In today’s Bulldog update of technology news: Former Reddit CEO says the trolls are winning on the Internet; NephroGenex slashes offering amount; SAS warns NC not to change renewable energy policy.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao, writes that the trolls are winning the battle for the Internet. She points out that 40 percent of online users have experience bullying, harassment and intimidation according to Pew Research. A whopping 70 percent of those ages 18-24 say they have been harassed.

Pao resigned as interim CEO this month after site users protested her actions. “I endured one of the largest trolling atttacks in history,” she writes. While she was CEO, Reddit took steps to ban bad behavior on the site. It removed so-called “revenge porn” and banned harassment of individuals and took down sections that drew repeated harassers.

That resulted in a barrage of harassment to Pao.

Read the whole story here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-cannot-let-the-internet-trolls-win/2015/07/16/91b1a2d2-2b17-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html?hpid=z3

Raleigh’s NephroGenex lowers fund-raising target

The Triangle Business Journal reports that Raleigh drug developer NephroGenex Inc. (Nasdaq:NRX) slashed its proposed public offering by more than half to just $6.3 million. That’s way down from the $35 million it proposed raising in April.

The company, which is developing treatments for kidney disease, had a successful IPO in 2014, with its shares rising from $12 to almost $18, the highest percent return of any Triangle IPO that year. Since early 2015, however, the share price dropped to under $6.

For the full story see: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2015/07/16/nephrogenex-lowers-secondary-offering.html

SAS warns against changing NC renewable energy policy

SAS Institute Inc. has joined other major tech companies, whiich include Apple and Google, both of which have energy hungry facilities in NC, in warning the state that changing its renewable energy policies could be a serious mistake.

In a letter to all NC lawmakers, the Cary software develper said changing the state’s renewablee energy standard could harm the continuing development of clean energy in NC.

“Technology companies value North Carolina’s existing energy policies, which enable us to operate and grow our businesses in a sustainable manner,: the company wrote.

The NC House passed legislation that would freeze the state’s current mandate requiring utilities to obtain part of their electricity from renewable sources at 6 percent. Unchanged, the mandate would increase to 12 percent by 2020. The legislation would also cut the threshold size of renwable energy contracts have to be negotiated with utilities.

The NC Senate has yet to consider the bill.