Rules are made to be broken

Facebook has a fresh set of fires to put out, with news coming last week that the social media company has separate rules for several million VIPs. A leaked document says that many celebrities, politicians and “influencers” are on Facebook’s special whitelist, XCheck, meaning their posts are not subjected to moderation. Digital content moderation is a booming industry but is notoriously damaging to the humans who protect us from the most vile of content.

In another big story last week, a report concluded that Facebook has been aware of Instagram’s harmful affect on teenage girls, but has seemingly ignored it.

Bloomberg has reported about new details in a mysterious hack on Juniper, a company which develops and sells networking products. In 2015, suspected Chinese hackers gained access to data flowing through Juniper’s network. In details uncovered by Bloomberg, the hackers gained access through an algorithm, installed as a “backdoor” by the NSA. The case is an interesting study in how government’s desire to keep ahead of the bad guys often hurts the citizens they are trying to protect. In other news, IBM has found a booming “dark” market for cloud credentials.

For those playing along at home, the legal tussle between Apple and gaming company Epic seems to be drawing to a conclusion, with Forbes breaking down the outcomes of the latest ruling.

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