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Toronto Sun
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
RETURN OF THE ROCK?: Trump says he wants to reopen Alcatraz
TOPSHOT - An aerial view shows Alcatraz island in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California on May 16, 2024. Alcatraz Island is 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco and initially was a federal prison before being converted into a tourist attraction. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) WATCH: For decades, the federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay held America's most violent criminals. Men like Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, Machine Gun Kelly, Canadian bank robber Alvin Karpis & other killers of all kinds. Surrounded by shark-filled waters, it was impossible to escape from. It was shuttered in 1963 because it was too expensive to operate. Now, U.S. President Donald Trump wants to reopen it. What do YOU think? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below or send us a Letter to the Editor for possible publication to . Letters must be 250 words or less and signed. And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Toronto Maple Leafs Canada Editorial Cartoons World Celebrity
Newsweek
23-04-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
My Company Competed Against Facebook. Here's What Happened
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. In its landmark antitrust case, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that Meta illegally maintains a monopoly in "personal social networking,"—something the company has always denied. As determined by the agency in its amended 2021 complaint, the only two surviving competitors left in this space were Snapchat and the company I founded: MeWe. I used to think it was possible to compete with Facebook, but as I wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2021, competition became impossible. With this realization, I handed MeWe off to new management in 2021, who then repurposed it into the niche Web3 arena. The FTC, which initially filed its lawsuit in December 2020, defines Meta's market, in particular Facebook, as "personal social networking," where users primarily engage with their real-world connections. This is distinct from entertainment or news-focused platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or X. People take a photo at Meta (formerly Facebook) corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on Nov. 9, 2022. People take a photo at Meta (formerly Facebook) corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on Nov. 9, 2022. JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images A key difference lies in network effects. Platforms like TikTok or YouTube can grow and provide worthwhile experiences for individuals without their social circles joining. But personal networks depend on that. If your friends, family, colleagues, schoolmates, etc. aren't there, the platform can't grow, and new members quickly become dormant. That creates a huge barrier to entry for upstarts in the space. While the FTC identified Snapchat and MeWe as the only independent players left in this market, it's remarkable the two had sidestepped the digital graveyard in Meta's wake. After Snapchat rejected Meta's $6 billion buyout offer in 2013, Meta didn't simply move on. It declared war. Snap created a dossier, "Project Voldemort," detailing how it believes Facebook and Instagram cloned Snapchat's features and blocked Snap-related search terms. Meta even allegedly pressured influencers to remove Snapchat links from their profiles and bought a VPN app, Onavo, to spy on iPhone users and monitor Snapchat and other rivals which was later removed by Apple for violating its privacy rules. MeWe experienced similar suppression. Under subpoena, I submitted hundreds of pages of documentation to the FTC, including numerous reports and screenshots from MeWe users showing that their Facebook posts mentioning MeWe were hidden, flagged, or removed. Potential partnerships also fell through seemingly due to the real or perceived threat of retaliation from Meta. Judge James Boasberg, who presides over the trial, noted that the FTC presented sufficient facts to suggest Meta dominates the "friends-and-family sharing market." He said a reasonable fact finder could conclude Meta "exploits" this customer base. Meta rejects that framing and insists it competes with TikTok and YouTube. Mr. Zuckerberg testified that Facebook has evolved into a "discovery-entertainment space." But this doesn't negate Meta's monopoly in personal social networking. To draw a parallel, Google has significant competitors in AI and cloud computing. Federal courts affirmed on April 17 and last August that it still holds illegal monopolies in both ad sales and search, respectively. During my time at MeWe, we built a full-featured personal social network. It consistently rated over four stars out of five in Apple and Google's app stores, while Facebook held steadfast with barely over two stars. Regardless, Facebook's powerful network effect along with the billions of marketing dollars it spent preempted users' dismal experiences. Seventy-nine percent of Americans use Facebook, and more than 50 percent use it "several times a day." Some argue that because Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are free, antitrust law doesn't apply. Price hikes are what led to the famous breakups of Standard Oil and AT&T. That's outdated thinking. Today's web economy runs on data and targeting. Slade Bond, public policy lead at Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, says Meta's defense relies on "antiquated precedents." Meta's monopoly harms users in multiple ways. Lack of competition forces users to submit to pervasive content manipulation, invasive data mining, unprecedented privacy infractions, and a variety of mental health harms. After the Cambridge Analytica breach in 2018, Meta suffered a massive 66 percent loss in trust, and many users wanted alternatives. Yet at the time, Meta reported "no visible impact to core engagement metrics." Users were trapped by Meta's network effect. In fact, the subsequent $5 billion fine levied on July 24, 2019, was offset the same day by a larger increase in Meta's market cap. On April 15, the Wall Street Journal reportedthat Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered $1 billion to settle the FTC's lawsuit, up from an initial offer of $450 million. The FTC rejected it, reportedly seeking at least $18 billion and a consent decree. During the first day of trial, FTC lawyer Daniel Matheson pointed to an internal message from Zuckerberg in 2012 acknowledging that Meta was "buying time" by acquiring competitors before new ones could scale. Matheson called the 2012 message "a smoking gun." Another email from Zuckerberg in 2008 reads: "It is better to buy than compete." Meanwhile, Meta has made attempts to befriend the Trump administration, including donating $1 million to the inauguration. Despite Zuckerberg's political maneuverings, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Donald Trump, recently stated that the FTC "certainly" believes Meta is a monopoly. The FTC seeks to split off Instagram and WhatsApp. History shows us what can happen in such a scenario. AT&T's breakup into "Baby Bells" in 1984 eventually led to reconsolidation. The more lasting fix is adding data interoperability into any final judgement. For instance, the proposed bipartisan ACCESS Act would require platforms with over 100 million monthly U.S. users to let people port their data between platforms. Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee has created a working protocol for this: Solid Pods. This technology seeks to enable people to own, upload, download and relocate their social graphs, mitigating the network effect while interrupting unwanted data collection. Interoperability wouldn't just benefit personal social networks. Notably, Trump and his ally Elon Musk, now both owners of social media platforms, have a vested interest in dismantling Meta's data fortress. Meta's breakup would likely cause a user stampede to Truth Social, X, Bluesky, Mastodon, and others. Breaking up Meta is a good start. In tandem, releasing the stranglehold of the network effect gives users control of their data and the ability to easily move themselves and their networks between sites. In this scenario, if an app you're on does something unsavory, then your personal social graph, your contacts, content, and history, can simply migrate elsewhere. That's a compelling way to inspire vibrant competition. Mark Weinstein is a world-renowned tech entrepreneur, thought leader, privacy expert, and one of the inventors of social networking. He is the author of Restoring Our Sanity Online (Wiley, 2025). The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Court Rejects UK Attempt To Have Apple Encryption Case Held In Secret
Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images A U.K. court has ruled that the Home Office can't, as it had hoped, keep a hearing on backdoor access to Apple's encrypted cloud data under wraps. Earlier this year, the government used provisions of the Investigatory Powers Act to order the firm to give the security services blanket access to all users' end-to-end encrypted files, rather than just those for specific accounts. Via a Technical Capability Notice, it wants access to iPhone backups secured by Apple's Advanced Data Protection system - not just those of U.K. customers, but of international users too. Apple removed the opt-in Advanced Data Protection feature in the U.K. in February, but responded by launching legal proceedings against the government soon after, with the case to be heard by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. But the government said the proceedings should be kept secret, with not even the "bare details" made public, thanks to national security concerns. However, in a ruling, the tribunal has now rejected the government's request. "It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place," the judges wrote. "For the reasons that are set out in our private judgement, we do not accept that the revelation of the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security." They said it might be possible for some or all future hearings to incorporate a public element, but that it wasn't possible to make a ruling on this at the current stage. Campaign groups Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch and Index on Censorship made a submission to the court, arguing against the proceedings taking in place in secret, and they've now welcomed the court's decision. "This judgment is a very welcome step in the right direction, effectively chipping away at the pervasive climate of secrecy surrounding the Investigatory Powers Tribunal's consideration of the Apple case," said Rebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch. "The Home Office's order to break encryption represents a massive attack on the privacy rights of millions of British Apple users, which is a matter of significant public interest and must not be considered behind closed doors." The case even led to transatlantic tensions, with U.S. director of national intelligence Tulsi Gababrd expressing "grave concern" about the creation of a backdoor. It would, she said, be a "clear and egregious" violation of Americans' privacy and civil rights, as well as opening up a serious security vulnerability. "This is bigger than the UK and Apple. The court's judgment will have implications for the privacy and security of millions of people around the world," said Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group. "Such an important decision cannot be made behind closed doors, and we welcome the IPT's decision to bring parts of the hearing into the open so that there can be some public scrutiny of the UK government's decisions to attack technologies that keep us safe online."
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
4 Key Takeaways From NVIDIA's GTC 2025 That Will Reshape Your Business
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 18: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote address with a robot ... More during the Nvidia GTC 2025 at SAP Center on March 18, 2025 in San Jose, California. The annual Nvidia GTC conference runs through March 20th. (Photo by) NVIDIA's GTC 2025 wasn't just another AI conference, it was a glimpse into the future of intelligence and automation, revealing how businesses will have to change, create, rethink, and revamp their approaches. The event, dubbed the "Super Bowl of AI," highlighted a fundamental change: AI is not just a tool that people are using to write emails, it is starting to become an intrinsic part of how the world does business. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, envisioned a world where AI doesn't just write content or perform routine tasks, but sees, understands, and acts in the physical world. This progression, from generative AI, to agentic AI, to physical AI, has profound implications for every industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks about new products as he delivers the keynote address at the GTC AI ... More Conference in San Jose, California, on March 18, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP) (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) For businesses that want to stay one step ahead, here are four important takeaways from GTC 2025 to keep in mind as you plan the future of your company and how it veiws and embarces AI and the convergence of different technologies. For years, AI has been living in software—chatbots, automation tools, and content generators. But GTC 2025 revealed: AI is entering the physical world. If your company's AI plan is limited to digital automation, it's time to think again. Begin to consider how AI-based robotics, multimodal assistants, and spatial AI can change the way you do business, interact with customers, and build your workforce. One of the biggest changes that is occurring in the present time is multimodal AI – artificial intelligence that works with many types of data at once, including text, video, speech, 3D, and real-time sensors. During GTC 2025, Huang demonstrated how NVIDIA's newest models will produce more contextual, intelligent, and predictive AI systems that can: Organizations that embed modal AI in their decision-making and customer journey will have a competitive edge. In finance, healthcare, retail, or industrial settings, it is the AI that can 'see, hear, understand and act' that will lead to better business decisions. While traditional AI has been deployed on the cloud, GTC 2025 marked the shift to edge AI, where AI runs on devices and networks directly, not through the cloud. Why does this matter for businesses? Here are a few reasons: You might want to review your company's AI infrastructure and possibly think, as much as that is possible today, how you can future-proof your business by investing in on-device AI, 5G/6G connectivity, and real time data processing to become a leader of the pack rather than a follower. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 18: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address during the ... More Nvidia GTC Artificial Intelligence Conference at SAP Center on March 18, 2024 in San Jose, California. The developer conference is expected to highlight new chip, software, and AI processor technology. (Photo by) One of the most worrying and pressing issues that many in the business world will be faced with is the potential of job loss caused by AI. But Huang told a different story during GTC: Humans are not being replaced by AI, but enhanced by it. Here are three things The smartest companies will not only implement AI but also incorporate it into the training of the employees and management and even use other technologies like XR to. help workers become more efficient and get upskilled faster. Those who embrace AI augmentation will gain greater performance, decision-making, and flexible employees. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 18: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers the keynote address during the ... More Nvidia GTC 2025 at SAP Center on March 18, 2025 in San Jose, California. The annual Nvidia GTC conference runs through March 20th. (Photo by) NVIDIA's developer's conference helped shed light on the current and future state of AI. The organizations that pay attention and understand the implications of how AI is slowly expanding into the phsycial world and start exploring how to implement multimodal AI, edge computing, and robotcis will be the ones that will determine the future of industries. One of the most important questions that business leaders can ask themselves today is: Are we prepared? The companies that will thrive in this AI era will be those that develop fluid strategies, deploy solutions, test and iterate frequently, and embrace AI as a strategic tool. The next 12-24 months will determine who could be the leaders of this era and who will be the followers. Which one are you?
