News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

Censorship

Biden’s FBI Raids Home of Polymarket CEO After Gambling Platform Successfully Predicts Trump Victory

Federal agents seized the phone and electronic devices of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan in an early morning raid on his Manhattan apartment, just a week after the crypto betting platform correctly predicted Donald Trump’s stunning 2024 presidential election win.

The New York Post reports that the FBI conducted an early morning raid on the Soho apartment of 26-year-old Shayne Coplan, the founder and CEO of the prediction market platform Polymarket. According to a source close to the matter, Coplan was not provided with a reason for the seizure of his phone and other electronics, but the raid is suspected to be politically motivated.

The source believes that the government’s actions are a form of “grand political theater” and retribution against Polymarket for accurately predicting a landslide victory for Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Traditional polls had indicated a different outcome, making Polymarket’s successful prediction stand out.

Speculation also suggests that the FBI may be acting on recent leftist media reports accusing Polymarket of market manipulation and rigging its polls in favor of Trump. However, a Polymarket spokesperson stated that the platform is “fully transparent” and allows observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.

Despite the raid, Coplan was not arrested or charged. He later posted on X/Twitter, “New phone, who dis?” indicating his reaction to the situation. He added another tweet shortly after the raid in which he criticized the Biden administration:

It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents. We are deeply committed to being non-partisan, and today is no different, but the incumbents should do some self-reflecting…

German Vice Chancellor Habeck Demands More Censorship of Elon Musk’s X After Trump Victory

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said that Europe must enact strict speech regulations on Elon Musk’s X platform to fight so-called “disinformation”.

Habeck, the likely candidate for chancellor for the leftist Green party in the upcoming elections, laid out his vision for Germany and Europe in a speech to the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation on Saturday, including more internet censorship in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory.

“We cannot put democratic discourse in the hands of Elon Musk and Chinese software,” Habeck said, per Welt. Therefore, he argued, strict EU regulations must be applied to platforms such as TikTok and X.

The vice chancellor also called for Berlin to take an aggressive stance towards the Trump administration regarding trade and defence, arguing that the U.S. “needs us too… if Trump threatens, then we don’t have to hide.”

However, years of green policies advocated by Habeck’s party, including shutting down nuclear power entirely in the country, left Germany vulnerable to outside forces, notably the invasion of Ukraine and the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.

The sorry state of the German economy resulted in the leftist coalition government collapsing this week, in part due to concerns about Trump’s return to the White House.

Habeck’s desire to further censor X was echoed in Paris, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot telling Le Parisien on Saturday: “We will never accept that public debate is outsourced to deregulated social networks in the hands of special interests, whether American or Chinese.”

“Let us hope that he does not inflict on American democracy the treatment he has given to Twitter. Democracy is a fragile treasure,” Barrot added.

Beware the Gootloader

The Six Word Google Search that Makes Cyber Crooks Drool

Cybersecurity experts have issued an urgent warning, urging computer users not to type the phrase “Are Bengal Cats legal in Australia?” into search engines due to the risk of falling victim to a bizarre cyber attack.

The New York Post reports that in an alarming discovery, cybersecurity experts at SOPHOS have identified a new threat targeting unsuspecting internet users. The company has warned that searching for the seemingly innocuous phrase “Are Bengal Cats legal in Australia?” could lead to personal information being stolen by hackers.

According to SOPHOS, cyber criminals have employed a tactic known as “SEO poisoning” to manipulate search engine results, pushing malicious websites to the top of the page. When users click on these fraudulent links, which appear to be legitimate, they unknowingly expose their personal information, such as bank details, to a malicious program called Gootloader.

The Gootloader program not only steals sensitive data but can also lock users out of their own computers, leaving them vulnerable to further attacks. What makes this threat particularly concerning is that it targets users who are not necessarily searching for anything nefarious, but rather for information about the legality of owning a specific breed of cat in Australia.

At present, the dangerous links only appear in search results when the word “Australia” is included, putting those in the country at the highest risk of falling victim to this attack. However, experts warn that this tactic could easily be adapted to target users in other regions or those searching for different topics.

SOPHOS emphasizes the importance of being vigilant when clicking on links in search results, even if the search term seems harmless. The company urges those who believe they may have been a victim of SEO poisoning to change their passwords immediately and take steps to secure their personal information.

Mark Cuban Deleting Posts on X

Sore Loser: Humiliated Leftist Mark Cuban Deletes Pro-Kamala Harris Tweets Following Landslide Trump Win

Billionaire leftist and former Shark Tank star Mark Cuban has deleted his pro-Kamala Harris tweets in the aftermath of her epic election defeat by Donald Trump. The billionaire, who infamously slurred conservative women as weak just days before the election, claims “I’ve always gone back and deleted tweets.”

The Wrap reports that popular X/Twitter account Libs of TikTok has revealed billionaire Kamala Harris supporter Mark Cuban has deleted his numerous pro-Harris tweets following her massive failure on Election Day. However, Cuban has swiftly denied these allegations, claiming that he routinely deletes old tweets as a longstanding practice.

In response to the initial accusation made by Libs of TikTok, Cuban stated, “I’ve always gone back and deleted tweets. For years. Same with 2020 election. 2016 election. Same with other stuff. You can use the wayback machine if you really want to see them.” Despite his explanation, social media users remain skeptical of Cuban’s motives for removing the tweets.
...
Throughout the campaign, Cuban’s support for the Democratic candidate was unrelenting. The co-founder of Costplusdrugs.com, former Shark Tank star, and minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks expressed his belief that Harris represented the chance for an “opportunity economy” through her approach to regulation and small businesses.

Cuban’s political stance has evolved over the years. While he initially thought that Donald Trump, as a businessman, would be good for the economy before Trump’s official entry into the 2016 presidential race, Cuban’s opinion shifted in the following years. In a USA Today interview in October, he explained his reservations about Trump, stating, “Stability is the key for larger businesses. They don’t want to wake up to a tweet or a new tariff that impacts their business, because Donald got mad at someone.”

More on Google's Antitrust Cases

Judges Criticize Google’s ‘Disturbing’ Practice of Suppressing Evidence in Antitrust Cases

Google has been accused by multiple federal judges of engaging in tactics to conceal and destroy internal communications that could be used against the company in ongoing antitrust lawsuits. One judge called Google’s suppression of evidence “the most serious and disturbing” he had seen in his career as a judge.

Mercury News reports that in a series of ongoing anti-monopoly cases against Google, federal court judges have criticized the tech giant for lying, cheating, and deliberately destroying evidence that could be used against the company. The incidents, filed as evidence in the lawsuits, highlight what authorities say are Google’s long-running efforts to hide and eliminate internal communications that could be damaging in legal actions.

In one instance, a high-ranking Google director realized that a communication program’s chat history function was turning on while discussing digital-ads prices with two executives, meaning the conversation would not be automatically deleted and could be discovered by adversaries in lawsuits. The director texted, “History is on, jesus. Sigh.”

Judges in three separate cases have taken issue with Google’s handling of evidence. In San Francisco federal court, Judge James Donato described Google’s suppression of evidence as “the most serious and disturbing” he had seen as a judge. He stated that Google “intended to subvert” the process of providing materials to its lawsuit opponents and that evidence was “lost with the intent to prevent its use in litigation.”

In Virginia federal court, Judge Leonie Brinkema said Google employees added lawyers into discussions as a “smokescreen” to invoke attorney-client privilege, calling the maneuver a “clear abuse.” She concluded that an “awful lot of evidence has likely been destroyed.”

In the District of Columbia federal court, Judge Amit Mehta expressed his astonishment at “the lengths to which Google goes to avoid creating a paper trail” for regulators and legal foes. He cited the auto-deletion of chats and noted that Google instructed employees to include a lawyer in sensitive email discussions, mark the message “attorney/client privileged,” and “ask the lawyer a question.”

Google News Boss Quits

Google News Boss Resigns amid Strained Publisher Relationships

Shailesh Prakash, a key Google executive in charge of the company’s News efforts and central to the tech giant’s relationships with publishers, has resigned after two years in the role.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Shailesh Prakash, vice president and general manager of Google News, has departed the company amid ongoing tensions between the tech giant and news publishers. Prakash’s resignation comes at a time when Google’s relationships with news outlets remain strained over issues such as traffic declines and compensation for the use of their content.

Prakash joined Google two years ago from the Washington Post, where he spent over a decade as Chief Information Officer, overseeing data and technology. During his tenure at the Post, he played a crucial role in transforming the news outlet’s digital operation and worked closely with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos following his acquisition of the publication in 2013.

At Google, Prakash brought an understanding of publishers’ frustrations as they grappled with declining traffic and sought compensation for Google’s use of their content. In addition to overseeing product and engineering for the News group, he communicated with leaders at news publishers regarding changes related to search and generative AI.

When Prakash joined the company, Google was working to secure deals with publishers in the U.S. for its Showcase product, which pays publishers in exchange for featuring their content on some Google platforms. However, publishers have argued that their content is worth more than what Google has been willing to pay.

Currently, publishers are concerned about Google’s use of their content to produce generative AI overviews, which provide complete answers to search queries along with a link icon to the publishers’ sites that source the information. This practice has further strained the relationship between Google and news outlets.

Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried Henchman to Forfeit $70 Million, Yacht in Proposed Settlement

Sam Trabucco, the former Alameda Research co-CEO, will forfeit a 53-foot yacht and forgo $70 million worth of claims in a proposed settlement with the FTX bankruptcy estate.

The turnover will also include two San Francisco, California, apartments worth $8.7 million.

“Following constructive, arm’s length negotiations, the Debtors, FTX DM and Trabucco have reached an agreement that delivers significant value for the Debtors’ and FTX DM’s stakeholders without the delay and cost of litigation,” the settlement document states.

Jurors convicted disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy last November. Outside of the courthouse in Manhattan, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the government has “no patience” for fraud and corruption.

Bankman-Fried founded digital currency exchange FTX and Alameda Research, which is the crypto trading sister company of FTX. Caroline Ellison led Alameda Research with Trabucco.
Trabucco resigned in August 2022, right before the collapse of FTX and Alameda.

The settlement stated, “Trabucco will transfer to the Debtors all rights and interests represented in and asserted through his claims filed against the Debtors, including with respect to his customer claims totaling approximately $70 million, and all of his claims against the Debtors will be disallowed and expunged.”

A bankruptcy judge approved FTX’s reorganization plan in October, which would allow 98 percent of its creditors to receive roughly 118 percent of their claim value in cash.

A report detailed how Ellison may not face jail time for her role in the collapse of FTX, as she played a pivotal role in the criminal case against Bankman-Fried, her former boyfriend.

“Because of the closeness of her relationship to Sam, she was able to provide a personal portrait of Bankman-Fried, an elusive character to be sure, that was probably unique in the government’s case,” former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O’Brien, who specializes in white-collar criminal defense in New York, said.

Silicon Valley Disaster: 23andMe Announces Massive Layoffs, Restructuring Plan

DNA testing company 23andMe is laying off 40 percent of its staff and implementing a major restructuring plan in a bid to avoid bankruptcy and ensure long-term viability. This is just the latest misfortune for a company once considered a darling of the Silicon Valley economy.

TechSpot reports that home DNA testing pioneer 23andMe announced this week that it will lay off 40 percent of its total workforce as part of a comprehensive restructuring effort aimed at reducing expenses and focusing on the company’s core consumer business. The move comes amid declining demand for casual genetic testing and a series of recent setbacks for the company, including a data breach and accusations of running an auto-renewal scam.

CEO Anne Wojcicki stated that the company is “taking these difficult but necessary actions” to ensure 23andMe’s long-term success. The layoffs are expected to save the company more than $35 million annually, with a one-time operating expense of $12 million for severance packages and related costs. Breitbart News previously reported that the company’s entire board of directors resigned, with the exception of Wojcicki herself.

As part of the restructuring plan, 23andMe will be discontinuing its therapeutics division, which focused on research into cancer treatments and monoclonal therapies. While the company plans to wind down in-house testing and research, Wojcicki indicated that 23andMe intends to continue its work in these areas through strategic partnerships.

Adding to the company’s woes, 23andMe suffered a data breach last year that exposed the information of customers. Rather than taking responsibility for the incident, the company initially blamed its customers, citing “recycled credentials” obtained by hackers in an unrelated breach. It was later revealed that 23andMe had failed to detect the data breach for over five months.

More recently, the company faced scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after customers complained about its subscription service, alleging that 23andMe auto-renewed memberships without consent and refused to issue refunds. Some users claimed that they had physically canceled their subscriptions before the end of the term but were still charged as if the cancellation had not occurred.

FCC's Car on Big Tech & Newsguard

FCC’s Brendan Carr: Big Tech Must Dismantle ‘Censorship Cartel’ Including ‘Orwellian’ NewsGuard

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Brendan Carr on Friday called on big tech platforms to dismantle the “censorship cartel,” charging that American democracy depends on it. Carr states that the tech Masters of the Universe, in conjunction with “the orwellian-named NewsGuard,” fact checking groups, and ad agencies, have enforced “one-sided narratives.”

“Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel. The Orwellian named NewsGuard along with “fact checking” groups & ad agencies helped enforce one-sided narratives. The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Carr wrote on X/Twitter.

Carr wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple CEO Tim Cook about how their platforms have “worked — often in concert with so-called ‘media monitors’ and others — to defund, demonetize, and otherwise put out of business news outlets and organizations that dared to deviate from an approved narrative.”

The FCC Commissioner said that these big tech platforms participated in a “censorship cartel” that also included in advertising, marketing, and “so-called ‘fact-checking organizations'” and the Biden-Harris administration.

Carr’s reference to advertising agencies is related to GARM, which organized a marketing blackout against X/Twitter for daring to embrace free speech. It was shut down after Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against it.

“The censorship cartel is an affront to Americans’ constitutional freedoms and must be completely dismantled. Americans must be able to reclaim their right to free speech. Indeed, our democracy depends on freedom of expression.”

Tesla Section

Four Killed in Fiery Tesla Crash Were Trapped by Electronic Door Handles

Four young friends tragically lost their lives when they were trapped inside a burning Tesla Model Y in Canada. Now, additional details of the crash are emerging, including that the car’s electronic door handles were disabled when the electric vehicle lost power.

The Daily Mail reports that a horrific crash in Toronto last month resulted in the deaths of four friends who were unable to escape their burning Tesla Model Y due to the fire disabling the car’s electronic door handles. The sole survivor was only able to escape after a heroic man employee smashed a window with a metal pole and helped her from the burning EV.

The four victims have been identified as Neelraj Gohil, his sister Ketaba Gohil, Jay Sisodiya, and Digvijay Patel.

Rick Harper, the postal worker who rescued the surviving woman, told the Toronto Star that she frantically told him she “couldn’t open the doors” from inside the wrecked vehicle. Tesla cars use electronic buttons to open the doors rather than traditional handles. If power is lost in a crash, the doors can become inoperable.

“I would assume the young lady would have tried to open the door from the inside, because she was pretty desperate to get out,” Harper said. “I don’t know if that was the battery or what. But she couldn’t get out.”

According to Harper, the smoke from the fire was so thick that he was unaware there were other occupants still trapped inside as the woman scrambled out head-first after he broke the window. It remains unknown if the other victims were also attempting to escape the burning vehicle.

Texas Tesla Plant Evacuated After Hazardous Materials Incident

A report of a cracked pipeline caused the evacuation of a Tesla factory in Austin, Texas, this morning amid concerns of a hazardous gas leak.

The Daily Mail reports that the Austin Fire Department responded to a call about a potential gas leak at the Texas Tesla factory around 10:00 a.m. CT this morning. Crews received reports of a “hazardous materials incident” which prompted an immediate evacuation of the area surrounding the plant as a precautionary measure.

In a statement, the Austin Fire Department said they set up an isolation zone to ensure the safety of everyone working in the vicinity of the factory. Atmos Energy, the local natural gas utility, is working to completely shut off the valves to stop any further leakage. Commuters have been warned to expect heavy traffic and delays in the area as emergency crews work to secure the scene.

The Tesla Gigafactory in Austin is a primary manufacturing plant for Tesla vehicles, including the Cybertruck, and also serves as the company’s headquarters. Approximately 20,000 people work at the massive facility. As of now, there have been no reports of any injuries related to the gas leak incident.

This is a developing story and more details are expected to emerge as local authorities and Tesla representatives provide further updates. The cause of the pipeline crack is still under investigation. Gas leaks pose serious safety hazards and it is crucial that the source is identified and repaired as quickly as possible to avoid any potential explosions or fires.

The evacuation of such a large facility like the Tesla plant will undoubtedly cause significant disruptions to the company’s operations today. However, the safety of the workers is the top priority and it is important for everyone to follow the instructions of emergency personnel until the situation is fully resolved. Stay tuned for more information as this story unfolds.