Parler users sharing videos filmed within the Capitol Building | Google running experiments in Australia limiting news | Huawei patents tool for identifying Uyghurs, despite former claims.
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At least several users of the far-right social network Parler appear to be among the horde of rioters that managed to penetrate deep inside the U.S. Capitol building and into areas normally restricted to the public, according to GPS metadata linked to videos posted to the platform the day of the insurrection in Washington. Gizmodo
The tech giant says it is ‘running a few experiments that will each reach about 1% of Google Search users in Australia’. The Guardian
A Huawei patent has been brought to light for a system that identifies people who appear to be of Uighur origin among images of pedestrians. The filing is one of several of its kind involving leading Chinese technology companies, discovered by a US research company and shared with BBC News. Huawei had previously said none of its technologies was designed to identify ethnic groups. BBC News
Australia
Google admits to running 'experiments' which remove some media sites from its search results
The Guardian
@Paul_Karp
The tech giant says it is ‘running a few experiments that will each reach about 1% of Google Search users in Australia’.
China
Huawei patent mentions use of Uighur-spotting tech
BBC News
@LeoKelion
A Huawei patent has been brought to light for a system that identifies people who appear to be of Uighur origin among images of pedestrians. The filing is one of several of its kind involving leading Chinese technology companies, discovered by a US research company and shared with BBC News. Huawei had previously said none of its technologies was designed to identify ethnic groups.
USA
Parler Users Breached Deep Inside U.S. Capitol Building, GPS Data Shows
Gizmodo
@dellcam @dmehro
At least several users of the far-right social network Parler appear to be among the horde of rioters that managed to penetrate deep inside the U.S. Capitol building and into areas normally restricted to the public, according to GPS metadata linked to videos posted to the platform the day of the insurrection in Washington.
QAnon falsehoods move to text message chains
NBC News
@oneunderscore__
Text messages are being used after Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump and took particular aim at users who promote QAnon.
Right-wing extremist chatter spreads on new platforms as threat of political violence ramps up
Politico
@tina_nguyen @markscott82
The online conversation is becoming harder to track. And it’s alarming the feds.
The Cybersecurity 202: Extremists flocking to encrypted apps could restart debate over law enforcement access
The Washington Post
@TonyaJoRiley
The migration could revive the encryption debate in Washington.
Who decides what stays on the internet?
The Verge
@reckless @daphnehk
Regulation expert Daphne Keller on where moderation goes after banning Trump.
Twitter's decision to ban Donald Trump is chilling if you care about free speech
The Sydney Morning Herald
@DaveSharma
But it is unfair of us as societies to expect digital platforms to self-censor and get it right. Nor should they be the arbiters of truth, a role they were increasingly forced to play in the context of the US presidential election. They lack the expertise to perform these roles properly. But more seriously, they lack the legitimacy to do so. Only representative governments and lawmakers can fulfil this role.
These are the violent threats that made Amazon drop Parler
The Verge
@russellbrandom
“AWS reported to Parler, over many weeks, dozens of examples of content that encouraged violence,” the company argues in the filing, “including calls to hang public officials, kill Black and Jewish people, and shoot police officers in the head”.
MAGA-land’s Favorite Newspaper
The Atlantic
@svzwood
The Epoch Times is unreservedly pro–Donald Trump, and coverage of the newspaper tends to portray it as either a recent entrant into the Trumpist media stable or a case study of Facebook-enabled misinformation.
What the Cold War can teach Washington about Chinese tech tensions
The Brookings Institute
@BrendanTN_
After decades of globalization, technological integration and open high-tech trade, justified anxieties have returned in Washington and its allied capitals over the depth and nature of their scientific and technological relationships with Beijing.
U.S. law sets stage for boost to artificial intelligence research
American Association for the Advancement of Science
@jeffmervis
The National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act (NAIIA) of 2020, which became law last week, aims to bolster AI activities at more than a dozen agencies. Its directives include a study of how to create a national research cloud that would build on CloudBank. It also calls for an expansion of a network of research institutes launched last summer, and the creation of a White House AI office and an advisory committee to monitor those efforts.
FTC settles with photo storage app that pivoted to facial recognition
The Verge
@SocialKimLy
The Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with photo storage app Ever that it says used customers’ photos to develop facial recognition technology without telling them, the agency announced Monday.Under the terms of the agreement, Everalbum Inc. is required to delete photos and videos of its users who deactivated their accounts, as well as any facial recognition algorithms developed with users’ photos or videos.
Boxer to drop representation of Chinese surveillance firm
Axios
Former Sen. Barbara Boxer tells Axios she will deregister as a foreign agent for Hikvision, a Chinese surveillance firm accused of abetting the country’s mass internment of Uighur Muslims, after President-elect Joe Biden’s inaugural committee said it's refunding a donation from the California Democrat.
North-East Asia
South-East Asia
Southeast Asia's Disinformation Crisis: Where the State is the Biggest Bad Actor and Regulation is a Bad Word
Social Science Research Council
@jonathan_c_ong
Governments in the region have weaponized regulation and hijacked moral panics about disinformation to consolidate control over the digital environment.
Europe
"Wolf culture“ - How Huawei controls its employees in Europe
NetzPolitik
@daniellaufer @FantaAlexx
Former employees accuse Huawei of discrimination. How massively the company interferes in their private lives and how it keeps its staff in line is revealed by internal documents and covert audio recordings that netzpolitik.org and the media partners of The Signals Network have analysed.
Misc
WhatsApp fights back as users flee to Signal and Telegram
Financial Times
@MsHannahMurphy
Facebook is scrambling to deal with a sudden competitive threat to its messaging platform WhatsApp after a change to its terms of service sparked privacy concerns and prompted users to turn to rivals such as Signal and Telegram in droves.
Telegram Founder in Talks to Raise Debt Amid App’s Explosive Growth
The Information
@alexeheath @coryweinberg
Telegram in the past week experienced a sharp influx of new users who flocked to the private messaging app after rival WhatsApp changed its privacy policies and Facebook and Twitter took a harder line on President Donald Trump and users promoting violence.
From facial recognition, to predictive technologies, big data policing is rife with technical, ethical and political landmines
The Toronto Star
@JohnLorinc
At the core of the debate is a basic public policy principle: transparency. Do individuals have the tools to understand and debate the workings of a suite of technologies that can have tremendous influence over their lives and freedoms?
What social networks can learn from public spaces
Platformer
@CaseyNewton
Building healthy, happy communities requires much more than removing their worst users. You don’t have a healthy media ecosystem just because Donald Trump no longer dominates it.
TikTok is making sea shanties big again
Polygon
@Clayton_Ashley
TikTok’s unique ability to plumb the depths of obscure genres and hoist them to the forefront of popular culture has landed another viral sensation: the sea shanty.