Image: Alberto Pezzali/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Facebook is still grappling with its very big problem in Myanmar.

Since the UN determined the spread of fake news on the social network in the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar, Facebook has made attempts to deal with the issue. The company has performed three major purges of bad actors on its platform that it believes were contributing to the genocide. Its most was announced on Tuesday night.

Facebook removed 425 Facebook Pages, 17 Facebook Groups, 135 Facebook accounts, and 15 Instagram accounts in Myanmar for engaging in what the company calls “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” 

According to the social network, approximately 2.5 million people followed at least one of the Facebook Pages. The Facebook Groups and Instagram accounts were less popular, with approximately 6,400 people belonging to at least one of the Facebook Groups and around 1,300 people following at least one the Instagram accounts.

The Pages — classified by Facebook as appearing as independent news, entertainment, beauty, and lifestyle Pages — were found to be linked to the Myanmar military. These Pages were also connected to Pages the company previously removed for similar behavior.

According to Facebook, they removed these Pages based on the behavior of those involved as opposed to the content being posted.

“This kind of behavior is not allowed on Facebook under our misrepresentation policy because we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing,” Facebook said in its .

In the early summer, Facebook banned dozens of Facebook Pages in Myanmar. The company the Myanmar military commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, marking the first time Facebook banned a state official from its platform.

The UN had previously concluded social media in the spread of misinformation about the Rohingya people in Myanmar. While Facebook , including this most recent ban, to address the situation in Myanmar, activists believe the social network took too long to act and still has a long way to go. One major lingering concern: Facebook still to a local Myanmar office.

We’re not sure who slipped something nasty into UPS’s egg nog on Sunday, but the shipping company is facing backlash over a tongue-in-cheek tweet that went a bit too far into Grinch territory.

The now-deleted tweet was posted Sunday afternoon and read like something Scrooge McDuck would dictate. 

Image: mashable screenshot

Oof, that’s the sort of thing Scut Farkus would say while pummeling you with snowballs. The tweet lived for almost a full day before it was deleted sometime Monday afternoon, but that didn’t stop Twitter users from calling out the company for their bah humbug attitude. 

And, because this is Twitter, there were people who got mad because people were mad about the original UPS tweet.

Perhaps the funniest thing about this whole yuletide ordeal, though, is the UPS Store account responding to an angry response about the tweet with a cookie cutter customer service response.

Staci Reidinger, the PR and social media manager for the UPS Store, told Mashable that the original tweet was supposed to draw attention to the company’s shredding services while maintaining the fun, irreverent tone the account usually employs. Sadly, though, it seems Santa is just one thing you don’t want to mess with and after the deluge of negative feedback, Reidinger says the decision was made to delete the tweet. 

And so yet another social media lesson has been learned by the brands of the world: Santa and your children’s letters to him, are sacrosanct lest the Twitter mob get a hold of you.

Happy Holidays.

Image: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for Variety

Colin Kroll, the 35-year-old CEO and co-founder of mobile game sensation HQ Trivia, was found dead after an apparent drug overdose on Saturday night.

An NYPD official confirmed to The Daily Beast that authorities found Kroll in his bed, unconscious and unresponsive, shortly before midnight on Saturday. Police were there to perform a welfare check, though it’s not clear who alerted them or when.

The unnamed official who confirmed the news — which was first reported by TMZ — also noted that narcotics and drug paraphernalia were found in Kroll’s apartment, and that the death is being investigated as a narcotics overdose.

Kroll was best known in recent years for the part he playing in building HQ Trivia, a free-to-play mobile trivia game in which all participants have a chance at winning cash prizes. The game’s popularity peaked in 2017, though it’s still around today and still trying out new ideas on its sizable audience.

Previously, Kroll and his HQ business partner Rus Yusupov made a name for themselves in tech as the founders of Vine. Twitter acquired the short-form video hosting service in 2012, only a few months after it launched, and it became a go-to source of memes and other examples of viral internet until Twitter shut it down in late 2016.

Image: Eduardo Toro / EyeEm / getty images

Early in December, Fortnite developer Epic Games launched an online video game store. On Friday, voice and text chat app Discord revealed it will launch its own online store in 2019.

Both companies are undoubtedly aiming to take on Steam, and the way that they’re doing that could mean great things for everybody. Well, everybody except Steam.

Steam, developer by Valve Corporation, has been the dominant digital marketplace for video games for over a decade, and since it first began offering third-party developers to sell games on its platform in 2005, it has basically had no competition. Thus, Steam has been able to operate on the precedent that it takes 30% of revenue of all sales, because they are publishing the games after all, only recently announcing they’d drop their share down a bit if games make tens of millions of dollars (which is not super common outside of the biggest games of the year).

The Epic Games store and future Discord games store are questioning that 70/30 split, offering developers much more attractive splits. Epic Games laid out in a blog post that it would offer developers who use Unreal Engine 4 (its own engine for developers) or Unity (a very popular game engine) a more generous 88/12 split, meaning Epic Games would only take 12% of generated revenue.

Meanwhile, Discord took a look at the numbers and thought it could do better, proposing a game store that would only take 10% of revenue, leaving developers with an unheard of 90% of revenue. Discord suggests that it could push that 10% number even lower with further technology optimization.

This is some heavy competition for Steam, which has been the go-to marketplace for PC games for what feels like forever. While developer-specific platforms like Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net, Ubisoft’s Unity, and Mircrosoft’s Windows game store have certainly cut into Steam’s potential profits, they’ve never really had to deal with something like what Epic Games and Discord are doing.

A little competition like this is great for developers

The Epic Games store has already nabbed some decent partners, including getting Ashen and Super Meat Boy Forever ahead of Steam. It’s no wonder why, really, when developers get to make more money per sale with Epic Games.

The worry for some developers with going on Epic Games’ store is that it just doesn’t have the audience that Steam has. Luckily, Epic Games already has a decent PC audience thanks to the popularity of Fortnite, so it’s not exactly lost in the fog.

Discord has the potential to be even more disruptive because it already has almost 200 million users, which is a whole lot of people. Meanwhile, in early 2018 Steam had 125 million registered users.

If Discord manages to get some exclusives with big games in 2019, it could really cut into Steam’s market.

To combat this, Steam will likely have to give developers a better deal than what they’re currently getting. While some users harbor loyalty to Steam, they’ll surely buy games through Discord or the Epic Games store if that’s the only place they can get them.

A little competition like this is great for developers, especially in the indie space where people may not have the support systems (read: salaries) that developers at large corporations have.

This competition could also lead to more sales, which is great for the folks who are spending their money through these stores.

Although unlikely, there’s the possibility that Steam does absolutely nothing and gamers slowly drift away to better platforms, leaving Steam in the dust. But realistically, Steam isn’t going down without a fight.

2019 should be an interesting year for the PC gaming marketplace.

Ryan Reynolds is a man of many talents. He acts, he posts comical tweets, and he even has his own brand of gin called Aviation Gin.

How the heck does a man so busy have time to make gin? Well, in a new video Reynolds lets us all in on the gin-making process, even disclosing his secret ingredient: tears.

According to Reynolds, the distillers begin the process at 4:00 a.m. with four full hours of silent mediation followed by some bizarre citrus fruit maintenance. They individually apologize to each berry before “beating the living hell out of them” to create a smooth, refined finish. And finally, Sarah McLachlan serenades the crate of gin before they ship off.

Wow, man. Who knew making alcohol was such a process?

Netflix released too many stand-up comedy specials this year.

Tons of hour-long comedy specials dropped on Netflix throughout 2018, and even a handful of half-hour sets with Netflix’s The Standups, showcasing dozens and dozens (and dozens) of comedians. While there were a bunch that were mediocre and some that were bad, luckily, some of them were great. Amazing, even.

To help you separate the wheat from the chaff, we compiled a list of the 10 best comedy specials to hit Netflix in 2018, including the triumphant returns of a couple of classic comics who haven’t released specials in years, and some truly transcendent material from some lesser-known names.

10. Ali Wong: Hard Knock Wife

After her hilarious special in 2016 won over just about everybody, Ali Wong returned in 2018 with Hard Knock Wife, just as pregnant as she was before, but this time she has the experience of one birth behind her to add a little extra anger behind her comedy. Babies are hard on the human body, as Wong describes in vivid, unflinchingly funny detail, but that doesn’t slow her down from talking about some very adult topics.

9. Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher: The Honeymoon Stand Up Special

Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher, two great comedians, got married about a year and a half before they filmed this stand-up special, where the two do individual sets and then hang out on stage together to do some crowd work with other couples in the audience. It’s a refreshing concept and the two work wonderfully with each other as they joke about their relationship and forthcoming baby.

8. Hari Kondabolu: Warn Your Relatives

Hari Kondabolu makes his Netflix debut with Warn Your Relatives which, while deeply entwined in our current times, has jokes and points that are incredibly resonant. Kondabolu jokes about racism, comments about Indian stereotypes (including revealing the secret stereotype that they all love mangos), and makes poignant observations while delivering laughs the whole time.

7. Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh

Adam Sandler did a stand-up special and it’s great. Filmed in various venues of varying sizes, 100% Fresh is both hilarious and surprising. The special is filled with a bunch of new comedic songs from Sandler, who made a name for himself on Saturday Night Live with his classic tunes like “The Hanukkah Song” and “Lunch Lady Land.” There is no real structure to 100% Fresh, with no segues to speak of, but Sandler surprises with his chops that remind the world of a time when he made really, really good movies.

6. Aparna Nancherla (The Standups)

Image: Saeed Adyani / netflix

In a tight 30-minute set, Aparna Nancherla covers a lot of ground in classic deadpan style, but then she shifts about halfway through and brings out a television to show off a powerpoint presentation. It’s a great way to tell jokes as she comments on slides that mostly cover smartphone-related grievances and musings about technology. This special is episode 6 of the second season of The Standups.

5. John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City Music Hall

The kid is back with another slam dunk of a comedy special, telling story after story at the illustrious Radio City Music Hall. John Mulaney spends the special recounting hilarious tales about Chicago police detective J.J. Bittenbinder, talking about his jealousy of Timothee Chalamet, and expounding on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His delivery is dramatic and his timing perfect.

4. Todd Glass: Act Happy

With a live band on stage and unmatched energy, Todd Glass delivers his best standup special yet. For the most part it’s classic Glass, commenting with gusto on the minutia of life with the occasional input from the band to punctuate jokes or add a little flair to a story. It works very well, especially with Glass’s quick, dynamic, stream-of-conscious style of comedy.

3. Tig Notaro: Happy To Be Here

In an intimate room in Houston, Tig Notaro blends some of the deepest vulnerability you’ll see in comedy with some of the most casual jokes and delivery that it’s almost discomforting. But at the same time, Notaro masterfully brings you into her life, her feelings, and her thoughts, so it feels like an oddly welcoming hour of material that ends with a joke that goes on for 15 minutes of hilarious suspense.

2. Chris Rock: Tamborine

In his first stand-up special in 10 years, Chris Rock delivered one of his strongest performances to date, cracking jokes about raising his kids in a world rife with racism, politics, religion, and his own life with no reservations. So much of Rock’s content in Tamborine is raw and difficult, but he navigates everything with so much ease and so many deft punchlines that it never loses its steam or its hilarity.

1. Hannah Gadsby: Nanette

Certainly not your typical comedy special, Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette transcends comedy. For much of the hour, Gadsby’s two main focuses are her own identity and comedy itself, and while there are plenty of expert jokes throughout, that’s not what makes Nanette so great. Nanette is propelled by passion, expertise, and fascinating deconstructions of society and comedy. It’s a case against classic comedy stylings, showing the sort of growth that comedy needs to go through to be truly accessible to everyone as a medium as well as impactful to the people who need it.

The Elf on the Shelf is taking to the skies. 

In a festive move, the Vancouver airport has created an Elf on the Shelf-inspired photoshop challenge. On Monday, they shared a photo of Lil Wayne atop a plane, with the caption, “You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for…” 

Since then, multiple airports (and airport adjacent companies) have been replying to the tweet with their own heavily doctored photos, using the same simple rhyme scheme. It’s a delightful variation on the Elf on a Shelf rhyming meme that surfaced last year, and the results are a reminder that the internet is actually quite good — sometimes.

There’s Austin Powers on towers:

Cher in the air:

Snoop on a Swoop:

Nicki Minaj on a Fuselage:

James Taylor on a maintenance trailer:

Thor on a Condor:

Ye on BA — not an amazing rhyme, but we’ll accept it.

Clearly, this is the airports’ holiday gift to us all, now we just have to see if it’s enough to get us through the dreary holiday travel season.

Image: PA Images via Getty Images

The holidays are great for many reasons. Time off, celebrations with family, good food, and festive spirit all around. But above all, it’s the time of year where you’re allowed to watch Love Actually as many times as you want without judgement.

The 2003 Christmas classic is two hours and 25 minutes of pure holiday joy. And now, a Love Actually writer has addressed some of the questions and theories fans have long had about the nine intertwined stories that make up the best Christmas movie ever (don’t @ me).

Speaking to news.com.au, the movie’s script editor Emma Freud answered some burning questions about some Love Actually conundrums that you may or may not have pondered yourself.

First of all, does Liam Neeson’s character, the widower Daniel, have a crush on Karen, played by Emma Thompson? The fact that Daniel accidentally calls Claudia Schiffer’s character Carol by the name Karen had fans wondering if this is some kind of Freudian slip. 

“No, that was genuinely a mistake by Richard [Curtis, director of the movie] who had forgotten that Emma Thompson’s character was called Karen,” says Freud. Glad we cleared that up. 

Freud also said that while it technically fits the storyline that the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Annie, played cupid and brought the PM and his assistant Natalie together (she chooses Natalie’s Christmas card out of a selection of presumably thousands of cards), this was not in the script. 

“That was certainly not in Richard’s mind,” Freud tells news.com.au. “But I think he’ll want to agree with it because that idea does make a lot of sense.”

Finally, Freud addressed one of the cutest scenes in the movie, that could have played out quite differently, had the wrong person answered the door. In the scene where Andrew Lincoln’s  heartbroken character Mark declares his love to Juliet (played by Keira Knightley) in a pretty adorable way, what would have happened if Juliet’s husband had answered the door?

“Maybe he would have given him the CD player as a Christmas gift and hidden the cards behind his back,” says Freud. That would still have been pretty awkward, though. 

One question that still remains unanswered is this: WHY and HOW could Alan Rickman do that to Emma Thompson. We’re still not over that.

h/t news.com.au

Image: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Apple is planning a major expansion of its operations across the U.S., including a $1 billion investment in a new campus in Austin, Texas, the company announced Thursday. 

The plan also includes establishing new sites in Seattle, San Diego, Culver City, as well as expanding in cities including Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years.

The new campus, located in North Austin, will measure 133 acres, with 50 acres of preserved open space. Apple’s current facility in Austin accommodates 6,200 people, but the new campus, which will be located less than a mile from the current one, will initially accommodate 5,000 additional people, with the potential to grow this number to 15,000. 

Just like Apple’s Cupertino campus, the new campus in Austin will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy, Apple said. 

“Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin,” Apple CEO Tim Cook, said in a statement. 

Besides this investment, Apple also said it plans to invest $10 billion in data centers in the U.S. over the next five years. 

The company also plans to expand to over 1,000 employees in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City each, while “hundreds” of new jobs will be added in Pittsburgh, New York, Boulder, Boston and Portland, Oregon. In total, Apple plans to increase its workforce in the U.S. from 90,000 to 110,000 by 2023. 

With the weekend almost here, we’ve rounded up the best deals on kitchen gear, laptops, and Amazon devices so you can get the most out of your days off. We also found great deals on online courses from Udemy starting at $10.99 if part of your New Year’s resolution is to learn a new skill.

If you’re looking for a last-minute gift, then look no further. Here are the best deals from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Macy’s, and more for Thursday, Dec. 13:

Best tech deals: Laptops, Apple Watches, and more

You can save $50 on Apple Watch Series 3, as well as save up to 29% on Apple MacBook Pro (with Touch Bar). You can also save up to 38% on Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Laptops.

Kitchen gear

Create the kitchen of your dreams with sales on appliances from KitchenAid, Cuisinart, and Blendtec. You can save 40% off the Instant Pot smart Wi-Fi multi-cooker, which is priced at just $90, plus so much more.

Amazon devices on sale

Amazon has plenty of deals on their own devices for video streaming and home security. You can save $15 on the Fire TV Stick 4K, as well as $50 on Fire TV Cube, and so much more.

Deals on Udemy online courses

If you’re looking to learn something new like web design, animation, and even photography as part of your New Year’s Resolution, Udemy is a great place to start. Scroll through thousands of online courses on sale for $10.99. 

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