• Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech | Knight First Amendment Institute

  “Some have argued for much greater policing of content online, and companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have talked about hiring thousands to staff up their moderation teams.8 8. April Glaser, Want a Terrible Job? Facebook and Google May Be Hiring,Slate (Jan. 18, 2018), https://slate.com/technology/2018/01/facebook-and-google-are-building-an-army-of-content-moderators-for-2018.html (explaining that major platforms have hired or have announced plans to hire thousands, in some cases more than ten thousand, new content moderators).On the other side of the coin, companies are increasingly investing in more and more sophisticated technology help, such as artificial intelligence, to try to spot contentious content earlier in the process.9 9. Tom Simonite, AI Has Started Cleaning Up Facebook, But Can It Finish?,Wired (Dec. 18, 2018), https://www.wired.com/story/ai-has-started-cleaning-facebook-can-it-finish/.Others have argued that we should change Section 230 of the CDA, which gives platforms a free hand in determining how they moderate (or how they don’t moderate).10 10. Gohmert Press Release, supra note 7 (“Social media companies enjoy special legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, protections not shared by other media. Instead of acting like the neutral platforms they claim to be in order obtain their immunity, these companies have turned Section 230 into a license to potentially defraud and defame with impunity… Since there still appears to be no sincere effort to stop this disconcerting behavior, it is time for social media companies to be liable for any biased and unethical impropriety of their employees as any other media company. If these companies want to continue to act like a biased medium and publish their own agendas to the detriment of others, they need to be held accountable.”); Eric Johnson, Silicon Valley’s Self-Regulating Days “Probably Should Be” Over, Nancy Pelosi Says, Vox (Apr. 11, 2019), https://www.recode.net/podcasts/2019/4/11/18306834/nancy-pelosi-speaker-house-tech-regulation-antitrust-230-immunity-kara-swisher-decode-podcast (statement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal)) (“230 is a gift to them, and I don’t think they are treating it with the respect that they should. . . . And so I think that that could be a question mark and in jeopardy…. For the privilege of 230, there has to be a bigger sense of responsibility on it, and it is not out of the question that that could be removed.”).Still others have suggested that there should be no moderation allowed at all—at least for platforms of a certain size—such that they are deemed part of the public square.11”

  Tags: ITGS, freedom, protocols, social media, control, technology, privacy and anonymity

  • – By dr tech

• ‘Inevitable’ Google and Facebook will pay for Australian news, treasurer says | Google | The Guardian

  “Google and Facebook are both fighting against legislation currently before the parliament that would force them to enter into negotiations with news media companies for payment for content, with an arbiter to ultimately decide the payment amount if no agreement can be reached.

  On Friday, the pair escalated the dispute by threatening to remove the Google search engine from Australia and Facebook to remove news from the Facebook feeds of all Australian users.”

  Tags: ITGS, google, facebook, news, social media, censorship

  • – By dr tech

• Italy blocks TikTok for certain users after death of girl allegedly playing ‘choking’ game | Italy | The Guardian

  “Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the accidental death of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly took part in a “blackout challenge” on the video-sharing network TikTok.

  The probe came as Italy announced it had temporarily blocked access to TikTok for users whose age could not be proved definitively.

  According to TikTok’s terms and conditions, users must be at least 13 years old.”

  Tags: ITGS, tiktok, death, blocks, censorship, control

  • – By dr tech

• ‘The release of six decades of fear’: Egypt’s lost revolution | Egypt | The Guardian

  “By then, calls over social media for crowds to gather in areas of Cairo, and converge in public spaces had built an unstoppable momentum. “Social media was the most important tool in the revolution,” said Abdelkarim. “People could communicate very easily and express themselves without any censorship.” Mubarak’s police state was over run by dissenters with smartphones and Facebook accounts.”

  Tags: ITGS, twitter, revolution, egypt, social media, security, communication, control, politics and government

  • – By dr tech

• The information warriors fighting ‘robot zombie army’ of coronavirus sceptics | World news | The Guardian

  ““It’s really easy to lose track on social media,” Bowman said. “And most people are not on Twitter, but this stuff percolates on to Facebook, WhatsApp chats, everywhere.”

  The ambition, Ritchie says, is not “for Toby Young to tweet, actually I was wrong. They’re in an ideological system where they’re not interested in a real debate. It’s for the person who hears someone say something bizarre, and thinks, I don’t know how to reply to that.””

  Tags: ITGS, social media, integrity, twitter, covid-19, misinformation

  • – By dr tech

• Technology promises hugs at a distance. Beware what you wish for | Psyche Ideas

  “Haptic devices aimed at addressing genuine medical need, or for entertainment and novelty, seem appropriate and even fun. However, we believe it’s important to stay vigilant – any technology that changes the norms of our social interactions could have unintended consequences.”

  Tags: haptic, technology, ITGS, people and machines

  • – By dr tech

• Warning Signal: the messaging app’s new features are causing internal turmoil – The Verge

  “Employees worry that, should Signal fail to build policies and enforcement mechanisms to identify and remove bad actors, the fallout could bring more negative attention to encryption technologies from regulators at a time when their existence is threatened around the world.

  “The world needs products like Signal — but they also need Signal to be thoughtful,” said Gregg Bernstein, a former user researcher who left the organization this month over his concerns. “It’s not only that Signal doesn’t have these policies in place. But they’ve been resistant to even considering what a policy might look like.””

  Tags: ITGS, signal, control, censorship, message, politics and government, policies and standards

  • – By dr tech

• Twitter is opening up its full tweet archive to academic researchers for free – The Verge

  “The change is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to improve the Twitter API”

  Tags: ITGS

  • – By immapotaeto

• Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with ads for combat gear. See for yourself | Facebook | The Guardian

  “But today that universe seeks and surrounds you. When you first join Facebook you make a few choices of your own. But soon the algorithm starts narrowing your options and deciding what further choices to present to you. Because many of us rely on a limited number of news sources that populate our social media feeds, our information universe becomes more and more niche. For Trump supporters, that universe is often paramilitary.”

  Tags: ITGS, facebook, filter bubble, social media, misinformation, algorithm, targeted advertising

  • – By dr tech

• Brazil’s Health Ministry’s Website Data Leak Exposed 243 Million Medical Records for More Than 6 Months – CPO Magazine

  “Personal information of more than 243 million Brazilians was exposed for more than six months thanks to weakly encoded credentials stored in the source code of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s website. The data leak exposed both living and deceased Brazilians’ medical records to possible unauthorized access. The incident was the second reported by Brazilian publication Estadão and among several others recently affecting South America’s largest nation’s healthcare system.”

  Tags: ITGS, data, leak, information, healthcare, privacy and anonymity

  • – By dr tech

• Facebook’s secret settlement on Cambridge Analytica gags UK data watchdog | TechCrunch

  “The UK’s information commissioner just told a parliamentary subcommittee on online harms and disinformation that a secret arrangement between her office and Facebook prevents her from publicly answering whether or not Facebook contacted the ICO about completing a much-trumpeted ‘app audit’.”

  Tags: ITGS, facebook, government and politics, policies and standards

  • – By dr tech

• Amnesty International calls for a ban on facial recognition in New York City – The Verge

  “Amnesty argues facial recognition is incompatible with basic privacy rights”

  Tags: ITGS

  • – By immapotaeto

• OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei’s next company is literally called Nothing – The Verge

  “Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future”

  Tags: ITGS

  • – By immapotaeto

• Chinese bots had key role in debunked ballot video shared by Eric Trump | China | The Guardian

  “A Chinese bot network played a key role in spreading disinformation during and after the US election, including a debunked video of “ballot burning” shared by Eric Trump, a new study reveals.

  The misleading video shows a man filming himself on Virginia Beach, allegedly burning votes cast for Donald Trump. The ballots were actually samples. The clip went viral after Trump’s son Eric posted it a day later on his official Twitter page, where it got more than 1.2m views.”

  Tags: ITGS, bot, misinformation, cesnorship, social media, politics and governments

  • – By dr tech

• Can robots make good therapists? | 3 Quarks Daily

  “From another perspective, the idea that people seem comfortable offloading their troubles not on to a sympathetic human, but a sympathetic-sounding computer program, might present an opportunity. Even before the pandemic, there were not enough mental health professionals to meet demand. In the UK, there are 7.6 psychiatrists per 100,000 people; in some low-income countries, the average is 0.1 per 100,000.”

  Tags: ITGS, robots, healthcare, empathy, people and machines

  • – By dr tech

• Keep iPhone 12 away from pacemakers as a precaution, say Apple and medical experts, Tech News News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

  Tags: ITGS

• ExpressVPN’s Research on Phone Location Tracking | ExpressVPN

  “In these cases, we call the SDKs “trackers” or “tracker SDKs.” We follow the lead of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and other digital rights organizations and use the term broadly: “Trackers” encompasses traditional advertisement surveillance, behavioral, and location monitoring. Legitimate uses may include user feedback mechanisms, telemetry, and crash reporters.

  App developers have decided to include tracker SDKs in apps for a variety of reasons, and we do not categorize all usage of trackers as malicious or condemn the app authors. Additionally, given the complexity and pace of software development, some developers may not be aware that trackers are in their app or may not know the full implications of bundling such code before publishing.”

  Tags: ITGS, tracker, SDK, app, surveillance, smartphone, privacy and anonymity

  • – By dr tech

• Three-dimensional computer simulations have solved the mystery of why doomed stars explode | 3 Quarks Daily

  “Three-Dimensional Computer Simulations Have Solved The Mystery Of Why Doomed Stars Explode”

  Tags: ITGS, simulation, model, solution

  • – By dr tech

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