Edition 78: we’re kicking off the holidays with a contest

(This newsletter was sent to email subscribers on December 16, 2020.)

Happy Wednesday, Below the Folders. We work hard to dig up important stories you aren’t hearing anywhere else, and often, these stories are local ones that didn’t get their fair share of attention. To honor these local newsrooms, we’re giving one winner a one-year subscription to a local paper of their choice. To enter, all you have to is spread the holiday cheer — and by that, we mean our newsletter! Click here to start referring friends to Below the Fold; the more people you refer, the higher your likelihood of winning. 🎁 For now, we’re gifting you all these stories.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Thousands from ethnic minority groups in China forced to pick 20% of the world’s cotton

Tue Dec 15

The scale of forced labor in China is a lot more than previously suspected. A new report from the Center for Global Policy found even more evidence of human rights abuses and suspected forced labor of more than half a million Uighur and Turkic Muslim minority people.

How are we only finding out about these labor abuses now?

China has allegedly been using its labor programs to coerce hundreds of thousands of Muslim minorities. The thing is, the programs itself aren’t a secret — and have been a part of the government’s poverty alleviation campaign. As a result, the programs are marketed within China as helping millions of poor people find work. But now, documents analyzed by independent researchers suggest that these programs were used to target and force Muslim minorities in Xinjiang to participate.

And many international clothing brands get their cotton through this forced labor. Brands such as L.L. Bean, Brooks Brothers, Hugo Boss, and Uniqlo have been able to trace their cotton back to Xinjiang. Now, with reports of abuse in the supply chain, brands and the U.S. government are trying to block the import of cotton from Xinjiang. A bill that imposes restrictions on certain imports from Xinjiang has passed in the House but still needs a vote in the Senate.

SOURCES / READ MORE: The Guardian, BBC News, NBC News, Congress, Center for Global Policy

TECHNOLOGY

There could be new rules for tech giants in Europe

Tue Dec 15

The European Union (and Britain) is tackling tech companies again, this time with two new proposed bills that could lead to the break up of big tech companies. If passed, this would be the biggest expansion of global tech regulations in years.

The first bill would require companies to actively look for and handle illegal content, such as theft, fraud, child pornography, or copyright infringement — even if created by users of the platform versus the company itself. In contrast, the U.S. currently protects companies from these liabilities and responsibilities under Section 230 (though it’s recently come under fire by lawmakers).

The second bill focuses on anticompetitive behavior from companies that qualify as ‘gatekeepers.’ This bill would:

• Prohibit companies from giving preferential treatment to their products over rivals on the platform
• Require greater price transparency from online advertisers and data portability for end users

And failure to meet these bills’ respective requirements could lead to fines up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue, an increase from the current 4% limit in the EU. The U.K. has set this fine to 10%, meaning Facebook, for example, may fork over more than $6 billion for a serious breach or be blocked from the UK entirely.

When could these laws take effect?

The EU will now begin debating scope and details of each bill, which could take anywhere from months to years. For context, it took the EU four years of debate before passing their GDPR privacy laws, which majorly affected tech companies worldwide in 2016. In the U.S., conversations are starting around changing Section 230, which tech companies are not happy about. These compares are banding together in a coalition to fight any proposed changes to these protections.

SOURCES / READ MORE: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance

HEALTH

Veteran’s son creates app to help with PTSD nightmares

Sun Dec 13

U.S. veterans are among the most susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but struggle with resources for addressing their mental health needs. One major study of 60,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans found that 13.5% screened positive for PTSD. Among one of the most common symptoms of PTSD are recurring nightmares — and veterans who have nightmares are at greater risk for suicide and suicidal thoughts.

So one man decided to do something about it. Tyler Skluzacek’s dad is a U.S. Army veteran who returned from Iraq in the mid-2000s. Tyler saw his father suffer from PTSD with nightmares for years. As a college senior, Tyler created a smartwatch app to track, manage, and stop nightmares called NightWare.

The app works by tracking a person’s heart rate and movement to help detect when they are experiencing a nightmare. When a nightmare is detected, it will send gentle vibrations to help pull the person out of the nightmare without fully waking them up.

NightWare has already been approved by the FDA as a prescription-only medical device. As such, those prescribed receive a kit with the NightWare software already installed onto an Apple Watch and an accompanying iPhone, which allows physicians to track sleep patterns. Availability is currently being prioritized for veterans, with all costs completely covered if prescribed through Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense.

SOURCES / READ MORE: CNN, Washington Examiner, NPR, PubMed, U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs

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That’s all for today. Have a magical week.✨