Business and Technology

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Twitter's New Threat Reporting Tool Is a Useless Punt

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Twitter, a service that admits it sucks at dealing with trolls, just announced a new tool for reporting harassment to the police. It looks like a good step at first glance—if you ignore the fact that it's a responsibility dodging, spineless fix that's highly unlikely to help anyone being harassed or threatened Twitter. This is a PR stunt, not a solution.

There is middle ground to be explored between castrating Twitter's capabilities as a free speech machine and introducing measures that actually counter abuse. Twitter could, for instance, employ proactive abuse moderators. These moderators could cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies and help people getting threatened make contact with police, not by giving them a copy of their complaint but by actually setting up contact. These abuse moderators could keep tabs on IP addresses known to spawn more than one abusive account.  Read More 

Facebook moves to curb terror, hate speech with update to its ‘community standards’

Nudity, hate speech, self-harm, dangerous organisations, bullying and harassment, sexual violence and exploitation, criminal activity, violence and graphic content are among the areas covered by the updated guidelines.

The move comes with Facebook and other social media struggling with defining acceptable content and freedom of expression, and with these networks increasingly linked to radical extremism and violence, including the posting and sharing of video and photographs of violent hate crimes. Read More

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Russia: IKEA shuts down magazine to avoid violating Gay Propaganda Ban

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IKEA will shutter the website for its magazine, IKEA Family Live, in Russia to avoid running afoul of the country’s ban on “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors. 

“When we do business, we observe the legislation of the countries where we work, therefore to avoid violations, we have taken the decision to stop publishing the magazine in Russia,” IKEA said in a statement carried by AFP.

The Swedish furniture chain has featured same-sex couples and their families in the magazine, which is published in 25 countries. It came under fire internationally in 2013 for excluding a story on Clara and Kirsty, a British lesbian couple, from its Russian edition after the propaganda ban was passed. Activists held a kiss-in at the Brooklyn, New York, IKEA store to protest the move. Read More 

Facebook further expands profiles’ “gender” box, lets users type anything

 Facebook's official "Diversity" account announced another sweeping change to the gender selection on users' profiles. Starting today, users of Facebook's English sites can type pretty much whatever they want into a custom box.

"We recognize that some people face challenges sharing their true gender identity with others, and this setting gives people the ability to express themselves in an authentic way," the unnamed Diversity account holder said.

This change follows in the footsteps of Facebook's decision last year to expand its gender options, which were previously limited to male, female, or no response. Just like the last update, users must type their preferred gender descriptor after choosing "other," and Facebook will suggest terms from its prior list like "androgynous" and "gender fluid."  Read More 

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Apple unveils racially diverse emoji in 5 skin tones and same-sex couples

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Apple is adding racially diverse emoji to its OS X desktop operating system.

The software's emoji keyboard will include characters in five skin tones based on the Fitzpatrick scale, a recognised standard used by dermatologists that moves the icons away from previously much-derided racial stereotypes. Read More

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India: Snapdeal has just been taken to court for selling vibrators

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A Delhi lawyer has just taken e-commerce giant Snapdeal to court for selling sex accessories because he wants to test the limits of India’s anti-homosexuality law. Suhaas Joshi, an advocate at India’s Supreme Court, has filed a complaint for abetting gay sex and for exhibiting obscene products. 

Joshi’s complaint, explains that products—such as anal lubes and massagers that are shaped like the male phallus—violate the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, along with other acts such as section 292, 292 A, 293 and 294 which prohibit obscenity in public. 

Section 377 is the controversial anti-gay Indian law that criminalises any intercourse that is “against the order of nature.” The Delhi high court had earlier decriminalised the act, but India’s Supreme Court subsequently overturned the decision and has left it to the Indian parliament to take a decision on repealing section 377. Read More

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Ireland: Warning over homophobic ‘catfish’ attacks

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Members of Cork’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual community have been warned to take safety precautions when meeting online dates after reports of orchestrated attacks by assailants using websites and dating apps to attract their victims.

James Upton, auditor of UCC’s LGBT society, said that he was aware of a rise in physical and verbal homophobic attacks against the group’s members in the past six months. He said he believes it is a backlash against the LGBT community as the upcoming Marriage Equality referendum approaches.

“We can’t tell our members not to go on these sites, but we issue a word of caution about meeting people from them, they could be catfished,” he warned. Read More

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The Importance of Having Gay Video Game Characters

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In a video for PBS Digital’s Game/Show, Jamin Warren discusses the power of having explicitly gay characters in video games. Gaming franchises like Fable and the Sims have long-offered players the ability to create unique characters with customizable sexualities. But, as Warren explains, there's something to be said for queer characters whose sexualities are set in stone.

In particular Warren singles out BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dorian, its resident gay magic user, for crafting a story in which Dorian’s sexuality is integral to the character’s personality, but not burdensome to the game’s plot. Read More

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ANZ New Zealand Bank Unveils 'GAYTMs' Benefiting The LGBT Community In Honor Of Pride Events

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In an effort to promote "respect, inclusion, equality and acceptance," a local bank chain has unveiled four "GAYTMs" in connection with local Pride events in New Zealand.

The four festively-dressed ATM machines, which were actually introduced last year by ANZ Australia as part of Sydney Mardi Gras, made their debut in Auckland and Wellington via ANZ New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald first reported. The installations will appear throughout the Auckland Pride Festival, which runs through February, and Wellington's Out in the Park, which is slated for Feb. 14.  Read More 

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Israel: Hebro Presents First-Ever Gay Jewish Auschwitz Tour

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Jayson Littman, founder of Hebro Travel, a new tour company serving “gay Jews and those who love us,” is serving up trips that blend historical exploration, cultural discovery — and some serious partying.

An Israel trip timed for Tel Aviv Pride in June will take travelers to a famously gay-friendly environment. But it’s Littman’s latest tour offering that’s generating attention — and raising eyebrows. The history-making Poland & Prague Pride Trip includes a Jewish heritage tour of the Kazimierz District and Schindler’s List route; visits to historic synagogues; and stops at Auschwitz and Theresienstadt and ends with Prague’s Gay Pride festivities.  Read More

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Dominican Republic: Advocates, officials to launch LGBT tourism campaign

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Members of the Center for Integrated Training and Research, a Dominican advocacy group known by the Spanish acronym COIN that has fought the AIDS epidemic in the country and throughout the Caribbean for more than two decades, will meet with representatives of the Dominican Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Police to promote LGBT tourism and gay rights in the Caribbean country. Read More