Tech

Pornhub Blocks Access In Texas Over Age Verification Law

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Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, has blocked access to the popular pornography site to Texan users. The move comes in protest of a state age-verification law that was upheld in federal court. Texas becomes the seventh state to lose access to the litany of pornographic services owned by Aylo. Other sites blocked include YouPorn, Brazzers, Digital Playground, and RealityKings. Aylo has chosen to disable the website rather than comply with a highly restrictive and intrusive age verification law.

Furthermore, Texan users trying to access the site will instead find an open letter from Aylo rebuking the law, which was upheld in federal court last week. “Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas’s stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors,” the letter reads in part. Furthermore, Alex Kekesi, VP of brand and community at Aylo, called the Texan law “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous”.

Read More: Pornhub Asks IG Why Kim Kardashian Can Show Her “Exposed Ass” But They Get Banned

TikTok Ban Passes The House

However, Aylo is not the only tech company gearing up for legal battles with the American political system. A bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned in the United States has passed the US House of Representatives by a vote of 325-65. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would demand that TikTok divest from its Chinese parent company. If the company refused, the app would become unavailable in the United States. The bill was proposed on the basis of protecting the data of American users from the Chinese. However, many opponents have labeled the bill as Sinophobic fearmongering.

While the bill faces an uphill battle in the senate, several American entities are already plotting their next steps. A US group led by former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has announced their intention to mount a bid to buy TikTok. Mnuchin revealed the plan while appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box. Mnuchin, who gained notoriety for his OneWestBank firm during the 2008 recession, was one of the few cabinet secretaries to see out Donald Trump‘s entire term in office.

Read More: Saweetie Debuts Insane Latex Fit For Pornhub Awards, Some Fans Aren’t Happy About It

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Why Does TikTok Still Have Ariana Grande and Other Universal Music Artists Even Though There’s a Standoff With the Label?

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black content creators

If you or your kids use TikTok, don’t feel bad because pretty much every social media user does; then you may have noticed a lack of certain music from your favorite artists on the platform. There’s a standoff regarding royalty payments and AI policies. Variety reports that it has “resulted in a near-complete blackout of all music owned, distributed, and published by the company on the platform.” Now get this: the videos are still on and popping on the platform, but the actual music is being muted – yikes.

Now it gets murky because new songs from UMG artists, like stars Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, and Niall Horan, can still be discovered on TikTok as of yesterday, but what is the reason is the real question? Variety didn’t have any comment from reps at UMG and TikTok, who both declined.

So, if you don’t know how the whole music on TikTok thing works, it goes like this, as Variety reports: Rights-holders, such as record labels, are not the only way music can be uploaded onto TikTok. Pretty much anyone uploads music and displays it as “original sound” on a user’s post. Then, said sound can be used by virtually anyone on TikTok, including artists. Once that music is on the platform, the rights-holders lose control over the content, and all they can do is send off takedown notices and other notifications via legal means. So it falls on TikTok to follow through by detecting, policing and muting the unauthorized music floating around on its platform. Are you exhausted from that rundown? We are. 

Even though reps from the label declined to comment to Variety, UMG spoke on the situation broadly. They’re, in essence, directing fault to TikTok’s detection software. They dropped a letter to artists breaking down the ban. “TikTok makes little effort to deal with the vast amounts of content on its platform that infringe our artists’ music and it has offered no meaningful solutions to the rising tide of content adjacency issues, let alone the tidal wave of hate speech, bigotry, bullying and harassment on the platform,” from an excerpt of the letter. “The only means available to seek the removal of infringing or problematic content (such as pornographic deepfakes of artists) is through the monumentally cumbersome and inefficient process which equates to the digital equivalent of ‘Whack-a-Mole.’ … We will always fight for our artists and songwriters and stand up for the creative and commercial value of music.” It seems like this is not going to end soon.

The post Why Does TikTok Still Have Ariana Grande and Other Universal Music Artists Even Though There’s a Standoff With the Label? first appeared on The Source.

The post Why Does TikTok Still Have Ariana Grande and Other Universal Music Artists Even Though There’s a Standoff With the Label? appeared first on The Source.

House of Representatives Pass Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S., Bill Heads to Senate

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tiktoklogo gettyimages 072121

The House of Representatives has passed a bill furthering the fight to ban TikTok.

The bill, named the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, was supported by Democrats and Republicans, while others on both sides of the aisle cited free speech issues.

According to NBC, the bill now heads to the Senate with an uncertain future. President Joe Biden stated he would sign the bill if it made it to him.

The U.S. is hoping to force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the app to fight a ban. America believes China can impact national security, free speech, and the social media industry.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance. The U.S. would hope for a sale within six months.

Users have stated the bill would alter their business and content creators. Others believe it could cause political problems for young voters in an election year.

Those voting against it were Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat running for Arizona’s Senate seat, who stated, “It’s vital we find a balance that both protects our national security interests and respects our fundamental rights. This is not that.”

In addition to the bill, New York City is taking TikTok, YouTube, and other social media applications to court. The city, led by Mayor Eric Adams, cites the aforementioned, along with Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and more, as a contribution to a “nationwide youth mental health crisis.”

The lawsuit is filed in the California Superior Court, stating the social applications are purposefully designed to be addictive to children and teenagers. The suit follows the Health Commissioner’s Advisory that DOHMH Commissioner Dr. Vasan issued last month, citing the continued use of social media as a public hazard. The advisory calls for parents, healthcare providers, and more to take action.

“Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” said Mayor Adams in a press statement.. “Our city is built on innovation and technology, but many social media platforms end up endangering our children’s mental health, promoting addiction, and encouraging unsafe behavior.

“Today, we’re taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis, and we’re building on our work to address this public health hazard. This lawsuit and action plan are part of a larger reckoning that will shape the lives of our young people, our city, and our society for years to come.”

NYC H+H Chief of Behavioral Health and Co-Deputy Chief Medical Officer Omar Fattal, MD, MPH added, “We must maximize our efforts to support the mental health needs of children and adolescents by providing families with tools and resources that foster healthy development. This includes robustly addressing the negative impact of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents. We join the mayor and DOHMH in encouraging all young people and their families to consider their use of social media and how it may be negatively affecting them.”

Mayor Adams’ administration has been actively addressing the youth mental health crisis. In a significant move last year, the city introduced TeenSpace, a free tele-mental health service catering to New York City teenagers aged 13 to 17. This service enables youths to connect with licensed therapists via phone, video, or text. Since its launch, TeenSpace has provided support to over 2,000 teenagers across the five boroughs within just three months of operation.

The post House of Representatives Pass Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S., Bill Heads to Senate first appeared on The Source.

The post House of Representatives Pass Bill to Ban TikTok in U.S., Bill Heads to Senate appeared first on The Source.

“TikTok Ban” Passes US House Of Representatives

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A bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned in the United States has passed the US House of Representatives by a vote of 325-65. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would demand that TikTok divest from its Chinese parent company. If the company refused, the app would become unavailable in the United States. The bill was proposed on the basis of protecting the data of American users from the Chinese. However, many opponents have labeled the bill as Sinophobic fearmongering.

However, the popular short-form video app is safe for the time being. The bill must now pass the Senate, where there is much less clear-cut support for the legislation. A spokesperson for Tiktok has already urged senators to reject the bill. “This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban. We are hopeful the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy. Seven million small businesses and 170 million Americans use our service,” the spokesperson told the BBC.

Read More: TikToker Roasted After Trying To Shame Steph Curry For “Ignoring” 8-Year-Old

Joe Biden’s Energetic State Of The Union Has Republicans Pedaling Cocaine Conspiracies

Of course, it’s been a busy week in US politics. After months of theories claiming that President Joe Biden had dementia, Republicans pivoted to a new attack after an energetic State of the Union address last week. Several Republican influencers, highlighted by Media Matters For America‘s Matthew Gertz, began suggesting that Biden was under the influence. “I think I just got to the bottom of the untraceable little baggie found at the White House,” wrote Fox host Julie Banderas.

Biden, who finds himself between right-wing critics attacking him on border control and left-wing critics attacking him on Gaza, came out swinging in his annual address to Congress. Furthermore, amongst the topics addressed were a warning to Vladimir Putin, a promise to restore Roe v. Wade, and the announcement of a temporary seaport to circumvent the Israeli blockade of Gaza. However, the official Republican response, delivered by Alabama Senator Katie Britt, took aim at Biden’s immigration record and tried to champion the GOP as the “defenders of women”.

Read More: Joe Biden Continues To Ride State Of The Union High, Hits Donald Trump With Attack Ad Comparing His Attitude To The KKK

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Streamer Roku Announces Data Breach of More Than 15,000 Accounts

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Streamer Roku Announces Data Breach of More Than 15,000 Accounts

Oh joy, another data breach, says Roku, the streaming giant, which disclosed that 15,363 streaming user accounts were obtained by “unauthorized individuals” who, as Variety reported, in certain cases aimed to buy streaming subscriptions through the hack.

So, get this: the company announced the breach on Friday, March 8, in a filing with the Attorney General’s Office in Maine. Now, in a report by Bleeping Computer, the perpetrators were trying to sell the stolen account details “for as little as $0.50 per account, allowing purchasers to use stored credit cards to make illegal purchases.” Sheesh. Scamming culture is cheap and scary.

Roku investigated account activity “to determine whether the unauthorized actors had incurred any charges, and we took steps to cancel unauthorized subscriptions and refund any unauthorized charges.”

Don’t get too unnerved. The 15,000-plus accounts are just a slither of Roku’s overall subscriber base. They said they had 80 million active users by the end of 2023.

“We take our viewers’ privacy and security seriously and, as part of our commitment to those values and protecting your information, we are writing to notify you about a recent event that may have affected your Roku account,” Roku said in a letter to users affected by the breach. 

The company’s security team said it “recently observed suspicious activity indicating that certain individual Roku accounts may have been accessed by unauthorized actors.” Furthermore, they said, “It appears likely that the same username/password combinations had been used as login information for such third-party services as well as certain individual Roku accounts. As a result, unauthorized actors were able to obtain login information from third-party sources and then use it to access certain individual Roku accounts,” Roku’s letter says. “After gaining access, they then changed the Roku login information for the affected individual Roku accounts, and, in a limited number of cases, attempted to purchase streaming subscriptions.”

Luckily, Roku accounts did not provide the hackers access to Social Security numbers, total payment account numbers, dates of birth, or other “similar sensitive personal information requiring notification.” THANKFULLY! The streamer said account holders who are concerned that their account may have been compromised are encouraged to do a password reset at my.roku.com. Well, these are the times, and they are scary.

The post Streamer Roku Announces Data Breach of More Than 15,000 Accounts first appeared on The Source.

The post Streamer Roku Announces Data Breach of More Than 15,000 Accounts appeared first on The Source.

Elon Musk Out at OpenAI Following Failed Merger with Tesla

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elon musk tesla

Elon Musk is no longer part of the Open AI Company. In a blog post, the company revealed that Musk left after they refused to merge with Tesla.

According to HypeBeast, Mustk is a co-founder and early backer of OpenAI but is now suing them.

The company decided to launch a for-profit brand within the company, which Musk wanted to merge with Tesla. Co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman refused.

“In late 2017, we and Elon decided the next step for the mission was to create a for-profit entity,” the blog says. “Elon wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO. In the middle of these discussions, he withheld funding.”

The post Elon Musk Out at OpenAI Following Failed Merger with Tesla first appeared on The Source.

The post Elon Musk Out at OpenAI Following Failed Merger with Tesla appeared first on The Source.

Elon Musk Rants About Jeff Bezos’ Ex-Wife, People Call Him “The Most Divorced Man On The Internet”

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People have labeled Elon Musk “the most divorced man on the Internet” after the X owner tweeted about the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. Musk had gone after MacKenzie Scott for her charitable donations, writing “‘Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse’ should be listed among ‘Reasons that Western Civilization died’.” Scott, who has stated that she wants to “give away all of her money”, has given over $16.5 billion, with over half that going to charities focused on gender and race issues.

However, the internet has taken this as yet another opportunity to dunk on the South African-born billionaire. As mentioned, the label of “most divorced man on the internet” was once again raised for Musk. His posts have become increasingly bitter after his divorce from Grimes. It is worth mentioning that he has since deleted his post about Scott.

Read More: Alex Jones Returns To X After Elon Musk Poll

Elon Musk Says He Doesn’t Play Grand Theft Auto

Elon Musk

Try as he might to beat the allegations, Musk remains one of the uncoolest people on the internet. When the trailer for GTA 6 dropped a day early, Elon Musk revealed that it’s not a game series that he plays. “Tried, but didn’t like doing crime. GTA5 required shooting police officers in the opening scene. Just couldn’t do it,” Musk tweeted in reply to another user saying they didn’t play the games. The response was widely mocked on the platform, with many people saying that Elon Musk was “a Drake type”.

However, Musk’s indifference to the series didn’t stop his beloved X from debasing themselves at the feet of the game’s developer, Rockstar. Rockstar was forced to release their trailer a day earlier due to an internal leak. However, X CEO Linda Yaccarino quickly made a post suggesting that Rockstar should directly upload the trailer to X to increase visibility. Rockstar would later do this, albeit with a boilerplate caption added. Despite this, fans were largely underwhelmed by the trailer. It was definitely more of a game reveal. The brief trailer showed off the vibes of the game’s Miami-esque setting and a vague release date of 2025.

Read More: Andrew Tate & Elon Musk Turned Down Millions To “Sell Their Souls,” Influencer Claims

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Meta Outage: Elon Musk Expertly Trolls Mark Zuckerberg’s Social Platforms

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It’s no secret that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg aren’t on the greatest of terms, especially after their highly anticipated fight failed to come to fruition last year. We may not ever see the Twitter/X head and the Meta boss square off in the ring, but Musk is still getting some shots in at his nemesis via social media. If you were online today, you might’ve noticed some outages occurring across Instagram and Facebook, leaving some users frustrated and unable to share content or communicate with loved ones.

Thankfully, things are back to normal at the time of publication, but they weren’t fixed before the Tesla CEO threw shade at Zuckerberg. “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working,” he tweeted mid-way through Tuesday (March 5) morning. Meanwhile, anyone trying to view the latest posts over on Meta-owned apps was rendered unable to refresh their feed or upload anything of their own.

Read More: Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth 2023: What Is The Facebook CEO Worth?

Elon Musk Confirms Twitter/X is Stable During Meta Outages

Minutes later, Musk posted a meme from Dreamworks’ Madagascar, in which one leader penguin (X) gives orders to three others (IG, Facebook, and Threads). Beneath is a post from Andy Stone, who writes, “We’re aware people are having trouble accessing our services. We are working on this now.” Though it’s unclear if the engineer also runs the official X account, they got in on the fun too, tweeting, “We know why you’re all here [right now]” first thing this morning.

Since his tumultuous takeover, Elon Musk has handed over many of his responsibilities at Twitter/X to other tech experts. Of course, that doesn’t mean he isn’t still one of the platform’s most popular users. Besides his shady message aimed at Zuckerberg today, we also saw the South African go viral for his response to Kanye West’s online comments about rockets. Read all about that at the link below, and check back later for more hip-hop/pop culture news updates.

Read More: Elon Musk Has Cheeky Answer For Kanye West’s Rocket Ship Tweet

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Instagram & Facebook Go Down, Users Go Wild With Reactions

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Social media is currently in a frenzy this Tuesday morning (March 5), because one of its main pillars seems to have crumbled. Moreover, you probably already noticed that Instagram, Facebook, and the rest of the Meta-verse is down right now, and folks took to their competitor Twitter -– sorry, X -– to react. Overall, it’s a lot of chaos and memes floating around, and plenty of jokes about Mark Zuckerberg calling up Elon Musk to help him fix it. It’s unclear whether this will last much longer than a few hours, or if there are more serious tech problems going on at Meta.

Furthermore, it’s always kind of bizarre to see so much talk about one social media platform on a competing one. In fact, one of the most prevalent reactions to this whole situation is that now X is more full than it’s ever been. Leave it up to the Internet to turn everything into a popularity contest rather than try to find out what’s been going on with Instagram and Meta. On that note, it doesn’t seem like anyone from the company’s issued a statement yet on this matter. Some publications think it’s a bug, whereas others claim there’s no clear indicator of what went wrong.

Read More: Instagram Suspends Thousands Of Accounts In Major Glitch

Instagram, Facebook & More Are Down: Users Start A Firestorm On X

Even though this situation isn’t an unprecedented one, folks still have a lot of unanswered questions at press time. In addition, this confusion and speculation also led many down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole, which is just one of social media’s many breeding grounds. A lot of people think that this was an Instagram cyber attack, either just for a meme or two or with legitimate concern. Either way, it’s as good of an explanation as any for this phenomenon as of writing this article. You can check out more reactions to this temporary shut-down below.

More Reactions

Meanwhile, why do you think that Instagram and the Meta-verse went down? Is there really an attack upon us or did somebody just put in the wrong code at the office? Whatever the case, drop your thoughts down in the comments section below. Also, for more curious news and updates on the crossover between tech and pop culture, keep checking in with HNHH.

Read More: Meta Announces Verified Subscription To Fight Against Frauds & Scams

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Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion on Hold After Seeing Possibilities of OpenAI

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Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion on Hold After Seeing Possibilities of OpenAI

Artificial intelligence gives Tyler Perry something to consider regarding his massive $800 million studio expansion after witnessing the wide-ranging potential of OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora.

IndieWire reported that even though Perry invested four years planning the studio expansion, “which would have added 12 soundstages to the backlot,” it will be “indefinitely on hold.” Now get this: Perry described the evolving tech as “mind-blowing.”

“All of that is currently and indefinitely on hold because of Sora and what I’m seeing,” Perry said. “I had gotten word over the last year or so that this was coming, but I had no idea until I saw recently the demonstrations of what it’s able to do. It’s shocking to me. Being told that it can do all of these things is one thing, but actually seeing the capabilities, it was mind-blowing.”

Apparently, Sora, said Perry, could make it so that studios don’t have to do multiple-location shoots for films or even build practical sets. Perry is no stranger to AI integration, and he’s used the tech in upcoming films for aging makeup. Now, that’s scary for makeup artists in the business, but he did say, per the article, that AI could adversely affect below-the-line workers… Hmm, you think?

“It makes me worry so much about all of the people in the business. Because as I was looking at it, I immediately started thinking of everyone in the industry who would be affected by this, including actors and grip and electric and transportation and sound and editors, and looking at this, I’m thinking this will touch every corner of our industry,” Perry said. “I am very, very concerned that in the near future, a lot of jobs are going to be lost. I really, really feel that very strongly.”

Perry seems conscious of the potential pitfalls as it impacts the blue-collar side of the industry and stresses an “all hands on [deck]” approach to controlling AI and how it may affect skilled workers in the business.

“It can’t be one union fighting every contract every two or three years. I think that it has to be everybody, all involved in how do we protect the future of our industry because it is changing rapidly, right before our eyes,” he added, and went on to express concern in protecting workers when using AI. “I think the only way to move forward in this is to galvanize it as one voice, not only in Hollywood and in this industry, but also in Congress.”

Let’s see how this plays out for Perry, but it’s safe to say AI is here to stay.

The post Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion on Hold After Seeing Possibilities of OpenAI first appeared on The Source.

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