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Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 16, 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2024

Brazil judge opens inquiry into Musk over blocked accounts on X

Musk has challenged a decision by a Supreme Court judge ordering the blocking of certain accounts.
James Manyika, who heads Google’s technology and society team, delivers the keynote address at Google I/O in Mountain View, California, in 2023. OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024

How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for AI

The companies’ actions illustrate how online information has increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming AI industry.
Many U.S. lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses national security risks because China could compel the company to share the data of its 170 million U.S. users.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2024

TikTok braces for U.S. divest-or-ban law — and a fresh legal fight

The legislation has been fast-tracked and tied to a crucial aid package for Ukraine and Israel, which the Senate is set to vote on in the coming days.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the Manhattan Supreme Court on the sixth day of the hush-money trial against him on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 24, 2024

Ex-tabloid CEO says he bought and killed stories about Trump affairs

The National Enquirer's ex-CEO said he deliberately didn't publish stories about Donald Trump's affairs to help the former president's 2016 election.
TikTok accounts for a small share of ByteDance's total revenues and daily active users, so the parent would rather have the app shut down in the U.S. in a worst-case scenario than sell it to a potential American buyer, sources said.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 26, 2024

ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, sources say

A shutdown would have limited impact on its business, and it would not have to give up its "secret sauce" — the algorithm that pushes videos to users.
Lawmakers and TikTok creators during a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on March 12
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2024

TikTok creators brace for economic blow thanks to possible U.S. ban

TikTok has become an essential platform for small business starting out in the U.S., one eMarketer analyst said, as a ban on the social media app looms.
Manahel al-Otaibi wears western clothes in the Saudi capital Riyadh in September 2019. Human rights groups have denounced an 11-year prison term recently handed down by a counterterrorism court to the Saudi fitness instructor and women's rights activist.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

Saudi Arabia cracks down on online speech, jailing critics for decades

Fitness influencer Manahel al-Otaibi was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison after criticizing male guardianship laws and women's dress requirements.
The Singapore skyline. The Wall Street Journal will be shifting its Asia base to the city from Hong Kong.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 3, 2024

Wall Street Journal moves Asia base from Hong Kong to Singapore

The U.S. newspaper said its decision comes after other foreign firms have reconsidered their operations in the Chinese financial hub.
A man films with a smartphone in front a placard for the German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during a campaign event for the upcoming European Parliament elections, and ahead of Saxony's municipal and state elections, in Dresden, eastern Germany, on May 1.
WORLD / Politics
May 6, 2024

German far right's TikTok success sparks rush to platform

Germany's political heavyweights have been spooked by the successes in reaching youth voters ahead of June's European elections.
Boys watch smoke billowing during Israeli strikes east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
May 14, 2024

Celebrities face digital backlash over Gaza silence

For months, activists have flooded the comments sections of social media sites, urging stars to join calls for a cease-fire in the war.
Entrepreneurs Yusaku Maezawa (second from right) and Takafumi Horie (third from right) attend a study session on fake social media ads and investment scams at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on April 10.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 16, 2024

Japanese billionaire sues Meta over investment scams using his image

Yusaku Maezawa is suing Meta for its negligence in regulating the use of his name and image in investment scams on its social media platforms.
Though he enjoyed making films when he was younger, Ryan Filiatrault wound up working a slew of other jobs before returning to his passion in his 30s.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
May 24, 2024

Ryan Filiatrault: 'Failure is an obstacle not a barrier. You can always get back on track.'

The Canadian filmmaker has taken a regimented approach to following his passion — and it has worked.
Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has seen threat actors rely on artificial intelligence to produce fake images, videos and text to try influencing users on its sites.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2024

Meta removes AI-generated influence campaigns from China and Israel

Social media companies such as Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Elon Musk’s X have struggled with the influx of fake and misleading AI-generated content on their sites.
The Grand Kremlin palace in Moscow
WORLD / Politics
Jun 12, 2024

How a Russian operative worked to shape Moscow’s story in Europe

The operative has contacted at least six European journalists and at times appears to have offered to pay for planted news articles.
Naran Unurtsetseg became one of Mongolia's most well-known journalists by exposing sexual abuse in a Buddhist boarding school, violence in the military and by taking on some of the country's most powerful people.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 12, 2024

Hard-hitting journalist ensnared in Mongolia's press freedom crackdown

Mongolia has plummeted in press freedom rankings amid what critics say is a declining rule of law and a government seeking to curb criticism of its record on corruption.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte makes a doorstep statement during an informal leaders' meeting in Brussels on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2024

Dutch PM Rutte to succeed Stoltenberg as NATO chief, media report says

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a staunch ally of Kyiv and a critic of Russia, is expected to take the reins in October, after Hungary and Slovakia backed him.
A fake online ad that solicits investments using the name and picture of economic analyst Takuro Morinaga without permission. Morinaga said he is not involved in the ad in any way and does not have social media accounts.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 19, 2024

Fake celebrity ad victims in Japan increase tenfold

Victims lost an average of ¥6.87 million, with the largest single loss hitting ¥170 million.
LINE, the app at the center of a tug-of-war for control. Line was introduced in Japan in 2011 by Naver, the operator of South Korea’s leading search engine.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 24, 2024

Japan and South Korea are fighting over an app at a tense time

Leaders on both the Japanese and South Korean sides appear determined to prevent the quarrel over Line from escalating.
An Air Self-Defense Force base in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2024

Image of likely ASDF missile model posted online

The ASDF is currently investigating whether any of its personnel were involved, officials said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is rushed into a waiting vehicle after a shooting at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 14, 2024

An attempt to kill an ex-president, caught in real time, stuns America

In the era of social media, it was not introspection that followed the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, but rather rage, blame, even comedy.
PRESS
Jul 26, 2024

The Japan Times receives Best Aviation AI submission at 2024 Aerospace Media Awards

An article on China’s use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in military technology written by Gabriel Dominguez and published by The Japan Times, Ltd. (Chairperson, Publisher and President: Minako Suematsu) received an award for The Best Aviation Artificial Intelligence (AI) Submission...
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024

TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban

TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
A new trend on social media advocates living a more frugal lifestyle that prioritizes quality over quantity.
WORLD / Society
Aug 12, 2024

Do I need it? 'Underconsumption core' trends on TikTok

Years of inflation have forced many to the conclusion they cannot keep up with the spending habits of those on their social media feeds.
Elon Musk held a conversation with Donald Trump on the tech mogul’s X platform on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2024

Musk pitches White House role in glitchy Trump conversation on X

The conversation gave Elon Musk an opening to increase his influence with Donald Trump if the former president returns to power.
Demonstrators with a stylized painting depicting Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, protest against the blocking of the popular messaging app in Russia, during a May Day rally in Saint Petersburg on in May 2018.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 25, 2024

Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France, reports say

Pavel Durov, the Russian-French billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Bourget Airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV and BFM TV said, citing unidentified sources.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, during an event in November last year. Brazil blocked the social network after Musk refused to comply with a Brazilian judge's orders to suspend certain accounts.
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2024

Musk’s X goes dark in Brazil after supreme court’s ruling

While the U.S. tends toward strong free-speech protections, many countries are taking aggressive steps to make companies more accountable for their online content.
Fulton County voters cast their ballots during the Georgia primary at Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on May 21.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 5, 2024

U.S. voters targeted by Chinese influence online, researchers say

The messaging does not appear to favor one side of the political spectrum — either Democrats or Republicans.
Sergei Kiriyenko, who is the first deputy head in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration, oversaw a yearslong Kremlin operation to meddle in U.S. elections and use disinformation to promote pro-Russian narratives online, according to a 277-page affidavit that U.S. officials unsealed Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 7, 2024

The evolution of Putin’s aide accused of gaming the U.S. election

The head of a Russian propaganda campaign that allegedly aimed to influence the upcoming U.S. elections began as a liberal politician.
An American flag waves outside the U.S. Department of Justice Building in Washington in 2020.
WORLD / Society
Sep 10, 2024

U.S. says alleged white supremacists tried to use Telegram to spark race war

U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Monday against two alleged leaders of a white supremacist gang, saying they used the Telegram social media site to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants aiming to incite a race war.
Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 19, 2024

Microsoft executive warns of meddling in final days of U.S. election

Brad Smith said lessons should be learned from certain other elections that have seen fake information circulated.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’