WhatsApp is a “Trojan horse” exploited to snoop on millions of users naive enough to believe that the Facebook-owned messenger differs from its parent company, long beset by privacy scandals, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said. [...]

Maria Butina, a Russian gun activist who spent months in a US jail for failing to properly register as a foreign agent, has landed in Moscow. Her case sparked outcry in Russia and accusations of “prosecutorial overreach.” She has arrived in Sheremetyevo airport after a long flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday. [...]

Facebook has invoked its free speech right as a publisher, insisting its ability to smear users as extremists is protected, but its legal immunity thus far has rested on a law which protects platforms, not publishers. Which is it? Facebook has declared it has the right, as a publisher, to exercise its own free speech and bar conservative political performance artist Laura Loomer from its platform. [...]

Facebook has blocked RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan's account for allegedly “violating community standards.” Revealing the ban, Simonyan complained of pervasive censorship practiced on the platform. [...]

Mark Zuckerberg’s mission to rehabilitate Facebook’s image is not going well. Since announcing a revamped “privacy-focused vision” for the company just months ago, it has faced multiple new and major security breaches. [...]

The US State Department has begun requiring visa applicants to submit five years’ worth of social media history, threatening “serious immigration consequences” for those who attempt to conceal their accounts. [...]

Facebook’s lawyer has denied the social media platform invaded American users’ privacy when it allowed their personal data to be slurped up by Cambridge Analytica, claiming they had no privacy to begin with. No crime, no victims? [...]

Frustrated by a legal ban on sharing intelligence with Israeli operatives conducting targeted assassinations against Hezbollah, the NSA crafted a loophole giving them total access even to US citizens' data, leaked documents show. [...]

The US government's indictment of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange on 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act has shocked and horrified journalists who are calling it an unprecedented attack on press freedom. [...]

Earlier this week, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced it had rushed to patch up a security hole in its messaging service, which it believed had been exploited by the Israeli-owned NSO Group. [...]

Georgetown researchers are warning Americans about a sophisticated real-time face surveillance system that’s about to become an “imminent reality” for millions of citizens across the country. [...]

The lengthy sentence incurred by Julian Assange for skipping bail has caused “shock and outrage,” WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson has said, adding that the real fight for him and journalism as a whole lies ahead. [...]

On 11 April, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after being deprived of asylum and Ecuadorian citizenship by Quito. Speaking to Sputnik, Adam Garrie, director of Eurasia Future, explained how the Trump administration could benefit from questioning Assange and who is interested in muting the journalist. [...]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has asked governments and regulators to tighten the screws on digital companies such as his own, and slap them with sanctions if they refuse to abide by rules on privacy, political or harmful content. [...]

Russia is not seeking to erect a Chinese-style “great firewall” with new legislation on the ‘sovereign internet’ or otherwise regulate the web, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has said. [...]

India appears to be defying every foreign policy goal relentlessly pursued by the US, stubbornly striking deals with nations Washington is trying to isolate from global trade. Russia, Iran and now Venezuela – all among the top targets of Washington's aggressive rhetoric and sanctions – are also among the nations India has been refusing to turn its back on. [...]

Exactly 70 years after George Orwell’s 1984 came out, most fancy themselves smart to totalitarian doublespeak. But perverse lies need no torchlight or mass rallies, just a tailored suit, complacent media and a docile populace. [...]

The US president does not cease to delight online users, who closely watch his every step and wait for a chance to tear into him. Following a piece of toilet paper sticking to his shoe, numerous lapses on his Twitter account, including the almost legendary covfefe, a new mistake by Trump has let netizens cry out loud “busted”. [...]

NBC News has given endless war and ‘destructive’ intelligence agencies a free pass, all while fixating on around-the-clock Trump hysteria, a veteran national security reporter wrote in a biting farewell message to his colleagues. [...]