Last summer, Snoop Dogg and Australian winery 19 Crimes formed a partnership to release a special red wine blend in honor of the Hip-Hop legend’s legacy. For their latest release, the two entities have now introduced Snoop Cali Rosé, a new California blend of Grenache and Zinfandel in which the rapper hopes to make the drink of the summer, Wine Industry Network reports. So far, 19 Crimes and Snoop Dogg’s collaboration has been well-received among consumers and has given the Australian wine brand a contemporary feel inspired by the rapper’s West Coast style. “We did it big with 19 Crimes Cali Red, so you know we had to do it again – and this time, I was thinking pink,” Snoop Dogg shared in a statement. “I can’t wait for everyone to sip on my Snoop Cali Rosé and bring those fresh feels from spring into summer and beyond. I hope when you open a bottle of this wine you take a little mind trip to my Cali home. This is how we Rosé the Snoop Dogg way!” John Wardley — TWE Marketing Vice...

In early March, a shooter massacred 51 Muslims at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand during Friday prayers. The horrifying nature of the act became worse when people learned that the shooter had live streamed 17 minutes of the attack through Facebook Live. Tech companies scrambled to delete videos of the shooting — which could still be found on both Facebook and Instagram in early May. The shooting eventually posed deeper questions around the dangers of live streaming. Live streaming was introduced to the world as a way to help show people experiences in real-time. Despite its original intentions, it has become yet another way that people can use the internet to spread hate. Following the Christchurch shooting, Facebook came under fire for its lack of regulations, which allowed the video to both stream and spread. The company ended up imposing tighter restrictions on live streaming to prevent future abuse. A key aspect of Facebook’s restrictions was its new “one-strike” policy. If...

On March 15, shootings at two mosques during Friday prayers in New Zealand left 51 Muslims dead. The massacre itself was horrific, but what made it even worse was that the shooter live streamed the event on Facebook. Tech companies scrambled to remove the video after it appeared online, but they were unable to do so. Less than two weeks after the shooting, New Zealand officially banned people from sharing the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto or video . Consequences for owning or sharing the video weren’t initially made clear. Then on Tuesday, a Neo-Nazi was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sharing a video of the Christchurch massacre, Gizmodo reported . Philip Arps pled guilty to two counts of distributing objectionable material, New Zealand outlet RNZ reported . Arps sent it to about 30 people, but that’s not where he ended. He told the judge overseeing his case that the video — where bodies of dead children are visible — was “awesome.” In addition, RNZ reported that Arps asked...

The Christchurch massacre’s live-stream on Facebook — and subsequent spread across the internet — further illuminated social media’s hate problem that many have criticized for years. It left countries across the world scrambling to force tech companies to answer for their role in white nationalism’s presence online. On Wednesday, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that she’s planning a summit in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. The summit’s goal is to have industry and world leaders agree to a pledge called the “Christchurch Call” to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. In the announcement, Ardern said: “The March 15 terrorist attacks saw social media used in an unprecedented way as a tool to promote an act of terrorism and hate. We are asking for a show of leadership to ensure social media cannot be used again the way it was in the March 15 terrorist attack…We all need to act, and that includes social media providers taking...

Last week, Sony announced it would be rolling out a new feature that allows users to change their PSN name — the ID that follows you throughout the Playstation gaming world — freely and openly. It’s a big step for Sony, since Microsoft allowed XBOX users to do it for years. While gamers are very excited about the change (not being bogged down to one name while you’re owning people in Overwatch is very exciting), there’s one issue. T he new feature has the potential to stir up one of the gaming world’s oldest problems: hate speech and offensive language. Sony recognizes the problems that allowing people to change their PSN names more frequently could bring, and the company is trying to get ahead of it. A company blog post last week outlined that any PSN names using racial slurs, profanity, or any other offensive language that breaks Sony’s terms of service would be automatically changed to “TempXXX.” This punishment is actually light, considering that Playstation used to ban people...

Since the Christchurch shooting, tech companies have scrambled to keep video of it offline — and they haven’t really succeeded. On Sunday, Microsoft’s president Brad Smith published a blog post addressing tech and its role in tragedies like this. Many companies have said that they simply weren’t prepared for an event like Christchurch. The video originally streamed on Facebook Live and later, the company said its artificial intelligence couldn’t detect the video to stop its spread. However, in his blog post, Smith argued that tech companies should have been prepared in advance. “Ultimately, we need to develop an industrywide approach that will be principled, comprehensive and effective,” Smith wrote. “The best way to pursue this is to take new and concrete steps quickly in ways that build upon what already exists.” Smith noted that “individuals are using online platforms to bring out the darkest sides of humanity,” as demonstrated by Christchurch. The attack was designed to go viral...

On Saturday, New Zealand’s Office of Film & Literature Classification officially banned the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto. By labeling it as “objectionable,” the government is considering its ban as a justifiable limit on freedom of expression. Under the ban, it’s now illegal to have a copy of either the video or the document and to share it with others — including online links. The New Zealand government urges people to report social media posts, links or websites displaying the video or manifesto here . If someone is found to have the manifesto, they can face up to ten years in prison, and those distributing it could face up to 14 years, as reported by Business Insider . The consequences for owning or sharing the video, though, are unclear. Although the full video is banned, it doesn’t mean any screenshots or other still images from it falls under that. The Office of Film & Literature Classification website notes images from the video “depicting scenes of violence, injury or...

Since the Christchurch massacre, social media platforms have scrambled to keep video of it off their platforms. Days after the attack, it’s not difficult to find clips or still images from it. To many, this opens up questions about tech companies’ failures to regulate hate on their platforms, and who shares responsibility in moments like this. After the shooting, where at least fifty Muslims were killed in two New Zealand mosques, archives of the alleged shooter’s page revealed only 10 people had tuned into his Facebook Live broadcast of the event, according to The Wall Street Journal . Although the original video didn’t have many viewers, it exploded across social media in the days following the attack. Facebook, which has faced the brunt of criticism due to its site hosting the livestream, says it removed 1.5 million videos of the New Zealand shooting in the 24 hours after the shooting was broadcast. In the first 24 hours we removed 1.5 million videos of the attack globally, of...