Germany, in a First, Shuts Down Left-Wing Extremist Website

An anonymous reader shares a report: An influential website linked to violence at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Hamburg last month has been ordered to shut down, in the first such move against left-wing extremists in the country (alternative source), the authorities in Germany said on Friday. Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister, said that the unrest in Hamburg, during which more than 20, 000 police officers were deployed and more than 400 people arrested or detained, had been stirred up on the website and showed the “serious consequences” of left-wing extremism. “The prelude to the G-20 summit in Hamburg was not the only time that violent actions and attacks on infrastructural facilities were mobilized on linksunten.indymedia, ” he said, referring to the website. The order on Friday was the latest move in a long battle against extremism in Germany. It comes in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., this month and amid worries about “antifa” factions that use violence to combat the far-right in the United States. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Germany, in a First, Shuts Down Left-Wing Extremist Website

Uber Reportedly Will Invest $500 Million Into Mapping the World

Earlier this month, satellite imaging technology company DigitalGlobe announced it was partnering with Uber to “leverage DigitalGlobe’s industry leading constellation of sensors to access imagery and location intelligence to help identify and improve pick-up and drop-off locations.” Last week, Uber posted a press release to announce that Brian McClendon, the former head of Google Maps who left the company for Uber last year, would be leading Uber’s global mapping initiative. McClendon wrote that the company is “doubling down” on its mapping investment but didn’t say how much it would spend. Read more…

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Uber Reportedly Will Invest $500 Million Into Mapping the World

Brazilian Vigilantes Used WhatsApp to Warn People of a Coming Massacre

Following a police shooting in northern Brazil, people started getting messages . On WhatsApp, they were warned to stay indoors that night. Some of the WhatsApp messages were texts, though the most popular was an audio file with a dire warning: “Don’t go to Guama, Canudos or Terra Firme tonight. It concerns your security, ” it said, according to the BBC . “One of our policemen was killed and we will be cleaning the area.” Read more…

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Brazilian Vigilantes Used WhatsApp to Warn People of a Coming Massacre

Israel To Get Massive Countrywide Optical Upgrade

A Google Fiberhood-style rollout in the U.S., says a Goldman-Sachs estimate, would cost in the neighborhood of $140 billion. Even for Israel, a country approximately the size of New Jersey, there’s a high pricetag (“billions of shekels”) for installing fiber optics dense enough to reach most of the population, but just a massive fiber-optic rollout is planned, with the project led by Swedish firm Viaeuropa. If the scheme succeeds, it will cover two thirds of the country over the next 10 years or so. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Israel To Get Massive Countrywide Optical Upgrade