Source: Cnet.com
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
FC Barcelona Fears First Team Star Will Be Banned From Playing, Reports SPORT
FC Barcelona is concerned that one of its main first-team stars will be banned from playing at the turn of 2025 because of issues related to his registration and Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Friday, November 1, 2024
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Thursday 11 November 2021 12:47:02
YouTube to Remove all Public Dislike Counts, Aiming to Defang Harassment Mobs
YouTube is removing public dislike counts, the visible tallies of how many people click on "thumbs down" for a video. Google's video site, the largest source of online video on the planet with more than 2 billion monthly users, said the move is designed to impede "dislike attack" harassment campaigns.
The change "will start gradually rolling out" on Wednesday, YouTube said.
The dislike button itself is staying, so viewers can still dislike videos to tune their recommendations and privately express displeasure with a video. Creators can also privately track the number of dislikes on their videos, alongside all their private metrics. But the public count of dislikes will be gone soon.
After experimenting earlier this year with changes to the dislike button, YouTube said it found that smaller creators and people just getting started are disproportionately the targets of dislike attacks.
"We heard during the experiment that some of you have used the public dislike count to help decide whether or not to watch a video. We know that you might not agree with this decision, but we believe that this is the right thing to do for the platform," YouTube said in a blog post Wednesday.
It's the latest move by a tech giant tweaking a feature, developed innocently years ago, that has evolved into a destructive force for some people. Like and dislike counts have been cited by researchers not only as tools for harassment but also as factors in how social media damages some users' mental health. Facebook and Instagram introduced the option for all users to hide public like counts earlier this year, after a test starting in 2019. The same year, Twitter explored whether to obscure likes and retweets.
On Wednesday, YouTube said the removal of dislike counts was because the company wants to improve the inclusivity, respect and safety of its service, calling it "one of many steps we are taking to continue to protect creators from harassment."
"Our work is not done, and we'll continue to invest here," the company said.
YouTube itself has the distinction of posting the most disliked video ever on YouTube. Its 2018 YouTube Rewind, an erstwhile annual trend recap video, has at nearly 221 million views -- and 19 million dislikes. Even YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki's own children called it "cringey."
