Category: Tech Talk

Miscellany of questions and information tidbits on day-to-day interaction with technology

Facebook users should be left to decide what is fake and what is authentic

April 17, 2018 benign0 14 Comments

When Rappler CEO Maria Ressa announced what was supposed to be a momentous “partnering” of her “social news network” and Vera Files with social media giant Facebook to “fact check” Filipinos’ social media activities, she was probably expecting to be lauded as a “hero” in the world’s “fight” against disinformation. Instead, the opposite has happened….

Society, Tech Talk

Rappler “fact checking” partnership with Facebook is turning into a FIASCO

April 16, 2018April 16, 2018 benign0 5 Comments

No matter what they do, the Opposition led by the Liberal Party cannot wash the yellow stain off their Yellowtard brand. Despite many rallies organised and many “reminders” to “wear white” in those rallies, the Opposition will, in the eyes of the majority of Filipinos, remain as Yellow as day-old piss. Branding, after all, is…

Media, Tech Talk

Facebook could now be effectively operating as a FOREIGN media operation in the Philippines!

April 14, 2018 benign0 5 Comments

Now that Facebook is in bed with Rappler and Vera Files an important question needs to be raised: Is Facebook now acting like a media operation in the Philippines? A foreign one? It is an important question to mull over because under Philippine law, media organisations are barred from being invested in by foreign entities….

Media, Tech Talk

A post-Facebook world

April 13, 2018 benign0 3 Comments

Like Bill Gates back in the turn of the century, the world’s biggest man of the hour, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is having his day on the grill. And like Gates back then, how he spends his time under the microscopes of monopoly busters, privacy advocates, and even conspiracy theorists will be a test of…

Read More “A post-Facebook world” »

Society, Tech Talk

Big Sisters are Watching: Rappler and Vera Files set to become Facebook’s INFORMATION POLICE!

April 12, 2018 benign0 11 Comments

A “report” published on Rappler today announced that the world’s largest social media corporation, Facebook, has enlisted the services of Rappler and Vera Files to provide “fact checking” services in the Philippines. According to the “fact checking process” to be followed under this arrangement, Rappler and Vera Files will be reviewing “flagged” stories and will,…

Media, Tech Talk

Cambridge Analytica parent company claims to have won the 2010 elections for Noynoy Aquino!

April 10, 2018April 11, 2018 benign0 2 Comments

It seems Raissa Robles could have incorrectly interpreted the 2013 brochure statement of SCL (“parent company” of the now-infamous Cambridge Analytica) as referring to the Duterte campaign for the 2016 elections. That 2013 brochure (archived by Web.Archive.Org here) cites the Philippines as a case study of an election won on the back of services provided…

Media, Politics, Tech Talk

Raissa Robles’s MISGUIDED “report” on how Cambridge Analytica inlfuenced the 2016 Philippine elections

April 6, 2018November 6, 2021 benign0 4 Comments

An article on the role “Cambridge Analytica’s parent company” supposedly played in the victory of current President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 elections is making the rounds. The “report” published on the South China Morning Post and authored by renowned Filipino “investigative journalist” Raissa Robles insinuates that the firm helped “rebrand” Duterte as “a strong,…

Politics, Tech Talk

Facebook hears the secrets that you keep when you’re talking in your sleep

March 21, 2018 benign0 13 Comments

Facebook is currently in a world of trouble after news about how a chunk of data harvested off it was used by an analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, to generate insights allegedly used to help current United States President Donald Trump win the elections in 2016. While many observers wonder whether this attention is due to…

Politics, Society, Tech Talk

PI is a shithole
on Killing “Fascists” will never save the world
Blah blah blah why don’t you focus on cleaning that
Oliver
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
The source and height of corruption is thinking that the
Freedominmyhead
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
Why does our leadership attract the corrupt? The structure basically
Tim
on Why make being an oligarchy sound like such a bad thing?
This is a great article. The country seems to want
Gabsboy
on Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt?
Life for the average working-class Filipino in February 1986 was
Blank
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
How do they explain paywalls when their businesses run on
benign0
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
Agree 100% banning AI is a band aid solution that
Gabsboy
on Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea
AI is ultimately a tool that doesn't possess an inherent