Bad ads, rumour militancy & averting cyberwarfare
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The great polariser — Recommendation engines are the biggest threat to social cohesion online, argues Renee DiResta. They’re designed to show us more of what they think we like — even if that’s conspiracy theories and violent extremist content. How then, DiResta asks, can we make these algorithms ethical? (Wired)
Averting silicon volley — Mariarosaria Taddeo & Luciano Floridi argue that AI is set to transform cyberwarfare, making it more rapid and disruptive. They call for international rules to avert the escalation of cyber conflicts (Nature).
Hey, big spenders — Britain announced a £1 billion artificial intelligence investment in the hope it will boost post-Brexit industrial growth. The EU announced it would increase spending on AI to €1.5 billion. Both lag behind investment in the US and Asia (Reuters).
Bots beat baddies — In a blog post, YouTube said its efforts to employ AI to identify and remove violent content are working. It said that of all the videos removed for violent extremism in Q4 2017, over half were removed before they reached 10 views — compared with 8% in Q1.
REPORT: Privacy International published a scoping paper on Privacy and Freedom of Expression In the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Move fast or we’ll regulate things — The EU floated plans for new regulations if tech companies don’t act urgently to tackle ‘fake news’. Ideas included more information for users about why they’re receiving particular posts and disclosure of who is paying for political ads (The Guardian).
Rumour militant — The New York Times looks at the spread of misinformation through social networks that’s sparking violence against Muslims in Sri Lanka. It’s the most recent in a string of cases around the world in which social media is said to be fanning violence.
The bad ad round-up:
- Martin Lewis, a UK-based financial advice ‘guru’, is suing Fakebook for publishing fake ads designed to defraud users that use his face and name (The Guardian).
- Mark Zuckerberg is also being impersonated to scam users. The New York Times found over 50 Facebook and Instagram accounts that used Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s identities for lottery scams.
- The Washington Post investigated the widespread use of fake, paid-for reviews on Amazon used by sellers to boost the popularity of their products.
The tyranny of one choice — A lack of competitors to Facebook has stopped users from leaving the platform following its privacy scandal, argue US Congressman David Cicilline and FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny in a Wired Op-Ed. The solution? Lower barriers to competition. Ensure platforms are interoperable. Make it easy for users to take their data with them on the way out.
Beyond Facebook — Maya Kosoff argues in Vanity Fair that Google, collecting far more data than Facebook, will likely soon see intense scrutiny of its data privacy practices. Meanwhile, Bloomberg published a fascinating and terrifying piece on Peter Thiel’s Palantir — a data-mining company that tracks individuals for governments agencies and corporations.
Social security risk — Why aren’t advanced countries following India’s lead in creating national biometric ID databases? Technology lawyer Mishi Choudhary writes about the social costs and security risks of programs like India’s Aadhaar (BBC).
REPORT: Ranking Digital Rights launched its 2018 Corporate Accountability Index, looking at the policies and practices of internet companies that impact user privacy and free expression.
The $3 billion shutdown — Internet shutdowns in India dealt a $3.04 billion (approx Rs 87,000 crore) blow to the country’s economy between 2012–2017, according to an economic impact report from the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Medianama).
Collateral damage — Russia’s attempts to block Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, for refusing to provide access to user messages appear to have failed and knocked out a number of other online services in the process (Gizmodo).
Anti-censorship workaround closed — Google has stopped allowing a practice called domain-fronting, which let services use Google’s network to get around state-level internet blocks. The change is set to undermine a number of anti-censorship tools (The Verge).
Wait and switch — While Monday marked 60 days since the US FCC repealed net neutrality rules, the old rules remain in place for now. But even when the repeal goes ahead, ISPs are likely to hold fire on making big changes right away, instead slowly rolling out restrictions to avoid consumer blowback (The Register).
Support still sky-high — A new survey shows overwhelming support for net neutrality in the US, with 86% opposing the repeal of net neutrality, including 82% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats (University of Maryland).
Action, reaction — Data scandals and the repeal of net neutrality are driving more people to mask their internet browsing through virtual private network, or VPN, technology, according to a report from Eddison Trends (Digiday).
Open data dividends — According to a new study by the Kyiv School of Economics, open data contributed over $700 million to the Ukrainian economyin 2017, and the benefits may double to $1.4 billion by 2025 (Kyiv post).
New Web Foundation research looking at content curation on Facebook’s News Feed, based on an experiment in Argentina, was covered by a number of outlets including La Nacion, Infobae, The World News, Techno (Spanish) and Numerama (French).
Past Web Foundation work helping to create a Digital Bill of Rights for Brazil was cited in a piece in Mercury News looking at California Representative Ro Khanna’s plans to draft an Internet Bill of Rights for the US. The piece was published in several local outlets.
Mediatelecom reported on new research from the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and the Web Foundation that studies the role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) in closing the digital divide. TechPoint looked at investments from development banks in Nigeria.
Club of Mozambique reported on a call from A4AI for Mozambique to increase internet access and bring down the costs to connect. The article, quoting A4AI Executive Director Sonia Jorge, was republished in several local outlets.
Carlos Iglesias, Senior Research Manager, was quoted in a piece about the use of digital technology in 21st-century government, which also cited the Open Data Barometer (The World Weekly).
The Barometer was also cited in a piece about the contribution of open data to the Ukrainian economy (Ukrinform — Ukrainian).
Portugal’s Diário de Notícias, and several Indonesian-language outlets (Merdeka, Timlo, Dream), cited A4AI’s mobile pricing data research in articles about the introduction of taxes on social media in Uganda. The story was also covered by a number of outlets in Bangladesh.
