China’s state-run companies limit use of Tencent’s messaging app | Facebook and India’s paradox of inclusion | Mass surveillance fuels oppression of Uyghurs and Palestinians
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Some Chinese state-run companies are restricting employees’ use of Tencent Holdings Ltd. ’s popular domestic messaging app, citing security concerns, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal
Facebook employees were especially alarmed by developments in India, which makes up its single largest market with 340 million users. The memos show that Facebook knew its pages were being used to peddle misinformation and target India’s 172 million Muslims with hate speech and depictions of violence. Foreign Affairs
Tech-enabled control of a persecuted population. Abusive facial recognition. Severe restrictions on movement. Branding peaceful dissent as “terrorism”. For many readers, the scenario brings to mind China’s mass human rights violations against millions of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim people. Yet this description would also apply to Israel’s treatment of millions of Palestinians living under occupation. Al Jazeera
ASPI ICPC
Protests Rock Solomon Islands: Here’s What’s Behind the Unrest
The New York Times
Yan Zhuang
But by Thursday, 15 buildings were on fire or had been burned down in Chinatown, as well as 10 more in a nearby industrial zone, according to Nathan Ruser, a researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He cross-referenced on-the-ground videos and photos with maps of the area to estimate the number. Videos posted to social media showed large crowds gathering in Chinatown as plumes of smoke billow from buildings.
Australia
Australia Defamation Case Signals a Crackdown on Ordinary Citizens, Critics Say
The New York Times
Yan Zhuang
A government minister sued and won over a brief Twitter post that called him a “rape apologist.” A journalist sees “asymmetric warfare.”
China
China’s State-Run Companies Limit Use of Tencent’s Messaging App
The Wall Street Journal
Keith Zhai
Some Chinese state-run companies are restricting employees’ use of Tencent Holdings Ltd. ’s popular domestic messaging app, citing security concerns, according to people familiar with the matter. This week, managers at at least nine state-run companies, including some of the nation’s largest, such as China Mobile Ltd. , China Construction Bank Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp., told employees that any chat groups set up for work purposes on Weixin—Tencent’s dominant messaging app in China—could contain sensitive information and should be shut down and deleted, the people said.
China suspends Tencent from updating existing apps or launching new apps: report
South China Morning Post
Josh Ye
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has told app stores and platforms to implement the order against Tencent apps. It is not known how long the suspension will last and the Chinese ministry has not published any information about the ban.
USA
Pentagon to form new group to investigate UFOs
Reuters
The United States Department of Defense late on Tuesday said it will establish a new group to investigate reports on the presence of UFOs in restricted airspace. The formation of the group comes after the government released a report in June, encompassing 144 observations, which said there was a lack of sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects.
A Tech Whistle-Blower Helps Others Speak Out
The New York Times
Erin Woo
Ifeoma Ozoma, who accused Pinterest of discrimination, has become a key figure in helping tech employees disclose, and fight, mistreatment at work.
Black Friday shopping? FBI says beware of these holiday scams and phishing threats
ZDNet
Liam Tung
The FBI expects a rise in complaints and losses to scams as shoppers hunt out bargains.
South & Central Asia
Facebook and India’s Paradox of Inclusion
Foreign Affairs
Vinay Sitapati
The leak in October of internal documents from the technology giant Facebook has revealed damning details about the company’s practices. The firm, which recently rebranded as Meta, was aware of but ignored the harmful consequences of its social media platforms around the world. Facebook employees were especially alarmed by developments in India, which makes up its single largest market with 340 million users. The memos show that Facebook knew its pages were being used to peddle misinformation and target India’s 172 million Muslims with hate speech and depictions of violence.
UK
DWP urged to reveal algorithm that ‘targets’ disabled for benefit fraud
The Guardian
Michael Savage
Disabled people are being subjected to stressful checks and months of frustrating bureaucracy after being identified as potential benefit fraudsters by an algorithm the government is refusing to disclose, according to a new legal challenge.
ICO calls on Google and other companies to eliminate existing privacy risks posed by adtech industry
Information Commissioner's Office
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has today set out clear data protection standards that companies must meet to safeguard people’s privacy online when developing new advertising technologies (adtech). The privacy standards published in a Commissioner’s Opinion come as a warning to companies that are designing new methods of online advertising, that they must comply with data protection law and stop the excessive collection and use of people’s data.
Europe
Europe reins in Big Tech: What you need to know
POLITICO
Clothilde Goujard, Samuel Stoldton
European ministers on Thursday green-lit their versions of two new, massive EU rulebooks to tame Big Tech and tackle illegal content online. Economy ministers from across the bloc rubber-stamped common positions on the digital competition and content moderation laws known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), at a Competitiveness Council meeting in Brussels. The ministers' approval paves the way for the EU Council and Parliament to hammer out final texts next year.
German coalition backs ban on facial recognition in public places
POLITICO
Melissa Heikkilä
Germany's incoming government is throwing its weight behind a ban on the use of biometric identification technologies such as facial recognition in public places. According to their coalition deal, the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) want to ""exclude"" biometric recognition in public spaces as well as automated state scoring systems by AI through European law.
Americas
QAnon's 'Queen of Canada' Calls for Followers to 'Kill' People Vaccinating Children
VICE
Mack Lamoureux
QAnon influencer Romana Didulo told her 70,000 followers that "duck-hunting season is open” and by ducks she means healthcare workers, politicians, and journalists.
Middle East
Mass surveillance fuels oppression of Uighurs and Palestinians
Al Jazeera
Omar Shakir, Maya Wang
Tech-enabled control of a persecuted population. Abusive facial recognition. Severe restrictions on movement. Branding peaceful dissent as “terrorism”. For many readers, the scenario brings to mind China’s mass human rights violations against millions of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslim people. Yet this description would also apply to Israel’s treatment of millions of Palestinians living under occupation.
Israel restricts cyberweapons export list by two-thirds, from 102 to 37 countries
The Record
Catalin Cimpanu
The Israeli government has restricted the list of countries to which local security firms are allowed to sell surveillance and offensive hacking tools by almost two-thirds, cutting the official cyber export list from 102 to 37 entries. The new list, obtained by Israeli business newspaper Calcalist earlier today, only includes countries with proven democracies, such as those from Europe and the Five Eyes coalition.
"Not currently available": Turks can't buy iPhones after lira plunge
Reuters
Can Sezer, Ece Toksabay
Turks attempting to buy iPhones and other electronics received online error messages on Wednesday, including from Apple Inc's local website, after a historic 15% plunge in the lira the day before caused havoc for prices.
Gender and Women in Cyber
Cyberviolence against women
Council of Europe
Cyberviolence affects women disproportionately not only causing them psychological harm and suffering but also deterring them from digital participation in political, social and cultural life. Cyberviolence hampers the full realisation of gender equality and violates women’s rights.
Misc
Apple delays release of digital ID cards to 2022
TechCrunch
Igor Bonifacic
Apple has delayed the release of a feature that will eventually allow you to store your ID in the company’s Wallet app. In an update to the official iOS 15 website that was spotted by MacRumors, Apple says that functionality will now arrive sometime in early 2022. The company previously planned to launch in late 2021.
For some recipe apps, your personal data is gravy
The Washington Post
Tatum Hunter
Like a Thanksgiving turkey, popular recipe apps are stuffed — with creepy tracking technology.
Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today
The Verge
Sean Hollister
That’s because in 1948, Sunbeam engineer Ludvik J. Koci invented the perfect toaster, one where the simple act of placing a slice into one of its two slots would result in a delicious piece of toasted bread. No button, no lever, no other input required. Drop bread, get toast.
Virtual real estate plot sells for record $2.4 million
Reuters
Elizabeth Howcroft
A patch of virtual real estate in the online world Decentraland sold for a record $2.4 million worth of cryptocurrency, the buyer crypto investor Tokens.com and Decentraland said on Tuesday.
Jobs
ICPC Analyst & Project Manager - Coercive diplomacy
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for an Analyst and Project Manager to manage, and help lead, a project on coercive diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region... This new role will focus on analysis, workshops and stakeholder engagement centred around coercive diplomacy, including how countries in the Indo-Pacific can work together to tackle this complicated policy challenge.
ICPC Senior Analyst or Analyst - China
ASPI ICPC
ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC) has a unique opportunity for exceptional and experienced China-focused senior analysts or analysts to join its centre. This role will focus on original research and analysis centred around the (growing) range of topics which our ICPC China team work on. Our China team produces some of the most impactful and well-read policy-relevant research in the world, with our experts often being called upon by politicians, governments, corporates and civil society actors to provide briefings and advice. Analysts usually have at least 5 years, often 7-10 years’ of work experience. Senior analysts usually have a minimum of 15 years relevant work experience and, in addition to research, they take on a leadership role in the centre and tend to be involved in staff and project management, fundraising and stakeholder engagement.
SENIOR CYBER INTELLIGENCE ANALYST
CyberCX
At CyberCX we are building a uniquely Australia and New Zealand focused cyber intelligence capability. As a Cyber Intelligence Analyst, you will be part of a high-performing team with unparalleled visibility into the region’s cyber threat landscape. You will provide real-time intelligence support to some of the region’s most high-profile cyber incidents, provide threat information to inform the decisions of internal and customer security teams, and support the production of assessments and products that will help secure Australian and New Zealand communities and organisations.