UK telecoms face fines over Huawei | India bans 43 more Chinese apps | Facebook's "political whitelist"
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Britain’s telecoms companies face fines of up to £100,000 a day if they do not comply with rules aimed at phasing out Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G networks, new draft legislation will stipulate. Financial Times
India banned 43 more Chinese apps in New Delhi’s latest move to pressure China in the online industry as tensions fester following a deadly border clash between the neighboring countries. Wall Street Journal
Since 2018, Facebook had maintained a “political whitelist” of about 112,000 accounts belonging to government officials and candidates whose posts couldn’t be fact checked. The Information
ASPI ICPC
Advancing digital sovereignty in northern Australia
The Strategist
@HuonCurtis
To ensure the digital sovereignty of communities in northern Australia, intensive effort is needed to build greater digital capacity and the social infrastructure to enable it.
Australia’s electoral system isn’t immune to US-style conspiracy theories
The Strategist
@elisethoma5
Three weeks after Americans went to the polls, the morass of conspiracy theories and disinformation surrounding the election and its results continues to grow. Although the US is half a world away, Australians don’t have the luxury of watching this maelstrom as uninterested observers.
New Chinese village in Bhutan? China journalist's tweet starts row, Thimphu denies encroachment
The Print
Nathan Ruser, a satellite imagery expert with the think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), tweeted that the village was located “within over 2 kilometres into Bhutan, according to their official maps and claims”.
Mapping China's Tech Giants website Feedback
ASPI ICPC
We will soon begin the next phase of "Mapping China's Technology Giants". Part of this project will include updating the website. To ensure the website remains as useful to you and your organisation as possible, we would like to invite you to give us feedback on your use of our website. Your feedback is an important part of this process as it allows us to know what is working well, what we can improve on and what really matters to you.
Australia
COVIDSafe data 'incidentally' collected by intelligence agencies in first six months
iTnews
@justinrhendry
One or more of Australia’s key intelligence and security agencies “incidentally” collected data relating to the COVIDSafe contact tracing app in its first six months of operation.
China
Baidu's Android apps caught collecting sensitive user details
ZDNet
@campuscodi
Two Android applications belonging to Chinese tech giant Baidu have been removed from the official Google Play Store at the end of October after they've been caught collecting sensitive user details.
USA
Facebook Researchers Found Its ‘Political Whitelist’ Influenced Misinformation Spread
The Information
@alexeheath
Since 2018, Facebook had maintained a “political whitelist” of about 112,000 accounts belonging to government officials and candidates whose posts couldn’t be fact checked.
How Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ Seed False Election Theories
The New York Times
@sheeraf
Researchers have found that a small group of social media accounts are responsible for the spread of a disproportionate amount of the false posts about voter fraud.
Facebook Said It Would Ban Holocaust Deniers. Instead, Its Algorithm Provided a Network for Them
The Markup
@ASankin
As of mid-November, The Markup has found, numerous Facebook pages for well-known Holocaust denial groups remain active—and for users who find the pages, Facebook’s algorithms continue to recommend related content, effectively creating a network for pushing anti-Semitic content.
What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers
The New York Times
@cwarzel
Many Americans’ feeds are nightmares. I know because I spent weeks living inside two of them.
Facebook Struggles to Balance Civility and Growth
The New York Times
@kevinroose @MikeIsaac @sheeraf
The change was part of the “break glass” plans Facebook had spent months developing for the aftermath of a contested election. It resulted in a spike in visibility for big, mainstream publishers like CNN, The New York Times and NPR, while posts from highly engaged hyperpartisan pages, such as Breitbart and Occupy Democrats, became less visible, the employees said.
Intelligence employees vent frustrations over being forced to return to the office
Yahoo
@JennaMC_Laugh
Employees at one of the most secretive parts of government have been forced to return to their offices, leading to widespread concerns about their exposure to COVID-19.
YouTube temporarily suspends, demonetizes OANN
Axios
@ashleyrgold
YouTube has barred One America News Network from posting new videos for a week and stripped it of its ability to make money off existing content after the Trump-friendly channel uploaded a video promoting a phony cure for COVID-19, YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi tells Axios.
Read @arielbogle’s Strategist piece, What can social media platforms do about disinformation?
Senators Ask YouTube to Remove Election Misinformation
Bloomberg
@mhbergen
A group of U.S. Senate Democrats is calling on YouTube to take down videos with “false and misleading” information about the election, a sign of political condemnation usually reserved for social networks Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.
Democratic Source Code for a New U.S.-EU Tech Alliance
Lawfare
@ MarietjeSchaake @tysonbarker
The U.S. and EU have a window to set a joint agenda toward an international democratic order for the digital world.
A Grant Will Help a Tribal-Owned and Managed ISP Better Bridge the Digital Divide
Gizmodo
@JLNwrites
With a $30,000 grant to San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Internet Society Foundation, 2,200 tribal homes across 13 tribal nations will receive access to internet or better internet for the first time over the next 6-12 months.
Failed electric jet startup Zunum sues Boeing for fraud and misuse of trade secrets
The Verge
@andyjayhawk
The aviation startup blames Boeing for its financial collapse
South-East Asia
New Zealand & The Pacific
South and Central Asia
India’s Draft Health Data Management Policy: ORF Recommendations
ORF Special Report
The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a wake up call to India, as it has across the globe. Public health systems, both in developed and developing nations, are showing signs of stress in handling the number of patients afflicted by both COVID-19 and non-COVID ailments.
India Bans More Chinese Apps as Part of Its Digital Campaign to Pressure Beijing
Wall Street Journal
@agarwalvibhuti @EricBellmanWSJ
India banned 43 more Chinese apps in New Delhi’s latest move to pressure China in the online industry as tensions fester following a deadly border clash between the neighboring countries.
2 Netflix executives booked for temple kissing scene in web-series Suitable Boy
Hindustan Times
Madhya Pradesh police on Monday booked two executives of OTT platform Netflix for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by releasing a web-series ‘ Suitable Boy’, having kissing scenes filmed at a temple in MP, police said.
UK
UK telecoms groups face huge fines for Huawei breaches
Financial Times
Britain’s telecoms companies face fines of up to £100,000 a day if they do not comply with rules aimed at phasing out Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G networks, new draft legislation will stipulate. The government on Tuesday will present its telecommunications bill to parliament. It will form the legislative backbone of its plan to reduce Britain’s reliance on “high-risk vendors”, including China’s Huawei, in the communications infrastructure.
New telecoms security law to protect UK from cyber threats
UK Government
The Telecommunications (Security) Bill aims to give the government unprecedented new powers to boost the security standards of the UK’s telecoms networks and remove the threat of high risk vendors.. This will be a significant step to protect the UK from hostile cyber activity by state actors or criminals. Over the past two years the Government has attributed a range of cyber attacks to Russia and China, as well as North Korea and Iranian actors.
Antiquated process': data regulator on obtaining Cambridge Analytica warrant
The Guardian
@alexhern
The information commissioner has criticised the “antiquated process” that led to Facebook getting hold of Cambridge Analytica’s servers before the UK regulator itself, and renewed calls for an international approach to data privacy to tackle the emerging threat of data havens.
How a firm linked to China's military forged close ties with one of Britain's top universities
The Telegraph
@hannaheboland
Imperial College's controversial relationship with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (Avic) could place it at risk of "secondary sanctions" from the US, experts have warned. Avic, one of the university's longstanding research partners, is one of 89 Chinese companies set be blocked from accessing US technology due to its ties to the Chinese military, according to a declaration seen by Reuters.
Read more about AVIC and COMAC via our Chinese Defence Universities Tracker
Britain warns tech firms over risks of China expansion
Reuters
Britain’s digital and technology firms must be wary of the ethical, legal and commercial risks of expanding into China and accepting Chinese investment, according to a UK government website.
Europe
German policemen suspended after raids over far-right chat group
Al Jazeera
State interior minister calls far-right content shared by officers on WhatsApp group ‘highly xenophobic and inhuman’.
Russia
the russian gryphon
the wiczipedia weekly
Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, spoke to Damian Collins MP, the former chair of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, who led the parliamentary enquiry into disinformation, on his podcast Infotagion. She described discovering that Facebook was inside the offices of defunct electioneering consultancy Cambridge Analytica while in the middle of an interview with Channel 4’s Jon Snow.
Middle East
Sources: Google Plans Fiber-Optic Network to Connect Via Saudi Arabia and Israel for First Time
Wall Street Journal
@DrewFitzGerald @DrewFitzGerald
New fiber-optic network would connect the historical enemies and open a new corridor for internet traffic
Misc
Twitter verification will return early next year
The Verge
@kellymakena
On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it would relaunch its verification process early next year along with brand-new guidelines for users seeking out that small, blue badge.
When A.I. Falls in Love
The New York Times
@CadeMetz
The Times asked GPT-3 to tell us a little about itself and its romantic life.
Brain-reading hearing aid tech homes in on speakers' voices
New Atlas
@bencoxworth
Hearing aids are often stymied by the "cocktail party" effect, wherein they can't amplify one person's voice without also boosting the voices of everyone else in the room. A new AI system, however, could help focus the devices' attention where it's needed.
How one security researcher is working to secure vulnerable IoT devices
Tech Radar
Rushing IoT devices to market has left them vulnerable to hackers
Android Apps Leaking Sensitive Data Found on Google Play With 6 Million U.S. Downloads
Palo Alto
With the help of a machine learning (ML)-based spyware detection system, Unit 42 researchers identified multiple Android applications on Google Play that were leaking data, including Baidu Search Box and Baidu Maps, which had been downloaded a combined 6 million times in the U.S.
Events
Research
Artificial Intelligence at NATO: dynamic adoption, responsible use
NATO Review
Rival powers are leveraging new technologies to pursue the dual goal of greater economic competitiveness alongside greater military capabilities. The Allies face a range of challenges as they seek to exploit emerging and disruptive technologies. These challenges are based on two interrelated pillars of work: ensuring a dynamic adoption of new technologies and governing them responsibly. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of these considerations.