Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen gave testimony in the US Senate this morning, answering questions from politicans about the internal documents she's leaked showing that Facebook knew their decisions were harmful, but deliberately didn't act because doing so would hurt engagement on the platform. Facebook's PR machine ramped up attacks on Frances trying to downplay her importance in the organisation and Zuck also got in on the gaslighting and history revisionism, saying that "most of us just don't recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted" and arguing that all of Facebook's "industry leading" research shows how much they care.
A court has ordered Tesla to pay a former factory worker US$137m after a jury agreed that Tesla "subjected him to a racially hostile workplace, that it failed to provide a workplace free from harassment, and that it was negligent in its supervision of employees". The jury heard from multiple witnesses that Owen Diaz "was told to 'go back to Africa' and saw racist graffiti in the bathrooms". Tesla's argument is that most of its employees are contract workers, so any abuse dished out in the factory isn't Tesla's problem. As Tesla normally does when something doesn't go their way, they put up a blog post giving their side of the story.
"Evolved Apes" is a collection of illustrations of apes looking stupid were sold as NFTs on OpenSea. The money was supposed to be used to make a crappy Street Fighter-esque game with the apes "fighting for survival" where "only the strongest ape will prevail". Instead of doing that, the creator of the project, Evil Ape, cashed out all US$2.7m in ether and disappeared. Someone calling themselves Mike_Cryptobull lost US$10,000 in the scam. They say they didn't give their real name "due to their standing in the community" but if it was me, I'd keep my name out of it so I don't die of embarrassment. Ya lost your dough on drawings of monkeys in funny hats thinking they're an investment mate!
People of Melbourne and Brisbane! Got half decent computers, monitors or PC components taking up space and can't be arsed selling them? Donate them to Womble Tech who refurbish them and give them to people who need a computer but can't afford one. Demand is high, but stock is low, so dust that "old" gear off and give it a new life with someone who will love it like you used to. They're also after volunteers across Australia if you have time to put your nerd skills to good use and lend a hand. I don't personally know the Womble Tech people, but it looks legit. Get around em!
📻 The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
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