All posts tagged: limiting

Canada limiting international students, temporary immigrants

Canada limiting international students, temporary immigrants

KITCHENER, Ontario — Canada’s broad support for immigration, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said is necessary to counter an aging labor force and low fertility rates, has set the country apart. The United States’ closest neighbor is growing faster than its Group of Seven peers, as well as developing and more fertile countries such as India. In 2023, the population here grew by more than 1.2 million people, up 3.2 percent from the year before — the highest annual increase since 1957. About 98 percent came from immigration. But now, amid a housing affordability crisis and strain on social services, Trudeau’s government is rolling up the welcome mat for some immigrants. It has capped the number of permanent residents it will welcome, announced a temporary limit on international student visas and pledged to shrink the proportion of the population made up of temporary immigrants such as foreign workers. A “massive spike” in temporary immigrants has exceeded “what Canada has been able to absorb,” Trudeau told reporters this month. “That’s something we need to get …

Some Instagram creators say they’re frustrated after platform starts limiting political content recs

Some Instagram creators say they’re frustrated after platform starts limiting political content recs

Instagram creators who frequently post about news and politics are urging their followers to allow “political content” in their feeds after the platform began automatically limiting such posts. The Meta-owned platform had announced in February that it would stop recommending accounts that share political content to users who don’t already follow them. The app typically suggests posts and accounts based on the type of content a user engages with most. As changes began quietly taking effect in recent weeks, users began noticing that the new feature had been set to “Limit” by default. That setting excludes content that is “likely to mention governments, elections, or social topics that affect a group of people and/or society at large” from the platform’s discovery mechanisms.  Some on the app expressed feeling blindsided that they were not directly notified of the setting change, only learning of it from other users. Over the weekend, some creators started circulating instructions showing users how to manually toggle the option back by opening the “Settings and activity” menu at the top right corner …

Supreme Court leans against limiting Biden administration contacts with social media platforms

Supreme Court leans against limiting Biden administration contacts with social media platforms

WASHINGTON — A majority of Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared highly skeptical about claims the Biden administration crossed the line from persuasion to coercion when it told social media platforms to remove problematic content. At issue is an injunction imposed by a federal judge, currently on hold, that would limit contacts between government officials and social media companies on a wide range of issues. During oral arguments, justices across the ideological spectrum questioned whether the conduct of government officials was unlawful and whether plaintiffs that brought the lawsuit could even show they were directly harmed. Among the issues raised was the lack of evidence that government officials threatened punitive action if the social media companies failed to cooperate. The case was one of two the court heard on Monday about the practice known as “jawboning,” in which the government leans on private parties to do what it wants, sometimes with the implicit threat of adverse consequences if demands are not met. Those challenging the government actions say that in each case there was a …

State Department Report Warns of AI Apocalypse, Suggests Limiting Compute Power Allowed for Training

State Department Report Warns of AI Apocalypse, Suggests Limiting Compute Power Allowed for Training

A report commissioned by the US State Department is warning that rapidly evolving AI could pose a “catastrophic” risk to national security and even all of humanity. The document titled “An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI,” first reported on by TIME, advised that the US government must move “quickly and decisively” — with measures including potentially limiting the compute power allocated to training these AIs — or else risk an “extinction-level threat to the human species.” “The rise of advanced AI and AGI [artificial general intelligence] has the potential to destabilize global security in ways reminiscent of the introduction of nuclear weapons,” the report reads. While we have yet to reach the stage at which AI models can compete with humans on an intellectual level, commonly known as AGI, many have argued that it’s only a matter of time — and we should get ahead of the problem by having the government intervene before it’s too late. It’s only the latest instance of experts warning of AI tech posing an …

Apple Limiting Alternative App Stores and Payments to EU Due to Malware, Fraud and Scam Risks

Apple Limiting Alternative App Stores and Payments to EU Due to Malware, Fraud and Scam Risks

In developer documentation outlining systemwide changes to the App Store in the European Union, Apple explains why alternative app stores, alternative payment options, and other updates are being limited to the EU. Apple claims that these changes are introducing notable risks for users and developers, introducing “new avenues for malware, fraud and scams, illicit and harmful content, and other privacy and security threats.” Further, Apple says that the updates compromise its ability to “detect, prevent, and take action” against malicious apps, and also to support users impacted by issues with apps that are downloaded outside of the ‌App Store‌. “We’re limiting these changes to the European Union because we’re concerned about their impacts on the privacy and security of our users’ experience – which remains our North Star,” Apple writes. To limit risk, Apple is requiring alternative app stores to undergo a notarization process that will check for malware and viruses, but Apple will not evaluate an app’s content. Though notarization will add safeguards, Apple says there is risk involved with the alternate app store …

“Your Short Has Been Rejected”: Massive Stock-Lending Firm Processing Over TN In Transactions, Goes Dark In Cyberattack Limiting Short Sales

“Your Short Has Been Rejected”: Massive Stock-Lending Firm Processing Over $2TN In Transactions, Goes Dark In Cyberattack Limiting Short Sales

Amid the meltup of most shorted names in the past two days, numerous daytraders were greeted with an unexpected notification from their broker when they tried to short (or re-short) some of these highflying ultra junk names: “rejected.“ There was much confusion why so many were unable to short these very popular shorts, especially if the shorts were willing to pay the oftentimes exorbitant Hart To Borrow rates on the shorts, but today we finally got an answer: as Bloomberg reports, EquiLend – a fintech that processes trillions of dollars of securities-lending transactions every month – suffered a cybersecurity attack that shut down some of its operations just days after announcing its sale to a private equity firm.   The company, which has been part-owned by some the world’s biggest financial-services companies until a recent sale to a PE firm, identified a “technical issue” on Jan. 22 that caused portions of its systems to go offline, a spokesperson for New York-based EquiLend told Bloomberg. The cybersecurity incident involved “unauthorized access to our systems,” the spokesperson …

Technology can play a vital role in limiting online gambling – here’s how

Technology can play a vital role in limiting online gambling – here’s how

More than a quarter of people in the UK gamble online at least once every four weeks. And 1%–2% of UK adults demonstrate moderate-to-high risk levels of gambling-related harms. The substantive and striking changes that the rise of online gambling have introduced are acknowledged by the UK government’s recently published plans to change the law in this area. Through smartphones or other internet-enabled devices, people can gamble online anywhere, at any time. Gambling online also often allows those experiencing gambling-related harm to more easily hide this from those around them. The reach of online gambling by operators, and gambling overall, is further enhanced by online promotion using social media. In an analysis of Twitter posts by several UK gambling operators, we found that over 80% of tweets related to sports, but less than 11% of tweets related to responsible gambling. Greater use of social media for responsible gambling messages would increase the impact of responsible gambling strategies. It would also enable more personalised targeting of this messaging to groups who may be at higher risk …