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Five more Amazon facilities authorize worker strikes

Teamsters unions at five additional Amazon facilities have voted to go on strikes, following similar action in New York City and Illinois. The international Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) announced in a statement that union members “unanimously” approved measures to authorize strikes in four Southern California facilities and a fifth facility in Atlanta.

The four Southern California facilities are based in City of Industry, Palmdale, Victorville and San Bernardino, according to SiliconValley.com. This brings the total number of Amazon facilities that have authorized worker strikes to eight. The total includes a facility in Skokie, Illinois and two New York City warehouses on Staten Island and in Queens. The IBT represents just under 10,000 workers in 10 Amazon facilities nationwide.

These facilities approved a strike right in the middle of the holiday shopping season, one of the busiest and most lucrative times of the year for the online retail giant. Amazon crews went on strike to protest against low wages, hazardous working conditions and “Amazon’s illegal refusal to recognize their union,” according to IBT statements.

Teamsters General President Sean N. O’Brien said in the statement that Amazon has failed to provide adequate compensation and protections for its workforce. If their demands are ignored, O’Brien says they will start strikes.

“Amazon workers want to earn a good living, have decent health care and be safe on the job,” O’Brien said. “They are done with the disrespect and if Amazon keeps pushing them, they will push them to strike.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/five-more-amazon-facilities-authorize-worker-strikes-185030459.html?src=rss

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© Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo via Getty Images

ORLANDO, FLORIDA DECEMBER 2: Amazon employees work to fulfill same-day orders during Cyber Monday, one of the company busiest days of the year. The fulfillment center, one of Amazon largest for same-day deliveries, saw more than 200 workers sorting, packing and shipping items throughout Central Florida. On any given day, this location processes more than 20,000 packages, but during the holiday season, that number jumps to more than 80,000. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images)

Consultant found guilty in murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee

Nima Momeni has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of notable fintech figure Bob Lee. Momeni, an IT consultant and entrepreneur, faces 16 years to life in prison. Best known as the creator and founder of Cash App, Lee was fatally stabbed in April 2023 in San Francisco. Momeni was arrested as a suspect nine days later. 

The autopsy report revealed that Lee was under the influence of cocaine, alcohol and ketamine at the time of his death. He had been in the company of Momeni and his sister, Khazar Momeni, that night. Prosecutors argued that Mr. Momeni attacked Lee on the street after discovering that an associate of Lee's had drugged and assaulted Ms. Momeni. Momeni's legal team said he acted in self-defense and was unaware that Lee was injured in their altercation.

Most recently, Lee had been the chief product officer for cryptocurrency operation MobileCoin. He had previously held an executive position at Square and played a role in developing the Android mobile operating system at Google.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/consultant-found-guilty-in-murder-of-cash-app-founder-bob-lee-192430902.html?src=rss

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© MobileCoin

Headshot of Bob Lee, founder and creator of Cash App

Amazon workers at two NYC warehouses are set to go on strike

Workers at two of Amazon's warehouses in New York City are set to go on strike after the company failed to come to the bargaining table by a December 15 deadline. Unionized workers at the JFK8 facility on Staten Island and DBK4 depot in Queens voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize strikes in protest against "Amazon’s illegal refusal to recognize their union and negotiate a contract addressing the company’s low wages and dangerous working conditions," according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Engadget has contacted the Teamsters and Amazon Labor Union (ALU) for more details about the strikes.

The workers at JFK8 were the first in the US to unionize at an Amazon warehouse. They organized under the ALU, which this June partnered with the Teamsters. The union now known as ALU-IBT Local 1 represents around 5,500 warehouse workers at JFK8.

“Our members are ready to do whatever it takes to get a contract,” Connor Spence, president of ALU-IBT Local 1, said in a statement. “While Amazon continues to disrespect us by refusing to listen to our concerns, our movement is only growing stronger.”

As for DBK4 — which the Teamsters say is Amazon's biggest delivery station in NYC — workers there voted almost unanimously for strike authorization. Meanwhile, workers at the DIL7 delivery depot in Skokie, Illinois, also voted "overwhelmingly" to approve a strike. The Teamsters represent hundreds of workers at that station as well. “Amazon is one of the biggest companies on Earth, but we are struggling to pay our bills,” Riley Holzworth, a DIL7 worker, said in a statement.

Amazon has lodged legal challenges against the union election win at JFK8, but it has been unsuccessful in its efforts to overturn results thus far. The company has appealed a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that certified the union. As ABC News reports, workers claim that Amazon is using the challenges as a tactic to illegally delay union contract talks.

"For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public — claiming that they represent 'thousands of Amazon employees and drivers'. They don't, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative," Amazon spokesperson Eileen Hards told ABC News. "The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges."

News of the impending strike comes just after a Senate committee released a report regarding an investigation into safety at Amazon facilities. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions claimed the company ignored internal research indicating that there was a high level of injury rates at its warehouses.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-workers-at-two-nyc-warehouses-are-set-to-go-on-strike-175236558.html?src=rss

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© REUTERS / Reuters

Workers arrive to cast ballots for a union election at Amazon's JFK8 distribution center, in the Staten Island borough of New York City, U.S., March 25, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid.

The 12 best last-minute Christmas gifts for the 2024 holiday season

The holidays are nearly here and if you’re a bit behind on your gift shopping, you’re not alone. The holidays can truly sneak up on you, and this year that’s been more true than ever. Between wrapping things up at work before some well-deserved time off and making sure you have everything you need to host family and friends, it can be hard to find the time to go to a store to pick out presents. And when you do finally get there, you may be met with half-empty shelves. But this is where the internet comes in handy: you still have time to buy holiday gifts online.

USPS, UPS and FedEx have laid out their holiday shipping deadlines for 2024: Ship your items via the post office by December 18 to have them safely arrive before Christmas, while FedEx and UPS have deadlines of December 13 and December 20, respectively. At this point, we recommend picking up small, affordable gifts that will ship quickly from retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target so you have plenty of time to wrap them up nicely and make it look like you had everything well-planned from the start. Here are the best last-minute Christmas gifts you can get right now and still have in time before the holidays.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-12-best-last-minute-christmas-gifts-for-the-2024-holiday-season-140037775.html?src=rss

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© Engadget

The best last-minute Christmas gifts

ZeniMax Online Studios workers form their own union

Staff at another video game studio have organized their own union. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) announced late Thursday in a statement that 461 workers for ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS), the Maryland-based studio behind The Elder Scrolls Online, voted to form the ZOS United-CWA union covering web developers, designers, engineers and graphics artists by a vote of 395-40. 

The new union will allow ZeniMax staffers to “collectively push for real improvements” in the workplace and provide “job security amid record layoffs, protections against AI, better pay and benefits,” according to a statement released by the CWA.

“I’m excited to finally see workers have a say in the workplace,” encounter designer and ZOS United-CWA member Billy Eichner said in the statement. “We already work together to make great games. Why not work together to make a great workplace?”

This isn’t the first time that a group of ZeniMax workers have formed a union. Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax unionized in January of 2023, making it the largest union in the game industry at the time.

Workers at other major game studios have followed the lead of QA workers at ZeniMax by forming their own unions. Sega of America workers unionized last March. More than 500 staffers who work on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft voted to form their union over the summer. Workers at Bethesda Game Studios, the developer behind Starfield, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, also voted to create a union in July.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-online-studios-workers-form-their-own-union-190055555.html?src=rss

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© ZeniMax Media

Workers at ZeniMax Online Studios, the developer behind The Elder Scrolls Online, formed a new union with The Communication Workers of America (CWA) on Thursday.

Reddit is removing links to Luigi Mangione's manifesto

Reddit is taking down posts linking to the manifesto of the suspected shooter of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The company says it’s enforcing a longstanding policy, but its actions have angered and frustrated some users.

Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old who was arrested and charged with murder earlier this week, has been the subject of widespread fascination online since New York police first released images of the suspected killer. Small excerpts of the 261-word manifesto were published by the New York Times, while journalist Ken Klippenstein obtained and published it in its entirety on his Substack Tuesday. Links to Klippenstein's newsletter containing the manifesto began to disappear off Reddit, with some being removed by individual subreddits' community moderators and some being taken down by Reddit staff.

In a widely viewed post in r/popculturechat, a moderator explained that Reddit had instructed them to remove posts of the manifesto. “We have officially been notified by Reddit that we must adhere strictly to their site-wide rules regarding violent content,” moderator clemthearcher wrote. “Specifically, Reddit has told us that we are not allowed to post Luigi Mangione’s manifesto, even if it is reported neutrally.”

Reddit removed a post linking to the manifesto in r/interestingasfuck, which had nearly 20,000 upvotes, which was later detailed in a lengthy post in r/subredditdrama. Posts were also removed from other subreddits, including r/witchesVsPatriarchy and r/antiwork. Engadget confirmed that the site now automatically blocks posts attempting to link to the Substack post with the manifesto.

Though the move has angered many Redditors, the company says it’s not a new policy. A Reddit spokesperson confirmed that “manifestos related to violent acts” violate the company’s violent content rules, which state:

Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual (including oneself) or a group of people; likewise, do not post content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. We understand there are sometimes reasons to post violent content (e.g., educational, newsworthy, artistic, satire, documentary, etc.) so if you’re going to post something violent in nature that does not violate these terms, ensure you provide context to the viewer so the reason for posting is clear.

The policy further refers to posts “containing mass killer manifestos or imagery of their violence” an example of violating content (Magione has not been accused of mass murder). The Reddit spokesperson confirmed that Redditors are permitted to discuss the manifesto, including news coverage of it, as long as they don’t violate other aspects of the company’s rules.

While it’s not unusual for social media users to accuse a company of “censorship” amid disputes over content moderation, Reddit’s actions come at a time when many online commentators have expressed sympathy for Mangione, who has become something of a “folk hero” in some corners of the internet. His actions have also put the American healthcare system under renewed scrutiny as people have shared their experiences with insurance company denials in the wake of the shooting.

“I’m sure Reddit’s admins find themselves far more aligned with the class of people like Brian Johnson (sic) than they do with the rest of us," one commenter wrote in response to moderator clemthearcher’s post in r/popculturechat, "so the only violence they care to moderate is that against Brian Johnson (sic) - not misogyny, racism, homophobia, or the rampant greed of our healthcare industry which has killed or caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reddit-is-removing-links-to-luigi-mangiones-manifesto-210421069.html?src=rss

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© Reddit

What appears when you attempt to post a link to the manifesto on reddit.

Most US teens still use TikTok daily as ban looms

With a TikTok ban in the United States looking more and more likely, a new report from Pew Research on teen social media use underscores just how influential the app is among its youngest users. Not only is it one of the most-used social media services by teens, 57 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds scroll TikTok every single day, Pew reports.

The report underscores the impact a ban would have on teens. Sixty-three percent of teens report “ever” using the app, while 57 percent say they log on at least once a day. TikTok also has the highest percentage of teens reporting that they use the service “almost constantly,” with 16 percent. A little more than a third report checking the app “several times a day.”

Pew's data on teen social media use.
Pew Research Center

Pew’s report arrives as TikTok is running out of options to avoid a ban in the United States. The company lost its initial legal challenge to a law requiring that parent company ByteDance sell the app or face a total ban in the country. TikTok has asked the courts for a temporary delay of the law, which is currently scheduled to take effect January 19, while it looks to take its next appeal to the Supreme Court.

Should the ban actually happen, Pew’s report suggests that YouTube and Instagram are best-positioned to benefit. YouTube was once again the most-used app among teens, with 90 percent of 13 to 17 year-olds saying they use the service and 73 percent reporting daily use. Meta’s Instagram, which ranked just below TikTok with 61 percent of teens, is another likely successor, though only half of teens said they check the app daily.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/most-us-teens-still-use-tiktok-daily-as-ban-looms-150002335.html?src=rss

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© NurPhoto via Getty Images

The TikTok app logo is seen in this photo illustration taken in Warsaw, Poland on 18 November, 2024. The Canadian government has ordered the social media giant to wind down its business operations in the country. The decision, announced on Nov. 7, is based on national security concerns tied to TikTok's Chinese ownership and follows a year-long review of the app's Canadian operations. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Former Celsius CEO pleads guilty to two fraud charges

Former cryptocurrency leader Alex Mashinsky has pleaded guilty to two fraud charges. The founder and CEO of Celsius Network was indicted on seven criminal counts in 2023, including charges of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation. He entered a not guilty plea at the time, but in a hearing today, Mashinsky pled guilty to two of those original counts. The first is commodities fraud and the second is a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of his company's in-house crypto token CEL. Reuters reported that as part of a plea deal, Mashinsky has agreed not to appeal any sentence of 30 years or less.

Mashinsky's case is one of several fraud cases being pursued against leaders of cryptocurrency operations. The most well-publicized charges are those brought against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty on seven counts of fraud in 2023.

National agencies began a push into fraud charges for cryptocurrency schemes in 2022, when several notable companies filed for bankruptcy as token prices plummeted in response to rising interest rates and high inflation. That year, the Federal Trade Commission said that victims of crypto schemes had lost more than $1 billion since 2021.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/former-celsius-ceo-pleads-guilty-to-two-fraud-charges-224046043.html?src=rss

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© REUTERS / Reuters

Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, exits the Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S., July 25, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Russia arrests ransomware attacker Wazawaka

One of the world’s most notorious hackers could finally be in custody. Bleeping Computer reports that ransomware affiliate Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev also known as Wazawaka, Uhodiransomwar, m1x and Boriselcin has been arrested.

Prosecutors have not confirmed if Matveev is under arrest, but reports indicate that Matveev may be the hacker in Russian custody. The Russian state news agency РИА Новости (translated on BlueSky by the Center for Strategic Research’s Oleg Shakirov) reported that the Kaliningrad Interior Ministry and Russian prosecutors sent a case of “a programmer accused of creating a malicious program” to court. An anonymous source with knowledge of the matter confirms that Matveev is the programmer.

Matveev is also wanted on charges in the US for launching attacks on US law enforcement agencies and healthcare organizations as far back as 2020. The US State Department is offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture in May of last year when the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against him. If he’s in Russian custody, the US may not get a chance to prosecute him.

Matveev, a Russian national, has links to ransomware hacking groups such as Hive, LockBit and Babuk. He’s linked to a number of attacks including an April 2021 lockout attack on the systems of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. More than a year later, he allegedly helped launch a Hive ransomware attack on a healthcare NGO in New Jersey.

Attacks from LockBit are particularly destructive and egregious. In late 2022, the group infected the computer systems of 1,400 victims including a Holiday Inn hotel in Turkey. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also placed sanctions against Matveev for his role in several ransomware attacks on US services and critical infrastructure targets. The Justice Department believes Matveev has extracted more than $75 million from his victims in ransom payments.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/russia-arrests-ransomware-attacker-wazawaka-202134431.html?src=rss

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© FBI

The US Department of Justice is offering a $10 million reward for Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev.

Amazon workers across the globe are on strike for Black Friday

Amazon workers across the world have gone on strike for Black Friday, according to the labor advocacy group UNI Global Union. The protests, dubbed “Make Amazon Pay,” are scheduled to last until December 2. Strikes are happening everywhere, from the US to Australia and Nepal.

There are also demonstrations happening in more than 20 countries over “labor abuses, environmental degradation and threats to democracy.” The demonstrators are petitioning the company, which is worth around $2.2 trillion, for increased wages, better working conditions and the permission to form unions. Amazon doesn’t particularly care for unions.

#MakeAmazonPay sagen diese Woche Gewerkschaftsaktive aus weltweit mehr als 20 Ländern zum #BlackFriday der auf dem Rücken der Arbeiter:innen ausgetragen wird. #Solidarität gibt es dafür auch von den starken @_verdi Vertrauensleuten aus dem Hamburger Hafen der @HHLA_Group 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽🚩 pic.twitter.com/O8MptYXrdh

— ver.di Amazon Niedersachsen-Bremen (@verdiAmazon_NDS) November 29, 2024

This includes thousands of workers in Germany, across several cities, and hundreds in New Delhi. Employees from India’s capital city are protesting after the company allegedly mistreated workers during a massive heat wave earlier this year, in which people reportedly began fainting due to heat stroke. However, Amazon sent a statement after that saying that it complies with Indian law and that there’s “nothing more important than the safety and well being of the workers." 

✊🏿#MakeAmazonPay Day begins! Amazon workers in Jantar Mantar, Delhi 🇮🇳 rally to demand minimum pay, decent working conditions & recognition of Amazon workers union @AiwaInd pic.twitter.com/rBUKd7DV9Z

— UNI Global Union (@uniglobalunion) November 29, 2024

The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen's Action will also hold protests in multiple cities across France and garment workers are demonstrating in Bangladesh. The strikes and associated protests could slow down holiday deliveries a bit, according to ABC News. This is, of course, the entire point of a strike.

This is the fifth straight year of Make Amazon Pay actions, which always start on Black Friday. The aim of the movement is to “hold Amazon accountable around the world” by targeting the busiest holiday shopping weekend. To that end, Amazon represented nearly 20 percent of worldwide Black Friday transactions in 2023, with more than $170 billion in holiday sales. 

While billionaire Bezos tours the world on his $500m yacht, Amazon workers in 20+ countries are rising up this Black Friday to demand fair wages, union rights & climate action. Amazon must pay its fair share & respect workers. I stand with #MakeAmazonPay https://t.co/NmX1Sc1F66

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 27, 2024

"Amazon's relentless pursuit of profit comes at a cost to workers, the environment and democracy," said Christy Hoffman, general secretary of UNI Global Union. “We stand united in demanding that Amazon treat its workers fairly, respect fundamental rights and stop undermining the systems meant to protect us all.”

Amazon has a different take on things, writing in a statement that the organizers are being “intentionally misleading” and continuing “to promote a false narrative.” The company also crowed that it has “created more than 1.5 million jobs around the world” and that it provides “a modern, safe and engaging workplace.”

Modern and safe? Amazon was responsible for more than half of all serious warehouse injuries in the US in 2022. Let me state that again. Amazon accounted for more than half of these incidents and every other company combined accounted for the remaining 47 percent. This was reported more than a year after the company promised to spend $300 million on improving workplace safety. 

However, Amazon recently announced a major investment, to the tune of $2.2 billion, to increase pay for fulfillment and transportation employees in the US. That’s good news, but is only around one quarter of what the company spent on major investments in the AI company Anthropic.

Amazon has invested a total of $8 billion in Anthropic. https://t.co/k2vM7Ozbc2

— Observer (@observer) November 22, 2024

Make Amazon Pay was originally launched in 2020 by the aforementioned UNI Global Union and Progressive International. The organizations say it has steadily grown each year, with this year's protests drawing support from over 30 unions, environmental organizations and civil society groups.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-workers-across-the-globe-are-on-strike-for-black-friday-174745422.html?src=rss

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© UNI Global Union

Striking workers.

X says The Onion can’t have Alex Jones’ Infowars accounts

Another legal complication may have surfaced in The Onion’s bid to buy the Infowars empire from bankrupt conspiracy media mogul Alex Jones. X filed a limited objection to the transfer of Infowars’ X accounts to the satirical media empire in a federal Bankruptcy Court on Monday.

The objection claims that X Corporation’s terms of service states “the Trustee cannot sell, assign or otherwise transfer such license absent X Corp.’s consent,” according to court records.

X Corporation cites its own Terms of Service (TOS) agreement in its objection. The TOS states accounts cannot be transferred, gifted, sold or assigned to other parties ”without X’s express written consent.”

“Because the X accounts are governed by the TOS, the TOS make clear that X accounts are X Corp.’s ‘exclusive property,” according to X’s court filing.

Jones’ assets including the Infowars website went into a liquidation auction earlier this month to raise money for the nearly $1.5 billion in damages he accrued in civil trials brought by the family members of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Jones was found liable for spreading rumors about the victims’ family members that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged as a false flag attack.

The Onion’s parent company Global Tetrahedron stepped in to purchase the Infowars site after receiving permission from the families to accept a lower bid and forgo a portion of the sale to pay Jones’ other creditors. Onion CEO Ben Collins announced the deal on his Bluesky account as well as the newspaper’s plans to turn Infowars.com into “a very funny, very stupid website.”

US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez halted the deal calling for an evidentiary hearing to review the auction process. The auction’s trustee Christopher Murray said in court that Global Tetrahedron’s bid was not the highest offered but the sale price included a legal clause citing its deal with the families. The Associated Press reported Monday that Lopez will hear arguments on the trustee’s sale of Infowars to The Onion on December 9 or 17 in order to ensure “a fair and transparent process.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-says-the-onion-cant-have-alex-jones-infowars-accounts-000006993.html?src=rss

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© The Onion

Onion CEO Ben Collins announced on Bluesky that the humor newspaper's parent company bought Alex Jones' Infowars with plans to turn it into a parody website.

Amazon Japan hit with a raid over antitrust concerns

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has conducted a raid on Amazon over antitrust concerns. "There is a suspicion that Amazon Japan is forcing sellers to cut prices in an irrational way," an unnamed source told Reuters.

Amazon Japan received an on-site inspection by the regulator today to explore whether the retailer gives better product placement in search results to sellers who offer lower prices. Additional reporting in The Japan Times suggested that this inquiry is focused on Amazon's Buy Box program, which puts recommended items more prominently in front of online shoppers. The publication said that in addition to demanding "competitive pricing," sellers were allegedly required to use Amazon's in-house services, such as those for logistics and payment collection, to qualify for Buy Box placement.

The Japanese FTC has not released an official statement about the inquiry. Amazon Japan's comment to Engadget on the situation states, "We are cooperating fully with the authorities."

Amazon has also been questioned about anti-competitive behavior around the world. Stateside, both the Fair Trade Commission and the Attorney General of Washington DC have raised similar concerns about Amazon's practices. The company is also expected to face an antitrust investigation in the European Union next year.

Update, November 26, 2024, 6:17PM ET: Updated to add comment from Amazon Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-japan-hit-with-a-raid-over-antitrust-concerns-191558080.html?src=rss

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© Reuters / Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Amazon.com's logo is seen at Amazon Japan's office building in Tokyo, Japan, August 8, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

Snap calls New Mexico's child safety complaint a 'sensationalist lawsuit'

Snap has accused New Mexico's attorney general of intentionally looking for adult users seeking sexually explicit content in order to make its app seem unsafe in a filing asking the court to dismiss the state's lawsuit. In the document shared by The Verge, the company questioned the veracity of the state's allegations. The attorney general's office said that while it was using a decoy account supposed to be owned by a 14-year-old girl, it was added by a user named Enzo (Nud15Ans). From that connection, the app allegedly suggested over 91 users, including adults looking for sexual content. Snap said in its motion to dismiss, however, that those "allegations are patently false."

It was the decoy account that searched for and added Enzo, the company wrote. The attorney general's operatives were also the ones who looked for and added accounts with questionable usernames, such as "nudenude_22" and "xxx_tradehot." In addition, Snap is accusing the office of "repeatedly [mischaracterizing]" its internal documents. The office apparently cited a document when it mentioned in its lawsuit that the company "consciously decided not to store child sex abuse images" and when it suggested that it doesn't report and provide those images to law enforcement. Snap denied that it was the case and clarified that it's not allowed to store child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) on its servers. It also said that it turns over such materials to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The New Mexico Department of Justice's director of communications was not impressed with the company's arguments. In a statement sent to The Verge, Lauren Rodriguez accused Snap of focusing on the minor details of the investigation in an "attempt to distract from the serious issues raised in the State’s case." Rodriguez also said that "Snap continues to put profits over protecting children" instead of "addressing... critical issues with real change to their algorithms and design features."

New Mexico came to the conclusion that Snapchat's features "foster the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitate child sexual exploitation" after a months-long investigation. It reported that it found a "vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap" and that Snapchat was "by far" the biggest source of images and videos on the dark web sites that it had seen. The attorney general's office called Snapchat "a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them." Snap employees encounter 10,000 sextortion cases each month, the office's lawsuit said, but the company allegedly doesn't warn users so as not to "strike fear" among them. The complaint accused Snap's upper management of ignoring former trust and safety employees who'd pushed for additional safety mechanisms, as well.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/snap-calls-new-mexicos-child-safety-complaint-a-sensationalist-lawsuit-140034898.html?src=rss

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© Cheng Xin via Getty Images

CHONGQING, CHINA - OCTOBER 27: The Snapchat app page is displayed on a smartphone in the Apple App Store in front of the Snap Inc. logo on October 27, 2024 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)

The 19 best gift ideas for the remote worker in your life

For many of us, working from home is the new normal. If you know someone who spends most of their days inside their home office, the holiday season is a good opportunity to help make their day-to-day routine a little more convenient. As a group of remote workers ourselves, we’ve rounded up a few gift ideas that should make the WFH life a little more delightful.

Best gifts for remote workers in 2024

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-work-from-home-gifts-wfh-140037231.html?src=rss

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© Engadget

The best gift ideas for the remote worker in your life
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