The US government has imposed harsh export restrictions against Russia designed to drastically limit its access to both low- and high-tech goods from overseas. As first reported by Reuters, the Commerce Department has posted a list of expanded licensing policies and requirements implemented in response to Russia's further invasion of Ukraine. 

Under the expanded sanctions, US suppliers that want to ship to Russia will have to obtain licenses for goods that didn't require one in the past. Those goods include microelectronics, telecommunications items, sensors, navigation equipment, avionics, marine equipment and aircraft components. 

In addition, the US is adding companies designated as "military end users" due to their alleged ties to the Russian military to the entity list. Any company seeking to ship products made abroad to those military end users will have to obtain licenses from the United States if they're using US-made tools, technology and software for their products. The government says these sanctions should "significantly impact Russia's ability to acquire items it cannot produce itself."

The new rules state that license requests will be reviewed "under a policy of denial," which means the Commerce Department will deny almost all of them. The administration will only approve licenses in rare exceptions, such as applications related to aviation and maritime safety, as well as humanitarian needs. Smartphone exports to Russia are also allowed, so long as they're not shipped to Russian government employees and state-owned enterprises. 

Former Commerce Department official Kevin Wolf told Reuters that the rules are so complex, many companies might simply stop dealing with Russia completely to avoid mistakes despite the carveouts. However, Cordell Hull, another former official, predicted that the rules would be difficult to enforce.

During a speech announcing the new measures, President Joe Biden said partner countries are adopting or have expressed intent to adopt similar sanctions. The list of partner countries includes 27 members of the European Union, such as Italy, France and Germany, along with Canada, Australia, Japan and the UK, to name a few. "Between our actions and those of our allies and partners, we estimate that we will cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports," he said.

Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister has called on Apple to stop selling its products and to block App Store access in Russia. Mykhailo Fedorov, who also serves as the country's Minister of Digital Transformation, has asked Tim Cook for the tech giant's support in a letter. "The whole world is repelling the aggressor through the imposition of sanctions — the enemy must suffer significant losses... [I]n 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to tanks, multiple rocket launchers and missiles," he wrote in a bid to convince Apple's chief executive.

Russia launched a full-scale military assault on Ukraine in early Thursday, entering the country from three sides and attacking by land, air and sea. It bombed the country's major cities, including the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which was bombarded with missiles on Friday morning. As a response to the invasion, the US government and its allies have unveiled new sanctions against Russia to block its access to exports in hopes of constraining its military and technological capabilities. In addition, the sanctions are targeting Russian oligarchs by limiting their ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen. 

As Bloomberg notes, Apple has an online store in Russia and offers a local version of its App Store in the country. Last year, it complied with a Russian legal requirement to highlight apps made by local developers. According to the news organization, it also registered a business office and posted job listings for positions in Moscow in the past few months, most likely to comply with local regulations. Russia started enforcing a law last year that requires tech companies like Apple, Google and Meta to have a physical presence within its borders.

Fedorov ended his letter to Cook, which he posted on Twitter, with what Ukraine hopes would happen if Apple pulls out of Russia: "We are sure that such actions will motivate youth and active population of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression." Cook previously said that Apple is doing all it can for its teams in Ukraine and "will be supporting local humanitarian efforts," but the company has yet to publicly respond to Fedorov's plea.

The Federal Communications Commission launched an investigation this week into a large number of media, telecom and infrastructure companies that operate in the United States with ties to Russia, CNN reported. The probe, allegedly being conducted jointly with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, is aimed at firms considered a “national security risk,” and covers a wide array of business types including wireless providers, VoIP services and submarine cable operators.

The FCC’s review also arrives as many US cybersecurity experts warn of the increased danger of cyber attacks, especially on critical infrastructure. The US recently imposed a number of sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, and it’s possible Russia may retaliate through cyber warfare. Recent cyber campaigns suspected to have ties to the Russian government include the hacks of the Olympics, SolarWinds, Ukraine's government websites and coronavirus vaccine research in the US, UK and Canada. US cyber officials have also warned businesses, banks and state and local governments to be vigilant for ransomware.

A similar investigation against Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE launched by the FCC in 2019 over concerns their equipment allowed for Chinese surveillance of US activities. It’s unknown exactly how many similar companies with Russia ties will be covered by the probe. Russia also funds media companies in the US and other countries. UK prime minister Boris Johnson recently ordered a probe into the UK license for RT (Russia Today) a Kremlin-backed global news outlet with offices in the United States and across Europe. US company T&R Productions, which backs RT America, has received over $100 million from the Russian government, an Open Secrets investigation revealed.

Twitter has temporarily paused ads in Ukraine and Russia, one of several steps the company is taking to highlight safety information and minimize “risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine.”

“We’re temporarily pausing advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it,” the company wrote in an update that was also shared in Ukrainian. Twitter also said it’s temporarily halting the recommendations feature that surfaces tweets from accounts users’ don’t follow in their home timelines in order to “reduce the spread of abusive content.”

Twitter didn’t indicate how long these measures would be in place, but said it was part of its ongoing work to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We’re actively monitoring for risks associated with the conflict in Ukraine, including identifying and disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information,” the company said.

The company added that it’s directing users to Moments and Events curated by its editorial team in order to provide additional context about what’s happening in Ukraine. Researchers have warned that misinformation and disinformation about Ukraine will continue to flood social media platforms. 

Twitter said it’s also working to keep “high-profile accounts” safe from hacking attempts. “We’re actively monitoring vulnerable high-profile accounts, including journalists, activists, and government officials and agencies to mitigate any attempts at a targeted takeover or manipulation.” The company’s move comes one day after Facebook announced it was enabling its one-click “lock profile” tool for people in Ukraine to help users there safeguard their personal information.

Discord hasn't been as active in fighting pandemic misinformation as social networks, but it appears ready to change its tune. According to Protocol, Discord is updating its community policies to ban any misinformation that poses a "significant risk" of physical or social harm, including claims that threaten "public health." A chat server could face action if it spreads falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines, to put it another way.

The community rules also bar spam, manipulative bots, fake accounts, bad-faith account reporting and "malicious" impersonation of others. The guidelines also forbid hate linked to age, caste, gender identity and serious illnesses. Discord will also consider "off-platform" activity when making decisions on bans and other policy decisions. Someone who belongs to a hate group or commits real-world crimes could face repercussions online.

These updates come alongside clearer privacy policies and terms of service. All of the changes take effect March 28th.

The changes might be necessary. Wirednotes the Institute for Strategic Dialogue spotted a significant number of far-right groups chatting about "egregious" content and plotting raids on sites like Twitch. Combine those with frequently harmful anti-vaccine and anti-mandate protests and Discord risked becoming more of a hub for this toxic activity, however involuntarily.

Despite a litany of financial struggles and botched factory plans, Faraday Future has built its first production-intent car. The EV startup today unveiled the FF 91 at its Hanford, California-based plant, and announced it would begin production in Q3 of 2022. Since the best-laid plans of Faraday Future often go haywire, we won't hold our breath for the time being.

Here’s what we know about the FF 91 so far: Faraday Future’s flagship car is intended to be an “ultra-luxury EV” that can compete with the likes of Jaguar, Tesla, Polestar and other brands. It has three motors, which means that at least in terms of power, it would beat out even the newer Tesla models (except for the Cybertruck) and ostensibly be in the same league as Audi’s E-tron crossover. The system horsepower is a jaw-dropping 1050, and it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 2.39 seconds. The seats are zero gravity (meaning they recline in a fashion that makes you feel weightless) and ventilated. They also double as massage chairs.

The FF 91 can go 300 miles per charge, putting it roughly in the same league as a Tesla Model 3. It also includes a huge 130 kWh lithium-ion battery, which will no doubt be one of the reasons behind the vehicle’s inevitably large price tag.

Drivers who can’t wait to join in on Faraday’s vision of a future can reserve an FF 91 today. There’s a waitlist to join the FF 91 Futurist Alliance (which costs $5,000 but guarantees you a priority reservation), but you can still pay $1,500 for a standard reservation. Given the company's poor track record with deadlines, prospective early adopters should be cautious. The company's troubles don't seem to be over. Just earlier this month, the company restructured its leadership board after an internal investigation found that employees were lying to investors. Given that production of the FF 91 is about four years late; it's likely we shouldn't hold our breath for a timely release. 

The Steam Deck will start shipping in the next few days and while there's no real shortage of games to play on it, Valve is adding another one to the mix. The company that created the portable gaming system has created a Portal spinoff called Aperture Desk Job.

In the free playable short, you'll take on the role of a product inspector at Aperture, the corporation at the center of the Half-Life and Portal games. Valve says "Desk Job walks you through the handheld’s controls and features, while not being nearly as boring as that sounds." It seems to be a demo for the Steam Deck's capabilities, similar to how Astro's Playroom shows off the PS5 DualSense controller.

If you haven't been able to secure a Steam Deck just yet, you'll still be able to play Aperture Desk Job on PC. However, it's a controller-only game, so don't expect to play it with a keyboard and mouse.

Meta might be rethinking plans to build a new operating system for its AR and VR devices. The Informationunderstands Meta recently disbanded a team of 300-plus people working on its long-in-the-making XROS. The team will reportedly share its experience with other parts of Meta. Some will move to the Project Aria AR glasses unit, while others will work on future Quest headsets and the "XR Tech" team responsible for eye tracking, hand tracking and other machine perception features.

Rumors surfaced in January that Meta had halted most or all work on XROS in favor of refining the Android-based VROS platform used in the Quest 2 headset. Meta appeared to deny the move in a statement to Engadget at the time, claiming that it was "not halting or scaling back" its reality OS development.

We've asked Meta for comment on this latest report. In a statement to The Information, spokesperson Sheeva Slovan didn't confirm or deny the state of XROS but did reference the disbanding. Meta could "speed up" work on technology for each product line by placing OS engineers "directly" into its AR and VR teams, she said, adding that the company was still devoted to making "highly specialized systems."

A decision like this might produce mixed results. While it could help Meta launch new AR and VR products that much faster, it would also keep the company tied to Android despite attempts to drop Google's software. If those are true, you might see more frequent but iterative headset releases than if Meta continued work on XROS.

NVIDIA's email systems and developer tools have reportedly been experiencing outages over the last two days due to a suspected cyberattack. The company told The Telegraph, which first reported on the issue, that it was "investigating an incident" and didn't have anything else to share for now.

The company is believed to be dealing with a "malicious network intrusion" that, in the words of one person with knowledge of the situation, "completely compromised" NVIDIA's internal systems. Some of its email services were said to be back online on Friday. It's not yet clear whether hackers obtained data on NVIDIA or its customers if this is actually a cyberattack.

There's currently no evidence tying the incident to Russia, following concerns it would retaliate against the West with cyberwarfare. The US and other nations slapped Russia with sanctions after it invaded Ukraine on Thursday, including a moratorium on exporting semiconductors to the country.

"We have no information to suggest a specific credible cyber threat against the US homeland, but it is our responsibility to be prepared," secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas said this week, before Russia commenced its military offensive.

Tumblr has reached a settlement with New York City’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) over how the social media platform handled its ban on adult content, which came into force in 2018. CCHR officials, which started an investigation soon after Tumblr announced the ban, claimed that the move disproportionately impacted LGBTQ+ users.

Under the settlement, which was first reported by The Verge, Tumblr will bring in an expert to review its moderation algorithms for potential bias. It will put its moderators through a diversity and inclusion training program, revise the appeals process. Tumblr will also re-assess around 3,000 old cases of successful user appeals against takedowns to look for indicators of bias.

Tumblr says that, since WordPress owner Automattic bought the service in 2019 from Verizon, it replaced the algorithm that was used to classify adult content. According to the agreement with CCHR, which didn't make a formal legal complaint, the new system can "more accurately classify images and data." The appeal process for images deemed to violate Tumblr's adult content ban has also been revamped. Human reviewers now review appeals and make the final calls.

Automattic's acquisition of Tumblr may have led to the deal being struck. The Verge notes that, under its current ownership, Tumblr has tried to make amends with LGBTQ+ users who left the platform in the wake of the ban. Even before Tumblr outlawed porn, the platform apologized after its Safe Mode filtered out LGBTQ+ posts that were not explicit.