Snap workers had been neatly responsive to the app’s tiny one security points, newly unsealed criticism says
Top private investigator:
“By November 2022, Snap workers had been discussing 10,000 particular person reviews of sextortion every month, whereas acknowledging that these reviews ‘likely signify a tiny piece of this abuse’ given the shame and diversified boundaries to reporting,” says a newly unsealed model of the lawsuit filed by New Mexico’s attorney accepted in opposition to Snap. This less-redacted model of the submitting we first saw a month within the past provides original necessary facets about what Snap workers allegedly knew about the scope of the sextortion divulge it’s accused of facilitating on its platform.
In a single alleged occasion, workers referenced a case with 75 reviews in opposition to it “bringing up nudes, minors, and extortion, yet the tale used to be aloof active.” And in 2022, Snap’s interior review allegedly found that over a third of teenage girls and 30 p.c of teenage boys on its app had been exposed “to unwanted contact on its platform.” the criticism says.
The contemporary necessary facets paint an image of a firm responsive to its alleged shortcomings when it came to keeping kids on its provider, yet no longer sufficiently centered on fixing them. “Historical Snap belief and security workers complained that ‘they had tiny contact with upper administration, when compared to their work at diversified social media firms, and that there used to be pushback in making an are trying as a contrivance to add in-app security mechanisms which ability of [Snap CEO] Evan Spiegel prioritized make,’” the criticism says.
“… there used to be pushback in making an are trying as a contrivance to add in-app security mechanisms which ability of [Snap CEO] Evan Spiegel prioritized make”
In a advise posted to its newsroom, Snap mentioned its app is designed “as a anguish to focus on with a end circle of mates, with constructed-in security guardrails, and have made deliberate make picks to absorb it difficult for strangers to search minors on our provider. We proceed to conform our security mechanisms and insurance policies, from leveraging developed technology to detect and block decided assignment, to prohibiting friending from suspicious accounts, to working alongside law enforcement and authorities businesses, among so great more.”
In response to the criticism, Snap workers circulated an exterior assert in 2021 that integrated examples of alleged predators connecting with kids as young as eight thru Snapchat and obtaining tiny one sexual abuse field cloth. But they feared measures to accept this roughly habits would be unduly burdensome on particular person privateness and “make disproportionate admin prices,” the criticism alleges.
Workers additionally allegedly identified dangers with decided Snapchat capabilities, fancy Mercurial Add, which suggests diversified customers to glue with. “We want to advance up with contemporary approaches that ringfence our most vulnerable customers (minors) and absorb it tougher for predatory customers to web them via like a flash add, search, and so forth.,” an government wrote, essentially based on the criticism. “We predict about we can carry out this without meaningfully degrading the product ride for these customers if we pursue contemporary programs in stock generation/constraints and diversified programs to more effectively silo minors from folks originate air their networks.” Snap later made it so the Mercurial Add characteristic would finest expose up for 13 to 17-yr-olds’ accounts when they had “a decided preference of mates in identical old with that particular person.” But internally, the criticism says, workers identified that the methodology would aloof have vital shortcomings.
The unsealed criticism additionally contains more necessary facets on how Snap allegedly facilitated the illicit sale of weapons. In a single undated presentation, the firm acknowledged that its platform sees “50 posts linked to illegal gun sales per day and 9,000 views per day of these marketed weapons.” And even when shriek material is reported, “[r]eported shriek material is on the complete viewed a complete bunch of events sooner than assert.”
“Streaks absorb it not likely to unplug for even a day”
It additionally contains interior communications acknowledging the addictiveness of Snapstreaks, where customers are told what number of days they’ve persisted communicating with one other particular person. “Wow, we can have to have more addicting capabilities fancy this,” one worker allegedly wrote, essentially based on a January 2017 email. “Most streakers are our core demographic,” wrote one other. An October 2019 presentation allegedly neatly-known that “Streaks absorb it not likely to unplug for even a day.”
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Cloud computing has always been marketed to enterprises as a more cost-effective way for companies to access the compute resources they need, because they only pay for what they use and can easily scale back how much they are using, based on demand.
Enterprises were encouraged, on the back of these benefits, to streamline their on-premise datacentres and start migrating the applications and workloads that resided in them to the public cloud.
In the early 2010s, it is fair to say that companies had a much wider choice of public cloud providers to entrust their data to, with (the technology firms formally known as) HP and Dell both having enterprise propositions in this space, alongside Rackspace and the likes of Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Towards the latter half of that decade, HP, Dell and Rackspace (and a handful of others) had all bowed out of the public cloud race, with the rise of AWS often cited as a factor in their decisions to pivot their business models towards a mix of private and managed cloud services provision.
This, in turn, has paved the way for the cloud infrastructure market to become the three-horse race it is today, with AWS leading the charge, followed by Microsoft and Google Cloud.
With around two-thirds of an entire market dominated by just three players, it is perhaps unsurprising that the hold companies like AWS, Microsoft and Google have on the cloud infrastructure services market is coming under increased regulatory scrutiny in various markets across the world – and the UK is no different.
In September 2022, the communications regulator Ofcom launched year-long probe into the UK’s £15m cloud services market, with particular emphasis on the actions and activities of the market’s biggest players: AWS, Microsoft and Google.
The study’s aim, as outlined by Ofcom at the time, was to “assess the strength of the competition in cloud services and the position key companies hold in the market” under the terms of the Enterprise Act 2002, which is an act of Parliament concerned with preserving market competitiveness.
Halfway through its investigation, Ofcom published an interim report in April 2023 that singled out AWS and Microsoft, specifically, for engaging in anti-competitive behaviours that it claimed might financially disadvantage UK consumers and businesses.
The “behaviours” were serious enough for Ofcom to confirm it was consulting on whether to refer the UK cloud infrastructure services market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
This was in the wake of its investigation bringing to light evidence that users were being hampered in their ability to switch from one cloud provider to another or add additional ones to their roster of technology providers.
Despite opposition from both Amazon and Microsoft, Ofcom confirmed – at the time its final report into the UK cloud infrastructure services market dropped in October 2023 – that it would be referring the market to the CMA for a further anti-trust probe.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Why did Ofcom refer the UK cloud services market to the CMA?
Ofcom published a full-year report that chronicled the findings of its 12-month investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure market in October 2023 that raised red flags about some anti-competitive behaviours it claimed AWS and Microsoft are both known to display. This is why the market has been referred to the CMA.
These red flags included concerns about the fact cloud providers charge customers egress fees to transfer their data to a competitor’s environment, which Ofcom claimed could discourage users from switching between providers.
The report also flagged interoperability restrictions as being another matter of concern, as it means users often have to put additional effort into reconfiguring their data and applications to work in different cloud environments.
The offering of committed spend discounts, which Microsoft and AWS are both known to do to public sector users, was also raised as a red flag by Ofcom as it incentivises users to back a single cloud provider for all or most of their cloud needs, the regulator claimed.
Ofcom’s full-year report also devoted several pages to detailing concerns it had received about how Microsoft charges users more for running versions of its cloud products in its competitors’ hosting environments.
“We have received submissions that say Microsoft engages in several practices that make it less attractive for customers to use Microsoft’s licensed software products on the cloud infrastructure of rival providers compared to Microsoft Azure. The submissions allege that this limits their ability to compete for customers.”
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: What will the CMA investigation cover?
It will be the CMA’s responsibility to fully investigate the anti-competitive behaviours flagged in the Ofcom report. As well as this, the CMA also has powers to intervene and roll out changes to how the likes of AWS and Microsoft behave to correct any anti-competitive behaviours its work brings to light.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Who is overseeing the CMA investigation?
The CMA appointed an inquiry group to oversee the investigation on 5 October 2023. The group comprises four members: CMA inquiry chair Kip Meek, Robin Foster, Paul Hughes and Colleen Keck.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: How long will the CMA investigation into AWS and Microsoft last?
The CMA’s investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure services market is due to run until April 2025, meaning that by the time it ends, it will have run for about 18 months.
The investigation’s length has raised eyebrows and proven to be a great source of concern for UK cloud market stakeholders, who fear the 18-month timeline will pave the way for the companies under investigation to gain more share and influence at the expense of other, smaller providers.
And AWS made a similar announcement on 5 March 2024, with its pledge to waive the charges associated with transferring data out to the internet when users want to migrate workloads from its public cloud infrastructure.
In a blog post, announcing the move, the company claimed more than 90% of its customers never incur fees when transferring data out of AWS, because the company already offers 100 gigabytes per month of free transfers from its datacentre regions to the internet.
“If you need more than 100 gigabytes of data transfer out per month while transitioning, you can contact AWS support to ask for free data transfer out to the internet charges for the additional data,” the post stated.
“It’s necessary to go through support because you make hundreds of millions of data transfers each day, and we generally do not know if the data transferred out to the internet is a normal part of your business or a one-time transfer as part of a switch to another cloud provider or on-premises,” the company added.
The AWS blog post made no reference to regulatory pressure being a factor in its decision to waive data egress fees, but did say the move is in keeping with its view that moving to the cloud should give users choice and flexibility.
“We believe this choice must include the one to migrate your data to another cloud provider or on-premises,” the post added.
And doing so will not require users to close their accounts with AWS or change their relationship with the company in anyway, it added.
Just over a week after AWS said it was scrapping data egress fees, Microsoft published a brief blog post confirming that it was doing the same.
“We support customer choice, including the choice to migrate your data away from Azure,” said the Microsoft blog post. “Azure now offers free egress for customers leaving Azure when taking their data out of the Azure infrastructure via the internet to switch to another cloud provider or an on-premises datacentre.”
Technical and interoperability barriers were also flagged by Ofcom as complicating the lives of enterprises that might want to mix and match cloud services from competing providers. Therefore, Ofcom said the CMA could address this by forcing the hyperscalers to be more transparent about how nicely (or not) their technologies play with their competitors’ offerings.
One area that might be trickier for the CMA to fix is the offering of committed spend discounts, Ofcom acknowledged, because putting a stop to customers being able to access preferential pricing on products would mean higher prices and costs for users.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Has there been any shift in behaviour from AWS and Microsoft since the CMA investigation started?
On the whole, it has been business as usual for AWS and Microsoft. There has been no let-up in Amazon’s use of committed spend discounts to lure in public sector customers, for example.
Despite the offering of discounted pricing being a key area of focus for the CMA’s inquiry, details emerged in December 2023 that AWS had quietly renewed the preferential pricing scheme it had in place with the UK government.
This pricing scheme, known as the One Government Value Agreement (OGVA), has already been used to call off several multimillion-pound contracts, including one valued at £450m with the UK Home Office since its introduction in late 2023.
As reported by Computer Weekly in February 2024, Microsoft confirmed it had opened discussions with the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) trade body with a view to resolving its concerns about how it charges more for customers opting to run their own software in its cloud.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Has the CMA released any interim findings from its work so far?
On 23 May 2024, the CMA published the first in a series of working papers, to give stakeholders an insight into the shape its investigation is taking. The publications were released with the caveat that the working papers’ contents is not intended to give readers a steer on any provisional or final decisions the CMA is making.
The working papers include one examining the UK cloud market’s overall competitive landscape, along with others separately looking at how the charging of egress fees and the offering of committed spend discounts might impact which providers companies choose to use.
The meme coin market has seen a strong revival due to increased buying demand in the cryptocurrency market. As Bitcoin’s price aims to rise above $65,000, Pepecoin is trending sharply toward its previous all-time high. However, with the rally slowing down, analysts are beginning to worry about the possibility of a pullback.
Pepe’s Whale Interest Skyrockets
Pepe, a meme coin, now has a market capitalization of $4.6 billion. Over the past 24 hours, its trading volume increased to $3.6 billion, reflecting a growth of over 2%, despite market fluctuations. According to CoinMarketCap, Pepe ranks 23rd in the crypto market.
This current upward trend around new ATH is expected to continue for several days due to increased trading activity. According to IntoTheBlock data, the large transaction for Pepe surged from the low of 134 txs to 728 txs, triggering a surge of over 443%. This has boosted the buying sentiment around each support line.
Despite this, the volatility metric hasn’t surged as it continues to decline toward 125%. This might create possibilities of a bearish pullback from the recent high.
Pepe coin’s recent surge has highlighted a significant profit by a whale. The whale, using the address 0xe7d0, accumulated $13.9 million within three months. From December 2023 to February 2024, this whale invested $1.56 million USDT to acquire 1.40 trillion PEPE.
Recently, they sold 140.4 billion PEPE for 1.75 million DAI, recovering their initial investment as the coin reached an all-time high today. The address now retains 1.26 trillion PEPE, currently valued at $13.9 million, representing pure profit. If the address chooses to liquidate all the holdings, we might see a strong rejection in Pepe price, resulting in a sudden drop.
What’s Next For Pepe Price?
Pepe price is currently witnessing a surge in bearish pressure after witnessing selloff around the recent high of $0.0000116. The price is attempting to drop below the EMA20 trend line to validate a clear trend. As of writing, Pepe price trades at $0.0000102, declining over 1.5% in the last 24 hours.
Buyers are attempting to keep the price above the 20-day EMA ($0.00001). If successful, the PEPE/USDT pair might rise to the high of $0.0000116. This is a crucial level for the bears to defend, as a rally above it could pave the way for an increase to the overhead resistance zone between $0.000015 and $0.000017.
Conversely, a break and close below $0.00001-$0.000008 support zone will complete a bearish pattern. The pair could then drop to the strong support at $0.0000055. As the RSI level is now declining sharply toward the midline, bears currently have an advantage to dominate the price chart.
In the 1-hour time frame, the long/short ratio for Pepe has been surging and currently trades at 1.1839. This suggests that over 54% are expecting a bullish turnaround.
The Biden administration has expressed eagerness to collaborate with Congress on a cryptocurrency framework
The White House has opposed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) bill in its current form, but is open to dialogue
This represents the first positive response from the Democratic government regarding cryptocurrency regulation
The Biden administration has said that it wants to work with Congress over a cryptocurrency framework, despite opposing the passage of a bill that would affect the regulatory structure for digital assets in the United States. In a statement released yesterday, the White House said it was opposed to the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) but that it was “eager” to work with legislators to come up with a solution that satisfied all parties. This represents the first positive sounds from the Democratic government surrounding the crypto landscape and bodes well for future discussions on the matter.
OEIS Financial Fraud Private Investigator: FIT21 Calls for Spilt Power
FIT21 was tabled in July 2023 by U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson and, in board terms, called for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to “regulate a digital asset as a commodity if the blockchain, or digital ledger, on which it runs is functional and decentralized” while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should “regulate a digital asset as a security if its associated blockchain is functional but not decentralized.”
The White House responded to the bill yesterday, striking a tone that the crypto world has rightly seen as upbeat:
The Administration opposes the passage of [FIT21], which would affect the regulatory structure for digital assets in the United States. The Administration is eager to work with Congress to ensure a comprehensive and balanced regulatory framework for digital assets, building on existing authorities, which will promote the responsible development of digital assets and payment innovation and help reinforce United States leadership in the global financial system. [FIT21] in its current form lacks sufficient protections for consumers and investors who engage in certain digital asset transactions. The Administration looks forward to continued collaboration with Congress on developing legislation for digital assets that includes adequate guardrails for consumers and investors while creating the conditions needed for innovation, and further time will be needed for such collaboration.
OEIS Financial Fraud Private Investigator: Big Step Forward
While FIT21 doesn’t have the backing of the White House, it does have the backing of the House of Representatives; yesterday the House voted 279-136 in its favor, a vote that saw Democrats crossing party lines to support it. The bill will now move forward to the Senate where it is likely to fail, but many consider the point to be made:
Today’s FIT21 vote is a huge political moment for crypto.
The SEC is lobbying Congress to vote no. Every “yes” vote sends a strong message to the White House that it’s time to end this anti-crypto insanity.
— Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) May 22, 2024
Even if FIT21 fails, as many expect it will, it’s clear that there is a gathering groundswell of opinion that crypto and blockchain are things to be embraced rather than feared and outlawed.
