US sets out new powers to block Chinese tech | Mexican president mounts campaign against social media bans | China’s censored internet takes Trump's side
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The US commerce department has finalised new rules to make it easier for the federal government to block Americans from importing technology from China and other US adversaries that it decides could threaten national security. The new rule, covering software such as that used in critical infrastructure and hardware including drones and surveillance cameras, gives new powers to the commerce secretary to issue licences or block imports. Financial Times
Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to lead an international effort to combat what he considers censorship by social media companies that have blocked or suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump. Associated Press
Mr. Trump’s expulsion from American social media for spurring the violent crowd at the Capitol last week has consumed the Chinese internet, one of the most harshly censored forums on earth. Overwhelmingly, people who face prison for what they write are condemning what they regard as censorship elsewhere. Much of the condemnation is being driven by China’s propaganda arms. New York Times
World
After Barring Trump, Facebook and Twitter Face Scrutiny About Inaction Abroad
New York Times
@satariano
Human rights groups and activists have spent years urging the companies to do more to remove content that encouraged violence.
Far-right website 8kun again loses internet service protection following Capitol attack
The Guardian
@kari_paul @lukeharding1968 @severincarrell
Shell company owned by two Russians cut ties with internet host of 8kun, which has been linked to other acts of violence.
Australia
ACCC goes into battle against Facebook, Apple and Google
Australian Financial Review
@patrickdurkin
The head of the competition watchdog is vowing to launch a regulatory war against Facebook, Apple and Google this year including investigations across the digital advertising and app markets, warning the tech giants' dominance poses a danger to consumers and the competition landscape.
Google, Facebook fight code in Senate
The Australian
Executives from Google and Facebook are set to front a Senate committee hearing on Friday, as debate around the contentious mandatory media bargaining code reaches fever pitch.
Australian Home Affairs Minister takes issue with EU Electronic Communications Code
ZDNet
@ashabeeeee
"Under the new Code, it is now illegal for electronic service providers, including social media companies, operating in the EU to continue to use the necessary tools to detect child sexual abuse material on online platforms and services," a statement from Dutton said.
China
As Trump Clashes With Big Tech, China’s Censored Internet Takes His Side
New York Times
@LiYuan6
Mr. Trump’s expulsion from American social media for spurring the violent crowd at the Capitol last week has consumed the Chinese internet, one of the most harshly censored forums on earth. Overwhelmingly, people who face prison for what they write are condemning what they regard as censorship elsewhere. Much of the condemnation is being driven by China’s propaganda arms.
Beijing rolls out measures for satellite-based internet development
South China Morning Post
@shenxinmei
Beijing is rolling out a series of policy measures, including financing, to support the country’s development of a satellite internet services industry, according to a notice published on Wednesday by the city’s Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.
Magellan's Hamish Douglass sees Tencent and Alibaba as undervalued despite Jack Ma disappearance
Australian Financial Review
Magellan Financial group, manager of a $15 billion global equities strategy, has raised its risk rating on Chinese tech stocks but says they are still fundamentally undervalued.
USA
US sets out new powers to block Chinese technology
Financial Times
The US commerce department has finalised new rules to make it easier for the federal government to block Americans from importing technology from China and other US adversaries that it decides could threaten national security. The new rule, covering software such as that used in critical infrastructure and hardware including drones and surveillance cameras, gives new powers to the commerce secretary to issue licences or block imports.
US adds Xiaomi to list of alleged Chinese military companies
Yahoo
@mariella_moon
The Trump administration has added Xiaomi to the US military list under the National Defense Authorization Act of 1999. That means the US has designated the third-largest smartphone maker in the world — according to IDC, Counterpoint Research and Gartner — as a company owned by the Chinese military.
MIT Professor Arrested and Charged with Grant Fraud
Department of Justice
A professor and researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was charged and arrested today in connection with failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Biden announces Science and Technology Policy director, elevates position to Cabinet-level
NBC News
President-elect Joe Biden will be announcing one of the last major department heads on Saturday, highlighting his campaign refrain to prioritize "science over fiction." Biden will name Dr. Eric Lander to serve as his top science adviser and will be elevating Lander's position as director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to a Cabinet rank position for the first time.
Behind a Secret Deal Between Google and Facebook
New York Times
@daiwaka @tiffkhsu
In 2017, Facebook said it was testing a new way of selling online advertising that would threaten Google’s control of the digital ad market. But less than two years later, Facebook did an about-face and said it was joining an alliance of companies backing a similar effort by Google.
Biden and Trump Voters Were Exposed to Radically Different Coverage of the Capitol Riot on Facebook
The Markup
@colinlecher @jonkeegan
Data from The Markup’s Citizen Browser project shows the different realities Americans inhabited on Facebook last week.
Capitol Mob Has Roots in Anti-Lockdown Protests
The Intercept
@MaraHvistendahl
Anti-lockdown and anti-mask groups, which now count some 3 million members on Facebook, were a crucial recruiting ground for the Stop the Steal effort that culminated in the deadly siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Inside Twitter’s Decision to Cut Off Trump
New York Times
@kateconger @MikeIsaac
Jack Dorsey, the chief executive, had reservations about locking the president’s account. But the calls for violence that his tweets provoked were too overwhelming.
The Importance, and Incoherence, of Twitter’s Trump Ban
The New Yorker
@andrewmarantz
After Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump’s account, earlier this month, the reactions were quick, ubiquitous, and mostly predictable. Many of the takes seemed canned, the way an obituary of a terminally ill celebrity is often pre-written.
On the Deplatforming of a Bully-in-Chief
Tech Policy Press
@ubiquity75
The deplatforming of outgoing US President Donald Trump — particularly his unceremonious removal from Twitter, his erstwhile bully pulpit of choice — has served as fodder for countless pundits to decry the move as an abridgement of “free speech.” Yet as far as I can tell, what has happened in recent days is that the various platforms that Trump has used so effectively to cultivate and directly reach his “base” over the past four years have, at long last, begun enforcing their extant rules and applying them to him.
Misinformation dropped dramatically the week after Twitter banned Trump
Washington Post
Zignal Labs charted a 73 percent decline on Twitter and beyond following historic action against the president.
What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol
ProPublica
@lenagroeger @jeffykao @A_L @moizsyed
As supporters of President Donald Trump took part in a violent riot at the Capitol, users of the social media service Parler posted videos of themselves and others joining the fray. ProPublica reviewed thousands of videos uploaded publicly to the service that were archived by a programmer before Parler was taken offline by its web host.
Selfie-Snapping Rioters Leave FBI a Trail of Over 140,000 Images
Bloomberg
@TShields3 @KartikayM @jendlouhyhc
At least one police department is helping investigators using facial recognition software. Detectives in Miami have been uploading photos of potential suspects in the Capitol riot into a system provided by the closely held company Clearview AI.Dating apps are using images from the siege to ban rioters’ accounts
Washington Post
@drewharwell @lisabonos @craigtimberg
Bumble, Tinder and others are freezing out rioters with help from law enforcement — and, in some cases, their own photos. Other app users have taken matters into their own hands by striking up conversations with potential rioters and relaying their information to the FBI.
South-East Asia
China, Indonesia sign MoU on internet security amid Washington pressure on Beijing's 5G technology
Global Times
China and Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on developing capacity building of internet security and tech cooperation, marking the first-of-its-kind internet security agreement China signed with a foreign country.
South and Central Asia
‘Bhakts’ or ‘Liberals’ — friendship changed in Modi’s India. Tech will make it worse for GenZ
The Print
The ideological divide between friends that began in 2014 will widen in the 2020s, as India gets more polarized and relationships more political. Technology will accentuate this process and offer us digital alternatives in the decade ahead that we haven’t encountered so far, replacing human interactions with artificial intelligence and robots.
Europe
Swedish court dismisses Huawei appeal over 5G network exclusion
Yahoo
A Swedish court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Huawei against its exclusion from the country's 5G network rollout, paving the way for the 5G spectrum auction slated for next week to proceed as planned.
Cyberattack on EMA - update 5 European Medicines Agency
European Medicines Agency
The ongoing investigation of the cyberattack on EMA revealed that some of the unlawfully accessed documents related to COVID-19 medicines and vaccines have been leaked on the internet. This included internal/confidential email correspondence dating from November, relating to evaluation processes for COVID-19 vaccines. Some of the correspondence has been manipulated by the perpetrators prior to publication in a way which could undermine trust in vaccines.
The Americas
Mexican president mounts campaign against social media bans
Associated Press
@mexmarks
Mexico’s president vowed Thursday to lead an international effort to combat what he considers censorship by social media companies that have blocked or suspended the accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Middle East
Massive blackouts have hit Iran. The government is blaming bitcoin mining.
Washington Post
Massive blackouts and smog have hit cities across Iran. It's a toxic mix as the country, already under economic duress.
Misc
A guide to being an ethical online investigator
MIT Technology Review
@tanyabasu
The Capitol riot has inspired a new army of amateur sleuths who want to help identify protesters. But it’s an ethically fraught hobby.
Doxxing insurrectionists: Capitol riot divides online extremism researchers
Protocol
@issielapowsky
The uprising has sparked a tense debate about the right way to stitch together the digital scraps of someone's life to publicly accuse them of committing a crime.
Here's WhatsApp's New Privacy Policy Really Means
Gizmodo
@swodinsky
Even if you aren’t the type of person who peruses WhatsApp on a regular basis, chances are you’ve tried perusing its new privacy policy.
WhatsApp changes: Signal messaging platform restored after surge prompts outage
BBC
Messaging platform Signal says it has resolved technical problems which have hampered its service over the past few days, after seeing a rush of new users.
Big tech and censorship
The Economist
Silicon Valley should not be given control over free speech
Big Tech stepped up in the fight against far-right extremism. Where does it go from here?
The Boston Globe
@vidhya_ra
These companies need to prioritize the protection of online communities from incitement to far-right extremist violence, to deliver effective moderation, and to prevent the abuse of their platforms.Twitter’s decentralized future
TechCrunch
@lucasmtny
The platform’s vision of a sweeping open standard could also be the far-right’s internet endgame.
A QAnon ‘Digital Soldier’ Marches On, Undeterred by Theory’s Unraveling
New York Times
@kevinroose
Valerie Gilbert posts dozens of times a day in support of an unhinged conspiracy theory. The story of this “meme queen” hints at how hard it will be to bring people like her back to reality.
Facebook Said It Would Pause US Ads For Gun Accessories And Military Gear After Complaints
BuzzFeed News
@RMac18 @CraigSilverman
But on Sunday, BuzzFeed News continued to find ads for firearm accessories on the social network, more than 22 hours after Facebook announced its temporary suspension.
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