The UK will bring in [1]legislation to safeguard against the risks of AI in the next year, technology secretary Peter Kyle has said, as he pledged to invest in the infrastructure that will underpin the sector's growth. From a report:

> Kyle told the Financial Times' Future of AI summit on Wednesday that Britain's voluntary agreement on AI testing was "working, it's a good code" but that the long-awaited AI bill would be focused on making such accords with leading developers legally binding. The legislation, which Kyle said would be presented to MPs in the current parliament, will also turn the UK's AI Safety Institute into an arms-length government body, giving it "the independence to act fully in the interests of British citizens."

>

> At present, the body is a directorate of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. At the UK-organised AI safety summit last November, companies including OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic signed a "landmark" but non-binding agreement allowing partner governments to test their forthcoming large language models for risks and vulnerabilities before they were released to consumers. Kyle said that while he was "not fatalistic" about advancements in AI, "citizens need to know that we are mitigating the potential risks."



[1] https://www.ft.com/content/79fedc1c-579d-4b23-8404-e4cb9e7bbae3

An anonymous reader [1]shares a report :

> Curbside EV charging in Michigan should become easier in the coming months thanks to a new collaboration between telecom giant AT&T and lamppost EV charging startup Voltpost. The two have joined forces to bring internet connectivity to EV charging posts across Michigan and the Metro-Detroit area-this way, the operator knows immediately if a stall has gone offline and can send a team to fix it faster. Better uptime benefits both the company and the EV drivers who choose to top up their cars' batteries while parked.

>

> Voltpost's lamppost charging solution essentially turns existing street lights into EV chargers. The startup claims the installation of a single stall takes anywhere from one to two hours and that the costs are much lower than a conventional EV charging station. However, the caveat here is that the charging speeds are limited to what one would experience with a home charger. The AC Level 2 lamppost chargers are powered by the street lighting grid, which was never designed to sustain high loads, so expect to keep the car plugged in for hours. That said, the system can still come in handy when the owner of an EV goes to work and parks the car on the street. Or during a lengthy shopping trip topped off with an evening movie. It's no DC fast charger, but it doesn't claim to be one.



[1] https://insideevs.com/news/739836/voltpost-at-t-lamppost-ev-chargers-detroit/

The European Commission has [1]opened a formal investigation into Corning to determine whether it has broken antitrust rules with its dominant Gorilla Glass product. From a report:

> Corning's Alkali-aluminosilicate glass is used to protect most of the top phones and tablets, with both Samsung and Apple using it extensively across their range of devices. The EU is concerned that Corning has used a variety of exclusivity contracts to exclude rival glass makers from the phone market. "It is very frustrating and costly experience to break a mobile phone screen. Therefore, strong competition in the production of the cover glass used to protect such devices is crucial to ensure low prices and high-quality glass," says outgoing EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager.

>

> "We are investigating if Corning, a major producer of this special glass, may have tried to exclude rival glass producers, thereby depriving consumers from cheaper and more break-resistant glass." The Commission's concerns are centered on the agreements with mobile device makers and companies that produce raw glass. The EU is looking into exclusive sourcing obligations that have required device makers to source "all of nearly all" of their glass from Corning, enabled rebates for exclusivity deals, and forced device makers to report on competitive offers and only accept them if Corning failed to price match.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/6/24289450/corning-eu-antitrust-investigation-gorilla-glass

Workers at AI companies want Congress to [1]grant them specific whistleblower protection , arguing that advancements in the technology pose threats that they can't legally expose under current law. From a report:

> "What people should be thinking about is the 100 ways in which these companies can lose control of these technologies," said Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor who represented OpenAI employees and former employees raising issues about the company. Current dangers range from deepfake videos to algorithms that discriminate, and the technology is quickly becoming more sophisticated. Lessig called the argument that big tech companies and AI startups can police themselves naive. "If there's a risk, which there is, they're not going to take care of it," he said. "We need regulation."



[1] https://news.bloomberglaw.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-workers-seek-whistleblower-cover-to-expose-emerging-threats

A federal judge in California has dismissed most claims in a class-action lawsuit against Google over its handling of gift card scams, ruling the tech giant is [1]not liable for millions in consumer losses . U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman found Google bears no responsibility for scam victims' losses since third-party fraudsters, not Google, induced the purchases.

The ruling came in a suit filed by Judy May, who lost $1,000 to scammers demanding Google Play gift cards for a fake government grant. The lawsuit cited Federal Trade Commission data showing Google Play gift card scams comprised 20% of reported gift card fraud between 2018-2021, totaling over $17 million in losses. Google earns 15-30% commission on gift card purchases but denies refunds, citing industry-standard policies. Freeman ruled Google had no duty to investigate reported scams or refund victims.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/google-has-no-duty-to-refund-gift-card-scam-victims-judge-finds/

Surging AI demand could push major oil companies to [1]reinvest in renewable energy [ [2]non-paywalled link ] , Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO Sultan al-Jaber said this week. Al-Jaber's comments came as oil executives from Shell, BP and TotalEnergies met with Microsoft and other tech leaders in Abu Dhabi to discuss AI's growing energy needs and its applications across the sector.

ADNOC announced plans to deploy autonomous AI agents across its operations through EnergyAI, developed with Microsoft and UAE's G42. The system will analyze seismic data and model underground carbon storage potential. The state oil giant committed $23 billion to low-carbon technology development using AI. Tech companies have pledged to power their AI data centers with renewable energy to meet climate targets. "We need a model that integrates all forms of energy," said al-Jaber, citing needs for renewable power, battery storage, natural gas, and nuclear energy in some locations.



[1] https://www.ft.com/content/b12367a3-c07c-4180-90fe-8ddf358f7952

[2] https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/uaes-adnoc-deploy-autonomous-ai-energy-sector-first-time-2024-11-04/

Major [1]media [2]outlets are beginning to declare former President Trump the [3]winner of the 2024 presidential election , having secured 270 electoral votes. "He becomes the first president in more than 120 years to lose the White House, and then to come back and win it again, after President Grover Cleveland in 1892," notes The Hill. As with [4]previous [5]election [6]announcements on Slashdot, this is your chance to talk about it and what it means for the future of our nation.

In a [7]victory speech , Trump said that he was the leader of "the greatest political movement of all time." He said: "We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible," adding that he would take office with an "unprecedented and powerful mandate." President Trump has vowed a radical reshaping of American government, tasking SpaceX and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk "with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms."

UPDATE 12:30 PM PST: Vice President Kamala Harris has [8]officially conceded the 2024 presidential election, calling former President Trump to offer her congratulations. She's expected to make a concession speech at Howard University at 4:00 PM EST. You can stream the speech [9]here .



[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4969061-trump-wins-presidential-election/

[2] https://www.foxnews.com/video/5614615980001

[3] https://decisiondeskhq.com/results/2024/General/President/

[4] https://politics.slashdot.org/story/08/11/05/134208/barack-obama-wins-us-presidency

[5] https://news.slashdot.org/story/04/11/03/1637232/kerry-concedes-election-to-bush

[6] https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/09/010241/donald-trump-wins-us-presidency

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI9fbbQ-aTo

[8] https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/06/politics/video/kamala-harris-concedes-donald-trump-call-mj-lee-digvid

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRVivKBZ7i8

Bitcoin surged over 9.2% to an all-time high of over $74,200 on Tuesday evening as early results showed favorable outcome for Republican candidate Donald Trump, who has promised crypto-friendly policies if he wins.

Ars Technica's Eric Berger reports:

> When Chinese space officials unveiled the design for the country's first super heavy lift rocket nearly a decade ago, it looked like a fairly conventional booster. The rocket was fully expendable, with three stages and solid motors strapped onto its sides. Since then, the Asian country has been revising the design of this rocket, named Long March 9, in response to the development of reusable rockets by SpaceX. As of two years ago, China had recalibrated the design to have a reusable first stage. Now, based on information released at a major airshow in Zhuhai, China, the design has morphed again. And this time, the plan for the Long March 9 rocket [1]looks almost exactly like a clone of SpaceX's Starship rocket .

>

> Based on its latest specifications, the Long March 9 rocket will have a fully reusable first stage powered by 30 YF-215 engines, which are full-flow staged combustion engines fueled by methane and liquid oxygen, each with a thrust of approximately 200 tons. By way of comparison, Starship's first stage is powered by 33 Raptor engines, also fueled with methane and liquid oxygen, each with a thrust of about 280 tons. The new specifications also include a fully reusable configuration of the rocket, with an upper stage that looks eerily similar to Starship's second stage, complete with flaps in a similar location. According to a presentation at the airshow, China intends to fly this vehicle for the first time in 2033, nearly a decade from now.

Last week, Chinese space startup Cosmoleap [2]announced plans to develop a fully reusable "Leap" rocket with the next few years. "An animated video that accompanied the funding announcement indicated that the company seeks to emulate the tower catch-with-chopsticks methodology that SpaceX successfully employed during [3]Starship's fifth flight test last month ," reports Ars.



[1] https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/11/chinas-long-term-lunar-plans-now-depend-on-developing-its-own-starship/

[2] https://spacenews.com/chinese-launch-startup-cosmoleap-secures-funding-for-rocket-featuring-chopstick-recovery-system/

[3] https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/10/13/1541249/spacexs-starship-completes-fifth-test-flight---and-lands-booster-back-at-launch-tower

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fortune:

> Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on the debate over the relative values of political expression and workplace coexistence by [1]ordering employees to leave their political opinions at home . A day after firing 28 workers for participating in a sit-in protest of the tech giant's cloud contract with Israel, Pichai warned staff that the office is not a place "to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics" in a company [2]blog post .

>

> Although Pichai didn't specifically mention the protests or the Israel-Hamas war, he concluded that the $1.92 trillion company "is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform." "We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally," Pichai continued. "When we come to work, our goal is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. That supersedes everything else and I expect us to act with a focus that reflects that."

The sit-in protest was staged against Google's involvement in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud contract with the Israeli government. During the nearly 10-hour protest, employees wore "Googler against genocide" T-shirts and occupied the office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.

The report notes how tech companies, "previously famed for their progressive culture where nap pods and abortion benefits were welcome," are increasingly restricting political discussions to avoid internal conflict. Pichai notes in his memo that Google has previously enjoyed "a culture of vibrant, open discussion that enables us to create amazing products and turn great ideas into action."



[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sundar-pichai-tells-google-staff-104845522.html

[2] https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/building-ai-future-april-2024/

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> When Parasite became the first non-English language film in Oscars history to win best picture in 2019, it marked a breakthrough moment for Korean cinema. But the surge of interest that followed the director Bong Joon-ho's international success has not translated into a thriving local film industry, according to another of its leading lights.

>

> The director Jang Joon-hwan said K-cinema was [1]struggling after the arrival of Netflix and other streaming platforms, with movies often rushed on to streaming platforms, and box office ticket sales suffering as a consequence. Jang, whose 2004 cult sci-fi comedy Save the Green Planet is being remade by the Poor Things director, Yorgos Lanthimos, said Korean cinema was going through a "very precarious period" because Korean viewers would increasingly prefer to wait for films to come out on streaming platforms than pay more to go to the cinema.

>

> "I hope that such a day comes that Korean films are being introduced to wider audiences and we can all enjoy them together, however as a Korean film director in Korea, [it's] a very difficult and challenging time with the advent of Netflix and the [streaming] platforms. In this post-pandemic period cinemagoers have dropped dramatically, so investment has dropped. There are less Korean films being made," he said. But he acknowledged that platforms such as Netflix had "introduced a lot of new international fans to Korean content," through hit shows such as Squid Game.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/nov/04/korean-cinema-precarious-period-netflix-director-jang-joon-hwan

The FBI warned on Tuesday that polling stations across multiple U.S. states [1]received fake bomb threats sent from Russian email domains, forcing brief evacuations at two voting sites in Georgia's Fulton County.

The threats, which targeted locations in Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, have not been deemed credible, the FBI said in a statement. The evacuated Fulton County sites reopened after 30 minutes, prompting local officials to seek extended voting hours beyond the 7 p.m. ET deadline.

The incidents follow Friday's [2]joint intelligence warning from the FBI, ODNI, and CISA about Russian-created fake videos aimed at undermining election integrity. The agencies also reported Russian actors are [3]spreading false claims about planned election fraud by U.S. officials.



[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fake-bomb-threats-linked-russia-briefly-close-georgia-polling-locations-2024-11-05/

[2] https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/joint-odni-fbi-and-cisa-statement-on-russian-election-influence-efforts

[3] https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/joint-odni-fbi-and-cisa-statement-110424

Schneider Electric confirmed that it is investigating a breach as a ransomware group Hellcat claims to have stolen more than 40 GB of compressed data -- and demanded the French multinational energy management company [1]pay $125,000 in baguettes or else see its sensitive customer and operational information leaked. The Register:

> And yes, you read that right: payment in baguettes. As in bread. Schneider Electric declined to answer The Register's specific questions about the intrusion, including if the attackers really want $125,000 in baguettes or if they would settle for cryptocurrency.

>

> A spokesperson, however, emailed us the following statement: "Schneider Electric is investigating a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to one of our internal project execution tracking platforms which is hosted within an isolated environment. Our Global Incident Response team has been immediately mobilized to respond to the incident.âSchneider Electric's products and services remain unaffected."



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/05/schneider_electric_cybersecurity_incident/

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at an all-hands meeting on Tuesday that the plan to require employees to be [1]in-office five days per week is [2]not meant to force attrition or satisfy city leaders , as [3]many employees have suggested . Reuters:

> The controversial plan mandating workers come to Amazon offices every day starting next year, up from three days now, has caused consternation among employees who say it is stricter than other tech companies and will hinder efficiency because of commuting times. Workers who are consistently not in compliance have been told they will be "voluntarily resigning" and locked out of company computers.

>

> "A number of people I've seen theorized that the reason we were doing this is, it's a backdoor layoff, or we made some sort of deal with city or cities," said Jassy, according to a transcript of the meeting reviewed by Reuters. "I can tell you both of those are not true. You know, this was not a cost play for us. This is very much about our culture and strengthening our culture," he said.



[1] https://slashdot.org/story/24/09/16/1845223/amazon-ceo-tells-employees-to-return-to-office-five-days-a-week

[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-ceo-denies-full-in-office-mandate-is-backdoor-layoff-2024-11-05/

[3] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/10/18/0359229/amazon-indicates-employees-can-quit-if-they-dont-like-its-return-to-office-mandate

Last December, Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company pursuing Elon Musk's dream of tube-based, airplane-speed travel, announced [1]its shutdown . However, the concept itself has found a new lease on life in a scaled-down version overseas. According to The Verge's Andrew J. Hawkins, "The hyperloop, in fact, lives on -- [2]as a 1/12th scale model in Switzerland ." From the report:

> Sure, this isn't exactly the full realization of Musk's 2013 white paper, in which he theorized that aerodynamic aluminum capsules filled with passengers or cargo could be propelled through a nearly airless tube at speeds of up to 760mph. These tubes, either raised on pylons or sunk beneath the earth, could be built either within or between cities. Musk called it a "fifth mode of transportation" and argued it could help change the way we live, work, trade, and travel. The idea is being put to the test in Lausanne, Switzerland, where a 120-meter circular test track is being operated by a team that includes the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), and Swisspod Technologies. This week, the group announced that it had conducted "the longest" hyperloop test of its kind: traveling 11.8 km (7.3 miles) at a speed of 40.7km/h (25.3mph).

>

> The circular test track has a circumference of 125.6 meters (412 feet) and a diameter of 40 centimeters (15.7 inches). It sounds modest, but the group claims that in a full-scale system, their test "directly translates" to a journey of 141.6 km (88 miles), which is about the distance between Geneva and Bern, or San Francisco to Sacramento, and speeds of up to 488.2 km/h (303.4mph). The project is called LIMITLESS, which stands for Linear Induction Motor Drive for Traction and Levitation in Sustainable Hyperloop Systems. During the test, the team "monitored the performance of vital subsystems," including propulsion, communication infrastructure, power electronics, and thermal management. They assessed "energy consumption, thrust variations, [linear induction motor] response, and control during acceleration, cruising, coasting, and braking scenarios."

>

> Of course, a 1/12th-scale circular test track is hardly a sign that the hyperloop is alive and well. Most of the startups and companies pursuing a full-scale hyperloop have shut down, victims of financial mismanagement, as well as infrastructure and regulatory hurdles. Critics said that while the hyperloop may be technically feasible, it still only amounts to vaporware. It's been called a "utopian vision" that would be financially impossible to achieve. But the Swiss team is undeterred, promising to conduct a battery of future tests to further validate the system. Swisspod CEO Denis Tudor said the group plans to test its first freight product soon, and is currently building a larger test track in the US. "This is a key step toward making hyperloop for passengers a reality and changing how we connect, work, and live," he said.



[1] https://slashdot.org/story/23/12/21/1924206/hyperloop-one-to-shut-down

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288954/hyperloop-swisspod-test-worlds-longest-scale-model

During [1]an operation across 95 countries from April to August 2024, Interpol arrested 41 individuals and [2]dismantled over 1,000 servers and infrastructure running on 22,000 IP addresses facilitating cybercrime. BleepingComputer reports:

> Interpol said its enforcement action was backed by intelligence provided by private cybersecurity firms like Group-IB, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, and Team Cymru, leading to the identification of over 30,000 suspicious IP addresses. Eventually, roughly 76% of those were taken down, 59 servers were seized, and 43 electronic devices were confiscated, which will be examined to retrieve additional evidence. In addition to the 41 individuals who were arrested, the authorities are also investigating another 65 persons suspected of associating with illicit activities.



[1] https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2024/INTERPOL-cyber-operation-takes-down-22-000-malicious-IP-addresses

[2] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/interpol-disrupts-cybercrime-activity-on-22-000-ip-addresses-arrests-41/

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak:

> Rightsholders have asked Google to [1]remove more than 10 billion 'copyright infringing' URLs from its search results. The search engine doesn't celebrate the milestone in any way, but the takedown notices document intriguing shifts in volume over time, as well as shifting takedown interests. [...] The path to 10 billion was turbulent. When Google first made DMCA details public it was processing a few million DMCA takedown requests in a year. That number swiftly increased to hundreds of millions and eventually [2]reached a billion DMCA requests in 2016.

>

> The exponential growth curve eventually flattened out and around 2017, the takedown volume started to decline. The decrease was in part due to various anti-piracy algorithms making pirated content less visible in search results. By [3]downranking pirate sites , infringing content became harder to find. As a result, Google processed fewer takedown notices, a welcome change for both rightsholders and the search engine. Today, Google continues to make pirate sites less visible in search, but the reduction in takedown notices didn't last. On the contrary, over the past several months, Google search processed a record number of DMCA notices.

>

> Last summer, the search giant recorded the 7 billionth takedown request and after that the numbers shot up, adding billions more in the year that followed. The company is now handling removal requests at a rate of roughly 2.5 billion per year; a new record. This represents more than 50 million takedown requests per week and roughly 5,000 every minute. [...] While the 10 billionth reported URL is undoubtedly a milestone, this number is largely driven by a few rightsholders, reporting outfits, and domain names. The aforementioned takedown outfit Link-Busters, for example, accounts for roughly 15% of all reported links, nearly 1.5 billion. Similarly, the ten most prolific rightsholders, including the BPI, HarperCollins, and VIZ Media, are responsible for 40% of all reported links. These ten companies are only a tiny fraction of the 600,000 rightsholders that reported pirated links, however. A small group of domains also receives a disproportionate amount of attention. In total, 5,400,061 domains have been reported, with the top domains having dozens of millions of flagged URLs each. However, most domains have only a few flagged links, some of which are erroneous.



[1] https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-10-billion-pirate-search-results-241105/

[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/11/28/2050257/google-asked-to-remove-a-billion-pirate-search-results-in-a-year

[3] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/06/30/0559241/google-downranks-65000-pirate-sites-in-search-results

Amazon is [1]launching drone deliveries from its Tolleson, AZ, same-day delivery site , making [2]over 50,000 essentials available to eligible customers in the West Valley Phoenix area. The Verge reports:

> The news came after Amazon announced it was shutting down its testing zone location in Lockeford, California. The new Tolleson location integrates drone deliveries into Amazon's delivery network for the first time, and the drones will deploy right next to the fulfillment center. Amazon is using its latest MK30 drones that can carry up to 5 pounds while also flying "twice as far" and running "50 percent quieter" than its previous models that sometimes crashed and burned in testing.

>

> Amazon will launch the drones from its hybrid facility. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved Amazon's drones for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), meaning they can be flown out of visual range from the operator. The company claims it's the first to launch both a new facility and BVLOS drone service that meets FAA requirements.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/5/24288735/amazon-arizona-tolleson-phoenix-drone-prime-air-launch

[2] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/transportation/amazon-drone-delivery-arizona

SpaceX has [1]launched the world's first wood-paneled satellite into space "to test the suitability of timber as a renewable building material in future exploration of destinations like the Moon and Mars," reports the BBC. From the report:

> Made by researchers in Japan, the tiny satellite weighing just 900g is heading for the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission. It will then be released into orbit above the Earth. Named [2]LignoSat , after the Latin word for wood, its panels have been built from a type of magnolia tree, using a traditional technique without screws or glue. Researchers at Kyoto University who developed it hope it may be possible in the future to replace some metals used in space exploration with wood.

>

> "Wood is more durable in space than on Earth because there's no water or oxygen that would rot or inflame it," Kyoto University forest science professor Koji Murata told Reuters news agency. "Early 1900s airplanes were made of wood," Prof Murata said. "A wooden satellite should be feasible, too." If trees could one day be planted on the Moon or Mars, wood might also provide material for colonies in space in the future, the researchers hope. Along with its wood panels, LignoSat also incorporates traditional aluminium structures and electronic components. It has sensors on board to monitor how its wood reacts to the extreme environment of space during the six months it will orbit the Earth.

You can watch the launch [3]on YouTube .



[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3qzd5ql9o

[2] https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/lignosat

[3] https://www.youtube.com/live/QI8QS72Wvec?si=ndCpuHEtDrM59RiB&t=1689

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:

> The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has [1]laid off 30% of its employees as the organization says it faces a "relentless onslaught of change." When reached by TechCrunch, Mozilla Foundation's communications chief Brandon Borrman confirmed the layoffs in an email. "The Mozilla Foundation is reorganizing teams to increase agility and impact as we accelerate our work to ensure a more open and equitable technical future for us all. That unfortunately means ending some of the work we have historically pursued and eliminating associated roles to bring more focus going forward," read the statement shared with TechCrunch.

>

> According to its annual tax filings, the Mozilla Foundation [2]reported having 60 employees during the 2022 tax year. The number of employees at the time of the layoffs was closer to 120 people, according to a person with knowledge. When asked by TechCrunch, Mozilla's spokesperson did not dispute the figure. This is the second layoff at Mozilla this year, the first affecting dozens of employees who work on the side of the organization that builds the popular Firefox browser. [...] Announcing the layoffs in an email to all employees on October 30, the Mozilla Foundation's executive director Nabiha Syed confirmed that two of the foundation's major divisions -- [3]advocacy and [4]global programs -- are "no longer a part of our structure." The move, according to Syed, is in part to produce a "unified, powerful narrative from the Foundation," including revamping the foundation's strategic communications.

"Our mission at Mozilla is more high-stakes than ever," said Syed. "We find ourselves in a relentless onslaught of change in the technology (and broader) world, and the idea of putting people before profit feels increasingly radical."

"Navigating this topsy-turvy, distracting time requires laser focus -- and sometimes saying goodbye to the excellent work that has gotten us this far because it won't get us to the next peak. Lofty goals demand hard choices."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/05/mozilla-foundation-lays-off-30-staff-drops-advocacy-division/

[2] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/200097189

[3] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-welcomes-ashley-boyd-vp-of-advocacy/

[4] https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/welcoming-j-bob-alotta-mozilla-foundations-new-vp-global-programs/