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Facebook Inc. (FB) has boosted production on its Oculus virtual reality (VR) headset to nearly double the amount compared to last year.According to a July 15 report from Nikkei Asian Review, the social media site has reacted to the uptick in COVID-19 cases throughout the world by calling for a production increase in the second half of 2020. This would be an increase of 50% compared to its entire produced amount for all of 2019.Nikkei’s source says that “the production forecast for the second half of this year could reach at least two million units, which is already around 1.5 times more than its total production output last year.”Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, other tech companies have also introduced their VR versions with Sony (SNE) launching its PlayStation VR in 2015. Additionally, HTC, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei Technologies all introduced various types of headsets later using smartphones for VR screens. Despite the competition, Oculus has become the market leader claiming near 35% market share.On a Q1 earnings call, April 29, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that ad revenue grew 17% annually during the quarter, while its other revenue was “driven primarily by sales of Oculus products.” He stated that Oculus reached $297 million for the quarter which was up 80% from a year ago. According to Zuckerberg, videoconferencing tools could “accelerate some of the trends” in VR despite Oculus’ use being primarily for video games. In light of the pandemic, game console makers like Nintendo (NTDOY) have experienced increased demand for its portable Nintendo Switch device amidst supply constraints. With government lockdowns in Malaysia and the Philippines, a shortage resulted in parts that led to overall delays in production. Third-party sellers cashed-in on the moment by selling the game device for more than double the price on…

A Facebook post by Plum School Director Amy Wetmore has some borough officials calling for her resignation. The post in question was made on July 8 by the school board’s finance committee liaison in a private page called “Black Lives Matter In Plum Boro.” It appears to have been made to start a conversation about race while promoting an article and several books on the subject. However, a segment of her post did not sit well with Plum Mayor Harry Schlegel and Councilman Mike Doyle, both Republicans, and both called for the Plum Democratic Committee chairwoman to step down as school director. “For those who haven’t seen it, there is a heated debate about someone implying Republicans are racist,” the post read. “I would take that statement even further. If you are white and you are living in the United States, you are racist. I say this as a white woman.” Schlegel said at Monday night’s council meeting that her statement paints a very broad negative brush. “Every person in this room, according to her, this council, our police department, are racists,” Schlegel said. “I’m not going to tolerate that. We do not need divisiveness in this community. We have not had any issues like that in the past.” He also said Wetmore’s comments carry more weight as a school board member, and referenced one who resigned last year due to backlash over his social media posts. Brian Wisniewski, a Republican, shared an anti-Muslim post on his personal Facebook page. He stepped down last February. “Elected officials are personally responsible for all their comments,” the mayor said. “They have the freedom of speech. … What is applied to a conservative Republican must be applied to a liberal Democrat. There are no double standards here in Plum. “Inappropriate, defamatory and insulting…

A Facebook post by Plum School Director Amy Wetmore has some borough officials calling for her resignation. The post in question was made on July 8 by the school board’s finance committee liaison in a private page called “Black Lives Matter In Plum Boro.” It appears to have been made to start a conversation about race while promoting an article and several books on the subject. However, a segment of her post did not sit well with Plum Mayor Harry Schlegel and Councilman Mike Doyle, both Republicans, and both called for the Plum Democratic Committee chairwoman to step down as school director. “For those who haven’t seen it, there is a heated debate about someone implying Republicans are racist,” the post read. “I would take that statement even further. If you are white and you are living in the United States, you are racist. I say this as a white woman.” Schlegel said at Monday night’s council meeting that her statement paints a very broad negative brush. “Every person in this room, according to her, this council, our police department, are racists,” Schlegel said. “I’m not going to tolerate that. We do not need divisiveness in this community. We have not had any issues like that in the past.” He also said Wetmore’s comments carry more weight as a school board member, and referenced one who resigned last year due to backlash over his social media posts. Brian Wisniewski, a Republican, shared an anti-Muslim post on his personal Facebook page. He stepped down last February. “Elected officials are personally responsible for all their comments,” the mayor said. “They have the freedom of speech. … What is applied to a conservative Republican must be applied to a liberal Democrat. There are no double standards here in Plum. “Inappropriate, defamatory and insulting…

Mayor Tom Broderick says it happened while he was with family on the 4th of July. ANDERSON, Ind. — The mayor of Anderson could be pressured to resign this week after he says he unintentionally recorded a Facebook Live video where he can heard making remarks about council members.  Mayor Tom Broderick says it happened while he was with family on the 4th of July. In an apology letter addressed to council members, he says his phone was in his pocket and he somehow triggered it to record. About six minutes into the 10-minute recording, Broderick can be heard having a conversation with his son, Evan.  "While digging through the garage for the plywood my son came across an old Herald Bulletin publication displaying the "Best of Madison County," said Broderick. "On the cover was a large picture and headline depicting (councilor) Ty Bibbs, named as bachelor of the year. Ty is also one of the persons who has been in opposition to my efforts." Broderick goes on to write that he and his son began laughing at the headline. That's when Broderick can be heard saying "Those people are driving me nuts, Evan (expletive). I'll be honest, I've been like so excited about it. I don't have to look at most of them most of the time."    The comments have sparked concern among residents, including councilman Bibbs. He called the mayor's behavior "embarrassing" and "unacceptable."      "I am personally and professionally appalled that behind closed doors, this is how (Mayor) Broderick truly feels about "THOSE PEOPLE" and myself," Bibbs wrote in an email. "He also owes the citizens an explanation as to who he believes "THOSE PEOPLE" are and who he exactly believes the "(expletives)" are.  I would hope that "THOSE PEOPLE" are not viewed by (Mayor)…

by: Haylee Brooks Posted: Jul 15, 2020 / 08:39 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 16, 2020 / 06:01 AM CDT BRYANT, Ark.- People in Bryant are fired up over a Facebook post made by a Bryant Firefighter. The Mayor of Bryant called the post racist and inappropriate and said the employee has since been terminated. “It’s a racist comment and a racist post,” said Allen Scott, Mayor of Bryant, “It’s a racist post essentially jabbing Black Lives Matter and it implies that they should pick cotton and its just not appropriate.” Mayor Scott said hours after he learned about the post, Kyle Robertson was fired from the Bryant Fire Department. “When I saw the post of course I thought it was immediately inappropriate for anyone to post, let alone a city employee,” said Scott. Robertson has worked for the Fire Department since 2009 and made his way up the ranks. We did reach out to Robertson for comment, he said he doesn’t want to say anything that would possibly shed a negative light on the department. Robertson also said, “At present, I am at a loss.” “Don’t judge a book by one sentence and this is just one sentence. Really what we are, we are nothing like this,” said Scott. Scott said they are ready to close this chapter and use it to teach other city employees.  “I need to get back with my people and make sure they understand the significance of this and why it’s inappropriate,” said Scott. Scott said this is the first time a situation like this has happened since becoming mayor. He also says he hopes to take the appropriate steps to drive home the standards for city employees.

POCATELLO — An incident reminiscent of Dateline NBC’s hit reality show of the early 2000s, “To Catch a Predator,” unfolded in the Gate City this week resulting in one local man’s arrest.Desmund Shea Borzymowski, 26, of Pocatello, was arrested late Tuesday night and charged with enticing a child through the use of the internet, a felony, after a Pocatello man, inspired by the show Chris Hansen hosted on NBC for several years, posed as a 13-year-old girl online and staged a meeting with Borzymowski to allegedly engage in sexual intercourse, according to the Pocatello Police Department.The Idaho State Journal on Wednesday interviewed the 21-year-old Pocatello man who posed as the 13-year-old girl online on Sunday afternoon. Hours later, that man confronted Borzymowski near the parking lot area of Upper City Creek. The man recorded the encounter using his cell phone and posted the video to a Facebook page he recently created, Idaho Against Child Predators. He requested anonymity due to his fear of retribution and the dangers involved with operating his page.“I was actually watching Chris Hansen videos with my friends over the weekend and came up with this idea to see if there were any child sex predators in our area,” the 21-year-old man, who also organized the Facebook page, said. “Around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, I made one post on this application called Whisper posing as a 13-year-old girl and within minutes I had 15 to 20 people who had messaged me. Within an hour of making that post there was a guy who wanted to meet up.”According to Webwise, Whisper is an anonymous social networking app that involves users posting confessions or statements, either fact or fiction, by superimposing text on a picture. “Whisper’s unique selling point is that it is completely anonymous, with users issued a random…

WASHINGTON - The Islamic State (IS) terror group is still capable of finding ways to avoid detection on social media platforms such as Facebook, a new report said. A pro-IS network on Facebook consisting of several hundred accounts and reaching thousands of people managed to remain on the social media giant and spread its propaganda, according to a report released Monday by the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). The ISD report said its researchers tracked, analyzed and dissected the behaviors of this pro-IS network of Facebook accounts through ethnographic monitoring. This analysis taps into the study of individual cultures through the interpretation of behaviors and social interactions. “ISIS supporters appear to be exploiting a major loophole on Facebook to hijack accounts from other users, using two applications that facilitate the intercepting of password reset text messages sent by the platform,” the ISD said in its report, using another acronym for IS. It said several Facebook accounts “produced and shared tutorial videos in order to teach their fellow e-jihadists across the platform how to exploit this weakness in Facebook’s account security protocols.” Bolstering IS narrative Moustafa Ayad, the report’s author, said the main objective of these Facebook accounts is to bolster and sustain IS narratives online. “They need to hold that territory and gain follower bases, before they can commence recruitment,” he told VOA. “These networks are there for spreading the message, and in their parlance, to ‘remain and expand.’ ” “Remain and expand” was a motto that IS militants adopted when they once controlled large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. ‘No tolerance for terrorist propaganda’ Facebook says it has “no tolerance for terrorist propaganda on our platform,” adding that it removes content and accounts that violate its policy as soon as they are identified. “We had already…

News Business Top EU court ditches transatlantic data transfer deal Wednesday, July 15, 2020 7:01 p.m. EDT by Thomson Reuters FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo By Foo Yun Chee and Marine Strauss LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday that a transatlantic data transfer deal is invalid because of concerns about U.S. surveillance in a decision that could disrupt thousands of companies that rely on the agreement. The ruling, which cannot be appealed, effectively ends the privileged access companies in the United States had to personal data from Europe and puts the country on a similar footing to other nations outside the 27-country bloc. The so-called Privacy Shield was set up in 2016 by Washington and Brussels to protect personal data when it is sent to the United States for commercial use after a previous agreement known as Safe Harbour was ruled invalid in 2015. More than 5,000 companies have signed up to use the Privacy Shield. The case was triggered by a long-running dispute between Facebook and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems who shot to fame for his role in overturning Safe Harbour. Facebook had no immediate comment. "In respect of certain surveillance programmes, those provisions do not indicate any limitations on the power they confer to implement those programmes, or the existence of guarantees for potentially targeted non-U.S. persons," the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg said. "It looks perfect," Schrems said. "One of the biggest takeaways is that we would need fundamental reform in U.S. surveillance laws if U.S. companies still want to have any kind of decent access to the European market," he told Reuters TV. The U.S. Department of Commerce said it…

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Law360, San Francisco (July 15, 2020, 6:29 PM EDT) -- A California judge appeared skeptical Wednesday of American Facebook users' arguments that their counterparts in the United Kingdom should be allowed to join U.S. multidistrict litigation over the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal.U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria said he didn't understand why California law, as opposed to U.K. law, would apply to questions surrounding whether Facebook's updated user agreement, which includes a forum-selection clause, prohibits U.K. users from bringing claims stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal against Facebook in U.S. courts.Judge Chhabria wondered aloud whether he should deny the Facebook users' motion for leave to amend their complaint on futility... Stay ahead of the curve In the legal profession, information is the key to success. You have to know what’s happening with clients, competitors, practice areas, and industries. Law360 provides the intelligence you need to remain an expert and beat the competition. Access to case data within articles (numbers, filings, courts, nature of suit, and more.) Access to attached documents such as briefs, petitions, complaints, decisions, motions, etc. Create custom alerts for specific article and case topics and so much more! TRY LAW360 FREE FOR SEVEN DAYS