOIS system, which makes certain domain registration data publicly available, is an invaluable research tool for trademark owners a...
As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom , and in subsequent books and articles. “True pacifism,” or “nonviolent resistance,” King wrote, is “a courageous confrontation of evil by…
Grant supports development of more advanced tools for volunteers and staff to reduce harassing behavior on Wikipedia and block harassers from the site.
The chart shows the share of children at the end of lower-secondary school age — aged 12 to 15 — who meet the minimum proficiency set by UNESCO in reading comprehension. This means they can connect the main ideas across various texts, understand the author’s intentions, and draw reasoned conclusions.
You can now donate to support Signal, the secure messaging service, directly.
We've opposed the Take It Down Act because it could be easily manipulated to take down lawful content that powerful people simply don't like. Last night, President Trump demonstrated he has a similar view on the bill. He wants to sign the bill into law, then use it to remove content about — him....
Major digital labor platforms, also known as gig companies, operating in the United States misclassify gig workers as independent contractors, denying them labor rights.
Two days ago, through its communications regulator, Uganda's government ordered the "Suspension Of The Operation Of Internet Gateways" hours before the country's general election. This action was confirmed by several users and journalists who got access to the letter sent to Internet providers.
Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030
Europe's top court rules that IAB Europe is responsible under the GDPR for the "TCF" consent system, which authorities have already found to be in violation of the GDPR.
German Data Privacy Commissioner Ulrich Kelber is also a computer scientist, which makes him uniquely qualified to comment on the potential consequences of the proposed new EU Copyright Directive. The Directive will be voted on at the end of this month, and its Article 13 requires that online...
Twitter started out life as a wonderfully inclusive society. There were very few rules and the ones there were the people loved. Thou shall be brief, retweet to respect. Under this constrained freedom, Twitter prospered and grew rapidly for the joy of all. Budding entrepreneurs built apps that m…
Terrorists, hackers, and journalists. According to a recent Guardian article covering new Snowden documents, British spy agency GCHQ considers all of these individuals threats—various levels of threats, but threats nonetheless. One intelligence report goes so far as to say, "Of specific concern are...
I’m sure all fields have terrible reporting, but the shit that’s coming out of the tech world must be eligible for some sort of cake. Taste this slice of delicious nonsense that made the Forbes site today in Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: We’ve Moved Past The Cloud: Salesforce.com remai…
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked the Supreme Court to review and overturn an unprecedented ruling allowing the government to intercept, collect, and store—without a warrant—millions of Americans’ electronic communications, including emails, texts, phone calls, and...
Human activity and behaviour is contributing to an increasing number of disasters across the world, putting millions of lives and every social and economic gain in danger, warns a new UN report.
An apartment in San Francisco costs how much?! Surely you jest, Priceonomics.
The public is always asking of nuclear, ‘what if it all goes wrong?’ Data from Chernobyl and Fukushima have now provided the answer.
Regular cannabis use has harmful effects regardless of the age a person starts using, a University of Queensland-led study has found.
